Why I Love My Job In The Alps
After some people have said that I don't really talk about what I'm doing for work on my travels, I am going to talk about my job in childcare in La Rosiere, and why I love it.
In summary, it rocks. In exchange for looking after children and being as noisy as they are, I get all the food I want, accommodation and a lift pass for the St. Bernardo area so that I can ski in France as well as Italy.
Plus I get a few hundred pounds a month which I barely need to touch since I'm not drinking this month (shock horror). The pros aren't without the cons but overall I can't see how anyone could dislike it here.
At the momet I'm sitting on a coach with a thermos of hot chocolate and I'm actually doing my second job, which is transfer repping. I take guests from resort to airport, pick up new ones and return. Its not always as smooth as that but its generally a good way to spend transfer day (it certainly beats cleaning the play rooms or doing paperwork). Its mainly talking to happy people who are excited about being on holiday and giving them information on what rad things they will be doing.
The only low I've encountered so far with repping is that the weather around Chamberry airport means there are often delays so there's lots of waiting around (hardly the worst problem in the world).
A few weeks back it was so bad that the planes were delayed till late into the night and Danni, another childcare rep, even had to stay the night there. The worst bit was that she had to turn down free wine as she is also a dryathelete for January.
I was thinking with my CV when I took the transfer job- I had no sales experience before and knew that if I ever wanted to rep full time it would be useful. It turned out to be something I really enjoy and as such as considering it for the next winter season.
During the week I adopt the title of Dion Bear, Snow Ranger (although I am regularly mistaken for Roberto as he looks a bit foreign too), and I'd summarise the job like this:
The negatives first, to get them out of the way:
-The chalet hosts often get tipped as they are guaranteed to be with the same families for the whole week and do them a good service. While we do dine with the children at high tea (dinner time), its more likely that we are moved around and therefore we don't really get tips.
- We have a random day off each week and so are not always off with our first choice of friends. Having said that, we all get on and there's bound to be someone you want to hang out with on your day off and its always worked out well for me.
- Christmas Day here was a bit sad. Everyone has to work and we are cut off from family as there's no wifi in the Palace. Having wifi at home is so normal these days so it is a pain to not have it. I guess I probably end up wasting less time because of it though.
The pros of my job are these:
-Perks such as the accom and lift pass are a good start.
-The food gets complained about, but not by me. We get given the food that the children are getting so its got to be good enough to satisfy paying parents. We also do get extra food if we ask for it, but some people don't bother to ask and just complain about it instead.
-I don't usually have loads of hours in a row. Many times I have worked morning and evenings so I do 8-2 and then 5-6.30 then 7.30-10.30. Adding the hours up its a fair few but I'm usually having a good time at work and it does not seem hard.
-Having the afternoons off means decent skiing time, plus on Saturdays we only work one shift so usually have the morning or afternoon to ski.
-Its kind of like being at uni again (as aforementioned) but you're working instead of studying. There is a big group of us and most of us get on well with each other, and there's lots of socialising and partying.
-I live in the Alps and that's cool.
I get to work for 8.15 which is pretty reasonable and then probably do a take-to. This is picking kids up from their chalets, signing them in to my care so that if they get hurt of disappear then I am entirely liable, and then escorting them to their ski lessons.
Occasionally I have to give a man-up chat to a crier but its usually tear free. We get all the kids from different chalets in to a circle on the piste and sing repeat-after-me songs which I really enjoy.
Once I have offloaded the infantile cargo to the instructors and signed them over, I'll either have to ski with them on lessons or I get between 9 til 11.15 off to do what I like. Then we do lunch at chalets which I call 'feeding time at the zoo' as it can be a little mad.
We get catered for by the hosts so we just have to serve it and make sure the children are eating well. They do enjoy throwing food on the floor, as well as putting food up their nose, spilling water everywhere and being extremely fussy. Sometimes there are children that only want plain bread but oh well. Its hardly difficult, you just have to be vigilant to mischief and very patient.
Then there is high tea where we eat with the children in their chalets and get food for ourselves. This week I've been with Lara who serves me well not only with food but with science chat as she is going to study biology next year at uni, so its been a good week. We keep the children entertained with riddles.
Later there is something called Coco Club which is an evening session for the children during the adult dinner service. So while the chalet hosts are cooking, serving and cleaning, I am doing art & crafts with the children or playing games. This does not feel like work as its so fun and I get to make art for the Palace to make it look like less of a shithole.
Ive also made other things, such as the Christmas hat I made last month that had mistletoe hanging above it. (A totally sweet idea I know, and it made the Christmas Eve pub crawl very fun).
If I'm not doing Coco club its the dreaded baby listening service. This involves sitting in a guest corridor and making sure that children don't escape whilst their parents are downstairs eating. This is not enjoyable like Coco Club is and we aren't allowed to listen to music or go on computers while we do it either. The good thing is that when it finished at around 10 we can bugger off and get ready to go out.
Here are some quotes from children I have heard in the past few weeks:
"Do you have a tickly willy?" A child said to my friend Steve.
"What do your boobs feel like?" A kid asked Char with an outstretched hand. Lad.
"I need to make this happen" A little guy said, pointing at his ass. It meant that he needed a shit.
I am here until sometime in April, depending on the weather, and it is so fun. I've been loving the socialising and nightlife, sober, which is what I will talk about in my next post. Ill leave you with a riddle, comment the answer if you can work this out:
"What is greater than God,
Worse than the Devil,
The rich want it,
And the poor have it?"
NOTHING!?
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