Category Archives: Learning Diaries
workworkworkworkwork
Buenas tardes,
We began working at the hotel on this Monday. Traveling by bus is freaking awful, and we finally realized properly how it works on THURSDAY. And tomorrow the shift is changing, so damn.
On Monday we got shown around the hotel and got our time schedules for work. We will be the first two weeks together.
This week we were supposed to be working as manager assistants, but we got moved into the spa on Thursday since there wasn’t anything to do. The spa hasn’t got anything to do either, so, yeah. Hopefully next week will be better (we are in the spa that week too). We have been collecting dirty laundry and lighting candles, yay. We also got to do some product placement (meaning that we only moved products from one shelf to another).
On Saturday we took the bus to the center of Palma and went to see the cathedral. It was closed tho. So instead we went to the Royal Palace museum next to it. And today, Sunday, we went to the beach SWIMMING!! We were the only ones swimming though, so the local people probs thought we were crazy. It was really fun and the water was almost as salty as the bottled water. 🙂
![IMG_4867[1]](https://blogit.gradia.fi/gradiajamsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2016/04/IMG_48671-e1460314730747.jpg)
![IMG_4891[1]](https://blogit.gradia.fi/gradiajamsa/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2016/04/IMG_48911-e1460314805693.jpg)
xoxo,
counting the working hours,Pinja & Riina
Hello from the other side
Hello,
We are three horticultural students from Jämsä college. We arrived to England, Heathrow airport last sunday. We are staying here six weeks in total, five weeks remaining. Our work experience place is in West Dean Gardens at Chichester.
Our flight went well and our journey to Chichester from London was a bit difficult but we made it! Our flight left Helsinki-Vantaa airport on sunday (3.4.2016) morning 7.45. We were at the Westgate Halls of residents around three o’clock. We all had separate rooms with own bathrooms and showers. We share a kitchen with three other students and it was pretty dirty… But after we cleaned it, it’s okay, but not what we expected.
West Dean Gardens is at West Dean and we have to take a bus to get there. It takes about 20 minutes by bus. Gardens is big and beautiful. It’s more like a show garden, everything must to be clean and good quality.
There is working ~10 permanent workers and every week around 15 volunteers to help to keep the gardens looking good. There is high expectation of our skills, language and knowledge. It is bit difficult to understand some words about gardening because we haven’t had any studies in profession english.
Workers are really nice and helpful. That was a relief that work atmosphere is nice, makes it easier to fit in.
On our first week in West Dean Gardens went fast. On first days we get to know to the place, we had car ride with Jim to explore Gardens’ lands more closely. There were lots of sheep.
We are looking forward to what the next 5 weeks will bring to us.
Best regards,
Hanna, Tinja & Janita, JTP14.
Terveisiä Alankomaista
Terveisiä Alankomaista, meillä on aurinko!
Uutena kotikaupunkinani toimii Westlandissa sijaitseva Honselersdijk, ja asun työpaikkani omistamassa talossa, jonka alakerrassa minulla on oma huone. Muuten jaan talon kuuden puolalaisen kanssa. Paikka on kaunis ja ihmiset kivoja, mikäs täällä on ollessa!
Honselersdijkn katukuvan muodostavat pääasiassa kasvihuoneet ja sellaisessa työskentelen itsekin kuusiviikkoisen työssäoppimisjaksoni ajan. Yrityksen nimi on MDK Flowers & Greens (http://www.mdk.nl) ja se sijaistee aivan “kotini” vieressä. Päivät ovat alkavat aina seitsemältä ja kestävät kolmeen tai puoli viiteen saakka. Työntekijät (kuten yleisestikin hollantilaiset) ovat mukavia, ystävällisiä ja puhuvat hyvää englantia.
Tällä viikolla olen lähinnä käynyt töissä ja totutellut uuteen ympäristöön (opettelin käyttämään kaasuliettä!). Kauppareitin osaan jo ongelmitta ja tarkoitus olisi lähteä tutkimaan lähiseutua tarkemmin ensi viikolla.
