WORK EXPERIENCE ABROAD: The Big Adventure - Why, Where & How You Do It

Last year I spent four weeks abroad near Brighton, England, doing work experience at a company that focuses on school trip tourism. During these four weeks I did not only manage to learn a lot about that job and what working in a country that speaks a different language is like, but I also got to know a culture that I have adored for years a lot better, live in a country that I have always been interested in, meet new people, find more confidence both in speaking and working and whilst doing that explore many new places and have the time of my life. I've found work experience abroad to really be a blessing for myself and my future, and whether you are here because you are already planning an internship abroad or are just interested in it, I hope this blog post is going to help you in some way. There are many things to consider, but there are also many reasons why doing work experience abroad is an amazing thing one can do in their life.

WHY

Work experience is something that is crucial for your future, particularly if you are younger and not yet qualified in a certain job field. In Germany, it is common to do a few work experiences during your school time - three in my case. It helps you broaden your knowledge and understanding of the job world and at the same time help you in finding out what you would like to do in the future. Doing work experience where you live is a good thing, and you should definitely make use of that, but if that's not enough for you, or if you want to try something different and challenge yourself even further - a work experience abroad might be for you. 

When I found out that my school would give me the chance to do my work experience abroad, if I wanted to, I think I might have screamed a little because I got so exited. Especially if you are interested in other cultures, other countries, travelling and/or languages, doing work experience in a different country is definitely the way to go.

Although, I definitely want to mention, that you do NOT have to speak a language well in order to do work experience in a certain country. The thought behind giving people the chance to work abroad for a while, is not only to gain work experience, but also, to be able to improve your language skills.

And on the other hand - even if you already speak that language perfectly fine, you should definitely still keep in mind all the other great opportunities that come with doing work experience abroad. You get to know a job in a different country, which might have different ways of doing things than in your own country and will possibly be faced with new challenges. You will be able to get to know a different culture and explore a whole new area during your stay. You will meet new people, learn many new things and have the time of your life, all whilst working. It will also help you become more independent, particularly if you still live at home in your own country.

WHERE

This is obviously a personal choice, but there are some aspects you should consider, when choosing where to do your work experience. First one would be language. As I said, speaking a language perfectly well is not what you should base your country of choice on, but in order to be able to work in a different country, you need to at least have basic knowledge of the language.

In general, take into consideration, that the better your language skills are, the more challenging and "difficult" jobs you will be able to get. If you are going somewhere to better your language skills, working as a waiter in a restaurant might work perfectly fine for you, but if your focus is on the actual work experience in a "more skilled" job, i.e. in the tourism or business sector, then you are better off choosing a country which's language you are more aware and in power of.

A different aspect one should put into consideration, is money. Work experience abroad itself isn't very cheap, so choose wisely, depending on your financial situation. For example, doing work experience in Australia will be much more expensive for you if you live in Europe, than doing it in England for example, particularly because of flight prices etc. But obviously if that's what you want to do, that is totally your choice.

Go somewhere, where you are both interested in and somewhere that will help you most at achieving what you are expecting from this work experience. I personally chose England. Not because I particularly wanted to improve my language skills, but mainly because I am really interested in the country, culture and its people, as well as always being interested to see whether I would be able to work in an English speaking company. Choose what feels right for you. It makes no sense going somewhere that you don't like or don't have any interest in whatsoever. 

 HOW

Now, there are two ways of doing this. Either, you go and contact companies yourself, or you decide to pay an organisation to do it for you. Both has it's pros and cons.

Pros of doing it all yourself are definitely that you have much more of a choice as in where you want to work, and if you have any contacts, you can make use of that. And you also save the money that you will otherwise pay to a company to help you with finding your spot. But the cons are definitely that you have to do a lot more admin work, and it will possibly take you longer to find a company that will want to work with you, as they might not usually choose people from abroad for their work experience spots. If you don't have a place to stay where you are going, you will also have to find a hotel, a room or a host family yourself. If you are fine with all of that, definitely go for it.

The pros of choosing an organisation to help you with finding work experience are definitely that you have to do a lot less work yourself in trying to find a spot, which can take off a lot of pressure. They will also be able to help you find a work experience spot that is perfect for the level of your language skills, as well as considering your own interests in what field you want to work in. They can also help you finding a host family or a hotel for your stay. The cons however are, that you will also have to pay the organisation a certain amount of money for their work, and you also might get a little less choice in where you are going to be able to work (i.e. you will get a list of 10 or so different job fields that you can choose to work in, which might not always cover your interests). 

