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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Mid-term break

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As I mentioned in my previous blog, the last few weeks have been very tiring and stressful, which is why everyone was very excited to be going on their first mid-term break and within hours the campus resembled an almost completely uninhabited area. At the same time, the train stations and the airport in Geneva became the new gathering spots for most of the students and you were certain to see a lot of familiar faces in these places, faces which belonged to people who were just as eager as myself to go back home and reunite with family or friends or to go on a different trip and explore new countries and cultures.

The very practical location of Switzerland makes it rather easy to travel to places such as Spain, France, Germany, Italy or other nearby countries, which is what many students actually decided to do for their midterm break. Some of my friends went to Spain, visited Madrid and Barcelona, others went to France, specifically Paris and enjoyed the beautiful monuments of this gorgeous city.  Some people simply had some fun at Disneyland, others went to Italy, mainly to Rome, and relished the very special atmosphere this city has to offer and the list goes on and on.

Many others, such as myself, went home for this one week of vacation and enjoyed some time in familiar environments and with their loved ones. I was very happy, when my lovely family picked me up at the airport, where I had had to say a tearful goodbye to them just two months before and it just felt very surreal, when I began to think about all of the things in my life, which have happened and changed over such a small period of time.

These changes were obviously and gladly all very positive, but nevertheless it felt a bit awkward to suddenly be back at home. After a short adjustment period however, I began my obligatory and joyfully anticipated journey through my local town and the surrounding area, such as Cologne for example, where I visited all of my great friends and my family and was able to give a very detailed report of what has happened over the last weeks.

I always love spending time with my loved ones; nevertheless, it did not seem like I had not seen most of them for two months because Skype and other modern technology really facilitates everything and makes it easier to keep all of the relationships alive, which is how homesickness is kept to a minimum. Of course, I do have to mention that I am very lucky and fortunate not to have any time difference between Switzerland and Germany, which makes everything a lot less difficult.

After the week was over, I happily returned back to Glion, excited to see my second family again, because, in my opinion, a strong bond is formed between students here very quickly, as most students are far away from home and you spend a lot of time with one another.

So I hope you are now relieved to know, that there is a break in the semester and you do not have to work straight through until your internship and you might even have the opportunity to see your family again quite quickly, travel or simply stay on campus and relax for a while.

Personally I am now ready for the next worked-filled half of the semester and I am excited to be able to keep you informed about any new developments, which occur.

Having said that, I once again wish you a lovely week!

Lea

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A day in the life of a Glion student

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Hello everyone!

The last few weeks have been packed with many exams, projects, presentations and various other assignments, but I have now gotten used to this rather busy and hectic schedule and I am able to update you on my past two weeks at Glion and my life as a student in general.

As I promised in my last blog, I would like to give you a more thorough insight into everyday life at Glion in order to help you to get a better impression of what your life would be like here.
I am therefore going to illustrate one of these days with one of the busiest days we have had here, but le me reassure you that this schedule is not the one issued for every single day and the schedule generally varies from week to week, which is rather nice, because this way everything stays interesting and the variety is kept alive.

A normal day at Glion for me usually starts at around 6:30 a.m., where I have to finally give in to the irritating, and in my opinion quite evil, sound of my alarm clock after having already hit the snooze button repeatedly during the last forty minutes. After getting ready, breakfast then starts at 7:20 a.m. and my friends and I grab a seat near a window to be put into a better mood by looking at the beautiful scenery surrounding the school. Luckily, attending breakfast is on a voluntary activity. This is also why the restaurant seems like a deserted planet at breakfast in comparison to the very lively and vibrant atmosphere present during the other meal periods.

Courses then start at 8:00 a.m. with either Rooms Division, Introduction to Hospitality, PDAS (Personal Development in Academic Skills) IT or Food & Beverage, since my class always has language lessons in the afternoon. The next lesson then commences at 10:05 a.m. and usually runs until about 11:50.  At that time, everyone rushes off to have lunch in order to avoid the long queues that are usually formed by all of the hungry students. The lunch break normally lasts until around 1:45 p.m., but is sometimes also consumed by presentations of hotel companies and partially also with interviews, which you are able to have with these companies.

