In Qatar!

Approaching the runway, I could see the azure sea against the beige colored sand. Qatar airport was a lot larger than I expected.

Qatar was a pretty large city as I could see from my window. The airport itself was vast and had a maze of hallways and gates. Although I still had two hours until my final leg of my jounrey, I rushed to my next gate. I finally located it, placed my carry-ons in the seat next to me, and waited.

As I was waiting I found the restroom close by. Even though I do not speak or read Arabic, most of the signs in the airport were in both Arabic and English. Plus, the restrooms had icons located above the doors to help travelers who spoke neither. I thought this was pretty interesting. It was one of the first physical things I noticed that reminded me that I was no longer in the United States! 

See if you can figure out what each icon means...

The seating area at the gate began to fill up with people who were awaiting their connection. It turns out that the majority of the people waiting were flying ahead to Dehli, India. After about a half an hour, a young woman approached me. She appeared to be American, but I was unsure until she spoke. She asked me if I was one of the new teachers and I told her that I was. It turns out, it was a young lady I had met via Facebook, named Tamika. I am so thankful that I was no longer alone!  She and I talked like old friends and awaited to board. Soon, our plane was called and we clamored up the stairs to the Airbus 320. I was somewhat disappointed with the plane as I had built up the image of the Airbus as being this HUGE aircraft. However, it seemed that this plane was actually smaller than the Boeing 777 I had ridden earlier. However, it really didn't matter as I was on my way!  Next stop~~Abu Dhabi!