And yet another day

It got a little more interesting today. We talked about different alcohol we offer to our guests on board the aircraft and drinks that we can mix with them ... to bad we had no practical on this one hihihi.

Service

Today we have classes because we are making up for the next Thursday which is going to be a new years day so we'll have long weekend YAY !!! But it doesn't change the fact that it's saturday and we are sitting in class... ouffffff.... we are all exhausted. A lot of us went out on thursday so now we can feel the lack of energy hihihi. Anyway... today we had first day of Service, and it was pretty boring stuff, all book related and nothing practical. We talked about guest relations, communicating with them and other stuff. No wonder that most of us were falling asleep hehehehe. But somehow we managed to get thru the day .. Big success hihhih

Aviation Health Training is over... and we got our Rosters for January

YAAAAAAAAAAAAY !!!!!!!!
the day went unbelievably smooth. 100% on my Written test, 100% on practical assessment ( The instructor said that in longest time she did not see CPR done so well :D ) .... I'm surprising myself more and more LOL.
I got Excellent feedback from the instructor... and that also made my day .
But... the news of the day :
ROSTER FOR JANUARY: Damascus- turnaround
Dhaka- 24 hours layover
3 day standby- anything can happen hihihhi
Bombai - turnaround
and last but most important : TORONTO - 50 hour layover !!!!!! YYYAAAAYYYYYYYY
I'm extremely happy !!!! I always wanted to go to Toronto..... and I just can't believe that I got it on my first month of flying !!!!!!!! OMG... I need to celebrate... so I better go out tonight !!!!

Baby anyone???

yeah..... birth on board... the main topic of the day !!!
Let me tell you- I decided to adopt after seeing video in class.
First ... you can see the WHOLE thing on the video. From dilation of the cervix to the alien-like-looking baby coming out and finally- the most gross part of it - delivery of placenta. BLAHHHHHHH. Why the birth could not be more pleasant looking ????
Anyway, tomorrow we have a big 50 questions test and CPR practical assessment and real case scenarios in the mock-up. But since it's Christmas today.... we did not study , just went out to the restaurant for a nice Lebanese dinner... yummmm... it was amazing. If you are ever in Abu Dhabi, I highly recommend Lebanese Flower Restaurant... you won't regret it !!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

WEEK 5: Aviation Health Course

Pretty much today we received the intro to the whole course. What's interesting that our trainer: Matthias told us some things that for us, Westerners might be a little shocking when it comes to legal aspects. So..... here in UAE as Cabin Crew , pretty much you can't give First Aid to anyone except in-flight. Which means that if you see a car accident or whatever happening on the street etc. we can't do anything more than dial 999 for Ambulance !!!! Can you believe that !!! We WILL actually go to jail if we help them.... because if that person dies while you are doing First Aid- you will be responsible for their death !!!! How sick is that ??? And if they don't die, you will go to jail for touching them ! Yeah...
And if you have a Pax on flight and she or he refuses for you to touch them in case of medical emergency... it's OK.. you just leave them alone even if they die.
Very different from what I knew before.
Later we also talked about medical equipment and how to communicate in case of emergency.
This stuff is sooo extremely interesting. Can't wait for more !!!!

First day in Uniforms

We all look fabulous in our uniforms. I could not even recognize my batch mates in the morning in the cafeteria because we all look so different hihihi. Now finally we all feel like part of Etihad family. The only thing we are missing are the Wings ... but they will come in 3 weeks. We had a test on Aribus 320 ( and it's family) and it was hard !! 5 people in my group did not pass it so they had to retake it the next morning. I got 96% so it's not that bad. We all were in shock that we did so bad on this exam since everyone told us it will be an easy exam, so we did not study for it as much as we supposed to. But the truth is that it is the most confusing exam of all airbus family. the problem with it is that you need to un-learn most of 330 and 340 and re-learn it the new way keeping in mind that 320 family has about 4 different types of aircrafts so we need to know all the differences between them.

