Jetting Educated

[I am back in England now, of course. I did find this forgotten post, and thought I would publish it posthumously (the season's dead, not me)] On Thursday I will be coming back to England. During the past fortnight especially, I have been really looking forward to getting back. But now that I have done my last shift with the guests I know I'll miss the place, the people ad my great job.         I've been thinking about the start of the season fondly. Looking back on my first week from the distance of the final one is pleasant as it was a time of great adventure, yet so much has changed within that time. When we had just arrived, we were very excited (I was so hyper but trying to keep it on the down low a little since people didn't really know me yet)- a new place to explore with friends we had only known a week. All the had to do on the first week was clean the childcare rooms and play with the toys to, you  know, make sure they weren't broken

There has always been a slight rivalry in resort between the childcare team and the chalet hosts. Essentially, they don't like that we appear to do less work (mainly because we are always being loud and having fun) and we often envy their shared days off and the huge tips they receive. Thankfully, once we all got to know each other, most of us put these feelings aside and got on well. There were people wouldn't shut up about childcare hours (which actually tend to be very similar to hosts', just at different times) but then some people do love to complain. As self appointed Childcare-Host Relations Officer its been a good season and not too tricky. This week, when we have had to clean up the resort, some of the hosts got a bit personal. I think it was a case of either group not fully understanding that we were both having to do a lot of work, resulting in childcare being called lazy, which made us want to prove them right by not helping. For a collective group wh

The season is coming to an end and it feels as though its death is an agonising one. I did well to maintain enthusiasm over the last 6 weeks of sunshine and no snowfall. Everybody (save the vampire Lestat) enjoys the sunshine but when you live at 1850 meters and all there is to do is work and ski, you don't always go mad for a constant helping of rays which melt the snow.  We moved the kids to this slope on Monday.  But by Weds, it looked like this. The slopes have now been dalmationised (I just coined that) with many patches of grass, dirt and rock being resurrected all over the mountain. Whilst this looks throrougly horrible off piste, ruining the beautiful uniform whiteness, on the piste it becomes dangerous. If you hit a patch of dirt the likely result is that you will go flying as the skis won't want to move through it and you'll be flung forward. If only one of your skis hits it, the other will keep going and this forces the splits to occur w

I was thinking recently of what I have learnt from the season, and it has been nice to reflect on it as its been quite long and varied. Its been a great experience but in fairness, I've not learnt too much. Thanks for the makeover kids... not I've never really had to comfort children before, as working in a school everyone is within an environment they are used to and, other than the odd bullying incident, most of my children were happy. Here though, some children cry incessantly for their parents even though they are only away form them for a few hours. It is true that they are doing an exercise that most beginners are shit at, with people they don't know in a new environment. But don't cry about it.           I've learnt a bit about working with younger children, having been with Spritelets (3-5 years) and nursery (4 months- 3 years). Mainly its been reinforced that children like it when you act like an idiot, which I have some experience with. One

One of the things that I loved about being a teacher was the relationships that you develop with your kids and how you can progress from being just another adult, to a person who they look up to, respect, and even actually like. Here in La Rosiere I wasn't sure how different it would be with only seeing children for one week. It depends on what shifts I work but I can end up seeing some children quite a bit during their time here and getting to know them. Often, the more I get to know a child or a group of children the more fun the job is. A few weeks back I was working with a 12 year old boy with Down's Syndrome. I went on his skiing lessons and was at his chalet for lunch and high tea (what the company calls dinner time), so I spent loads of time with him.  He was usually not difficult to work with but he had his moments, as every child does. The first shift I spent with him I was telling someone how well behaved he had been, but then I recalled some of the things