I’m back in Ann Arbor and I can’t sleep! Ah the joy of jet lag. It probably doesn’t help that I went to bed at 6 p.m., though. My flight got in to Detroit at 10:30 a.m. on Monday morning (Jan. 2nd) and by the time I cleared immigration, customs, etc. I was in Ann Arbor by 12:30 p.m.

Going through security/passport control in Dubai is kind of weird, convoluted, and didn’t really seem like it was safe at all. I got the sense that most of the airport employees didn’t really take it very seriously. The airport was packed (even though I was leaving on a 1:30 a.m. flight). A public service campaign should be implemented in Dubai about standing in lines (i.e. no chuffing, don’t cut) and body odor (deodorant is your friend). I had some guy blatantly cut in front of me in the security line and a family that was standing behind me in line at the KLM ticket counter also tried to cut in front of me. Are you really that late that you can’t wait a few minutes after you’ve been standing in line for twenty minutes?

After clearing security in Dubai, I shopped at the Dubai Duty Free, which was awesome. Local goods and souvenirs were very reasonably priced but brand-name stuff (i.e. DKNY sunglasses) were super expensive. Overall, the Dubai airport is very nice and clean and compares to some of the nicer airports in the U.S.

The first leg of the flight (Dubai to Amsterdam) sucked. The flight was full and I was stuck in a middle seat next to a guy who smelled like he had bathed in gasoline. Seriously, this guy smelled like a gas station. He seemed to enjoy the flight since he slept the whole time, which made me hate him even more. Throughout the flight, I wished I could speak Dutch. There was an older couple in front of me who seemed to be getting a lot of attention from the flight attendants and I really wanted to know why and what the heck they were talking about! I kept thinking that maybe they were famous or important but then why would they be sitting in coach?

My two hour layover in Amsterdam was fun (not). They couldn’t print my boarding pass in Dubai for the Amsterdam/Detroit leg of my trip so I had to get one at a transit desk in Amsterdam. Figuring out which transit desk I needed to go to was kind of convoluted because the transit monitors didn’t actually list the transit desk number for my flight (or for most flights for that matter). They did list the gate number so I decided to go to the gate. On the way to the gate, I ended up finding the KLM transit desk. I couldn’t get a seat assignment at the transit desk since the flight was overbooked so I was on a “waiting list” (the Dutch euphemism for standby) but the agent seemed optimistic since a lot of people hadn’t checked in yet (I think one of the connecting flights was late). The gate agent then asked me to describe my bags so that they could transfer them to Detroit. I don’t know but it seems like they should have a better system to transfer luggage than having people describe it to them. It seemed way too analog and didn’t really instill in me much confidence that my luggage would actually make it to Detroit.

After checking in, I went to the gate to clear security. I felt like my security screening was rather excessive. When I described the questioning to my sister, she seemed to think that it was standard procedure, though. I got asked the standard questions (How long were you in Dubai? Did you leave the UAE during your time there? What was the purpose of your visit? Did anyone help you pack your bags?) along with several that I found invasive (What does your brother do in Dubai? Where does he work? How long has he lived there? Where does the rest of your family live? Why didn’t the rest of your family travel with you? Why are you flying to Detroit? Why did you fly KLM/Northwest?). Maybe these kind of questions are standard practice in Amsterdam but I couldn’t help but feel like I was being interrogated . . . especially when upon entering the U.S., I only got asked two questions (how long were you in Dubai? Why were you there?) and quickly passed through security/immigration.

After clearing Dutch security, the gate agent was nice enough to give me an exit row aisle seat, which made the second leg of my trip considerably better than the first. I have noticed that the KLM agents and flight attendants are super friendly and helpful, far more than their Northwest counterparts.

Even though I had a great seat, the second trip was really long and exhausting. I ended up spending most of my time playing with the video on demand system. I watched Finding Nemo and Proof, both very good movies that I hadn’t seen before. I also spent way too much time playing Bejeweled and somehow managed to get to level ten. I actually could have gone even further but we had to land so I had to stop playing.

Finding my bags in Detroit took forever. They had luggage from my flight arriving at two baggage carousels so it was really hard to keep an eye on both. After my Dutch security screening and being on standby, I was really worried that my bags wouldn’t make it from Amsterdam but they did. My cab ride to Ann Arbor was pretty cheap since I ended up sharing it with another UM student who was also waiting at the taxi counter.

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