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Saturday, April 15, 2006Are you looking for a break from pushing papers around on your desk? Don't love working from 8-3? Cooperative Education or COOP for short opens up a wide world of work for students. Helping them discover whether it's for life or not at all. COOP has been offered in the Halton region of Ontario just outside of Toronto for more than 20 years. This vibrant program puts students behind the scenes in all kinds of industries whether it be my chosen one of hospitality and tourism or cosmotology, mechanics and much more. Students simply submit an application the the teacher who you don't see all that often in person, yet they coordinate all affairs COOP. You then express two fields you are interested in submerging yourself in for 5 months. You can choose to work all day long for students looking for a full alternative experience with no regular classes. They then apply for a 4 credit program that has them arrive at their placement in the morning and work through to the end of the afternoon. Alternatively a 2 credit program gives you 3 hours of work each day giving you a 2 credit program. Once the teacher looks at your industries of interest they search in your city and surrounding area for a perfect placement. My placement was at a 150 room hotel part of a global chain in Oakville, Ontario just west of Toronto. I walk in to report for work for a 3 hour stint at rotating times in the morning, afternoon or evening in different uniforms depending on the department I'm working in that day. I have shifted throughout the hotel from the office to the kitchen, catering, laundry, bell service and front desk. In each department different duties are laid out for me, with the employees in that department teaching me all about their job and showing me new skills and jobs.
In the office I learned about how hotels do direct billing for members of their loyalty program, filing and various office duties. In the kitchen I helped with cleaning duties, preparation, moving things around the kitchen and lent a hand to the dishwashers. Catering brought putting together wedding and promotional packages. Laundry had me helping to pull dirty guest laundry the maids throw down the laundry chute. I helped the laundry attendant fold sheets, pillow cases and put away other items such as bath robes and mats. Bell service had me knocking on doors doing turn down service, deliveries and delivering complimentary brownies to guests who are part of the hotel's loyalty program.
The front desk agents as they are titled need to call around 15 hotels in the surrounding areas to get their room rates and occupancy, in case they run out of rooms. The agents are always calling maintenance and bell service on their radio as well as housekeeping to follow up on different requests. Courtesy calls are made one hour after check-in to the rooms, key booklets are made up for the next day with coupons and checks of the files all need to be done in a day's work. The multitude of regular duties keeps you busy and gives you a wide variety of designated tasks. Never knowing what someone is going to call or come to the desk about also keeps you on your toes.   As with all alternative programs though not regular school you do need to show documentation of what you're doing and learning. A daily log is kept with the number of hours you accumulated that day along with what you did, learned and the questions you posed in point form. On the back of each log is one of two assignments. Either you will have a journal or a creative activity. For the journal you have to write up a page focusing in further detail on something you learned that week, or about something you did the right way or wrong and the lessons you learned from that. Off and on creative assignments await on the back. These include having to interview an employee at your placement and asking them a series of questions to provide you with added insight into the industry of your choice. Evaluations are done letting the teacher know how you are enjoying the placement and the quality of your experience. Twice during the 5 months, once halfway through the placement and again at the conclusion of your placement. These evaluations rate your performance and how hard you're working, how often you take challenges and what you are learning. How well you cooperate with other staff and clients. This is the crowning glory of the feedback your supervisor gives you.
Teague Neal blogged on 12:06 AM
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006The Top 12 The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan and Bertram van Munster who along who co-produces the show with his wife Elise Doganieri share some words of wisdom on globe trotting. These two travel savvy men who have travelled the globe over many times have some travel tips, advice, warnings and much more in their top 12 travel tips. Everything from what type of backpack you should have slung over your backpack, to when it's okay to get mad when transportation isn't arriving on time, and when you just should just relax. These tips though I don't fully agree with all of them or the global outlook on Americans are well worth your time reading. The parts I especially enjoy is the solid advice on appreciating the world and melding with their culture. In the case of this article they are saying there is so much more to the world than the U.S. but for me it's Canada or you your country. Not to be afraid for foreign traveling you are fine as long as you carry common sense in your pocket and don't land in the most dangerous of countries. The host Phil Keoghan has spent time in over a hundred countries and Bertram van Munster countless as well. Him and his wife Elise Doganieri travel the race twice and sometimes thrice over to set everything up for the contestants. Safe travels!
