An amazing day

As many people know I'm one of the world's best (or worst, dependent on how you look at it) moaners and I can do it with the best of them but today has been an almost life changing day.

Since Monday we have been doing a number of exercise and sitting in a number of lectures with my respective classmates for the next 14 months. Many have been about rules and procedures, the dos and don'ts etc. To be very honest, they weren't the most exciting lectures I'll ever sit through.

We currently are being taken care of, during our induction week by three fantastic PTC members of staff who are not just kind but also really passionate about their jobs, the students and the company. The 'main man' this week is really something special. Not only does he have a voice to rival those of Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman, he has a background and an ideology to match. He is one of those people you cannot help but listen to. His ideas about life are quite inspiring and the advice and tuition he has given this week has been absolutely top draw.

This afternoon he had us taking part in an activity that, for me, put a new slant on life. Since our arrival, the 13 of us who met in London, Dublin and Orlando have worked and socialised as a group which has been great. Earlier today we took part in an exercise which was designed for us to interact more with the half a dozen or so other men who have since joined our group. They are all from Kazakhstan (a country put on the map by the infamous Borat film) and have been sent here by their national carrier to become the next wave of pilots of the country's flagship airline.

Our groups were designed so that all were able to intermingle. We were each able to talk and share information about our backgrounds, our likes and dislikes and our beliefs. It was absolutely amazing to find out about a country I have never really studied (or much thought about!) before. Their culture brings them up to act like absolute gentleman and the backgrounds of a number of them have been so interesting. One being an agricultural pilot flying old soviet planes in Southern Russia and another the U19 football (soccer) national goalkeeper!

I've always been interested in learning about different cultures from countries we 'Westerners' are not too familiar with. I've been luck enough to go to places like Shanghai in China, Jerusalem in Israel and Havana in Cuba. Each country has it's own type of fascinating people and the Kazakhs are right up there with the best of them.