Born In The USA

This week's travels brought me back to the greatest country in the whole entire world...that's right, the good ol US of A! Even though California is a far cry from the cornfield where I grew up, it was still nice to be back in my own country. Taco Bells as far as the eye can see, street signs written in English, American flags flying high in the sky...ahhhh twas good to be home.

Although just being in California would have been cool all on it's own, the layover became even more awesome when three of my friends from various parts of the US and stages of my life decided to make the trip out to Los Angeles to see yours truly. Lita, who I met through Disney two years ago, flew to LA from Orlando. Her plane landed the same time mine did Tuesday afternoon, which worked out perfectly, as we were able to spend the whole afternoon and evening together. After resting up quickly we visited two of my favorite places in the whole entire world...Chipotle (amazing fast food Mexican) and Disneyland.

The next morning Stephanie, my old roommate from Boca Raton and Spirit flight attendant, and Michelle, a friend I worked with at Spirit who now lives in Las Vegas, also flew in to join the party.
The four of us rented bikes and spent the day cruising up and down the bike path along the Pacific. We had lunch and drinks at a really cute, you guessed it, Mexican restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier.

 We then cruised back to the bike rental shop and were pleasantly surprised to find out that we received complementary ice cream with our bike rentals. That, my friend, is how you run a successful business!

We finished off the day at Target, where I was way too excited to buy Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, Triscut crackers, and Crystal Light Packets. It's the little things I miss the most!

Stephanie had to work a flight back that evening so we parted ways, but Michelle and Lita were able to spend the second night with me. The next morning the girls each headed back to their homes, and after sleeping in for a bit, I too headed back home to Dubai.

The beauty of these long trips, 16 hours to be exact, it that it allows me to have lots of days off. I'm currently on day three of five days off and it's GLORIOUS! It's always fun to spend a few days in Dubai, catching up with friends. However, it's currently hotter than hades here. If you honestly want to know just how hot we're talking, set your oven to 115, climb inside, and attempt to breathe...ya, I wouldn't recommend it.

Hope you all have a great week!

"A man walks through life painting a portrait not of what he would have done, or should have done, but of what he did." -Unknown

I See London, But I Haven't Seen France...

Last week I went to London for the first time and LOVED it! Another girl and I did a whirlwind tour of the city. We saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and climbed the world's largest enclosed stone column in the world...311 spiral steps in complete darkness. Still feeling the burn on that one! I have another lay over there at the end of the month and am excited to go exploring again. The only downside of this trip was that I was camera less. Wonk, wonk.

I came back to Dubai, just long enough to catch up with some friends. I love all of the awesome resorts that Emirates' crew gets into fo free!

After a short two days off, I headed back out on the road....errr sky, to Manila, Philippians. I'm appreciative of going to destinations such as these because they honestly do put life into perspective for me, and make me very thankful for the family and country I was born into. Two other flight attendants and I took a taxi into the city. According to the concierge, most cabin crew stay inside the hotel and the mall it's connected to during their stay, which he encouraged us to do. As the three of us girls were riding into the city people on the street were constantly coming up to the car and waving, or simply pointing at us from the sidewalk. Through broken English, our cabbie told us that we are like movie stars, as the locals only see a white person about once a year. The poverty in the area was unbelievable. It was very hard for me to stare straight ahead when children my own nieces' age, carrying babies my nephew's age came knocking on our window begging for money. Although I sound like a complete hard ass, it's simply not safe to give money out in these areas, and it also encourages these children's parents to continue forcing their children to be street beggars. I'm not an advocate of taking photos of children while traveling (it can be unsafe, as parents can demand money for the photos), but these little ones were following us as we walked through the town, all smiling and waving, and we're just too cute to not snap a quick photo!

And now a report from grief watch 2012....I received a bittersweet package in the mail last week. The last package I'll ever get from my mama. She had shipped me two adapters back in January, but because of a mailbox mix up, I had never received it. Although it was sweet that she sent me the adapters, I honestly wouldn't have cared if the box contained nothing but a few cow patties and a scoop of kitty litter! It was the note inside I was longing for. No Earth shaking revelations from her, just a simple note from mom. The note in itself pretty much covered the basis of our relationship, she adores me, she loves me, and she wanted to give me some advice. It was great to hear from her!

