Paulyne & Oli - One Second Journal

We are Paulyne and Oliver, a couple that loves to explore new destinations in all their facets and two people that are constantly curious. To give you a bit better understanding of who we are we introduce ourselves individually below.

Paulyne

My name is Paulyne, born in 1991 too, in Pau (south of France). My grandparents lived in a few African countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Gabon and Djibouti) and French Islands like Reunion and Martinique.

During family reunions I have always been hearing stories about those times abroad. I guess that this triggered my curiosity for other countries. I then started to travel by plane and very young began to tell everyone I wanted to be Cabin Crew and explore our beautiful planet.

And guess what am I doing today ? Cabin Crew !

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Before starting to work as a Flight Attendant I studied Foreign Languages. It was important for me to become bilingual in English to be able to apply for airlines.

In 2011 came the year when I had to go to an English speaking country for one semester, I chose Australia. I lived there for 5 months where I fell in love with this country. I still hope to move back one day.

However, I had to go back to France to finish my studies always having in mind to travel again as soon as possible. Only one month later, I found myself in New York for New Year Eve.

My addiction for travelling had started.

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Beginning 2014, with my master almost finished I decided to apply for Emirates airlines. I did my interview in May and in July I was moving to my new home, Dubai.

On one side, moving abroad was a huge change for me and I was super excited. On the other side, I was also anxious because it was a totally different culture to what I came across before, and to be honest it wasn’t love at first sight.

I got to learn to deal with the aspects I didn’t like and my biggest support was that I was flying to approximately 6 different countries a month. I could be in Jakarta on Monday, back to Dubai on Tuesday and then flying to San Francisco on Friday.

I just loved it!

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Of course it was not the best way to discover a country, as the layovers were short, but it gave me a glimpse of it to know if I would like to come back or not.

On top of that, this job gives you huge advantages to travel on your days off. (If you want any information about this job, feel free to contact me via contact@onesecondjournal.com).

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Something that I deeply appreciate about Emirates and Dubai was the cosmopolitan aspect of it. Everyday I was meeting new people from all around the world with different cultures and backgrounds, I let you imagine how gratifying this can be.

However, it could also be hard sometimes. For example, when you see people in need (you don’t only have rich people in Dubai and it is quite easy to see), of course you feel grateful for what you have but you also feel heartbroken to see that there are still so much inequalit in our world nowadays.

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After those three years I was feeling like a new chapter, I moved to Berlin in November 2017 with Oli and enjoyed his hometown for a few months. It is now one of my favorite cities in Europe and I never miss a chance to go for a few days.

As I was not speaking German, I couldn’t apply for a German airline so we decided to move to France. I found a Cabin Crew job quite easily and Oli found his job at Evaneos.

At the end we both got quite lucky because we are working for something we are passionate about: traveling.

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Lately we have been traveling more in Europe being busy with our jobs but we still have so many projects for the upcoming months. So stay tuned !

I really enjoy writing, Oli is pretty good at photography and we both like interactions with others so we thought it would be a good idea to create a blog where we can keep our memories but also share with you and interact with other travellers.

I hope you will like it and do not hesitate to write us !

Oliver

I was born in 1991 in Berlin, Germany and grew up there until I was 19 years old. The first movie that I went to in cinemas was the Lion King. Obviously until now still my favourite movie and probably the reason for my great passion for nature, wildlife and Africa.

After finishing high school I needed to get out and find out what I want to do with my time on this beautiful planet. Back then I had no idea so I decided to move to Australia for a year to find out who I really am and what I wanted to.

In this life-changing year, I not only got my first work experience and learned how to speak English but also got infected with the travel bug.

On my journey throughout Australia I realized how interesting it is to dive into a different culture, meet strangers that later become family and discover landscapes that I only knew from TV.

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After one year I returned to Germany to start studying International Business Administration, because I always wanted to find a way to protect our flora and fauna on this planet.

Economies and global companies are the main reason for their destruction and disappearance so I wanted to understand how we could change the current state.

In my studies I then had the chance to live in numerous countries thanks to exchange semesters and internships.

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First I moved to Istanbul, Turkey, because we have a lot of people in Germany with Turkish background. At the same time, there are tons of prejudices about them in Germany, so I was interested about where their ancestors were coming from and how it would be to live in a muslim shaped culture.

After living in Turkey I directly moved to the South of France, to Biarritz, to do an internship. I missed the sea and I missed to surf so it was the perfect place to go. It was also the place where I met Paulyne. The love of my life… cheezy I know.

Unfortunately, I had to go back and continue my studies. After two years of living in Germany, I had enough and managed to get two exchange semester for my masters.

The first one brought me to Iceland. The island of gods how I liked to call it, due to the fact that on a tiny piece of land you will find so much astonishing beauty, it is incredible. After spending my time with the vikings, it was now time to follow my true destiny.

Africa was calling.

I was always dreaming of Africa, so I finally moved to Cape Town in 2017. There I studied for 6 month and then went on a 2 month long trip that took me from the most beautiful city in the world up until the equator, passing numerous African countries along the way.

But again I needed to return home to finish my studies. In the end I decided to devote my final thesis to Africa and write about how local people can truly become empowered and rise out of poverty.

This thesis and my interests led me finally to where I am today. I am happily living in Paris and work at Evaneos, a travel tech company as an Account Development Manager that tries to empower local travel agencies in Africa and the Middle East. In the end it worked out quite well.

I love to share my passion about traveling and especially nature so that other people also go out and discover those beautiful places that our wonderful planet has to offer.

That is why I started to take pictures and write my stories. I hope you will enjoy them.