NIKITA - Once Upon A Dream

3 years and I still love flying!!

2012-01-31T16:42:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone !!!

I know that I should have updated you sooner on my progress and I apologize for totally disappearing on you ;) but life got too busy for keeping up with my blog since I met a special someone ;)

Just a quick update :
I'm still working for Etihad and loving it even more !!! it's been 3 yrs and 3 months since I joined ...

Looking back at all this time I spent in Etihad I can say that my first year of flying was amazing , the second one was frustrating and third one I finally realized that flying is my life and it will be hard for me to quit such an addictive, fun and well paid job hahaha.
I'm still working as FA ( economy crew) but hopefully in couple of months I'll get my well deserved promotion. Cross your finger for me !!!
I have traveled to most of Etihad destinations and it's been a really fantastic journey.
Just recently I got my Boeing 777 training and this month I am staring to fly on all the destinations that are operated on this aircrafts. My new destination this month will be Bangkok ( even tho I was there during my leave for couple of days).

I'm meeting a lot of new crew that are recognizing me from this blog and it's just an amazing feeling to know that I might have helped someone to make a decision to take on flying as their career.
I'v got a lot of positive feedback about my blog and I am extremely happy to be able to show people like you, what this job is all about.

Thank you from all my heart !!!

See you in the skies soon !!!

NIKITA

June... the beggining of hell..... I mean summer LOL

2009-06-19T15:16:00.004-04:00

oufff.... the temeperatures are in hight 40s. I know that it's not the highest temeperature here... but man.... It's HOT !!!!

My June roster :
1) Melbourne- 26 hours layover
2) Beijing ( requested it with my BF)- 55 hours layover
3) Frankfurt- 19.5 hours layover.
4) Trivandrum- turnaround
5) Start of my 4 day promotion in South Africa with our CEO James Hogan

Before Frankfurt flight I had 2 days of promotions. Both of them were in Al Ain, the first on at the mall and the second one at the hospital.

Melbourne
What a beautiful city. The more I go to Australia the more I love it :) ... such an amazing place. We had a great crew on flight and the whole trip was sooo nice... I'd love to go back there as soon as I can.

Beijing
Yay.. I can't believe that me and my best friend Paula finally got our requested flight !!! The flight was a little hectic and just because of full economy and on top of that 95% of the ppl did not speak a word of english. It can get really messy in the cabin LOL. The most fun we have is during service, when you actually need to spend good 5 min. with each passenger before you communicate with them on their meal and drink choice. Having a chinese speaker on board really halped since she translated for us: chicken , beef or vegetables hehehe... it was a real life saver. Anyway, after a long 8,5 hours flight we finally arrived to Beijing for the fun to begin. We arrived early in the morning, so I went straight to bed and scheduled with few people to meet up around 6 pm for dinner. After a refreshing 7 hours of undisturbed sleep I went downstairs to meet up wit my friend, first officer and F&B. We decided that it will be a good idea to go and try some typical chinese food - uffff nothing more wrong !!!! We went to the "food street" and found a huge restaurant packed with people, and as we all know the busier the restaurant the better the food. As we sat down at the table and opened the menu.... wow.... I have NEVER seen so many disquisting things in my life, and I mean fried chicken feet, seafood that would make your stomach turn, pig intestines stuffed with fat or God only knows what. It took us about good half an hour to go thru this horrifying menu until we finally made the choice.. and to tell you the truth.. not even one thing we ordered was good. So if you ever ask me what to eat in China... I'll tell you McDonalds ( as we did for the rest of the layover LOL ). After the dinner we decided to go to the club called Suzy Wang. It was quite nice, but most of the people there were visitors and expats just like us. We had a lot of fun there and left at about 2 am. The next day we scheduled a day trip with a tour guide. She picked us up at 8:30 am, so as you can guess ... we were dead LOL Our first stop was the Summer Palace.. we literally run thru it !!! This place is huuuge. Our next stop was the pearl factory, where they showed us how they make them and even opened one clam for us so we could see the pearls inside. Next we went to the Great Wall. Ouhhh my legs hurt till today from climbing it LOL. But it's really breathtaking. After this we went back to the city to visit Tea place where thy told us a lot about different kind of teas, traditions and different ways to drink it. When we finished the tour it was already 5 pm. Me and my friend Paula still had to go shopping... off course :) we got soooo much stuff..... hardly closed my suitcase LOL. The shopping in China is THE BEST..... no comparison. On that note, everyone happy we left china. Until next time ;)

Frankfurt.
One of my best flights ever, and all thanks to awesome cabin crew. We went for dinner and we laugh sooo hard that those poor Germans must have thought that we are bunch of kuku people from a nuts house LOL. But that's what it's all about- travel, have fun, enjoy !!!!!!

