Life of a Flight Attendant = Unreal!

Well, All I can say is wow! I am loving life.. after a week that is! I am sure I will complain someday, but how can I after the first 10 days! When I got back from Glasgow, I slept very well! I was kind of nervous that I wouldn't be able to sleep, and then be tired for my next flight, but It worked out fine! I went to London the next evening! I was lucky to have another great crew to London! I had a different position this time, in the middle of the plane. The last two flights I had worked at the back, helping set everything up mainly, but this time I was servin left right and center! I had a jumpseat right in the middle of the plane too, and was pretty much touching knees with some passengers in front of me!! It was cosy! We had a super smooth nice flight to London. We got there at 10am, and then took this really nice Bus to Birmingham. We all slept the whole way! I went right to bed when we got to the hotel too, and slept until 6:30 or so! Its so hard when your in these beautiful new places, and all you want to do is sleep! (there is a picture of birmingham there.. but it kinda looks more like venice!)I woke up and Phil came to visit me, and we went for supper and some drinks! It was super nice to see him, and catch up! I went back and had a bath.. which is so inviting in all these hotels we stay in!! I got up early the next day and did some shopping before we had to take off! We flew from Birmingham to Toronto at 1. So we arrived around 4pm! We had a medical incident on that flight, a lady got really sick and was kind of passing in and out, then her son fainted watching her get sick! So we called for doctors and ther were luckily 2 on board and they took good care of the passengers. Its pretty nerve wrecking when someone is that sick.. not like we can just pull over anywhere for them. It must feel so awful being really sick on a plane! Most of the time you feel like crap on a plane anyway! When we arrived in Toronto, Angie picked me up and we went for supper and caught up! Its been so Hot in toronto, broke the record of 60 years yesterday here.. it was 43 with the humidity! Luckily we found some great islanders and hung out at their pool all day(picture of pool)!! So Thankful!, it was amazing. Today Angie headed home for a week, and tomorrow I head to PARIS for the weekend.. should be interesting.. but to be honest I'm more nervous about using my french al weekend then I am excited to go!! I am heading home to the Island on Monday if all goes well, and should be home for the whole week! Hopefully some of this Central Canadian heat will move on down the coast and keep me good company next week! We have a facebook group so that we can post our schedules and switch our flights around if we want to, so its really convienent. I was suppose to go back to Glasgow this weekend, but I switched it for a Paris flight, and then was suppose to go to Glasgow again the 19th, but switched it for a London on the 21st.... so its really easy to swtich things around, which is awesome for us! We can pretty much go home whenever we want! We have to fly standby with Porter, so as long as the planes not full, we get home for free :)! Hope I didn't bore you... I will update you soon on my Paris experience.. should be interesting!! A Bientot!!

First pairing = Success!

So, Im back in Toronto.. after a wild few days! Survived my first pairing! Woo hoo! It was so cool! I was pretty nervous heading to the airport, but once I got there, all my stress left. We arrived in the crew room to find out there were 8 crew doing their first flight, the 9th started in January, and the 10th and 11th were our Flight director and Assistant Flight director! They were amazing, and helped us so much. We were so luck to have such awesome people working with us, or it could have been a disaster! The passengers were amazing, can't expect anything less coming from Scottish Passengers.. so much fun!! The flight flew by. I was worknig at the back of the plane, helping with the Galley work most of the time, but I did lts of serving as well. At the end of the flight, Marc, our flight director announced it was out first flight, and everyone clapped.. so I guess we did something right! When we got to Glasgow it was such a rush, so neat! It was 7am, so we all went to sleep until noon, then went and walked around and shopped, and then the whole crew went for drinks and supper together! It was really nice! The accents in Glasgow are outrageous.. I honestly couldn't understand half the time... some of our crew were like " are they actually speaking English", so funny! My Flight back was not as exciting as my flight there.. we had a very bumpy flight.. and I was working at the back again, so it was even worse! Midflight, everything going really smooth.. we sit down and have our break and we are eating.. then the plane just goes out of control for a few seconds, and people let out some screams.. and it was scaryy! We all fastened our seat belts and just waited.. then the Pilot made an announcement that a Jumbo Jet had flown over us and gave us a big gust of wind... We were all nervous after that.. and then we had to go through a storm to land, and it was very turbulent! Im glad that I had those two experiences in my first few flights, now I know what to expect. but I hope it doesn't happen again!! I am back in TO for a little rest, then I am heading to London Gatwick tomorrow, and then deadheading to Birmingham for a night, then back to Toronto for 2 days off!! Its all very exciting.. I am loving walking through the airport in my uniform.. someone already asked for for directions the other day, and then another man in scotland asked me today, and I couldnt help him.. (but it was in the scotland airport, so I had good reason).. hes like, "you look like someone that should know things".. I was like yea.. "look".... So my first experience was super.. looking forward to the next... I am running on Glascow time at the moment.. 1am.. so confusing to get a sleeping pattern. but I think as long as I sleep i'll be fine... Happy June everyone.. enjoy the sunshine, when it decides to come back!!!!

