Getting Started

The journey of a thousand miles always seems to begin with a trip through JFK. No trouble so far. I'm checked in for the first long flight of the trip, and the good folks at Kuwait Air gave me a bulkhead seat (which will be much appreciated on the 13 hour direct flight from NY to Kuwait City). It always helps to get to the airport early, be especially charming, and sprinkle the conversations with the few words you know of the language of the airline - in this case, lots of shukrans and insh'allahs. That said, the folks at Kuwait Air could not have been more pleasant. Beyond attracting more looks than normal - I had a nasty bike wreck the other night, but nothing that four hours in the emergency room and 15 stitches on my face and two hours in the dentist chair this morning reconstructing the front tooth I broke off (I look slightly less like Frankenstein now) couldn't fix - there's been no trouble. I just finished a plate of tortellini that just about reached the level of institutional quality (I guess Burger King was the better choice). The next stop is Kuwait City where I'll be met at the airport by two professors from the Gulf University of Science & Technology, which I really appreciate because it will be my first trip to Kuwait. The only problem is that they want to immediately take me out to dinner - I leave JFK at 9:45 tonight and arrive in Kuwait City at 7:00 pm on Wednesday evening, so it makes perfect sense, although I'm going to have to rally. The journey of six weeks . . .