Trivandrum
Surprisingly this flight was really nice even that it was a long 11 hours duty and we were a little delayed. After flying for 6 months I have to say that finally I learned how to handle night flights.. and actually enjoy them :)

The BIG May roster !!!!

2009-05-25T14:15:00.002-04:00

To be quite honest... I'm being very sarcastic when I say that it's my BIG roster... actually it's the smallest roster yet :(
My month started with 9 days off annual leave when I went back home to Poland. After that I had my probationary review meeting with my performance manager ( which I thought was a total waste of time ) and after that few days off which I spend with my friends in Dubai.
1) 3 day company promotion (which turned into London flight - 36 hours layover)
2) Manchester- 16 hours layover
3) Casablanca- 48 hours layover

About the promotion: It was booked from a month ahead.. so I thought that it's a SURE thing... well.. more less.... they canceled it 2 days before the scheduled date and put me 4 days available instead ... ghrrrrrr ....imagine how furious I was after I saw it, because not only that I have ONLY 2 flights this month ... but on top of that other department is messing up my roster. I decided to take things into my own hands and called Crew Control ( the people that are scheduling us for flights ) and requested for them to give me ANY flight on those days... I must have called them about 3 times a day .. until they gave me mentioned earlier London flight. uffff... thank God... back to work after 3 weeks off :)
Flight to London was uneventful .... only half full.... easy and quite boring... but it's sooo nice when you don't hear constant sound of call bells. When passengers wanted something they came to the galley and asked for it and on top of that it was the cleanest flight I ever had !!! Layover was nice as well.... we went out to a small town close by the airport. Later we came back to the hotel and had some yummi Guinness :) ( as always on British destinations ). Return flight was as nice as the out- bound.

April Roster !!!

2009-04-16T15:14:00.004-04:00

1)Islamabad - Turnaround that turned into a diverted flight into Karachi
2)Manchester -36 hours layover
3)Jakarta - 23 hours layover
4)Doha - turnaround
5)Casablanca - 35 hours layover
6)Manchester- 24 hours layover

OK... lets start the month with : Medical emergency ... why not?

Islamabad:
Flight started quite normal...( for Pakistan flight I mean ). Full economy going in and supposed to be full as well on the return sector. Outbound flight went fine... without and incidents.. but the inbound flight. About and hour into the flight and at the beginning of our service, suddenly I heard a guy scream .. I had no idea what happened because I could not locate the person that screamed, but suddenly my colleague that worked on the left side shouted to me that she has medical emergency and that she needs help. And at that moment I saw one of the passengers having a seizure. As per our First Aid training we just put pillows and blankets around him , so he wont hurt himself until the seizure stops. We followed that until our other colleagues came to help us. He started having problems breathing so they applied oxygen and thankfully there was doctor on board that came to the rescue, and was constantly monitoring the casualty. The guy came back to a "normal" stable state in a matter of 15 minutes. We gave him something to eat and drink but before he even had the chance to start it... I heard another scream !!! He had another seizure.... but this time it got much worst and his heart and breathing stopped. My colleagues dragged him to the back galley to begin the CPR. He was out for about 1 min and 15 sec. But after about 20 chest compressions his heart beat came back so we did not have to start the Defibrillator. Thank God.. we had about 4 doctors on board the aircrafts.. and all of them willing to help.... how lucky are we? At the moment of the second attack, the captain made the decision to divert into Karachi since it was only 40 minutes away. The flight time into Abut Dhabi would be only 1:20 but the doctor said that the casualty might not survive the next attack... so we need to get him to the hospital ASAP. After landing in Karachi.. the ambulance and doctors were waiting for our aircraft. At this point the guy felt much better, was fully conscious and talked with the crew. We don't know what happened to him after he left the aircraft... but we are sooo thankful that we were able to save his life on board :) After we finally landed in AUH the Etihad Management wanted us to come back to the briefing area to get us de- briefed and to write a full report on what happened. They were very sweet and considered... even offered us help of psychologyst if needed and gave us option to take couple of days off. I did not opted on any of those since I actually felt great about what happened and about our great team work we showed in this stressful situation ( we even finished whole service while other crew was helping with the casualty ) . I think we done an awesome job all together and that all that counts to me. GO ETIHAD !!!!!

