Toronto and more...

So I have some crazy stories to tell you guys already but this blog is going to be short. Basically I just wanted to post a couple pictures of the apartment and stuff so my parents can see where I am living. I will write more when I get back on the internet which might be a while since I am never home. I work on Thanksgiving so I won't be home for the holiday but I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and be safe. Happy Thanksgiving.

First working flight

I just got back from my first flight ever as a working flight attendant on the line. I was assigned a three day trip. We started in Chicago and flew to San Francisco on Saturday, then from there we work another late night flight to Seattle. We stayed in Seattle for the night in a sweet hotel next to the airport. We even got cookies when we checked in.

I was extremely fortunate to get such great crew members for my first flight. I was with two guys for the entire trip and I couldn't have asked for two nicer peeps. They treated me like their little sister and were so laid back and cool. One of them actually took me into downtown Seattle on Sunday morning and we hung out down there until the afternoon when we had to make our way back to the airport. We had lunch and went to the Public Market which is very similar to Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran for those of you who have been. We also took the train to see the Space Needle and Fun Forest, which is a little amusement park around the monument. He's like my new favorite person and what's even better is that he is based in Chicago and lives here too. So we are going to hang out this week and he is going to show me around Chi-town as well. What a sweetheart.

After our layover in Seattle we flew back to San Francisco and then worked the red-eye flight back to our home town of Chicago. That was rough. We didn't get in until 5:00 a.m. then I had to hike back and forth through the airport to checkout and get back to my car on the other side of the world. I finally got back to the apartment around 6:30 and fell fast asleep. I love my job!!!

Chicago

So I had this huge blog typed up on my laptop but we don't have the internet hooked up in the apartment until next week. So needless to say, I won't publish all the details of the move until next week. For now I just wanted to say I miss everyone so much and living on my own in a brand new city, with a brand new job and new, basically everything, has been harder than I originally anticipated. But I am hanging in there and things are getting better and easier with each passing day. Thanks for all the love and support! Muah!

JAPAN

Here are some pictures from Japan. This is going to be a short post a) because I am sick as a dog and b) because I have so much stuff to do before tomorrow, a.k.a. GRADUATION DAY!!! As soon as I get back to Dallas tomorrow night or the next day I will give more details on the past couple of weeks including the trip to Japan, my final exams, my last training flight and graduation. Happy Halloween!!!

JAPAN

I will be in Japan for the next couple of days. Updates are on the way.

I PASSED!!!

TK is finally over and after a long day of testing and excitement, we are all back safely to the compound, minus two people. Sadly we did lose two of our group today and it was hard for all of us to get past it and pull ourselves together. But we had to move on because we still had two more exams ahead of us. Lots of tears at the beginning, yet lots of happiness and applause at the end.

I had a complete success on my first two exams: oxygen and door evacuations. I aced all three doors we were given and didn't have to use any retakes. The last two were written exams and I got a perfect score on both. 100's all the way across baby!!! In addition to testing we were able to put on the orange jumpsuits and jump down an actual airplane slide one by one. It was a little scary but I made it down with no bruises or bumps...minus the spider bite I woke up with this morning on my face. More on that later.

The best part about the whole day however, is that once you complete TK and return back to the campus, you finally get to wear your uniform and everything that goes along with it. So from now on we will be in uniform from head to toe. We can't even go out and celebrate tonight because we have our second training flight in the morning, bright and early. I will be with one other girl from my class and we are headed to glorious, Newark, New Jersey (sense the sarcasm). :) Chicago is supposed to get some nasty weather tomorrow so we might be overnighting it up in NJ if delays continue. But our international flight is next week and we are either going to Amsterdam or Tokyo! I can't wait!!!

Emergency Training (TK)

For the past week and a half my mind has been overloaded with evacuation commands, CPR techniques and door/overwing exit operating procedures. We have watched numerous crash videos, attended long, tiring lectures, and evacuated six different types of aircrafts. Tomorrow is our testing day. It is a series of four seperate exams...2 P.C.s, one open-book, and one closed-book exam. It is the most intense day of our entire 6 week training. If we fail any of the exams were are sent home immediately, no questions asked. This is it...do or die, pass or fail. End of the line.

