Author Archives: lea

Slàn agus go raibh maith agat!

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(Goodbye and thank you! (hopefully translated correctly, if not, I apologize))

Hello everyone!! Can you believe it? A year ago I was still nervously awaiting the beginning of my journey into the hospitality industry and now I have finished the first two semesters. I can honestly not explain how happy and incredibly in awe I am, as to what I have seen and experienced throughout the past year. I met the most fascinating people and got to know oh so many different personalities. I took my first steps in the hospitality industry during a very interesting, all be it not always easy, internship in a lovely hotel in a country I had never been to before. Of course, through all of this and with the help of the courses in the first semester, I have already accumulated a whole lot of knowledge and have learned more about my own preferences in the industry.

In my last blog, I left off with the start of my night shift, so I thought I would tell you a bit about those interesting nights. Honestly, I have to say that the beginning of the night shifts was quite difficult seeing as you rarely see other people and simply due to the fact that your daily routine is somewhat turned upside down. However, after a few nights I had gotten more used to this spooky shift and was not as tired, as in the beginning.

Overall, I was able to perform a large part of the night audit during these shifts, which was definitely more than I had expected and gave me a good insight into the nightly tasks. My dancing and singing manager also helped a lot in making the night a lot more entertaining. Yes, you read correctly, my manager was actually always very upbeat and decided to keep himself awake by singing. I honestly do have to say that I admire the people who constantly work overnight, such as the overnight housekeepers and overnight managers, as well as those who always have to change their shifts, constantly shifting from early morning to night shifts, such as the security people, as it is a very hard job to do in my opinion, and these people’s lives are obviously a lot different from others. All in all, I feel that my night shifts were a very valuable experience, but definitely did not turn into my favourite shifts overall.

After my night shifts were over (all in all I was on night shifts for about three weeks), I was introduced back into ‘normal’ life, which actually included the occasional rays of sun. Not too many of course, it was Ireland after all (no, the rain is neither a prejudice against the country, nor a myth!), but now and then the sun did decide to say a short hello. The day shifts were all very regular and those where I was allowed to work at the desk by myself were especially exciting. Then, at the beginning of December, the hotel started to fill up. Those busy days, where we had people queuing up at reception were definitely the most fun, but also the most nerve-wracking, all while being very good days to get used to quite stressful situations. Then as the gorgeous Christmas trees and the lovely holiday decorations were put up and the Christmas music finally started playing (personally, I would have started playing the music at the beginning of November, but for some mysterious reason my colleagues were not that enthusiastic about my genius idea), I realized that my internship at the Ritz-Carlton was coming to an end and that I would actually get to go back home.

A few weeks later that is what I did. After a tearful goodbye from my lovely colleagues and friends, I packed my bags, which were of course overweight due to the unwillingness of the scale at the intern house to cooperate and therefore caused a bit of trouble at the airport, and after all this finally headed back home to Germany and later on to South Africa, which is where I am now.

All in all I have to say that the internship at the Ritz-Carlton honestly helped me to learn a lot about hospitality and gave me a very good insight into Rooms Division, while my friends and colleagues made my time there all the more special, which I can not thank them for enough.

With this I wish all of you a wonderful New Year filled with joy, good health and success and I will write my final blog, once I am back in Switzerland.

Have a lovely week!

Lea

Life and Work at Ritz Carlton part 2

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Hello everyone!

About a month has passed since my last blog post, so I thought it would be about time to get you updated on my experiences at the front desk.

The past few weeks have been full of new challenges and it was again essential, as it is so often in this industry, to be able to catch on quickly, to deal with stressful situations and to persevere during the hotel’s busy days.

My working space

After a few days of training and shadowing at the front desk, I was let loose on the guests myself, having to try to deal with complaints, queries, check-ins, check-outs and other day to day tasks of the front office. At the beginning, it did take quite an effort to even answer the phone in a calm manner, as I felt that I was just thrown into cold water, not knowing what to expect.

The beautiful lobby

It amazes me how quickly this task became a normal routine for someone like me, who always takes a while to get their constant nervousness and rising panic under control. Now and then, you do get a few calls which are a little awkward or which you might not be able to answer directly, but just as often you get simple ones, of which you definitely do not have to be afraid. The point I am trying to make is that even though you might be a rather timid person and are afraid that front office is not the place for you, this can change, if you just give yourself a little push. If you are ready to try this, working in this department can really give you very good people skills and increased confidence.