Manchester:
My first Manchester trip ever... and I fell in love with that charming place instantly. The weather wasn't too good so I decided to only go for a walk to the nearby city of Hales. What I love about it is the beautiful houses and properties along the road. They all have very english look, but each one is different and one of a kind. And the gardens..... WOW the gardens are amazing. Definitely looking forward to next layover :)

Jakarta:
My first trip to Asian country. On way to Jakarta about 95% of the passengers in Economy were house maids returning home from Saudi Arabia or UAE. They were sooooo sweet. The call bell did not go on for the whole flight. They were taking pictures of us the whole time LOL What a pleasure to have flight like that for a change. We get to the city at around 3 pm and about 6 of us decided to go out shopping, go for dinner and massage. wow... 1,5 hour massage was amazing... but it was quite strong so next day I had bruises on my back LOL. I got to the hotel at 10 pm and next day I get up early to go shopping again since I did not find anything I wanted the day before. I returned to the hotel at 12 pm and our pick up was at 1pm. I wish we had a longer layover there ... it would be soooo much better to be able to go and see the whole city. On our way back the flight was as pleasant as on way in. But this time most of the pax in economy were pilgrims to Mecca, about 3 different trips ,because the whole group was dressed in the same clothes so it was easy to recognize them. I could do this flight any day, especially that we had THE BEST cabin manager - Silvia. She made this trip so special for us. ( I flew with her to Frankurt before.... just a pleasure to have her on the flight :)

Doha:
Definitely the shortest trip I ever did LOL. 45 min to go in and 35 min to go back....

Casablanca
Jeeeezzzzz.... what a looooong flight. Everyone I know hates to do this flight. They tell me that the pax are demanding and rude. Nothing more wrong. My flight went unbelievebly smooth and with almost no call bells. :) lucky me LOL. The only problem with this flight is the flight time : over 8 hours... and on top of that it's a night flight..... trust me, it's hard to stay awake.
I was suprised on how much Casablancas suburbs remind me about my home country. And I'm speaking only about the natural beauty. The trees, the fields... just amazing. ( except that we don't have palm trees in Poland heheehe ). The city by it self is quite noisy and poor. But it realy have THE personality :) The first evening 5 of us ( 4 crew and 1 pilot ) went to the spanish restaurant called La Badega... nice food, nice atmosphere... very different form regular 4 or 5 stars restaurants in AD.
Next day I went with 2 pilots to the beach area for lunch and had a chance to look around the town. :) Over all.... nice flight, nice crew, nice destination. Will do it anytime !

My March Roster

2009-03-13T18:11:00.009-04:00

I have to say that my March roster is PERFECT !!!!
I could not be happier unless they send me to Bahamas for a week LOL
5 layovers and 5 turnarounds :)

1) London- 20 hours layover
2) 4 sectors in one day : Abu Dhabi - Bahrain, Bahrain - Abu dhabi; Abudhabi - Muscat, Muscat - Abu Dhabi ( each sector 45min -1h. long )..same crew on all sectors.
3) London- 36 hours layover
4) Trivandrum - turnaround
5) Beirut - turnaround
6) Karachi- turnaround
7) Geneva - 75 hours layover- my requested flight :)
8) Johannesburg - 13 hours layover
9) Dublin - 17,5 hours layover

London
that was already my second London flight since I started flying. Since I did not have much time, I only went with one of my friends for dinner and Guinness ;) at near by pub. Flight was quite good... nothing unusual.

