the art of personal presentation

so, where are we up to?...ah yes, wednesday. i bemoaned getting a questionnaire with the time for my personal presentation class slap bang in the middle of an afternoon i normally have very free, but the class was really good fun! ah yes. the morning began with "tricky foods", in fact the whole morning was taken up with tricky foods, the first part theory and the second part practice. this involved a lot of cheese and fruit right before lunch! i was hostess and nivrithi was host. we filled in the form beforehand with guests names and their jobs, ages, hobbies etc. and conversation topics too. and then everyone was stuffed before lunch so that went quite quickly - as a hostess i was happy with my staff and the food. all good. surprisingly good in fact. then i took a taxi to montreux for my personal presentation class. i was early so i sat by the lake and watched. i was in such a bad mood before the class because i had to pay for the taxi and i wasn't too keen on the idea of being told what to wear etc etc. but the class was great, i thoroughly enjoyed my colour, style and skin consultation. i discovered my season is: summer, my style is: something, my mood is: the other something (its all in the file which i have closed until i go home) and my skin is: sensitive. but i knew that already and the woman was so nice and we laughed a lot and she did my make-up. see pic:



and i can't remember what i did in the evening.

thursday, yesterday, our first class was "guatemala" - irene is from guatemala so she taught us etiquette and manners and stuff from guatemala, similar to that of the switzerland class of tuesday. the second class was with madame neri, the principal. i was particularly not looking forward to this class because i didn't know whether or not she had read my semi-rude note about having to pay for the taxi to my class, which i had paid extra for. and also, every time she looks at anyone, i just feel she is scrutinising their every move! eek. after lunch, for which i was downstairs (thankfully) with the journalist amongst others. the journalist has been driving everyone mad - chewing gum (we get fined for doing that), interrupting the whole time and picking her nose, not forgetting her oversized mouth. she wants to write a book on etiquette, and is doing research..she needs to put into practice what we learn in class!! after lunch i washed clothes and then had a class on ironing. which i now officially HATE. i dont hate much, but that i definitely hate. i think i probably took silly shirts with me to iron, but never mind. the class went surprisingly fast, then i had dinner and went to bed! i was tired/moody so didn;t really feel like socialising!

today (finally, will be up to date)...

mixing cocktails, great start to the week!

not that i'm complaining or anything! so back to school on monday and first class of the day is mixing cocktails, like i said..great start to the week. please see photos:



following cocktail mixing was menu planning for entertaining - what to avoid when inviting people, what foods dont go together etc etc. then it was lunch. the food is still good, but i find it weird eating a 3 course meal at lunchtime! and i was a guest upstairs in the formal dining room, the first of THREE times out of four this week!

monday afternoons = cooking, and this week it was sushi! see pics:


tuesday was the start of our p.r. class in the evening, but before that in the morning, we had a class on switzerland - infos and etiquette, food, etc etc, then after that was dress definitions - the fact that we have to be aware of things such as: religious taboos, season, occasion etc etc, we saw some pics from ladies day at ascot and we compared pictures of people who look elegant in one pic then awful in another..what makes a person look elegant?clothes for different formal/nonformal occasions.

in the afternoon we decorated tables for a biscuit themed party, see pics:



because my table decoration class finished at 7, and my pr class started at 8, there wasn't time to go anywhere for dinner, so i asked them to give me a boiled egg at breakfast that i would keep...this is very etiquette school ;-)



the pr class was very interesting, we presented one another and learnt lots. the teacher was really interesting, works for nestlé and i very much liked his style of teaching, it was really laid back and the classes are always interesting, its nice to have a different mix of people - some of the people in the class i don't have any classes with at all.

glacier 3000!

so first of all...photos! having received an email from my dear father requesting photos, here are some - a pick and mix of the day up in the alps in the clouds, details and explanations to follow!



edit: so sunday morning started early once more..i piled on my hoodies, jeans and trainers (at the weekend this is allowed) to keep warm - checking the weather in advance is always a bonus!and i made sandwiches there were 8 of us - 4 girls from india, 1 from japan, 1 from the us, 1 from the uae and me. we took taxis to the train station and got on the first train which passed without troubles. the next train however...its a bit like going into sheffield station, you go in one way and come back the same way (at least when i go from notts-manc, thats the way it goes), except for the fact the trainline didnt go any further, so of course we thought - hmm this is early, but got off the train anyway - silly us considering the next train wasn't for another hour minimum! luckily a bus driver called us a taxi who took us to the place we were supposed to get off the train to wait for our next form of transport...a bus. the wait was long and cold, but probably nothing compared to what we had in store for us! i mean, i wasn't that cold, coming from england gives me an advantage over the others :) the bus only took ten minutes then we took a cable car miles up in the air to get to the glacier. we couldn't see anything because we were in the clouds and i had to buy a hat because my head was cold. we then took a ski lift down through the fog/cloud and there were these snow buses at the bottom, of which a picture is posted. we took a ride on that, which was such fun! we passed the huskies then turned round and stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a huge snowball fight, it was such fun! after some fun in the snow we took a husky sledge ride which was about 5 minutes, but really good fun, the sun came out and said hello for a few minutes, which was nice. then we went up in the ski lift again and had lunch in the self service restaurant because we had missed the bus by like 5 mins and on sundays everything is weird. a bit like in germany. we then took the cable cars back down, waited for the bus, took photos whilst we were waiting and then returned, staying on the train when we should have and we returned to school at about 5pm, having had a great day!