 

I personally really enjoy working in the front office, as it gives you the opportunity to communicate with your guests in person. This way you are made aware of certain aspects of the hotel, which might need some improvement, as well as being the recipient of all the joy and excitement sent out by the guests, when they are anticipating their stay or when they have thoroughly enjoyed it. Furthermore, you can deal with certain requests directly and make sure that they really get the most out of their experience at your property. From time to time, you have guests who just brighten up your day, simply by being the nice people that they are. This is one of the best parts about this industry in my opinion: making sure you create an unforgettable experience for your guests and brightening their life up a little by doing so. Of course, all the departments in the hotel work toward achieving this goal, but in front office you actually get to see the happy faces of your customers or the beaming eyes of their children, which really motivates you to continue working.

Now of course, the work is not fun all of the time, especially if you do not have a lot to do on quiet days, but I suppose that is just a normal part of the work. Another factor that is truly nice about working in this department is the colleagues. Some of my front office colleagues are amazing people who really try to help you and assist you when there is a problem. I already know that the things I will miss most about this internship are the amazing people, amongst the interns as well as among the employees who I’ve met at this hotel.

Welcoming the guest

The work might not always be very easy, but the people just make it all worthwhile.

Now the next step of my journey will take me to the world of night shifts, something I am very curious about, as I can’t imagine what it is like, when your night turns into day time. I certainly hope that the hotel is not haunted….what with Ireland being such a mystical place and all.

On that note I wish everyone a wonderful November and I will inform you about my newest adventures, hopefully without ghostly encounters, in a month’s time.

Lea

Pictures taken from: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Powerscourt/Default.htm

Life and work at Ritz Carlton

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Hello everyone!

As I told you in my last blog, I worked in laundry for two weeks and have now been working as supervisor for a couple of weeks as well.

First off, I have to admit that my time in the laundry was far more interesting than I had originally expected it to be. Fearing that I would have to iron shirts all day long, I was rather skeptical about starting my work in this department, but it turned out to be a very nice experience. I learned how the laundry is opened in the morning, what the routine is like (meaning when you wash which uniforms, when and how you take care of the guest laundry, when it is time to launder the manager’s shirts and so on) and how to close the laundry in the evening time. Laima, Regina and Santiago, the hotel’s full-time laundry attendants, patiently showed me how to handle everything in this section of the housekeeping department and I also got the chance to learn many of the employees’ names, as I was always there to hand out their uniforms. Therefore the laundry is actually a great place to socialize, which is something I bet you did not know either. So all in all it was a very enjoyable time, in which I also improved my own ironing skills!

After my time in the laundry, I then moved on to getting trained as a supervisor. As a supervisor in housekeeping you make sure that all the clean rooms have been properly cleaned, that there is no dust left, that all the amenities and appliances that are supposed to be in the room (which is something that also differentiates between different categories) are actually there and that everything in the technological department is working as well in order to prepare the room for our guests and to ensure that there are hopefully no complaints or problems, which could cause dissatisfaction or more work for us later on.

I was trained for about a week, so I felt prepared when I was let loose on the rooms myself, although I do have to admit that it feels quite daunting to have the sole responsibility for the rooms, which you have to inspect. This is the reason why I am very specific about all the small details, which is only a problem in the sense that I am quite slow at inspecting. The speed at which you have to check the rooms on a busy day was particularly challenging at the beginning and still is to be completely honest, but I am seeing improvements, as I have established a routine by now which makes it easier to work a bit faster. In the end, it always depends on the state of the rooms, whether you are fast enough or not. But especially if you have a long list of arrivals and there is a large amount of things missing in the rooms, it can be quite exhausting to run up and down the staircases every few minutes to get the things that are missing. So if you decide to come to this hotel in the next few weeks and you see someone looking slightly panicked and nervous running up and down the stairs, that must be me. At least there have been no issues so far, so I am hoping that is stays this way.

I hope you got a little insight into my life as a supervisor here and I will keep you updated on any changes! My last two weeks of housekeeping are coming now, after which I will then move to the front office, which is something I am also really looking forward to. So at the latest I will have some news for you in three weeks’ time!

With this I wish everyone a lovely week!

Lea

Greetings from Ireland

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Dia duit from Ireland!

I hope everyone who was so lucky as to have a summer vacation or holiday, had a great and relaxing one!

