Arrival in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Finally, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

First, a word or two about the flight from Bahrain to Dhaka, Bangladesh.  The airport scene in Bahrain consisted mostly of male travelers; rarely was there a lone female traveling unless she was a foreigner.  We run to the terminal for Dhaka because they yell over the intercom "last call" and then wait a few minutes.  The doors open at the gate, and we board a bus that takes us maybe 5 meters to the airplane which we climb stairs to get to.  The plane was filled with pretty much all male travelers with a few exceptions, in addition to the flight crew.  The flight attendants, by the way, were mostly Russian: quite interesting for a flight to Bangladesh.  The overall flight lasted about 5 hours and my friend and I sat almost in the very back of the plane, near the lavatory.  At one point in the flight, I heard a flight attendant yell "No Smoking! No Smoking!" while banging on the lavatory door.  When we were landing, I couldn't see outside very well, but what I did see was a very polluted sky and a dusty, sand colored ground with lots of construction.

The airport: Absolutely unbelievable. There are people everywhere, not just inside the airport but all around it too. People in the middle of the street, just walking casually. Quite an amazing sight, actually.  As we gathered our luggage, we took over a table where we just parked our belongings and hung out, waiting for our other classmates.  Our driver, from the university recognized us by our photos that we had to submit earlier.  As we tried to leave the airport in this huge van, it seemed like people were going to get run over by the vehicles!
The rest of the ride to our residence consisted of many horns sounding from vehicles and bells ringing from rickshaws and bicycles. I also saw a Bangladeshi ambulance, which I have a photo of and will be posted as soon as I figure out how to put things on my computer from my camera without a cord...

Our residence: pretty nice housing, I'm sharing a room with another girl from school and a bathroom. I must say, this is definitely an upgrade from the hostel in DC...hehe. We all had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, apples and tea for a snack earlier, then walked around the neighborhood, and now waiting for dinner, which is to be served at 8pm. As for a shower...that still has not happened, quite disgusting.  However, a shower requires waiting about 30min-1hr for some nice hot water so I'm fine with that, especially because a nap sounds more appeasing at this moment.  That's it for now, have a lovely day or night!

Tomorrow's adventures:
rickshaw ride?
acquire clothing to wear
not be jetlagged

goal while in Bangladesh (mom don't read this): not to get run over by any moving transportation? just kidding!...