The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

Finally…some pictures!

I’ve taken my laptop to my friend Michelle’s apartment, so I have wifi…..time to get some long overdue photos up!

The first weekend we were taken to visit a mosque, this is it!
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We all had to cover our hair and were given scarfs, mine almost matched my shirt!Image

Our first night out, we went to a place called Barasti which is just by the beach!Image

Christmas Eve night out!Image

And Christmas Day on the beach!Image
This is the view from training college in the mornings, and there is always an amazing sunset in the evenings as well!
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The other day at college we had to go down the slide rafts, which was so much fun! All the pictures look the same though, so this probably isn’t even me!Image
My batch after all sliding down!Image
We also then had to go in this pool with our clothes on….Image
…and with full make up on!Image

And finally last night out at Crystal Club, where we had such a good night out! Jay Sean even came and sang some of his songs!
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I’m glad I’ve finally managed to get a few pictures up! Next week we will be getting our residence visas (FINALLY!) so the first thing I’ll be doing is sorting out wifi in the apartment. Hopefully then I will be able to update a bit more regularly as well!

1 month today!

I can’t believe how quickly time flies – it’s been exactly a month today since I moved to Dubai! 
I have finally finished SEP Training, which means I now have my A380 and B777 licenses, very exciting! This weekend is our first “proper” weekend since we have been here, as we have had one day off here and there for Christmas, NYE etc, so I’m enjoying having 2 days off and absolutely no revision to do! Once we go back to training college on Sunday I’ll be starting GMT (medical training) which should be interesting.

I actually managed to bring my USB stick with me today so I have lots of pictures to upload, but for some reason it’s saying I need to format it….and I have no idea what will happen if I do that, so I think I will come back tomorrow with a different USB stick and see if I can get some long overdue pictures up.

Now I’m going to skype some friends and catch up on everything that has been going on! I’ll put some pictures up asap!

Week 2 of SEP Training…

So here I am, back in the internet cafe again after a long day of revision, having a little break. My flatmate Naomi and I have literally been studying all day long – I had one break to go to the supermarket and do a quick food shop, and now I’m in the internet cafe for a few minutes to update on here. I feel like it’s suddenly got really intense, and we have so much to revise!

We had our first written exam yesterday on general safety – there were 25 questions and I got 100%! It was multiple choice though which did help, but the questions were all very easy and I would have known the answers without the multiple choice. However our next written exam (on Sunday) is going to be a lot more difficult. We have been told there are 50 questions, plus diagrams to fill out and other written parts. Not looking forward to it! Tomorrow we have another practical assessment and verbal exam. So as you can see it’s pretty full on, with exams or practical assessments every day!

I am still on the late shift (from 3:30pm – 11:30pm) every day, but I actually think this is the best one as it gives me a chance to have a little lie in (til about 8 or 9) and then revise all morning before college. Anyone who says being an air hostess is just a waitress in the sky has obviously never seen the size of our manuals or how much we have to learn!

After the big exam on Sunday (which is about the A380 – CANNOT WAIT to fly on it!) we will be moving on to the Boeing 777, and have all the exams again. The next topic after that is GMT – Group Medical Training, and after that we finally have a few weeks that are supposed to be a little bit less work than SEP and GMT.

This week we only have a one-day weekend again, due to the fact that we had Tuesday off instead of Saturday, because it was New Year’s Eve! We finished early at training college which was really nice, and 4 of us who live in the same area got a taxi home so we wouldn’t have to wait an hour for the crew bus. Once I was home Naomi (my flatmate) and I got ready in record time and went over to someone we know’s apartment for a house party! We had a great night and loads of people from training college were there, so even if we didn’t see any fireworks because we live far out from the city we still had an amazing evening!
On New Year’s Day we went up to the roof and sunbathed by the pool, with another friend Sally and her roommate, who started at the same time as us, and then later went to the Sahara Mall (the shopping mall which is about 10 minutes walk from our apartment block) for some food. And of course we can’t forget revision and homework, like every day!

Now I should probably get back to doing some revision – booo! 
As I think I said in my last post I will upload some photos as soon as I get wifi – it’s just too much hassle putting them on to a usb stick and uploading them at the internet cafe! And silly me has also used up all of the internet on my phone so I can’t upload from there…. woops!

SEP Training has started!

The SEP Training (Safety and Emergency Procedures) has started! This, along with GMT (Group Medical Training) is supposedly the hardest part of our 7 weeks of training, and I can see why! It’s a lot to do, with theory and practials all day. Our batch has been put on the late shift, so we have training college from 3:30pm to 11:30 at night! We also get given homework to do – we have a thick workbook which is gradually being filled out and revision to do each day. This means either staying up after getting home at midnight or getting up early the next morning to do it before class.

Yesterday was our first time in the simulator….and it was so fun! We took a trip to Doha (not really, but that was where the flight simulation was going) and experienced some turbulence. We had all learnt the day before what to do during light, moderate and severe turbulence, and in groups we took turns acting out different scenarios.

The whole time the trainers were making notes about us and writing down anything anyone did wrong, so everyone felt quite a bit of pressure to do well. Luckliy we all passed the simulator practicals, but we still have a lot more to go. This is literally just the beginning of training! We will start having theory tests from next week as well, and need a pass grade of at least 80% or else we will have to repeat the week!

