As I arrive in the briefing room of flight 292 headed to Katmando, my eyes wander the crew ill be working with, first impressions - I thought this was going to be a long flight. After briefing and answering my safety and first aid question. The cabin manager hands me a piece of paper, on the top had 'Evaluation for 19422', ( thats me by the way, my staff number) Perfect this day ahead of me is going to fine and dandy. I was being evaluated for THE SECOND TIME mind you and the crew looked boring. I skim the sheet of paper in my hand and I see that its all simple sorts of things ill be evaluated on, ill be fine.
So we are on the plane, I do my pre flight checks and all is well, we are off to Katmando a 4 hour flight from Abu Dhabi. I started a convo with the crew and it started to get better, they seemed nice, so my spirits lifted and as you always should know "Dont judge a book by its cover" . There were only 47 passenger of 200 seats in a A330 economy class , so you can imagine, there was not a lot of work to be done, so I could talk my way to katmando and back. And we did just that. Well on the way there. Not many stories to tell about on the way there. Except one really, Okay... Im tall, and every flight I go on, I seems to NEVER escape me, and i fly with new crew every time. And one conversation with the crew seems to be about my height. I repeat the fact that I am 184cm tall, and im taller than my sister and brother, and my mother is Dutch and My Father in Dutch/Indonesian. In cant escape these questions EVERY FLIGHT. Even the captains ask me, EVERY captain so far on my flight has asked about my height. But Im getting soo used to it now, it rolls off my tongue like a poem, and dont even realise i have answered the question. I do say all this with a smile on face, as I know each individual is generally interested in the background, either that or curious, jealous, or just wanted to start a convo.
Okay, so Now we have landed in Katmando, I dont get off the plane, and we start to board to fly back to Abu Dhabi, this time the flight was FULL with no remaining seats. This flight was gonna be FUN!! HAHHAA.
The sounds of the chime. Okay so we had about 30 Refugees on the plane, none of which could speak English, so it was great fun communicating with them! They were off to the U.S to start a new life with some company that is trying to help these Nepalese people. They are nice in their own way, they had a nice manner I guess for non English speaking communication. But they really had no idea about anything. For some of them it was there first flight experience ever, and they had photos taken on the plane. They were happy.
We have an in flight entertainment, of which they can use themselves with the hand held control on their seat and the screen on the seat in front of them. AND...the 'Call attendant' button is on this control as well!. BAD idea for some!! They don't know how to use this control, and we don't know how to explain how to use it, as they don't speak English. So throughout the entire flight the call button continued to go, every 2 seconds, without exaggerating the "DING" would go off. "DING"... "DING"... "DING" Now as a safety aspect we must check all of these calls, and attend to them just "incase" of an emergency. Just picture me sitting in the back of the plane to start with, and then it starts, I dont get to basically sit back down till the end of the flight. It became a joke in the end, I would laugh with the passenger, as they had no idea why I kept coming up to them. I had to make some sort of joke about it, or I would got plain tired of getting up and down. You could almost make a beat and song to the chime. HAHA."DING" ... "DING" ... "DING" its still repeating in my head now.. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
We served them meals, and it was an exhilarating experience doing this with no English, i almost wanted to act like a chicken to describe the chicken, turn into a vegetable for vegetable and "Moo" like a cow for beef. But some how I think I would have had some funny stares and the cabin manager may not have been too impressed considering I was being assesed. So insted I chose to skip this idea, and just hand them any meal with any flavor jucie. It worked okay.
I made some nice friends on the plane. Plane conversations are very strange!! As you have anywhere between 1 hour to 14 hours to make conversations with people you just met. So they range from talking about boys and relationships, which is usually a topic of conversation in alll flights, to food, to cities, to annoying passengers, and favourite colours. A conversation we had last night was well, a game, we treid to find a fruit and colour for all letters of the alphabet. Its kept us amused for some time!!! and we came up with some rather funny things I must admit.
This is all for now... till later
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Random acts of kindness can change a persons day entirely
As I stare outside my window what I see is a thick haze outside, it looks like it actually cold outside, as it looks almost like fog, but if you go outside you'll realize its quite the opposite of cold, but extremely humid and its a thick humidity too. Anyway, as I look outside i reminisce on the weekend that was...
My taxi trip to Dubai is one Ill never forget.
