29 july

i have been corrected about my first flight as a crew member, it was in fact 29th of July. I completely forgot about base orientation.

I was sitting airport alert for the second day in a row when the phone rang for the girl in front of me. She pitched a fit about having to go to Zurich and even though I had plans for the evening, I told her I would go. No dice, it's first in, first out. The third hour of arrest was half way through and I begin planning out my dinner and what I would wear to a fundraiser that evening when the phone rang again. I jumped up to grab it because I was covering for a classmate of mine who went to get a donut and it was for me. I was instructed to go to the gate and replace a flight attendant who lost is id badge. So on I went to gate 72. The guy was a bit of a dick to me to say the least when I told him what I was instructed to do and told me he'd be back when he found his id. I told him he could come back but I wasn't getting off the plane. So I scrambled around the back galley as I never work back there and have no idea what to do and off we were to Barcelona.
So my favorite layover ever was repeated on the third anniversary of my first layover. Only this time it was different. My pilot friend, Jim was not on the flight. I couldn't drag myself out of be until 1700 to go sight seeing since my body is having none of this working all hours of the night business. Instead I took the metro down to the beach and walked and walked. I dipped my feet into the Mediterranean and thought about my journey and how it is coming to a close. Then I wandered through the streets snapping photos and enjoying the Spanish culture. I stopped to refer to my map and looked up to see the damn hard rock cafe that I walked in circles for on the last visit. Finally I was hungry so I hopped the metro back, changed clothes, grabbed my book and treated myself to dinner. I sat alone and had a fantastic meal but missed company.

I realized this: you can repeat a destination but never the experience. Live in the moment when it is happening, enjoy every second because it is fleeting.