Another tip I can definitely give you, is to do a lot of googling. Find out about other people's experiences and what organisations they went with. If you decide to do it all yourself, start by deciding on what cities and jobs you are looking for, look out for companies that cover these fields and start contacting them about whether they would be willing to offer you a spot for work experience, should they approve of your CV. If you decide to go with an organisation however, go on google and find out about all the different organisations that offer to help you with work experience in the country of your choice. Compare them, price, performance and interest wise, and also - find out about fairs and conferences in your area. Where I live there a student exchange fair happening every few months or so, where many companies are invited, covering every field from work experience, to Au Pair and language courses or High School Years Abroad. It can be a great help chatting to the people in person that organise these work experiences, and might help you answer the questions you might have. Even if you don't want to choose an organisation, and do it all yourself, this might be helpful, as they might be able to give you some tips. 

In the end, you will have to choose which way will be the right one for you. I personally went with an organisation. If you want to find out what I thought of that, and what my personal experiences during the general work experience where, I am going to be uploading a blogpost on that very soon, and link this HERE, as soon as it is available.

DON'T FORGET

As fun as it sounds to go abroad for a while and explore somewhere new whilst also gaining work experience, there are some things you must consider.

Money is definitely a factor that could possibly limit a lot of people from doing this. However, if that's the case for you, don't give up straight away. There are always ways of making it work. Making compromises and possibly working to gain some more money for the trip can turn things around easily. Work experience abroad is an expensive thing to do, but it can be so fulfilling and you might have the time of your life. It can and very likely will be absolutely worth it to work your butt off in order to make this trip possible.

When calculating the cost of your trip, take into consideration that you will have to pay for flights or trains to get there and get back home, possibly pay an organisation, pay a host family, hotel or room for the length of your stay, and also that you will have all sorts of expenses for food, transport to work and around where you live, possible trips to explore the area and anything else that you might want to buy whilst there.

Also, don't forget to get a travel insurance for the duration of your stay, just in case anything happens to you, because otherwise any accident might become really expensive for you afterwards. 

~

So, what do you think? Are you ready to take on the world of working abroad? What are you thinking? If you have any thoughts or possible questions you might want to share, feel free to do so below or give me a shout via e-mail! :)

Love, Jacqueline Xx

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"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. 
There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only we 
seek them with our eyes open."

- Unknown

Why I Took A Blogging Break

Bloody hell, why are white pages so scary? Especially after having been able to avoid them for over two months I feel like it has become a lot easier for me to keep avoiding them.

Even though my blog is yet to reach the point where it attracts a wide range of attention, I still feel kind of bad for not posting anything in the past two months.

The last time I uploaded was during my Greece holiday at the beginning of August. Shortly after coming home I went back to school and started my final year of school. A-Levels are getting closer and closer every day, and I did not think year 13 could be more stressy than year 12. Well, turns out it is. Or I've just forgotten how much pressure and stress was hanging in the air last year. Could be both, who knows haha.

But I don't want to say school was the only excuse for why I didn't blog at all since August. I kind of just  lost the spark. I found myself thinking about writing a new post, but somehow I couldn't get myself to open a new page and start writing. I just completely lost the motivation to blog, if I am honest with you, and the load of school work on top of that didn't really help that either.

So I just wanted to say that I am really sorry for being so quiet, although I am probably correct when I say that every blogger needs a break from blogging from time to time.

I wish I could promise you that I will be blogging more in the sooner future, but I know better than to do that. Autumn break is just about to start but so does starting to study for my A-Levels and school is only off for two weeks before we are blown right back into it.

I'm not going to promise anything apart from the fact that I am going to try and post whenever I can and feel ready to do so. I am no longer going to force myself to post something every week because I really feel like that puts a lot more pressure on this hobby than it should.

There is still a bunch of pictures left from going to Greece and our school trip to England, so maybe I'll share those with you soon. There's not a properly planned schedule though, so I am open to any suggestions of topics you would like me to talk about. So for now, that's it. See you back on my blog, hopefully very soon.

Until then, have a wonderful time! :)

Love,

Jacqueline Xx

London's Beauties: Exploring Camden, Primrose Hill & Shoreditch #TheBrighton Diaries

Welcome to a new post!

If you've seen my last blog post (if not, click here to read it), you'll know that I recently went to London for a day, during my time in England. But I also spent a second day there throughout my stay. This time though, we decided to look around some other spots of London that we hadn't seen before, or had only been to very briefly.

We decided to explore Camden, Primrose Hill and Shoreditch and had a great time, even though the weather wasn't the prettiest. Oh, and we also had a quick stop at King's Cross, which obviously is a must see for any Potterhead. I didn't take any pictures there, but in the end, there's not that much to see. I'm still not over the fact that a picture in front of Platform 9 3/4 literally costs £10. I might have ended up buying a key ring though...oops. Honestly, that shop was literally heaven.

The first stop was Camden, which a lot of you will probably have heard about, whether you're English or not. It's very well known, hence why you can basically barely move most of the time. But there are many cute little shops and people selling almost every fan or touristy shirt that you could want. There are also many many different cute little stands selling lots of nice food. The only downside is that most places that have nice food you just don't want to stop at cause there are sooooo many people. In the end we still managed to get some though haha. Lucky us.

