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