I took a taxi from the beach to Etihad transport during the day, knowing that I would need a taxi that same evening, so i kindly lean forward and ask the lovely indian driver in the front seat if he could take me to dubai tonight, and if he could pick me up at 6pm from Mohamed bin Zayed City, Mussafah, the place I currently reside. He turns his head with the typical indian head shake. So again, like a daily duty, I have to interpret if this means 'yes' or 'no'. I ask again if this means yes or no and he repeats the head shake and replies yes madam. Ok, so i have worked that bit out, and I have my ride secured for tonight.
Taxi indian man was 20 mintues late to pick me up, so when i get in I was frustrated, I ask him nicely if he knew the shopping centre of where I wanted to go, after a bunch of mumble jumbo that came out of his mouth, I eventually worked out that he had no clue where it was. I then asked him poliety since he had no clue where I needed to go, to drop me off at the nearest taxi rank in Dubai when we get there. He didnt reply to this, so i said it again, and he gave me some look, so i figured he knew what I was talking about.
After 1 hour and 10 minutes we arrive in Dubai. Stuck in traffic that goes for miles and miles and miles, and you cannot see the end of it with cars all over the road beeping their horn at everyone and anyone, as really none of them should have their license. They are not the best drivers there. But the indian taxi man slows right down in the middle of traffic, so in front of us was about 15 meters of empty road. So now you can just imagine the beeps he was getting. Im thinking to myslef in the back seat what is this crazy nut bag doing, there was no exit close so he couldnt be trying to get to the side to exit. but he winds down his window yelling at the top of his voice asking another taxi man where this shopping center was that I wanted to go. Ok I now I firgure he wanted to take me there. But dubai is not easiest to find things when there is traffic galore and you cant slow down. So I tell me him kindly again to not worry about trying to find the shopping centre, as it wil be too hard for him, it would be easier if he just leaves the main road and finds a taxi rank, at a hotel or something. I was fine with that. He keeps driving, At this point I thought Either this taxi man does not understand me or is being completly stubborn and wanting to take me to where I wanted to go. So we keep going. I have been to this shopping centre before and recoginse the are surroundings and how far it should be from when we enter Dubai, but I knew at this point we had gone too far, so I yelled at the taxi man, to stop and drop me off at another taxi as he was now obviously lost. And it was costing me. HE STILL DIDNT LISTEN, and continues, he winds down his window, ( now at this point I wanted to kill him, okay not literelaly, but I was soooo frustrated with the silly taxi man, and I was, for you girls that know, hormonal, so things get to you a little more than normal!!) I wanted to cry at this point. and he talks to another gentleman, this time this man was a westerner, and his accent sounded like canadian im pretty sure. The gentleman relpies, follow me. So the taxi man proceeds to follow this random man on the road. I was in the cab already for 2 hours. So I was frustrated as it should have only taken me 1.5 hours to get where I wanted to go normally. As he follows this random driver, he took us in and out of all these backstreets, around through all this interesting construction. I kept thinking to myslef, he better know where he is going!! as all I wanted was to get out of the taxi!! 15 mintues later, we arrive at the shooping centre. after doing a U-turn. I knew we had gone to far, and I told him this. So this random driver, who I now will never forget and thank God for him, as I was about to have a mental breakdown in the back of the cab. He took me and the cab driver to the taxi rank, the canadian gentelman got out of his car, he said this is it, and repeated, "enjoy your night, I just took you here as I felt something say to me show them the way", " and he then repeated, "Keep me in your prayers, and take care" and left. I wanted to give the guy a big hug and thank him from saving me from this horrible cab driver. As I was really upset at this point, but didnt show it. This random gentelman went 15 mintues in the oppisite direction to where he wa going to show the us the way. I felt so revelived when I got out the cab after 2 1/4 hours.
Just so you know, i didnt pay full fare either. I gave him much less for the mistakes he made. I left with a remark of, if you had done what I told you to right from the start, I wouldnt be 45 minutes late, and you would have got more money. But I didnt get to thank the random gentlmen as he left. but Ill never forget him thats for sure. And like he said, I sure will keep him in my prayers, as random acts of kindness like that in this country does not happen too often at all!!!!
My taxi trip to Dubai is one Ill never forget.
I took a taxi from the beach to Etihad transport during the day, knowing that I would need a taxi that same evening, so i kindly lean forward and ask the lovely indian driver in the front seat if he could take me to dubai tonight, and if he could pick me up at 6pm from Mohamed bin Zayed City, Mussafah, the place I currently reside. He turns his head with the typical indian head shake. So again, like a daily duty, I have to interpret if this means 'yes' or 'no'. I ask again if this means yes or no and he repeats the head shake and replies yes madam. Ok, so i have worked that bit out, and I have my ride secured for tonight.