Fries and feta.

Off to our second stop: Primrose Hill. Don't think without Mr. Harry Styles I would have ever gone to the place, but I am just so glad that we did because I literally fell in love with it. You know you're in London, but it somehow doesn't feel like London. It's just as pretty, but soo much calmer. I wish the weather would have been nice enough to take some more  pictures of the actual streets, but oh well. Also, the park is literally so beautiful and you have a perfect view over London and lots of popular sights. If I could I would move to that part of London straight away, honestly. So nice! I definitely recommend going there if you're in London, even if you just end up sitting on top of the hill in the park and make your way through a whole package of chocolate hobnobs...;)

Using the Overground instead of the tube for once.

Arriving in Shoreditch.

Despite everyone always raving about how much they love Shoreditch, it wasn't really our thing. I'm pretty sure we must have landed in the wrong parts of it and probably missed out on the good stuff, but oh well. One day someone who knows something about London will need to show me around there. They do have a few nice bits of graffiti there. We ended up spending quite a lot of time in front of the LIKEtoKNOW.it wall, which is just so cute. If you want your own pictures in front of it, be quick, because it'll probably be gone soon!

After enjoying a Mushroom & Halloumi wrap at Nandos, we then made our way back home to Brighton.

And that's where my second London adventure ends. When I first went to London, over two years ago, I immediately fell in love with it and knew I would love to live there. Going there again within the past month just proved that once again. It's no secret that London is an awesome city, though. I can't wait to go back.

Leave me any tips you have on places to see in London, if you like! :)

Have a beautiful weekend ♥

Love, Jacqueline Xx

Trooping the Colour - 10 Hours in London #TheBrightonDiaries

Hello everyone!

I recently spent a whole Saturday in London aka one of my favourite cities, if not my favourite, in the whole world. Well, okay, I've not been to a huge number of cities, but still. It was such a hot day, over thirty degrees, yet I somehow managed to walk around 24km that day. Yes, I know I'm a little crazy.

The day I had planned on going, actually turned out to also be the day of Trooping the Colour, the Queen's birthday celebrations. I only found out the night before I went, but I instantly knew I had to go.  I have a slight obsession with the British royals, particularly Kate, so there was no way of not going there. I mean, I didn't see a lot of them, but at least I can tick this point off of my bucket list. They were tiny figures in carriages and on a balcony. It could've been anyone. Yet, I am glad I went, and at least my camera managed to capture more than I actually saw of the events.

I'm really sorry that I didn't edit the pictures, but truth be told, you would have probably never gotten to see them if I would have edited them all.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Could we also please talk about how stunning Kate looked in that pink dress?? 😍

Big Ben

London Eye

Here's a little tip...

So, I walked a lot of kilometers that day. Why not use the tube, you may think? Well firstly, I have asked quite a few people, and they all said the best thing to do in London is just get off somewhere and walk everywhere. And honestly, it is the best thing you can do.

If you get the tube to every single place, you will miss out on so many places and opportunites...like the best Waterstones ever at Trafalgar Square (go there, it's sooo pretty and the atmosphere really just sucks you in...okay, that sounds strange...you get what I mean...I hope lolz). Obviously you shouldn't walk all the way from one end of London to the other end, but there is no reason to take the tube from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, or from Buckingham Palace to the Big Ben and London Eye (unless you can't walk that well or far, of course). Everything is so close to each other.

Just to give you an example - if you get off at Victoria, you have a 10-15 minute walk to Buckingham Palace. From there it's literally another 15 minutes down the road to Trafalgar Square or around 10 minutes to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye. From London Eye it's another 15 minute walk to Trafalgar Square, which is close to Piccadilly Circus as well as Regent, Carnaby and Oxford Street.

That's just the places that I went, but I am pretty sure you could see a lot more places if you wanted to. Marble Arch and Hyde Park are just around the corner from Oxford Street as well. Obviously that depends on how far you want to walk, what you want to see and how much time you've got. But definitely try to do as little tube trips as possible, if you can, because you don't only get to see a lot more, but you also safe some money.

The Mall (leads to Buckingham Palace on one and Trafalgar Square on the other side)

Trafalgar Square

Piccadilly Circus

Carnaby Street

Oxford Street

I definitely spent a lot of time just walking around, trying to see as many things as I possibly could, and I definitely wouldn't do it any differently next time. To be honest, I had actually already seen most of the places that I went to, but I never really had the chance to go and do whatever I wanted to there, because I went with a whole group of people. Also, you can't get bored of London, can you?

There will be another blog post soon though, which is also going to be about London, but maybe not the instant places you think of going as a tourist...although I do have to say, that they are still quite popular spots. But anyway, you'll hear and see more of that very soon...hopefully. :D

Have a great week!

Lots of love,

Jacqueline Xx