Ohhhhh I miss her so much! This morning after I arrived home from my nine hour flight my dad and I were having a pity party via Skype. Both of us were a little sleep deprived, and neither one of us were doing a very great job of comforting the other. We had both started in on our all too regular routine of crying and sharing sentaments like, "I'm so sorry you lost your mom!" and "I'm sorry you lost the love of your life, dad." Through sobs he started to tell me about the annual field trip to the farm that the local elementary kids attend, which took place yesterday . He said that he saw one third grade girl wearing a Girl Scout shirt. Being the sweet man that he is, he bent down to this girl's level and said, "I really like your shirt. My wife loved Girl Scouts. Did you ever know Gail Schutz?" And with all of the poise and intelligence that sometimes our local townspeople's offspring possess she replied, "Yep. She died."

Dad said he just smiled, stood up, and was thankful he didn't blurt out, "No Shit, Sherlock!"

And with that story, we both began a two minute laughing session filled with snorts and tears. As pathetic as we might be, a few tears and a lot of laughter....yep, mom wouldn't have handled it any other way!

South American Adventures

This past week I ended up south of the hemisphere, way south to none other than South America. Besides doing turn around flights to Colombia, this was my first time actually being in the continent. It was beautiful!

During my first night in Rio de Janero, a group of crew members and  I ate dinner at a Brazillion Steak House aka a dieters worst night mare. Basically, we sat down at a table with a card that was red on one side and green on the other. When our cards were green side up, the waiters continued to bring us meat. When we turned the cards to red, it obviously meant stop. The food was delicious, I especially enjoyed the steaked covered with Parmesans cheese. YUM!

The next morning I got up early and went for a morning run along the ocean, to work off the Brazillion Steak House meal. It was so fun to see other exercisers out and about. Running along the beach in your sports bra tends to be frowned upon in the land of burkas and dish dashes.

That afternoon, we flew a quick two hours to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is currently autumn in Argentina, so the weather was fairly chilly there. Several other crew members and I ventured out into the city and did some sightseeing. Our mode of transportation was a double decker tour bus. Chivalry was not exactly alive and well that day as two of the males traveling with us sat down below in the heated bus, while myself and another female flight attendant huddled together for warmth on the top deck. Gentlemen, I tell ya!

Occasionally we would hop off the tour bus to tour sights such as Evita Peron's grave (Don't Cry For Me Argentina, remember now????), and La Boca (the area where the Tango was invented). We ate lunch in La Boca and watched a live Tango show as we ate.

That evening, we flew back to Rio de Janero. The following day I made plans to go para gliding with another flight attendant, however, high winds put a big damper on that plan. Next time!

On top of Sugar Loaf, Overlooking Rio

So instead, we went rode cable cars to an area called Sugar Loaf, viewed the Christ The Redeemer Statue, and climbed the famous Escadaria Selarón, a set of stairs made of mosaics. After all that sight seeing, naturally we needed some food (are you seeing a common theme here???). We had a great dinner at an ocean side restaurant, and watched the sun set. Beautiful! We then walked through the markets that are set up by the beach each night, before we headed back to the hotel, grabbed a quick nap, and jetted back home to Dubai.

 Escadaria Selarón

My friend Maggie, who also blogs, recently shared some thoughts about missing family and friends while she is away traveling. I loved what she wrote, as it sums up my thoughts as well. 

"When I wander in the cities I’ve had layovers in, I almost feel like I was there with people who are physically on the other side of the world. Something will remind me of them -a landmark, conversation, accent- and suddenly they appear subconsciously and walk around with me.
We’ll frolic in the park, eat sweets on the sidewalk and watch street performers recite Shakespeare.
I carry people in my pockets…and maybe you’ve been with me without knowing it."