"Brace, Brace, Brace!"

Normalcy

October 9th, Tuesday

So I borrowed my friend's car yesterday so I could escape from the confines of the chain-linked fences that surround the campus I so unreluctantly call "home." I was on a mission with one goal in mind...find a nail salon! As I drove around the neighborhood I finally spotted a nail salon on the other side of the street. Just like Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde I quickly "flipped a bitch" to reach my destination and sped to the flashing lights of the Triple A nail salon. Finally some normalcy in my life...or so I thought.

Apparently nail salons in Chicago don't know the meaning of Solar Pink and White nails. The end result was a 45 min manicure followed by sucky, thin, white tips. And what is even more sad is that while I was in the nail salon, of all places, I began to miss home for the first time since I have been here. Well I have missed home, and Peanut of course, but I have been so busy and stressed that there really isn't any time to think about home. But as I sat by myself in that lonely salon, with the "Hey there Delila" song playing over the speaker(reminding me of my friend Becca and how much I miss her) and staring out the window, tears began to fill my eyes and I had to hold back my emotions for fear of a random outburst in front of the nail lady. Needless to say I felt sad for the remainder of the evening...that is until the quasi-party in my room. :)

There is always something going on in my room. It seems to be the hangout for not only my classmates but friends of mine from the other classes as well. And speaking of class, we started our emergency training this week. So far we have spent the past two days in a classroom setting while the entire class was on the verge of narcolepsy throughout both days. However today was more hands on and we are actually CPR certified now. So if you ever feel the need to collapse for no reason or just simple would like me to perform the heimlich maneuver (which is actually referred to as the abdominal thrust now because Dr. Heimlich got tired of getting sued everytime the maneuver went arye) I can now perform it with full confidence. More on TK later (Emergency Training).

October 9th, Tuesday

It is now the beginning of my fourth week at the United Training Center. I have made it through two quizzes and one practical thus far, with flying colors.

Quiz 1- 100%

Quiz 2- 100%

PA and Demo Exam- 96%

All those late night study sessions and sleepless nights in college must have paid off because I am still in that “school mode” that has allowed me to succeed under these brutal training conditions. The first week was excruciatingly long but I made it through and it is getting easier by the day. My classmates are all so awesome and we have formed some amazing friendships over the past couple of weeks.

Last weekend I went to a penthouse party with Will and some others from our group. It was a fun time and I had a chance to experience the nightlife in downtown Chicago. The weekend before that I spent the whole day on Sunday with Daneka, Ilya, and Thom in downtown walking around and enjoying the beautiful sunny afternoon. We went to Millennium Park, Navy Pier, Chinatown, and Logan Square.

In Chinatown we ate at this amazing Vietnamese restaurant and then stopped in a lovely little bakery for some sweets. At one point we entered into what we thought was a decent grocery store but we were quickly bombarded with the sights and smells of what could only be described as raunchy. Open containers of raw fish lined the inside of the store as well as a bucket of what I presume was a type of seafood but looked like little round balls of curry-covered intestines. Nasty!

This weekend I spent Friday night at the local bar around the corner. The San Francisco class arrived last week so a couple peeps from my class hung out with them and gave them all the juicy details of the training program. Then we made our way to the gay bar called Hunter’s. It was a good time and we concluded the night around 2:00 a.m. and made our way back to the compound.

Saturday night a bunch of us girls, had a girl’s night out and hit up some clubs in the city. I won’t divulge too many secrets from the night but who knew driving home could be so hilarious. Sarah and I were laughing uncontrollably for no apparent reason (I was later told). At one point I almost peed myself I was laughing so hard. However Sunday morning went surprisingly smooth considering the antics from the previous night. The weekend came to a close with a big group of my classmates packed into my room for a fun-filled social gathering. In the words of Monica from Friends “I am always the hostess.” Or something like that. Our room seems to draw people in and never let them out. It’s where the party’s at.

