Ticket and Visa!

This morning I logged into the airline’s website, and could finally click on the button that says E-Ticket and E-Visa! Very exciting, as you just couldn’t click on it before. So I downloaded and printed out my ticket and visa; I’m leaving next Friday (14th Dec) at 14:35 and arrive in Dubai at 22:55. I’ll be met by their meet and greet service and taken through immigration/ passport control, where I also have to show my employment visa.

It’s getting more and more real every day! Only 9 days left! 😀

SNOW!

This morning I woke up and the first thing I saw when I looked out of the window was SNOW!

Normally, I am not a winter person. At all. Hence the big move to Dubai, where it is pretty much warm and sunny all year round. However, all of a sudden everyone has been getting excited about Christmas, winter, skiing, etc etc, so I was kind of secretly hoping to see some snow before I moved. And now it has snowed! 

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This is what my garden looked like first thing this morning! It’s actually still snowing pretty heavily so there is probably a quite bit more on the ground now!

Less than 3 weeks to go

So the past 2 days I spent some time staying with a good friend of mine called Iris and her boyfriend Claudio, who live in Graz, which is about a 1,5 – 2 hour drive away. They came and picked me up on Sunday evening and we drove to their flat, which I actually helped them paint a couple of months ago! 
Iris had the day off from uni on Monday, so we spent all day shopping! I love shopping with her, although somehow I always end up spending so much money! This time I did buy quite a few things, but I also managed to get all my Christmas presents (for mum, dad, and my two brothers) so that was very successful. One thing that I did treat myself to was a red lipstick from Chanel (ahhhh, so exciting – and it stays on so well!) as I will be wearing red lipstick every day once I move to Dubai. I also got a blazer and top for myself, but they were on sale so I just had to get them! 😉

Only 17 days left til I fly out! I can’t believe how quickly time flies, and I have so much left to do! I have started sorting out my room, and I have SO MUCH STUFF! I don’t know where half my things have come from or why I ever thought I would need them! I still need to pack up my bookshelves, decide what to do with all my old school stuff (which in reality I know I will never look at again, but it seems like such a waste to throw it all away!) and then the most important bit, start sorting out which clothes and shoes to take with me!
I also need to have a look and see if we have a suitcase that I can take; I have a really nice one which I’ll use for hand luggage, but I need 2 bigger ones for everything else. I will have 50kg luggage allowance so I need a big but light suitcase!

It’s really getting real now – I’m actually moving to Dubai!

Quick trip to Vienna!

On Monday I decided to go and visit one of my good friends Maria who lives in Vienna. The next time I’m in Vienna will be for my flight to Dubai! (Which, by the way, is in just over 3 weeks!!)
I got the train there which takes just under 4 hours, and she came and met me at the station. Once we got back to her flat we had some dinner, she made salad with some really yummy goats cheese wrapped in bacon, which I am definitely going to be giving a go soon! We decided to go out with another friend of hers and have some “Glühwein” or mulled wine, but once we were out he cancelled so we ended up in a restaurant/club called Medusa. We both ordered a raspberry cocktail which was absolutely delicious! Of course we also had to try some food so we got some chocolate cake with ice cream. We both then agreed that we could never be anorexic, as we just love food way too much!

The next day we went out to do some shopping, and for some reason I didn’t buy anything! Not sure how that is possible as I usually end up spending money on tons of unnecessary things whenever I’m out shopping. We also had to go and get Starbucks (of course!) as there isn’t one where I live; probably a good thing as I would end up spending all my money on overpriced coffee! I tried a toffee nut latte which was pretty tasty. I’ve heard that there is a Costa Coffee in the training college in Dubai, so I’m sure I will have plenty of opportunity to get coffee when I’m over there!
Have to admit, I’m starting to get slightly nervous now!

The interview process

So I thought I would tell you about the interview process I went through to get the job, as I know how helpful it was when I was looking for tips online and reading other people’s blogs and their experiences.

