Category Archives: Training Places

Week 7

Back to work.. On monday I came back from Torremolinos and went almost straight to work when I arrived to Algeciras and hotel. Wonderful week behind but it was nice to be back and see my funny coworkers, but otherwise the day was not a good day for me. I felt like I don’t know how to speak english anymore and waded all the day. But rest of the week went really well and again it was nice to see how much progress had been made in these weeks in many cases.

The high season is now over here and it brought some changes for our lunch. There is not anymore buffet table on lunchtime, because there are not so many all inclusive- customers, that it would be worth to serve, but there is now everyday changing a’ la carte menu and our job is now little bit different. Some days have been so quiet that I almost miss the crazy hassle what we had one month earlier. I like to do something all the time, not just stand and wait something to be happening. The work here is pretty much same day after day, but it don’t get boring because here has been so wonderful customers. Some of them are here for a longer time and some of them just a day or couple.

The weather here has changend too. Hot and sunny days are now over and my warmer clothes came to need, what I did not expect to need one month ago. Almost every day it was raining and many days I woke up with the sound of a thunderstorm. There is not so much to do when it is raining, so I’m happy that I had to be whole week at work.

Next week will be my last here and I would not want to leave yet. Of course it is nice to go home and see all my loved ones there, but I feel that the time is running out too soon. Just this month I’ve been able to relax and be totally myself (a little crazy and silly) and boldly tried to speak Spanish to the others and learned it really a lot more that way. But I’m going to enjoy my last week here and there is also one last challenge to become on next Wednesday, but I’ll get back to it in my next and last post.

Chefs focused on setting beautiful portions for the wedding..

..And here is lovely Maria Jose serving those

I am not tell anything about the hotel yet so here is some facts about Hotel Reina Cristina:

Hotel has a long history and you can read about it from below..

  • Opened in 1901
  • 168 rooms in three floors
  • Services: indoor and outdoor pool with a pool bar, mini gym, sauna, library, inside bar, TV-lounge, library, billiards, mini-golf, ping pong, petanque
  • Total amount of employees is 70
  • High season is from July to September
  • The most customers come from Spain, Marocco and England
  • Restaurant have approx. 120 seats inside and the terrace about 60 seats
  • There is 4-5 special events per month. Mostly weddings and dew events.
The front of the hotel

A’la Carte restaurant
Bar
Reception area

First week

Hi!

Fist week in Slovenia, Nova Gorica is been really nice and of course pretty new too. We arrived here last Saturday – Sunday night, 9th of September. First we flight from Helsinki to Frankfurt and there we switched to another plane to Venice. When we arrived to Venice our driver Tomaž picked us up from the airport and drove us to Slovenia, to our dorm.

When we arrived to the dorm, it was past might night and we were so tired. But unfortunately we didn’t get our own room then, because only person at the time in the dorm was security guard who didn’t know that we were coming, so she gave us a random room and said that we should come switch the rooms first thing in the morning. So we got up at 7am and went to reservation but we ended up switching to our own room way later that day. In Sunday we discovered the town and find out that everything is so close to our dorm. And of course let’s not forget that you can walk to the Italian border from our dorm, that close we are.

First week at work was nice, people here are so nice even if they don’t speak good english! Mostly we were just learning how things are done here. Monday we made inventory and later on that week we worked on lot of departments and learned lot of things and got to know people were working with. On Thursday was my 18th birthday and I was so surprised when we were called to come to the break room and all staffs started singing to me and they even had birthday cake with candles on it. The cake was by the way so good. Our work days starts at 7.30 and usually we’re walking there cause its close and in mornings weather it’s nice and cool.

The weather is been super hot here, everyday it’s been close to +30 degrees. I also had opportunity to go to Duino, Italy. It’s nearest place to go to see sea and of course to swim! It was so beautiful and the water was so clean, I loved it. The car ride to there lasted just about 30 minutes, so it wasn’t that far away.

Because the week was after all pretty hectic and everything was new, this weekend we are just chilling and resting for the next week.