YYZ-GLA-BHX

Well.. Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week! It was been a crazy busy week! We graduated on Friday, and it was a fun day. There were around 135 of us graduating, and 46 Pilots as well! We all piled into the hanger and had a nice little ceremony!! Immediately after the ceremony me and Angie peaced out and went to Toronto!! We stayed in a cheap hotel! Air Transat paid for us to go home for a few days, so I arrived home on Saturday and was there until thursday! It was so nice to get home and spend time with Mom! Its basically all I did, other then fill my tummy at nanny and baba's every lunch time, which was wonderful!! I headed back to toronto on thursday, and air transat put us up in the delta downtown for a few nights! It was really nice to be exactly in the middle of all the action. I can't say I ever dreamed I would be a city girl, or even enjoy the city, but I am loving toronto so far. Its just so amazing to have ANYTHING and everything you need at your fingertips.. literally! We are waiting to hear from our landlord about when we can move in, we will be moving into a basement apt in Brampton, Missisauga. We have it for June 1st, but we are hoping the people that are living there now will leave before then so we can have a few days to set up before we have to fly away! Since we have been in toronto we have pretty much just been eating, and having some drinks, and shopping and exploring! We walked around a lot each day, and went to china town, and the kensington market, and then we went to a Blue jays came today, which was awesome! We left our car near the airport and took the bus/subway to the city. Imagine.. two east coast girls trying to get downtown by ourselves.. so this is how it worked.. we asked the front desk how to get to a bus station, she told us. we went. we get on the bus and then we didnt know when we had to get off. so we asked the bus driver, he wasnt too friendly, and didn't help us at all really. While we were stopping at a stop we "thought" we had to get off at, we asked a nice lady beside us if we were at the right stop.. she said no sit down and stay on until the last stop. so we got that far... While we were on our way there, two guys around our age got on our bus and were dressed in blue jay apparel. perfect.. we can follow them.. we struggled to keep up at first, then just decided we'd tell them. turned out good for us. They brought us right to the seats at the jays game, and even gave us a beer for the ride!! we sat with them and 4 other guys they met up with.. it was fun! we had pretty decent seats, and the atmosphere is actually surpringly better then a hockey game.. in a way!! The weather has been the shits here lately, been rainy pretty much everyday, but looks like we have a hot week ahead! Tomorrow we have orientation at the airport.. get the ins and outs of the whole thing.. it will def be cool!! We got our schedules also! I will be flying to scotland every friday this month, and staying until sunday or monday.. and then coming back.. I am also flying to birmingham once as well for a few days! Its gonna be an exciting month!! Everyone got really cool schedules! I am on my first flight with two other people who were in our class.. so its a relief that I won't be the only new one!! Thats my latest!! Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather!! Can't wait to have a few days on the beach in between shifts!! thinking of all the family at home this weekend, especially minerva, dwayne, and mel,... and of course my mother!xoxo

Toronto Toronto Toronto!

So I'll make this short and sweet, and I haven't taken any pictures since my last post to show! This week has been so exciting! We passed all of our group drills on the weekend, and had our final exam on Tuesday! My average for all my exams was 96%! So I did really well! So after our exam we went on our Fam Flight. IT was really cool! We went for about 2 hours. They didn't have real turbulence to show us, so the pilots actually just like flew straight down really fast and then back up and then side to side like sharp turns.. it felt really cool.. and people were like falling that were standing up!! So they just brought us through a typical emergency flight procedure! Then we got off and got our awesome luggage, with our uniforms inside!! So interesting! I have taken pictures I guess with my uniform, but I will save posting them until we actually get professional ones done! The uniform and luggage is really awesome, we are spoiled!! We got our bases after that, even though I knew I was getting Toronto. There were 137 people in our class, and about 120 are in toronto, and 10 in vancouver and 7 in montreal! So even if I had chose another base I prob woulda been sent to Toronto anyway! Today we had classroom session of like info we need to know all day, and same for tomorrow. So today we learned our scheduling procedure a little, and our safety forms we need to fill out, and our benefits! So interesting. We are on a 6 month probation until we can use them, but for now we can still request for extra jumpseats on flights with air transat and canjet for free.. so Its gonna be an awesome summer! Our parents get like basically free, and we get to pick a companion (prob Rod).. and then we can bring a buddy anytime we want for a flat rate of 200$ to any destination for the buddy, as long as we are with them! Its also with like porter, virgin, soutwest, alaskan, hawiian, porter, canjet etc.. airlines! there are a ton I'v never even heard of, but I'm sure I will be putting them all to good use! So exciting! Tomorrow we learn a bit more about it, also our pay and stuff too! So thats about it so far! We have a hotel at the hilton next week in Toronto for a week for some more meetings and orientation, so it's all gonna be exciting!! Glad to hear the sun came out at home today :P Hope all is well!!

