Fourth week, learning further

Another good afternoon to all readers, the first Friday blog for you all to read.

I'm doing well here, I feel good and I believe my managers and co-workers are happy with my effort I put into work. I'm also practicing a lot of Spanish in daily life, trying to get my speaking and reading skills up. This should make life a little easier here, despite most people around me being either Dutch or English!

This week the first people in TDA left, some fun people who will make space for the next group. I wonder how it will be like without them. Time will tell.

I've completed my first diving course, i am now an Open Water Diver. I will use this to my advantage in something I have been introduced to this week: Sales.

When I went to Sales, I went with a new colleague named Ron. We introduced ourselves and we set of to Las Americas to sell the experience to other hotels. When we came there, we got what we expected. Due to low-season there are not many prospects around, mostly elderly people or people with no interest in diving. However, we did try and sell as much as possible, reaching a potential 4 customers (low). To focus more on business, we went to representatives of businesses like TUI and Sunweb, I got to ask some questions regarding my schoolwork. Following the information I gathered here, I concluded I would get a better sales experience in the busier Christmas period. In these few weeks there will be more customers than now.

Regarding progress in selling my experience, I've made the first few steps. I could explain exactly what the experience is like and what we do on a daily basis. I created interest and I shared correct information. Time will tell if the people I spoke with will return to Blue Explorers to get some diving in.

Schoolwork is steady as always, focussing on the business plan for the next couple of weeks. I hope to complete this in the next few weeks.

To conclude this blog, I am looking forward to the final weekend with the friends I've made here; most of them are leaving. Let's see what next week will bring!

Third week, new adventures

Another good afternoon!

Another week has gone by in an instant. I've enjoyed myself a lot in the meantime! As for social connections I am still very content with my placement here.

Getting straight back to the point of my work-placement here, I will elaborate on what I will be doing for the forseeable future. To get to further grips with the diving school and the service we sell, I am working toward my SSI Open Water Dive Certificate. This certificate means I can dive everywhere in the world to a depth of 12 meters. I also practice skills such as taking off my mask underwater, taking of the BCD device and taking the weight belt off. I am practicing these skills so I can assist the diving instructors on excursions, giving me more experience for the next part of my internship: sales.

To sell the experience and create new divers, you need to know what you are talking about. How do most people respond to the first dive? What equipment do you use? What are the costs? These are all questions that I need to know when going to sales. To get experience and use this in a commercial point of view, we have decided to get as many dives in as possible so I can use my experience in sales. This will be continued after I've done my first sales pitch.

Moving on to school tasks, I am preparing a programme for new employees to follow. I am doing this because it is the most relevant one for Blue Explorers to use as there are new employees coming in in a few weeks. They can follow the guidelines I set. I am following the logical order of the tasks, and I am happy I'm getting to do them so early in my internship. It is clear where I need to go if I have any questions, so I won't be stuck on a certain part for long.

As for my learning goals: I am speaking a lot of English and Spanish, so I hope my C2 level of English will be reached when I come back to school. I'm also practicing being more commercial when it comes to interested people around the diving school, something I feel I can still improve a lot on. More to come about these goals.

Second week, getting to grips

A second good afternoon to everyone, another update from the Sunny Island of Tenerife!

I have been here for 10 days now, how time flies. In regard to the first week, I've gotten to know the business a little more and I've expanded my social connections. All good, so far.

Let me start with a little school orientated information I've come across in my first days here. In regard to the assignments I've got from school, I will have to research further than Blue Explorers. Seeing as we are a small firm here, some things cannot be done from inside Blue Explorers, leaving me wondering where I can focus my assignments on. I found the answer fairly quickly: AquaLung. AquaLung supplies all material we use at Blue Explorers, making me very interested in investigating them further. This was also recommended by my supervisor, as they are a Wholesale who we come in to contact with regulary. Knowing I need to focus my gathering of information to this business, in close regard to what we do at Blue Explorers, made me feel comfortable and confident that I will be able to finish my assignments sufficiently. How this will progress, will be recorded in further blogs.

