One year later …

Hi lovely dreamers,

Can’t believe how time literally flies. I remember one year ago when I was packing, with all this excitement, all my fears and my joy. Here I am now, can you believe it ?

I have not keep my blog updated because… I did not wanted to do so. Let me tell you why: the Emirates experience is AWESOME, trust me. But if I tell you everything, there’s no point. You need to live it, feel it, experience it by yourself.

What can I say about this year? 

Honestly, it has been one of the best things I ever done in my life. I cried, laughed, discovered, travelled over 30 countries … It was amazing. But I want to be honest with you, around 6 months, I started feeling really, REALLY homesick. It was really bad cause I started feeling a bit depressed. Missing home, missing my friends, missing Paris. Then I had my graduation, which means that I was able to ask for my preferred flights, and which makes life easier. Now I go home minimum twice a month ( cause it’s really easy to get paris as a flight), and try to enjoy my family and friends as much as I can.

What have I done during this year?

Flying, a loooot. I do love flying cause it keeps me busy (thank God), but you know what, you will realise that after a while, on some layover the only thing that you will need is to sleep (bad isn’t it?). Sometimes you will get back to back flights and feel so tired that even in New York, you will end up spending your time eating and sleeping; first of all because of the jet lag, and second of all because your body simply need it. Don’t be surprised.

Otherwise, most of the time I go out, cause that’s mainly the reason why I chose this job. I try to keep myself awake during the day, and go out sometimes with the crew, but most of the time by myself as I have a professional camera and like to take my time for my personal pictures. As I am sociable enough (I guess haha), I always end up meeting someone in the street who will invite me for a coffee, or whatever. Don’t be shy with this job, if you don’t want to be alone.

I also travelled during my days off and leave, first to Amman to visit Petra (which is 2 hours flying from Dubai), and to Tahiti and Bora Bora. This one was a challenge ohhhh my goooood. It was a 27hrs trip, and I don’t know how but when I reached Tahiti, one of my luggage was still in Dubai. What a great start of holidays ?! but after one day, I managed to receive it at Papeete airport.`

What about how I feel ?

Let me tell you something, I felt really sick for 1 month. First because my back was killing me as I have to bend down a lot with this job and I wasn’t doing it in a appropriate way. Then at some point I felt so weak because of the lack of sleeping hours, and the absolutely NON HEALTHY food that I was eating. The thing is in Dubai you can get everything delivered in few minutes. So I started being lazy and ordering food EVERY SINGLE DAY. I completely stopped going to the gym. Guess what? My body was really weak.

The only way to solve this problem is to start with a good diet, sleep properly and go to the gym. In Emirates, we do have some really interesting workshops about it.

To resume my experience, this year has been amazing. I met some good (and bad unfortunately) people, and discovered another side of myself, this adventurous person, who can go against her fear, and be strong enough to face the world…

My advice to you, who is reading but to scared to try the experience:

There’s nothing to be scared about. Once you try, you discover yourself under different angles, you discover that you can be so strong when you face some situations. That’s a real challenge and there’s nothing to regret after that.

Flying in the sky has been my best journey. I love my job, really. Not everything is perfect, but I keep enjoying myself.

 

End of training & Co

Hi lovely dreamers,

Finally the training is OOOOVEEEEER ! You can’t imagine how happy I feel. I started flying 3 weeks ago and honestly this is amazing. I keep falling in love with this job. I have been absent for a while cause it started being really hard for me. Let me tell you everything:

After SEP, GMT, SECURITY and NUJOUM, I had two weeks of service training. To be honest, I wanted to quit, really. I know, it’s bad to think this way when you have such an opportunity, but I felt so depressed. I was so tired of the training, and I was feeling so alone. Ok you have your batch mates, your trainers … But they are not you family, not even your friends… that’s what I was thinking.

Last day of service training, both of my trainers came to me and asked me to stay in the classroom while my batch mates were leaving. I felt so surprised and I knew that something wrong was going on. Without even talking, I knew that it was a bad new so I started automatically crying. You know after 8 weeks of intense training, you start being so sensitive. “Johana, we are sorry to tell you that you need to repeat the last week of service training. After the last discussion that we had with you yesterday, and the discussion with your manager, we think that this is the best solution for you “. OMG … I cried ladies and gentlemen, I cried as ever before. Haha it’s better for me to laugh now that feeling depressed.