6 more Sleeps!!

Another week down!! only 6 more days to go, until we are in full Uniform at the Graduation!! Can't wait! Our week this week was much more exciting then the last few! It was a lot of hands on! We learned about HiJackers, our secret codes when there are hijackers, all the first aid stuff we need to know, and how to fight fires, (in heels)!! We have no more exams now, except the final one on Tuesday! Today we are doing our individual emergency demo's for our teachers. So she tells me what position I am on the plane, and then yells BRACE BRACE BRACE! and we need to go from there and do the whole, emergency, bend down, take off seat belts, use the closest exit, jump on the raft, and then tell her the emergency equipment we need to bring off, then jump off! So It sounds kinda easy but we cant even miss one word (in french or English) or we don't pass.. we have 3 shots at it! And there is different procedures for landing on land, and landing in the water!!  So we do individual today, and group drills tomorrow! then Monday I'm not sure whats left to do! Thursday was really fun. When we got to class we all had to go get fire extinguishers and go outside and put out a fire the right way. Then we got to go on the plane, and serve each other for a few hours! So we sat up in first class, ate first class meals, drank first class wine, and learned how to work the ovens and everything! Our teacher insisted we try each of the 4 kinds of wine (so we will know for reference).. so we didn't disagree... it was fun!! Except for writing two exams after having 4 glasses of wine! haha! I got 98% and 97%.. so I guess it helped!! I had yesterday off, and it was another beautiful day! Sorry to all you maritimers with all the rain!! Sounds awful! Its been sunny and over 20 here all week! Yesterday we went for brunch, 3 girls in my class, and then walked around downtown all afternoon! We went to see the movie Bridesmaids..highly recommended... I have never laughed so hard consecutively for that amount of time! So hilarious!! Then I met up with some friends from the east coast, and went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant downtown!! It was yummy! Thennn, it finally started to rain, so now I feel your pain! I am pretty positive I am getting places in Toronto! I emailed one of the ladies to ask, because I want to start looking for places to live! Its not gonna be easy getting there and finding somewhere in only a few days, so I'm looking now! She told me that most positions are going to be in Toronto, and that I will most likely be there!! But I think we find out for sure Monday! We have our exam on Tuesday, and then Wednesday and Thursday are Admin days, where we get to find out our schedules, our benefits, get our uniforms, get our airport pass's.. all the stuff we have been waiting for for the whole training!! I better go study my commands now.. Enjoy your weekends :)

Half a Flight Attendant!!

