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[Crew to follow] – Monica Blaset – from – Etihad | WOC

[Crew to follow] – Monica Blaset – from – Etihad | WOC

Friday is here and it’s time for our first Crew to follow for the year 2017. This week, we will be featuring our first #crewtofollow from Etihad airways, Monica.

About Monica

Monica Blaset, the young kid in the block, is a cabin crew for Etihad airlines and only in the last year started her journey as a crew. An avid traveler, a fashionista and a sneaker lover, she is quite a multi-tasker. Monica is currently working as a crew, is an active blogger, Instagrammer and also finishing her master’s thesis. Hats off to you, Monica!

When she is not traveling for work, she likes to travel just for leisure and take advantage of discounted tickers for crew. She also likes to go outside for a day at the pool or the beach, take a walk, or just spend time indoors watching some series.  She tries to take out time to finish her master’s thesis as well.

About being Crew

What could be better than earning money while pursuing your passion?

That’s precisely the reason why Monica took up the job as a flight attendant. While doing her master’s degree in Marketing, Monica like most of us was faced with the question of what next? She could not envision herself doing a routine 9-5  job yet. Not while she was still dreaming to travel and explore the world! Serendipitous as it was, it was around that time when she saw an opening at KLM and Etihad. But, as fate would have it, she was destined to pack her bags and shift her base to Abu Dhabi.

Monica told us, “Six months later, I was in the air performing my first flight, which felt so unreal.”

A new age traveler, she feels that traveling opens your mind to other people and cultures. It not only teaches you a lot about different cultures, but also makes you realize that the only way of living is not the one followed by your culture. It makes you look at things differently.

She said, “it really broadens your horizon and you will only fully understand this if you have traveled.”

Where can you find her?

Being a social media star

Having lived in Mexico for over a year before this, Monica regretted not taking many pictures, not capturing those magical, ephemeral moments, and not making them permanent. So, this time around, she decided to do things differently. She decided to seize those passing moments and share it with the world. 

Monica told us, “When I go out I ask my friends, crew and even strangers to take pictures of me on my layovers and travels. In the beginning this felt a little awkward, but in the end I am so happy with the memories.”

Her blog, which she uses to encapsulate her experiences in the layovers, is another medium that she uses to communicate with her followers and her friends and family back home.

“Furthermore, I wanted to know how to set up a website and monitor it, which fits with my studies in Marketing. I also love writing and it keeps the memories alive!”

About her blog

What we found the most interesting about her blog was that Monica writes in both English and Dutch. We are sure that it must take so much more effort to do so, but we are so glad for it. It gives us a chance to know about her travel adventures as well.

Her blog is fresh, honest and stripped of any pretensions. While you read her blog, be it about her New years trip to Oman or a layover at Paris or Nairobi, you feel that you are actually in touch with the real Monica. Who is telling you the truth about her feelings while she is traveling. It’s filled with small and funny incidents which make her travel seem real. Because well travel is not about perfection, but about admiring and falling in love with imperfections of each place.

Being a blogger and Instagrammer, she feels, gives her a chance to build a bigger network. It lets you connect with people, stay in touch with them and even meet up in person. She takes quite an interesting stance on social media, “Some people would say that social media is not real and not personal, but it already gave me the opportunity to meet great people.”

Managing work-life balance

On being asked that how does she manage it with her full time job, she told us that her job is her inspiration to write. “The reason I have the possibility to travel is because of my job. During my days off, I try to write as much as possible but sometimes it is hard to find the time to rest, write, hangout with friends and to work on my thesis.”

She does feel that balancing her personal and professional life gets a little hard sometimes. She misses her family and cats back home. But, she feels that her friends’ and family’s support makes it easier for her to carry on. She also told us, “This is the hardest part for me. I have a boyfriend of 4 years back home, who I miss enormously. Until now, I can say we are doing pretty good but it is not easy.”

A big shout to her man and we are sure that with time it will get much easier for you both!

And, like every cloud has a silver lining, she feels that moving to a new country has given her the opportunity to make new friends. “During training I immediately had a connection with some of the people from my batch and I have my own Abu Dhabi family here because of them.” – Monica

Tips to properly communicate with your audience

  • Try to keep your posts as close to you as you can. Besides traveling I have a passion for fashion and especially sneakers. My posts are a mixture of traveling and fashion because that is who I am.
  • Be open to communicate with people that reach out through direct messages or e-mails. I receive quite some messages for tips and tricks for assessment days or travels. I remember I had the same questions and I was shy to ask anyone, so I always respond to everyone.

3 tricks to avoid

  • Be openminded, your opinion might not be someone else’s opinion so sometimes it is better not to write about it and keep an open mind.
  • Stay professional and positive. Being crew can make you physically exhausted sometimes and it is very tough. Of course, I will not post pictures of myself when I lock myself in the lavatory for 5 minutes to take a deep breath and recover. In the end, I have a positive attitude and that is what I want to express to everyone. There is already enough negativity in the world, so I love to add something positive.
  • Don’t make anything too personal. Some stuff is just meant to be private and should not be shared.

About WOC

One of our early users from Etihad, she feels that World of Crew as an app is very handy and helpful.

WOC note

While reading Monica’s blogs or going through her Instagram feed, you can yourself feel the excitement that she is experiencing. We love it that she shares her excitement on receiving her roster. We recommend her blog to all for it’s freshness and novelty.

About The Author