Stefghanistan: And so it begins...

Here I am, in Kbl, sitting in my little room that I spent all last night moving into.
When I first came inside, there was only a sheetless mattress on a frame, but throughout the day, the NEI Afghan staff guys brought in a closet, a desk & a vanity set. I have to say, this is more than what I had at my own house back in LC... so guess who came up in Afg? Yes, me. Thank you very much. Tashakur. (Dari vocab 101: thank you)

After what seemed like a million hours of traveling from LAX to Dubai to Kbl.... I spent my first full day in Afg yesterday and my thoughts ran from a gamut of, "This is pretty cool" to "One year, eh? Easy peasy........." to "omg, am I really in AFG right now!?!? WTH"... It is hard to say how I really feel still. Perhaps I need to give myself a few days to adjust my mental/physical/emotional/spiritual state, all in all.. so please refrain from asking, "How is it?? What is it like?? How do you feel???" Because honestly, my answers will not be very true-to-tell.

One thing I can say is that, in the midst of my 24+ hours of traveling, God was so sparingly gracious with the whole process. With my sister, who barely made it to LAX before my gate boarding time closed (heart attack moment!), I managed fine, even in my tears, onto my 16 hour flight on Emirates Airline, which was one of the best experiences I had on any flight. I felt like I was in comatose for the majority of the plane ride, somehow forcing down some Ginger Ale (my fave airplane drink) and grilled okra to sustain my self, with No Strings Attached and Life As We Know It playing on repeat so that I could catch a scene or two every waking moment. Once I got to Dubai, my bags came out extra quick, found the Holiday Inn shuttle extra quick, got to my hotel extra quick... and spent the entire day, just laying in bed and restoring myself from the entirety of this new journey (?).

The next morning, I got schooled by the Holiday Inn taxi guy, who was so friendly and inviting... but only he then charged me 45 AED for my ride from the hotel to Terminal 2. I asked how much that was in USD and he replied, "Ehhh around $20". I gave him $21 for the entertaining & informational carride, only to realize when I was paying for my 45 AED meal at the airport, that it converted to only 12 USD. Fuuuudge. He was so cool about jacking my money. Oh wells, I did not let it phaze me. I forgot all about it when the TV started playing K-pop music videos. I sat down and the channel said, "Korean stars? Don't we all love them...?" For the 30 minutes I was seated, the VJs introduced everything from Big Bang to 2ne1 to CNBlue and other Korean groups I never heard of. How funny is that? In Dubai, of all places. lol, even that I believe that it was MEANT for me. Thanks, G.

G-Dragon with eyeliner never looked better

Anyway, back to how God was so loving to this on-route lost child to Afg... my luggage exceeded the weight limit by 7 kg, but there was a huge party of Arab men in the next booth who were trying to take 4 huge boxes of goods to Kbl by buying extra seats on the airplane... I think they made my situation look more trivial. So then he upgraded my seat to First Class as well. Doooope. I was the only female in the 12 seats of first class and felt a bit intimidated. But all the men were friendly and helped me put my luggage in the overhead compartment.

First Class on Ariana is like a Southwest seat

Lastly, I got to Kbl and the airport was IN-SANE. It was definitely way more developed from how I remembered it to be 4 years ago. But the number of people bustling around was immeasurable! I was overwhelmed, but luckily my luggage came out extra quick (again!) and a friendly Afg men tried to help me find one of the guys going around in the cart, who waited around to gather people's luggage, hoping to make an extra buck. I managed to carry my 2 check-in baggage, which weighed 100 pounds together, my carry-on duffle, which weighed another 20 pounds, and my Northface backpack ALL together, out to the security check point. I srsly have so much man-strength. It scares me.

Here I am, again.

I came out of the airport 2 hours after my estimated arrival time and started freaking out because the airport had developed so much that I could not recognize anything. I was not sure where to go and/or where Glenn & Mr/Mrs Pae would be waiting for me. A cart man helped me with my luggage in the final long walk to the entrance, where I saw a million faces peering over to see who was coming out. As soon as I walked out, I noticed Glenn, in his black Ray Ban-ish glasses scarfed mouth. Hallelujahhhhhhh!

Everything went smoothly, even in the midst of the craziness of all the traveling. I am sure it was His angels guiding every situation as all your prayers were with me. Seriously. It could have turned out quite disastrous, but I cannot say anything was sub-par from my given circumstances.

That is it for now. Not sure if anyone would be interested in my travel stories.... I promise the content will get more entertaining & Kbul-esque. For now, please keep me in your prayers; that I would come to terms with my next year here and find joy in all of this. It seems hard to imagine myself falling in love with my circumstance (being completely honest), but I remain open-hearted & open-minded to what is in store here in Kbul.

Tashakur for now.