I started TK or Emergency Training week yesterday…but more on that in a separate note. Have a wonderful week!

I completed my first week of flight attendant training with United without quitting, crying or wanting to throw myself out the window. This place is hardcore. Intense is an understatement.

Classes began promptly at 7:30 Monday morning. We had classes all day long until 6:00 p.m. when we were released to go to dinner in the cafeteria and retreat back to our rooms, but not before being assigned about 12 hours of online homework which was due by Saturday. Needless to say we were all panicking. Tu esday was one of the longest days of my life. We woke up at 5 in the morning and weren't back in our rooms until after 7 or 8.


I love my roommate, my classmates and my instructors. They are all amazing and I am having the experience of a lifetime. Even though training feels a little like Barbie Boot Camp at times, I am enjoying every minute. I'm working hard, studying even harder and so thankful for this amazing opportunity. Only one percent of all the people that apply for this position make it through the many selection processes and actually get offered a place at the training center. Can you believe that? I am one of the 1% chosen for this coveted career. And I feel even more blessed to be apart of the fabulous company of United Airlines. The people of this company are what make it the second most profitable airline in the world.

Friday night a bunch of us finally had a chance to relax and go out to a bar around the corner. We had so much fun it was like one big family. We really needed that night out, away from all the stress and pressure of training. Today we went to the airport and spent the day in the hangers observing the Boeing 737 (United's smallest aircraft) and doing our safety checks throughout the cabins. Then we got the opportunity to do a walk-thru of their largest aircraft, the extravagant B747 which is two levels and is used for our international flights. Let's just say first class is like paradise in the 747. AMAZING! Our first exam is on Monday so studying my butt off is what I will be doing for the next day or so. Tomorrow my posse is going out to the city to check out apartments and hang out downtown. It is our first day off. :) I'll let you know how the test goes if I get a single moment to breathe. Miss all of you!

I wrote this blog on the plane ride to Chicago last Sunday, Sept. 16th. I am just now getting a chance to post it because I haven't had a moment to sit and rest. So here it is:

Sept. 16, 2007

It’s a strange feeling, staring out the window of a plane and looking down on the home you are leaving behind. The moment I boarded the plane and got a little teary-eyes when the ticket lady told me to have a good flight, I knew I was in trouble. Including takeoff, the first half hour of my flight was spent gazing out my window as tears streamed down my face. For the past month I knew I was leaving but it never really sunk in until I was actually in the air on my way to an unfamiliar city, with unfamiliar people, hundreds of miles away from everything I love and cherish. Maybe it is because I have been so busy with packing, shopping and all the sweet goodbyes.

I only teared up three times during those goodbyes…saying goodbye to my boss, hugging my friend Vinita for the last time, and leaving Becca after I dropped her off at her house. I thought that was the last of my emotional release. That is until I reached the airport this morning and was sitting in the terminal, listening to my ipod, watching random people pass me by, when I had time to reflect on how much my life was about to change in a matter of hours.

It was hard for me to leave Peanut this morning. I think he knew I was leaving because he hid under the blanket when I tried to say goodbye. L Seven weeks away from him is going to be hard. But I am excited about training. And I am doing what I set out to do. I set out to finish my degree and I did it. I set out to travel the world as a flight attendant and I am doing that as well. I couldn’t be happier. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all the love and encouragement from all of my friends and family. So this blog is dedicated to them, for never giving up on me and always believing I could achieve great things, even if they seemed impossible. Thanks for everything!

The thing about packing

Packing can leaving you feeling one of two ways...sadness for the past you are leaving behind, or happiness for the future that lies ahead of you. And sometimes it's both.

As I sat in my room this weekend removing my belongings from every imaginable hiding space, I came across a drawer full of photo albums and pictures from, oh I don't know, my entire life history. And of course what should have taken me an hour or so to pack these certain items turned into 3-4 hours due to the slightly large detour I took down memory lane. And then it hit me like a pile of bricks..."I am really leaving," I thought to myself.