Personally, I only had five days at home (not to complain, as five days are by far better than no time at all) before I embarked on the plane and then on to the next step of my journey to Ireland.

Sitting in the plane, I wondered about what awaited me in the green country and which challenges I would encounter in this new environment, which I had been looking forward to seeing ever since I signed my contract a few months back.

Upon arrival at the airport in Dublin, I already met two of my very friendly, soon-to-be colleagues and housemates and we made our way to Bray, one of the larger towns in Ireland, where we were to be picked up by the guest service manager of the hotel.

After a warm welcome, we were dropped off at our home. More precisely, we were deposited in one of the four intern houses, where we had some time to settle in. As it turned out, one of the girls I had already met at the airport, Ornella, was in fact my new roommate; a surprise that I was very happy about, as she is an immensely kind person. I guess I am always really lucky with my roommates! Altogether there are seven people living in the house, which honestly does take some getting used to, but is a good and interesting experience, once you get adjusted to things. If you are in need of some solitude once in a while though, you can just take a stroll along the beautiful Irish Sea, which is definitely one of the advantages of living here.

The next day we discovered our place of work for the next six months: the absolutely gorgeous and idyllic Ritz Carlton Powerscourt near the charming village of Enniskerry.

After a short orientation and “meet and greet” with all of the other interns, we followed a more thorough orientation, where everyone was introduced to the Ritz Carlton principles and the different staff members. Then, we were immediately introduced to our departments.

I found out that I would start in housekeeping and move on to front office roughly three months later. I was also very excited to find out that even within the housekeeping department I would get the opportunity to work in different areas, starting in public ones and then moving on to working as housekeeping coordinator.

The first week consisted of a cross training and introduction to all the different housekeeping fields, such as the afore mentioned public areas, the housemen and the room attendants, which was quite varied and a good way of getting a quick overview of everything. I was also amazed by the kindness of everyone working in this department, as I was treated in a very friendly manner and welcomed into the team openly and immediately.

The second week then consisted of a cross training in front office, once again just to get a first impression of things, after which I then moved back to working in public areas in housekeeping, as well as learning to work as a room attendant, which I honestly have to admit really is an extremely exhausting and challenging job. My next stop will now be the laundry, after which I will then be trained as a supervisor, so I definitely can´t complain about monotony.

I hope you got a good first impression about my internship and I will keep you posted on my experiences here.

I also want to wish all new students, which will be starting their life in Glion very soon, the best of luck and a great start!

Lea

Craft Based Learning – Part 2 Kitchen

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Hello Everyone,

Here I am to share my second part of craft-based learning experiences with you.

The second week was unexpectedly my favorite one so far. As those of you who might read my blog frequently already know, I was quite uncertain of what to expect from working in the kitchen. I had the clichéd image of yelling chefs in the back of my head, but it turned out to be a very fun experience and I am actually rather sad that I will not be able to go back to kitchen tomorrow morning. I got to work in the three sections of a kitchen: the hot, the cold and the pastry sections. Honestly, I enjoyed working in all three of them, especially the hot area, because the working atmosphere was very enjoyable. Most of the chefs are very helpful and not at all terrifying, even making jokes most of the time or imitating birds by suddenly starting to chirp, while you are cutting tomatoes.

Although one does not really cook that much in the traditional sense of following recipes, as of course this is also not the point of our week in kitchen, you still prepare a lot of food by cutting, grilling, arranging and so on. You get a good overview of how the masses of food are prepared every day and which is the most logical procedure for doing this.

When your work in kitchen is done, you then go on to setting up the food in the school’s two outlets and start serving the other students upon their arrival. This is very interesting, especially in the hot section, as you are forced to work in a very fast manner and it is also a unique feeling, when you are ‘feeding’ so many people. After this work everything has to be properly cleaned and then the same process is repeated for the dinner period. Another aspect of the work, which is quite interesting, is that every night two student chefs are selected, who have to manage all of the processes in the most efficient way possible. This gives a good impression of how important it is to give clear instructions, keep your own team motivated and keep a good eye on everything. In the danger of repeating myself, I still have to say that it was a very fun experience!!

So all in all I can say that I have already learned a lot about these two sectors and realized the importance of speed, efficient time management in general, team work, motivation, taking logical steps when working, while also having understood that there is no need to be scared of the CBL, as it truly is a very amusing part of the studies and can also bring you closer to your team mates.

