We're in Libya now

20 some hours later and we made it! :)

For the most part, the 9 1/2 hour flight to Amsterdam went well, I watched 4 movies. The flight from Amsterdam to Tripoli was a lot shorter (4 hours), but was a lot harder to get through because I was soooo tired and couldn't sleep on the plane. I knew we were getting closer to Libya when a flight attendant was walking around the plane before take off with a "lost" toddler. The guy next to me said "we aren't even in a mall, imagine if we were in a mall, this is a small plane, how can he be lost?". After the lady walks through the whole plane asking if anyone knows who the boy belongs to, one guy says that the family hasn't gotten on the plane yet. A few minutes later the family walks on the plane and puts their stuff in the row next to us, they realize they are in seats farther back in the plane. They walk back and my dad and I realize they left their little baby girl behind. Eventually they came back for her. A few minutes after that there was an announcement that someone left their carry-on luggage at the front of the plane and needed to come pick it up before we could take off...it happened to be the same family again. Yep, we are almost in Libya :)

Upon landing the flight attendant announced that "Tripoli International Airport is a non-smoking airport", as we walk off I see people smoking everywhere. When we walked off the plane there were no signs indicating which direction we should walk in, so we chose one direction, then turned around and found a worker to ask which way to walk. We put our carry-on bags through security and then walked throught the metal detector, I didn't beep, but just about everyone else did and they didn't say anything (I don't think they even look at the monitor to see what's in the bags). We then went downstairs to baggage claim, we had to wait for bags from Dubai to come through first. My dad started to joke around about how the conveyor belt was probably going to break... and then it stopped. I thought maybe it was just paused for a little bit, but while laughing my dad announced that it was indeed broken because he could see a guy trying to fix it. It eventually started working again and we got ALL our bags (yes!). We then had to put all our bags through a conveyor belt security check (what is that called?). The guy told my dad that he needed to check what was inside the box we had (it was full of car parts that my dad was bringing a friend...it went through a very thorough check at PDX). My dad told him that "In America they checked it very thoroughly and he was bringing car parts for a friend because people buy cars from the U.S. and then don't have the parts to repair them. Really, it's just a big headache to go through". The guy said "ok, just take the box then". I don't think you can talk yourself out of a security check in the U.S.!

While waiting for our flight to Benghazi, a few friends came to visit us in the airport. A family friend came with his 2 daughters (they just moved back to Libya a year ago). They are about 10 and 11 years old and started giving me the scoop on life in Libya. One asked me if I drive, I said yes, but not in Libya. She said "but why? it is so easy, you can do whatever you want. in a driving test you can drive 300 km/hr, do what you want, and the teacher will say 'good job!'". I think I forgot how crazy the driving was until driving around last night and today. There are very different rules around here (e.g., if I honk and flash my lights at you that means don't merge in front of me; 2 lane roads can easily be made into 4 lanes; if the light is red it doesn't matter; seat belts don't work and if they do, no one uses them; carseats for babies? what is that?).

The first day here was good, I am still experiencing jet lag....it's 3am right now and I am wide-awake. It's frusterating not being able to communicate on my own, so I am looking forward to starting classes or getting a tutor. Tonight I was at my aunt's house and was walking around the yard with 3 cousins and the 2 sons of one of my cousins. They were all pointing to things and telling me the name in Arabic (all at the same time, so I had some information overload and don't remember anything...I need to remember to carry a notebook with me). I will be going to the British school in the next couple days to figure out what I am doing (I was really confused when my dad told me this because it's the weekend, but I forgot that Friday is the day off here and Saturday through Thursday there is school).

Oh, so remember how I said I bought a new planner for my trip (that my dad made fun of me for?) Well, he told some of my family about it today (in order to explain to them that I like to plan ahead), they thought it was SO funny and said "no, no, not in Libya....welcome to Libya!"