Summer in January

When I got my schedule for January, I thought there had been a mistake. I was number 34 for an International schedule. I thought maybe about 2000 people died or misbid or both. I did not want to get excited and waited for the crew desk to call and tell me that there had been a oomputer glitch.

I was home a couple of days and played a little bit with my new "toy". For Christmas, I bought myself an an iMac and barely took it out of the box before leaving for my trip on the 26. I have wanted one for a long time but my design or graphic programs were all made for Windows. I finally took the leap. It is beautiful! I know that is a little corny but it truly is a beautiful machine aesthetically speaking. I love the fact that I do not have a tower anymore since all the components are in the screen. Even the keyboard is smaller and slimmer than my old one. I went from 15 cables behind my desk to only 5 and 3 are for the cable modem and the router. If I had put those in Matt's room (like I almost did because of technical difficulties) I would have just 2 cables. How awesome is that. I still have a lot to learn before becoming an "official" Mac user but I am sure with time, I will master Leopard.



Quand j'ai eu mon planning pour Janvier, j'ai cru qu'il y avait une erreur. J'étais numero 34 pour une ligne internationale. J'ai pensé que soit 2000 personnes étaient mortes ou avaient oublié de mettre leur demandes dans l'ordinateur. Je ne voulais pas m'exciter trop vite de peur que le boulot m'appelle pour me dire qu'il y avait eu un problème avec notre système informatique.

J'étais à la maison pendant quelques jours et je me suis amusé avec mon nouveu jouet. Pour Noël, je me suis offert un nouvel ordinateur, un iMac et jusque la j'avais a peine eu le temps de l'enlever de sa boite avant de partir en vol le 26 Décembre. Cela faisait longtemps que j'en voulais un mais les programmes informatiques que j'utilise étaient tous pour Windows. J'ai finalement franchi le pas. Il est tres beau! Je sais c'est un peu bête mais c'est vraiment une belle machine. Je n'ai plus de console puique tous les éléments sont dans l'écran. Même le clavier est plus petit que celui que j'avais avant. Je suis passé de 15 cables derrière mon bureau à seulement 5 et 3 sont pour le cable et le routeur. Si je les avaient mis dans la chambre de Matthew comme j'ai failli le faire à cause de difficultés techniques, j'aurais seulement 2 cables. C'est super. J'ai encore beaucoup à apprendre avant de devenir un "vrai" utilisateur de Mac mais je suis sur que je saurais vite dompter Lepoard.

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January 1st came and nothing happened. The crew desk did not call and I left for Australia on that day. Sydney is my favorite lay-over. The city is beautiful and we are there for 53 hours. Our next longest lay-over is HKG with 40 hours. Pretty much everywhere else we go, we only stay a quick 25 hours.

On that first trip I was working again with Joanne, and we started making plans right away. The crew was ok but we did not really click with anybody else so once there we did our own things, just the two of us. It is summer right now in Australia and the weather was just perfect. We worked out, walked around town, went to the movies.....

Our second day we went on a wine tour in the Hunter Valley, which Joanne chose.....ironic since she does not drink! She did taste a few of the wines but even without that it was an awesome day. The weather was great and we visited some beautiful areas.



Le 1er Janvier je suis parti en Australie. Sydney est mon séjour préféré. La ville est superbe et nous sommes là pour 53 heures. Aprè ça le plus long séjour est Hong Kong avec 40 heures. Tous nos autres séjours internationaux sont de 25 heures.

Sur ce vol, j'ai travaillé de nouveau avec Joanne et nous avons commencé tout de suite à planifier notre visite. C'est le printemps en ce moment en Australie et le temps etait parfait. Nous avons fait de l'exercice, marché un peu partout, sommes allés au ciné...

Le deuxieme jour nous avons fait la visite de plusieurs vignobles dans la Hunter Valley....c'est assez ironique puique c'est ce que Joanne voulait faire, mais elle ne boit pas d'alcohol. Elle a gouté a quelques vins mais même sans ça, ce fut une journée super.

Hong Kong in 40 hours

Those past few months have just flown by so quickly. December was overall a good month. Work was just ok until the last week when I got a wonderful trip to HKG with a great crew and an awesome lay-over. We all got along great and hung out together. I had not been with such a group of flight attendants who wanted to do things together in a long time. I guess it was to be expected since I had not been there in more than 7 years and others had never been there, so we were all excited. Joanne, one of my crew members, is from Hong Kong and speaks cantonese so it was definitely a big plus to have her with us, bargaining at the market and ordering food.

