Our flight arrived about an hour late. We went through customs easily and picked up our luggage. As we entered the arrival lobby of the airport, we saw Dr. Gebremedhin Simon and Nigist Teshome, Zenebe’s sister.
We drove to the hotel and then met Dr. Gebremedhin to sign the agreement. The Vice President of the University was not present so the agreement is not complete. Our extra effort has not been brought to closure.
Saturday we traveled around the city and returned to the airport for a 7:35 pm flight to Dubai.
When our Emirates Airline flight approached Dubai, the pilot announced that the tower had ordered him to circle for 20 minutes. Just as he finished, the plane pitched violently to the right and then dropped severely. There was one more similar episode and then regular turbulence for about 10 minutes before he reached more stable air east of the storm, over the Arabian Sea and east of the southernmost Emirate.
We circled for 60 minutes before flying back to Dubai and landing. We were more than an hour late, but we had reservations at the Dubai International Airport Hotel. Fortunately we were met at the gate by two bellmen who led us through the airport to the hotel.
After more than 11 hours of sleep I had lunch and then walked through the airport mall. Then I went back to my hotel room to do paperwork. At 9 p.m. we went to the United Airlines transfer desk to get our boarding passes and then to the gate for the direct flight to Dulles.