Muualla sen sijaan on seikkailtu enemmän kuin tarpeeksi… Saan pitää vapaata koko viikonlopun ja eilen otin siitä hyödyn irti lähtemällä Amsterdamiin. Tunnin bussikorttisähläyksen jälkeen pääsin lopulta aloittamaan matkani. Täältä Damiin kestää noin kaksi tuntia (vaihtaa pitää bussin, ratikan ja junan välillä 3-4 kertaa) ja perille pääsin ennen kahtatoista. Vuorossa oli yleistä hortoilua (eksymistä), muutama kauppa (eksymistä) ja Anne Frankin talo (tätäkin edelsi eksyminen). Vähän ennen kahdeksaa pääsin junaan jonka oli tarkoitus viedä minut Den Haagin keskusasemalle. Sen sijaan päädyin Den Haag Laan van NOI -nimiselle asemalle. Tämän selvittämiseen minulta meni yli tunti… Loppu hyvin, kaikki hyvin, pääsin lopulta takaisin Honselersdijkiin 🙂
Hyvää sunnuntain jatkoa ja ensi viikkoa!
Jutta
//Greetings from the Netherlands, we have the sun!
My new home city is a little place called Honselersdijk that is located in Westland. I live in separate house that is owned by the company that I’m working for. I share the house with six Polish people although i have a room of my own. Place is beautiful and people are nice, what a life!
There are plenty of greenhouses in Honselersdijk and I’m working at one of them for my six weeks training. Company I’m working at is called MDK Flowers and Greens (http://www.mdk.nl) and it’s located just next to my “home”. The working days start always at seven o’clock and last ’till three or half past four. Coworkers (and other Dutch too) are friendly, kind and they speak good English.
During the last week I have mainly been working and just trying getting used to new environment (I learned how to use the gas cooker!). I already know my way to local supermarket and my plan is to experience the surrounding area a bit more next week.
Otherwise I have been exploring more than enough. I got weekend off and yesterday I took the benefit of it and went to Amsterdam. After an hour-long problem solving about my ov chipkaart I finally got to start my trip. It takes about two hours from here to Dam using public transport and I got there before twelve o’clock. After that it was time for meaningless wandering around (getting lost), little shopping (getting lost) and Anne Frank’s house (I got lost before that also). A little before eight pm I got to train that was supposed to get me to Den Haag’s Central Station. Well, I ended up to Den Haag Laan van NOI and it took me over an hour to figure out that. Eventually, I got back to Honselersdijk, so my little trip got a happy ending 🙂
Have a happy Sunday evening and lovely next week!
Jutta
Guests, mämmi and happy life in Innsbruck
Hallo,
It has been two weeks since we have written last time. We decided not to write last week, because we didn’t have anything special to tell. This is a compilation about last two weeks.
Two weeks ago, on Sunday Mandis boyfriend Tommi came here for a visit. They were shopping, skiing and snowboarding and looking around the city.
It was kind a quiet week at work because of the Easter. There were only couple kids at group lessons. On Friday Tiia and Tanja were taking care of the Nordkettes little office because the real office worker wasn’t there.
We got traditional finnish presents from Tommi and mämmi was one of them. There is no Easter without mämmi!
Patcherkofel closed last Monday. This mountain is located so low that snow is melting earlier than other places. We still had work at there because we were preparing things for the summer. Our boss has a summer company which is operating biking tours.
On Tuesday our lovely teacher Jaana came here. We were waiting for her at the airport with cool sign.
Jaana stayed here for three nights. We showed the city for her, ate at nice restaurant, and visited at Nordkette and Patcherkofel with Michael.
We had a long weekend and we just enjoyed life. On Sunday Mandi was skiing at Stubaier Gletscher. It was an awesome place!
After one week we are already in Finland. Now we must enjoy about beautiful weather and everything else!
With love,
Tiia, Mandi and Tanja
Last week about to start!
Hola!
I am so happy to be able to say that my days are ending in Tenerife! Only ten more days and I can once again walk on the sweet (and ice cold) grounds of Finland.
I have been a little bit ill this week, I had fever and lost my voice. Or atleast I think I had fever, I couldn’t be sure because nobody in here owns a thermometer. I wasn’t working on Monday night or Tuesday. Now I’m slowly starting to feel better and I’m getting my voice back.
