Let it Snow!

Emma is brand new to the Xplore team but certainly not new to adventure and the outdoors! She joins us in the UK office to manage our Local Coordinators, the people who recruit host families to look after our international students studying in England. She joins us at a busy time and we are super happy to have her!  You may be interested to know that Emma loves green tea, snow (more on this later) and a good woolly jumper.  She will fit right in!

Emma lived and worked in Australia for 7 months as they prepared to host the Olympics in 2000.  She worked in the Olympic ticket sales department living in Manly in a house with her own private beach! The journey to the office by ferry in the morning took in the sights of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. (Now that's a commute you can't complain about!)  She also travelled throughout New Zealand spending time snowboarding and living in the beautiful town of Wanaka in the South Island. Her favourite place was Auckland, a city with a fast pace, a great environment and reminiscent of old time England. 

Snowboarding really is Emma's passion.  She had her first lesson at the age of 14 while on a family ski holiday because the snowboarding instructor looked like Patrick Swayze!  Having skied in race teams since the age of 5 on snow and dry slopes she finally put her skis aside and took up snowboarding at the age of 20. (We hope to share some photos with you of Emma in her luminous racing pants and one pieces…)

For 2 years she worked as a chalet host in Europe for a company catering for students, and has fond memories of lots of fun with people from all over the world and of course, plenty of time on the slopes! After 2 years of back to back seasons she began to compete.

Emma's competition life started out at the British Championships in Austria competing in slope style and half pipe, she came 5th in pipe; a great start to her competition career.  She describes this first experience as 'terrifying but good'.  She went on to be sponsored by big names such as Helly Hanson and K2 as well as Dragon Googles and Vans.  She travelled round the whole of Europe to all the competitions, World Cups and Playstation Series with sponsors and magazines. 

Once the European season ended each year she would go to Mammoth in California which is a great place to train for 6 weeks and has become one of her favourite places to be! This would then be followed on by glacier riding in France, Switzerland and Austria until it was time to return to France for the winter. 

Then 7 years ago she set up the first European girls only coaching company for the next generation of snowboarders who wanted to progress their freestyle. The goal was to pass on knowledge and experience to those who will go on to do well in the sport.  Her highlights were seeing the students progress and gain confidence. But that didn't come without a lot of hard work on Emma's behalf while still being present on the competition circuit. Of course the boys felt missed out so a mixed camp was also started! There are still 2 camps run each year from Morzine in France, a place that is naturally a home from home for Emma. 

Having seen and done so much Emma knows it's the places you go and the people you are with that make life changing experiences.  In the future she would love to go to Japan to snowboard where there are few ski lifts (a great excuse to jump on a skidoo) and lots of untouched snow. 

With great passion Emma says that everyone should try skiing or snowboarding at least once in their life, and the team here at Xplore couldn't agree more as we look forward to our European trips this year! (Once we have got our flasks of green tea ready and best woolly jumpers packed..!)

My Most Precious Possessions...

Working for Xplore the World is awesome, especially seeing young children and teenagers from all over the world gain their independence and confidence while travelling with us. It never ceases to inspire me how bright and happy the children are, some of them thousands of miles away from home, learning to speak a new language and doing new things every day.  I love to hear stories from centre managers about what a particular child has achieved, overcome or learnt. Better still I love to hear from their parents about the friends their children have made and how they have stayed in touch despite distances and cultural differences.

Tilly's first climbing harness age 4

But I also get to experience our company from the 'other side' as I am a parent to Tilly who is nearly 7 and Willow who is at the moment what I would call a 'pre-camper'; someone who turns up at camp to drop off their older sibling and really wishes they too were big enough to stay! There is nothing Tilly loves more than being outside, up a climbing wall or in a kayak so she can't wait for school holidays when she can immerse herself in the outdoors all day long! Up until the age of about 4 she normally paired her trainers with a princess dress, just perfect for climbing a mountain!

