Flight delay proves valuable

One of the many stress points about flying is the inevitable flight delay. It happens, one thing out of whack somewhere at some random airport in bum-hump Idaho can cause massive delays in other airports. Here in Thailand, the major delays are usually due to severe weather.

Delays are annoying enough as a passenger, but these days we are seeing how it affects the crew as well. Now that Pae is a flight attendant, I have to pay attention to her schedule and the cities she is flying to, time of the day, weather, and I even need to understand what airport a connecting flight is coming from so that I can kinda guesstimate what kind of delays she will encounter.

Sometimes she is scheduled to get back to Bangkok at 9 PM and she shows up at midnight!

So, in general, for most people most of the time, flight delays are a negative.

I mentioned in a previous posting that I was kinda disappointed that I may never get any photos of Pae on board her plane while she was working or at work. The other day, due to a mechanical problem with the aircraft, her flight was delayed. The F/A's were ready to board passengers but the airline decided to wait until the problem was taken care of before herding the passengers aboard only to have them sit and wait.During this short delay, one of Pae's friends from her graduating class dug around in her luggage and pulled out a camera phone! These are the photos from that "shoot".
Today I'm quite happy for that delay...not only for the photos, but because the airline was willing to delay their plane for the sake of safety.Safety First...I have precious cargo on this flight!

Preparing for the King's Birthday

At school, our students have been preparing for the Thai King's annual birthday celebration. The 5th of December is the king's birthday and thus a national holiday. This year it falls on a Saturday.

The students are preparing for a day-long show or dancing, singing and displays. Preparing and practicing during school hours is honestly taking away a lot of 1. contact hours with full classes and 2. focus of the students.

I'm all for celebrating the king's birthday but I think the kids should practice after school like they do back home. As it is now, using my third graders as an example...I'm gonna have to try to squish in The States of Matter, Matter Changing States, Physical Properties of Matter, Measuring Matter, Physical Changes of Matter and Chemical Changes in matter in nine 50 minute class periods...then they have their unit test and then a midterm on Christmas day...which is just another day here in BKK.

This should be an interesting term! Off to class I must run...

Friday Foto - November 27, 2009

Today's picture is from a "farewell" dinner for one of Pae's friends. Bee was hired by Qatar Airways a month or two back and is now flying to Qatar (tomorrow) to start training. There were 11 of us who got together at Fuji, a Japanese chain restaurant here, to say goodbye to Bee. Less "goodbye" and more "see you in Doha"!!

Qatar and Emirates are the two biggest Middle East airlines that recruit here and many of the girls who dream of being flight attendants really work their tails off to get with one of the two. Oman and Bahrain are another two M.E. airlines that hire here. The Asian airlines like KAL, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Thai Air, etc., are a lot harder to get but they do come on occasion to pick and choose from the thousands of girls (and guys) who are applying.

It's good to see Bee actually going, not that her friends won't miss her, but because it's actually happening for her and she can get on with it instead of waiting around.

This is a picture of Pae and Bee before saying their goodbyes at Fuji. Who knows, a 2010 Friday Foto could find the two of them together again in Qatar! We'll see! Happy Thanksgiving season and Happy Friday!!

Ditching and Evacuation drills

A little late, but I finally got my hands on some of the photos from Pae's training in the pool. (Thanks Prae, stole them from your FB album!) I know I've put a lot of the group photos up and stuff, skip them if they bore you! I just want to share and also document the occasion.This will be great for Pae to look back on in 10 years as my Marine Corps group photos are to me. The above picture is one of the group after land evacuation training on the tarmac at the airport, standing in the only place where there is shelter from the sweltering sun...under the fuselage of the airplane.The pool training for water landing, ditching, etc involved a lot more than the pictures here, but this is all that I can find so far. I was initially confused by the first pictures...It looks an awful lot like synchronized swimming to me! The American judge gives a perfect 10 to the flight attendant team from Thailand!!Here is the whole group, dripping wet yet still posing after a pool session.After training they all went out to a Japanese buffet, Oishi Express, and oinked out together.I was thinking yesterday that I may actually not ever get too many pictures of Pae actually working! Not like I can follow her on her flights and have her cheese it up while she's doing demo, prepping the galley, doing cabin service, arming doors, lifting carry on luggage...etc. Although she did say that some of the tourists like to snap photos during the demo or when the F/A is briefing the passengers sitting in emergency exit rows.

