I AM SNORKELING at a site in Palau called The Big Drop Off. I have snorkeled many amazing reefs around the world, from Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea to the barrier reef in Belize, but I have never seen anything quite like what I am gazing at today.

I AM SWAPPING for a trip on the swap board, a computer-based program where flight attendants pick up, drop or swap trips with other flight attendants or with open time, which is a posting of all trips with vacant positions needing coverage.

I AM CAREENING through the streets of Saigon, or should I say Ho Chi Minh City? It’ll always be Saigon to me, a leftover moniker from the war I watched every evening on TV as a young girl.

I AM DRINKING “jungle juice” in a bar in Osan, Korea with a group of American fighter pilots. I have no idea what this purplish concoction is, served in a large communal bowl with straws for everyone.

I AM INTERACTING with a group of Himba women at their village in northern Namibia. These girls are known for their elaborate hairstyles, long plaits like tidy dreadlocks wound with ribbons,

I AM ESCORTING a young boy to his seat. He boards first, before the other passengers, because he is an unaccompanied minor, traveling by himself, no parent with him on this flight.

I AM STANDING in front of a classroom of 15 Laotian teenagers in Phonsavan, Laos. I had read on the Internet that in this somewhat remote northern city, a bit off the typical tourist track, they love it if a native speaker pops in to teach an English class.

I AM KNEELING in a Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I am getting a sak yant tattoo that will be blessed by a monk. Sak yants are mystical tattoos with magical properties which will protect me from harm, bring me kindness and merit.

I’M JUST AN ORDINARY PERSON. I never thought of becoming a flight attendant. I assumed you had to be 5 feet 10 inches tall, drop dead gorgeous and speak five languages. I was none of those things.

I AM SIGHTSEEING in Hong Kong. The sights and smells on the street are overwhelming. The Chinese eat everything, and it is all for sale, coiled up in baskets, hanging from shop windows, crowded in cages.