Personally, I had two very exciting interviews, one with the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt in Ireland and one with Hilton UK and both were, as I can very happily say, successful. I received internship offers from both companies and now have decided to do my internship in the wonderful Ritz Carlton, which means that I will be moving to Ireland in about seven weeks. This news is immensely exciting, as well as frightening, but gives you a good opportunity to learn how to adapt to new surroundings and situations very quickly, which obviously is essential for the hospitality industry in general.

Returning to my daily schedule, the classes then, as I mentioned before, continue at 1:45 p.m. until 3:40 p.m. and the last course starts at 3:50 p.m. and ends at around 5:40 p.m.
After a long day of lectures, course work and other academic work, it is time for dinner.

Having gained new energy from the last meal of the day, most other students, as well as myself, then go on to participating in one of the various sports activities in order to destress a bit, spend time with friends or colleagues or simply to get rid of some of those nasty calories, which have accumulated throughout the day. Additionally, you might have, as I do on a regular basis, some volunteer meetings where new initiatives or projects are discussed. After any of these leisurely activities, you usually need to set aside a few hours to work on homework, group projects, individual projects or research essays, presentations or to study for upcoming exams, which take place on a somewhat weekly basis.

A long day usually ends at around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. for me and a large part of the other students at the university, but fear not, because, as I said before, this is not the case every single day and on the plus side you also have the weekends, where you can refill your energy and relax a little bit.

I hope you now have a better understanding of what a day in the stressful phases of Glion is like and I wish all of you a very pleasant week!

Lea

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Life on campus

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Before I tell you about the events of the past two weeks, I would like to take some time to express my deepest sympathy to all those affected by the catastrophic events in Japan. The magnitude of what has happened and of what is still going on is simply unbelievable and I urge everyone to help in any way they can.

Getting back to more positive occurrences, I have a lot to report about the last two weeks.
Regarding my academic life, the past weeks have been quite busy. We had our first exams in IT and in F&B, as well as a few presentations and generally a full schedule. This week is also going to be rather hectic, because we have our final exam in IT coming up and we have a language exam, which in my case is in Spanish, on Thursday. In regards to the languages, you are either placed in Advanced, Extension or Academic English, but you also have the possibility of getting exempted after a test essay, which luckily was the case for me. Although all of this work is a little tiring, it teaches you the basics of good time management and introduces you to having a busy schedule.

Apart from classes and school work, the lively and exciting search for internships is still taking place, although a large amount of students have already decided where they will be moving to in June. I have had a few interviews as well and they are always thrilling and at the same time, at least in my case, somewhat agitating events. No matter how prepared you are for an interview, there are always some questions, which you do not expect, such as “What is the most complex problem you have ever solved?” or “What is the best advice you have given recently?”. Although these questions might seem rather simple, you can believe me when I say that it is rather difficult to think about good and sensible answers on the spot. Nevertheless, the internship search is one of the most exciting aspects of life here and I am very happy to say that I have already found an amazing job for mine.

Although some of the time during the weekends is spent working on assignments, you usually have time to explore your surroundings a bit. Last weekend,  my lovely family visited me and I got to show them around my new home. We visited the Chateau de Chillon, which is a famous castle located along the lake, we explored the streets of Vevey, which is an idyllic little city not far from Montreux and we took a walk along the beautiful lake, which is my personal favorite concerning the natural surroundings of the area.

This weekend we had the Open Day at Glion, where I volunteered as a ‘tour guide’ for a very nice German family. You show these families around the campus and talk about the experiences you have had so far, it is a very fun activity I can really recommend.

Apart from the Open Day, there are a lot of other possibilities to volunteer around campus. In my case, this means being part of the Fire Officer program, which means that I am (most of the time along with other Fire Officers) responsible for the correct evacuation of our floor in case of fire. I’m also a part of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee, which has just been launched and tries to promote the intercultural relationships between students, because it is important to benefit as much as possible from being surrounded by so many different nationalities.

That is all for my quick recap of the past two weeks and I will tell you a bit about a day in my life here at Glion in more detail  next time.

Wishing you all a great week!

Lea

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My second family (part one)

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I hope you all had a very nice week and today I will tell you something about a few new people in my life, which have already turned into my second family.

