Category Archives: Introduction

Welcome to Lisa, new Les Roches Blogger !

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My name is Lisa Westrich and I am delighted to introduce myself as the new E-Ambassador for this winter semester 2013. I am currently in my final semester of the Bachelor of Business Administration and I have specialized in Entrepreneurship.

I am very excited about sharing my personal experience and the “Les Roches way of life” here on campus with both present and future students.

Firstly, I will tell you something about myself and then share my experience with you, looking back at four years of the Bachelor’s Program, which makes me realize how quickly time actually flies!

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Welcome to Arkadiya, new Les Roches Blogger !

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Greetings from Les Roches!

I am Arkadiya Tertychnaya from Moscow, Russia. Currently, I am on my 4th semester, working towards the Bachelor of Business Administration Degree. I have already been through a 6 month internship in a luxury 5 star hotel in Hong Kong and now I am looking forward to go for the next training for 12 months after completing my 3rd academic semester.

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Welcome to Tristan, new Les Roches Blogger !

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My name is Tristan, I am 20 years old and I am from England. I am currently studying Hotel Operations II (HO2) or semester three of the BBA program.

I was born in the sunny seaside town of Blackpool, in the North of the country, about an hour from Manchester and Liverpool. I have lived in the same area of the UK all my life, changing schools a few times along the way. When I was about ten years old I decided that I wanted to spread my wings, leave home and study away at a boarding school.

I looked round several schools that were about an hour or so away and fell in love with one in particular. This school, Malsis, just happened to be possibly one of the best things I have ever done. It opened so many doors for me, enabling me to learn a musical instrument, play an incredible amount of sport and above all giving me the education I needed in order to prepare myself for the next step in life.

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Welcome to Jacqueline, new Les Roches Blogger !

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My name is Jacqueline Manyonga, I am 19 years old and I am from Harare, Zimbabwe. I was raised mostly by my mother Dee, as my father passed away when I was very young. As such, she is my role model; she is a very intelligent, strong and successful woman who has built a career in the healthcare and beauty industry in Zimbabwe. My mother studied pharmacy in England at Aston University and set the tone for her children to study abroad. My 27 year old brother Tatenda was awarded a scholarship to Stanford University and completed an economics degree there in 2007. My cousin sister Ingrid quit her job as manager at the prestigious Meikles Hotel in Harare, to manage a very popular family restaurant we recently opened; The African Affair Restaurant. The Restaurant offers both traditional Zimbabwean dishes such as sadza (a mealy paste) and meat and popular “Western” dishes such as fish and chips. Since finishing high school, I have been helping manage the restaurant from the kitchen to the till point.

My passion for the hospitality industry stems mostly from my family and my country. Growing up, cooking and dining are arguably my family’s favourite pastimes besides travelling. We have been blessed in that we have vacationed in various parts of the world, including the United States, England, South Africa, Zanzibar, and Hong Kong. We have been able to experience the different cultures and cuisines of these different countries, and some of the hotels that we stayed at, such as the Vistana Resort in Orlando, simply left me astounded with a desire to one day work at one.

Over the years we have all tried preparing different dishes and desserts from around the world, some from the areas we have visited, others from the large cookery book library in my mother’s kitchen. We have also traveled extensively around Zimbabwe, which historically has been regarded as a tourist hot spot, but has in recent years been blighted by economic and political problems. Nonetheless, we still boast one of the wonders of the world in the majestic Victoria Falls, and we still have some of the most beautiful and scenic wildlife reserves and lodges. Zimbabweans are also regarded as some of the most hospitable and friendliest people, and I think this is certainly true in my family; as evidenced by the many events we host at our beautiful home.

