Jordan, Malaysia, India, Switzerland…

So these are some of the places that have been put on my roster ….. yes, my very first flight is happening in 5 days time!! I’ll be flying a turnaround to Amman, Jordan, which is about a 4 hour flight from Dubai. I’m guessing it will be pretty tiring as we about 2 hours or so there, then come straight back the same day. After that I have a week of “can use” – basically where I will be sitting at home waiting to hear whether or not I have a flight!
And after that…some exciting destinations! I have a layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which I am so excited about, as well as a turnaround to Chennai, India, and another layover in Zurich at the end of the month!

I can’t believe how quickly time flies; in only 2 days I will have finally finished my training. Sometimes it feels like I have been in training college forever, and then I realise I have only actually been here for almost 8 weeks! Luckily I am still absolutely loving it and am so glad I made the decision to come!

During service training so far we have had 2 mock-up flights, one to London Heathrow and one to Ahmedabad (India), and tomorrow we have our final one to Sydney. We are split into 2 groups and take it in turns to either be crew or customers. The first time I was doing the bar cart, so I had to serve drinks to our customers, and then on the Ahmedabad I was doing pre-flight checks, boarding, welcome services, and also tea and coffee service after the meal. On our Sydney mock-up tomorrow I’ll be in the first group, serving lunch. As there are 8 of us and 8 customers, not everyone can do every part of the service, so I’m hoping I will get to do the actual meal cart to give me some practice before my first flights! After we have done our service, the crew and customers swap round, so we will be having a snack served to us and then breakfast as well! 😀

Last Thursday my dad had a quick overnight stopover in Dubai, so he came to visit my apartment for some lunch before training college which was very nice! He also brought me a bottle of wine which was consumed very quickly the next evening 😉 (Not by myself, my friends Michelle and Sally helped!). As usual we all went out at the weekend, Thursday night to Crystal and Friday night to Mahiki! Sally and I also had a quick trip to Dubai Mall on Friday, as the weather wasn’t great (windy and even a bit of rain!) so we couldn’t spend all day at the pool like we usually do. Saturday I managed to stay in bed feeling a little bit (a lot!) worse for wear and only got out to go to the door when the pizza I ordered was delivered! Ultimate lazy day, but then again these weekends where everyone is home at the same time will not be happening much once we start flying!

I’ll try and get a few pictures up soon, right now it is almost 2am and I have just had a really nice long skype session with my best friend Lucy back in England and so I am feeling very tired and ready for bed!

Starting service

Last Thursday saw the start of our Service training. This is probably the most important part customer wise, as it is what our passengers see and give us feedback on. We have been given another workbook (as we do for each part of training) which is the thickest one so far, so this should be a fun 10 days!

On Thursday we started learning about what is in all of the cupboards and stowages onboard. As a passenger you don’t even realise the amount of hidden away cupboards and storage places, and I never would have guessed that an airplane has half the amount of things on board that it does! There is a ton of paperwork and forms that can be filled out in different situations, and then lots of spares of pretty much everything imaginable. We have an amenities container, which even has things like baby nappies and bottles in it! Our trainers also showed us a little packet of powder which turns to jelly when poured on wet substances, so that will be useful when we have to clear up vomit…have to say I’m not looking forward to that, haha!

Today we started learning how to do the actual service, so we were in the sim for a while doing practicals. We learnt about the welcome services the airline has – this is basically things such as offering hot towels, toys for children, menus and landing cards, that kind of thing. On Thursday we will be doing our first mock-up flight in the sim, so that will be 4 hours; serving real food and drinks etc!

At the end of the day today we went into a room called a Majlis – which is like an Arabic living/sitting area. In there we played a game with the other batch that is on the evening shifts, getting to know a bit more about the Arabic culture and Islam. It was pretty fun and we even got to go home early, yay!

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This weekend was pretty fun; Friday was spent lazing by the pool and getting our nails done! In the evening Michelle, Sally, Peter and I went to Barasti for a few hours which was really fun, we also ended up hanging out with Basshunter who just happened to be there with a friend! On Saturday we had another lovely day by the pool, I even managed to get a bit of a tan!

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Now it’s back to learning hundreds of airport codes (which I need to know for this week’s exam, what fun…) and all about drinks served onboard in preparation for tomorrow!

Something I totally forgot to mention but which was definitely the highlight of my week….I got my first roster!!! The first 10 days are standby, so I’m not sure where my first flight will be to, but towards the end of the month I’ll be flying to Kuala Lumpur, Chennai (India – relatively short flight so it’s only a turnaround) and Zurich! SO EXCITING! 😀

Restraining passengers?!

This week has been pretty relaxed so far compared to previous weeks. On Sunday we had Nujoum, which is a special day dedicated to new cabin crew, but I’m not going to say anything about it as it is kept secret for future joiners! Monday we had Image and Uniform…which was not that amazing to be honest. We learnt how to wear our uniform properly (at least my skirts which are far too big have been given back to be taken in!) and apply make up, do our hair, paint nails….pretty much things most girls know how to do anyway.
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My batch after Image and Uniform!

At the end of the day I went from training college over to headquarters and got my E-Gate card sorted out, which is a card that lets us through the “security” area we have to go to when we have flights. I had to queue for over an hour just for them to have a look at my passport, take a picture and thumbprint and then give me the card! At least it is out of the way now.