Today marks the two month anniversary of my mom's passing. I miss her, but chances are, if you're reading this blog, I probably miss you too! Unless you're a random creeper, who just so happened to stumble upon this blog, in that case, pleased to meet you! But just as Maggie wrote, I also carry people with me every place I go. I thought of my mom as I wore the jacket she bought me for Christmas two years ago while I was in Buenos Aires. And again, I thought of her as I snapped pictures with the bright lime green camera she gave to me for my birthday three years ago. I laughed as I enjoyed my delicious steak meal, thinking of how my beef raising father would probably try to order a cheeseburger at this restaurant, as he does not like steak. I thought of how much my friend Kristen would enjoy running with me along the ocean in Rio. A women's perfume on the plane left me thinking of my Grandma Strang, and a size 1 year Brazillion soccer jersey left me thinking of my nephew, Joseph.

So if you happen to find your nose itching, have no worries, it just might be me thinking of you!

My First Japanese Layover

Yesterday morning I arrived safely back into Dubai after my first ever layover with Emirates. I really just want to see the whole world, so I don't have much of a preference as to where I start. So when I found out that I was headed to Osaka, Japan, I figured that was just as good of a place as any other to start!

Neither one of my parents have traveled overseas a great deal, but both of them have actually been to Japan. My mom traveled to the country, and stayed in a rural area just outside of Tokyo as a foreign exchange student when she was 16. My dad also visited Tokyo two years ago as part of an agricultural exchange program. When my mom was living in Japan she bought a kimono (the traditional Japanese dress), and would occasionally let us kids play dress up with it, and most recently let me where it for my international themed going away party in January. So, I thought it was very cool that my first layover allowed me to experience the country that both of my parents have links to.

Wearing my mom's kimono with my fellow theme night participants during my going away party.

After arriving into Osaka after the ten hour flight a small group of the crew and I ventured just outside of the hotel to a market area for dinner. The restaurant had no English speaking staff, nor menus written in English. Thank God for technology, as the very sweet waitress used the google translate app on her iPhone to assist us in ordering our food. I ended up with some delicious sushi, that tasted fairly dog meat free! I kid, I kid.

The following day another group of crew members and I traveled to a village about an hour called Kyoto. While we were there we went to a famous zen temple called the Golden Pavilion and hiked around that area.

After that we went into part of the village that is known to have lots of Geishas. I'm still not 100% sure on what the whole Geisha thing is about, but from what I understand they are highly trained entertainers. Anyways, we did see lots of women walking around the area with the traditional Japanese dress. They all seemed honored when I asked if they would take a photo with me, pretty cool.

Speaking of photos... Being in airports dressed in my Emirates uniform is a pretty cool experience in itself. People literally stop, stare, and, at times, take video recordings of us as we travel through the airport. It's like they've never seen 15 people walking through an airport with perfect hair, completely matching outfits from, literally, head to toe, carrying the exact same purse and luggage, with stop light red lips, who are all smiling and holding "polite and casual conversations." Three different older women approached me as I was waiting outside the boarding gate, and asked if they may take a picture with me. As I uncrossed my ankles and rose from my seat to honor their requests, I briefly thought, if only they knew that underneath that red hat and five pounds of aerosol hairspray is a girl who used to pride herself on her infrequent bathing routine, being able to eat a complete meal with her foot on the table, and perfecting the art of using a strand of her own hair to make her self sneeze, then they would most definitely not be interested in this once in a lifetime photo op. "Why certainly, mam," I responded in my most lady like voice I could conjure up, "I'd be delighted to!"

Who knew that after all those times my mother followed each of my loud, obnoxious belches with, "Kelsey Ellen, act like a lady," that one day I actually would!

Have a fabulous week everyone!
  

The Day I Learned I Don't Want To Be A Pilot

Despite a few setbacks and bumps in the road, I FINALLY had my first flight as Emirates Cabin Crew yesterday. And despite being majoring exhausted after the flight, I loved it! Here is the recap of my day...

-Arrived at the Emirates Headquarter two and a half hours before my flight

-Attended a flight briefing meeting in a room with a long table, leather chairs, and a flat screen Television. The kind of a room I've only seen in movies, where businessmen gather to make really important decisions, smoke cigars, etc.