I have chosen to study hospitality at Les Roches to ensure that I get the best training. I have done extensive research on the leading Hospitality institutions in the world, and Les Roches simply outshines the rest. The book “leading Hotels of the World” illuminates Switzerland as having some of the best hotels in the world receiving the best accolades from critics, and is a tourism hub in Europe and indeed the world. Located at the heart of Europe, with its renowned chocolate and cheese, banking and luxury, Switzerland is a perfect place to study Hospitality because it has such a long history of political stability, low crime rates, clean air and a reputation for reliability. Thus, Switzerland would provide me with a magnificent and indeed majestic backdrop for me to study Hospitality at Les Roches.

Most of my friends have already gone off to study various disciplines around the world, and I would love to join the fray from Europe. Some of these friendships helped shape who I am today; most started in the 1st grade! It’s wonderful to see my friends progressing to the next stage in fulfilling their dreams, that is after passing A’ Levels of course! Chelsea is now studying Chemical Engineering at Rhodes University in South Africa, Nina is finishing high school in Denmark before pursuing Economics or Law there, Danielle is going to Bristol University, Nicole to The University of Edinburgh and the rest of them are studying in Cape Town.

We used to study together, party together, even traveled together; we went to Victoria Falls for New Year’s last year. Hopefully, distance won’t dilute our closeness, and summer vacation work and internship opportunities will afford us the opportunity to visit each other.

My Internships will hopefully give me opportunities to work in
different countries around the world, with my real life colleagues
being my teachers. This in turn will give me the confidence to work at my highest level when I eventually graduate. I will have the necessary leadership skills, business administration and, finance and accounting know-how. I will also bring in my own unique perspective from my life in Zimbabwe and trips abroad, my organizational skills and work ethic to the classroom, the kitchen and the hotel in general. Ultimately my goal is to one day successfully manage a hospitality institution, and perhaps even own one. I would also like to play a leading role in the recovery of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry and by extension, the economy in my native Zimbabwe.

 

One month to go! …

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January is fast approaching and with each day that passes I am getting more and more excited about the arrival on campus – as I’m sure everyone who’s starting in January is!

Along with my emotions as well as the normal excitement, anticipation and a few nerves, have also been mixed with panic. Wondering and stressing about whether I would actually be ready to start school, as I am still recovering from a broken ankle.

This means that my planning and preparations for my arrival on campus at Les Roches have been slightly different to what I originally had in mind. Instead of getting things ready and organized as I would have liked, I have had to focus on learning how to walk again after my accident. But there you go, that’s life, and luckily for me I have been relieved of some of the stress and panic, as my recovery is going well, and I can now start preparing as I would have liked!

There is a little Christmas tradition that myself and my fellow horse crazy friends do every year at the beginning of December. This is to attend the “Concours Hippique International de Geneve” (International Horse Jumping Competition) which is held every year in Geneva’s huge exposition centre – Palexpo.

The event is held over four days, and spectators are able to see some of the World’s top show jumping stars (riders and horses) compete in numerous competitions, all of which get the crowds on their feet cheering for their nation – mainly the home nation of Switzerland. As well as providing entertainment and incredible demonstrations of riding – the event always proves to be a good place to indulge in a spot of horsey retail therapy!
My Christmas holiday plans this year involve a family trip to Dubai! It will be my first time in Dubai, another thing that I am excited about. Although there is still a tiny bit of stress wondering if I will have to be on crutches to go through the airport.. Doesn’t sound like much fun!

This year, my family and I will be “ringing in the New Year” at a concert of a rather well known band – ‘Coldplay’. This should prove to be a big celebration and an excellent way to start off the New Year, a year already filled with exciting prospects and new adventures, a year that couldn’t come sooner really!

So hopefully I will return from holiday nice and relaxed in order to start my final hectic week of shopping and organizing prior to arrival at Les Roches!

I have been keeping a close eye on the amount of snow that has been falling in Crans Montana, it looks great up there for skiing! Which I have to admit, is slightly frustrating for me, as I personally won’t be able to ski this season. However, I am really looking forward to being back up in a ‘mountain village environment’ during the winter season and I am super excited about the men’s alpine world cup skiing that is being held in Crans Montana in February! I’m really hoping (and I know I’m not alone in saying this) that I can volunteer to help out with the event!