Tomorrow when I go back to work, I wont be going to the Miniclub anymore. I sort of got kicked out of there because one girl run away from the club to the pool without me. Her dad got angry to us and you can only imagine how proud Choco was of me. I had 6 children in the Club at the time, and I just simply couldn’t handle all of them, especially when the children tend not to listen to a word I say.
Anyway, my last week will be at the pool area with the other Animación team members. Which by the way includes two finnish girls ! They are called Miia and Juulia, and they’re from Vaasa. They are staying here for seven weeks.
I think this is all for now. I might still write one post from here before I go home.
Until that,
Nea
Sunny week in Innsbruck
Hello,
Six weeks behind and three weeks to go!
On Monday Tiia was in Nordkette. There was not so much to do, because customers were older kids and they allready knew how to ski. Thats why we all were rest of the week in Patcherkofel. We worked in the office and helped with little things.
We joined sledding twice during this week. There was big groups from Poland.
One morning our workmate Theresa has left those nice messages to us.
On Thursday we visited at Bergisel skijump-stadion. It was perfect weather to go there because it was so warm and sunny. We could see the whole city and mountains from top of the tower. We took packed lunch with us.
There was also pictures of finnish skijumpers. We felt so proud to be finnish!
We had a long weekend, because we had also Friday off. We didn’t do anything special… Just rested and enjoyed beautifull weather.
– Tiia, Tanja and Mandi
New roommate and the fifth week in Tenerife
Hey again!
So, I have been here now for five weeks, and three more to go!
Like the title says, I indeed got a new roommate ! She is called Celia, she is 25 years old and she comes from France. We get along really well with her, we talk about everything and she even shares her candies with me. Really good way to make me your friend is sharing your food with me 😉
The work here is pretty much the same. I am still in the mini club with the kids. This week we have had some really crazy kids in there, who basically do what they please and don’t listen to a word I say. One even jumped out of the window today. (He didn’t get hurt, Mini club is on the ground floor)
I have started to get along pretty well with my coworkers, even though they keep constantly changing. Even my dear mood changing boss Choco has been nicer to me, sharing kisses and hugs to me whenever we meet. Quite a change from looking to the other direction when I came to his direction…I’m not still complaining, gotta enjoy it while it lasts, right?
Hugs and kisses to you all as well,
Nea
The fifth week in pictures, Innsbruck
Hello,
This week we all worked on the slopes, Tiia and Tanja at Nordkette and Mandi at Patcherkofel. Job was the same as always.
We also had a visitor from Finland this week. Tiias boyfriend Aleksi was here from Monday to Friday. We all drove around the city by bus and show places to him. We were also skiing in Patcherkofel.
On thursday we were eating in Indian restaurant. Food was very tasty but service was not so good… As soon we went in we noticed that waiter had bad day. He was very rude. The cardmachine was broken and he didn’t even apologied when we had to walk kind a long way to get cash from the atm.
Tanja had birthday on Friday and we celebrated it in a café.
On Friday Tiia and Aleksi visited Alpenzoo. It’s one of the highest located zoos in Europe. There were lots of animals, for example bears, goats, different kind of birds and wisents.
The half of the on-the-job training is done! We are never going to get tired of these views:
With love,
Tiia, Tanja and Mandi
Halfway through!
Hello!
I have already been in Tenerife for 4 weeks, and I’ve got another four to go. I am officially 50% done with my training! Although I think I have lots of paperwork to do after I come home, but you get the point.
After the struggles in the beginning, everything has started to work little better. After three weeks of working, I got my first work schedule, where I can see my day offs. I still don’t know all of the stuff around here, but I do my best to learn.
I have been working mostly in the kids club where I draw and play with the kids. In the evenings I go to the Mini disco and sometimes I dance in the disco with the kids. If I don’t dance, I assemble the medals and gather the diplomas for the days winners. After that I usually just stand around and look if anybody needs my help with something. If nobody needs me, I can leave to my room at 10 o’clock.
The weather has been kinda chilly and windy almost all the time. We have had only few sunny days since I got here. So much for the dream tan I was hoping to get…:D
I don’t think there is anything else to tell you, every day is like the previous one and like the one tomorrow.
With love,
Nea