We arrived at the airport.
The only thing on my mind was ‘Oh no! Not another airplane!’
We were twenty-six students and three teachers. The truth is, we looked like a mob attacking the airport! All twenty-nine of us were pulling suitcases and carrying backpacks.
I thought the check-in was going to be a nightmare but it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. The queue seemed to flow by. Like fish in a river.
Finally, my turn came. The worker at the desk looked at my passport and a ‘cheesy’ grin spread across his face. Then he said in a pathetic tone, “I’ve been to Egypt before.”
“Really?” I replied. “Did you like it?”
“No! It is the most discouraging country I’ve ever been to! I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone!”
‘How nice!’ I thought sarcastically! Obviously he hadn’t noticed the queue was all people going to Egypt! His Excellency interrupted my thoughts when he said, “How come you speak English then?”
“It’s because I go to a British school.”
“They have schools in Egypt?! That’s certainly a surprise!”
I was lucky to leave that desk and to never see that guy again!
By that time, I was extremely hungry. I missed breakfast that morning because I had to pack. Once, I spent four hours packing! You know us girls; packing takes us a long, long time!
I went to Burger King with three friends. We walked a long way then I realized I wasn’t hungry anymore! A friend of mine smacked me on my back because she was wearing heels and her feet hurt a lot from walking so much!
On our way to Burger King, we passed a police office, which didn’t bring back a lot of nice memories. On our way to Burger King, we saw a police shoot a guy dead! Oh, what a horrible sight!
He stole a bag or something rather, so they shot him! Publicly!
After I got beaten up, shouted at and cursed at for not being hungry anymore, we went shopping.
We didn’t spend forever shopping though, because they announced our flight as we left the second shop.
From all that running around, I was dehydrating but didn’t have anything to drink. So, I paid a classmate to buy me a bottle of water. Surprisingly, he did!
I sat chatting to some friends, when I saw Kareem running back with my frozen water bottle! It cost me five Euros though!
Drinking that water was a dream! I could feel the icy water tickling my throat as it went down the windpipe and onto my stomach! It felt exceedingly refreshing!
We boarded the plane shortly afterwards.
I was sitting between a friend of mine called Hana and a schoolmate called Zuheir. The seating arrangements seemed perfect until I went to the bathroom and founds out that Hana changed places with a girl whom I’m not too keen about! I begged Zuheir to let me sit on the edge but he wouldn’t let me because he doesn’t like that girl either! In the end, I was stuck in the middle!
Every now and then, I’d shoot a sharp look at Hana and Lorri, two of my friends, and they’d giggle! I knew that deep inside they felt sorry for me. Very, very deep inside!
Zuheir spent the entire flight with his friends, so I sat in his place when he was gone. We watched a movie, The Bandits. That was the most enjoyable part of the flight!
Then the most dreaded moment of all came. The moment when the pilot announced that we wouldn’t be able to land in Cairo due to bad visibility.
I felt the hairs at the back of my neck stand! I had goosebumps and butterflies! Till that day, I do not know what startled me so much!
The pilot kept circling over Cairo then he said that the weather was worsening and that we were going to land in Hurghada. We did, but the wouldn’t let us off the plane in case the weather improved, we would fly back to Cairo.
We stayed six hours in extreme silence, waiting for the pilot to make an another announcement. We waited. And waited. And waited. Forbidden from speaking so that the elders could sleepy undisturbed.
After the last minute of the sixth hour has flown by, we were permitted to leave.
They dumped us in an abominable, paltry hotel. Yes, dumped us!
The hotel was huge but unimaginably disorganized! We spent a fair amount of time looking for our room. We found ‘514’ and ‘516’ but failed to find ‘515’ (our room!). we later discovered that all the odd numbers are on side of the hotel and the even numbers on another!
We went to breakfast. The milk was yellow and the food was repulsive! I went back to my room feeling sick!
I understood then what the worker at the desk in Holland meant by a discouraging country. As a matter of fact, I felt the same way!
I fell asleep. Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was my teacher telling me that they found a plane to take us home! I nearly flew to the lobby!
We went to the airport and found out that we had a jumbo jet to take us home.
There was no one on board the plane except our school and two other fine gentlemen when the plane took off.
We landed safely in Cairo after a day of living hell! I’m sure you’ll agree!