 12 Travel Tips From The Amazing Race By Phil Keoghan 1. Face your fear. At 19, Keoghan nearly died when he was trapped inside a shipwreck off the coast of New Zealand during a deepwater dive. Once rescued, he wrote out a "life list" of adventures he wanted to have before he really did cross over and then got paid to do many of them as the go-anywhere, try-anything host of TV magazines Phil Keoghan's Adventure Crazy and Keoghan's Heroes (Keoghan rhymes with Hogan). "A recurring theme when people make their lists," he says, "is that they almost always put down things they've been afraid to try." Keoghan encourages everyone to make these a priority. "I can't tell you the number of times someone has done something they feared and then found themselves able to make other major life decisions," he says. It's corny, he admits, but it works. (For the record, Keoghan is claustrophobic, but he adds, "I've managed to push the fear back. It doesn't inhibit me." His therapy? Diving to one of the world's longest known underwater tunnels, Nohoch Nah Chich, under the Yucatan jungle.) 2. Don't panic. "When you're trying something you've never done before, most people find themselves really hyper about being in a situation that's out of control," says Joyce, who watched the show prior to appearing on it. "We learned not to get so excited about everything because there are going to be a lot of new things coming at you all the time." 3. Pack for one week. "Whether I'm going out for a week or several months, I only ever pack for a week," says Keoghan. "Because you don't want to be weighed down, and you can always wash up." 4. Have a plan before you clear customs. If you aren't sure where you're going, ask for information in the airport before you pass through security into the public waiting areas. And get the map. 5. Stick to backpacks, not messenger bags. "If you're going for anything longer than a weekend, make sure your bag has two shoulder straps," says Keoghan. "I find the [single-strap] shoulder bags just bugger your back." 6. Avoid checking bags. Or, if you can't get yourself down to one carry-on, keep your total number of bags to an absolute minimum. The more items you have, the more you have to keep track of, and the more you stand to lose. "It''s in the belly of the plane that things can start to go bad," van Munster warns. 7. Never share a taxi with a stranger (especially at the airport). In all his travels, van Munster has only been abducted once, in Calcutta, India, when, against his own better judgment, he got in a cab with a driver and "the owner" of the cab, who refused to surrender the backseat when asked. Turns out, "the owner" had told the driver that he was with van Munster''s crew and moments later hijacked the ride. Fortunately, a journalist friend had been looking out the back of his taxi, which was ahead of van Munster''s, and he noticed when the trailing cab disappeared. Van Munster was found by his team in a Calcutta slum two hours later, stripped to his briefs, but otherwise fine. (Corollary to #7: Don't have someone meet you at the airport with a sign bearing your name, van Munster says. You''ll be a target for hustlers.) 8. There is no simple, over-the-counter solution for jet lag. 9. Never wear shorts. At least, not if you're male and not if you leave the grounds of a resort, the trail, or the beach. "I recommend lightweight long pants," says van Munster. "They're protection against mosquitoes, fleas, dog bites, snakebites.... Many people take malaria drugs, but I don't. I just keep covered, and I blend in, because in most places adult men wear long pants." Also, avoid matching outfits. This verily screams "tourist." 10. Schedules are subject to interpretation."Go with the flow. In Zermatt, Switzerland, your train will depart at exactly 8:42 a.m. as noted, but in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, an 8 a.m. bus might, or might not, leave anytime before dinner. Adjust your outlook accordingly. 11. If you must, panhandle from fellow travelers. "Being far from home, [other travelers] can commiserate," says Joyce, who, along with Uchenna, was stranded without a dollar in Montego Bay, Jamaica, as a consequence of losing a leg of the race. The departures terminal or lounge may be your best bet: "If they\'re coming in to the country," Uchenna says, "they'll have a little more money, but they're more apt to hold on because it's got to last their whole trip. If they're on their way home, chances are they'll be a bit looser with it because they know they're not going to need it as much." 12. Always act the guest. If you're respectful of your foreign hosts and try to see things through their eyes, you'll most likely find that you'll be treated hospitably. "People may not like our foreign policy, but people everywhere like Americans," says van Munster. "There really is something of an American spirit, and people are drawn to it. You've got to have confidence in that, and, above all, know that the world is really a very safe place." Teague Neal blogged on 11:04 AM
