Working Holiday
Hostel Work / Chile
December 2017
(cortesy translation from German)
My two-month stay abroad started in Santiago on Monday, October 30th. I arrived at noon at the hostel where I worked for the next two months. Right at the start, I was able to get to know some of my colleagues, who all immediately seemed very nice. However, the first three days were unfortunately rather chaotic and disorganized, because I was always given the information to get the introduction straight away, but was never introduced and finally had my first working day on Thursday without knowing how things worked.
At the beginning I was uncertain for a long time and was afraid of doing something wrong because I worked at the reception, attended guests and, realized check-ins and outs. I had to teach myself everything, so to speak, when my colleagues were present, but they helped me and I later learned from my colleagues that they were not really introduced either.
That calmed me down a bit, because then I at least knew that it wasn't because of me, but was a "normal" fact. This is how things work in South America! 🙂
So I experienced "culture shock" right from the start and noticed that things are more relaxed in South America than in Germany and that people deal with punctuality and appointments with ease. People are just more relaxed than in Europe and I quickly got used to it. On Tuesday we celebrated a Halloween party in the hostel and I immediately felt comfortable and in good hands, since I actually got on well with everyone right from the start. I also enjoyed working and got better every day. On days off, I visited the city of Santiago and also went on excursions in the area. I visited the Cajon del Maipo, Valparaiso and Viña del Mar.
Right from the start I was amazed by the friendliness and warmth of the people. I met great people and I will never forget this time.