JUNE 11TH - THE FLIGHT ODISSEY

Hi, everyone!

I'm feeling better after a night's sleep. Now, I''ll try to tell you a few about my "odissey" from my departure in Rio until I got here.

The first part of my trip (flight Rio-London) was scheduled to leave Rio International Airport on Friday, june 10th, at 12:35 AM, but it delayed about 1 hour and a half (as currently usual for departures from Brasil). This way, the plane just took off at 2 AM. The flight to London took 12 hours long, and was smooth. At Heathrow Airport, I called Márcia to say everything was ok so far. I just had a free couple of hours, until I boarded the next plane that would take me to Abu-Dhabi. Again, I had a smooth 6-hour flight, until I landed on Abu-Dhabi, a huge airport in the middle of desert, where I met 4 of 5 Indian teammates in the boarding line: Anjana, Asha, Vaidy and Desikan. I liked them all since the first time I saw them. They all seemed to be nice, kind and fun (and that's really true, as I'll tell you in next blogs). From that time on, I wasn't feeling so lonely anymore, and we all boarded for the last part of my long flight, this time from Abu-Dhabi to Almaty. This was the worst flight I ever had in my entire life. First, as we boarded the plane, it was very hot inside, since the air-conditioning system was started only when the engines are on (misers!). Second, we had the worst steward I ever met in my entire life. It was really a rude guy, who literally threw lunch boxes on passenger's laps. Last, the plane seemed to drop down right after the descending procedures had started, scaring most of passengers. The lady sitting beside me yelled so loudly that my right ear buzzed for the rest of the day. Thank God we landed safely. After that, we had the arrival procedures, such as picking up our luggages and stamping our passports, and got the van that took us to Astra Hotel. Tanya, the russian lady encharged of the logistics of our trip, was there to welcome us. After the hotel check-in procedures, went to my room and try to have some rest.

In next post: meeting all team.  STAY TUNED!