Tag Archives: ski

LRB Blogger : Samantha Parkyn

Posted on by
1

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

Crans Montana, Valais

Posted on by
1

First, I’d like to share some of my discoveries about the beautiful region around Les Roches.

The Valais was named as such by the Romans because it is a part of the upper Rhone Valley. It is one of the driest cantons but is well moisturized due to the snow run-off coming from some of the highest peaks in Switzerland.

Valais shares borders with both Italy and France. Agriculture (mainly wine production), tourism and cattle rearing are the main industries here. The canton is split into 13 districts including: Brig, Sierre, Sion and Saint- Maurice.

Crans Montana

Crans Montana is the pairing of two separate villages to form one resort area. It is most famous for skiing and golf and is located above Sierre at approximately 1500 m above sea level. Whatever time of year there are many activities available, including a happening night life on the weekends. The school’s Sports and Activities department organises trips and activities in and around the area, the next one being to the ice rink this weekend.

Week 2- First week of Lessons
At Les Roches the HO1 students are split into classes and the academic/ practical rotation every two weeks starts. So for this first week of school some of us have been in pratical (Stewarding or Service in one of the restaurants) and some have been in Academic doing Languages, Effective Writing, Computer Science, etc.

Some comments from:
A student in Service: “Exhausted but excited.”
A student in Academic: “The week was interesting, frustrating at times, fulfilling.”
An F & B Stagier: “Hectic, challenging and informational.”
After this first week we are all a little more settled but still getting used to our schedules and the standard of excellence expected from us. In Practical, we have had to push ourselves and I speak for myself and others when I say that we have learnt that we can do a lot more than we think.

I rounded of the week with an amazing day of skiing on Sunday, with great weather and a lot of fun. The day was topped off with a huge pot of delicious fondue from Petit Paradis which is the restaurant and hotel adjacent to Les Roches main building.

Pictures by Travis Odegard