Snack time

I'm sitting here at school on my lunch break eating spicy fried sea weed. It's a Japanese snack called Tao Kae Noi and it's dang tasty! Just thought I'd share that. I wish you all could eat some! But you probably can't...Suckas!

OX Batch 17 Graduation

I was going to wait for the professional photos before posting a graduation/wing ceremony blog...but I couldn't wait. My dark, out of focus pictures will just have to do! Deal with it!!

After a long month of training, the whole of their group graduated, together. Some of them heave prior experience as flight attendants on other airlines, many of them are straight out of school. After attending the ceremony, I can tell you one thing...they were all hugs and smiles!Relieved to be finished with their training, proud to have "made it" and a little nervous what their first flight would be like, if they would forget anything important, or if their purser would scold them.The ceremony itself was pretty simple, with 21 graduates total and only about 10 or so guests. The CEO's daughter (I think) pinned on the wings and gave a short speech about wearing the uniform, pride, being a walking billboard for the airline, etc. Others gave speeches and then the boys and girls got their wings.When I asked Pae later how she felt at the moment she had her wings pinned on, she ho-hummed the experience "mmmm, I felt normal, it was okay" but the pictures I got tell another story!! Grinning ear to ear!Earlier, before the ceremony started, one of her mentors showed up to attend...the room lit up when she came in as many of the girls know her, studied English with her, or just got advice from her...no matter what their relationship with Ajarn Aum, they all love her and were super happy to see her and share the moment with her.Here are some other pictures that I wanted to share from Pae's training. Aircraft familiarization, first aid, evacuation, etc.The only pictures I don't have right now, that I know do exist somewhere, are the ones from their pool sessions...water landing, water ditching, water survival, etc...I'm waiting for those still and will post some when I get them!We're watching a Japanese series right now called "Attention Please" that takes you through the life and experiences of a girl striving to become a flight attendant. It's fun to see how I react differently to the show than does Pae...she having experienced much of the same type of training...kinda like when we watch military movies...a little different for me.OX Batch 17...time to fly! Fly safely!

Rotting flesh

Long story short, I was late for school again today. No taxis. No rain. Huh? Saw on the news that there may be some protests but figured that was on Sunday rather than early morning Monday. Why is there not transportation?

Ah, motorcycle! "Dude, Soi 18, 100 baht? OKAY!"

I put on the greasy helmet and off we zoom...500 meters...then...PARKING LOT!!

We didn't even make it out of our soi and the traffic was at a stand still. Another morning here in Bangkok where there were people walking along the side of the road just to try to get to work. This is probably the second worst it's ever been in the past three years. No flooded roads today though...odd. What is causing the traffic havoc?

About 7 kilometers into out ride, we come up to what looked like a bunch of heavy equipment cleaning up a water main break or gas explosion in the middle of a main intersection. Back hoe and tractors clearing all lanes of the road, only motorbikes able to pass. From about 500 meters I could smell the stench of rotting meat. Huh? There were 10-15 police officers all talking on walkie talkies standing around what used to be a five ton truck. The tractors and backhoes were cleaning up a few tons of rotting pig innards that the truck had been carrying! This caused much more rubber necking than usual as everyone was trying to see if it was people dead and bloody across the highway...

There were rumours at school that the truck crashed with bus, but I'm not sure about that. All I know is that it stuffed traffic up pretty bad for at least the hour it took me to navigate the 8 kilometers to school.

Got to school and there were teachers laughing at me as I got off of a little moped and payed the driver 100 baht. I guess I look pretty goofy with the little pink Hello Kitty helmet on...who knew! Other teachers were getting foot massages in my first period class. Apparently they weren't as lucky as me and couldn't find a motorcycle...they walked...been there done that...feel bad for them...Such is life in BKK!

View from the cockpit

Pae is flying again today. I guess it's still new to me...You know, I go to school and teach every day and I don't think there are people thinking to themselves "Guy is teaching right now" or "Guy teaches today".

Just every time she goes up, I note her flight times, he flight numbers, the weather, etc. I almost feel like the spouse of a law enforcement officer, not worried every moment of the day, but aware. Knock wood.