Loves, Julia ❤️✨

So here I am…

..in the big world all alone. Or actually I’m in Algeciras where is about 119000 people living here so I won’t quite be all alone here.

My name is Sanna, i’m 33 years old and I study second year at Tourism Industy in Gradia Jämsä and I do my work placement in Hotel Reina Cristina in Algeciras. Here has been couple students before and they liked working here and teacher recommended me this place so I said yes.

Last couple days before leaving were awful. I didn’t undertand why on earth did I wanted to do this and didn’t want to leave, but like some wise guys said that sometimes you just have to do something out of your comfort zone to experinence new things and learn a bit more of yourself. Of course I wanted to go because I love Spain. I’ve been travelling here, mostly in Canary Islands, but I wanted to try what it would be like working in this country. I also wanted to learn spanish language more and improve my english skills. But beeing away from my loving boyfriend, family and friends is hard but I can do this!

I came here two days ago and I have been exploring the city and also met some of the workers of the hotel. I read somewhere about Algeciras, that it is just an ugly port town in the south of spain and there is nothing to see. Well maybe it is not the idyllic spanish town with white houses and red brickroofs, but there are some beautyful parts and yes it is a port town where there are lots of shippingindustry and big steel and metalbuildings in harbour and also many old buildings because it’s quite old city.

Tomorrow I start my work at the hotels restaurant as a waitress. I don’t know yet exactly what i’m going to do, maybe cleaning tables and pouring drinks or something. I’m little bit worried cause I might be a little clumsy person sometimes, like dropping things or even stumble with my own legs. I’ll try my best not to break everything!

I’ll get back next week and tell something what have I done,learn or destroyed 😬

Hasta luego amigos!

Sanna

Off I go!

I have no idea how I got here. I’m 35 years old and as long as I remember I have hated school. Somehow, here I am educating myself in Gradia Jämsä and hope to graduate next spring with a vocational qualification in business and administration. When I started this school, I was thrilled to have learned that they have exchange programs for adult students as well. I applied immediately.

Now here I am getting ready to leave at Saturday 2 in the morning to catch a bus to Helsinki-Vantaa airport. First, I do have to say goodbye to my loving husband and 2 corgis, I only wish I could take them with me, but this is something I’ve got to do by myself. I’m going there to enrich my studies in office services in Chichester College, Business Department in United Kingdom and in a nutshell, I would be doing office work (document management, electronic and written communication, telephone services, creating, maintaining and editing registries, statistics and reports etc.). I’m excited and terrified at the same time, because this type of work is something I know I can do, but can I really do it in a different language? I know I can communicate in English rather well and hold conversations about everyday life, but I have no idea about the vocabulary in the office, (hardly even in Finnish)! So, I ordered this book; “Business First” and I was hoping to get it before I go, so that I could read it on the way there, but it hasn’t arrived yet! Now my dear hubby must send it to me. But hopefully people there will understand and hopefully I’ll learn quick, at least that’s what I keep telling myself. So yes, it’s safe to say I’m scared, but I saw this episode in Grey’s Anatomy where they talked about this scientific study which showed that if you stand in the superhero pose for 5 minutes before a job interview, presentation or difficulty task, you will not only feel more confident, but you will perform measurably better. Don’t know how much that is accurate but that’s something I’m going to do to achieve this thing.

Now I do have some expectations towards the Brits, I love them. I have visited before, mainly in London so I’m glad that I got this chance to go somewhere else. Chichester is in Southern England and not too far from the coastline, I can’t wait to explore the city and its nearby towns as well. I have already done some exploring on the Internet and I know I want to go and see this Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve and as soon as I go there, I will blog about it. It looks amazing in the pictures, so I do have some high hopes.

I chose to stay in homestay during my 8-week internship instead of staying in a dorm because, first there is a good chance that the host family has a pet (I actually requested a home with animals) and second, I think this way I get to see closer the different culture and speak English even more.