you'd think a food museum would be my idea of heaven...

unfortunately not. (annoyingly i just wrote this and my firefox froze because of the "how to dress" pdf). the food museum was in vevey, which is about 15 minutes away. there was a fork in the lake outside the museum, and it only just dawned on me that that was because it was outside the food museum. a great concept, but not so great when you have THE most boring tour guide who spends half an hour talking about food 100 years ago. it would have been much better had we been able to run freely on the hamster wheel and read things for ourselves. everyone was SO tired, even irene was stifling yawns, and the boringness hardly helped to be honest! we had ten minutes after the tour to look round the museum and we spent a bit of time taking photos with the fork. haha. i meant to say we also had time in vevey to look at the tea shops and the market, which was really pretty, the music festival was on so there were random groups of people singing/marching bands and there was an air of fun in this strange place...haha. i think i prefer it to montreux, not that i have had the time to properly explore either place! after that we went to lausanne to have free time, i wanted to buy a camera because im sad i can't show you any photos, and i can hardly take my laptop everywhere to take photos like i did in the hotel on my very first night here...everyone was so tired that we spent a lot of time in starbucks just relaxing..after i bought my camera! i got back and we have such a great view, that once the battery was charged and the sun started setting, i took some pics...after running up and down stairs, taking photos, i decided with some of the girls to go to glacier 3000 (if you are ever in the area, its worth going to!) which involved another early start..i organised the trains and went to bed early to prepare for yet another early morning..i dont think the weekend is enough time to recover from the week!!

thursday + friday of last week.

so long has passed since last thursday - i'm not sure if i can remember everything that's happened..but i have my timetable in front of me to keep you informed! so thursday morning we had the theory of table manners...i think that class was over quite quickly because the majority of us had already had the practical side of it..and also, at breakfast and lunch, if we use bad manners, irene/mcc (who is another one of the teachers) will correct us in a polite manner (obviously!). after break we had the practicalities of table service which involved standing up for an hour and a half. five minutes later i was in the formal dining room preparing to serve everyone else's food, stare longingly at it and collapse in the heat and hurt my feet. i didn't actually collapse, but my feet DEFINITELY hurt! and i didn't finish my lunch until 14h40!! at 17h30, i had my home management class, we learnt about all the different symbols on labels of clothes, what we can and can't do with certain items etc etc, then i handwashed a shirt! that was fun, the class is really small - we are only 3! after that i had dinner outside on the terrace with emily - we had camembert on toast and a salad. it was perfect weather for eating outside so that was nice. i kept meaning to wash my clothes and write my blog, but i wanted to also study for the test (which turned out to be really easy, and didn't involve using my brain, which was a nice change!!).

test day came and we had another practical class in service, we discussed filling out a piece of paper that those being head waitress have to fill in and what they have to prepare beforehand so that the service for the formal lunch runs as smoothly as it can! that class was ok...and it was the first full day that our new roommate stayed in school - she is called sarah from australia and has been here since january (but was at another school at that particular time), so that was nice. the second class to be quite frank was as boring as hell (the contents were at least: "this is a fruit fork, this is a lobster crusher, etc etc etc), but the group is great and we spend most of the time laughing at something..it's a lot more light-hearted than i expected it to be!! we sped through lunch to give those doing the diploma time to study for their extra test and to give us time as well, but i felt like the majority of the stuff was general knowledge..i think most people found the test easy and today (monday) mcc told us we had all passed, but we don't have the results yet. but they went through all the test questions with us in the class - the test is basically the exercise in the book and they pick a few questions and you answer them = no brain power required. friday night, anna-marie, emily and i went to the lebanese to eat, the food was really good! i had a "mixed kebab" and we had some nice wine too. one thing i have noticed about switzerland is that it is very expensive eating out...earlier in the week i ate a salad for about £12, which i mean is ok, but hmmm..it was a good salad though (see earlier post i think...i should really check what i write first). went to bed at like 1.30 which was a silly idea given the long day ahead. (see next post)

i can't think of a witty title, so this will have to do!

this is going to be the longest message you ever read. fact. (well, it will be the last three days condensed into 25 mins of typing time, so prepare yourself for the long haul!)

