So here I am writing my first post about my future life in Switzerland!
I have been accepted to study in Hotel Institute Montreux. Hopefully after 3 years I'll have completed my studies in Bachelor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management programme. I will start my education on the 3rd of October in the lovely city of Montreux, Switzerland. So far I have never visited Switzerland and my knowledge of the country is quite limited to mountain climbers and rich bankers. I also hear they make excellent chocolate.
Why did I choose to go back to school?
The reason to this decision is quite complex and not so easy to explain, but I'll try my best. So far in my life I have worked only as a customer servant and a dancer. Four years back I had to choose my next school after ninth grade and dancing wasn't gonna be an option for me in the long run. That's why I chose Helsinki Culinary School Perho as my next school. I wanted to be a waitress rather than a cook and so far I have worked in a la carte restaurants and currently at a bar. The work is interesting but I have always known that I want to be a big boss somewhere. Recently I have noticed, that working as a customer servant is going to take a lot of time for me to get a promotion. I see that in my current position I will never make it to the top and that's why I need to get back to school. I need to know things about managing a business faster than I could ever learn it during my work.
Why did I chose HIM?
In Finland our education is free and we get to choose between high schools and vocational schools after junior high school (age 13-16). I chose vocational school and was the first in my family ever to do so. It has been a tradition in our family that kids will go to high school and get excellent grades there. I could have gone there as well, but I knew I had to do something more practical. That was a hard thing for my parents to understand and they still don't give me any respect for that, even though I gratuated with perfect grades.
Sometime ago my mother was lecturing me about how great my cousins were and how proud she was to get my younger brother to high school. She asked me, why I couldn't do anything with my life that she could be proud of. She started telling me about this school in the Alps where they trained hotel managers and that I should study there. This school was Hotel Institute Montreux, but at that time I couldn't care for less. Not until recently.
Last Christmas I started feeling that working in a bar wasn't really what I wanted to do next 5 years. I googled some colleges in Finland but I didn't even know what I wanted to study or even where I wanted to work after my graduation. I started looking for colleges abroad and then I remembered my mom's words about the hotel manager school in the Alps. I did some research on open vacancies in hotel industry and found out that there were lots of openings in management branches all over the world.
I found HIM quite easily (Google) and started to look for their programmes. I instantly felt that the Bachelor of Business Administration programme was going to be the right choise for me. It includes working first year in a restaurant (which is what I do best at the moment) and learning about differents tasks in a hotel, second year studying more about managing a hotel and third year about your own leadership skills and international management. This is the programme described very shortly and in my own words. I found a very informative presentation from the school's website and after downloading that, I knew that this would be my next challenge in life.
How did I apply?
First, I had to make sure that my father would pay for my education. As I said earlier, the education in Finland is free and we have very few private schools that you need to pay for. I knew that HIM wasn't going to be the cheapest option but luckily my father is the CEO of a succesfull company, so I don't need to take a loan from a bank to pay for my studies.
Second, I had to do absolutely nothing to contact HIM. Why? They contacted me first. After downloading the information package online, both Finnish and Swiss coordinators contacted me via email. Both were very excited that I had found out about HIM and they wished for me to come to have a chat with the Finnish coordinator. Everything was planned via email and next thing I knew, I was having a nice chat with the Finnish coordinator at Fazer Café in Helsinki. I got to ask all kinds of questions troubling my mind and she aswered me professionally. This made me even more sure about applying to HIM.
Then became the waiting. I had to collect my documents from my parents and that took a little while. I had to work during the evenings and nights and got nothing made during the days. I also had to make sure that my diabetes supplies were still coming from Helsinki and not from Switzerland. This was a project of it's own and not an easy one, I must admit. There were lot's of documents I had to send to HIM and I needed to get my school documents translated in a professional office.
After I got everything sent, I received my Unconditional Confirmation of my Enrolment letter plus the bill. I was extremely happy to know that I was accepted as a student and that a new chapter in my life was about to begin.
How about my friends and life in Finland?
Not a single one of my friends still believe that I will last three years at HIM. They have made bets that I will come back home before the end of the first term. I'm going to prove them wrong, but I won't say that I'll be missing my current life in Finland much. Don't take me wrong, I have the best boyfriend anyone could ever want and lots of really good friends here in Finland. I have a nice apartment and I live here together with my BF. Still I have this huge urge to see the world and have some time for myself as well. My BF is going to spend a year in the army, so we would be apart anyway for a year. After that I have plans to come at least once a month back to Finland to see my friends and family plus to get my diabetes supplies.
Flying forth and back will be cheaper than traveling with train in Finland. So far I know that we have school only from Monday to Friday and weekends are spare time for you. I will try to make friends in Montreux as well but I still want to stay in touch with my Finnish friends. Even if they are as supportive as I described.
I have to admit that I can't wait to tell everyone about my life in Switzerland. About how different things are in there or how similar the lifestyle can be. I still wish that I won't become the asshole-friend who compares everything to her "new life abroad". I had that kind of friend once who went to study in Brussels and was a changed person after a year. She was crying if she couldn't get her favorite lambic beer in a regular bar in Helsinki and she always complained how Finnish people are too quiet and awkward compared to Belgians. I haven't talked to her in years now. And this is not who I want to be whenever I come to visit my friends and BF.
What are my expectations towards my first year at HIM?
I wish that I will meet new people from different countries and that my roommate will be tolerable. This is all I'm currently worried about. I don't think that the studies will be too hard but I'm afraid that I won't get along with my fellow students. I also expect my language skills to get better there and that I'll hopefully be fluent in French and German. I can't wait to get to my first internship placement. I know that for the first year it will be a restaurant. This is totally fine by me and I wish that there are people in my class, who have never worked in a restaurant before. Just in case I'm working there with long time professionals.
I also expect that even after first year at HIM, I'll be able to connect with professionals all over the world and to make contacts who last for a lifetime. I'm ready to work hard for this degree and nothing can stop me from getting to my goals in life. I'm ready to live with coffee and Red Bull for the next three years if it gets that stressfull.
The biggest goal for me is to make my parents proud of me again. I wish that they see me as a responsible adult, who is capable of making decisions in life. I hope that I never have to hear again that what a disgrace I am for the family. That is my biggest expectation for my education at HIM.
Right now it's nearly 4:00 in the morning and I have to work in 12 hours. I think I have written everything here correctly and that this makes sense even in the morning. Or so I hope. It feels good to write down how I have been feeling about this applying process. Later I will post pictures of my preparations for Switzerland and write how I'm feeling towards the starting day. Now it's bed time for me.
-livinglavidallama
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| Photo by @beeautyfrmashes |