Taxi indian man was 20 mintues late to pick me up, so when i get in I was frustrated, I ask him nicely if he knew the shopping centre of where I wanted to go, after a bunch of mumble jumbo that came out of his mouth, I eventually worked out that he had no clue where it was. I then asked him poliety since he had no clue where I needed to go, to drop me off at the nearest taxi rank in Dubai when we get there. He didnt reply to this, so i said it again, and he gave me some look, so i figured he knew what I was talking about.
After 1 hour and 10 minutes we arrive in Dubai. Stuck in traffic that goes for miles and miles and miles, and you cannot see the end of it with cars all over the road beeping their horn at everyone and anyone, as really none of them should have their license. They are not the best drivers there. But the indian taxi man slows right down in the middle of traffic, so in front of us was about 15 meters of empty road. So now you can just imagine the beeps he was getting. Im thinking to myslef in the back seat what is this crazy nut bag doing, there was no exit close so he couldnt be trying to get to the side to exit. but he winds down his window yelling at the top of his voice asking another taxi man where this shopping center was that I wanted to go. Ok I now I firgure he wanted to take me there. But dubai is not easiest to find things when there is traffic galore and you cant slow down. So I tell me him kindly again to not worry about trying to find the shopping centre, as it wil be too hard for him, it would be easier if he just leaves the main road and finds a taxi rank, at a hotel or something. I was fine with that. He keeps driving, At this point I thought Either this taxi man does not understand me or is being completly stubborn and wanting to take me to where I wanted to go. So we keep going. I have been to this shopping centre before and recoginse the are surroundings and how far it should be from when we enter Dubai, but I knew at this point we had gone too far, so I yelled at the taxi man, to stop and drop me off at another taxi as he was now obviously lost. And it was costing me. HE STILL DIDNT LISTEN, and continues, he winds down his window, ( now at this point I wanted to kill him, okay not literelaly, but I was soooo frustrated with the silly taxi man, and I was, for you girls that know, hormonal, so things get to you a little more than normal!!) I wanted to cry at this point. and he talks to another gentleman, this time this man was a westerner, and his accent sounded like canadian im pretty sure. The gentleman relpies, follow me. So the taxi man proceeds to follow this random man on the road. I was in the cab already for 2 hours. So I was frustrated as it should have only taken me 1.5 hours to get where I wanted to go normally. As he follows this random driver, he took us in and out of all these backstreets, around through all this interesting construction. I kept thinking to myslef, he better know where he is going!! as all I wanted was to get out of the taxi!! 15 mintues later, we arrive at the shooping centre. after doing a U-turn. I knew we had gone to far, and I told him this. So this random driver, who I now will never forget and thank God for him, as I was about to have a mental breakdown in the back of the cab. He took me and the cab driver to the taxi rank, the canadian gentelman got out of his car, he said this is it, and repeated, "enjoy your night, I just took you here as I felt something say to me show them the way", " and he then repeated, "Keep me in your prayers, and take care" and left. I wanted to give the guy a big hug and thank him from saving me from this horrible cab driver. As I was really upset at this point, but didnt show it. This random gentelman went 15 mintues in the oppisite direction to where he wa going to show the us the way. I felt so revelived when I got out the cab after 2 1/4 hours.
Just so you know, i didnt pay full fare either. I gave him much less for the mistakes he made. I left with a remark of, if you had done what I told you to right from the start, I wouldnt be 45 minutes late, and you would have got more money. But I didnt get to thank the random gentlmen as he left. but Ill never forget him thats for sure. And like he said, I sure will keep him in my prayers, as random acts of kindness like that in this country does not happen too often at all!!!!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Abu Dhabi my first few months
So my first few months in abu Dhabi has been crazy.
Life here is not what I "EXACTLY" thought. but has been a fantstic ride in life for me... well so I think.
ok, wanna know know some funny stories first? My first funny story, well the first few weeks that I got here, I swear the arabs and indians thought I was a prostitue. I had a few requests for money.