so each morning in this first week from 8h30 until 10h00 we are split into two groups and each day we alternate things that we learn. wednesday (a whole three days ago now, so excuse me if the memories are a bit faded..) we discussed precedences i.e who sits where at the table at a dinner party and things to talk about/not to talk about at the table. at 10h15 we are split into three groups and again, things we do alternate so everyone does everything. wednesdays class was cutlery and table manners (the practicality of it) things like how to use your cutlery in different style services and not to put your elbow on the tables etc etc. some really obvious stuff! wednesday i do believe i was a guest in the formal dining room - basically students "host" lunch and then some other students are service staff and the head water. it was all really good (i don't remember what i ate), but the kiwis for desert tasted a bit bitter, probably the sauce it was in..anyway. after lunch on wednesday, two american girls - emily and shanelle (on of the girls on top floor pierrefeu (my floor/"flat" whatever) and i went to lausanne for some shopping and just to get away for the afternoon, which was really nice! the sun was shining and it was hot, we managed to find a starbucks and the sales!! i bought some shoes and a couple of summery tops, because everything i have is quite warm! we then headed back to montreux after some acceptable exercise (shops are up the hill) and all had the yummiest goats cheese salad i've had outside of france (probably the only one) and came back up here - im sure something happened before i went to bed, probably chilling out or something - one of the teachers, irene, lives downstairs, and she is lovely, i think that might have been that night that i went to relax downstairs, there was a group of us and in fact, yes it was wednesday night. it was nice! i helped the cooking teacher order some stuff and had quite an early night (ish, like 11, but as i am so terrible in the mornings and my roommates still get up early, i need the sleep!!)

i think its time for a break right now so this probably isnt the longest ever blog you read, but enjoy it...it will be easier for me to remember thursday and friday because that was yesterday and today! maybe upon my return from tonights "festivities"?!

edit: on the train back from lausanne, between montreux and glion, a woman who looked like the orange haired woman possibly previously discussed with the most HIDEOUS makeup in the world mounted the train. then i became hysterical..her eyeliner was blue and coming out beyond her temples and her lipstick clashed with her hair and her skin colour...all a bit mental really. but yeah, was really funny!!

test tomorrow!

i just thought i would post something as many of you are BEGGING me to write more (because obviously its an entertaining blog), but i do have a test tomorrow, so i'm revising for it at the moment...check back tomorrow afternoon!!

i would like to be a sales assistant please

ok, so i'm not entirely sure where to begin! maybe yesterday?

ok, so yesterday morning breakfast was at 730-800 and they are supposed to check our rooms at 745 but i'm not sure they did! (or today for that matter, maybe its just to keep us in check) then at 830 we had an introduction which was an introduction to the teachers, the headmistress and each other (officially) - i think in total (including teachers) we are about 24 or so. we went through the rules and general rubbish including fines for chewing gum, the fact that we shouldnt be offended if we are told our clothes are rubbish etc etc. (there are lots of silly things in the rules - the girl i went "hiking" with and i had a bit of a giggle reading them!) anyway, after that, those of us cooking picked up our aprons from one of the maids called françoise who is so lovely, really sweet, excitable etc. then because that didn't take that long we had some free time, followed by a campus tour (the campus isn't that big, just three buildings). then it was lunch which was gooood - the food is great, lemon chicken (i actually liked it, shock horror!). then we had a bit of time, so a bunch of us agreed to go to montreux which is where erika and i hiked to! on the train this time! but the train goes once an hour and the signing out of the building process is confusing for those who don't live in the school building (which i do, right at the top!) and so my room mate (shanelle, from the usa) and i went down, missed the train, decided to go to the shop which was closed for lunch and made our way back up (bearing in mind, this is the mountain that was hiked, and the legs were (still are) very sore!!) and bumped into the others on their way down so we all went and hung out in the park til the shop opened and we could get some "provisions". because there were about 9 or 10 of us it took us a long time, as 2 of us were helping the others with translations etc etc. despite the fact the shop is tiny! then we had to get back for our cooking class, which was our first "real" class. there are 4 of us in this class, me, shanelle, erika and her room mate neha and the teacher runs a catering business in mexico, so she knows her shit! although i'm a bit of a free spirit in the kitchen so i don't particularly like being shown how to do things i've been doing for the past 3 years e.g. chopping an onion. the food we cooked was great, each of us took a dish and then afterwards we ate it. the menu was veal/paneer pizzaiola, leeks, courgettes and for dessert pavlova. we all look really great in our silly hats etc etc, once i get my camera working i will get some photos! then after washing up etc etc, i went to erikas to watch gossip girl and eat more pavlova - a girl called emily (also from the us) who lives upstairs in that building came and joined us, and people were popping into the kitchenette from time to time, so that was really nice! then because my room mates get up at 5 for a jog/walk and im hardly a morning person i went to bed about 1030. and slept quite badly.