Uniforms pickup

The day has finally came when we are going to pick up our uniforms. We received all of our uniforms and bags. a lot of stuff... it feels like Christmas LOL.
We got: 3 skirts, 1 trouser, 2 jackets, 6 shirts, 2 belts, 2 hats, 2 veils, 2 scarfs, 3 aprons, 2 cardigans, our travel suitcase, trolley bag, beauty bag and 2 pairs of shoes. and the best part is: free dry cleaning !!! LOL
I'm lucky enough to live in the building where the uniform store is located so Dry cleaning pickup is downstairs, just need to drop it one day and pick it up the next one. This is just making our life so much easier. Tomorrow we have an exam from 320, but after receiving the uniforms I'm sure no one will study for it :) at least I didn't hihihi... I was trying my new uniform :P

Double Take and a Big 100% mark

Wow... can you believe the amount of exams we have to do ??? It's getting pretty tough. Today we had an exam from Airbus 330... and I mean EVERYTHING that has to do with this aircraft.... not easy. But ... I made it- 100%, a big day to celebrate :)
Later we also had practical evaluation and guess what - also 100% ... YAY.... Double the fun !!!!
So far, up to date we had already 4 exams. I made three of them on 100% and one on 94%.... not bad at all !!!
Today we got the info that on Tuesday we are going to receive our uniforms ... YAY ... this is the best news because we all are sick and tired of wearing white and black all the time LOL
After the class finished I went home, packed my stuff and hit to Dubai for the weekend ... It's going to be FUN !!!! Oh.. by the way... remember when I told you that the taxi from Abu Dhabi to Dubai cost me 300 dirhams... yeah... this time I took a bus and it cost me only 15 dirhams... big difference huh ??? From now on I'll be taking bus only.... or at least until I buy my own car, which will be soon I hope.

lot of studying

Uffffff...... slowly running out of energy and have not more space in my brain for all the info that we need to memorize for tomorrow.
Today at the academy we did a lot of theory so the day was drugging itself. And the thought of tomorrows exam did not make it any easier LOL. But I'm staying optimistic.... maybe because I know that I'll pass it with at least 80%.
I never give up... so even if I need to study the whole night... I'll do it.
So I better cut this post short and start studying ASAP... wish me good luck !!

First Serious Exam

ouffff.... I'm so glad it's over. We all stressed out for this exam, but after all it wasn't that bad. Todays first "big" exam was about General Safety which includes everything we talked about the whole past week and some of the things from this week ( Decompression, fire fighting, emergency evacuations, turbulence etc. ).
All of my group passed it with only one girl getting 100% mark. We had 30 multiple choice questions and one diagram to fill in. Our passing mark was 80%. I got 2 questions wrong, so my final mark was 94%... not bad at all!!! Later we went to the Hangar area to have Airbus Familiarization. And let me tell you... it was awesome. We could play with a lot of stuff in the cockpit, we saw how to go down under the cabin to our bunk beds and all the cool stuff that you'll never know about if you are only a passenger. Really... a lot of fun !!!

First "little" exam on Dangerous Goods.

Day by day I'm liking this whole experience more and more. Don't get me wrong.... there are some bumps along the way... but the positives are out weighting the negatives so it's fine with me :)
Today the day passed so fast... maybe because we had some practicals. Later in a day we had a quick class for Dangerous Goods and right after we finished, we had an "exam" from it. Only 10 multiple questions... so you'd have to be super dumb no to pass it LOL. But off course we don't have dumb people in out batch, so we all passed LOL.
Tomorrow we have a very important Exam from General Safety so after we finished at the Academy we all went home and study.

Survival

Yeah ... today we talked about survival equipment and all this fancy stuff that supposed to keep you alive. LOL. The best part of the day was the practical slide evacuation... just imagine 16 adult people acting like kids on the playground ... pretty funny. Later we went to the stimulator to practice our "planned evacuation" drills and that went really well! By "planned evacuation" I mean when there is enough time for the cabin crew to get the cabin and the passengers ready for emergency landing... like securing things, letting passengers know how to behave during crash landing and how to evacuate. Once again, very.. very interesting stuff.
Other than that, not much more happened today.

WEEKEND Part 2

one word : SHOPPING.... went makeup shopping with batch 302 and Aommer to Marina Mall... spent like 600 dirhams on just 4 things ..OUCHHH... Later I joined my friends at batch 302 to celebrate one of their B-day at TGI Fridays..... it was fun !!! Came back home late... study for about an hour and that's about it !!!

WEEKEND

total bliss...... jacuzzi, sauna, TV and laziness..... thank God it's Friday !!!

Freezing and wet !!!

