I lived on an island

Today is 31 December 2019, I didn't notice that it is called "The last day of the decade". While we are still a few hours away until 2020, our friends from Australia has started their countdown. Starting in September 2019, I was hoping that I could write at least 1 article per every 2 weeks so that I can really summary how my 10 years working in hospitality has gone.

If you had read my previous article "500 days of clueless", you would know that I did not have a great start in hospitality, it was because I was really really clueless about anything and everything. People say there's always first time for everything. There was this first time you failed to a job interview so that you learned not to be scared of the next interview and you landed this one job - one of the most unique jobs in the world.

So there was this 18 years old girl who took the longest journey from Canberra, with multiple domestic flights to Brisbane, Halmilton and a ferry to this isolated island resort called Club Med Lindeman during Easter Holidays in 2010.

At Club Med, employees are not called employees, we are referred as "G.Os", stands for Gentil Organisateurs. Like all other resorts in the world, we operate 24/7 with various departments and each G.O will have our own profession. However, there's one profession that is required for all G.Os - we call it "kindness", a profession in its own right and that profession is more than a job, it's a lifestyle, it's a form of life".

This was the first time that I knew how it was like to live on an isolated island. We worked 6 straight days per week and only got chance to get to "the mainland" once per week, internet was extremely expensive, phone reception was a luxury and Social Media was just at the beginning. But the experience was worthwhile. I've gained so much from meeting so many people from different backgrounds in the most fastinating ways. I met one of my best friends when he saw me carrying a trash bin full of ants (yes we were on a tropical island and ants were everywhere) and this gentleman that I met on the bus who later on became my Australian dad. And this once time he took me to a helicopter looking down to the Great Barrier Reef which kept me wondering why he was so good to me then I only knew after that he used to serve in the Australian army during the Vietnam - American War so part of him will always be longing for Vietnam and for what happened in the past.

To all our knowleage, the resort was sold to a Chinese owner and it was closed down only few months after. There is no more Club Med Lindemand Island operating in Australia, but from all what I could remember, there was this Vietnamese girl who once became the yougest G.O of the best G.O team in the world (2010). And although we all lived on island, we also learned that "No man is an island".