Something else that happened this week….it was Christmas!! Our trainers gave us the day off (which unfortunately means that we have to go in on Saturday to make up for it) and a group of us arranged to go to the beach. On Christmas Eve we all decided to go out in the evening, and a few of us who live in the same area met up before to get a taxi together. We had such a fun night! It also ended pretty differently to any Christmas Eve/day I’ve had so far…with the taxi driver taking us to a McDonald’s drive-through on our way home! I have to say, I never thought that I would be eating a McChicken on Christmas Day!

The next morning (Christmas Day!) we all met up to go the beach and spent the afternoon sunbathing. We wanted to go for a swim in the sea as well, but after putting 1 toe in decided it was too cold! Afterwards of course we had to go and have Christmas Dinner, so we wandered along Jumierah Road (at least that’s what I think it was called!) until we found a restaurant that looked nice. I ordered chicken, lamb and beef skewers with wild rice and grilled vegetables – definitely not the normal roast turkey but still pretty tasty!

We also had our uniforms fitted the other day, which was pretty exciting! They gave me a skirt which was about 3 sizes too big, but refused to even let me try on a smaller one, so once we get our uniforms I’ll have to see just how much too big it will be! The rest all fitted fine though, so I’m really looking forward to getting our uniform (especially the hat!) and suitcases in a couple of weeks. I’ve also heard that we get our roster with our first supy flights (= supernumerary flights are where we are considered an “extra” onboard, so we can get to know how everything works in real life!) at the same time, so I’m really looking forward to finding out where my first layover will be! I’m hoping for an exotic destination somewhere hot, by the beach!

Now it’s time to get back to some more revision – at the moment I’m learning about Pre-Flight Checks. This basically means checking all the emergency equipment is available and in the correct place on board. We will all be asked questions on it tomorrow in our 15 minute brief at the beginning of the session, and then I think we are going to do decompression (loss of pressure in the cabin) in the simulator tomorrow – should be fun!

I can’t wait until we get our residency visas (hopefully in about 3 weeks time!) so we can finally get wifi in our flat – it’s so annoying having to come to the internet cafe any time I want to get on the computer!

My first week in Dubai!

Sorry it’s taken me so long to finally write a new blog post, I’ve been so busy with induction week and getting everything sorted out, and at the moment I don’t have wifi in my apartment so I’m in an internet cafe around the corner from our apartment block!

I’ll start off with what happened after my last blog post at Vienna airport. I boarded the plane and once we had taken off one of the stewards came and brought me a glass of champagne! It was such a lovely touch and made me feel so welcome! After the meal they also came and got me and showed me around the plane, even taking me up to business and first class, which is just absolutely amazing! I definitely need to find a man who can afford to buy first class tickets, haha!
Once we had arrived in DXB I was met by the Marhaba meet and greet service and met up with all the other people who were waiting to go through together. I got chatting to some of the other girls and also found my flatmate Naomi, who is really lovely! After going through immigration and getting everything sorted out, we were taken to our apartments. Ours is huge! We have a nice kitchen, huge hall, and a really big living/dining room area with two big sofas and a big table and chairs. We both have our own bedrooms (massive comfy beds!) and a shared bathroom and another toilet, so plenty of space!

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On Saturday we spent the day unpacking and getting some food shopping done. We were provided with a “starter pack” which had some food in but we needed to get some staples as well. We have a “small” mall about 10 minutes walk away called the Sahara Mall (which we have now found out is actually in Sharjah, one of the other emirates!) where we bought a few things like an iron, kettle, coat hangers and that kind of thing.

Sunday was our first day of induction. 6:30am pick up, which meant getting up at 5 to get our full face of make-up on, hair all done up in a bun and down outside the apartment at 6:15 to make sure we get on the bus. We are the first stop though so even if gets really full we can get on. We had lots of introduction talks, filling out forms and that kind of thing, and were finally home sometime around 5 or 6pm!

Monday and Tuesday were still both induction days spent in the Headquartes, and we also got our medicals done. All sorts of things like blood tests, height and weight, eye tests, etc. We still had the 6:30am pick-ups, but were finished aournd 3 or 3:30.

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Wednesday was our first day in the training college (as opposed to Headquarters), and when we got there and saw the airplane shaped building it finally felt real! I still can’t believe that I’m actualy living the dream and being paid to travel the world!

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We finished early on Wednesday so another girl who is in our group called Michelle, who is so lovely and I get on really well with, and I decided to go to the Dubai Mall!! As we had been quite busy we hadn’t really had a chance to actually go into the centre of Dubai yet, and so this was pretty exciting for us! Once we were there we just couldn’t stop staring at the skyscrapers and amazing buildings, and inside the mall we were not dissapointed! The aquarium is so huge, we can’t wait to come back and walk through the tunnel. We shopped around  bit and got some candles for our apartments, and had some dinner. In the evening we then went just outside the mall to the Dubai Fountain, and watched the amazing light and water show! It was so good and we both felt quite emotional watching it!

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Thursday was another full day at training college, and as Friday and Saturday is the weekend here we all (literally pretty much the whole group, about 90 pepople) decided to go out. We went to a place called Barasti, which is a beach club/bus/restaurant. It was so much fun and we had such a good night!

Today has been spent catching up on sleep (yes, I slept til 4pm and feel no shame) and getting something to eat!

Sorry about the long post, but I am having an amazing time so far and not regretting coming here at all! Best decision of my life!