The day was very nice, we did not have a lot of theory, more practice, but of course we got to start the day off with the Quiz. First we got to do our fire fighting practice in the fire stimulator. It was really good and fun, but too bad that we got to do it only once a year :(.Later we went back to the "door" stimulator where we got to practice emergency situations with commands we'll be given and commands we'll be passing to our passengers like : "Bend down and hold your knees"- in case of emergency landing or a crash also " Seat belts-off, leave your things and come this way " and " jump and slide". We need to SCREAM those commands on top of our lungs .... pretty funny when we first did it, we made a lot of mistakes and we were saying stuff like "slide and jump" and "come your things" LOL. Almost at the end of the day we went to practice ditching ( jumping into the water from the raft, surviving in cold water and getting back on the raft). The water was FREEZING.... not kidding.... but it was just so much fun !!!! I'd love to do it again LOL.
At night me and some of my friends went out first to the restaurant called Hemingway's ( did not like it much ) and then later on we all went out to the Ocean's Club. I met few people from my batch there, so I joined them and we had a really great time dancing and hanging out. Later we changed the clubs and we went to Saks ( which is next door, on this same floor) and we stayed there the rest of the night up until about 3 at night. FUN night !!!

Fire In Galley 6 !!!!

Beginning of the class - Quiz as usual. Got 100% on it. The quiz is pretty easy if you study as much as I do LOL (and I study only about 2/3 hours a day hihihihi).
We had our show-and -tell session of all the fire equipment and later we got to see the trainers fight the real fire in the fire stimulator. We all are going to do the same tomorrow, but for today we just had a lot of theory and a lot of info on all the equipment.
When there is a fire in the cabin we can't scream " FIRE " so we got our own signal to trigger the required responses from other crew members ... and it's going to be " I need Backup!!" and then one other crew member is going to come and help us with the fire , third crew member is going to let the captain and cabin manager know of the situation and the fourth is going to come down the passengers and give them instructions. So we got 4 people in that situation: fire fighter, backup, communicator and crowd controller. It's all about team work guys !!!
By the time we finished our class... we got like 4 different homeworks for tomorrow. First we need to learn by heart the fire fighting drill, then be able to locate the equipment on the diagram, then study for our quiz tomorrow and last we got a reading assignment.
After I got home I started learning the drill, but in record time I fell asleep. I guess they were right when they warned us that the SEP Manual puts you to sleep better than any sleeping pill LOL. But I slept for only an hour and then got back to studying.

Celebrating 37 years of UAE.

We started the class by having our first Quiz. It was pretty easy and got 100% on it but the class was drugging it self like crazy..... We were studying about emergency door, so we had a chance to operate the door as well. It's pretty fun... but soooo complicated ! Who would think that closing and opening doors requires about 10 procedures LOL. Like we need to arm and disarm the door, check all the warning lights, check for obstructions, get an OK from the Capitan, Cabin Manager, Ground Staff and at the end crosscheck with another crew member if the door is closed/ open and armed/ disarmed properly. WOW.... and it's all because by accident we can actually deploy the slide/raft if we open armed door. Wouldn't be that embarrassing ???
We also talked about decompression of the cabin and emergency procedures that we need to fallow. Pretty interesting stuff so far.
Today is the National Day of UAE, when they celebrate 37th year of the country. None of my group members wanted to go and see the people celebrating it so I called my polish friends and went to meet them up at Al Jazeera Building. Then we walked to Cornish Beach to see the fireworks. It was very nice... the people are all dressed up and they decorate their cars and ride them on the streets, making a huge amount of noise. At the park they had the men dancing and singing traditional songs and dances... it's not very impressive.. they pretty much repeat the same thing for like 3 hours LOL... I much more rather Lebanese Debkeh LOL. The fire works were very nice, they even made ones in the shape of a heart and one in the shape of a smiley face :) They were going off for about an hour and a half.
We walked thru out the beach and after the fireworks have finished I went back home.