I hope that the following introductions will give you a first impression of what the so called “Glion spirit” is all about. Unfortunately, I am not able to introduce you to all of the great people I am surrounded with simulatneously, but I am planning to continue with my introductions throughout the semester.

So I am pleased to introduce you to three wonderful people…

Louise Lienhart
Nationality: Swiss

Why did you decide to study Hospitality Management?
I chose this industry because I love to take care of people and help out wherever I can. Furthermore, I find the international aspect of this business very interesting because I love learning and speaking different languages and getting to know other cultures.

How do you like Glion so far?
I like Glion a lot, because everyone is very nice and helpful and we are very well integrated. The vibrant mix of cultures really contributes to everyday life.

Ela Swoboda
Nationalities: German, Turkish, Swiss

Why did you decide to come to Glion?
I decided to join the Glion community, because a friend of mine recommended the institution and due to my international background I found the multicultural environment very interesting. I also visited the university during one of the open days and I loved all of the friendly people I saw on campus.

What is your favorite aspect of life in Glion so far?
Friendship, talking to members of other nationalities and the feeling of being surrounded by my new Glion family

Liping Zhu
Nationality: Chinese

How did you like your first month at Glion?
I like it very much, because I lived each day to the fullest so far and I made a lot of different friends from various nationalities and we all care for one another a lot, since we are all away from our homes.

How do you like the academic aspect of life here?
I like it and find it quite interesting, because the school offers us many courses, which are closely related to the hospitality industry and through which we get a better idea of what this industry is about. Also we will get the opportunity to gain practical skills during our CBL (craft based learning), which I am really looking forward to.
So as you can see you definitely do not need to worry that you will not find new friends at Glion, because the campus is filled with lovely people, who always make you feel at home.

Lea

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Insight into life on campus

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Hello everyone! I hope you had a nice and enjoyable weekend.

My last two weeks at Glion have been very interesting and exciting and I can honestly say that I feel more at home with every passing day.

To give you all a little bit of an inside look into life here on campus, I thought I would tell you something about my courses and the activities, which the university has to offer.

This first semester I have introduction to Food & Beverage, a course in Introduction to Hospitality Management, one in Information Technology(IT) and one in Personal Development and Academic Skills (PDAS). Throughout the semesters more courses will be introduced to our schedule though.

In Introduction to Food & Beverage we talk about, as you may have guessed, the main aspects of food and beverage preparation and service, such as different kitchen departments or issues regarding hygiene.

In Introduction to Hospitality Management, we have been assigned a group project on specific international corporations, such as Carnival Cruise lines or Hyatt, and in class we are learning a lot about the basics of the hospitality industry, which are really interesting and give you a first insight into the industry.

IT is a course about using Excel, Power Point and Office, which are obviously essential for our job in the hospitality field and in PDAS we are supposed to learn more about ourselves in order to be able to present ourselves better at interviews, for example. If you know who you are it is easier to find those jobs which are suited for you. So all in all, the first courses are really quite informative and well-suited to get a first impression of the workings of the hospitality industry. You should know though that within these classes and in school in general a lot of emphasis is put on group work, on a well-groomed appearance and also especially on punctuality, since some teachers even lock the door, if you are just as much as one minute late.

However this probably sounds worse than it is, because I can honestly assure you that these rules are easily followed and it is better to learn these skills now, rather than later, because they are some of the basic elements of the field.

Moving on to something more leisurely and enjoyable, I would like to tell you something about the different activities you can do at the university. I personally enjoy playing badminton, taking tango lessons and doing yoga, but sports such as basketball, volleyball or table tennis can also be found on campus. Furthermore there is also a gym here, which is very convenient, once you have figured out during which hours it is not completely full and also once you have figured out that the gym closes at 10 pm, so that you do not, like I had the great experience two days ago, stand on the stepper, when suddenly all of the lights go out around you.

Furthermore, many excursions are offered for the weekends, such as ice skating or tobogganing for instance and I will definitely take part in some of these as well and tell you about them first hand, once I have settled in a bit more.

I hope this gave you some useful information on what to expect from the curriculum during the first few weeks and I will keep you updated on any new occurrences.

I wish you all a great week and please wish me luck for my first exam on Wednesday!

Lea

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