Have I packed everything?

Underpants... check, socks... check, T-shirts... check and my ID… check! Ok I’m good to go! Where to? Berlin! When, with whom and why? Tomorrow, with fellow students, and because its fun! Well actually because it’s obligatory, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be fun.

Tomorrow morning 8.15 the bus to Berlin leaves school. Most fellow TRM students (unfortunately not everyone was able to afford this trip, we are students after all) and most LM (leisure management) students are going to explore Berlin. The idea was to visit the biggest tourism fair in Europe, but when we booked the hotel, the fair was moved to a different date. Cancelling wasn’t an option so now we are going to explore the city.

This will be my first visit to Berlin, and I’m really looking forward to it! I have loads of questions: What are the Germans like? What is the food like? What is the nightlife like? Anyway I’m bound to find out soon! Next week I will tell you all about it and I will include some pictures :D.

Last week has been quite relaxing really. Not to much has happened, life goes on as usual. Working on the new project. I will explain about the new project. As in previous periods the class is divided into project groups. This period I will be working together with Sanne, Claudia, Marleen an Achille. I worked with Sanne and Achille on the first project of this year, so this makes collaboration easier and better. Claudia and Marleen are both hard workers, so I got lucky this period. Sanne has the role of product manager, Claudia is the procurement manager, Marleen is the general and the human resource manager, Achille is the marketing manager, and I am the financial manager. Anyway you still don’t know what the project is about. Every group is has to run a tour operator! There is a website that simulates the companies. Running a tour operator means: making and selling package tours, determining Marketing strategies, how many employees do we employ, how many beds do we purchase in which hotel in which location. All these decisions have to be made every week. Every week in real life is a year in this “tour operator game”. What makes the game interesting, is the fact that every other group in your class is your competitor running its own tour operator. Every week new decision are made, and every week new results are generated based on the decisions we have made. Currently my group is doing really well! We are in second place and making a nice profit (how much is confidential I’m afraid.). When a new year begins, new destinations appear and we have to invest according to our strategy. The thing is we don’t have a strategy, so basically we are just trying to stay near the top. I guess that is a strategy :P

So that’s all for this week, I will write all about my experiences of Berlin next week, so be sure to read that!

Ciao ;) Daniel