A330-200 ( I know- it looks scary , but it's only an Airbus LOL )

We got to the point when we can have a closer look at the airplane !!!
First we started off with the definition of a flight, some basic aerodynamics and a little bit of physics. We talked about main parts of the airplane from the inside and from the outside, and later on we had a deep look at Airbus 330-200. We talked about main features of the aircraft, on how the things work, how it's builded etc.
At some point we got to go to the stimulator for familiarization ( to familiarize our selfs with the airplane ). We got to try jump seats, pilot seats, we had a look at main safety features and we got to touch and try all of it !!! It was fun... even tho the stimulator is still not finished ( it's still under project ).
Just as we did yesterday, we got our reading assignment for tomorrow as well as we have to learn all the things that we talked about today, because tomorrow we'll have a quiz from it.
After the class, me and 4 of my batch mates had to go back to the Etihad Medical Center for vaccinations... oh God- not again this messy place LOL
We arrived there at about 4:30 and to our surprise it was already closed..... but since we already had our appointments, they let us in. It took us only like, 20 min. so we were shocked that it was done so fast. After that I was trying to catch a cab for like 20 minutes with no success. I walked by a clothing store and I decided to go shopping if I was already there. I went in ,and got couple of white button up shirts for the training, since we are not going to have our uniforms for another 3-4 weeks.
Now, I need to go study again for the quiz.... ufffff....

First Day of SEP ( Safety and Emergency Procedures )

The day at the academy was pretty nice and relaxed. We started our first week of SEP training. This training is a 3 week training ( week 2, week 3 and week 7 ). It's definitely the most important and the hardest one of all.
Today we just had a quick introduction to SEP and we talked a little about how to take care of our selfs mentally and physically so we can be always ready for a flight.
After we finished at around 15:00, I went home, cleaned my room, went to got some groceries and came back home to study for tomorrow class. We got a reading assignment for tomorrow, and it seems to me that we're going to have them everyday. I have to admit that the material is very interesting .. so I'm sucking it up like a sponge LOL !!!

Medicals for visa

Today again I had to get up early , because we all had to go to Al Noor hospital to have our blood taken and chest x-rays for the UAE visa. The day started by our bus being delayed by 30 minutes, and then when we got off at the hospital, we went to the 10th floor where the Etihad Medical Center is located, since we thought that we need to go and get the tests done there. They told us to go back down stair and go to the next door Health Certificates department. And so we did. At that place they told us that we need to have our paper work with us, and we did not have it since HR supposed to deliver it to them. So we again went to the 10th floor, they said to go and try 1st floor, and the first floor told us to go back to the health certificates department ....... blah, blah, blah..... we were already running like crazy people for over an hour, when finally our HR representative showed up with our paper work . ghrrrr !!!! Can you believe that ...we were totally disappointed. We all agreed that the medical part of the training is the most unorganized and messy of all of it !!!!
After we finished, me and my friend went to the mall across the street , because I needed to buy a watch. There is one store in that mall where Etihad Cabin Crew gets 35% on watches, perfumes and sunglasses. I got my watch with a nice discount and the owner even gave me a free perfume as a gift LOL. Isn't that nice.
After we finished, I went home, changed and went to meet up with 3 of the polish girls that went with me to the same assessment, since they arrived on Thursday and are starting training tomorrow.
We met up at Abu Dhabi mall, went to eat something quick and then went to Marina Mall. We walked around the mall, got some stuff from Ikea and I got back home at around 20:00 already exhausted.

DUBAI again

We woke up at about 10 in the morning and by the time we got ready for the beach it was already noon. We went to the beach that was a little hidden behind all the construction sites, so only locals knew about it. We could actually park our car right on the beach. The weather was very nice and sunny, but not hot. And the water, oh.. the water was like a light blue color and the sand is just amazing... it has no rocks, it's very bright and soft. I'm not a big beach person, but I enjoyed this day a lot. The only thing that was missing was the hammock ... and I'd honestly NEVER leave from there LOL.
I was soooo relaxed that I just looked sleepy the whole day hihihi.

City Tour and our first payday :o)