4 Sectors
It was my first flight on A320 ( the smallest aircraft). On our sectors to and from Bahrain we flew on the oldest 320 we have - the famous Zulu :)
I have never been so freaked out about an aircraft before LOL. This aircraft is a leased one , and very old. Nothing on it works as it supposed to ... we even burned our crew meals in the oven LOL. It does not have In Flight Entertainment system , so we had to do a manual demonstration ( hehehehe.. I actually love it, it's like putting on a show for everyone in the cabin LOL )..but after all we're all still alive and well :)
Going to and from Muscat was a totally different story... a couple months old .. sparkling fresh A320 :)... what a relieve LOL. That flight was smooth... ahhhhh what a difference :) .The only issue I had.. and it was my first issue with a guest: we were taxing ... and the captain made an announcement that it will take another 5-10 minutes for us to take off because there are some other aircrafts before us. So a lot of people took out their cellphones and started texting and talking .. yes... seriously !!! All the crew , straight away went to the cabin and asked everyone to turn off their mobiles... so did I- and guess what.. I asked this one older French lady to switch off her mobile, and she refused... so I repeated my request : " PLEASE switch off your cell phone " and she tells me : " the captain said we'll be waiting for 10 minutes so I can use it" to which I said " Ma'am PLEASE turn off your mobile NOW " and guess what she tells me ... " I don't like the way you talk to me " !!!!! Can you believe the nerves !!! Buaahahaha... so I had enough arguing with her and asked my friend to go and have a talk with her... when my friend went to her, she told her to turn off the phone NOW.. but in French ... and it worked LOL. I just don't understand why people just don't get a simple directions hmmmm... sometimes makes me wonder who is smarter... the labor workers that don't even speak English and when we ask them to turn off their cellphones, they don't even know how and they hand them to us .. or how it might seem an educated European older lady who just decides to piss us off !!! hmmmm ....go and figure LOL

London
Yet another London.. but this time - a long layover. Finally I went to see the town with my friend. We freezed to death in this moody English weather. It was raining, windy and super cold. Why do we always get the stupid ideas to go out in such conditions??? Our hotel is located next to Heathrow airport so going to town is quite a trip. First we have to take bus to the airport where we take a metro to take us to downtown. About 50min-1:10 long all together. When we first arrived at the hotel in the morning, the weather was sooo nice.. sunny and quite warm for March. We went to sleep and decided to go to town around 1 pm .... and by the time we got to the metro it started to pour rain !!! It got cold and the wind was just ridiculously strong.
But... what to say... crazy cabin crew.. once we make the decision to go sightseeing.. nothing stops us LOL. After wee seen everything there is to see in London, we came back around 7 pm and went to our neighborhood English pub... and yet again for a great Guinness beer with Blackcurrant syrup .. Yum :)

Trivandrum

Beirut
That was the most bumpy flight I ever had. We had a very rough patch of turbulence right before we landed in Beirut. Even at touch down the aircraft was swinging from left to right and we got a little scared because it touched the ground first with one wheel and then with the second and kept swinging while braking.... uffff... what an experience.

Karachi
Night flight again. Going to Karachi we had only 80 pax ( on A330-200 the max. is 240 in economy) and going back we had only 25 !
The flight was quite short, only about 2 hours. But going back we seriously finished the service in 15 minutes LOL .... and that gave us a lot of free time :)

Q & A

2009-03-03T03:04:00.010-05:00

Since I received a lot of questions regarding my life, Etihad, Abu Dhabi, my apartment, my roster etc. I'll take some time to answer all of them in one post.

I'll start with the most recent email I received from Roberto from Italy :
"So I am here to ask you the most tedious question of all: what is it like to work there ?
I am sure you understood I don't mean to know what it's like to be a cabin crew, instead I'd like to get to know what are schedules like, how many crew work on the different aircreafts, how many flying hours per month roughly, and how many days off, also between flights, if there is a "long haul only" sector or everybody flies everywhere, and last but not least wages and cost of life in Abu Dhabi, and whatever info you feel like telling me."

Ok... my schedule differs from month to month. I can have as low as 6 flights per month up to 15-20 if they are all turnarounds. On average we do 80 -140 duty hours per moth. Now in March I have a great roster of 5 turnarounds and 5 layovers. So it really depends. When it comes to amount of crew on each flight it also is different. On our smallest aircrafts Airbus 320 we have a compliment of 6 crew , where on a big one like Airbus 340-500 we can have as many as 15 crew on board. We can have minimum of 8 days off per month .. but this number can increase, me for example I had 11 days off in February. If we have a ultra long haul flights like Sydney, Toronto or New York we have 2 days off before this flight and 2 days off after. The minimum rest between any other flights is 11 hours... and so is the minimum layover time.
Here at Etihad everyone flies everywhere ( exception are only for countries we require visa for, but most of the crew gets them without a problem ).
When it comes to our pay, we make anywhere between 8,000- 12,000 dirhams a month ( $1 = 3.6 dirhams ). This pay is tax free and we have no bills to pay :) . Our apartments are payed for as well as all the utility bills. We have free transport to and from work, uniforms are provided for free and we have free next-day dry cleaning in our apartment buildings for the uniforms. I feel really blessed to have such a stress free life. When it comes to cost of living in Abu Dhabi... I think that what we make makes us well into middle class. Imagine that the taxi drivers and construction workers make here only about 700-1000 a month. The other bonus is that we have a lot of discounts all over the place. Starting from restaurants and finishing on car rental. Some places give us as much as 50% off :)
If anyone asks me about my job I'll give them only one answer : I can't imagine better job than this one !!!

