TUESDAY
Wow, what a BIG day, so much activities and I'm not even that exhausted, I should be given a gold star, seriously. I can't believe Ramadan is already over, this month has passed by so fast, I mean like really fast because it's already eid and I'm on my way to start my actual summer vacation. It's so surreal, honestly I thought this Ramadan would be hard and tiresome but it was actually pretty laid back and chill, I loved it.
So in the morning, we all had to wake up at 6am to get ready for the day and head to the airport. I honestly had doubts that we were even going to go on this trip but apparently we did. I was so not in the mood to get up but I knew I had to, so after getting dressed and packing up what was left, we hauled a cab and squeezed in, and when I say we, I mean my whole family, all 5 of us. So basically you can call me the most responsible out of my whole family because I'm more organized and I tend to be a perfectionist and a fast thinker when it comes to these things. So once we were out of the bag, I took all of our 5 suitcases and put them in trolleys and sort of organized them, we checked in for our flight to Doha and headed for some much needed breakfast. This was the first breakfast we've had in a month since we were fasting for a whole month because of Ramadan, so we didn't really eat much because we weren't just yet used to eating in the morning, I was surprised because we spotted a Paul's cafe in terminal 2 which is like the old terminal and it wasn't supposed to be that updated, but it was to a level. I was glad we had paul's because I was sort of kind of secretely craving it, their macaroons ... ooooh. Ironically though, I didn't have any macaroons because they cost was too much for something so small. Jeez, the world we live in, eh? Anyways so after that we boarded our plane to Doha-Qatar and we got them in less time that I had anticipated given that the plane was behind schedule.
We arrived in Qatar-Doha and went through customs, I wasn't even tired yet because the flight had only been 40 minutes long. We headed to baggage claim and I instantly saw our suitcases, frantically, and I'm sure I looked like a crazy person running to the baggage carousel and dragging bags out of there, but I had to get our suitcases and spare us some time because we needed it. I say this proudly, I hauled all 5 bags by myself and loaded them to trolleys. When it came to being in an airport and airport behavior, I was top notch at it, and I truly believe that it's because of my huge love for airports and everything to do with them, I love to travel. So anyways we checked in to our next flight which was heading back home for a 15 hour stop over since our flight to our destination was back home, we did this stunt because it actually saved us alot of money. Then we grabbed really really expensive lunch at this sort of buffet cuisine kind of thing and we ate, the food was okay but not top notch really. We had about a 3 hour stop in Qatar-Doha and we spent it on using our phones with the free airport wifi and eating. I can't really say I've been to Qatar even though it's stamped on my passport because I was only ever in the airport, but I'd love to see it, I think that'd be swell. So anyways after eating we heard earlier that the gate for our flight was changed so we started heading to our corrected gate. We zoomed through the gate and got to the plane in a zoom and before I knew it we were back home in a flash. I had taken a little nap so the time kind of buzzed right past me and when I awoke the cabin crew were preparing for landing, it was very convenient. Okay so I have a little story to tell, it's not really about it but it happened during my plane ride, so I usually take the seat that's not next to my family members simply because they're a little loud and we're kind of all at different ages and I find it calmer and more peaceful sitting next to a complete stranger rather than next to my family members. So as usual I took the seat at the end but this time I was joined by my brother because this plane was a little small and tight and I made do, so he sat in the middle and I took the aisle seat, an asian man that we later learned what from the Phillipines sat on the window seat, it was nice getting to bond with my brother with all of this month's drama. So we sat side by side and because this was our second plane to ride in less than 5 hours, we were a little weary and we fell asleep, so my brother fell asleep on my should, him being younger than me I allowed it and went to sleep myself. When I awoke however my shoulder didn't feel heavy, I looked to my side and my brother's head was resting, more like nestling, into the other man's shoulder and my brother's elbow was lodged in his ribs. I laughed because this isn't the first time my brother had done this, except all the other times he sat between my parents and they didn't really care because they were used to him and he was their son after all, so this guy just motioned to me that it was fine and he didn't mind. I appreciated it, it was a nice gesture and you don't see alot of people like that these days but it was really funny. We took pictures of my brother and when we showed them to him he said that he didn't recall. Hilarious.
So after landing in the homeland, we were really beat, we went through customs and headed to the hotel that we were supposed to stay in for the night. We went to check in to the hotel and something really weird happened, they asked my dad why he was staying in a hotel if he was a resident of this country, my dad saw this as normal but I was baffled at their audacity really. I guess it was just security precautions because they sent us to our rooms moments later, and it was nice. We had room service for dinner and kinda just hung there like a family and for the first time it felt almost real, like we almost did this everyday.
So my day was very very busy and the whole day I really missed my friends, sure I was texting them and chatting but I missed seeing them, I really do hope this trip turns out well.