I was trying to hail a cab with my friends outside where I live (now thats another story as it is)but before we managed to get one, a few cars drove past and wound down their window, and what we saw was these discusting arabs with towels on their head looking mighty UNFINE!! asking with very serious looks on thier face "how much for loving" for my first few weeks in this country I got scared!! im like is this what this country is all about?? come on now, I live in a SANDPIT!! AHAHAH.
a week later in a bar with my friends, danicing away having a nice time, i get a tap on my shoulder, and FAT man stares right at me, i almost fell over seeing him.. ewww. he asked me then for one hour he would be give 500 dirhams. now those of you that do not know the converstion rate, this is about $220 aussie dollars.. WHAT THE??? ok i thought i was worth way more than that for starters...AHHHH. At this point I realised this country is one weird county.
The bars are nice and all right in the UAE but for some werid reason, we all know Abu Dhabi/Dubai is a rich, and they LOVE to show this off in the bars. You can buy tables here. now your looking nothing less than bout 2000 dirhams for a table. and then you buy a HUGE MEGA BOTTLE of MOET or VODKA for the fun of it, and you get these lovely "look at me" sparklers on and around the bottle. These people love to show off. and the music even changes to this hip hop thing when they bring out the bottle to the table. This is how the guys get the girls. and this is how i manage to scab free drinks (HAHAHHAHHA) and run away to the other side of the bar to not have to talk to them, ( now dont think any less of me for doing this. come on girls wouldnt you all do the same?? ) BTW drinks in bars here are EXPENSIVE, so free ones are nice..:)
okay, so the other day i got yelled at by a muslim women who wanted to basically send me to gaol for having a short skirt on. HAHA, I ran away quickly in the car.. WEll I was in the most conservative part of The UAE, I maise well have been in saudi Arabia. Sharjar. ITs strict.
So let me tell you about Fridays. Now for those of you that do not know, The weekend here is Friday and Saturday. Most of the workers have friday off as its their holy day, and they go to the mosque for an hour of so. But on Fridays where ever you go there is indian men EVERYWHERE, they crowd the streets, they sit around randomly the city and in RANDOM places in the middle of no where in little groups, and even holding hands. Its really not the most normal thing on earth! I have seen them sitting in a little huddle in the middle of a busy road on a round about?? OKAY.. so thats not NORMAL is IT??
They really crowd the streets, i mean they do normally on any given day, but Fridays are the worst. You see one lady in about 300 men!! Its not the most plesent thing as a girl to walk around the city on a friday. I try to make sure I am with people if i walk around the city. But at times Its hard to have that. So I brave the indians that spit and stare with my eyes down to the floor with my ipod in, and walking fast. I normally like to stare at the world in their eyes, but here, I dont even look at any men in the eyes, and the women, well I call them the black jelly beans a lot of them you cant even see thier eyes... they walk around complety covered.
This country also has some great things about it. For example, i must say one of my most favorite things to do here is to go out and drink a fruit cocktail. EVERYEHERE they sell them. its a non alcoholic drink full of yummness, you can get different ones whereever you go. They are amazing!! I drink them way to quick and then feel sick afterwards. all cafes and resturants sell them, they are soo good. is heaven in your mouth. hahaha.
Another good thing about this country is being able to go to the beach in june. im getting nice and tanned!! excpet it is getting almost too hot to even walk outside, but i managed to drown myslef in sweat walking to the beach to sunbake. but when i get in cab or transport, and go to a mall, I managed to freeze like an icy pole. The temperature changes is a bit far out of whack!! u have to almost carry with you three jackets and trousers for when you walk inside a place, and then strip them all off when you walk outside.
Today I experinced the nice things in life, with lying on the beach alone, with my ipod, relaxing for 3 and a half hours, it was just so lovely. Times like these I love life. But I wish my family and friends could experince what I am at times here.
I am lying in bed at the moment, typing some of the moments from the past few months, Im having this weird insomnia and can sleep till like 5 or 6 am and then i only get like a few hours in the end of sleep. I am not sure what this is from, my guess is that it is from missing home and thinking to much, Well tonight I have akon stuck in my head!! GRRRR and the song wont leave. So as i lie there on the bed, buzzing around my head like a bee is the song on repeat. What a way to not be able to sleep!!! Akon im gonna shoot you, hahaha. ok, no i wont.
okay for now, this one post will be.
Halas
Life here is not what I "EXACTLY" thought. but has been a fantstic ride in life for me... well so I think.
ok, wanna know know some funny stories first? My first funny story, well the first few weeks that I got here, I swear the arabs and indians thought I was a prostitue. I had a few requests for money.
