ready to fly!

Yes, I made it! Today I received my wing at KLM, so now I'm officially a flight attendant. This was it, the end of 6 weeks which felt like an eternity, 6 weeks of just studying all the time, 6 weeks of being exhausted all the time, 6 weeks of hardly any sleep, 6 weeks being out of balance because of the exhaustion, 6 weeks of feeling lonely as no physical contact with friends anymore.... But also 6 weeks of being excited, 6 weeks of learning a lot about myself, 6 weeks of meeting and getting to know 13 lovely fellow trainees, 6 weeks of bonding with them and our trainers.
To summarize: 6 very hard weeks with ups and downs, but 6 weeks worth it!

Yesterday we had our last 2 exams of which one was in the simulator, not my favourite one. This is an exam you can hardly prepare, it is the time that you have to show that you can apply what you've learned the passed weeks. To prepare a little, I have been evacuating in my house and I've been firefighting behind the kitchendoor. Just imagine me sitting on the corner of the couch, doing my 30 seconds review, before evacuating, shouting the command 'emergency-open seatbelt- evacuate', in the meantime checking if the outside conditions are safe (by peeping from behind the curtains), checking if the yellow door selector was in automatic (by checking if my keycord was there) and then pushing the door open while shouting the applicable commands. Luckily I was home alone, but the gardens behind the houses were full of people and children playing outside. So when I was throwing open the door, the commands were somewhere dying in my mouth, as I didn't want to look like a fool :-)
Anyway it helped! I passed the exam and was not that nerveous as I knew I prepared well. I listened to some funny music in advance, which made me go into the classroom singing while having lots of fun. This music therapy was really helping! ;-)

I'm (almost) ready to fly now. This Thursday I will leave for San Francisco to familiarize with the aircraft type Boeing 747 (you know, the one with the upperdeck in the front). After that 5 days off, to recover from my jetlag, and then I will start flying the Boeing 737 whithin Europe. My first schedule is known yet, I will stay over the first night in Edinburgh (Scotland), the 2nd night in Venice and the third morning I will be back in Amsterdam again. Followed by 2 days off. A very relaxing roster to start with.

I can't describe that well how I feel about this life change. So far, 2007 has felt like I've been sitting in this high speed train, jumping from one high speed train to another, instead of changing trains on a railwaystation...
I started in Thailand, having the trip of my life, came back and immediately started at KLM, there was no time to review my trip or to adjust. And now? Now I will be jumping from my training into an aircraft, flying away, learning a lot. Just compare it with getting your drivers' license: once you have it, you will learn to drive, it is about making kilometers. This is the same: getting my wing doens't mean that I can fly, there is still so much I need to learn! Two months of a trial period, with evaluations again on my skills. And after these 2 months I will find out if my contract contract will be transformed into a contract for a year.
So yes, for me 2007 so far is a year in the top gear! But also a year of which I enjoy every minute (or at least try). I have no idea what this year will bring as everything is so new (I will move to Amsterdam within a couple of weeks as well), but there is one thing I do know: I love surprises!

To be continued....

PS: Unfortunately no pictures of me and our class in uniform with wing as I found out lately that pictures of us in uniform are not allowed on public sites. I'm sorry.... :-(