I don't think it has really sunk in yet that I am moving to an entirely different state in an entirely different region of the country...in less than a few weeks. It was only when I actually began the first step of the moving process (packing) that I realized how many wonderful people, places and memories I will be leaving behind.

I love Texas so much. Texans are some of the nicest people you will ever meet in your life, and I was blessed to be born and raised in a state that is full of them. I don't know what the future holds for me in Chicago but I do know one thing...Texas and its people will always hold a special place in my heart no matter what state, country, or continent God places me in. I am excited beyond measure to move to Chicago and begin this new chapter in my life. And maybe I will fall in love with the Windy City and never want to leave, but there will always be a part of me that will miss Texas and every aspect about it. Gertrude Stein once said "America is my country, but Paris is my home." And maybe someday I will feel that same and be able to say "Texas is my state, but Chicago is my home." Cheers to anyone who has ever lived...and loved in Texas!

P.S. The picture is of me and my big sisters...I am the cute one on the right :)

Fingerprints, drug test, medical exam, oh my!

Wednesday I flew to Chicago again for some last minute paperwork and testing stuff. My 3:30 a.m. day began with a wakeup call only 2 hours after I had fallen asleep at 1:30 a.m.. Followed by a drive to the airport to catch my 6:00 a.m. flight to the Windy City. I was pleasantly surprised when they bumped my seat up to FIRST CLASS baby! Apparently that's just how we employees roll. :) Being waited on hand and foot is nice...it reminds me of the good ol' days when I still lived with my parents. Oh to be a kid again!

Anywho, I arrived in Chicago to a breezy 72 degree temperature outside, bright and sunny...perfect! A wonderful change in comparision to our 105+ degree weather I left back in Texas. I took the United transport to the headquarters where I was taken into this tiny room with a handshake and a smile in exchange for my precious fingerprints. Book'em Dano! Needless to say I felt a little like a criminal about to get their clothes stripped off only to have them replace with an orange jumpsuit.

Next I had to take a taxi to get my medical exam done. I cleverly noticed the taxi driver was from India and I proceeded to introduce myself to him in the Hindi language. He was so surprised and impressed he nearly jumped out of his seat. We continued conversing in Hindi until we arrived at my destination around the corner. The medical exam was a piece of cake. This just in...I have perfect vision, well better than perfect. 20/13 to be exact, and that is without glasses or contacts. That's right ladies and gentleman, I could be a pilot. :)

That day was concluded when I made my way back to O'Hare and managed to get onto an earlier flight home. Back to the scorching Texas sun. Three weeks and counting until I leave!

Moving to Chicago!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting but things have been crazy hectic around here. I finally heard from United about two weeks ago that my training will begin on September 17th and the best part is I found out my relocation city...it's CHICAGO!!! I am so excited.

I fly out to Chicago on Wednesday of this week to do some fingerprinting and medical examination. Then I have about three weeks, give or take, until I have to report to training for the next seven weeks. After that I will have a week to come home and move all my stuff up north to the Windy City. I am in New Mexico right now visiting the parentals before the big move. Then it is back to work and a busy schedule of packing and sweet goodbyes! Wish me luck. And stay tuned for the training highlights...it's gonna be a bumpy ride! :)

No news yet on when my training will begin. I should hear something from United within the next week or so of the specifics and dates. For now I am just waiting it out. Working full-time still at my other job. Hope all of you are doing well.

I have been in contact with one of the girls I met in Chicago at the interview. We both got hired at the same time. She lives in Naples, Florida about an hour away from Miami so I might be making a trip to visit her there very shortly. We are more than likely going to be in the same training class and if we both get sent to the same base city we are talking about moving in together. How exciting. Both of us are rooting for Chicago, but we'll see. She is super cool and we hit it off right away. We are the same age too and both love to go out and have fun, so living together should be a blast.