Now the last week of work lies ahead of me, as I will be working in service at our two restaurants, which are located directly on the main campus. This might be a little boring to be honest, because a lot of the students have already finished their semester and have left the university, but it is obviously still important to keep the service going for those who are left. At the end of the week, some of us will then be going to Bulle to work during the graduation ceremony. This is something I look forward to a lot, as it will again be a different environment, which we get to look at.

After this, I will finally be able to go home, which I am looking forward to so much. I am really starting to miss my family and friends. At the same time, I cannot believe that this semester is already coming to an end and that I will not see my friends here for such a long time, but I tend to ignore this fact for now and just keep the positive outlook of my one week of vacation, which is coming up soon.

I wish you a wonderful week!

Lea

Craft Based Learning – Part 1 Service

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Hello everyone and once again I hope that you have had a nice past two weeks!
Personally, my own past two weeks have been very interesting and a lot different than the weeks before. I got an inside look into working in service, as well as in the kitchen area, which overall was a lot of fun.

During the first week, my colleagues and I worked at the Hotel des Alpes, which is Glion’s “a la carte” restaurant. We learned how the operations at the restaurant are run by taking a look at the cleaning processes, the menu explanation and the overall service, which is offered to the customers.

Craft Based Learning - My service team

Having never worked as a waitress before, I found  this was all very interesting, as well as being a little nerve wracking, because there are a lot of details which go into the work in such a restaurant. You have to memorize a very specific chronology, while at the same time helping out your colleagues as much as possible and keeping up a positive attitude and positive relationship with your customer. Even this can be a bit stressful now and then, especially when you are coordinating multiple tables at the same time, running from the kitchen while trying not to let all of the plates drop and still looking elegant while doing so. Luckily, I had very friendly and supportive customers, which made everything a lot easier.

At the end of the week, you have a little exam, in which you have to set up an a la carte, as well as a banquet set up, which is also very focused on details, but obviously again essential to know, when you are in the hospitality field. The exam itself is generally nothing to be afraid of if you are not as clumsy as me and therefore not able to unfold a table cloth in the correct manner and subsequently start to panic and fall back into unfolding the cloth in the same way you do it at home. This might not seem crucial for outside onlookers, but every little step is important for the smooth operation of the service. All in all it was a great way to get a first idea of the organization behind a restaurant, once again realizing how important it is to have a well-coordinated and motivated team.

News about my CBL will be continued next week….

Lea

Part Two: the end of Classes

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Throughout the last three months I feel that I have gained a very good first insight into the workings and the structure of this industry.

In our “Introduction to Hospitality Management” course we learned about the structure of the industry, about different segments, about different companies and about multiple managerial principles, along with many other factors of the sector.

A big part of this course is made up of group presentations, where you have to practice your team work abilities and do very thorough research in order to be able to present the company you are given in the most detailed way possible.

One of my other favorite courses this semester was ‘Rooms Division’, which makes me look forward to my internship even more, as I will actually see many of the things which we learned about put to practice. This course is divided into housekeeping and front office operations, where you again learn about the operating procedures and structure of the two departments. The aspect which makes this course particularly interesting are the many examples you are given that are both drawn from the very nice teacher’s own experience, as well as from more general scenarios. Furthermore, the subject also includes quite a few calculations, such as ones used for calculating room availability for example. Do not worry if you are not the world’s greatest mathematician, you will able to get learning support at the university if you should feel that you need it.

My next favorite subject was Spanish, where I had a very lovely teacher who taught us a lot in only a few weeks’ time. As languages and communication in general are again key to being successful in this industry, it is always very useful to learn as many languages as possible. However, as I explained in one of my previous blogs, you might have to take some English courses before you will be able to progress to a foreign language course. I have heard this is actually quite helpful, as a high level of academic English is needed on the Bulle campus later on and in general many essays need to be written.

Getting back to Spanish, I have to say that I enjoyed our courses very much and that I was very proud, when I recently actually understood some spoken Spanish in a movie, which I was watching. This might seem insignificant to some, but it was a nice little achievement for me, because I really think that Spanish is a wonderful language.

