Muzungu In Uganda

Ever just have those moments where you are overcome with peace? For me, it's a different feeling than happiness. Happiness comes in the form of ice cream, fact. Peace is the feeling I get when I recognize that at this exact moment, there's no where else I'd rather be than right where I am that very second. Sometimes the feeling comes when I'm by the ocean, on a run, swinging in my parent's backyard, laughing with my favorite people, or, as was the case this week, riding on the back of a stranger's motorbike through remote Ugandan villages.

Let me rewind. Before I left for my trip to Entebbe,Uganda, I received an email from a fellow crew member informing me that through a website she had located a tour guide that would be willing to show us around Entebbe. Always up for an adventure, and in need of redeeming myself after being a lame-o in India, I eagerly signed up!

Just an hour after our arrival, we met our tour guide, Walter, outside the gates of our hotel. Walter also brought along three other drivers, so that all four of us crew members could have our own limousines. And by limousines, I do mean motorbikes, or as the locals call them, boda bodas. My driver, a very sweet Ugandan man who introduced himself as Johny, and after a five minute discussion over the pronunciation of my name, settled on calling me Kels for the remainder of the day.


My driver, Johny.

 

We quickly signed waivers promising not to sue Walter's Boda Boda Tours in the unlikely event that we were injured and or killed that day. We were fitted with our very own bike helmets (safety first), and away we went!

 



 

The first stop along the tour was to a large mosque. Following with Muslim practices, women must wear skirts and cover their hair in order to enter the mosque. Although skirts and a scarf wrapped around my head is not my usual look, I obliged.

 

 

After I was all suited up, we entered into the mosque, and climbed a tower connected to it that led to an awesome view of the city. It was neat to have different areas pointed out to us, so that we would somewhat know where we were during the rest of the tour.

Before we left the mosque, Walter took a moment to explain the next point of interest along our tour. We would be driving through the slums, but because of safety reasons we would not be stopping. Houses, many made of leftover plywood scraps, lined the dirt roads. Children, no older than ten, with dirty faces and no shoes, carried babies on their backs. And every few feet blankets were spread out on the ground that were covered with clothing items that were for sale. They all appeared to be used clothing, and many of the tee shirts I saw had logos such as Miami Heat and Iowa State University printed on them. Many people shouted, "Muzungu, muzungu," (white person), as we drove past, and we definitely were among the minority in this neck of the woods.

After driving through the slums we reached an area that served as a torture camp during the 1970's. Over 300 people were tortured and died inside of the champers. The victim's hand prints, created from a mixture of the mud and feces they were forced to stand in, remain on the walls. Being inside of the chamber was eery, and I was more than happy to get the heck out of dodge, so to speak.

After our stop at the ol Disney World of Uganda, I was beyond exhausted and ready to head back to our hotel. Nightfall had set in, as had crazy amounts of traffic. Although all four of us left at the same time, we all were soon separated due to the every man for themselves style of traffic. After about eight minutes into our thirty minute drive, Johny and I came to a street that was blocked as far as the eye could see with vans, taxi's, and bota bota's. There was no other choice for movement, even the sidewalks were blocked with vehicles, so we turned off our motorbike, and sat. And sat. And sat. I took my camera out from it's hiding spot in the front of my shirt in order to capture this craziness on film, but Johny was quick to tell me, "Kels, not safe. Camera away." Noted.

With that, I did become slightly frightened. Girl, check. Only white in sight, check check. No cell phone, check check and check! All while humming the tune of "Do Lord, oh do Lord, oh dooooo remember me," I slowly started to pull down the sleeves on my rolled up shirt so that I could tuck my white hands inside, and ever so slightly shoved my long braid inside of my helmet. Anything to minimize the whole extreme tourist look I had going on! Within minutes we were rolling again. I was literally squeezing my knees together so that my long legs would not scrape the other vehicles as we zipped past them. The traffic was insane!

 Eventually we reached an open rode, and picked up speed. The wind was blowing, the moon was shinning, and I was smiling and holding on tight to Johny (my knight and shining armor), in a brand new place I had never been before. I'm not exactly sure where we were or how we got there, but I do know that for those few seconds... there was no where else in the entire world I would have rather been.

And that my friends, is peace!