Today we went for the city tour. Our "tour guide" was Amir. He showed us the most important landmarks of Abu Dhabi. We saw the airport and the new terminals from outside, Emirates Palace, Marina Mall, Al Jazeera Building ( which is the newest Etihad building ) and much more. Our favorite part was of course the Al Jazeera Building, since that where is the "Fit to Fly" club. This club is exclusive for Cabin Crew. It has the gym, outdoor pool, sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, internet, lounge, restaurant, massage showers, beauty salon, and massage rooms. And all of that for free !!! ( except for beauty services, restaurant and massage which we get with a huge discount.. YAY....). The building itself is only 1 year old and is really high class.... I'd love to live there, but the waiting list for that building is like 1 year long LOL
After we finished our city tour, we went back to the Academy to have a meeting with the operations manager and HR. The first one talked about time management and operational services of all Etihad departments. And HR collected our passports for the visa issuance and talked about our pay schedule, layover allowance, pay days etc. At the end we received our "food allowance" for the whole training in a form of prepaid debit card..... it's time to go shopping :o)
We finished at 15:30 and went home. I was in rush because my friends came to pick me up from Dubai and they were already waiting for me and I wasn't event packed yet LOL.
They went shopping to the mall while I was getting my stuff ready and we left Abu Dhabi at 17:30. it took us 1,5 hour to get to Dubai.
I was in shock when we got to their house, and I actually find out that it was Thanksgiving Day LOL I totally forgot about that. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family, and of course big Turkey. After that we got ready to go out.
We went to the club called CHI ( old "Lodge" ). It was very nice there: big R&B and Hip Hop room, and outdoor- techno/house music. We danced the night away and left that place at about 3. After that we went to my friends house and straight away went to sleep since I was up since 5:30 morning the day before LOL... so almost 24 hours.
It was a really fun night... It just feels so different to go out in this country, where you actually can dance outdoor without worrying about the weather and enjoy it to the fullest. But I still want to go to a beach party...ASAP !!!!

Medicals and Fitting Uniforms

Today our pick up was at 7:30. We got dropped to the Al Noor hospital, where our Etihad Medical Center is located. We had to do blood test, chest x-rays, urine test, doctor check-up, eye test and hearing test, they check our weight and hight and BMI ( body mass index - mine was 19.5, so a little underweight ) and our heart rates etc. We did almost everything except for the dentals which we have to do separately , and that is the only thing we have to pay for (only people like myself that did not do their medicals in their home country)
The day at the medical center was really chaotic, because we got there an hour before the center even opens, then we had a lot of forms to fill out. Than they started taking us one by one for the tests ( on top of that there was batch of cadet pilots that went before us ). We finished well past 14 and we were running so late that the pick up bus was not waiting for us so we had to call them and wait another 40 min for them to come and get us and drop us to the uniform store ( which is in my building) by 16:30.
At the Uniform store we as well spend good 2 hours and at the end they even forgot about me and one other girl and started closing the store before we were done. But at the end, we all got to try all the clothes and got measured for our uniforms and shoes. YAY... in about 4 weeks the uniforms will be ready, I can't wait !!!
After we were all done with that, me and 3 other girls went to the Mall. I needed to buy another white shirt and earings. It took me some time, but I found what I needed and went home.

Grooming Training !!!!!

As I mentioned before, our Trainer for the Grooming is Goddess ( LOL... Aommar ).
We had a really nice day with him. First we learned about the Uniform and the cooperate image of Etihad. The girls had their chance to try the hat with the veil and the coat. Later he talked to the guys about shaving and mens cosmetics and let them finish earlier, since now, us girls we had make up and hair show-and-tell :o)
He told us about all kind of cosmetics that we should be using once we start flying, since our skin can become more dry and sensitive. He gave us a good list of cosmetics that we can buy and that he highly recommends. After that we had make up demonstration on couple of the girls from our batch. Aommar was actually working before as a make up artist on the London Fashion Week and for big cosmetics companies like Shiseido. At the end he also showed us how to do a french twist and how to do the bun. I helped with that part of this training, since I have 6 years experience as a hairstylist :o)
This whole training was based on the beauty industry, so as expected, it was my favorite subject.
After the Academy, around 18:30 I met up with few of my batch mates to celebrate one of our friends birthday. We were group of 9 people, so we went to the restaurant in Abu Dhabi Mall. We had so much fun just hanging out that we actually spent there like 3 hours LOL. We got a piece of cake for Sean and sang him Happy Birthday ( and after that I sang a little bit of the same song, but in Arabic- they were all in shock that I knew it LOL). It was such a nice evening. My batch mates are really great... love them all !!!

Day # 2... Guest speaker day !!!