Next on is a question from Julia :
"Let us know more details, descriptions of your flats,your colleques and what you do in your free time etc... We're all courious of that:)"

Well Julia.. I just moved to a new flat about 2 weeks ago. When I first arrived in Abu Dhabi I was placed right away in accommodation in middle of the city, which was great . I had all the shopping, all the restaurants and the beach within 10 minutes of my apartment. The buliding was one of the oldest that Etihad owns, so the flats were a little outdated, but I had a really great roommate from Russia and that made the whole difference in the world. The only downside to living there was the amount of time it took us to get to the airport. If there was traffic and we still had to pick up crew from other buildings it could take up to 1:45 to get to reach the airport. trust me.. a real pain in the ass. Our pick up was always 2 hours before reporting time.. and sometimes we made it only on the last minute. But on the other hand.. if it was night flight and no traffic it took us only 45 minutes to reach the airport.... so we could never tell. Coming back form the flight was even more annoying... because let say there is 15 crew in the bus from 5 different buildings.. and you are going to be dropped off last one.... good 2 hours on the bus !!! And that pushed me to making a decision to move to a new accommodation that is only 10 minutes drive from the airport. I went to the housing department and ask them for a flat swap.. and 2 weeks later, they found a girl that wanted to move out from that building and move to the city. As of now I absolutely love living in Mohamed Bin Zayed City... also called Mussafah. It's a brand new closed complex that opened just few months ago. It's 8 tall buildings which is housing flats for crew, pilots and some ground staff. Like I said.. it's only 10 minutes drive to the airport. But there is not much around us... mostly desert. The only good news is that just we have a mall attached to it :) ( but it's going to be opened in 2 month ) but even better we have a huge Lulu supermarket as well, that opened just yesterday. We have tennis court, basketball court, gym , pool , sauna, jacuzzi, steam room, fitness classes, underground parking, internet room... and beautiful brand new apartments :).. I guess if we had to pay for the flats.. it will cost anywhere between 8,000 - 10,000 a month. On top of that our pick up is only 45 minutes before the reporting time.. and drop off takes only 10 minutes :)... and no more traffic !!! I LOVE IT !!!
Now we have a very different social life. Before while living in town , we'll mostly go out for dinners to the restaurants, meet at the mall or caffee... but now we just hang out at each others apartments.. cook dinners together, watch movies and spend a very relaxed time at home.... which is what I like the most.. I'm a very homey and laid back person... and this lifestyle is just perfect for me. But don't worry... we are not totally cut off from town. We have a special transport bus that pick people up from my complex every 2 hours and takes them to town... and then back.. and all for free as well :). This way we can still go shopping, go to the beach, meet our friends and live our life to the fullest.

Next question is from Traytable:
I suppose what I would like to know is, if you did not get to travel all over, and just did turnarounds, do you think you would like EY as much? And do only a few still get trained for A320 or does everyone train on it now?

Good question, and made me think about it a lot... and I have to be honest that if Etihad had only turnaround flights.. I'd probably get bored with the job in 6 months.
It would still be a great experience to visit some of those destinations on my days off..... but how many times can you see Kuwait or Beirut ?
Right now all new joiners are trained on A320, but we don't get training for B777.
And vice versa : some of the older crew that received training for B777, are not yet trained for A320. I guess with time we all will finally have both trainings done.

Finally I'm catching up with you guys.

2009-02-27T13:29:00.009-05:00

I'm soooo sorry for not posting anything for a while.. You know... flying, friends, parties :) no time LOL .... but I'll try to make a one-post-update.
My February roster looks like that :
1) 19 hours layover in Frankfurt
2) Turnaround to Iran
3) 33 hours layover in London
4) 30 hours layover in Sydney
5) 35 hours layover in Dublin
6) Turnaround to Karachi
7) Turnaround to Cairo

So let me tell you something about every one of those flights:

Frankfurt : Flight was nice and easy. I flew with 3 of my friends which made the flight much more fun. We stayed at the hotel that is about 15 minutes drive from downtown so me and 2 of my friends decided to go out at night and see a little bit of the city. We had fabulous dinner at one of the traditional German restaurants and we've seen only a little bit of the town, because we were to tired and to cold to walk much more.