My Non Adventures in Kolkata

Last week I had this post all planned out in my mind. It was going to about my trip to Kolkata, India, and include the extremely touching and inspirational account of my visit to the Mother Theresa Orphanage. It was supposed to be a life changing event, and the retelling of my visit was almost guaranteed to produce a few tears out of you, my faithful blog readers. Unfortunately, I have no such story to tell. My adventures in Kolkata are about as anti climatic as the retelling of the paint drying process. I reached my hotel, closed my eyes for a quick 15 minute power nap, and slept for seven hours straight. I woke up just long enough to realize I had missed out on an entire days worth of activities, ordered and ate some questionable chicken curry via room service, and fell back asleep for another seven hours. Then I left.

I should have known better than to even formulate afternoon plans with my fellow crew members, all the classic signs of exhaustion were there. I fell sound asleep on the twenty minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel, and after being woken up by the captain, I threw my red hat on and haphazardly tossed the white scarf around my head, completely wishing that it was my blanket instead, and stumbled into the hotel lobby. Before I could fully even open my eyes, a bright flash went off and a man with a name tag, indicating he worked for the hotel, was muttering with a thick Indian accent something about capturing memories of a lifetime. It wasn't even until the next day when I received an email from the hotel, and opened up this gem of a photo that I realized not only had I been had walking around with a bright red lipstick stain on the shoulder of my blazer (visual proof of my bus ride snooze), but those little sneaky sneak members of the hotel welcoming staff had managed to place a bright red bindi on my forehead! I legit thought she was adjusting my hat. Sleep deprivation, you won this round!

Half Asleep Kelsey and The Rest Of The Cabin Crew. Photo Courtesy of The Hotel Staff .

This month I was given a schedule that was nearly full of turn around flights (trips that have no layover). I actually haven't minded the large amounts of turn arounds, as it's allowed me to spend more time than usual at home in Dubai.

Last week I flew to Baghdad, Iraq twice. It was actually a nice flight, and all of the passengers were very kind. Many of them were US citizens, doing civilian work in the region. I couldn't help but to have Outkast's song, Bombs Over Baghdad stuck in my mind as we were flying over the tiny country. Luckily, that good ol common sense kicked in, and I decided it would be best for the blond American to refrain from humming this catchy little tune during the flight to the not so land of the free!

So in between my turn around flights, I've been on a mission to accomplish two goals during the month of December. Goal number one: begin training for a half marathon. I have officially signed up to run my first ever half marathon (I've actually signed up for a half before....just didn't run it. Oops). The race is in the U.A.E. in February. I've been training for just about three weeks, and as of today, I've ran 30 miles total, 14 of those this week. So far, training has been injury free, sans the slight shoulder sprain I just encountered from patting myself on the back...

My second December goal has been to get into the holiday spirit. Holidays without my mom are just so stinking hard! Through this really fun grieving process, I've learned that trying to mentally skip out on things like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays is ineffective, so it is better to just embrace them. Despite living in a Muslim country located in the desert, I've been trying my hardest to celebrate the Christmas season. So far, I've gone ice skating, watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, decorated Christmas cupcakes, painted ornaments, hung up my advent calendar, and forced my friends to pose with me for pictures next to anything even remotely Christmasy! I must say, it's beginning to look a lot like....

Paula, Me, Santa, and Sarah at A Resort Lobby In Dubai.

Adventures in Accra

The great Forest Gump said it best, "Life is like a box of chocolates, ya never know what you're gonna get."

Following suit with this philosophy, I think it's safe to say that Friday was like biting into a chocolate covered pepperoni. It wasn't necessarily horrible, but completely unexpected!

Every six months I'm required to be on reserve, meaning that instead of getting a schedule for the full month, I act as a substitute in case another cabin crew member calls in sick or fails to report for their flight. On Friday morning I was assigned to be on standby duty at our headquarters. As soon as I checked in, I was informed that I would be going on a four day trip to Accra. Accawhat?!

I quickly googled Accra, to figure out what part of the world I was actually headed to, and boarded the flight. Off to Ghana I flew!

Mural Painted Inside The Accra Airport

After an eight hour flight, we landed on the coast of Western Africa. Despite being exhausted, I decided to head out with two other crew members and the captain to check out the local beach and possibly go horse back riding. The ride to the ocean was very interesting! At stop signs, men and women, who were peddling various items such as bottles of juice, fresh fruit, and AA batteries, knocked on our taxi cab windows, and begged us to make purchases. I'm all stocked up on AA batteries, so I passed. However, I am still in complete amazement at the amount of weight people are able to balance on their heads!