Thanks for all the support and continued patronage to the blog. Love you all.

Training!!!

Training for United Airlines will more than likely begin sometime in August. We are not sure the exact dates yet but should find out sometime at the end of this month. Training will be SEVEN LONG WEEKS in Chicago, Illinois. Exciting, huh? During those seven weeks we will be staying at the United Headquarters in apartment-like hotel rooms. I will be living with two other girls and we will have a living area as well as a kitchen connected to our rooms. So it is going to be like freshman year in the dorms all over again...except much bigger and more luxurious. All accomodations are paid for by United including the flight out to Chicago and back, the hotel stay for seven weeks, and a meal plan to eat in their cafeteria whenever we want. Just like college :)

Flight attendant training is a grueling process where we will be in classes TEN HOURS PER DAY and tested daily on the previous day's material. We only get a couple of days off during the seven weeks and those are usually spent sleeping and catching up on some needed rest. The plus side to training is you often make lifelong friends in your classes and you get to go on three real flights to other cities. Two will be DOMESTIC and One will be INTERNATIONAL...in which they will be flying us to JAPAN for four days!!! How cool is that?

Once training is over I will receive my WINGS and obtain official flight attendant status. This is also when I will find out where my base will be located. In other words, what city my new home will be in. It is looking like either Chicago (where their headquarters are) or Washington D.C. (where they are sending a lot of new flight attendants). The other major bases are Denver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. I have no say in where they originally send me. It is based on where the need is. However, after six months I will be able to put in the request to be tranferred anywhere I want...I am shooting for San Francisco. More updates to come...stay tuned!

2nd Interview

As I sat in the cubicle-size, white-walled interview room waiting for my interviewer to return, I no longer felt the rush of nervousness I had been experiencing throughout the entire day that had begun the moment I stepped foot on the plane to Chicago. Maybe it was because I had spent so much time waiting, so much time filling out paperwork, and so much time answering questions that I had shifted into some auto-pilot interviewing mode and no longer had control over the rollercoaster of emotion one might experience when placed under so much pressure. Or maybe, just maybe it was because I knew I was perfect for the position and every answer I had given reflected my bubbly personality that was exactly what they were looking for. The interviewer returned. I took a deep breath, tightly gripped my hands together and said a silent prayer in my head as I waited for her to give me the news. This is what she said. "You passed every aspect of the interview process. You are perfect for the position. We would be crazy not to hire you. YOU GOT THE JOB!" (in more or less words than that) :)

The rest is all kind of a blur but I do remember what I said after she gave me the good news. I whispered the question, "I got the job?" And she whispered back with a big smile, "You got the job!" I felt like Brittany Murphy at the end of Little Black Book when she was interviewing for a position to work with Diane Sawyer, which had been her dream since she was a little girl. The scene played out in my mind as I reinacted it in real life and then proceeded to explain the movie ending to my amazingly sweet interviewer. We shared a great laugh and went back and forth with the "I got the job? You got the job" bit just like in the movie minus the jumping up and down. And then I gave her a huge hug before she walked me out as I attempted to control the beaming smile that had taken over my expression.

Making our way back to the airport after the interviewing process, me and one of the other girls decided to grab a drink in the airport bar. Turns out people stuck in airports during layovers are extremely friendly as we had all kinds of guys buying us drinks and shots. Good times. By the time I actually boarded the plane back to Dallas I was feeling pretty good from all my generous free drinks. :) As we took off and flew over the city past downtown Chicago, I caught a glimpse of sparks in the distance. There, creating the most amazing view ever, were fireworks going off all over the place above the skyscrapers of downtown. It was magnificent! The perfect ending to the perfect day.

Interviewing

I had an interview with one of the top international airlines in the world this week. They flew me all the way to Chicago for the interview. Pretty cool, huh? Here is how the trip unfolded...