One thing from her first two flights that she said was really cool is that she got to serve the pilots refreshments halfway through the flight. She said that when you look out the cockpit windows, it feels like you are floating in a balloon, rather than speeding through the sky at 400 mph. She said that usually you are looking out the side of the aircraft and everything is moving sideways, but you are looking forward from the cockpit and it looks like everything is either moving very slowly or standing still. I thought it was interesting!

Pictures of her graduation ceremony soon, either during my lunch break or after school! Happy Monday!

Friday Foto - November 13, 2009

Today's picture comes straight from the tarmac of Don Muang Airport here in Bangkok. This is a picture of Pae's flight attendant trainee group and their instructors after they completed a day of evacuation drills from MD-80 Series aircraft and Boeing 747s. They all had some chills and thrills as well as a good time.

The chills and thrills came from actually evacuating the aircraft. I guess there are three ways to evacuate down the slides. One is where you sit and slide. The next you stand and jump onto the slide in the sitting position. The final one, for rapid evac is where you have to get a running start and jump out of the door onto the slide in the sitting position!

The one that had hearts dropping was the latter of course. Imagine being a couple stories up and having to run and jump out of a window! Heck, even if you know there is s balloon slide down there to catch you, it is still a little tough to take that first step! A definite "leap of faith"!

I was at the graduation the other night and as you may be able to see from this photo, there is a bond between this group that is priceless. Funny thing for them is that, as they are all junior flight attendants now, they are unlikely to fly together anytime soon. One junior per flight! Cell phone charges are going to go up though!

Friday the 13th!

I've never been superstitious, outside of when I played baseball or softball...you know, guys go on a tear and decide not to change their skivies until they cool off type of thing, but today being Friday the 13th and Pae leaving in a few hours on her first official flight, it made me think a little harder about today.

I know that she'll be fine up there, and that between the pilots, ATC and the four highly trained flight attendants in the cabin, her flight out and back will be super safe and a great first flight!

But still, Friday the 13th...

She's official!

Pae has officially completed her training and is now qualified and certified as a flight attendant on McDonnell Douglas 80 series (MD-80 series) aircraft. MD-80 series aircraft are comparable to Boeing 737s and Airbus 320 series aircraft.
Last night was her graduation, which was held at a hotel near the airport. Only 10 guests were allowed, and I was lucky to be one of those 10. I took lots of pictures or Pae and her fellow graduates...now, officially, fellow flight attendants. Four of them were scheduled to fly today in fact! Pae's first flight is tomorrow! Funny to think about, because while I'm at school teaching the kids about warm and cold air masses, cumulonimbus clouds and the different layers of the atmosphere, Pae will be up there "in" it all!

The ceremony is a graduation, but is known better as "ngan dit bik" or "pinning on wings ceremony". So, Pae had her flight attendant wings pinned on last night and seems both relieved and proud. I'll post a blog with more pictures this weekend, but for now, here is one of my favorites from right after she had her wings pinned on her uniform.I certainly am very proud of her for working so hard and getting the tough training behind her...now...the sky's the limit! (Her airline also flies Boeing 747's so she may have the chance to be certified on those too)

Join me in wishing her a thousand safe landings! (and takeoffs too, as the first three minutes and last eight minutes of every flight are the most dangerous, or so Pae has taught me!)

Happy 234th Birthday Marines!

As I blog again about the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps, on the 10th of November, I wanted to share with you our song, The Marine's Hymn.

Sung from our boot camp days until we're old and grey, the hymn holds so much meaning, causes me to purse my lips and grit my teeth. My eyes close to a squint as I listen and sing or hum along with a sense of pride shared by the few, the proud, the Marines both past and present.

Happy Birthday Marines!

If you're out and about tonight, you may hear the following three verses flowing out of the pubs, hotels, convention centers, or the next foxhole over, followed by human barking, jubilant shouts of "I love you man!", and proud men and women celebrating with a stern "Happy Birthday Marine!"

From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

Our flag's unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in every clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines.

Here's health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we've fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

To they guys from Radio Batallion...Happy Birthday Marines! To my sister Amy and her husband Jason, both also a former Marines, Happy Birthday Marines!