My Stansted Summer, and my last summer as an undergrad!

I realise I have really neglected this blog over the summer, partly through lack of things to write about and lack of time in which to do it!  For those of you that haven't read my last blog and don't know what I've been doing with myself this summer I've been working at Stansted airport on check-in for a rather well known low cost airline.  I weighed up the options of doing internships and getting jobs and even just escaping and going back to Spain for the summer but in the end the money won.  Now the summer is over and my experience at the airport has ended I'm really pleased with the decision I made, I may not have been working at some internship programme for a top graduate employer but the experience I have had I wouldn't have gained anywhere else.

Working at the airport played to the strengths I already had of working in a customer facing environment but took it to a level I've never quite had before.  The most conflict I'd ever had with a customer until now was an angry woman being refused alcohol at Tesco- passengers being asked to pay excess baggage are another kettle of fish entirely!  I've seen everything from tears to yelling, swearing and the contents of a suitcase being angrily flung around the place.  Over the last 12 weeks I have grown a thick skin to people shouting at me for things that aren't my fault and are just the result of the unfair policies held by the airline.

You'd think that after having spent a year abroad I'd be very used to communicating with people that don't speak the same languages as me, but this summer I have well and truly realised the benefits of speaking languages.  Every shift without fail I would speak Spanish, often having my colleagues call on me when struggling to communicate with a passenger.  I also had many an encounter with non English speaking Italians, obviously I don't speak Italian but I think my ability to speak other languages and empathise with them really helped me get on with them that bit better.

I've also been very lucky to have met as many new people as I have this summer and to get to know people outside of my normal home and uni friendship groups.  I've worked with such a variety of people too, from those that are students like me, those that have graduated, those between jobs and those just out of college.

This summer has also given me more of an idea about my plans for after graduation.  I'd been looking into translation previously but I was never 100% behind the idea, mostly because the work is mainly freelance I think, but there must've been something else holding me back.  Working at the airport and seeing how useful my languages have been has opened my eyes to working in travel and tourism, and if I can't find a job in that field I'm looking at some masters courses in London.  Amazing how one summer can make you change your mind.

So now it's back up to Lancaster for what is set to be a packed final year, I know that I'm going to have 10 tonnes of work to do as well as my job and everything else but I plan to make the most of this year, do as much as I can, meet as many new people as I can and take the opportunities that are given to me as I'm never in my life going to have these chances again!