Notice The Tray of Fruit...Impressive
 

After hearing several bad reviews about the quality of the local beach, I had my expectations set quite low, however, I was pleasantly surprised! The ocean is actually part of the Atlantic, so it was kind of cool to see the other side of the ocean that I grew up peeing in visiting! After the full day of flying, our energy levels were relatively low. We all decided that drinking the local beer and looking at the horses would be much more relaxing than actually riding them!

Insert Horse's Ass Joke Here

The next day we did a quick shuttle flight to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and ended up back in Accra for another night. The entire crew then ventured out to an awesome local seafood restaurant for dinner. It was definitely one of the top five best seafood meals I've ever eaten in my life! Calamari, tuna steak, and lobster...check, check, and check!

 

 

Thankfully, I managed to squeeze back into the ol beige uniform, and landed safely into Dubai yesterday! Now, off to enjoy the next three days, no work style!

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.

Travels Home And Abroad

The above photo is a picture of the map that hangs in my room. I'm challenging myself to spend my money on experiences rather than things, so, unfortunately, this scratch off as your travel map (an awesome gift from sister in law, Jackie) is the only form of decoration that has taken up residency on my barren apartment walls. I feel like I've seen a lot of the world, but judging by all the gold, I still have so much more I have to see!

Travelling is addictive. I've never sought professional help for this issue, as I'm still able to function semi normally on a day to day basis, but it is, without a doubt, a disease. Take heart, it is not contagious, as the majority of my friends nor family, whom I have encouraged so heavily to come visit me, have not shown any symptoms to date, (cough cough). This past month's travels brought me to Zurich (Switzerland), Singapore, Melbourne, and Cairo (Egypt). Next month's travels look equally as promising with trips to Frankfurt (Germany), Lagos (Nigeria), and London all lined up.

Zurich, Switzerland

Although nothing compares to the feeling I get when I first lay my eyes on a famous landmark I've only ever seen in a text book, try a crazy local dish for the first time (and discover I actually like it), or successfully navigate through a city's public transportation system that has no English signage...sometimes I just crave a little slice of normalcy. Thankfully, I have this little corner of the world, in the middle of corn fields and open roads, that to me, is home in every way, shape, and form.

Sure, the people who are physically there change. People I love have passed away, people I love just as equally are born, but the feeling I get when I go home is always the same! Going back to Illinois may not get any new foil scratched off the map, but being there just makes my heart happy!

The actual reason for the trip to Illinois, was for my friend Allison's wedding. Allison and I met our freshman year of college, when we were both placed on the same dorm room floor. We bonded quickly, and have stuck together for six years, throughout lots of ups and downs. Unfortunately, we've had to face some pretty severe downs together during these past few months, loosing my mom in February, and sadly, her dad passing away the Tuesday before her wedding.

I am blessed to know the Lam Family. I have never felt anything but love when I am in their home. To Wayne, for giving me one of my very best friends, I will always be grateful! Her wedding was beautiful, and again left me in amazement at the amount of strength and resilience that awesome family possesses!

Getting Ready For Allison's Big Day

Besides the wedding, I spent a lot of the week doing some of my favorite activities that can only be done when I'm at home. Mowing the yard, having impromptu slumber parties with my best friends (why yes, we are 24...), eating way too much food during family dinners, going on Semi rides with my dad, attending a Spartan football game, and cramming blankets and above mentioned best friends into the back of a mini truck for a late night, country drive, were all among the list of shananagans I divulged in while visiting home. The only thing I wanted to do, but didn't get ticked off the list was new born baby cuddling....as my newest family member didn't find it necessary to enter the world until four days after I left. If she weren't sooooo freaking cute, I'd be extremely pissed at her!

 

Taylor Marie...Named After Grandma Gail Marie

I jumped right back into the swing of things after I returned to Dubai, and departed for a six day trip to Singapore and Melbourne. I've already been to both places, but there's still tons to see and do in each city. In Singapore I visited Universal Studious, which was much smaller than the one I've been to in Orlando, but was still super cool. In Melbourne I met up with two of my Disney friends, Erica and Jess for dinner, followed by drinks on a rooftop bar.

Jess, Erica, and I in Melbourne.

And now for the rando of the week....my friend Sara and I attended a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game in Abu Dhabi this week. Never had that one on my bucket list, so I guess I can add it and tick it off all in one!

Obviously, it was a private event!

Hope you all have a great week =)