Traveling to Zambia

We left DFW at 12:30pm on Thursday.  I traveled with Diana, Mariah, and Amanda.  When we got to the airport, Diana and I noticed that our seats weren't together anymore.  She said that I would soon learn that her motto was:  "It never hurts to ask!"  She went to the desk and asked about us switching, and we lucked out.  He moved us so that she had the aisl seat, I had the window seat, and no one had the seat between us!  It was so nice to have more room!  We flew on Emirates, which I had never flown before.  It was fine, and everyone was very friendly.  I did not sleep much on the plane because I could not get comfortable, but overall it wasn't too bad considering it was 15 hours long.

new friends!

We landed in Dubai at 12:30 the next day. We were already jet-lagged, but we knew we had to stay up.  We dropped off our stuff at the airport hotel and made our 3:30 time to the Burj Kalifa - the tallest building in the world.

  

We were a little underwhelmed by the top of the building experience.  It was hard to see much because of the dust/smog. (hence why you can't see much in the pictures) It was okay and kept us entertained for a couple of hours, and we checked it off of our bucket lists.

                                      

Top of the Tallest Building Selfie!
Too bad it looks like a bunch of nothing behind us! :) 

Afterwards, we wandered around the Dubai mall for a bit.  It was huge and very international.  There were so many stores and restaurants that we have at home.We headed back to the hotel for dinner and tried to stay there talking and playing a game of Charades, but we didn't last long.  We kept checking our watches every 2 minutes.  We finally called it a night about 8:00.

We left the next morning at 9:30am, and the 7 hour flight seemed so short compared to the day before.  It was so nice to actually land in Zambia after a long 2 days of travel.  Tia, Kathryn, and Alicia came to pick us up.  It was good to see them! :)

We drove to "Am Com" (American Community) where we were staying for the 2 weeks. Amanda and Taylor live there full-time, but they were in the states having their 2nd baby, so we got the whole house to ourselves.  It was so nice to be able to stay there, to have room to spread out and to lesson plan at night, and to be together.  Amanda, Mariah, and I shared a room.  Patty and Diana shared a room, and Tia had a bed in the dining room! :)