I am thoroughly looking forward to arriving on campus and starting this new chapter in my life. I have a feeling that this last month is going to fly by, which is a good thing! I can’t wait to meet you all, but until then, season’s greetings and happy holidays!

See you in the New Year!!

Christmas at home before Les Roches Bluche

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Santas Elf in Abu Dhabi

Hello new, old, current and potential Les Roches students! My name is Filippa and I will blog on this page for the next twelve months. So, welcome to my little world of words and pictures…

To me, it doesn’t matter where I’ve been or how long I’ve been away, it’s always good to come home. I have just come back from six months in Abu Dhabi where I did my second internship working for a hotel in the sales and marketing department. The city was very different compared to anything I’d seen before and the cultural differences were huge, but the work experience has been great, although the hours were long and I only had one day off per week.

Time flew by as it always does very quickly and I’m now back in Sweden with my family trying to make the most out of my four weeks of Christmas holiday before school starts in Switzerland in January. So far, I’ve unpacked four suitcases full of clothes, cleaned my room, decorated the Christmas tree and baked lot’s of goodies like saffron buns and gingerbread hearts, and decorated oranges with whole cloves – a must for Christmas! I absolutely love this holiday, and this year I’m going all in -no one can stop me!

Making gingerbread cookies

It is soon time to start my third year at Les Roches. I did the previous semesters at the Marbella campus where I had so much fun and met the coolest people, but this year I felt like it was time to swap the beach for the mountains, and so I decided to transfer to Bluche. I love skiing, although I must admit I’m not the best at it… I haven’t been on the slopes since 2009, so I could definitely use a private lesson or five.

I cannot wait to meet new faces (and old, since there are a few more of us coming from Marbella) and I’m sure we all will have the time of our lives.

The fourth Advent candle is lit

Wish I could write more but I’ve got to continue decorating the house. It’s a full time job being a Christmas enthusiast…

If you have any questions or thoughts regarding anything please feel free to post a comment at the bottom of this page and I will do my best to answer. You can also send me a message on facebook.com/filippah or follow me on Twitter @filippamaria.

See you soon… and a very Merry Christmas to you all!

X Filippa

LRB Blogger : Leandros Pembos

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Greetings to everyone!!

My name is Leandros Pembos and I am from the beautiful country of Greece. I was born and raised in the capital city of Greece, Athens. Athens is such a wonderful place to live!! In Athens, a visitor can enjoy amazing local dishes, in restaurants called “tavernas”. On the other hand, the options and the range of entertainment facilities is huge, like access to vibrant restaurants and night clubs offering an experience worth mentioning by every tourist. The historic downtown of Athens is the most touristic destination here and the first place that everyone arranges to visit. Acropolis, Sydagma square, and all the small roads near the hill of Acropolis are fully occupied by tourists who have come to see this magnificent ancient temple. It is truly amazing for everyone to see all this ancient statues and the ancient architecture and design.

Some views of Acropolis, Sudagma Square and a city views of Athens

At the age of seventeen, I decided to join the IB diploma program (International Baccalaureat) and finish the last two classes of high school with extra knowledge and a competitive advantage for applying to foreign universities. My decision was to follow a business and management path of studies in University so I took several subjects related like Business and Management, Economics etc. This decision was important for my academic career. I improved my English language skills to the maximum point and also my business and management knowledge. Now the “story” begins, one day the educational counselor of Les Roches here in Greece came to my school, the reason was a brief session about the hospitality industry and the school. The session structure was individual interviews with every interested student. I decided to join the session and we had a very nice conversation about my future aspirations and also what Les Roches and the industry are capable of offering. I spoke with my family and they mentioned to me that a very good and close friend graduated from Les Roches and now owns a hotel on Mykonos Island. We arranged a meeting to talk about everything and the final part of the discussion was to offer me a volunteer job as a trainee host in his 5 star hotel restaurant Myconian Ambassador Hotel during the summer period. During that 2 month internship I developed higher interpersonal skills, increased my communication skills and most importantly, my team work skills. After that challenging experience I was mature enough to take a decision and develop my hospitality knowledge later in Les Roches International School of Hotel Management.