Well.. another week gone! WOO! It was long, and boring, and sleepless! We had class Monday - Friday 3-11:30pm! and an exam or two everyday.. meaning.. sleep eat(sometimes) and study.. and learn!! It got interesting this weeekend though, Finally!! Thursday we got to go on the plane and do some calling on the interphones, so calling from the back to the front flight attendants.. etc.. and we had to practice our beautiful demo's. In case of a decompression, an oxygen mask will fall from the overhead compartments.. etc.. I thought it would be stressful, but its actually a lot of fun, and i'm sad that we don't get to do it much anymore since we have the video demo's now! So that was the first excicting night.. we stepped out into the their "garage" and there was two 310's sitting in it! I thought planes were big before, but when you are standing beside the tire, that is as tall as me, they are REALLY big! So cool though! I wish I had brought my camera, but I'm sure we will have lots more chances! Saturday we had the day off, and we went to the park again, (Check out the
crazy Quebec Squirrels
<--)
me and Angie, and then went out for supper at this place called Scores. It was yummy!! Oh, and we went shopping!! For shoes!!.. Turns out I may eventually end up like my Mother and live everyday in heals! We had to buy some heals for on the plane, and then some bigger heals for the airports! Next purchase will be bandaids.. for my blisters! and maybe some more practice walking like a lady... cause I'm such a lady. Today we had a class all day, and it started in the Simulator. So we had a real pilot there in the Flight Deck, and then our passengers were the students, and we had a crew of 6. So There was red lights on the simulator, that were "fire" and then smoke would come out from places, and we would have to fight it.. etc. so we had to learn how to handle the situations, it was actually pretty intense, because the teacher is one of the passengers, and she is testing us. So first person stays with te fire, calls for back up, back up tells the flight director, who then calls the captain, and informs him, and has to tell him, site, smoke, severity, etc.. at the same time you try to be discreet because panicking is contagious.. so we needed to fight the fire, then they throw in more smoke in the bathroom/s and oh it just gets way to confusing,..then the pilot comes on and says we have __ minutes until emergency landing.. so we need to prepare the cabin, and do a demo for brace positions and then get in our jumpseats, and when we land/crash, he gives us more signals, like evacuate, and we have to open the door the right way, inflate the slides.. etc.. so It was really like stressful, and today was just a practice. Next week we get graded on it, and then we have individual drills as well. We watched a video this week a plane that emergency landed with Air Transat. It was intense! They had lost like their whole fuel, mid-flight to Portugal, and planned an emergency ditching in the Atlantic ocean. So the cabin was secure and ready for ditching, but they ended up gliding for 45 minutes more, and made it to an island in the Azores, and landed on a military base without any engines, just brakes, so it wasn't pretty but everyone lived. So we watched a video of the flight crew describing it, and it was just crazy. First time most of us really kicked in that we are going to have to be ready for those circumstances everyday!!! So this week, well I'm off tomorrow,.. so excited to sleep! And then we have first aid day, learn to serve lunch day, and security day.. and then its mostly just testing left! So its flying by! I am putting my base choices as 1st-Toronto, 2nd- Montreal, 3rd Vancouver.. simply because, the teachers pretty much told us, if we live in Vancouver we wont have very many flights, cause they mostly fly to Europe, and rarely do that distance... and Montreal will be full because they have so many people that want to transfer there now, and they have priority because they are already in the field, and Toronto is the only place where I actually know people, and I'll have awesome flights from there! so hopefully we will find out soon, but probably not before next week, which is crazy, since we will have to move then! Alright.. enough from my end.. nothing else new.. Happy Mothers to all the special mothers, especially MINE, my best Friend! <3 <3 <3

YHZ, LHR, CDG, YUL... TOO MANY AIRPORT CODES!

I am going to make this one short and sweet, but no promises! I am just realizing that my ME-time, is going to be limited to nothing in the next 2 and a half weeks, and even while I'm peeing I will be rhyming off Airport Codes.. turns out we only need to know about 100 of the 168 they gave us to memorize, thinking that was a relief, its still impossible! Especially when the ones like, Paris, have no letters in it that even make you think of Paris.. CDG.. ?! Silly Really.. Canada adapted the smart code, and started all of ours with a Y at least.. giving us a head start! So Since my last post.. hmm.. Saturday and Sunday were utterly beautiful. about 20- 25 both days, and so Nice! Saturday me and Angie went to the Mont Royal park downtown(picture of park), and decided we would study in style.. instead of sitting in our hotel room... well I don't think I even took one note,or memorized one code.. but we did see lots of interesting people.. including a Yoga instructor that came and asked us for sunscreen and asked if we knew where he could get water.. then mistakenly told us he lived at the top of the hill?... We're not that blonde mister.. So yes, day in the park = success.. burnt our blonde bodies off, and still suffering.. but totally worth it, since it hada little sense of summer! We decided saturday that we would head out that night, as it was our last real night of freedom before we get stuck studying.. like now. So we stayed in a Hostel downtown, met some cool folks from around the world,and went out an had some drinks, and played mario cart, until the wee hours of the morning! We got up and checked out and went farmer market hunting.. we found two, second one being more successful than the first, as it had poutine.. mmm.and we people watched again for a while.. It was another really hot day but sadly we actually did need to study. We went back to the hotel and studied all evening, took a little Tim's break and went to bed early. From now on we have an exam everyday. We need to get 85 on each exam, most of the 20 questions, so we cant get more then a few questions wrong, and have 3 chances if we fail,(i think). So today we wrote our first one on everything we learned last week, and from now on we write everyday on waht we learned the day before! My days will go like this: Wake up at 8-8:30.. Jump in the pool to wake me up, eat... run up some stairs (im ditching the elevators since I have no time to go to the gym, and I live on the 6th floor).. Study till 1. Get ready till 2... Get on the bus to go to Air Transat Base.. and class till 11:30! Yay? Only a few weeks left! So thats that.... I am tired now and ready for bed... and hope I didn't Bore you!! I dont really understand politics period, but by the sounds it sounds interesting.. and cheers to Osama!! Especially for us in the Aviation Field, lots of happy flight crews today!! Good Night!!, oh and can I just mention that I am SOOO SOO Thankful for my amazing Family (especially you aunt's).. and friends :)