I’m going to write this blog once a week and let you know how things are, hopefully you will come and read it and get to be a part of this journey with me.

Now, I got to go and do that pose. 😉

Cheers!

On the move

Hello.

We should have written this days ago but here we go. So our trip started Saturday at 2pm, from Helsinki. We were exited and little bit scared when the plane started moving. I gave Santeri a new nickname “vaappuvakana” because he was so scared that he waddle like a chicken in the plane. The flight to Frankfurt lasted 2 hours and 40min. In Frankfurt we switched to another plane and that flight lasted 1h and 15min. In Wroclaw taxi driver picked us up from the airport. We were little bit surprised at the way people drive here, it was so scary. The tutor showed us our flats and the city. Santeri`s flat is so cool it`s like IKEA heaven. Santeri is living with three Spanish guys and one French guy. My flat is not as nice but it is bigger. I live with 13people. One is Finnish and the twelve others are Spanish.

First day carribean!

16.2.2018

Warm, sunny and super happy greetings from the Caribbean paradise <3

Here I am after almost a day of travelling. From Jämsä to Helsinki by train for three hours and the train was, of course, 45 minutes late and I almost started sweating from the front when we finally arrived at the airport in time. Well, 5 minutes later I would have missed my flight but fortunately all ended up fine. After 11 hours on the airplane, the next step was from the airport to my apartment. The airport was about 30 km away.

Compared to Finland, here the time is six hours less. I look forward to mornings and the sunrises, so that I can explore my new home, I can be happier and more grateful for new experiences.

This has been a tremendous experience on all sides, even though the journey has just begun. The arrangements have worked pretty well, as usual, I’m also waiting for this here.

I want to say special thanks to Sari, Keijo and the school headmaster, who made all this possible. I am grateful.

On Sunday I will start my job at the surfing school, I work 6 days a week for 8 hours. I have no idea what is going to happen, I am jumping to an unknown. I will write to you again but I promise I’m going to put Finland on the Caribbean map !!

Torrevieja, Spain

Hola!

Today was our first day in the office! Our job counselor is Johanna, who has come to work to projennis in the spring. Office is very small and it was difficult to move and work there, but fortunetaly the office will move to new premises within a few weeks.

Today we just get some information how to work and what we have to do. We allso use email to ask some free greefee times and send emails to customers. Mari allso wash several golf clubs :).

Tomorrow we stady how to rent a car. But now we have free time and we are going to eat some pasta and swim in the sea.

Mari y Sari

This is taken near Torrevieja marina

Towards Normandy, France

Hello!

My name is Leena. I’m studying horticulture at the Jämsä College. In a few days I will be heading towards Normandy, France, for a training period of 4 weeks.  I will be living and working at the Horticultural College at Coutances. There is a botanical garden and a Dahlia Festival going on. Sounds wonderful to me! At the moment I’m feeling quite nervous although I’m sure everything will be fine once I get there.

Long time no seeeeeeee

 

Yeah so…. My laptop died. And now it’s back to life again! Kind of…

Time is flying when you have a good time, yeah? My time here in England is so perfect and happy and I just realized that next week I’m going back to home…..

I’ve done lot of work and when you have lot of work you work hard right? So when I work hard, I play hard. And that’s exactly what I have done!

My co-workers are really nice and I get along with them really well! I feel like at home and I’ve learned quickly how everything works. Today I got a lot of compliments from my boss because I understand and get the hang of things really quick.
My work basically has been just planting and potting. Cleaning and watering. I also managed to burn my back at work.

On weekdays after work i’ve watched netflix or strolled around town and read a book. On weekends i’ve tried Chichesteris night life and visited Bognor a lot because my friend lives in there. Next weekends plans are to go to see what Brighton looks like!
I was so worried that my english wasnt good enough here but everyone understands me really Well and I understand everyone. So sad I need to leave as soon as I feel totally comfortable here. But I will have unforgetable memories with me.

 

 

This is my favorite glasshouse <3

 

love, Minnameeri