View of the restaurant and the pool of the Myconian Ambassador hotel that I was working as a host.

The senior year of International Baccalaureat was really difficult, a lot of assignments, tests and mostly a lot of stress. One year that everyone waits for summer to come and replace the hard work during the winter. I have to say that I was one of them…

The summer finally came and everyone had to decide what they are going to do now. I decided to spend one month on vacation around the beautiful Greek islands in order to relax and the rest of the summer to work in order to increase my hospitality knowledge. The only destination that came to my mind again was the island of Mykonos, a major touristic destination which attracts people from all around the globe.

View of the restaurant /bar that I was working as a waiter.

This time I found work as a waiter in Tropicana beach bar. Tropicana was voted the best beach bar in Europe and one of the most famous around the globe so I thought that would be a good experience for my resume. The experience was amazing, I met people from all around the globe and increased my service techniques knowledge. Additionally, I had the opportunity to collaborate with employees from several parts of Europe.

Tropicana beach bar

During this period, I had the ability to work in a fast service environment serving around 500 people over the day. I have to say that it was difficult but really beneficial to understand the hard working and motivation part that the hospitality industry wants.

Part of Mykonos city (chora)

All the experiences described above have helped me to decide the industry that I want to work for, they affect me in a beneficial way to develop several new abilities, put a goal in my career life which is to succeed and become a successful general manager of a hotel after years and finally to join the BBA/Hotel Management program of Les Roches International School of Hotel Management.

I can’t wait to join the school in January and with the support of my family I am ready to succeed and face the demands of the school. I am sure that’s it is going to be a memorable experience for my entire life both for my career but also as a person. Can’t wait to meet all you guys!! Hope you are having fun and see you soon all on campus.

Summer pictures of me in Greek islands

Leandros Pembos

LRB Blogger : Samantha Parkyn

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Hi, my name is Samantha Parkyn (I prefer Sam though), and I was born and raised in Switzerland. To be more specific I was born in the French speaking region of Switzerland – the beautiful, international city of Geneva. As well as being the home to the European Headquarters of the United Nations, Geneva also houses the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which has proved popular in the media over the last couple of years.

The City is famous for its tourist attraction and landmark; The Jet d’Eau, which paints a beautiful picture of the city on a sunny day.

Geneva is situated just over an hours drive away from multiple ski resorts such as ‘Les Portes du Soleil’ (a favorite of mine), Verbier, and of course the amazing resort of Crans Montana which is sat just above the lovely town of Bluche, home to Les Roches.
Geneva is also a great place to see some breath taking views, such as Mont Blanc (shown above), and the lovely silhouette of the sun setting behind the Jura.

Me in the Three Valleys - Meribel, on my ski instructors course.

Because I have lived my whole life in Switzerland, I was fortunate enough to learn how to ski at a young age, and I have learnt to love the sport of skiing. Which is why I attended a 10 week ski instructors course in the french resort of the 3 Valleys during my gap year. I had the most amazing time, unfortunately it ended less well, with a ruptured cruciate ligament in my knee.

However, during my recovery from this accident I stumbled upon my desire to return to my studies, which then led to my discovery of Les Roches.

My dog Benji in the snow. And me at a local ski resort called Crozet, looking down onto Lake Geneva

I have to admit that the location of Les Roches and the fact that it is situated so close to Crans Montana, slightly aided my decision when choosing a school. Although, I knew I wanted to go there as soon as I went to visit the campus. Even after visiting the campus for only a few hours, I was already feeling comfortable and at home, I wanted to stay and start studying straight away!

My hobbie and passion is horse riding and I am lucky enough to own my own horse (Lysi, the one in the pictures!), we have competed in local show jumping competitions together. I love nothing more than spending all day at the stables with the horses.