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Tuesday, April 04, 2006The Tattoo captured a national criminal case investigation in El Salvador as Central American Tattoo staffer Oscar Ramirez visited a children's shelter to capture an already captivating story of their outlook on life and how they live. The woman Oscar saw then went on the run after a baby was found dead at the shelter. Be sure to check out this exceptional ongoing news story. Also be sure to check out my good friend & Tattoo staffer Stefan Koski of Connecticut, USA. He reviews a preview of Neil Vizzini's teen writer who becomes more prolific in his latest book "It's Kind of a Funny Story" about his time in a physchiatric hospital profiling teen suicide and depression among other important teen topics. Also be sure to check out New York State's Tattoo staffer Dan Mecca on the screenplay Junebug enjoyed by critics at Sundance and last but not least his review on Inside Man, the latest thriller starring Jodie Foster and other accomplished actors. Check out The Tattoo now. Feel free to email your comments to The Tattoo at thetattoo@gmail.com Teague Neal blogged on 8:14 AM
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Monday, April 03, 2006Scanning around the Internet I came across an awesome test site called OK Cupid. This place you can spend valuable testing time actually in a fun environment and enjoy it. You will learn that testing isn't all bad once you start clicking around this website. It was begun and is run by the masterminds of the ever popular Sparks Notes. Their begginings rooted in simplifying studying and making that test so much easier to nifty and accurate online tests, this a website to bookmark without question. Scan through their listing of over 10,000 online tests you can take all complete with humourous captions and surprisingly dead on results. They also act as a matchmaker site but you can still use the test side of the site without touching the lovey dovey unless that is your passion. How many of you have enjoyed those boxed chocolates from the likes of Laura Secord in Canada, Hershey in the US and Canada and worldwide Swiss Lindor and Belgian Godiva? Having just returned from Belgium one of the world's leaders in the most silky smooth chocolate you ever will taste I realize this importance even more! To anwser this question go ahead and take their Which Chocolate Are You test. In anwsering a series of creative questions they will determine what chocolate cube you most resemble! I was chosen to be sweet, optimistic and happy taking the role as a coconut truffle! Now which chocolate are you?  Coconut truffle You scored 48% Dark, 59% Crunch, and 69% Chewy! You are a smooth coconut truffle: Creamy coconut filling accented with coconut flakes, in a milk chocolate shell. Soft and irresistably sweet. I would label you as an introvert though....you prefer to keep more to yourself or small groups than to be at a wild party. But you're a lovely person and friend, someone that others can truly count on. And you see the world through rose-colored glasses, which is getting harder these days, so hold onto that optimism :) My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 41% on Dark You scored higher than 54% on Crunchy You scored higher than 74% on Chewy Other fun ones include the Where You Should Travel Test. This one leads you through questions analyzing the crazy often less though about ways of your travelling habits. They will ask you what you would do in a strange situation whilst globe trotting, how far your tastebuds will take you, how embracing you are of other countries and cultures and much more. Based on this it will decide where you should best. Mine was riding the rails across Europe, something I truly am looking forward to doing at some point on the timeless continent.  A Eurail TGV high speed train in France  Train through Europe You scored 77% culture, 34% social, 40% activity, and 41% adventure! A train trip through Europe is a fantastic way to enrich yourself with many different cultures within a relatively short distance. The train service in Europe is out of this world and almost always on time. It doesn't lump you together with a group since you prefer to be independent, yet it takes the scariness out of navigating around a new country in a rental car, trying to make sense of the map. The train system brings you from downtown to downtown and there are often hotels within a short walk of the station. You could decide which countries interest you the most and if you are eligible, buy a rail pass in advance to save a bundle of money. Arriving at a European train station is an architectureally beautiul way to introduce yourself to a new city and it sets the perfect scene for your new experience. If you had fun dreaming about where you might go, don't forget to rate my test. Thanks! Teague Neal blogged on 7:56 PM
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