Fiona Garber, Lena Schütter und Johanna Vasold, 4HLWd

Because of the Erasmus+ programme, we had the opportunity to spend our intership in the small town, Cadzand-Bad in the south of the Nederlands. We started our summer adventure in Vienna and flew to Brussels. We took the train to Knokke-Heist and got  picked up there. During the 15min ride to the „Strandhotel Cadzand-Bad“ we already admired all  the cute little farmhouses and the endless grasslands. After our welcomedrink at the Hotel Reception we needed to sign a few papers, after that we brought our suitcases to the staffhouse we were going to stay. It was our first time seeing the dunes, which are typical for the beaches there. When we got to the beach, which was directly behind the hotel, also noticed the strong wind but in all this time staying in Cadzand we never got used to it.
At our first working day we got  instruction which were relevant for our work. Mostly we worked in the Breakfast Restaurant „Pine House“.  We cleaned and seted the tables, refilled the buffet, prepared the food in the kitchen and welcomed the guests at the front desk. Overall we had a pretty chill working place and we had awesome collegues from all over Europe like Spain or Italy. We also had the best manager in all the hotel, she was really the best.
Because we finished our work at 3 o’clock, we spent a lot of time at the Beach. It was sunny. We also got to see some amazing citys like Amsterdam, Brussels, Gent or Brügge. The thing we miss the most are for sure the beautiful sunsets at the beach.

It was such a unique and important experience for us and we will never forget that time. In those 13 weeks we learned a lot for ourselves and also about other cultures. We also speak Englisch much more fluently, because we spoke it every day. We got so much more independent because we mastered this time on our own. Even when it sounds scary to spend such a long time in a different country it is totally worth the effort and everybody who has the possibility should take it.