Our Crashpad is in Jamaica, NY., 5 minutes from JFK. The best part of all this is Dawn contacted an Airport Parking lot 1 block from her house and asked them if they would shuttle us back and forth from the airport for free. These kind people agreed.
Marianne and I have checked out the neighborhood. We found a delicious deli and of course a liquor store.
No neighborhood should be without Cowboy Curly roaming the sidewalks.
Marianne and I are all rested and we are now getting ready for work. Tonight we fly to London!
It sure does make it a lot easier being a commuter when you have a nice place to crash at before and/or after a trip. For example, Marianne and I flew in from San Francisco on the all nighter and we arrived this morning at 7am . We don’t need to be at our gate until 545pm tonight. So we are relaxing at the Crashpad. I’ll try to explain how this works.
Marianne is standing in front of our Crashpad. Our landlord, Dawn and her son live on the 1st floor. We have the entire 2nd floor. Dawn is a retired police officer, which we feel is a bonus.
There are 14 ladies in our crashpad. We are all from San Francisco and have been flying together for 30 years. Our home consists of 2 bedroom , 1 bath, kitchen and living room.
Now I will explain how this all works. One bedroom has 4 beds and then the 2nd room has 3 beds. The beds are called hot beds, which means when you arrive you claim a bed , go to a cubby and get your sheets and make your bed. When you leave, you put your sheets back in your cubby. Dawn has kindly offered to wash our sheets and towels.😃. Win, win for us!!!
Flight attendants have all different schedules, in order to let the others know what bed you have claimed there is a sign up board to let everyone know who has that bed.
You must be wondering what if all 14 show up to sleep. It actually doesn’t happen, we have been told. For instance Marianne and I are the only 2 here today. We filled out a big calendar and the most we have seen st one time is 4 flight attendants spending the night.
After a good night sleep, we woke up and enjoyed a delicious complimentary Breakfast Buffett at our hotel. It was a great way to start our day. Then we were off to run the streets of São Paulo.
My favorite place we visited was the Ibirapuera Park. It is the largest urban park in the middle of the enormous metropolis of São Paulo, similar to Central Park in New York. It is hard for me to put into words to fully describe the exquisite beauty and charm of this park.
The best part of this amazing park was the area of the park called the Peace Garden. This part of the park is an open grass area where people read, meditate, exercise and just be with Nature. The most amazing part of this Peace Garden it is surrounded by a tree from every Country. The São Paulo people wanted everyone to have a piece of home when they are in the park.
Look beyond these trees to see the Peace Garden.
Marianne and I loved these trees. I need to figure out what Country they represent.
Such Beauty!
I am such a dog lover and this melted my heart!
We needed to leave this beautiful park . We still had to take a nap and get ready for our bus pickup at 9pm to get us back to the airport to work our 10 hour flight back to New York. Keeping with the São Paulo tradition, we treated ourselves to a much enjoyed beauty treatment.
We just returned back from São Paulo. I can’t say enough how kind and welcoming the Brazilian people are. After arriving in Sau Paulo, we took an hour bus drive to the City. São Paulo is Brazil’s biggest and richest city. As I found out quickly, you must take naps to get the best out of your day!! So after we arrived at our beautiful hotel, we took a 2 hour nap and then took São Paulo on! We woke up to torrential rain, but that did not stop us from exploring!!
After getting a bite to eat and a walk through the neighborhood , we joined the rest of our crew in the hotel lobby and celebrated with a Caipirinha Cocktail. This is Brazil’s National drink… very yummy and refreshing! The crew warned us to have no more than 2 cocktails or we would start dancing on the tables!!🤣
We ended our day with a fabulous steak dinner. Brazil is known for having delicious meats and it did not disappoint. We went to bed to get a full night sleep, so we could fully enjoy the experience of São Paulo on the following day!!
So much to tell you! I don’t know where to start. First International trip was to São Paulo, Brazil.
I’m flying with 2 friends from San Fransco, Marianne and Cori. First of all let be tell you about our plane. We are flying on a 777 that holds 304 passengers and 14 crew members. From New York to São Paulo it’s a 10 hour flight. As I mentioned before there are 8 crew rest bunks and go figure, it is my responsibility to make the beds before take off!! With help from another crew member I was shown how to make the beds!
Let me explain how the breaks work. We first did a beverage and dinner service and picked up everything. Then the first group of flight attendants take their break. A 3 HOUR break!! Marianne and I were on the 2nd break so we held down the fort while the other Flight attendants are resting!! You can read, watch a movie or sleep. You have a curtain so it’s a private area.
I think you can see I’m liking this lifestyle. I was so cozy I fell asleep.
Hi Everyone! As you know I have been working for American Airlines for 32 incredible years and I have been based in San Francisco for the whole time. Unfortunately, American has decided to close San Francisco for a flight attendant base. What does this mean for me, I had to choose another base to start and finish my trip at. I have chosen New York for many reasons. First of all, I am flying with a bestie, Marianne Thornally on all my trips. We are a package team. We will do a lot of European Countries and South America. I have only been a domestic flight attendant. This is a whole new life for me. The planes are bigger, lots more passengers and I will be on the plane for more hours that I can even imagine. Also, there are crew rest areas that have bunk beds for us to have crew rest breaks. I am at awe with how this is going to happen. With everything so new to me, I thought it would be fun to invite you all to come on this exciting new journey with me. So sit back and relax and tighten your seatbelts the craziness is about to begin.
First stop Crashpad in New York then off to Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday February 6, 2023
Come Fly With Me 