The importance of being studious…

So tomorrow morning I get a lie in. The reason I get a lie in is because I passed my initial entrance exam the first time round, so I get to sleep whilst most of the others re-take. At this point I cannot stress enough the importance of learning your products…if you don’t pass this first exam you not only get a thorough dressing down but also your first of three available strikes until you are asked to leave the academy. It’s THAT important. Learn your benefits, learn your ingredients thoroughly and also learn the satisfaction guarantee. 

You will also recieve a piece of homework on the monday which has information about your public speaking, your exam and also about spa tours. Make sure as sure can be that you read these through and remember the information as you will be asked to demonstrate a spa tour with no preparation time available so you must know this stuff.

We change to a different trainer tomorrow so that could be interesting; I’d just started getting used to Rosana!

I haven’t much of a lunch break left so for today, the lesson endeth here 🙂

B x

P.S. This should have been posted on Friday…the wifi at the academy is dodgy so this is late…very late.

The first days…

Technically I should start this blog with my train journey down to the ymca but that would just be long and boring! It’s safe to say I got here fine, the journey wasn’t bad and nothing too eventful happened. The one thing I would recommend is that you get an oyster card and top it up with about £20 straight away as it will work for your travel to and from the academy and it’s a god-send to not have to worry about it on the first day trust me!

Your very first day is one hell of an early start; you have to be up at 5am to be downstairs in full make-up and a business dress at 6:20 am in order to meet the other students for the coach ride to the medical exam.  The medical itself seems quite unusual at first as it is held at the doctors own house in a seperate complex, however this is his private practice and so not affiliated with the NHS at all. There is a lot of waiting around so take the opportunity to get to know your new colleagues a little bit better. After your initial medical is complete (bloods, sight, reactions etc…) you go to the hospital in groups to get x rays,  though again this is private practice and not like your typical hospital in any way. The process involved with the x ray is very quick and you will be in and out in no time.

Now you will be on your way to the academy, again with transport provided to see to all the usual admin involved with a new job, such as procedure and policy, uniform, sorting any missing paperwork and understanding your pay system.  You will also be informed that you have to give a short presentation on the following morning that will be your grading and will help decide what type of ship you will be placed upon for your contract. Presentation probably isn’t the right word for it as it will really only be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long…any shorter you won’t have covered enough, any longer and you will be rambling.  We had some really good presentations given today and also some not very good ones, but apparently they were all better than the previous weeks lot as we were told the director who comes to listen to them had stopped them because he was bored!

In addition to preparing your speech for the grading you also have to read about 60 pages worth of policy and procedure document on the first night so you really will need to get organised and start studying early on in the evening or you will have a very late night!

The 6am wake up the next morning is a veritable lie-in after the previous morning but still no less of a rush as everyone in your room rushes to get ready in the same 2ft squared space.  The first port of call upon arrival at the academy is the conference room that you will have been in the previous day where you will be registered with all of the other trainees before being told your room for the weeks training.  The first day mainly consists of a small presentation recapping the previous nights information, an environmental exam, the grading presentations and then an introduction to steiners own ‘solution selling’ technique.  All in all there is a lot of information to take in and with the knowledge that you have an exam on body products the next day it really can come across as totally overwhelming and terrifying but just take a slow breath and focus yourself…you can do this! Of course the more you study in the weeks before the easier it’ll be at the academy.

So now I’m lay in my bunk, finishing writing this and then heading to bed for my 5:45am alarm in the morning.  I’ll shoot this up tomorrow some point when I get myself some wifi, probably at lunch at the academy.  Until then if anyone has any questions just pop them in the comments!

B x

Last minute lucy…definitely my name!

So this week I’ve learned not to leave shopping to the last minute, especially shopping for an evening gown! It took far longer than I expected it to and, for a scary few hours, seemed like it would be an impossible task.

Saying goodbye to everyone I love has been the hardest part of the week without a doubt,  but I keep having to remind myself that it’s not forever and I will see them again. God knows how I’ll cope when I do actually leave for good (assuming I do get over to America permanently), I can only hope that this experience will prepare me better for that.

My suitcase and packing has now hit the point of being totally ridiculous and there is no way in hell that it is under or even close to the 20kg luggage allowance limit; all I can do is pray that I can take all of my study equiptment out before I fly and that reduces it enough that my baggage charges aren’t into the unaffordable! I don’t honestly feel like there is anything in my case that is superfluous and 20kg really isn’t a lot of weight for a 9 month span, especially when you look at the packing list you recieve in your starter pack!

I’m actually on board the train to London now,  travelling 1st class for the first time in my life and I can’t believe how much better it is than your regular train journey,  and I’m especially appreciating the endless supply of coffee! It is strange though to be travelling through all the beauty of Yorkshire for what could conceivably be the last time; I never appreciated just how lovely the place I’ve been living is until I’m leaving it behind.

On a different note I’ve had a few questions asked of me about steiner,  both on this blog and on a forum I’m a member of and I thought I should say that I’m perfectly happy to help and answer any questions or queries that I can…I don’t know everything but if I can help I will!

Bring on the sunshine!

If todays weather is anything to go by then it would be safe to say that summer is definitely over! It’s raining cats and dogs outside and isn’t due to stop any time soon if the reports are to be believed. More than anything else this has just made me start to pray that they send me somewhere warm!

I can’t imagine that the journey to training will be pleasant if the weather does persist in this manner and it certainly won’t help with the fact we’ve got to have immaculate hair and make-up!

The task of the day, and possibly the week is packing! Never my favourite part of preparing to go away, this time it’s even worse as I have to pack everything I own, enough for 10 months, into one 20kg baggage allowance.  I swear it isn’t possible within the laws of physics for a girl to accomplish this task! It doesn’t help of course that I have no idea where they’ll be sending me so I can’t pack for just one climate, I have to be prepared for all eventualities, which is a damn nightmare I can tell you!

You get a packing list in the starter pack you receive from steiner which is a good thing to check yourself off against, though it doesn’t mention towels (which you need for the ymca) and personal electronics (tablet, laptop etc…). A little application of common sense is the best bet…make a list a few weeks in advance, check it and read over it a few times, pass it around family and friends to see if they can think of anything you might have missed, then start buying the bits you’re missing and either throwing or storing stuff you don’t need. The way I see it this whole adventure gives you an excellent opportunity for a fresh start and a bit of a revamp,  so make the most of it!

I have so far managed to fit all my belongings into my suitcase with a little room to spare, which is all well and good, until I head to the mall with my mum and buy more clothes!