-Transported from headquarters to the airport on a bus with the flight and cabin crew, and was dropped off on the tarmac, right next to our Boeing 777 airplane.

-Reached the aircraft by climbing up a set of stairs that resembled the ones Richard Geere used to get to Julia Roberts in Pretty Women. Kept pretending to cough so I could “play cool” and cover up the huge smile I was wearing from the pure excitement of it all.

-Boarded all of our passengers and blasted off.

-Changed into my cabin shoes, and realized they felt a tiny bit snug, but knew that after wearing them a few hours, they would stretch.

-Literally did not sit down, except to use the toilet twice, once throughout the course of the four hours flight. Served fancy drinks, handed out beef and chicken meals, answered call bells, reapplied my whorish, bright red lip stick, passed out blankets, chatted with passengers, and answered more call bells. Nonstop I tell you, NONSTOP!

-Landed in Istanbul, Turkey, disembarked the original posse, and loaded up another group.

-Entered the cockpit to observe take off. Sat silently in the extra jump seat with a pair of large headphones to listen to the communication between various pilots and Air Traffic Control. Pondered how cool it would be to be a pilot, and how much I would enjoy their salary. How hard could it possibly be…

-Exited the cockpit after we had reached our cruising altitude of 37000 feet and reassumed my role as cabin crew.

-Realized that it had been six plus hours since my original ping of discomfort from the tight shoes had occurred. They were definitely not stretching, and due to my feet being swollen from flying, the shoes were in fact getting tighter!

-Spilled a half cup of orange juice on a ladies jacket while clearing trays. I was very apologetic, and I don’t think she even said one mean thing to me following my mistake….she only spoke Turkish.

-Attended to more call bells, walked up and down the aisle about fifty times bringing thirsty customers glasses of water, and responded with, "Yes, yes I am," when 41D asked if I was new...

-Awarded a ten minute break from the madness, and was invited up to business class where I devoured a delicious cheese and olive platter, a fancy tuna sandwich, and a scrumptious chocolate desert. They don’t give you the chocolate dessert on Southwest Airlines….

-Entered the cockpit to observe landing, and was informed it may be bumpy as we were going through some strong weather patterns. Placed the headphones over my ears and listened to nothing but conversations that involved numbers for 10 solid minutes, while watching the shifting weather patterns on the computer screens.

-Remembered that I’m not a numbers kind a person, and that my sister in law actually passed my online Intro to Meteorology class for me in college.

- Nearly pissed by skirt while starring at the narrow runway, and began counting down the seconds until I would meet Jesus. 5,4,3,2,

-Said a little prayer of gratitude for landing safely, and decided I was much better suited for working in the back on the plane.

-Disembarked passengers, exited the aircraft and carried my roll aboard suitcase down the narrow staircase. Was half surprised, and a little disappointed when Richard Geere was not there waiting at the bottom with flowers.


-Boarded the bus, was transported back to headquarters, and drifted in and out of sleep during the second bus ride that brought me safely back to my apartment.

-Hobbled into my apartment around 3:00 A.M., removed every last trace of clown makeup from my face, and slept for a solid 10 hours.

Staycation 2012…I’ll miss you. Friendly skies….it’s good to be back!

Wouldn'tcha Know It Was The Cake?!

It varied from year to year, but it was always vanilla or carrot. We would pour the batter into two circular tin pans, and after they had baked and cooled, we would begin the intricate carving process. One cake was left as a perfect circle, to serve as the face, and in the other cake we would cut out two moon shapes, leaving a large center piece to serve as the bow tie. We would then remove all the pieces and arrange them properly on a square sheet of cardboard that we had lined with tin foil. Next we would evenly spread the homemade vanilla icing across our creation, and, of course, after licking the spoon, we’d place Skittles, Jelly Beans, or M&M's for the eyes and nose, red liquorish strands for the whiskers, and sprinkle coconut across the remaining portion to serve as fur. Every year, without fail, this was how mom and I would make our traditional Easter Bunny Cake.