I felt so bad, my heart was broken. It was just one week but trust me, after 8 WEEKS, you feel like it was an entire year!!! I left the classroom for 5 minutes as I was crying like a baby, and came back. My trainer came to me and gave me a hug, and both of my trainers starting explaining to me the reasons and everything. I knew that my last week of training wasn’t that good, but it was so unexpected! I was upset, and sad had the same time. After 10 mins, I said bye to both of them and left the room. The thing is that I wasn’t upset against them but against ME. You know why? Cause I wanted to give to best during this training and I starting thinking about giving up and leaving Emirates.

While leaving the training college and going to the bus, I met one of my lovely friend here, Michael. Honestly I love this guy for his personality, for who he is, for being so helpful. Even if he talks too much (haha Michael I hope you will never read this). He was the one to help and reassure me. On my way back home, he texted me so many times to ask me how I was feeling. I went to bed, in a really bad mood, with my horrible red eyes, and some tissue just in case I would cry again. Before sleeping, I starting praying and asked to myself a question “why am I here?“. I started answering to myself and felt asleep.

Guess what? The next day I had the answer to my question. I knew what was the reason and started remember when I was in Paris, watching at all the video about how to become an Emirates cabin crew. I felt so selfish thinking about going back home. I felt so motivated, I sent a message to both of my amazing and lovely trainers saying how sorry I was about my unprofessional reaction. I met them the same day and gave them a hug. They were the best trainers eveeer, they truly touched my heart and I will remember them for making me improve myself that much: Ben and Anissa ❤

So I started the last week of training again with all my motivation and determination, my notes were excellent, everyone was so surprised… 

This article is just to show you how it is to leave everything. Ok you live in Dubai, you don’t pay anything, and everything is amazing… But you feel homesick, that’s the thing. Some people left because they couldn’t deal with that situation. It’s tough tho but not impossible.

Btw remember what I wrote before about the thing that your batch mates are not your friend … they are even more, they are you second family. Seriously, you will build some relation that you would probably ever had belt before in your home country. My batch was everything, they are here for you because you are going through the same situation. I was so happy to share my apartment with them for Christmas, spend New year with them… 

Don’t be afraid haha, this was my personal experience. The training is intense, so you will just need to work a little bit, but it’s still amazing! It’s just that I wasn’t prepared to face this. Today i’m so proud of myself and what I went through, so happy that I met people that I truly love with all my heart, so happy that I met amazing trainers and I learned so many things… Enjoy the training and never give up. That’s your dream job, that will probably be the best experience ever. 

Dubai, here I am !

Hi everyone,

I’ve been quiet for a long time but since I arrived here, everything had been so crazy guys! Finally i can share a photo of me in uniform with you. I’ve been waiting so loooong for that moment 😀

First of all, I had to prepare my suitcases but it was really hard to know what kind of stuff I needed before leaving etc. Know that you have almost NOTHING to bring because you got everything here, remember that it’s Dubai, it means that they are so many huge mall as “Dubai Mall”, “Mall of Emirates” …  Just think about: 

• stockings
• beauty products 
• hair nets
• hair donut
• notebook and pen
• baskets

Someone asked me if a laptop or tablet was necessary: I would say NO. You will have some e-learning to do but there are so many computers at headquarters and the training college. And btw, the first weeks you will probably don’t have the WI-FI as you need your VISA and passport to get it, but know that Emirates will keep your passport for 3 weeks or more so will have to be patient. 

About the amount of money, it really depends: if you like party and drinks, you should bring a lot. I bought around 500 euros ( 2 000 dirhams ) and it’s more than enough for the first two months as they will give you money when you will arrive. 

ABOUT YOUR ARRIVAL IN DUBAI

I moved on november 13th. The take off was on 14:25 from Paris. I was so stressed but so excited as well. I was with my boyfriend and family and we all started crying. I don’t know if it was the sadness or excitement… My best advice for you will be to really enjoy your family as much as possible. It seems logical but trust me, once you will be here you will cry more than once! 