I applied online for an open day that was held in Munich (the closest city to where I live that an open day was being held in – about 5 hours drive away) and got an automated message back thanking me for applying online. It also said I would be contacted if they were interested in me, however I knew that anyone could just turn up to the open days, so I made my travel arrangements to go to Munich for the open day on the 15th of September. I got there the night before as the open day was being held in a hotel starting at 9am.

I got the underground to the hotel, and happened to meet a girl who was going there as well, so had someone to chat to. She told me that she had been to an open day before but hadn’t made it to the final interview. Once we got there (about half an hour early) there were already lots of people waiting around and filling out the forms. By 9 there were about 50 people. The two recruiters (whose names I have forgotten, one was Eastern European and the other I think was from Dubai) came out and welcomed us all, and we went and sat in the conference room it was being held in. They introduced themselves and told us a bit about how the day would progress, and we then were shown a couple of videos about what life as a flight attendant is like, and what living in Dubai is like.

After the videos we were all told to come up to the front where they were sitting, hand in our CVs and photos, and get a sticker with a number and our name on. I was number 28! I was also asked how many languages I speak (other than English, my mother tongue, I also speak German and Spanish fluently) and what I was currently doing (work, studying, etc). While everyone was handing in their CVs we had a chance to look at a couple of pieces of paper that were hanging up with some rules about dress codes, tattoos, and those kind of things. We were then split into two groups and the second group (which I was in) was told to come back in hour.

Once back in the conference room we were split into two smaller groups and told to take a seat in a circle. We were told we would be introducing the person to our right and had to tell the group what their favourite subject at school was and why. Not exactly a difficult task! While this was going on each person was called  up to the side and made to do a “reach test” to see if we could reach 212cm with our hand stretched out. This wasn’t a problem for me especially as I had checked at home beforehand! Some girls couldn’t reach, and were eliminated. After we had done the introducing we were all called back in, and given a little folded over piece of paper. They called out our numbers one by one and on the paper we were told whether or not they wanted us to come back for the next round. So nerve-racking!

About 20 people were eliminated after this first round. The next thing we did was another group task, we had to sit in the circle again and discuss what we would do if we were given 1 million dollars. We had to think of 3 things, and weren’t allowed to vote. After this round we were given more little pieces of paper. I was through to the next round! We then had an English test as the open day was being held in Germany. I was the only one whose mother tongue was English so I still had to do the test but was finished pretty quickly. Quite a few people had to go as their English wasn’t good enough, so we were left with about 19 people by this time.

After quite a lot of waiting around we were split up into two final groups, and I was in the second group again. We were all given a piece of paper with the names and details of 8 passengers on, and we had to decide which 6 would have to be downgraded from business class to economy. As a group we decided pretty quickly, and then the recruiters acted as though they were the passengers and we had to explain to them why they were being downgraded. 
6 people didn’t make it after this, so we were left as the final 13. As we went back into the conference room the recruiters congratulated us on making it to the final interview. We then had quite a bit of paperwork to fill out about ourselves and had to pick an interview time for the next day. Mine was at 11am.

The same night we had to complete an online personality test, which was I think 170 questions with yes/no/maybe answers. Not too hard if you are truthful.

The next morning I made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to spare and chatted to the other girl who was waiting for her interview. Mine lasted roughly half an hour, and it was a of of questions relating to specific things that I had done in jobs and how I had reacted, such as “tell me about a time when you felt you were treated unfairly by a colleague, and how did you react?”. I felt like it was going on forever and couldn’t think of any “good” answers, but I guess they thought I was alright! 😀

We were told it would take 4 – 6 weeks until we heard anything back, but I still checked online every day to see if my status had changed! Exactly 2 weeks later I checked my phone and noticed 1 missed call from a strange number, sure enough when I called back they had called to offer me the job!!
I will be leaving for Dubai on the 14th of December – so exciting!!