Taking Tilly to camp is a very different experience for
me than just turning up at camp to take photos or film a DVD or
meet with staff; she is after all, one of my two 'MPPs' (most precious possessions). Will she make friends? Will she know where the toilets are? Will she eat enough at lunch and get to do the activities that she really wants to do? Will the staff notice if she is a little quiet or feeling unwell? Of course I know she will have the time of her life and beg to go back the next day but it doesn't stop me from thinking about her as the day goes on. While I'm in the office writing about children's experiences at camp in brochures and online I know that at that moment my Tilly is having those experiences herself. I'd like to call the centre manager to find out what she is up to but stop myself knowing that other mums don't make such a fuss...

In a way I think it is helpful for other parents who are booking with us to hear that their initial concerns are completely normal and it's lovely when parents rebook year after year trusting us with their 'MPPs'!  So when it gets to the end of the day and I leave the office to collect her I can't wait to know the answers to all my questions... Did she make friends? Of course, and her most favourite new friend is going back on Thursday so can she go too pleeeeaaaseeee? Did she eat enough at lunch? Yes but she is STARVING after a whole day of running and cart wheeling. Note to self, lunch box to include pasta tomorrow! After that she doesn't want to answer my questions she just wants to tell me about the staff and the activities and most importantly how many stickers she has been awarded on her ID badge today.

Off on another adventure

Tilly is almost like a mini secret shopper or quality controller for us but that is fine with me and I'm sure with her as she packs her bags for another camp... I wanted her to travel from a young age which she has been lucky to do with us as a family but at camp having the opportunity to share experiences with children from so many different cultures has really enhanced her little life. Recent studies have shown huge benefits of youth travel to a child's social and future economic wellbeing but for me its about opening her eyes to see what the world has to offer, everything else that comes with that is a bonus in my view.

Back at my laptop I'm working on one of our latest brochures and writing about all the amazing places there are for young people to travel to with us as individuals and as groups.  It occurs to me that I really need to prepare myself to let go of my 'MPP' as it wont be too long before we will be waving to Tilly as she goes off to Xplore the World... And I know she will have the time of her life.

English test success for Language students!

Xplore are proud to announce the first Anglia Examination results for the 2013 season. During the past six weeks of summer, nearly 2,000 students aged six to eighteen, have participated in the Language Activity Camps across seven centres nationwide.

Of the 53% of exams marked thus far, our students have achieved a fantastic 95% average pass rate combining all those who achieved a pass, merit or distinction grade.

We are still awaiting the remaining results of the Anglia test papers, which vary through nine different levels from ‘First Step’ to ‘Proficiency’, measuring all aspects of learning a language – listening, reading, writing and speaking which our specialised teachers delivered through seven different teaching levels, available at different camps across the UK.

Behind the Scenes in the UK Head Office

The sun is shining after a long spell of cloud and the UK head office is buzzing!  In the Sales and Marketing department there is always something new happening and I’m super excited about my latest task of putting together next years Group Travel brochures!  As our business grows it is time to separate out the information we give to our UK and international groups; so double the fun for me!

When I start thinking about a brochure I have to first think about what the purpose of the brochure is, who will be reading it and how much information they will need.  I then think about the page layout and what order my reader will find the information most useful.  In my head I start to think about the photos we could use from our library of images as well as getting an idea for the overall look of the brochure.  My aim is to capture the reader’s attention using photos and graphics whilst providing them with all the information they need to make a booking or enquiry.

Once I have a good idea of content I then brief our Marketing Design Manager in the USA who has the super talent of putting ideas onto paper using his creative skills!  He will always suggest ways of presenting information that I won’t have thought of so his input is invaluable.  We work together via email and Skype (what did we do before Skype?) until we have a brochure that we are happy to show to our Directors.  With fingers crossed we take them through the design and listen to their feedback.  With all final amends made it is time for proofreading.  There have been times that I have been glued to a brochure until 3am seeking out any obscure grammatical errors that I don’t want to miss!  The joy of writing for a website is that you can go back and correct any errors but printed material is of course a different matter!  During the design process I will have also been thinking about how many brochures we need and start to get quotes from printers.  We made the decision some time ago to print on environmentally friendly paper; I actually prefer the look and feel of it to normal paper and knowing that it could have had up to 6 other lives before becoming our brochure gives it a bit of character!  If I’m at all worried about how a particular colour will print on recycled paper I know I can visit the printing company to see it come off the press and make any colour corrections there and then.  We also take into account the cost to the environment of shipping and we are trying to use other means such as QR codes to direct people to our websites for further information, thus hopefully cutting down on how much paper we use.