so today we had a class on table service, all the different kinds (french, english, american - confused a lot of people!!) and that was not so bad. all the stuff we do is basically preparing the kids who take the tests for taking the tests! and it wasnt so bad. afterwards we had a quick break then "serving coffee after dinner" in a small group of about 6. the girl from australia, sarah, who is our room mate at another school atm but coming on friday was there, she is lovely! i managed to get away without coffee and had some herbal tea, which was ok. then basically every day for lunch from today onwards, a group of girls are the service team, then there is a host and a hostess and a group of guests. as i was none of the above, i was eating in the downstairs room and i was waiting upstairs, i got summoned into the principals office (just to reassure you all, i was not the only one!) to be told that what i was wearing was not suitable for a business meeting and i looked like a sales assistant or someone who works in a gardening store?! despite the fact that it never said anywhere that we should wear what we should to a business meeting! i mean im not a moron, what i am wearing i wouldn't wear to a business meeting/job interview (as someone else was told), i would wear a suit! duh. so that pissed me off quite a bit, another girl was told she was out of fashion and looked like she worked in a golfing store (i dont know which is worse). lunch was good, then we had an introduction in the theory of flower arranging and decorating a table *puke*. which we have another class of in about 10 mins.

a couple more random titbits: they gave us a riviera card for discounts on travel etc but apparently they'd done it wrong and so i couldn't have one. but i bought a monthly pass for the train - i figure there is only 3 places in glion to eat so eventually we will have to venture down to montreux for dinner! and i'm going to lausanne tomorrow afternoon maybe to the cinema. fun times, can't wait. apart from the shop assistant/gardening shop lady comment, i'm doing well, everyone is really nice!

my hand hurts and i have to get to class! byeee

if i married a count

If i married a count, i'm sure i would know what to do in a 4* hotel without having to call my mum to find out what i could touch and not get charged for it, i would know that if you hang a thing on your door saying what you want for breakfast, it means they bring it up to you, so sitting in the dining room waiting for your breakfast is a bit embarassing, and it meant the woman was slightly annoyed with me, but she got over it. i think. if i married a count, i could get used to the above views. the list is endless, but i will leave it at that. i think that's enough.

so apart from that, i arrived here this morning at 10am on the dot. although the hotel was approximately a 30 second drive away the taxi ride cost 30 SFr!! expensive or what?!

anyway, i share a room with one girl and a "flat" as it were with another 2, another one i believe is arriving on friday. but the girls who i share with weren't here by the time it was lunch (which was provided, and yummy) i was already unpacked and i met the other girls and a couple of us decided to go to town, without checking bus routes/times etc. silly us = three hour hike down and up the MOUNTAIN of which we are almost at the top. which makes the view incredible but ouch my feet! i mean, you cant see how far down the lake is, but like i said it was three hours!

every morning at 745 is room check (eek), then we have lessons from 830 until 1145 every morning, then lunch at 12 ish (from what i understand sometimes i will eat, other times i will serve, then eat - all part of the practice.) monday afternoons is cooking, tuesday is flower arranging and table decoration, thursday is home management and also and then next week i have public relations sometime in the evening.

thats it for the moment, enjoy the view!!

my bags are packed...i'm ready to go!

or am i?! that is the big question on everybody's lips - well probably only one person's and that isn't me (dad!). well, all that's left to do now is make sure i have something to wear to travel in tomorrow and to pack my hand luggage (not forgetting passport, obv).

the flight leaves tomorrow at 13.10 from liverpool airport and i should arrive at the hotel at about 17.30 (all being well).

because the course doesn't start officially til sunday, saturday night will be in a hotel and then sunday morning i will head up (i think it's on a mountain, or at least a very big hill!) to the school aka malory towers! or lady school as it is more commonly known amongst others. haha.

from what i gather i will be sharing a room with 3-4 others of roughly the same age (am hoping not to have to share a room with bratty 18 year olds - this has been todays recurring daymare - like me when i was about 13, and louise about 3 years ago, except older (and probably brattier)) and i hope to get internet access to keep you lovely people up to date on the situation! weekends i think are free, although there are excursions in switzerland which i will probably be going on, to give me something to do - although i hope i wont be bored!!

to give you a rough idea of the curriculum: european etiquette, hosting and protocol; table service & hostessing practice (this involves serving the other students!); business etiquette and savoir-vivre; floral art and table decoration; cooking; public relations; home management; personal presentation. it all looks very interesting and useful (barring the preparation for a state visit...)

that's all i can think of for the moment...apart from the fact that i got a haircut ready for the off (never realised i had a phobia of hairdressing salons until it came to booking the appointment, having cut my own hair for the past 4-5 years!!!) and i hope to stop biting my nails!

keep checking back for updates!!!!