After landing in Dubai and going through another series of carry-on checks, we were off to our next flight. One 8-hour flight from the Philippines and another 14-hour flight to the States.
Waiting at the gate before boarding in Dubai. It looked different from Ninoy Aquino Airport. A different one I'm used to now. Brandr used to live in Dubai for a good amount of time in the past, then he went to Germany for a couple of years. He always used to come home every year, at least once a year. Once, if not more.
"How long is this flight?" Kei asked as he was looking for something in his bag. The rustling sound of his stuff was heard as he continued looking for whatever he needed.
"14 hours," Lani replied while opening a bag of chips. Sana all kumakain. She wasn't doing much other than chewing.
"Found it!" Kei exclaimed, looking over, I saw a tablet. What? All that for a tablet? Where the fuck was it for it to take that long to find? The abyss? And what the hell does he have in his bag? I'm not dealing with this.
Looking back at the syllabus was holding to make sure I was going to teach the proper content. I need to make lecture plans. There were already notes and highlighted parts on the syllabus I was holding for Spanish, and the other languages.
It took around another 30 minutes for boarding to be called. Lani had stopped eating at this point, and Kei had been doing something on his tablet.
Another flight to go until we're in the States. Yay.
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Driving to John F. Kennedy International Airport was ok. There wasn't much to expect in my opinion. Landing and getting off the airplane was the same as any other flight.
Thankfully, immigration here was quicker than in the Philippines, well, it was the same as most other countries, but the immigration in the Philippines is long. On a good day, it's quick, but when it's quick, it usually means that baggage collection takes up a lot of time. Thankfully, it was a smooth process overall.
Walking out of baggage collection and into the rest of the airport was different from how it was in the Philippines. It felt more spacious here than in the Philippines.
As we walked around the airport, Lani and Kei got into another argument about God knows what. It wasn't a fist fight, but rage baiting. As we kept walking with our stuff, the insults started to become more and more obscure.
There were signs that led to where the cabs were lined up. Other tourists went the same way, there were kids who looked excited to be here, tired parents, and the occasional businessman in the mix. Following the queue of people, we slowly made our way to the front of the line. Soon enough, we were on our way to our new 'home'.
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The ride in the cab was quiet. There was no back and forth between the idiot duo, and there was no unnecessary conversation with the driver. Kei started drawing again the Lani was focused on her phone. The scenery out of the window was different. The buildings were better developed, and everything looked more developed in general. There were more popular stores that lined the sidewalk, ones that you'd mainly see in malls or gas stations in the Philippines.
Soon enough, we had arrived in front of the apartment we were staying at. A penthouse. That's where we're staying. I got out of the cab first, followed by the other two. Lani looked stunned while Kei was looking around, as I walked to the back of the cab to get the rest of the bags.
"Are you going to help me, or do I just leave your stuff here?" I said sarcastically, gaining their attention. Both looked at each other, then started to walk in my direction.
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It was a bit of a frenzy going up to get our things inside our house, but we did it nonetheless. Lani, with her bottomless pit for a stomach, soon realized there was no food in sight and decided to drag us with her to get lunch.
We eventually found ourselves at a hot pot. Entering the restaurant, there weren't that many people there as the lunch rush had just finished, so there were quite a few available tables. Lani was excited to get the food. Typical Lan.
"Let's sit at a table before getting food Lan," Kei sighed, tired of her bullshit at this point, "you have too much energy." He was right about that part. She always tends to have energy at the most random times. Right now, she was already 'bouncy' to put it one way.
"Yeah, sure," she replied, not looking back at us, "the faster we can sit down, the quicker the food will come right?" Is that seriously all she can think of right now?
"Hurry up and let's eat, we still need to get groceries after this," I said, sitting down at an unoccupied table. It's peaceful, to say the least. There were aunties chatting, and other people enjoying their food. At least we weren't causing a disturbance. ______________________________________________________________
Walking around the area was foreign. It's different from the Philippines, and it's not quite the same as the other countries I've stayed in before. One thing that throws me off is that there are no grocery stores inside the malls, so you must go somewhere else to get groceries, Target or Walmart, I think? Asian grocery stores are a lot harder so come by as well, or I just don't know how to look for them.
Walking around with bags filled with food is inconvenient, but there's not much we can do since none of us has a US driver's license yet or a vehicle to drive, so this will do for now. There was no arguing coming from Lan and Kei, they were shit talking people instead. Especially after this one woman who decided to tell us to go back to where we came from. A lifeless, insecure bitch. That's what she was.
The hallway leading to our house looked expensive. Something that looks like it came out of a movie. Opening the door to our house, we were greeted with the sight of the living room with our bags in the same places we left them. Umm... We'll clean that up later.
Turning on the lights in the kitchen and turning on the rest of the appliances, I was finally able to take a good look at one part of the house, as I started to put the food away. Pans, kitchen knives, cutlery, thankfully, everything was here, as well as other kitchen appliances. Now. Time to get a good look at the rest of the house.