On the road to KAF

The training in Georgia was intense! We spent the first few days in the classroom learning about security and medical stuff; 50% of each. Wednesday afternoon we went for a map orientation walk on the property where the course was held...suddenly things started to happen. Gun shots went off, explosions happened, then if that wasn't all enough of instructor trwisted his ankle and had to be evacuated. What are the odds of that happening? Turns out it was a clever way to do the intro to the next lesson.

Thursday was all day scenarios that made us run around and really work for the results. Everything that happened in the scenario was based on the actions that we performed in the scenario. Very cool day.

The whole thing was very interesting, then it was time to come back to the snow. As I was going to the airport I got word that there was a snow storm in Ottawa and that I might not be able to get in. This was a weird idea since I was driving down a dry road with the sun shining and a green field beside me but it definitely brought me to reality. In the end I got home on time, because there was quite the weekend in store for me.

With the trip coming up I woke up early and went to the office to check my travel gear. Only problem was that I couldn't find the gear...bad way to start the day. Ended up finding the gear it was in someone's office. Then it was time to find my expense check, another roadblock. It was nowhere to be found, this time it was locked in the desk of Cathy, who takes care of our expenses and everything else...she is awesome! Went to cash the cheque but first I had to get my card fixed since it had been compromised.

Then it was off to watch a friend's kid's hockey game, great to see them before I left. Then it was off to the family dinner. So ended Saturday.

Sunday wasn't much better, had to go to the expedition shop for some last minute things and run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I went to a super bowl party that night but wasn't much good as I just kept thinking of things to do. Ended up sleeping surprisingly well that night.

Got up the next morning and Kandahar hit me like an 18-wheeler, the reality that I was going...it didn't help that there was a massive snowstorm in London that could screw me up. Went into the office and drag all my possessions and things that I could imagine needed for the next 5 weeks. Went to the airport and now came the fun part.

I had 4 pelican cases, my tripod case, my macbook case and my personal backpack. Time to weigh in, went to the counter and the re-packing process started. All the bags/ cases had to be 32 kgs or less each and they weren't. Managed to get them all down to the right weight. With the help of a little bird, I learned that I had to take everything down to customs to get it signed before taking it to CATSA for scanning and loading. All that got done now it was time to wait.

Boarding the flight to Montreal and pretty well passed right out, I think a lot of the stress was gone now. Got to Montreal went to the counter to see if I could get an upgrade...no go. The plane was a little late coming into Montreal from London so we pushed back late but it wasn't a huge issue. I was lucky and had a window and the gentleman beside me didn't have any luggage to go below the seat so I could take up a little extra space with my backpack and camera, the laptop was up top. Easy flight, got to London, met up with Stuart and we boarded our flight to Dubai. At this point it felt like 3 AM to me.. which it was back home.

United Emirates is the greatest airline ever! They actually have customer service! It was a very empty flight so there was a ton of room and the service was spectacular! Stuart and I arrived in Dubai at around 8 local time, sadly only one of our cases arrived as well. But it was the case that has all my personal stuff in it so that was a bonus.

Dubai is crazy cool. I haven't had the chance to walk around yet, I'll get to do that on the way out, but just the drive from the airport was cool! It's like a mix of Toronto and what I image Las Vegas would be like. Everything is in english and in arabic, everyone is polite and it's VERY clean! Very impressive, looking forward to having sometime to look around on my way home.

That's about it, now we're at the hotel, we have a flight early tomorrow to Kandahar. The big moment is about to arrive.