16 April 2009
Well, I made it safe and sound to Bahrain for my first deployment. The flight from Corpus Christi to Dallas was short and uneventful. The flight from Dallas to Frankfurt, Germany was loooooooong, 9 hours and 35 minutes. But the plane was nice and big, a Boeing 777 if I remember right, lots of headroom and enough leg room. The plane was very full and had about 10 or 11 seats across, I was seated in one of the middle seats. We cruised at about 38,000 feet, 585 mph, and it was like -59 degrees F outside the plane at that altitude, bbbbrrrrrrr! Everyone had their own personal mini TV monitor where you could select what you wanted to watch or listen too, with movies, shows, and music on loops that you can join every 25 minutes or so. So, I watched “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (re-make of an old film with Keanu Reeves), not too bad of a story, but nothing great. And I also watched “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler, and it was funny in a cute Disney way. I tried to get some sleep, but my internal clock still set on TX time didn’t think it was late enough to sleep really, so I only rested my eyes.
In Frankfurt I had a little trouble finding the gate that my flight was leaving from, but after asking a few people I was able to locate it. To eat brunch I had a choice of Starbucks, bars, or Burger King, so I took the latter (5,95 Euros for a double cheeseburger meal). The flight from Frankfurt to Bahrain on Gulf Air wasn’t too bad, the plane was almost empty. By this time I was starting to get really tired. I did watch most of the Disney movie “Bolt” and listened to some music, and fell fully asleep several times during the 6 hour flight.
After landing in Bahrain I went through their customs with no problems, got my seabag that I checked and left the main terminal. Just outside was my sponsor, ENS Matt Smart holding a handwritten sign with my last name on it in capital block letters. He let me use his cell phone to call Liz to let her know I made it safe and sound. Just outside the terminal there were a bunch of stores, many of them familiar like “Papa Johns”. Matt drove us from the airport, in an old Nissan pickup, to the “flats” where our crew is staying for just a few more days. Along the way we saw familiar things like McDonalds and Chili’s.Wow, these flats are flippin’ awesome!!! If I were staying here for a few months during shipyard maintenance I think I could really handle it well. I took several pictures of the place. Unfortunately, we’ll be moving back on the ship in the next couple of days. After eating a sandwich from room service most of the officers met upstairs by the pool for a social and to welcome me to the crew. They drank liquor, and I had a diet Dr. Pepper. They sound like they have a good time working together. We found out that I will probably not be the JORG (Junior Officer Requiring Guidance) since another ENS who arrived 2 weeks ago was commissioned only 1 day after me, so there will be a ceremony for that tomorrow.
Well, I made it safe and sound to Bahrain for my first deployment. The flight from Corpus Christi to Dallas was short and uneventful. The flight from Dallas to Frankfurt, Germany was loooooooong, 9 hours and 35 minutes. But the plane was nice and big, a Boeing 777 if I remember right, lots of headroom and enough leg room. The plane was very full and had about 10 or 11 seats across, I was seated in one of the middle seats. We cruised at about 38,000 feet, 585 mph, and it was like -59 degrees F outside the plane at that altitude, bbbbrrrrrrr! Everyone had their own personal mini TV monitor where you could select what you wanted to watch or listen too, with movies, shows, and music on loops that you can join every 25 minutes or so. So, I watched “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (re-make of an old film with Keanu Reeves), not too bad of a story, but nothing great. And I also watched “Bedtime Stories” with Adam Sandler, and it was funny in a cute Disney way. I tried to get some sleep, but my internal clock still set on TX time didn’t think it was late enough to sleep really, so I only rested my eyes.
In Frankfurt I had a little trouble finding the gate that my flight was leaving from, but after asking a few people I was able to locate it. To eat brunch I had a choice of Starbucks, bars, or Burger King, so I took the latter (5,95 Euros for a double cheeseburger meal). The flight from Frankfurt to Bahrain on Gulf Air wasn’t too bad, the plane was almost empty. By this time I was starting to get really tired. I did watch most of the Disney movie “Bolt” and listened to some music, and fell fully asleep several times during the 6 hour flight.
After landing in Bahrain I went through their customs with no problems, got my seabag that I checked and left the main terminal. Just outside was my sponsor, ENS Matt Smart holding a handwritten sign with my last name on it in capital block letters. He let me use his cell phone to call Liz to let her know I made it safe and sound. Just outside the terminal there were a bunch of stores, many of them familiar like “Papa Johns”. Matt drove us from the airport, in an old Nissan pickup, to the “flats” where our crew is staying for just a few more days. Along the way we saw familiar things like McDonalds and Chili’s.Wow, these flats are flippin’ awesome!!! If I were staying here for a few months during shipyard maintenance I think I could really handle it well. I took several pictures of the place. Unfortunately, we’ll be moving back on the ship in the next couple of days. After eating a sandwich from room service most of the officers met upstairs by the pool for a social and to welcome me to the crew. They drank liquor, and I had a diet Dr. Pepper. They sound like they have a good time working together. We found out that I will probably not be the JORG (Junior Officer Requiring Guidance) since another ENS who arrived 2 weeks ago was commissioned only 1 day after me, so there will be a ceremony for that tomorrow.
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