As flight attendants, we go through weeks of intense training where we are closely monitored and instructed on everything that needs to be done. Obviously I knew that wouldn't be the case forever, but when you are the only flight attendant on the aircraft, it really hits you!
I began my first official trip by myself with butterflies going crazy in my stomach. Not only would I be the only flight attendant, but I was also going on an international flight...way to start slow eh??? I had four legs on the first day, an overnight in Canada and one leg on the second day. Only one was a no service flight (I prefer service flights, I feel useless when I don't have any).
Once I got onboard the plane, the butterflies began to ease up, and I felt pretty good about knowing what I needed to do. The boarding went smoothly with a correct passenger count and everything. I got out my liquor paperwork before service and filled it out and counted the liquor...I was sure I had everything Ineeded. Service went well (didn't spill any drinks) and I had gotten the cart all cleaned out (as a preface, this means that I had dumped out all of the leftover drinks, juices, coffee and ice in the trash...remember that small detail). Now it was time to add my liquor sales to the paperwork...as I read over the sheet a small, terrible detail became apparent. I had forgotten to get the number off of the previous paperwork before I threw it away. I looked over at my full trash cart, the paperwork was sure to be at the bottom...crap! Solution, dumpster diving! I looked back at the passengers and made sure that none of them were paying too much attention to me, pushed the trash cart as far as I could into the galley, put on some gloves and dove in. Diggingthrough cans of soda, ice, tomato juice and trash in a confined space is not the easiest thing, especially when you are trying to keep your white, long sleeved shirt clean and hide your embarrassing moment from passengers. Finally I found a soaking wet piece of paper. Relief...but once I unrolled it from the soaked ball it had become I was devastated to see that it was just the provisions paperwork...back to the trash. I was beginning to feel hopeless and panicked at what was going to happen to me when finally I found another wad of soaked paper. JACKPOT!!! Crisis #1 averted, and as an added bonus a deplaning passenger told me he was very impressed, he'd never seen a flight attendant work so hard...oh if he only knew.
Crisis #2 was fun. We were nearing landing, and I had all of my duties complete. I had done my sweep and made sure all of the passengers were set for landing. I had finished cleaning up the galley, so I was sitting in my jumpseat making sure I had done everything. When I looked up, to my horror, I noticed that one overhead bin was open. Someone had gotten something out after my sweep and forgot to close the bin. I knew I didn't have much time before I was supposed to be in my seat for landing, so I threw off my seatbelt, ran down the aisle, shut the bin, gave the passengers around it a dirty glare and raced back to my seat all amid some pretty rough turbulence. I sat back in my seat and buckled up just in time for the landing signal. PHEW!
I had a lot of really great and fun passengers. A lot of them would ask me how long I'd been flying...my response...look at my watch and say "You really wanna know". But they were all so nice and full of compliments. I also had a military guy onboard and as he was deplaning he turned to me and was like "don't worry, it's my first day too." There is also this man that I sat next to on my flight moving here, well he ended up being on two of my flights and I also saw him at the airport the next day. Small world!
My final major crisis happened at the end of my trip. We landed in G gate and I had to go through customs and back through security to get to the crew lounge, by C gates, to turn in my liquor paperwork and money. When I got to the crew lounge, it had almost been an hour since we landed I pulled out my paperwork, and another sickening feeling hit me. Instead of the liquor paperwork I had the provisions form. AHHHH! I raced out of the lounge back to G. I flagged down a cart driver and begged him to get me to G. He was sooo nice, and was instantly my favorite person of the day. When I got to my gate, the plane was gone. I raced to the next gate that had an agent. Out of breath, I explained the situation to her and asked her is she knew where that plane was. She put it into her little system and told me that the plane was at C gate about to go to Nashville. She was nice enough to call the gate and let me talk to them. The gate agent told me the plane was about to leave but she would go on and try and get my paperwork. I told her I had the como form and wasn't sure if they had done it or not, but she told me it was already done. Apologies to all the people dealing with my paperwork issues! So once again I raced back to the C concourse. I was sprinting through the airport, in full uniform, on the moving walkways. I'm sure I looked so great sweating to death and out of breath, but I got to the gate just as they were pulling the jetbridge from the plane. Holding my breath (what little was left in me) I waited for the agent to come back. Lights of heavenly rays glowed through that gate as I realized that she had my liquor paperwork form in her hands. Obviously liquor paperwork is not my strong point, but I will be double checking everything from now on!
As far as my travels go, I went to Nashville, Cincinnati and Regina. When I opened the door upon arrival in Nashville I immediately wanted to shut it. Hot and humid!! On top of that heat (bad day to wear long sleeves) there were tons of these huge bugs. As I was freaking out and trying to keep them off the plane the gate agent started laughing. Apparently they're "just cicadas" and they don't bite. They do hiss though, and really they are huge, but it a way kind of pretty for bugs. Nature also got crazy in Cincinnati where we were delayed because there was a turtle on the runway...no lie, literally a turtle! No real nature issues in Canada except for the fact that when you travel internationally you kind of feel like a zoo animal yourself staying in special areas behind gates and walls and stuff. Of course I ended up going to Regina. In class we had learned how to properly say it, and attempted to do so many times without getting pre-teen giggles...good thing. My captain told me they get mad when you say it wrong, and they also have a slogan that says the city that rhymes with fun...really, I saw a t-shirt!
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