As to social life and getting by on regular basis, adapting to cultural differences and feeling satisfied… I have had no complaints so far. Social activities with the other dive schools prove to be fun and reoccuring, something I am very happy with. Contact with my coworkers is good and I feel a certain harmony when working here. I am learning how to do my part in helping this business run as smoothly as possible. I want to keep working hard and be more independent as the weeks go by. I'm still learning how to sell the initial experience and hopefully will even get to work towards an advanced diving certificate.

We have agreed upon the 40 hour working week being from 9 to 5 every day, differing between schoolwork in calm hours and full focus on work in busy periods. This allows me to work at the business and it makes sure that I have enough time to work on my assignments and ask questions where problems occur.

To end this second blog, I would like to share my readers with some positive information: I can now speak more than 2 words of Spanish. A small improvement, but something I would like to improve a lot in my time 'till the 5th of April.

Next week, update 3 will be available to you. Have a good week!

First week...

Hi folks! Welcome to my first blog about my internship at Blue Explorers!

Let me start at the beginning of this tale. It all came to reality when I left for Einhoven Airport on the 10th of november, 2018. It was here that it dawned on me that I would not see my mother, brother, father or close friends for quite some time. For some reason, this didn't come to mind much beforehand. I just wanted to get out here and soak up all the experience I possibly could. But at the moment I had to say goodbye to my family, it was a heavier burden than I had expected. I knew this was one of the moments in life that you need to grit your teeth and get through it. After all, learning comes from the corners outside of out comfort zone. Therefore, I knew I could not ever get cold feet: I had to go on. And so I did.

After a calm 5 hour flight, I landed in Tenerife South. Here I was instantly picked up by my supervisor: Cindy. A very warm welcome awaited me and some words of reassurance as to the place I would be living for in the next 4,5 months. After a 20 minute drive from the airport I arrived at my house, a cosy little home in the quiet village of Abades. Here I met my roommate and made first social encounters.

Sunday was a calm day, checking out the surroundings and unpacking some of my stuff. It was here that I had first thoughts of boredom, as there was not much to do around my village. Two tiny shops selling limited items of food, a couple of bars and that was it. I knew it would take some time for me to find my place here, but I admit I was a little startled by the little amount of activity surround me. This did take a fortunate turn of events later in the week.

Monday and tuesday were the days I met the business itself and the coworkers. Ricky, Galia and Yanou. Dutch, Bulgarian and British; a nice social mix where English was the common language between all. I received an open welcome from them and on monday they showed me around the diving school and what we do here. They want me to get experience in snorkeling and diving before I go in to sales, because I will be more educated and will prove to be a better salesman after this.

An unfortunate turn of events meant that Cindy had to return to the Netherlands for a funeral. This meant we couldn't discuss the tasks school gave me and we decided to postpone this 'till the second week. More information regarding agreements made will be shared in the second blog.

So in further light of the first week, it has all been about me getting to know procedures, locations of tools, the system and socialising. Yanou and I proved to have an instant bond between us, seeing as we are both the same age and share similar interests. She has been here for a while and introduced me to friends she had already made here, as well as an introduction to some locals. Fair to say, this has made my first week a very pleasant stay!

I look forward to getting more experience in the second week, I am intrigued as to how I will reflect upon this.

Welkom op mijn Reislog!

Hallo en welkom op mijn reislog!

Dé plaats om op de hoogte te blijven van alle avonturen en ervaringen tijdens deze reis. Vanaf nu zul je hier dan ook regelmatig nieuwe verhalen en foto's vinden, en via de kaart weet je altijd precies waar ik me bevind en waar ik ben geweest! Meer informatie over mijzelf en de reis die ik ga maken vind je in het profiel.

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Leuk dat je met me meereist!

Groetjes,

Tom