As you already can figure out from the title, we had a guest speaker day which means that some important people from different departments came to give us presentation about their job, talked to us about any problems, cleared out all our doubts. First, we had performance managers, then Welfare and Accommodation, Quality Assurance, Safety, OCC, Insurance, Security, and finally HR. The day was suuuuper long, we finished at about 15:40. My head felt like a big balloon from all the informations they gave us in one day :o)
At the end we received our SEP manual ( it's a book that weights probably 5 kilos and we ALWAYS have to carry it with us while on duty !!! ) and the books that we are going to be learning from.
Thru out the day we filled out a lot of paper work and received our contract and ID cards ( but me and another girl from my batch did not receive them today since they forgot to make them for us.. hihihhi... we'll get them tomorrow ).
As you can immagine... my bottom hurts from all that sitting LOL
After we came back to our building, me and my new gay friend went out to the mall. We shopped, ate and just waisted good 2 hours there. On our way back we decided to go to the hotel that's next to the Abu Dhabi mall... just to check out their private beach. Let me tell you... I've NEVER in my life seen more beautiful place !!!! PERIOD !!! Hands down it tops every hotel I've been to !!! Not only it's beautiful inside, but the private beach and the whole garden in the back were breathtaking... just dreamy !!! It's a "Must see" if in Abu Dhabi !!!!!
Tomorrow we have Grooming Training ... so I better go and get some beauty sleep.

First day at school ;o)

....just kidding, it's actually an academy LOL
I did not sleep good last night at all.... I guess still not used to the time change.
I went to sleep at half past midnight last night and got up at 5 am. Got ready, and went downstairs. There were about 10 people waiting for the bus already. Some of them were my batch mates and some already cabin crew that were going to the academy for refreshing ( I guess all the CC'c need to do that after some time ).
Our bus picked us up at 6:35 and after that also picked up some other new joiners and CC's from another building. The whole trip to the academy took about 1 hour and 15 minutes so we arrived well before our scheduled classes.
The academy is located next to the airport.... pretty much in the middle of nowhere LOL.
We all went to the security to sign in and got our "trainees" plaques. Afterwards we went to our classroom.
The first day is pretty much an all around introduction day. We had a great couple of guys to present all the info to us. One of them - Manuel is a part time CC and part time he works at the academy as the instructor... and other one Omar ( likes to be referred to as Goddess LOL) he is going to be our grooming ( make-up and hair) instructor... can't wait for his classes :o)
We did some group activities thru out the day and got to know each other a little better. Our batch 300 is mixed with batch 301 ( Food & Beverage managers) for the introduction week, so there are about 21 of us as of right now.
We get off this class at 13:30 but then we had to wait for over an hour for the first bus to pick us up. By that time I was totally out of energy, so I got home, talked a little bit to my mom over Skype and went to take a nap.... now I'm awake, need to get my room organized and cleaned and go back to sleep.... :o)

Day Off... and trip to Dubai !!!

I went to sleep at little past midnight the day before and did not get up until noon today LOL... I was so knocked out, it's not even funny... all my body hurts from caring all the luggage. First I called my friend Linda that lives in Dubai, to let her know that I arrived. She told me that she wants to see me today, so we decided that I'll take a cab from Abu Dhabi to Dubai ( 1.5 hour ride ) and come to meet her after she finishes her work at 6 pm.
Before the scheduled trip, I went to Abu Dhabi Mall to get some food and other necessary things for my room and bathroom. After I finished shopping I went home and started cleaning my bathroom up until my taxi arrived... and as it did at 16:30, I grabbed my stuff and went to Dubai.
On our way to Dubai we hit some traffic , but it wasn't that bad.
We got to the city center and got lost on the highway because we missed one intersection and had to go around for about 15 min to get back to the same place ( yeah, bad thing about Dubai.. their road system is so chaotic that it's ALMOST impossible to get around LOL) ... for future reference- taxi from Abu Dhabi to Dubai costs 300 dirhams ( around $80 .. yes, that's expensive!!!).. but from my place to any of the malls it's only 5 dirhams ( $1.50).. so that's cool !!!
I got to Linda's work place at about 6:15 pm. We were soooo happy to see each other :o))) I have not seen her for almost a year!!! After that we went to see her new apartment and later we went to her house where she lives with her family until her apartment is finished.
Afterwards me, Linda, her sister and her brother went out to the mall for SUSHI !!!! YAY.. I've been craving sushi for a year now !!! We had a big feast of every kind of sushi , she even made me try the raw salmon.. and I have to admit that it was very good :o) ( because up until now I only ate California rolls LOL). After we stuffed our selfs with all this yummi food, they dropped me back to Abu Dhabi, where we arrived at about midnight.
I went straight to sleep since I need to get up at 5 am for the first day of my training ( our pick up bus arrives at 6:30 )
That was so far the most exciting day !!! I hope ,there's more to come !!!