The whole process of creating a brochure can take a few months and a lot of thought and effort goes into it but it is always worth it in the end!  Here in the UK head office we have brochures dating back to our humble beginnings in 1987 (pictured above) and it is always fun to flick through and see our journey not just in terms of branding and design but also products and destinations!  The only question is ‘are you coming with us’…?

KG Adventure and Xplore: New newsletter out!

We're glad to announce that the first newsletter of KG Adventure and Xplore got send out this morning. Every participant of our indie camps should already received it! If you want to sign up for the newsletter you can do so by entering your name and email adress here: 

http://www.xplore.de/newsletter

Introducing our NEW German Centre!

Located in the beautiful region of Sauerland, right beside Lake Sorpesee, is the home of our new International Summer Camp! After month of looking around and visiting different places we finally are able to offer a wonderful summer camp in Germany. We will be located in the village of the Hachen Sports School, which has the perfect facilities for a fantastic international summer camp with students coming from all over the world! Our activity programme will be delivered in English and the primary language on camp will also be English, in addition to this, for those wanting to learn English more intensively, we offer English lessons as well. As this is an international camp, there will also be the opportunity for those who's first language is already English to participate in learning German! Activities include: Baseball, Basketball, Football, Headis, Kin-Ball, Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Bridge Building, Cross Boccia, Raft Building, Geo Caching, Kayaking, Climbing, Mountain Biking, Survival Skills, Trust Trail and much more! Read more (in German)

MY EXPERIENCE ABROAD

Our German exchange student Kersten, who's currently in Argentina, sent us these nice letter we don't want to keep back from you: 

Almost two years ago, I came up with the idea to do an exchange year and to learn Spanish. It was not really hard for me to choose my destiny. When I went to Xplore to get some information about my possible new homes they told me all about Argentina and Latin America. So I enrolled myself and my host family has been picked very fast. I also looked up information on the Internet. Unfortunately I found more bad experiences than good ones. Sincerely, what I read made me become nervous. Then I arrived in Argentina. My worries as well as any doubts caused by the written experiences were gone.
One week I stayed with the group of German exchange students in a hotel in Rio Ceballos – near Córdoba - to get prepared for everything that could happen to me. Then the day came. My host family arrived to pick me up. I was pretty nervous because I wasn´t able to speak enough Spanish. It was not a problem at all because they tried to explain me everything and helped me to express myself.
The best thing about Argentina is that everyone wants to know as much as possible about oneself and the culture you live in. This is how my host family is. They made me become a part of their family really quickly. In my second week I went to school for the first time. I was totally impressed how everyone wanted to talk to me and to be my friend. So I started my high school year pretty well. If you try to speak Spanish and to get in contact, it is almost impossible to not get friends in Argentina.
I made a lot of new friends in my school but during the first month sometimes I was still bored at home. So I started to go out after school and spent more time with my new friends and that was when my exchange year really started. I began to “xplore” a new culture and the Argentinian mentality.
During my time in Argentina I learned a new style of living, other values and the real meaning of the word "family". In Argentina and especially in Córdoba the family is more important than in Germany. Furthermore, I learned to speak Spanish nearly perfectly and I made friends in the whole city of Córdoba. One friend of mine introduced me to the work of an event manager in Córdoba's centre. The result is that I now have a rough idea of what I could do in the future. 
I still have 40 days left and I'm already planning my return to Argentina. All in all I think the decision to go on an exchange year in Argentina was the best decision of my life. Both organisations ICC - from Argentina - and Xplore took care of me and made me have an awesome year in Argentina. I am able to say that it is the best year of my life so far. Now I have two homes.
Kersten

We're glad Kersten is having such a great time and we're looking forward to receiving more experience reports from all of you!