2:45 wake up call by my personal alarm service a.k.a my cell phone. My airport adventures began around 4:00 a.m. where I preceeded to wait in a line for about an hour just to check in. After acquiring my lovely boarding pass and making it through security without being mistaken for a terrorist, I finally boarded the plane and we were ready for take off. Seated in the very last row I made casual conversation with my seatmate until I fell into a blissful slumber lullabied by none other than Michael Buble.

Once we landed I made my way through the airport, strutting my stuff in my business suit and heels toward the rent-a-car place. The guy at the desk informed me that the economy-sized vehicle I had ordered was unavailable at the moment and they were going to upgrade me to a "Lincoln towncar!!!" When my eyes became wider the man assured me it was no larger than my normal civic-sized car and that I would be perfectly fine driving it. Not the case! So there I was, driving this boat of a car through the interstates of Chicago in this ginormous city I had never been to. Big mistake.

I was okay until I reached the city and realized I was driving straight into the heart of downtown Chicago amongst a million one-way streets and another handful of angry, insane taxi drivers who were a little too fond of their horns and gas pedals. After driving in circles on the one-way streets for about an hour and randomly asking business people and construction workers on the street for directions to a parking garage, I finally parked the monstrous towncar in the Union Station garage on the very top level where there were no other cars to be seen 1) to avoid getting a ding in the precious Lincoln by unsuspecting passerbyers 2) because I couldn't fit into any parking spots between other cars.

My choice of footwear was poorly thought through as I made my way to the building through the crazy streets of Chicago in heels. While waiting the 2-3 hours to be called in, I made a lot of friend in the office. The interview itself was about 30 mins. and was finalized with a "well I would like to offer you a second interview and have you fly back out here next week." Sweet! Then me and some of the girls went out to Blackies restaurant for some drinks and food. If you thought my depiction of getting into the city was bad, wait until you hear of getting out of it.

One of the girls rode back with me instead of taking the train so it was the two of us manuvering through downtown in attempt to just make it out of the city. Little did we realize we were leaving right smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic. It reminded me of the images I saw on television of the traffic jam of people trying to get out of New Orleans after the evacuation for hurricane Katrina was issued. Completed stopped! On top of that we were fumbling through my directions trying to figure out what streets to take next all the while trying to avoid getting hit in my rented car by the hundreds of cars around me. After an hour of "death-grip to the steering wheel" driving we made it safely to the airport and made a run for our separate departure gates.

The whole way home I spent in the rear galley with the flight attendants discussing what I should do in the next interview and the ins and outs of the company. It was awesome. I am already excited for the chance to work with all of them if I get hired on. 10:15 p.m. we landed in Dallas and Becca picked me up from the airport. Made my way home and into my bed where visions of flight attending filled my dreams until the early morning. Mission completed!

Step One

I hate applying for new jobs. I have a history of staying with jobs for years at a time and get comfortable with the day-to-day routine of knowing exactly what I am doing and how it has to be done. No applications, no interviews, no "new employee paperwork," no training sessions...just the effortless auto-pilot mode you enter into when you step foot in the door of your current workplace.

It has now been a week since I graduated, give or take a couple of days. It is a funny feeling to not have the endless list of tasks that must be completed by certain deadlines, the ones that keep circling in your head creating that constant weight we call "stress." It has only been a week and I find myself slipping into that routine life I have always dreaded. Wake up, go to work, come home, watch tv, go to bed. Then do it all over again the next day. I need to leave this job before I get sucked into the hopeless abyss that is to come.

Step One in my journey to becoming a flight attendant-Apply, apply, apply. I have applied for over six different airlines in the past week. All online of course thanks to the glorious advancements in technology courtesy of the 21st century. I have an interview set up with United Airlines in a couple weeks. They are flying me out to Chicago for the interview. How exciting is that?

Step Two-waiting. Now comes the gruesome part of waiting until you are called. I was never good with the whole "patience" thing but hey, people can change. Let's hope so at least. A wise person once told me if you want to get ahead in life, there is no room for complaining. So, until the airline gods summon me for duty, then it is waiting I shall do.