I'm in Abu Dhabi !!!!

WOW... I have soooo much to say I have no idea where to start !!!
Ok.. first... All my flights went as planned ... the crew at Etihad was great. The view from the airplane on Abu Dhabi at night was AMAZING !!!!
I landed in Abu Dhabi at about 19:20 and as soon as I came out of the gate, the VIP meet and greet service was waiting for me. She helped me to go thru passport/visa , eye scanning and luggage claim. Then she put me into a Etihad drive service and send me to my new residence.
I'm living currently in the middle of Abu Dhabi, in tourist area of the town. The building that I got to live in, is one of the "old" Etihad buildings......but from what I heard, it's still the nicer one of them all.. and most important- it's next to the Abu Dhabi Mall and the Clubbing/ Bars area of the city.
I've got a very nice roommate - Russian girl that works for Etihad for 2 years.
My room is already furnished and all the things that I might need are already there !!! They provide us with fully furnished apartment together with all the things like: towels, plates, pans, bed set, some food and much, much more !!!
Tomorrow I'm planning to go grocery shopping !!! We'll see how it goes !!!

My Visa and E-ticket arrived !!!!

At noon I received an E-mail with all the final confirmations of my travel arrangements.
I'll be flying out of Poland with LOT (Polish airline) on Friday at 6:30 am and fly into Munich (MUC) at 8 am. After that I'll fly out to Abu Dhabi (AUH) at 10:30 am but this time with Etihad :) The flight from MUC to AUH is 6 hours long so I'll land in AUH at 19:30 their time.
I received also my weekly planner for the introduction week and the list of people that are going to be in my group. There are going to be 14 people in my group and I'm the only Polish one :), other than that I'll have an American, British, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, South African and Serbian colleagues. 4 males and 10 females. Out team number is 300 ( hihihi... This is Sparta !!! )
During the first week we'll have an introduction to the industry, grooming day, medicals day, fitting uniforms and guest speaker day and finally one day off- Friday.
It's time to pack up and fly !!!

Goodbyes

I think I already got used to saying goodbye to people that are close to me. After all I got a lot of experience. Just in the last year I moved 4 times LOL. Last December I moved from USA back to Poland, then from Poland to Italy, then Italy to Poland and now Poland to UAE !!! Wow... what a crazy year !!!
On Thursday I had family dinner at the restaurant, then Saturday I went out with my girlfirends to the club, and next week I'm planing to go out for a drink with girls from my work.
Someone smart once said " Goodbyes make you think.They make you realize what you have, what you've lost and what you've taken for granted".
I totaly agree with it... since goodbyes made me appreciate my friends (bf) and family much more than if I had them next to me at all times.

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Changes in my schedule

In the morning I received a phone call from Etihad to let me know that the training on the 16th was canceled and I was moved to start a week after that on November 23rd. Later I also received an Email to confirm that info.
Yesterday they moved one other person from the 16th to the 30th. So I guess they did not have enough people to join them on the 16th so they decided not to start that training.
That only means that I'll be living on my bags one extra week LOL.

Packing

I contacted  Recruitment Coordinator and he told me that I can bring with me at joining, 2 bags of  30 kg each plus a carry-on. 

I started packing in the evening... making a huge mess in my room :o)

I hope I can fit in the limit!!!  LOL

Confirmation of my Joining Date

Today I received an e-mail stating that : 

My training starts on the 16th ,  I'll receive my visa and ticket via E-mail on the 12th and that I'll fly out either on the 13th or 14th .

WOW.... it means that I'll be living on bags from now on ..... cool  :o)

I gave a 2 weeks notice at my present job in the morning. All my friends at work were shocked       (since I've worked there less than 2 months ), but  they were super supportive of my decision. ( Thank You Girls ... You are the best !!! ) 

I guess  it's the first time that I can say  without a doubt .... I GOT MY DREAM JOB !!!!!

The Golden Call

I received a call in the morning from Etihad Recruitment team ( or more closely-Nafissa), asking me if I could join them for the training that starts on the 16th !!! My answer could not be any different : " YEAHHHHHHH"... off course I do !!! LOL.

I found out that I'll need to leave Poland two or three days prior to  joining the Academy ... that gives me only  less than 2 weeks to get myself ready for  a big move.

As all of you can imagine, that was a super exciting day for me.  My life is about to take a big turn for better.... and that is exactly what I need right now.