Category Archives: International friendship

Sports Activity and Lausanne Marathon

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Besides the general academic activities in Les Roches, we also have the Sports and Activities Department which is always inviting and encouraging students to attend to basketball or volleyball games, badminton, tennis, trekking, Yoga lessons, or any other seasonal sports and activities. During these past months, a lot of these activities have taken place and any student can become a member of these sport teams. In the winter time, other activities such as skiing and snowboarding are encouraged by this department as they are a must-try while studying at Les Roches!

During the last month, students were encouraged to take part in the annual Marathon in Lausanne that took place this past weekend.  Here, not only the students but also faculty of Les Roches did a great performance representing Les Roches as well! The marathon was organized to give runners the best conditions. To make a path for the marathon, streets were closed to vehicles from the lakeside in Lausanne, through the green hillsides of the city, making it easy for runners to stay focused on the race. This annual event gathers participants from everywhere. It’s a race for everyone, from professionals to amateurs. Every runner matters and everyone gets a medal!

Congratulations to all of you who went there! Keep it up!


Here there is a compilation of some pictures from this day,  a special thanks to Janet Ling for providing these to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSsyU4vdNWM

Les Roches – The importance of living in an International environment

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Time is going by so quickly and according to the changing weather around Bluche most of us think that the summer is literally over.  It’s good though, the change of a season means that things have to follow a cycle as well and we have to move on, continuing with new experiences and more challenges, trying to get the most out of every day that goes by.

In the last few weeks I have had the chance to talk with people from so many countries, some countries of which I had heard a lot about before and also a few that were quite unfamiliar to me. It has been a very international experience in these past weeks and it is only getting better.

classmates enjoying the view from the balcony

Within the tourism and the hospitality industry you start to quickly understand the fact that nowadays we are actually citizens of the world. Working in hospitality is indeed a conjunction of activities involving guests and people from everywhere abroad. There are so many interesting cultures of which you can always learn something new and in one way or another the international ambiance here at the school prepares you on a higher level to face the industry while working. It may help you to face or solve a situation with a guest or a particular client sometime or confront work pressures with people from other countries.

At the school and during activities outside the school especially during meals and through classmates, you learn a bit about each different culture. It could be the special cuisine they might have, interesting and touristic places in their home countries, weather differences, salutations and greetings in their languages, they share stories with you about other places where they have been and so on.

Here I attach some recent pictures of my classmates while celebrating the birthday of one of our classmates from Thailand, of course eating at a Thai restaurant in Montana, we learned for sure a lot about Thai food, the ingredients they use and main dishes in Thailand!

In some of the classes, we are also learning about beverages and service. This class is called Food Production and Service Operations; it is definitely one of my favourite classes with Mr. La Sala where we have started learning about the basics of the production of beverages.

We started this time with different types of appetizers, short drinks, long drinks, cocktails and so on. Attached is a picture of us during this class where we learn right away how to make, mix and serve these types of beverages and the attitude of bartenders and waiters while they are serving.

It is really nice to be able to make them and not only see how to make them. We really learn right away the origin of different liquors, how they should be mixed and how all types of drinks should be served and decorated.

Getting around Les Roches and meeting new people !

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These past few days have been really wonderful.  Finally, I was able to meet my classmates from PGD 1! We did the check in as PGD students last week and we felt very welcomed by the school staff and the PGD2 students (PGD second semester students). They had prepared several documents that came in handy for everyone with useful information. They were open to our questions and doubts and really put interest into telling us more about the way of life in Les Roches.

I think we all enjoyed the first days during the introduction week getting to know each other in our class and making new friends. As the time goes by, I think I am getting to know more and more people from the school and from so many countries. There is a cultural diversity which is quite noticeable as you walk in campus and the best thing is that everyone seems to be getting along very well in spite of the difference in languages and cultures.

There is something important that I need to highlight about the programs in Les Roches, and I would not have been able to value this if I had not heard other students’ outlook on their schedule during the first days. My sister for example, she is in HO1 (first year) and in the beginning she was a bit confused because of the new environment and the mix of the practical and theoretical lessons, and honestly I couldn’t understand much either. But I finally realized that the practical hours either in service or stewarding that students in HO1 have to complete (which by the way for some of the students might seem too exhausting in the beginning), have been designed so that students can easily get the real meaning of team work. During these shifts, the students can get to know their classmates better since they have to cooperate with them all the time.  The fact that the students can live these real situations right away is outstanding; it helps us to see ourselves involved in this industry in the future so we can understand the operations in these areas.

I really like my class in PGD1 and I think we are getting along pretty well. The learning experience of being in such an international environment has to deal a lot with socializing too, and the PGD2 students welcomed all of the new PGD1s during the weekend with a welcome party at the local bar, Le Pub, in Montana. We really felt welcomed by them and the time they used to even prepare a video for us, it was very nice, check it out:

I am attaching a few pictures of some of the PGD2 welcoming us, the facilities around Les Roches, the pool is nice and the views from the mountains are really cool, there is another picture of inside the funicular that goes from Sierre to Montana and stops in Bluche. And my friend from Egypt asked me to write more about Egyptians in the school but I think we have to have a little chat so I know what to write! Anyways I am posting this other picture so he knows I will write about it too eventually ;-)

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