Iran : ehhh nothing special ... just regular flight without any unusual events.

London: yeah... two words : FERRY FLIGHT !!! Let me explain... Ferry flight is an empty flight that still needs to be operated by minimum crew. So the deal was that the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi, requested this aircraft to fly them back from London to Abu Dhabi... The aircraft was throughly cleaned and prepared to have them on board, so me and the rest of the crew had to deliver this aircraft to London.
Just imagine... 7 hours of doing nothing... we just slept and watched movies ...nice !!! After we landed, 4 Cabin Managers, 4 Food and Beverages Managers and 12 FJ ( first and business class operating cabin crew with Inspired Service training) took over the aircraft to fly the Royal Family back to Abu Dhabi... that's what I call first class service !!!
On our way back we operated a regular flight.. but it was quite easy and chill .... so no problems encountered there .. thank God .. LOL

Sydney: I'M IN LOVE WITH AUSTRALIA !!! seriously.... I've never seen this many different shades of green in my life. After being in AD for past 3 months and seeing the deserts and sand everywhere... going to Sydney reminded me of what I miss the most - the green nature !!!
The weather was sooo bad in Australia.. nobody expected to see so much rain there... but they needed it because it was a dry season for them... and the forest fires were getting out of control.
I had one of my closest friends on the flight so we had a lot of fun together... we went to see town and later at night went to the clubs and bars and just seen the night life of this fabulous place.
The best part about this layover was the hotel- Double Tree hotel.. let me tell you... my window view .... WOW : the Opera house itslef and the ferry boats and the harbor bridge... couldn't ask for more.
The flight was really long but really easy at the same time. I'd do it any time !!!

Dublin: ohhh.. what a nice place.... easy flight... great crew... pure pleasure.
Me and about 6 of the crew members went out to a great night on town.. had a great dinner, went to a pub to have a nice Guinness beer.. and came back to the hotel a little tipsy LOL.. don't worry... we still had a lot of time before our return flight to get sober LOL. The rule at our airline is that we can't drink within 12 hours before the flight... sometimes they even do random alcohol tests... like my friend last week went to his flight and at the briefing they asked the whole crew to have the test done. You never know when it will happen to you.. so better not drink within those time limits.

Karachi: easy.. quick and painless LOL

Cairo: I was pulled of a home standby to operate this flight... so I was totally unprepared on what to expect. I heard some horror stories about Cairo flights, but mine was totally fine. The crew was quite good... the pax also...no medical emergencies and no security issues LOL quite a good flight.

I'll try to keep you all posted on my future randevouz !!!!

For now enjoy some pics from my earlier mentioned flights :

Sydney- right before landing

Sydney- view from my hotel window

Sydney- at the galley

On our Ferry Flight to London

Iran Flight

The Best Crew on my Frankfurt Flight

Dublin

Best restaurant in Temple Bar area !!!

Crew at play :)

First operating flight to Toronto.

2009-02-06T03:34:00.002-05:00

Breath in... breath out... breath in ... breath out..... just thinking about this flight makes me nervous LOL
I was so excited to go on my first operating flight and I wanted it to be so perfect.. but it was so NOT.
The flight was delayed a little bit because we still needed to wait for a lot of pax that did not arrive yet from their connecting flight. That made other passengers extremely mad... and they took out all of their stress on us way before take off.
We were 6 crew for the whole economy section and the most experienced one has only 4 month experience and she was the galley operator. Just imagine the mess that was going on in the cabin. We did our absolute best but still we were running late with the service, we run out of meal choices, the pax constantly were asking us for something... not a minute went by without a call bell...so demanding- crazy... Total nightmare.... The worst was when 3 of us went to have their 4 hours rest and only 3 of us left to deal with all of this.... aghrrr.... we all wanted this flight to be over... but it's not easy when you'r on 15 hour flight.
On top of that our cabin manager gave us a lot of hard time and was pushing us way too hard and creating unnecessary stress instead of helping.... really disappointing.
But the flight finally came to an end and we all happily left the aircraft for our 29 hours layover :).
Toronto was beautiful but really cold, about -15 C. After we arrived at the hotel and checked in, me and few of my friends went to have sushi for dinner and to check out the area a little bit. What's nice is that the hotel we stay at is in the middle of the city... right on huge shopping street.... so what else to do, but shop ?!
The next day my friend got sick so I had to continue shopping by myself yeah.....and 7 hours later... finally I finished LOL.
We were so not looking forward to doing the flight back, but it proven us to be a totally 180 degrees different experience.
The economy class was only half full, with all nice passengers. Our service went unbelievably smooth. No problems at all ohhhh how we loved our lives again LOL. I have to admit that the flight back from Toronto was perrrfect !!!
After this experience.. I'm not sure if I want to fly to Toronto again... maybe it's just not worth all the stress.... but it's always a valuable lesson.