Today we had Security, and learnt about how to deal with possible situations on the plane such as a hijacking, bomb on board, disruptive passengers etc. We spent the afternoon practicing restraining each other and what would do in an emergency situation! Tomorrow we have another day of security and have an exam in the afternoon, but from what my friends in other batches have said it’s nothing to worry about!
After class we all got shuttled out to a place in the middle of the desert surrounded by run down building blocks full of workers, to get our UAE Identity cards. We had to have our pictures taken again, and all of our fingerprints and even palm prints taken digitally! I think the cards will get sent to Headquarters in a few weeks when everything has been processed.

Next thing we will be moving on to in our last 2 weeks of training is service! I guess this is the part that most people associate with cabin crew, and what we will of course be doing on every flight. I’ve heard we also do 3 mock up flights to London Heathrow, Sydney and somewhere else (possibly in India?) where we go in the simulator and serve actual food to customers, not quite sure who will be our customers, but I’m looking forward to it!

Tonight I’m going out for dinner with a few friends, I think to the Shangri La hotel (where us crew get 40% discount!). That should be a nice change from cooking, which I do love, but sometimes it’s nice to have a break. Not going to have a long night out though as I do have to get up at 5 tomorrow morning! For service I’ll be back on the late shift, which means I will be able to have a bit more of a lie-in some days if we don’t have any revision to do!
Time to go and get ready now!

3 weeks left of training…

Today is Friday – which means that it is the weekend! This week has been long but it was all worth it in the end; I got 98% on my GMT exam! So now I am all prepared for anything to go wrong on board – baby delivery, heart attacks, anaphylactic shock, epilepsy… you name it, I’ve probably learnt how to deal with it this week!

I have decided I actually preferred SEP to GMT. We did have to study and revise so much more for SEP (the nights before my final A380 and B777 exams I got about 3 or 4 hours sleep!) but I found it a lot more interesting to learn about the aircraft and all that type of thing as opposed to medical stuff. Luckily I’m not a doctor! Maybe one day I’ll change it up from being a stewardess and work in the left seat of the cockpit instead… 😉

Today I had a lovely day with my friend Sally at Deira City Centre. We got the crew bus (which goes from literally right outside our front door!) to Headquarters and then the metro from there, which is about 3 stops. We both ended up buying way more than anticipated – I got 2 dresses, some heels and some underwear! I also got a pack of earrings (pearls and “diamond” studs), but they are for work, so they don’t count! 😉 Sally also got a couple of dresses and some heels, so we are all ready for the next few nights out that we have!

Tonight I’m going out with my group of friends (this seems to be a regular occurrence on Friday nights!) and we will probably go back to Crystal as we had such a good night last weekend!
Tomorrow I think I’m going to have a nice day up by the pool, it’s been horrible weather all week, cloudy and chilly, but today was lovely and hot and I think the same is forecast for tomorrow. I also did a big food shop the other day and even treated myself to a nice steak, which I’m going to have tomorrow! 

This week we also got our passports back with our visas – I am now officially a resident of Dubai! One other small thing I forgot to mention….. UNIFORM!! On Tuesday we went and picked up our big suitcases with all our uniform in, which was very exciting! Of course my flatmate and I had to try everything on in the evening!

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Starting Medical Training

This Sunday we started GMT, also known as Group Medical Training. The second day is over, and we have been crammed with information.

My lovely neighbour has given us the password to her wifi until we can get our own sorted out sometime this week, so I’m finally blogging from my laptop! Another exciting thing happening this week, tomorrow in fact….we are collecting our uniforms!
I cannot wait to finally try everything on, and once we finish GMT and start Security and Service training we will be wearing them to college as well. Very exciting! Of course I will upload some pictures on here as well 😉

Back to GMT. So far it has been alright, I can’t decide yet whether I prefer SEP; a fair bit of what we have learnt so far I have already covered in a first aid course I had to do for my driving license back in Austria which means that I am not finding the general first aid things too hard.

However we have to know all about the different types of medical equipment that is located on board the aircraft, what is in each different bag/pouch/box, and all of the uses for each type of medicine/tablets. I have a feeling that it’s going to take me a while to memorise all of that! We have the final exam on Thursday, and continual practical assessments every day. 

Yesterday was spent in part learning how to do CPR, and we were assessed on that today. We decided to name our resuscitation doll “Big Tony” (no idea who came up with that or why!) but we all managed to bring him back to life! Here’s two of my batchmates practicing with the pocket mask.
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Today we learnt a whole range of things, from choking, to burns, fractures, bandaging wounds, etc.

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Now I’m looking forward to getting our uniform, and we only have just over 3 weeks left! We will also be getting our first rosters on the 26th, which I cannot wait for! I’m hoping to get a nice layover somewhere hot by the beach! At the moment the weather in Dubai is slightly chilly (average of about 20-22 degrees during the day, ha ha!) and very windy. As I don’t live right in the centre there is a lot of sand everywhere, so any time you go out of the apartment block you do get a face full of sand if it’s windy!

One last exiting thing that is happening – 2 of my best friends Maria and Simone from Austria are coming to visit me! They just booked their tickets today for a week at the beginning of April, so let’s hope the rostering gods are nice to me and give me some quick turnarounds or maybe even a couple of days off! I’m hoping to be able to spend as much time with them as possible!