I was trying to hail a cab with my friends outside where I live (now thats another story as it is)but before we managed to get one, a few cars drove past and wound down their window, and what we saw was these discusting arabs with towels on their head looking mighty UNFINE!! asking with very serious looks on thier face "how much for loving" for my first few weeks in this country I got scared!! im like is this what this country is all about?? come on now, I live in a SANDPIT!! AHAHAH.
a week later in a bar with my friends, danicing away having a nice time, i get a tap on my shoulder, and FAT man stares right at me, i almost fell over seeing him.. ewww. he asked me then for one hour he would be give 500 dirhams. now those of you that do not know the converstion rate, this is about $220 aussie dollars.. WHAT THE??? ok i thought i was worth way more than that for starters...AHHHH. At this point I realised this country is one weird county.
The bars are nice and all right in the UAE but for some werid reason, we all know Abu Dhabi/Dubai is a rich, and they LOVE to show this off in the bars. You can buy tables here. now your looking nothing less than bout 2000 dirhams for a table. and then you buy a HUGE MEGA BOTTLE of MOET or VODKA for the fun of it, and you get these lovely "look at me" sparklers on and around the bottle. These people love to show off. and the music even changes to this hip hop thing when they bring out the bottle to the table. This is how the guys get the girls. and this is how i manage to scab free drinks (HAHAHHAHHA) and run away to the other side of the bar to not have to talk to them, ( now dont think any less of me for doing this. come on girls wouldnt you all do the same?? ) BTW drinks in bars here are EXPENSIVE, so free ones are nice..:)
okay, so the other day i got yelled at by a muslim women who wanted to basically send me to gaol for having a short skirt on. HAHA, I ran away quickly in the car.. WEll I was in the most conservative part of The UAE, I maise well have been in saudi Arabia. Sharjar. ITs strict.
So let me tell you about Fridays. Now for those of you that do not know, The weekend here is Friday and Saturday. Most of the workers have friday off as its their holy day, and they go to the mosque for an hour of so. But on Fridays where ever you go there is indian men EVERYWHERE, they crowd the streets, they sit around randomly the city and in RANDOM places in the middle of no where in little groups, and even holding hands. Its really not the most normal thing on earth! I have seen them sitting in a little huddle in the middle of a busy road on a round about?? OKAY.. so thats not NORMAL is IT??
They really crowd the streets, i mean they do normally on any given day, but Fridays are the worst. You see one lady in about 300 men!! Its not the most plesent thing as a girl to walk around the city on a friday. I try to make sure I am with people if i walk around the city. But at times Its hard to have that. So I brave the indians that spit and stare with my eyes down to the floor with my ipod in, and walking fast. I normally like to stare at the world in their eyes, but here, I dont even look at any men in the eyes, and the women, well I call them the black jelly beans a lot of them you cant even see thier eyes... they walk around complety covered.
This country also has some great things about it. For example, i must say one of my most favorite things to do here is to go out and drink a fruit cocktail. EVERYEHERE they sell them. its a non alcoholic drink full of yummness, you can get different ones whereever you go. They are amazing!! I drink them way to quick and then feel sick afterwards. all cafes and resturants sell them, they are soo good. is heaven in your mouth. hahaha.
Another good thing about this country is being able to go to the beach in june. im getting nice and tanned!! excpet it is getting almost too hot to even walk outside, but i managed to drown myslef in sweat walking to the beach to sunbake. but when i get in cab or transport, and go to a mall, I managed to freeze like an icy pole. The temperature changes is a bit far out of whack!! u have to almost carry with you three jackets and trousers for when you walk inside a place, and then strip them all off when you walk outside.
Today I experinced the nice things in life, with lying on the beach alone, with my ipod, relaxing for 3 and a half hours, it was just so lovely. Times like these I love life. But I wish my family and friends could experince what I am at times here.
I am lying in bed at the moment, typing some of the moments from the past few months, Im having this weird insomnia and can sleep till like 5 or 6 am and then i only get like a few hours in the end of sleep. I am not sure what this is from, my guess is that it is from missing home and thinking to much, Well tonight I have akon stuck in my head!! GRRRR and the song wont leave. So as i lie there on the bed, buzzing around my head like a bee is the song on repeat. What a way to not be able to sleep!!! Akon im gonna shoot you, hahaha. ok, no i wont.
okay for now, this one post will be.
Halas
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