Another course I really appreciated in retrospect was IT (Information Technology). Now, I am actually able to create a nice Power Point Presentation, use Excel (which was something I was quite nervous about at the beginning of the course), and have found things about Word which I did not know existed. Skills in these areas really do facilitate work on academic projects in general and even though people might try to scare you off at first by telling you that IT is a very difficult subject, generally it seemed to be alright for those who always worked and studied and attended the “SI sessions” on a regular basis. These are optional sessions given by Semester 3 students in order to give additional tutoring in the difficult subjects of accounting and math. The last subject, as I have also mentioned in a previous blog, was PDAS (Personal Development in Academic Skills), in which you learn how to reflect and get to know yourself a bit better.

After having finished all of the coursework in these subjects, a huge weight was lifted from everyone’s shoulders and this weekend seemed like a little mini holiday. My friends and I got to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the area, by visiting a nearby town and by going swimming. Another activity, which I can really recommend to those of you, who are joining Glion during summer time, is to go paddle boating or canoeing on the lake, as it is absolutely beautiful and very relaxing after all of the work, which you have to do for the university.

Getting back to academic life, I do have to make it clear that I am not actually done with the first semester yet, but our schedule is structured in a way that we have finished all of the academic courses, which means that the huge amounts of exams, projects and other assignments are actually done. Yes, done!  This fact led me to do a little happy dance last Friday. Now, we will go into our so called CBL, our ‘craft based learning’. During this course we will have one week of introduction, where, as far as I know it, we will be introduced to certain hygiene principles, as well as serving techniques etc., which is then followed by three weeks of work overall.

One week of CBL is done in the kitchen. A second week is done at the “Hôtel des Alpes” which is an a la carte restaurant that belongs to the university.  The third week, we will work at the ‘Bellevue’ and the ‘Café Viennois’, which are the two other restaurants that you can find on the main campus. I will keep you informed about these courses every week, as I go along. Overall, I can say that I am excited to be leaving the books closed and concentrating on gaining some practical experience. Nevertheless, I am also quite nervous about this course, because I have no experience. I am a terrible cook and overall a little clumsy, but please keep this to yourself, will you? However, being a positive person I strongly believe that I will be able to improve in these areas (which still need a lot of improvement) simply by paying attention and doing the best I can. But as I mentioned before, I will keep you updated on my progress and hope that this will help you to get a better idea of what the course is about.

So to conclude I would again like to tell you that so far my journey here has been amazing and I look forward to keeping you posted on my experiences.

With this I wish everyone a wonderful week!!!

Lea

Part One: the End of Classes

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Hello everyone and I hope you all had a nice week!

I cannot believe that three quarters of the first semester are already over, as it seems, despite everything that has happened in these past months, that it was just yesterday that I was composing my first student blog thinking and dreaming about Glion and the time to come. Time is really passing rapidly and my feelings about this are actually quite diverse and mixed.

On the one hand I am eternally grateful that I have actually found an industry and a place I really love and am very passionate about, as well as being indescribably happy about having met such wonderful people here, having subjects that really interest me and living in such a great place in general.

On the other hand, I feel a bit sad that the first semester is coming to an end. Now, I will not be able to see my new friends for six months at least and I will probably not even see some of them for a year, as the programs vary and have different structures. I know that this must not seem as bad to someone looking at it ‘from afar’, but I just feel that I am really leaving my second family behind, a family I have gotten unexpectedly and immensely close to over the past months. So if you are still worried about finding friendly and warm people here, if you are joining Glion soon, I can guarantee you that you will find many of them on campus, so do not fear. If you are nice and open to people, it will definitely be easy to make contacts and I can guarantee you that you will not be by yourself for long.

Another thing I am very anxious and nervous about, as well as obviously tremendously excited about, is my impending internship. We just received another briefing from the Internship Department on Friday, which again informed us about the appropriate ‘codes of conduct’, which we should follow at the hotel, as well as giving us information about certain procedures, which need to be fulfilled before, during and after our internship. Listening to all of this just made it even clearer, how soon we will actually be embarking on this new journey. This is momentarily a bit daunting, if I am completely honest.

Do not get me wrong though, I really want to go on my internship and gain as much experience as possible, but as I do not have any prior experience of working in a hotel, I am still a little scared. It seems as though we have all just settled in at Glion and are now sent off into the world again, which all in all is a good aspect of the program. Working in the hospitality industry, I am sure it is helpful to learn to become flexible and adaptable to change very quickly. This is, after all, a major characteristic, which you need to have for a job in this field. So again I do believe that the internship is going to give us a good first insight into the industry and overall I really love that we have the opportunity to do it, despite of being a bit emotional at the moment.

