I’m Justine Willebrouck, 18 years old, a french student in International Commerce, and I’m in Edinburgh for 2 months; indeed I have to do an internship abroad to validate my first year of studies.

When I was in France, at the beginning of the year, I had to find a company (anywhere as long as it wasn’t in France). So I was searching on internet and sending by email a lot of CV and cover letters. It was really hard to find somewhere from my classroom and I to find one. I am delighted to be here in Edinburgh at Bookster!

Where in France do I live?

I live in Alençon but for my studies I have an apartment in Tours; I return to house just on week-ends.

My journey...

To come here, I went to Paris - Orly airport - and took a flight..

Arrival in Edinburgh

I arrived here, alone, the 22th friday 2016, in a country that I don’t even know. I was really stressed about this but at the same time really excited.

I live with a family; it helps me to learn and speak most of the time english because the english that we learn at school and the english that is spoke here are definitively not the same (and especially with the Scottish accent).

Now I’m here and working for two months at Bookster. You 're probably wondering what I'll do here for two months ? Well, I have to do exactly what we’ve learn during my first year of studies: find NEW potential customers! This is my main task.

How will I do to find them? I will summarise quickly how I’ll go about it...

1. Define target : what’s the typical customer that the company wishes to address
2. Find them on internet : searching on events or on forum for example
3. Save contacts in a database
4. Contact them : by email, phone or mail

So for the company I have to find small renters who don’t have a website or no booking system. Then Bookster can help them increase their bookings and grow their business.

The city...

30th april : first real visit of the town, the old town and the castle.. here’s some photos

My first impression was about the architecture, it’s seems really gothic because of the colors and forms of the buildings. My second was about nature, there are a lot of hills with green landscapes. A beautiful place even if it’s not always sunny!

People in Edinburgh

Many things are differents compared to in France..

Indeed people have some habits that are not the same in France. I don’t know if everyone are doing the same but in my family they eat around 6p.m. That’s too early for me because in France we eat around 8pm.

At work, there are also differences; for example when someone enter in a room, he will always says “hi guys” “hello” or “hi there”. In France people don’t do that, you say “hello” when you arrive but not each time that you come into a room.

Furthermore I noticed that people here show their interest / affection by the words; you know they often say “take care” when someone is leaving, or “cheers” etc. Then in France it’s different, you don’t say that to someone you hardly know. But on the other side french are more tactil, even if you don’t know very well someone, you can say “hello” by making eachother a kiss.. in french it’s called “la bise”. (for sure you will not do this with your boss)

Talking of boss... In France the hierarchy at work is much more marked, especially in big companies. Most of the time he/she’s working in an other office than yours. In some companies you will never see him/her, or just a little. In the companie where I’m working the boss is working with the workers, and is talking about everything with everyone; pratically impossible in France.

People also drink a lot of coffee and tea during their work time, that’s not the same in France; most of the time french people just take coffee or tea during their lunch time or when they have a break.

And you can listen music while you’re working.. Nobody is allowed to do this in France when you are working in an office.

"The world is only dissimilarity and variety"
M. de Montaigne