Unfortunately I recently had yet another accident, this time a broken ankle caused by a fall off a horse. It would seem that my hobbies have not been too kind to me this past year! However, the time needed to recover has proved rather useful as I am using it to learn a new language – Italian.

I attended the International School of Geneva – La Chataignerai, for 13 years and obtained my IB. I Studied Geography, Economics, French, Environmental Systems, English and Maths, my favourites being Geography and French. During my time at La Chat, I was lucky enough to go on several school trips and study trips to different locations within Europe, including; Barcelona, Florence, the Camargue, Strasbourg and Wales, which were all educational and enjoyable.

I have always been interested in the hospitality/tourism industry, I was always happy when my geography lessons in school were centered around tourism. I even chose to complete my Extended Essay for my IB by researching how a small ski resort could improve its number of tourists.

I really enjoy traveling and going different places with my family, and I have always found myself being interested in, and observing the level of service given in hotels. Having been the customer many times before, I think it will be interesting to learn how to be on the other side of things, and to be the person providing the service. I think that this will be a challenge, but it is a challenge that I am looking forward to.

I will be starting at Les Roches in January to do my BBA in International Hotel Management and I am very much looking forward to joining the school, and to starting this new chapter in my life, January couldn’t come sooner!!

Looking forward to meeting you all!

Sam

Welcome to the life of a hotel management student…

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My name is Filippa Hertzman and I’m a 24 year old globe trotter from the south of Sweden  starting at Les Roches Switzerland in January 2011. I will transfer directly to the semester 5 of my Bachelor. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by hotels; these magical places where people sleep on fluffy pillows with chocolates on top, wake up and go to large scrumptious all-you-can-eat buffets, get new towels and made up rooms every day, and 24 hour assistance only by pressing a button.

I have never regretted my chosen career path; in fact, it’s probably one of the best choices I’ve made in my life so far. What’s most thrilling about working in the hospitality industry is the fact that you’ll have no idea of how the day will turn out –every day will be full of surprises.

When I graduated from high school I still hadn’t figured out what to “be when I grow up”, so I went on a three-month backpacking trip with my best and oldest friend to Australia and Asia (no need to mention we had the time of our life right?).

When I came back I started working at a supermarket in Sweden, and after a few months I had saved enough money to move all the way to the home of the sheep, or in other words, Palmerston North, New Zealand, where I found a job as a waitress and ended up living for seven months. The following year I moved across the pond to Melbourne, Australia and enrolled at RMIT’s fashion merchandising course. I love clothes and fashion; always have, and naturally I thought that was what I was destined to work with.

After five months I realised that this was not for me, and moved back home to continue working at the supermarket. I earned quite a lot and still lived at home but I was starting to get restless, and knew that I couldn’t stay for much longer. My only ticket to the “real” world was through education. Period. I was accepted to a business school in Sweden but changed my mind at the last minute –it just didn’t feel right. Instead, I moved to the city of lights and the home of the croissants – Paris, and when I wasn’t partying on Champs Elysees or vintage shopping in Le Marais I worked as a babysitter for two French boys.

During my first couple of weeks I picked up a book I had read a few years back in Oz called “Hotel Babylon” about a receptionist’s 24 hours in a luxury London hotel. I finished it the following week and as I put it down it was finally clear to me –I’m going to work in hotels! I started writing the application letter to Les Roches Marbella and a month or so later I got a reply that I had been accepted.

I was beyond excited. In January 2010, I started my first day as an HOI student at Les Roches Marbella, in June I went on my first internship as a front office agent and concierge assistant at a five star hotel in Sweden, returned to Marbella in January 2011 for HOII, and my latest internship has been in PR & Marketing at a four star hotel in Abu Dhabi.

I thought it was time for me to meet new people and hit the slopes (and of course enjoy the après ski), so I decided to leave the Marbella campus and move back to Switzerland for my third year. Yes, back. I lived in Basel for two years during my early teens, but the difference this time is that the people will be saying bonjour instead of gruetzi… and that I’m a little older and wiser too, of course!