Johnny in Arizona!!

Hey all,

Finally, I'm now sort of settled here in Arizona and I can write my first post from here! I was trying to find some time to update the blog but I've been quite busy settling in, in the past three days. I arrived last Wednesday at 8pm local time. The flight was very tiring. First an eight hour flight from Brussels to Washington DC, and then, after passing security and immigration checks, we had to walk all the way through the terminal to get to our gate which of course, was the last one at the end of the terminal, and then another five hour flight from Washington DC to Phoenix.

At the airport we were met by the other Maltese guys from our previous prom and by a guy from Sabena Airline Training Centre who took us to our apartments. I'm now living in "The Springs" at Alta Mesa which is a sort of complex of "luxury" apartments. It took us a while for us to settle in but as days go by, I'm getting used to the place.

I've got a few words to describe the USA so far... BIG, HUGE, INFINITE... Ye, everything's so big over here; the roads are big and wide, the cars are massive (no you won't find any Fiat Punto romaing the sreets here!) everything is big and exaggerated... mind you, even women!! Sorry US citizens but you really need to start working out on your fat bellies ehh!! And no, BigMac's won't help!! Ye, welcome to the US. But so far it's all going well. Thursday was also Thanksgiving Day which is a well known and celebrated holiday here in the US. We "celebrated" it by eating out at a steak house; typical American food, BIG steak, BIG plate... ye you can easily gain on weight over here! But anyway, it was good.

On Friday we had our first day at the school. We had a welcome briefing and oun fingerprints were also taken for the FBI. Now, the FBI will decide whether they will allow me to fly in US airspace!! Yes my fingerprints will actually tell them whether they can trust me or not!! Then again, welcome to the US! We were then taken around the school; administration offices, flight dispatch, the hangar, and then out on the apron!! It was cool going around the aicraft, thinking that in a few days time, I will be flying in one of them! I can't wait to start flying!! We were shown the Diamond DA-20, which is the aircraft I will start flying on! I've got a couple of photos of my first day but I will upload them next time until I get them sorted out. The following are two of them; me and Josef in the DA-20, and me next to a photo of an aircraft I'll be flying in a couple of months!!

Speaking of photos, I have also uploaded some photos of my visit to Malta, with various farewells with friends and families. Click on the album below to see the photos!!

Farewell Malta!!

Anyway, I'm calling it a day today. It was quite a long post but I had to give some updates! Next time I'll upload some photos of my first days in Arizona! I'm now off to sleep because I'm qutie tired and I'm still trying to get into the local time here.

Until next time... take care everyone!