Hong Kong and Kowloon are amazing, mixing the future with the past. The architecture is breathtaking. Skyscrapers old and new stand next to each other and form this very interesting patchwork with large avenues and small one way street. Signs hang everywhere; above the sidewalk, above the street, between building; it is a neon wonderland. It is very difficult to describe how I felt being there. It is so different from what I know. I obviously stand out a lot in a crowd and contrary to many places that I have visited where I blend in a little, here I totally feel like an outsider.

The language baffles me although thankfully most signs are also in English. Again contrary to latin based languages that I can identify with, the calligraphy and the spoken form are completely foreign. There is no way to guess anything which definitely intensify the "being alone in another world" feeling. I wondered if Chinese people feel the same way when they moved to America.

Happy Holidays - Joyeuses Fetes

Activism

I sometimes wonder if I am doing enough here to help others. When I lived in San Francisco I helped building some houses for "Habitat For Humanity" and I helped out at the kitchen of "Glide", (a church in San Francisco with a wonderful Gospel choir) that serves meals to the homeless 3 times a day. Since I moved to San Diego I have not volunteered for anything other than events for the Chorus I sing with. Which brings up something that our Artistic Director said a few weeks ago that made me realize that in our own way we are helping out. Some people are very good at picketing and talking to the media, walking in the streets, knocking on doors and help to make changes. Others are not. And although I realize that there are times when all of us should voice our opinion when what matters is numbers and not necessarily content, maybe I am doing my part by entertaining and teaching tolerance and love of others and helping bridge the gap between the different communities through our music. Activism has several faces and each one is as important as the other. GMCSD participates in some events throughout the year and one of them is the "Tree Of Life" lighting ceremony every December 1st on World AIDS Day.


"The Chorus marked World AIDS Day on December 1 by singing at the annual lighting of the Mama's Kitchen Tree of Life in the Village Hillcrest plaza. The ceremony drew about 300 people and featured distinguished speakers, including Mama's Kitchen Executive Director and GMCSD member Alberto Cortés. Attendees lit candles and observed a moment of silence to remember AIDS victims and to pray for the millions more who are affected by HIV.
Mama's Kitchen delivers free, nutritious meals daily to thousands of San Diegans who are living with advanced HIV, AIDS, and other critical illnesses. For more information, see mamaskitchen.org."

I do wish I had more time to volunteer and help out in a more immediate way, but maybe our small contribution with our music is more appreciated and needed than I realize.

Winter and Hell Week

Winter is definitely here! I have been flying to other parts of the country where the temperatures are much lower than ours and where they are deep in snow or rain, so I try to keep things in perspective but it is chilly. No more shorts and t-shirts for a while. Sweaters and long sleeves shirts are coming out of the closet. Today the weather is overcast and gray although yesterday we had blue sky and sunshine. The temperature this week will not go over 63 degrees with lows in the 40s. Not really California heatwave. We get so used to the usual hot and beautiful weather, that when the temperatures drop, we feel as if all of a sudden it is below zero. The drop between daytime and nighttime is very noticeable though, and you better prepare if you will not be coming home at the end of the day before going out. Layers, they say, layers...


Yesterday was the official start of our "Hell Week". A little ironic in the 45 degrees weather. I spent the whole day with my iPod listening to our songs and trying to finally learn the lyrics. The concerts are this coming weekend and by now we should all be "off music". I have been having a hard time with this show. Either I am getting old and cannot learn as easily as I used to, or I just cannot "bond" with some of the songs. I will go with the latter!!! There is one song that I just do not like at all so I was having trouble memorizing the words. There are others that are just hard for some reason. The lyrics do not really tell a story. They just seem to be a random collection of words (I am sure they are not, but that is how they come out)and this makes it hard to recall what is coming next. But yesterday I guess all this non-stop listening paid off a little. In the shower I caught myself singing 2 of the ones I was having the hardest time with. Well now I know the words but after last night rehearsal I still have some trouble spots with the notes. My location within the Chorus does not help me either. I am seating on one side next to a singer that I never hear so I cannot rely on him for help, and on the other side and behind me are other sections (2nd Tenors and Basses) which I hear plenty. It is hard not to take their notes when you are not sure of yours and all you can hear is theirs. I guess I need to work a little more on my music between now and Saturday. I was overall happy though because I was in panic mode after last week rehearsal and realizing how much I did not know. Last night I was definitely confident enough and as our Artistic Director always say, "if you are going to sing the wrong note, at least sing it loud and clear so we can fix it"!