Dear Readers,
I had the looooongest trip home. about 24 hours in total. I know that sounds like only a day, but to me that was missing 2 nights of sleep. I was a zombie by the time I made it to Philadelphia.
I had a pretty interesting journey. Some was unpleasant, and some was interesting.
On my first flight out of Oman I was placed on a isle seat of the middle section. I sat next to an older woman, and her daughter on her other side. They seemed nice enough, two smiling faces from their black abayas. It was 11pm when we left, so I was tired and ready to sleep.
About an hour into the flight, the craziness began. I was just sitting there dozing off to Harry Potter on the screen in front of me, when the woman two seats down stood up, and looked around frantically. There was only one thing separating her from the Isle to get out, and that was a man sleeping heavily, reclined in his chair. In a quick decision, instead of just going over the guy, she crawled over her grandmother and then me jumping out into the isle. For the life of me I had no idea what was happening.
Then she started looking for one of the German flight attendants. Finding one, she tried to explain to him in struggling English that her grandmother needed oxygen. He then asked her what her illness was, and the symptoms, and more or less what she wanted.
I tried to move out of my seat, but the woman and attendant were standing there talking intently and wouldn't give me any room. Then another attendant came with an oxygen tank and a rubber mask.
Before I could do anything the woman grabbed the mask and tank from the attendant, and then SAT on me, blinding me with her abaya! I tried to move, talk, or some how politely push her off, but I could do nothing.
A part of me felt sympathy, for her grandmother and her frantic ways, but I couldn't help but feel a but..............violated??
Thanking God the woman finally got up halfway, about to take something else from the attendant, when I made my leap.
Very fortunately there happened to be a free spot across the isle. It was next to a man watching the scene. Thinking the same as me, he pushed his stuff aside to make room for my jump. He then reached out to help me not trip over whatever unfortunate passerby got in my way. I practically fell into the seat.
I just became 3 times more tired than before, and threw the airplane blanket over my head. Sad to say, I am allergic to sleeping on planes, and instead of sleeping, I watched a bollywood movie with my rescuer beside me.
But what about the grandmother??
Well, about 30 minutes after my escape, the grandmother was up and walking. I don't believe she noticed I moved, and I decided to just leave it at that.
I had the looooongest trip home. about 24 hours in total. I know that sounds like only a day, but to me that was missing 2 nights of sleep. I was a zombie by the time I made it to Philadelphia.I had a pretty interesting journey. Some was unpleasant, and some was interesting.
On my first flight out of Oman I was placed on a isle seat of the middle section. I sat next to an older woman, and her daughter on her other side. They seemed nice enough, two smiling faces from their black abayas. It was 11pm when we left, so I was tired and ready to sleep.About an hour into the flight, the craziness began. I was just sitting there dozing off to Harry Potter on the screen in front of me, when the woman two seats down stood up, and looked around frantically. There was only one thing separating her from the Isle to get out, and that was a man sleeping heavily, reclined in his chair. In a quick decision, instead of just going over the guy, she crawled over her grandmother and then me jumping out into the isle. For the life of me I had no idea what was happening.
Then she started looking for one of the German flight attendants. Finding one, she tried to explain to him in struggling English that her grandmother needed oxygen. He then asked her what her illness was, and the symptoms, and more or less what she wanted.
I tried to move out of my seat, but the woman and attendant were standing there talking intently and wouldn't give me any room. Then another attendant came with an oxygen tank and a rubber mask.Before I could do anything the woman grabbed the mask and tank from the attendant, and then SAT on me, blinding me with her abaya! I tried to move, talk, or some how politely push her off, but I could do nothing.
A part of me felt sympathy, for her grandmother and her frantic ways, but I couldn't help but feel a but..............violated??
Thanking God the woman finally got up halfway, about to take something else from the attendant, when I made my leap.
Very fortunately there happened to be a free spot across the isle. It was next to a man watching the scene. Thinking the same as me, he pushed his stuff aside to make room for my jump. He then reached out to help me not trip over whatever unfortunate passerby got in my way. I practically fell into the seat.
I just became 3 times more tired than before, and threw the airplane blanket over my head. Sad to say, I am allergic to sleeping on planes, and instead of sleeping, I watched a bollywood movie with my rescuer beside me.
But what about the grandmother??
Well, about 30 minutes after my escape, the grandmother was up and walking. I don't believe she noticed I moved, and I decided to just leave it at that.