My second and last suppy flight

2009-01-15T04:10:00.000-05:00

OK... where to start? So many things happened on this flight that it's even hard for me to put it into right order LOL.
First of all: It's a layover flight to Dhaka- Bangladesh. About 4 hours flight from AUH to DAC and 5:15 from DAC to AUH. my lay over was supposed to be 23:35 but ....... and that where the story starts LOL.
My original pick up supposed to be on Wednesday at 20:50 , but in the afternoon I received a text message that my flight is delayed by 3:40 so my new pick up time will be at 00:30 (Thursday) .. OK..... fine with me, but still I could not fall asleep so that worn me out a little bit. My pick up was on time and we went to the airport for the briefing that is planned to start at 1:50. We started the briefing on time, and went thru about an hour of it and then the pilots came to brief us... but instead they told us that there is such a heavy fog in Dhaka that they can't take of yet, so we need to wait for another 4 hour and see if it clears up.... ufff..... 4 hours waiting at the airport- not something I was hoping for LOL.
At about 6:10 the Cabin Manager came back and we waited another 30 min for the captain to come and give us so more directions. At around 7:00 we received OK to board the aircraft and still do the flight.
We flew a big and old aircraft Airbus 340-300 and the coral economy class was full ... about 225 passengers just imagine !!! Our flight was 4 hours going to Dhaka and it was definitely not an easy one considering that all of the passengers were hardly speaking any english... so that created a great barrier in communication.. thank God our CM ( Cabin Manager ) spoke their language and we had 2 arabic speakers on board to help us out. But after all, the service went really good and the pax fell soon asleep , making it easier on all of us. I have to say that PAX were not demanding or rude or anything, just a simple workers going back home. But them smiling and trying to say thank you in english was the most rewarding thing. I understand that these are the people that left their families to go and work in UAE for almost no money, and their whole life is tough and it might seem unfair to us what kind of conditions they have to live in, so the best thing we as Cabin Crew can do is to make them feel important and respected for the duration of the flight.
As we arrived at the airport I could not believe my eyes. Dhaka international airport is just such a mess.... thousands of people sitting all over the floors, another thousands waiting outside... a total chaos if you ask me.
The bus was already waiting for us to take us to the hotel. The ride was only 10 minutes long but within those 10 minutes I've seen a sight of Bangladesh that I was totally not aware of. Poor, dirty and disgusting place to be in. Little kids begging on the streets for food and money everywhere dust and poverty. It's the first time for me to be in country like that so it was quite shocking for me to see all of that.
I did not realize on how bad it actually is.. I'm a typical traveler that thinks about different countries in the categories straight out of " National Geographic " magazine.
The hotel we stayed at was amazing. Me and few of the crew members and the captain went out for dinner to the restaurant that was inside the hotel. The food was fantastic ( but a bit pricey for a buffet).. with about 30 choices of desserts, we spent there about 2 hours LOL
The next day our flight was again delayed because of the fog, but they were nice enough to not wake us up until they find out the actual arrival time which meant only extra few hours of sleep.
Coming back the flight was much easier and we were doing great with everything. I had the chance to sit in the cockpit again for take-offs and landings and I helped a lot with the service.
Now, after my second suppy flight I can tell that I'm going to love my new job and enjoy it to the fullest. Now it's time for my first operating flight to Toronto !!

First Flight !!!

2009-01-11T03:52:00.000-05:00

WOW... I was so stressed out about this flight. I know that it's an observation flight, but still... I was so worried about it.
My flight is do Damascus (DAM) and it's overnight, turn-around flight. My reporting time for the briefing is 22:35 and the first thing that happened is that my transport came about 40 min late so I hardly made it for the briefing. We flew on airbus 320 which is a small aircraft. Coral Economy was not even half full, so we had a lot of nothing-doing during the flight LOL I had and amazing crew as well as Cabin Manager. They made the this experience so special for me. The moment I met the crew and step on the aircraft, my stress just went away in a second.
At the take-offs and landings I had a chance to sit in the cockpit with the pilots and watch them flying the aircraft- WOW let me tell you- what an experience!!! This is something I won't forget till the rest of my life !
The whole flight, both sectors went unbelievably smooth.. we even managed to get to both destinations (AUH-DAM ; DAM-AUH) before time... which is great!
I love it even more now than during training !!!

