My Coffee-Or-Tea Journey Part 1

So it has been almost 4 months already since I joined Emirates. Time passed by SO fast, it's crazy! It's still hard to accept the fact that Dubai is now my home (since my room still feels like a hotel room to me, due to my inability to decorate) but it is sinking in and everything is slowly getting into place.

My journey began when I touched down in Dubai International Airport on 16 October 2015. A week that followed was the induction week, where we got to know more about Emirates, our job, our colleagues and most importantly (in my opinion), what Emirates expects from us. We had our documents and vaccinations sorted out, you know, the important stuff. We got our red polo shirt that we had to wear for the rest of the training until we get our uniform and also our manuals that will be like our bible throughout the training.

One thing I would like to point out here is it is mandatory for us trainees (abinitios) to wear our hair neatly according to Emirates standard and the same goes for the make up. Wearing red lipstick is a MUST! So many people asked me why I need to wear red lipstick all the time. The answer to that is I have to! And for someone who has worn lipstick less than 5 times in 22 years, it took time getting used to, especially with RED lipstick which is sooooo high maintenance. So now you know why haha

Then came the first part of the training - SEP (Safety and Emergency Procedures). This is the hardest among all of the trainings in my opinion because the number one priority in all airline industries is, of course, safety. Especially with Emirates. They take safety very seriously. We had to basically recite everything from the book. I Still remember when our trainers told us in the beginning that by the end of SEP, we would know everything from the manual by heart already. We were like NO WAY. If you could see how thick it is, you'd know what we meant (you could smack it on someone's head and they'd die instantly lol jokes). But when we passed all of our SEP exams, we were like - shit, we do know all of it hahaha nerds. Despite all the studying we had to do, I enjoyed SEP training the most because the things we learned were so amazing. We learned how to handle emergency situations like different stages of turbulence, decompression, fighting real fire, and ditching (landing in water). And SEP was the time that really bonded all of us batchmates together. We were still shy and awkward in the beginning but we got closer and more comfortable with each other day by day and we had so much fun together. and our trainers were the best! the kindest and funniest people. I couldn't have asked for better trainers and a better environment in the class. I was really sad that it came to an end. We celebrated with pizzas (it's kind of like a tradition) and we also bought a cake for our trainers :)

Next was GMT or Group Medical Training. It was the one I was looking forward to the least because I've been told by many people that the training is boring and anything medical related is not my strongest subject haha. But it turned out that our trainer was great! (and cute lol!) he has great sense of humour so the class was not boring at all. We learned how to deal with situations from fainting patient to a suspected heart attack. The practical tests we had to do after each lesson really helped us gain more confidence for when we have to face with real cases on board. It was such a pity that it was only for one week. It was really eyeopening to me and I had so much fun.

After that was the long-awaited Image and Uniform day, the day where we finally got to wear our uniform! On this day we got to learn about Emirates' image and uniform standards like what make up look to wear, which nail colour is appropriate, recommended skincare routine, etc. The funny thing was while it was enjoyable for us ladies, It was quite boring for the boys lol it was so cute watching them learn how to file their nails! At the end of the session we took a bunch of pictures just because we were still excited with the uniform.

The last part of training was Service training. Here we learn how to do service properly, how to set up carts, how to operate the galley, how to interact with customers and how to work with each other. We had to operate various of simulated flights - DEL, NRT, JFK, LHR, and such, because each flight has its own special kind of services. For example LHR flight has an afternoon tea service (scones!) and JFK flight has light bites service (pizzaaa!). in our batch we took turn being operating crew and customers. The operating crew had to do everything just like we would have to on a flight - giving hot towels and menus, doing meal cart, bar cart, and clearance cart, ect. Customers got to sit back and eat whatever is served hahaha but we also had to observe our colleagues and report to the trainers. The cool thing about service training is definitely getting to eat free food in the simulator hahaha they are all real food that are served on board and in my opinion, though some people hate them, they are all delicious! my favourite were definitely scones and pizzas hehe. However, service is quite strict in terms of grooming. They were constantly observing how neat our hair was, if we had all the things required for our uniform, blahblah. Even so, I still enjoyed it very much!

So that's all the training done! It was definitely not easy, but it also wasn't hard. The trainers are very passionate about what they do and it really shows through their way of teaching. They really have a way of making us remember and learn things that we thought we could never remember. And I must say that our batch was really lucky, having gotten amazing trainers all the way through :)

Then it was our graduation! This was the first graduation for making it through the college. The second one will be when we finish our probation period (4 months from then).  Everyone was super excited because we finally got our flying license. And we were all ready to fly :)

The biggest and the best part of the training for me was undoubtedly friends I have made along the way. Friendship was what really got me through all of it, especially my batchmates. We started together, we went through everything together and we made it to the end together. Whenever I was feeing down they always managed to make me feel better. The last day of training was so emotional for me. Our batch has become so close, the thought of not coming to class and seeing them everyday was very sad. They made my time in training college so memorable and they'll be in my heart forever! (*insert cheese emoticon here*). If you're reading this, please know that I love you all so so much!  ♡