Once I landed in Dubai, a member of Marhaba staff came to pick me up. You will see that everything is well prepared, they know that your are coming and you will get a quick briefing about what will happen for you so I don’t want to talk to much about that. Don’t forget to bring ALL of your document with you, and not in the suitcase which is in the cargo or you will get into trouble! When you will arrive to your accommodation, you will find a really useful starter pack.

ABOUT THE TRAINING

In this article, I will talk about the training, and about my feeling. This artifcle is really personal, everyone is different and can react differently.

You will start your training by an induction week at the Emirates Headquarter; this induction week is really useful as they will talk about the rules in emirates, how to open a bank account, get wifi, live with a flatmates, medicals… lot of informations!

The week after you will be at the training college and will start the SEP (Safety Emergency Training), and this is the time when your training really starts. You will learn about ditching, emergency landing, slides, emergency in general… so many informations omg. Then you will get GMT (Group Medical Training). You will get informations about fainting, medical chock, heart attack… so many informations too! And then comes the ‘nujoum day’, image and uniform etc. I’m still waiting for the nojoum so I can’t talk about it. 

For my personal experience, I found the training hard because:

• english is not my first language
• aeronautic vocabulary
• many home works
• home sick
• and deal with the feedbacks

I’ve cried so many times, I’ve reached my breaking point over and over, honestly it was hard for me! I was in the morning group so I had to wake up at 3:30 AM, for a training at 5:30; imagine how tired I was! The other thing is feedbacks: Emirates is a company who loves giving feedbacks. Personally it’s a good idea because you know where are you mistakes. But sometimes you think that you are making small mistakes but your trainers have to write it in your fill, e.g, don’t wearing an hairnet, or not wearing the red lipstick, being late for 1 min… You will think that it’s unfair but it’s NOT! How do you think that Emirates can be one of the best company if there are no rules? Yes its rude but to keep growing, a company needs standards.

Anyway, this is totally personal !!! I enjoy the training, I even LOVE IT. The trainers will always be there for you, and your batch will be your new family. You will live some beautiful moments, share experiences, learn other languages, go to party every weekend ahah . So just enjoy it, take it easy.

NB: After having spent 1 month in Dubai, I think that I’ve understood what Emirates is looking for. As a future cabin crew you need these qualities:

• EMPATHETIC
• TEAM WORK
• COMMUNICATION
• PATIENCE

A lot of people told me that during the AD it’s better to not talk and just listen. I would say NO.

Why?

When you will start SEP, you will get a lot of group activities. If you don’t talk or say YES to everything that your group said, it’s really bad and the recruiter will notice that. How will you do in the aircraft if there’s ice on the aisle but your team say NO there’s no ice? Will you say ” ok, there’s no ice, I will not report it to the captain?” – Of course no !!!! So please during the Assesment day talk but in a good way, always wait your turn, don’t cut someone of, and smile all the time. Another thing is being a leader. I’ve seen so many times that it was bad but in my opinion it’s NOT TRUE AT ALL !!!

Why?

A team always needs to be guided. That’s human being. You will learn it when you will get your induction week. But there are  good leaders and bad leaders. The good one know how to listen people but also how to take decisions. For example, during the AD, it’s not bad to say: ok guys, to be organised, in my opinion we should start with you and then finish with you, what do you think?” Always remember to ASK PEOPLE OPINION, that’s what makes you a good leader. 

What I think is that being recruited by Emirates is not easy, but some factors can help you: your behaviour, smile, interactions, the way your are dressed, the way you work with people, the way you deal with a situation… Remember that Emirates want’s to hire 20 000 more crew in the next years, so if try and try again until you get hired!

ABOUT THE UNIFORM

Finally I’ve received my uniform! Imagine how happy I am. I will not talk about it so much as we are not allowed to, but you will easily find some photos on Instagram 😀

Last 2 things: so many of you are sending me messages on Facebook, Instagram… i’m so sorry but I don’t have the time to answer to all of your messages, i’m so busy and tired btw. But keep on reading my blog, I will try to update it more often. The other thing is about my english level: english is not my first language so you will find so many grammar mistakes on my blog and i’m sorry about that. If you don’t understand anything, comment my article!

See you in the sky dreamers, nothing is impossible to you!

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