And now since I have drifted a bit off my original subject, I would like to tell you something about the end of our classes, and what I think about this in the next blog post.

To be continued…

Lea

Festival of Cultures

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As all of you know, some of the most important attributes and characteristics you need to possess, when emerging into the world of hospitality are to be open-minded, tolerant and respectful, as well as having a certain multicultural sensitivity.

All of these traits are promoted on a daily basis due to being surrounded by such a wide array of nationalities and cultures, and everyone who is a student at Glion surely already possesses at least the basis for these characteristics.

To encourage multicultural perspectives, Glion hosts the Cultural fair, in which a large proportion of the cultures present on campus are represented by the students in decorated stands.

Because of this fair, we have the opportunity to learn about the beauty of the different countries, their customs and traditions. We can generally be fascinated by the everyday life in countries, which might have been barely or even completely unknown to us. This is one of the wonderful things about this university and this field of work in general: the ability to broaden one’s own horizon to a level which surpasses the one you might achieve in another field. With this I obviously do not want to claim that hospitality is the only field where multiculturalism is encouraged, but it is certainly one of the central aspects of the industry. If you are not interested in the stunning range of cultures this planet has to offer, you should probably reconsider choosing hospitality as a career.

To get back to the actual Cultural Fair, I can say that it was a very fun, yet stressful, event.  The Inclusion and Diversity Committee also prepared a stand, called “Europe meets Africa”, in which we presented South Africa and Portugal as two representatives of the two continents. These were two of the countries which were not represented in the rest of the fair.

For those of you who have been following my blog, it is probably quite evident that myself and my roommate and friend Liping, were in charge of the South Africa part of the stand. We spent hours preparing brochures with information about the country, a language lesson, a quiz, South African fruits for everyone to try and many pictures and decorations presenting the absolute beauty of the country and presented it to students and other members of the university on the day of the Cultural Fair.

The things which we had in our stand mostly represent the overall concept of this event. You inform people about your country by presenting food, music, customs and decorations to everyone, who is interested. If you need an additional incentive in participating, a prize can be won as well; however, we have not yet been informed about the winning group.  While it is always nice to win, this is not the central point of the day. Personally, I think the competition for our group might have been a little too tough due to the beauty of the other stands, but then again you can always hope for the best.

Many of Glion’s students grabbed the opportunity to represent their home, which most of them understandably seem to be very proud of, on this day and did it in a great manner. The gym and the club were filled with colorful stands which represented the manifold student body, which this university entails.

So to sum up, I can say that it was a great experience and it is something you can definitely look forward to when joining Glion and something that is also an essential part on the road to discovery of  the oh so important and unique “Glion spirit”.

Lea

Ice-Skating Adventure

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Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a very nice weekend and are ready to go back to work.
In Glion, there are a variety of different things and activities to do on weekends. It is obviously essential and necessary to do some academic work, be it on projects, studying for exams or simply doing homework, but the workload varies from week to week and for those times, where not a lot of work has to be done, the university also offers trips and excursions, reaching from city trips, to visiting thermal baths or going indoor climbing.

Apart from these planned trips, one can obviously also go on individually planned excursions to nearby cities, such as Geneva for example, or simply go for a walk along the gorgeous lake. There really is a lot to do.

Last weekend I went on my first school-organized excursion to the Palladium de Champéry for ice skating. Even though I honestly have to say that I am personally one of the worst ice skaters I know, usually falling down after every second meter, I had a very fun and enjoyable day.

We went ice skating with two of the university’s sports coordinators, as well as two ice-skating champions, Ana-Sophia and Robert, who impressed everyone with their amazing talent, as well as trying to teach us motivated students some of the basic ice skating figures and “stunts”.

For a couple of hours the ice skating hall was therefore filled with aspiring professional ice skaters, some being more successful than others and some just trying to keep themselves from falling down, like myself for instance. Then after a very fun day and after bonding with old and new friends, everyone returned home to Glion, tired and happy.

Sometimes events, where students can volunteer, also take part on weekends. This weekend for example we had another Open Day and welcomed many friendly people from all over the world, who are interested in joining Glion’s “global village”.  Talking with all of these visitors, as you can volunteer in different areas during Open Day, about my first experiences in Glion and answering questions about the university, made me realize how happy and proud I am to be part of this community, how much I have already learned and how I look forward to staying here (and of course abroad during the internships) in the next few years.

Once again wishing you a wonderful week!!

Lea