Not quite there yet ... layover in Dubai

I've just arrived at Dubai International Airport, after an uneventful twelve-hour flight from New York. To think of this place as any other airport doesn't do it justice: it has approximately (by my calculations) five stores and two restaurants to every gate, a hotel in the airport (not attached or next to, actually in), and getting from my arrival gate to my departure gate took twenty minutes of walking - and I never even left the 'West Wing' of this particular terminal.

I have about another hour and a half to kill before heading to the gate for my flight to Durban, which is supposed to last nine hours. I will arrive in Durban at 5pm (local time) Saturday; I left New York at 8am (local time) Friday. It is currently 9:15am in Dubai.

At JFK, I was able to catch the first half of the USA-SVN match. By the time I boarded, it was 2-0, Slovenia. Though the Emirates flights are very fancy, they (or mine at least) do not stream live TV, so I couldn't watch the second half - looks like I missed all the good stuff; the final score was 2-2.