| my first week of working abroad

Being honest, I could have filled this whole post just with pictures of Alp d'Huez - it's absolutely stunning! I've spent most of this week in awe of the area. The team is lovely, I get on well with everyone and we've had as much downtime as worktime. The work itself is quite tiring - we serve breakfast in the morning, tidy up, get straight to housekeeping ( much more tiring than it seems!) then once we've finished we'll have around 4 -5 hours break to do whatever we want until 6 when we serve dinner. I've seriously had to adjust to waking up early, since I became much too used to lie-ins this year. I've nailed getting ready in under 10 minutes, which is a huge achievement given that I'm usually always late getting ready!

As for the French, I've had plenty of opportunity to speak so far - we've hosted some French guests, I've had to help sort out technical problems with the hotel and had sporadic moments of dealing with French people working with the hotel, delivery men etc. I felt a little daunted at first by being thrown straight in to speaking at any given moment, but I've already began to adjust.

Given the spectacular scenery of this place, I've naturally taken to mountain walking like a duck to water! Mostly I've gone with other members of the team but once I went for a jog/walk up the mountain which was exhilarating. Fitness in general is much more motivated when you're surrounded by such a pretty area.

I've had a few low moments this week. mainly due to homesickness and missing my close friends, family and my boyfriend. It hit me very gradually that I was finally here, and then suddenly crashed down on me. However our team are getting very close and so we're all supportive of each other on rubbish days. I've had to learn a lot already since being here, and I still have plenty to accumulate! I can't wait for the next 7 weeks!

Thanks for reading!