You have to look closely, but on the table is Mom's and my Bunny Cake circa 2008.

Today is Easter, our first holiday without mom. As per not tradition, my family is spending the day at my mom’s brother and his wife’s beautiful home in Peoria. I spent the day with friends in Dubai. I think it’s kind of nice we’re all deviating from the “normal” Easter routine this year, since obviously, nothing about it is normal.

Last year was actually my first year I spent Easter away from home, so I have had practice. But last year was different. I knew that even though I was far from home, including the house and my loved ones, it was still there, and that all the usual festivities were carrying on, and would continue to carry on until the next Easter that I would be able to join them all.

Not to break my arm patting myself on the back, but overall I think I’m handling everything really well. I’m making jokes, going out with friends, and not breaking down over the sight of mothers and daughters. And most of the time I lay down in my bed each night, and fall right to sleep. But some nights that doesn’t happen. Some nights I just feel so worn down from doing life without my mom that I just curl up in my bed, lay my head down on my pillow, and cry. Last night was one of those nights.

I wasn’t expecting Easter to bother me so much. Thankfully, I live in a Muslim country, so it’s not like I was being bombarded with billboards covered with the big, fluffy, white creep or having to walk past aisles and aisles of Easter candy in the grocery store. But none the less, last night as I was trying to sleep, I still knew that tomorrow morning I would wake up and there wouldn’t be an email from my mom saying, “Things are sure going to be quiet around here without you today! “
And I couldn’t help but think about how the care package that contained fake grass to hide several Reese’s Easter Eggs, like the one I received at this time last year, never showed up. And the Easter Bunny Cake. No one was going to make the Easter Bunny Cake. With that thought the water works began. Wouldn’t you know the freaking Bunny Cake was going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back?

It’s not about the email, the care package, or even the stupid Bunny Cake not being there this year. In all reality, I don’t really remember me or anyone ever eating much of the cake. It’s just that it’s not there anymore. Not the physical cake of course, but the lady who made all of those memories possible. The lady who made every single holiday, birthday, hell every day, so special for the past 24 years, she’s gone. So with that thought, I threw myself a full blown pity party.

Since I’m never one to party alone, I text my friend Kristen, who was enjoying herself at a wedding reception, to whine. She immediately sprung into action, and in attempts to bring me out of my momentary slump, brought her phone to unsuspecting attendees of the wedding reception and forced them to send me really sweet messages. I was especially honored when she sent me a short film she directed of a bridesmaid, one of our friends, putting on an Easter Bunny hat and pulling the imaginary trigger on the finger gun. Only to resurrect moments later to inform me that no one even likes Easter. Call me easily amused, but it definitely made me chuckle for quite awhile.

This afternoon I was Skyping with my sister and we were both discussing how different things feel without mom. Again, I brought up the Bunny Cake issue, and the tears began to roll. Although we definitely have our melt downs, both of us have mom’s no non sense personality. After listening to me cry for several minutes, finally Genny said, “Kelsey, I really think you just need to make the cake.”

So with that I made a mad dash to the grocery store, and threw an impromptu Easter dinner for three of my friends, complete with Brenda Early’s Special Chicken and Noodles and of course, the Bunny Cake.

With each Skittle I placed onto the rabbit, I became more and more at peace with the holiday. I couldn’t see her, but after I finished placing the last whisker on the icing, I couldn’t help but to feel like I had just spent the last hour with my mom. And with that, I smiled, because I knew I had.


Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Silver, Gold, And A Few Days Off

A little precursor for this post: As I write, I’m currently feeling a little under the weather, therefore my brain is not working at full capacity and this may not be my best work. And by feeling under the weather, I do mean I have a severe stomach ache from eating THREE heaping spoonfuls of Nutella within a ten minute time period. This is in addition to the Nutella I was spreading onto several (Arabic version) Oreo cookies. You won’t find a lot of information on it, so don’t waste your time researching my claim, but Chocolate is actually one of the six steps of the grieving process….

