ah ha- i am in the airport in Dubai, en route home from Tanzania- i was just in Zanzibar- I was reading Scibbling the Cat- in that book the writer says you shouldn't just be able to fly from africa and step off the plane the next day in the us- it's too many worlds apart for that. No problem for me- I started from Zanzibar on an all night ferry to Dar es Salaam- in the middle of the night we were gripping our mattresses to hold ourselves down in the rough seas - I with my eyes squeezed tightly shut to fend off threatening sea-sickness- on the lower decks people were getting sick all over the place- especially children- then we arrive at 6 am in Dar and run to catch a 6-30 am bus to Arusha- that should be an 8 hour ride but instead due to breakdowns is a 12 hour ride. next afternoon, a bus to nairobi (5 hours) and now the 1st of a 3 leg flight from Nairobi through Dubai, Hamberg, then JFK- when I arrive JFK i will have felt like I've traveled from someplace afar. I am worrying a bit about thrombosis- isn't that where you get deadly clots due to sitting for two many hours on end too many days in a row? So here in Dubai i have been walking up and down the corridors- with my heavy labtop in my backpack. there is an amazing looking $24 middle eastern buffet in a lounge full of sheiks and so forth- I had just decided to splurge and go for it but they don't take credit cards so instead i found a place on the floor in the hall to sit and use the free internet connection.