workworkworkworkwork

April 10, 2016Learning DiariesSpain, Tourism IndustryPinja Karvinen

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.

Rip quality. This is the view from one of the biggest (and most expensive) suites. The terace is so big that you could celebrate weddings in there.

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).

THE TRADITONAL FINNISH SAUNA!!!! torilla tavataan

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. 🙂

The cathedral was beautiful on the outside (sniff).

xoxo,
counting the working hours,Pinja & Riina

Hello from the other side

April 10, 2016Learning Diaries, Training PlacesEngland, Floristry & Horticultural BusinessJanita Vanhala

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

April 10, 2016Learning DiariesFloristry & Horticultural Business, the NetherlandsJutta Remes

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

April 4, 2016Learning DiariesAustria, Tourism IndustryTiia Palonen

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

100 meters to the beach, u jelly?

April 2, 2016Training PlacesSpain, Tourism IndustryPinja Karvinen

Heyooo,

Second day in Mallorca, whipii. We are staying with some families whose mothers are sisters. Riina lives on the first floor apartment and Pinja lives on the second floor. The families seem very nice and we have our own rooms (and bathrooms). The other one (Coloma) picked us up from the airport and they welcomed us with a nice traditional Spanish (Mallorcish????) food (which was really good!!).

Our work place is located 10 kilometers from here and we will most likely travel there by bus, which is scaring the poop out of us. (insert _the_ poop emoji here)

We received our first cheek kissy things yesterday when we gave our presents to Coloma. Yayyy!????

Now we are writing this with an excellent wifi (thank you Ana) while our hosts /slash/ landladies are having fun ;);)

Enjoy some pictures and get jealous.

IMG_4758[1] — Thank you Airberlin for safe flights (sorry, your airport sucks)

Coloma's dog, Lucky (??), our tobacco friend. — Coloma’s dog, Lucky (??), our tobacco friend.

Riina's masterpiece — Riina’s masterpiece

Lovely treats in our rooms :') — Lovely treats in our rooms :’)

xoxo
the kind of salty bottle water drinking gurlz, Riina et Pinja

Last week about to start!

March 26, 2016Learning DiariesHotel Industry, Spain, Tourism IndustryNea Johansson

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

AAA-Group

March 23, 2016Training PlacesSpain, Youth & Leisure InstructionArtturi Foudila

Hola, we are AAA-group. If somebody thinks what our blog name means, it comes from our first names first letter. Our first member is Aatu” Adolf ” Murtomäki, who had not use gas since our NuVa Halloween gala. The second member is Antti ” Little man ” Arvola, who is so little man so you can’t see him without microscope ( only 59,5 kg). Last member is Artturi ” King Arthur ” Foudila, who dominates without his lost golden teeth.

This is our blog, because of our international exchange. These our posts are completely made with humour so enjoy.

This picture is from Skype meeting with manager of Forestal park, Place where we are going to do our internship. Why we decided to leave? – Aatu wants to see new places, meet new people and learn new culture. -Antti wants to see new places and he is interested about Mallorcan education system. Antti wants also chill and enjoy. -Artturi wants to learn more about instructor in different culture and meet new people also chill.

Next post will come soon, then you can know more about our journey, for that peace and love.

Sunny week in Innsbruck

March 20, 2016Learning DiariesAustria, Tourism IndustryTiia Palonen

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

Gradia Jämsä

International Affairs

workworkworkworkwork

Hello from the other side

Terveisiä Alankomaista

Guests, mämmi and happy life in Innsbruck

Hallo,

100 meters to the beach, u jelly?

Last week about to start!

AAA-Group

Sunny week in Innsbruck

Hello,