GRADUATION DAY !!!!!!!

2009-01-09T10:59:00.003-05:00

Wooohooooooo !!!!!!
Believe it or not... my 7 weeks training is over !!!
Todays day was pretty easy going. We had PA ( Public Announcement) training and we also had 1 on 1 assessment. Around 1 pm we went to the auditorium to practice our presentation. We all were pretty surprised on how well it went, considering that we just did it in one week. At around 2:15 om the management and trainers came down to the auditorium and our graduation started. First- three of top management people gave us a short talk and then we received our wings and certificates. Next is came down to our presentation... it was fun and pretty quick-about 3,5 min. After the presentation we took photos with the management and we had a coffee and cake in the lobby. The whole thing took a bout 1 hour and then we all went home.
At about 8pm the whole batch meet up for a dinner and later some of us went out to Emirates Place to Embassy club..... it was FUN... we partied the night away and finished the training on a positive note.

the last day of studying !!!

2009-01-07T08:40:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it's the last day of doing anything at the academy. Today we had a Safety and Emergency recap and Aviation Health recap. We received our proficiency license and that was about it for today. Very relaxed and informative day. Finally they explained us how to calculate the pick-up time, reporting time, duty hours layover hours, and all that we need to know about our roasters and payroll. Later during the Aviation Health we talked about sleep/ tiredness/ fatigue management. We finished at 2:30 pm so that gave us plenty of time to practice for our presentation for tomorrow. Can't wait it will be fun !!!

Service written and practical assessment

2009-01-06T08:48:00.002-05:00

uffff..... we all stressed out about this exam sooo much , but it went very good- another 100% to add to my lovely list of exams :)... thank God it's the LAST exam, I feel like my brain is over-processed by now hihihhi
The practical was another story, we were split into 3 groups and we had to do the whole service sequence in less than 50 min. I was so nervous that it felt to me as if it was 3 hours and not 40 min. But over all we all did very good and we all passed it ... what a relief. The assessment paper we'll receive on Thursday, so only then we'll know what went wrong and what went well during service and what we have to work on. I'm not suuuper happy abut how I did on this assessment, because I know I made couple of mistakes, and I'm such a perfectionist... just can't help it... I need to get it perfect, but I'm sure I'll have more chances to get it perfect, once I start flying. The perfection comes with experience I guess.

Wet run

2009-01-05T08:59:00.002-05:00

So far it's the most fun day of the whole service training. We got to do the whole service involving the real airplane food that was catered to us from the airport. We served each other 3 choices of meals and hot beverages. Felt much more real than yesterday. After we served the food, we got to eat it as well :) free lunch hihihhi
It was interesting to finally try for yourself the procedures that we talked about for past 7 days.

And yet another day

2008-12-28T07:29:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-27T07:21:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-25T09:15:00.007-05:00

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???

2008-12-24T09:33:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-21T09:47:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-17T07:09:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-16T03:01:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-11T12:13:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-10T12:31:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-09T07:42:00.002-05:00

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.

2008-12-08T07:52:00.001-05:00

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

2008-12-07T08:38:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

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

Freezing and wet !!!

2008-12-04T08:19:00.005-05:00

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 !!!!

2008-12-03T08:37:00.001-05:00

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.

2008-12-02T07:41:00.001-05:00

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 )

2008-12-01T10:20:00.004-05:00

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 )

2008-11-30T10:11:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-29T09:49:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-28T05:00:00.000-05:00

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)

2008-11-27T04:18:00.001-05:00

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

2008-11-26T14:29:00.000-05:00

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 !!!!!

2008-11-25T14:06:00.001-05:00

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 !!!

2008-11-24T13:33:00.002-05:00

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)

2008-11-23T11:17:00.004-05:00

....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 !!!

2008-11-22T12:30:00.003-05:00

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 !!!!

2008-11-21T14:25:00.008-05:00

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 !!!!

2008-11-18T07:58:00.003-05:00

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

2008-11-12T07:25:00.004-05:00

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.

2008-11-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

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Changes in my schedule

2008-11-10T03:10:00.001-05:00

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

2008-11-04T15:18:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-02T14:40:00.003-05:00

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.