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

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!

I’m off!

Right now I’m sitting in Vienna airport just near my gate. My flight is meant to leave at 14:35 but had been delayed til 15:15 so I’m having a coffee, way too nervous to eat right now!

Luckily I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and checked in quickly. The lady at the desk didn’t seem to mind that I was 7kg over my 50kg limit (could have been expensive otherwise!!), and she even gave me a window seat in the exit row, which is perfect as I’ll have lots of leg room and (hopefully) an amazing view of Dubai by night when we land!

Image

My next post really will be from Dubai! 🙂

Last weekend at home!

With only 3 days to go now (actually only 2 full days as I will be leaving early Friday morning) I definitely needed to make the most of my last weekend at home. A couple of weeks ago I decided to organise a little leaving party, and told my best friend Lucy about it. She lives in England, so she checked Ryanair flights and believe it or not booked them a few minutes later, for less than 40 Euros return! So this Saturday I drove to the airport (one thing I’m not going to miss – driving on snowy and icy roads!) and picked her up. In the evening a group of friends came round and we cooked Mexican food, and then all went out into town, where a whole load of other friends came and met us.
We had such a good night out and it was definitely a great way to say bye to all of my friends!

Image

Image

Image  

The next day (surprisingly we weren’t as hungover as we were expecting to be!!) my mum drove us up to a place called Magdalensberg for a late lunch. There is an amazing restaurant/guesthouse on the top of this hill, which serves traditional Austrian food and is all family run. It was the perfect day to go up, as although it was pretty chilly the sun was out and there was a beautiful clear sky. 
As we were having our meal the sun was setting, we even went out between courses to take pictures of the sunset! 

Image

Image

On Monday we decided to do some shopping! We wondered round the Christmas Market in my town, but it was too cold to stay outside for long. Both of us managed not to buy too much in the shops, I have been having to restrain myself from buying winter clothes by thinking about Dubai every time I see something I want!

In the evening one of my good friends from work arranged to go for drinks, and when we got there a whole group of others from work had come, which was a lovely surprise! They also got me a book called “1000 Places to see before you die” – I’m hoping my new job will help me do that!

Yesterday evening and this morning Lucy helped me sort out my clothes – 1 pile to take with me, 1 pile to give to charity and 1 pile to keep but not take with me. Somehow I have a feeling I’ll never wear the “keep but don’t take with me” pile again, but I can’t justify getting rid of over half of my wardrobe! I don’t even want to know how many pairs of shoes were thrown away!

This evening after taking Lucy back to the airport, I started on the packing. I honestly have no idea how I am going to fit everything in! I’m allowed 50kg, plus hand luggage. One of my suitcases is already over half full and pretty much all it has in is shoes and underwear! 
Here’s a picture of me squeezing into one of my suitcases!
Image

Well, this was quite a long post! The next time I write anything will probably be from Dubai! Only 2 full days left, when did this even happen! I’m so nervous and excited at the same time – it’s crazy!