Time Flies When You're Having Fun.

It's been an eventful few days as Ryan and I tried to cram as many activities as possible into our last few days together.

Last week I was frustrated by the fact that our batch has been switched to evening classes for the service portion of training. While sleeping in is amazing, being at the college until 11:30 pm each night is not my cup of tea. Time seems to drag by much slower and the hallways are dark, empty, and scary. Thursday was the first night and I was exhausted by the time that I finally made it home at 12:30 am. That didn't change the fact that I was waking up at 4:30 am on Friday morning. Ryan and I dragged ourselves out of bed, hailed a taxi and met up with Atila, our Hungarian hot air balloon pilot. He drove us and a vehicle full of other couples an hour into the desert, where we watched in awe as the staff quickly inflated 2 giant balloons and instructed us to climb in. Once everyone had secured themselves, we were off.... floating 4,000 ft above the desert while watching a breathtaking sunrise. After a nice ride we came to a gentle landing in the sand below. And by gentle, I mean we crash landed before the basket tipped onto its side as we held tightly to the handles. It was a bit of a rough impact but it gave us a few good laughs. We headed back to my apartment, slept a few more hours and then made up our minds that we'd go to the beach. Ryan and I tend to be very slow moving from time to time. By the time we'd left, ate lunch, and arrived at the beach, it was already 4:30 and the sun was going down. Despite not being able to spend time in the sun, we were lucky enough to watch the sunset behind the Burj Al Arab.. beautiful!

Saturday we were determined that we'd make it to the beach. We headed out earlier for once and spent the afternoon playing in the waves. Ryan built sand mountains as I soaked up the January sun. My idea of a perfect day. Afterwards we rushed home to meet my friends Naf, Cathy, Fran and Ash. I was happy to introduce Ryan to them so that he could finally put faces to the names. Naf is originally from Pakistan, so we went to a Pakistani restaurant and let him order a selection of food for all of us. It was so delicious and we ate far too much.

Sunday was a lazy morning. Ryan and I went for breakfast before cleaning every inch of my room in search of his missing i-Phone, to no avail. He thinks that he must have left it on one of the buses, which is very unfortunate and not cheap to replace. Hopefully it turns up somewhere here and I can ship it home to him!

This morning at 5:30 am we woke up early yet again, this time to head to the airport. I was feeling pretty emotional as I watched him pack his suitcases. We took a taxi to the terminal and wandered around for an hour before he had to proceed through security. It took every bit of strength not to burst into tears as I hugged him goodbye, but I managed. I watch him disappear through the doors and my heart sank. I love reunions, but I hate goodbyes. I reluctantly left the airport and caught the metro home. Once I'd reached the comfort of my apartment I closed the door and cried for a few minutes. I think it was necessary. My room looks so empty without his clothes and cameras spread amongst it. My flatmate left this morning for a long layover, so the silence is a bit hard to handle right now. Despite how hard this morning was, I think it will be easier this time. We were able to spend 10 amazing days together, and I think that the memories will satisfy us enough to make it until our next reunion in a couple of months. I've made great friends here as well, and they are sure to keep me from feeling too lonely.

Time to cheer up and head to school. 6 days left, and I'm finished! I can't wait to start flying and see some more of this great big world.