Flying to Morocco...finally!

April 19.

woke up at 415am. left the villa at 515am. reached dubai airport at 545. checked in at 615. at the boarding gate at 630am. flight at 735am. good thing I had “Tuesdays with Morrie". with an hour to kill, I can read the book and do people watching on breaks. that’s exactly what I did.

i think i was the only Pinay on board. and I was alone. there was a group of Kenyan athletes. others were locals. Others, were mediterraneans. they kept talking either in arabic, or french.

aboard, i was hoping to be seated with someone interesting. slim chance! we stayed silent all along, me having finished 2 movies and him asleep the whole time. it was only when the plane was about to land, when we both didn’t have anymore headsets, that we managed to strike up a conversation. it was just another small talk. he is not well versed in english, and so am i with either french or arabic.

inside the cabin, people kept walking back and forth maybe to exercise their legs. there was a time that an elderly man leaned towards me, maybe seeing that i am the only one looking quite different. we had small talk which we both dropped immediately after i found it difficult to lift my head up always just to talk to him, and him to understand the words i say without leaning forward, which was quite awkward.

at last we reached Mohammed V airport in Casablanca. i walked out, and felt like i was back in Manila in terms of the size and the oldness of the airport. i kept asking airport staff each step of the way so as not to waste precious minutes with a few mistakes, though i really have 4 hours stopover to burn. twice, when airport staff saw my passport, i was asked “filipini"? i say, " yes!" "oh, abu sayaf". I said "no". he said, "no, they are good"… ohhhh…morocco is a predominantly muslim country.

after getting my luggage, i had to check in again for a local flight which will fly 4 hours after!!!! I felt too sleepy already. tried to have lunch, but was so unlucky to find a resto that will serve me rice. walking to and fro the departure area, i finally heard familiar words--kabayans! three guys working at the duty free. they engaged me in a very short talk and left. wheew, finally, saw some people familiar.