Thanksgiving Minus The Turkey

Greetings All!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! My holiday wasn't bad, just different. Different, in the sense that I've never once ate a Cliff Bar and an apple and called it my Thanksgiving Feast! Despite the lack of turkey, I had a great day visiting the city of London. Obviously, I've already seen quite a bit of London, but it's such a cool city ,and I always find something new to see!

My timing was limited to four hours, so this on this trip I visited two major landmarks: Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey.

I had already seen the changing of the guards' ceremony, but unfortunately the first time I didn't have my camera with me. No pictures means it never happened, we've been over this. So yesterday I returned to Buckingham Palace several minutes before eleven in order to get a spot close to the ropes. I was able to record the ending portion of the ceremony, enjoy!

 

After the ceremony, I rushed over to the Westminster Abby where I went on an audio tour of the building. There is no photography allowed inside of the Abbey, so unfortunately I have no pictures of the chapel, but the entire place was gorgeous! I'm not exactly a huge ancient history buff, so admittedly, I skipped around a bit and did not listen to the full history lesson that was provided for each individual nook and cranny. I think I still got the over all picture. It was really cool to get to stand in the exact area where William and Kate were married, Princess Diana's funeral was held, and probably about a million other historicaly significant events that I could recite had I listened to the entire tour.

An Archway Leading Into The Westminster Abbey.

Once the Abbey tour was finished I had just enough time to wander around the city before I needed to catch the train back to my hotel. I love wandering because it always brings me to places I otherwise would never have stumbled upon. Yesterday's cool find was a British Red Cross Charity Store, the USA's equivalent to the Salvation Army. I'm always a huge fan of vintage stores, and this one certainly did not disappoint. Although I didn't make any purchases the gently used, name brand coats, bags, and knick knacks were tempting!

Standing In Front Of The Big Ben

 Hope you all have a great week!

Happy Thanksgiving, Etc.

There's a lot of things I like about my job. I like that I am able to travel the world, and meet people from various backgrounds and cultures. I like that I am able to visit friends and family, that I otherwise would not get to see if it weren't for my job. I like that I have lots of time off, and that it allows me to live in a really cool city.

I don't like being treated like I am some one's servant.

Many of our lovely passengers come from cultures where anyone who works in the service industry is viewed as lower class, and therefore, shows them very little respect. Logically, I know that the reason I always strive to treat McDonald's workers, grocery store clerks, and doctors with the same level of respect is because I was raised in a culture, and, more significantly, in a family where that was taught to me. However, when I am in the midst of being called a trolley pusher and demanded to, "go get me whiskey" the logical part of me goes out the window, and I just get pissed at the level of disrespect and disregard my fellow human beings have for me. I find that this causes my anger and annoyance only to escalate as I rearrange half eaten croissants, leftover bowels of chicken marsala, and  cups filled with remnants of coffee neatly back onto the tray, because, believe it or not people, replicas of the Burj Kalifa actually do not fit back inside the clearance cart! At this point I have to all but place my hand over my mandated bright red, glossy covered lips to keep myself from screaming, "I have a freaking college degree!"

As you can tell, it's very easy for me to become consumed with the frustrating aspects of being a flight attendant, and forget to focus on all the really cool parts of this job. Several days ago I was having dinner with my fellow American friend, Maggie, and we were discussing our job. Like me, she's not exactly passionate about cleaning lavs (airplane toilets), but rather, she views each flight as a networking opportunity, and strives to have a contact in each city where we fly. How cool as that?!

After our discussion, I felt my work related attitude needed some tweaking. On my next flight, which was to Washington DC, I challenged myself to have at least one meaningful conversation with a passenger. I not only engaged in one great conversation, I had at least six! I met an American women who serves as a missionary in Thailand, working with teens who are being held as sex slaves. I cried in the galley with Woody, a 57 year old man who's best friend had just lost his battle with cancer, and told him about loosing my own mother this past year. I exchanged emails with Alca, an Indian woman who works as an engineer at the Pentagon, and I told Justin, a government contractor, who is currently stationed in Afghanistan, that I would pray for his safety. Although exhausted, I actually left both sectors of this trip in a great mood.  I never seize to be amazed by how powerful a conscious change in attitude can be!

I am not pledging to be Chatty Cathy on every single flight, because as much as I am an idealist, I'm also a realist, but I think keeping this goal in mind is a great way to find a little bit more pleasure in the actual work part of my job, which in turn will help me keep my sanity. Here's to not becoming this guy!

 

 

So besides being on my quest for niceness, there was also another major point for my journey to Washington, D.C. I met up with my aunt and uncle who live nearby in Virgina! It was great to see them, and equally as great to be in the USA.

 

Me and My Mom's Sister, Nancy in Washington, DC

Speaking of the USA, tomorrow Thanksgiving will be celebrated in the land of the free, and, unfortunately, I will not be there. Considering holidays at the Schutz's are going to be incredibly different this year, I decided to put my own unique spin on Turkey Day, and celebrate in the Pilgrim's homeland of England! I'm planning to set up my largest tepee in front of the Westminster Abbey, declare the land as mine, and invite some English lads over for dinner. A little role reversal, if you will. I kid, I kid....I don't even have a tepee.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!



Thoughts From 38,000 Feet

I'm committing a blog first, writing and publishing from 38,000 feet! No, I'm not hiding In the lav, surfing the web, and skipping out on the daily joys of delivering drinks, clearing meal trays, and answering never ending call bells. No sir, I'm actually a passenger today, flying, once again, to Illinois. And people said they'd never see me after I moved overseas!

Today I am flying on Emirates' A380 (think double decker). I am only certified to operate Boeing 777s and smaller Airbus aircrafts, and all the flights that I have taken back to the US, thus far, have just so happened to be on 777s, so this is actually my first time on the A380. So far my favorite feature of this plane is that it is equipped with wifi, therefore I bring you greetings from 38,000 feet! According to the flight tracker, I'm just about halfway to my final destination of this leg of the trip; New York.


I'm a little tired, and let me explain why. On the 4th I flew to Lagos, Nigeria (my first time in Africa, waahoo!!!). What an experience! My first "you're not in Kansas anymore" experience of Africa came as I went through Nigeria's tough customs and borders process...which consisted of signing my name and staff number on a yellow legal pad, and bam I was in!

After that grueling process, the 17 of us crew members were escorted by armed security guards to our hotel shuttle van, and driven safely to our hotel. Although I caught glimpses of women caring large bowels of fruit on their head, children running barefoot through the streets, and spray painted messages written on the side of makeshift houses begging others to please, "Do Not Urinate Here," I was unable to get a full few of the city as we were not allowed to open the curtains inside of the van for safety reasons. Upon reaching the hotel, we were strongly encouraged to not leave the property, again, due to safety reasons. The hotel was surprisingly nice considering the amount of poverty that surrounded it. I caught up on sleep, and enjoyed a traditional nigerian dinner, consisting of lots of meat stews and rice, with the crew at the hotel restauraunt.

On the morning of the 5th, I worked the seven hour flight from Lagos back to Dubai, where we landed at 2:00 A.M. on the 6th. I hurriedly went home, showered, packed, and returned back to the airport to board this 8:00 A.M. flight from Dubai to New York. If all goes as planned, I should be reaching St. Louis, Missouri by 6:00 P.M. tonight! I'm not sure if I've set any type of record for my world travel, but I do know I am exhausted!

Here's to safe travels, and that sleeping aid AKA Bailey's Irish Cream, kicking in....Any. Minute. Now.