Anywho….I’m finally an Emirates Training College graduate, WAAA HOO. I asked my trainers if I get a reward for holding the record of longest time spent in training. They informed me that several months ago there was a girl who found the course work particularly difficult, and had to repeat every single section of training, so she actually had me beat. Just like that, my morale improved, as I rejoiced for not being THAT girl. As is always true with life, there’s always going to be someone who has it better than you, and always going to be someone who has it worse!

Monday evening the group of us who had all finished training together went out for drinks, and celebrated!

Yesterday was the big day that we were all supposed to find out our rosters for the next month, as well as our flight schedules for the rest of March. All of my batch mates quickly began posting back and forth on Facebook about their exciting first layover destinations (Sydney, Dublin, Hong Kong)…so eagerly I logged onto my work email to discover where I would be traveling, and then I see the dreaded code written all over my April roster…RSV, reserve. This means everyday for a month, I will wake up not knowing if I’ll be spending the night in Dubai, Auckland, New York, or anywhere else that the company may see fit to send me to on that particular day. It’s obviously not the worst thing in the whole scheme of life, but being on reserve definitely makes it difficult to make any form of plans for the entire month. Emirates does their scheduling on a seven month rotation, therefore, every six months I will be on reserve. It’s actually a much fairer system than the seniority based schedule most companies use.

The other kicker came when all my other batch mates started receiving notifications as to where they would be flying this week, and I did not. After some investigating I discovered my General Civil Aviation Authority licensing has not been processed yet, because my vaccinations were not completed on time…obviously because I was out of the country for the last two weeks. So basically, I’m on stay-cation for about another week.

Not that I’m ever a super, hard core schedule orientated person, but I don’t think it’s very mentally healthy for anyone to be 100% routine less either. So to combat this problem, I started off today, day one of my stay-cation, by making a list of things I needed to do. In all reality, I don’t really have that much I NEED to do, so some of my items were simply listed in order for me to be able to cross them off and feel some sort of a sense of accomplishmen. For example, task #1 on my list for the day “Wake Up.”

Instantaneously, I had already met one of my goals for the day! I’m always a fan of setting myself up for success!

So besides waking up each day, I’ve been filling up my days with social activities, which is fine by me. Last night I went with my friend Maggie, a fellow Emirates flight attendant from Minnesota, to meet another American, Sara, who is living in Dubai with her husband, a first officer with a smaller airline here in the UAE (did you get all that???). Maggie’s aunt used to work with Sara’s husband, and set Sara and Maggie up on a friend date! We had a great time watching the Dubai Fountain Show and cooking dinner together at her awesome apartment that has an amazing view of the Burj Kalifa, the world’s tallest building.

Today I met up with two of my friends for lunch at an outdoor pub, and spent my afternoon shopping. Rough life….


My mom’s voice constantly plays in my head, and ten years ago I would never admit to this, but today, I’m so very thankful that it does. As I continue to meet lots of new and interesting friends, I’ve recently found myself humming the sweet little tune to the old Girl Scout song, “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other’s gold.”

I think of her smiling as she led me and my fellow Brownies in singing that song so many times throughout my childhood. I’m almost certain that she’s still smiling. To be even more specific, she had this particular face that I am picturing in my mind, my friend Brittney referred to it as her proud face, as she only made it when she was truly pleased with your actions.

I think she’s making her proud face right now at the way all of my golden and silver friends have taken care of her “little one” during this past month.
I think of everyone from my group of friends in Dubai, whom I have known for such a short period of time, my group of girl friends from home (whom have been my best friends since….well basically forever), to all the other amazing friends that I’ve met from the times in between, all going out of their way to routinely check on me. Honestly, my mom’s death has not led me to any Earth shaking revelations about taking people in my life for granted. I think through her LIFE she taught me that every person is a blessing, and to treat them as such! I think for the most part, I got it! I’ve always treasured my relationships, (mmmmm maybe not the romantic ones, that’s for another post :)) and even though this is a HARD time for me, I know they’re here for me. And God forbid, if hard times come across for any of them, I’m quite certain they know I’d be right there wading through the trenches with them as well. And that’s pretty cool.

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson