It's like Aladdin!

I'm in the United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi Airport! The 13 hours on the plane from Chicago wasn't nearly as bad as I'd anticipated. They had this really awesome technology system with tons of options for things to do... games, movies, music, maps, shopping, etc. I watched "The Help" and "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2", read the first several chapters of "The Hunger Games" and slept a little. I took a picture of the game console for Dad .. they had Bejewelled 2!!! lol.

The in-flight meals were pretty awesome! Our first meal, about 2 hours into the flight, was chicken in mustard sauce with rice and spiced potatoes. The potatoes had peppers and were VERY spicy! very good though. I skipped the salad and dessert. Then, they brought us some caramel popcorn about 1/2 way through the flight. It was good, not as sticky and sweet as what I'm used to, but tastey. The 2nd full meal was served about 3 hours before we landed and consisted of cheese manicotti and a dinner roll. It was VERY good! Again, I skipped the salad. :)

I've already met some really great people! We have a pretty large group waiting here to board the plane from Abu Dhabi to Chennai. There's another group that's leaving from Abu Dhabi to go to Delhi. Our flight leaves at 10:25 local time (about 3 hours from now - it's 7:47 pm here, 9:47 am back home).

The airport here in Abu Dhabi is amazing! I've been told this is the richest country per capita in the world, with an average income of about $17 M. It's night here, so we couldn't really see much as we descended, but some of the housed that were lit up were HUGE! I think I literally saw a palace! ;-) The airport is extremely fancy - I'll take some pictures to post later. Some of the girls traveling with me have made some comments - like the title of this post - about seeing characters from Aladdin! Several of us have expressed interest in taking pictures of some of the traditionally dressed citizens, but we're trying to be respectful.

Erin just came back from the bathroom ... she said it was the most uncomfortable experience ever... people were staring at her and she almost accidentally walked into the prayer room! Oops!

I'll update again when we get to Chennai (and I get my power converter). Love to all!