Landing in the storm

My past work experiences left me confused and uneasy. Even though I had learnt plenty and encountered wonderful people, I had experienced constant pressure and tense atmospheres. Two and a half years into the work sector, I had convinced myself I wasn’t made for marketing and that I should reconsider my career path. But… what would I do instead? I was lost when I arrived in Malta, thirsty for change and eager to better my English.
The Job Centre in France found me an internship in an online marketing agency in Malta called – surprise, surprise – Switch! Switch was the perfect company to help me improve my English and allow me to work within my skillset. But regardless of the opportunity, I was still perplexed and anxious.
Before setting foot on the island, I had learnt that it seldom rains in Malta. Well, not in my experience. In my first couple of weeks, I experienced the storm which caused the Azure Window to collapse. I was so disappointed. The weather reflected my state of mind, unstable and grey, but the insecurity wouldn’t last long.

A post shared by Caroline de Fréminville (@carolinedefreminville) on Apr 2, 2017 at 11:03pm PDT

Discovering Switch and the Maltese Islands

After only a couple of weeks at Switch, I felt at home. When my family asked about my experience in Malta, I found myself answering “Honestly? It’s great! The team is wonderful, people welcomed me warmly, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, they are incredibly good at what they do. I’ve never learnt so much in such a short period of time”. I wasn’t saying all of this for the sake of reassuring them, I honestly felt that way. Kirsten showed me all the tricks behind managing Adwords and Facebook campaigns. Melissa, who is bursting with energy and ideas, involved me in social media analysis and copywriting, and David gave me some tips in SEO targeted at human outreach emails.

A post shared by Switch (@switchmalta) on Apr 11, 2017 at 3:24am PDT

Following the storm, I also started to explore the Maltese islands and their amazing landscape. I met their tiny, green, inhabitants (chameleons), had a drink in the surprisingly stunning Popeye Village. I touched the ochre sand of Għajn Tuffieha Bay, soaked my feet in the fresh water of Ramla Bay and admired the turquoise colour of the Blue Lagoon. I bought some local vegetables from the Marsaxlokk Market and walked along the streets of ancient Valletta. I also learned how to cross a road successfully (not minding zebra crossings), and picked up some Maltese words like ‘mela’ or the cute ‘illallu’ on the way.

A post shared by Caroline de Fréminville (@carolinedefreminville) on Mar 25, 2017 at 3:55pm PDT

Leaving in the sun

After three months in Malta, my mood is sunnier, my brain is rejuvenated, my confidence is higher and my skin is tanned-ish! That’s the type of transformation Switch has on people. How could it not, with Kirsten’s: “No worries, don’t stress, just do your best” and Melissa’s “Well done girls! You’re amazing!” and Lindsey’s “Bravo girls! Super happy with your work!”?
Switch highlights the importance of staying ‘human’, and not a day goes by without laughter in the open office, sweets, cakes or chocolates in the kitchen. It’s the same with clients: Switch offers no standard proposal for projects, only dynamic ideas adapted to the client in question. The human element even transpires to the way in which you communicate to your brand’s audience – and this is where Switch excels.
It’s certainly this sincere and strong objective which ensures a good quality of life at in the Switch headquarters. This mindset pushes you to be better at your job, every day.

My short time at Switch helped me achieve a new start, find confidence in myself, improve my English and meet great people. It was an amazing experience and I’ll certainly miss Malta – and of course, the whole Switch Team!
Thank you Switch. It has been a pleasure.
 

Thank YOU Caroline for an amazing few months! We loved having you here, even though you’re vegan. So happy the internship worked out for you – we all wish you the best of luck in your next move! – The Switch Team

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Skyscanner

I’m sure you have all heard of Skyscanner, or use a similar service like expedia.com to search across all airlines for the cheapest available flights on the dates in mind. Although there’re a couple of features that I find particularly helpful when planning an upcoming vacation.

Whole Month

This feature allows you to view the costs of flights on every day of the month, so you can easily find the cheapest dates to travel.


 

Cheapest Month

If you only have a destination in mind you can easily use the “cheapest month” feature to check the cheapest time to travel to your destination throughout the whole year.

Airbnb

Airbnb is a fantastic international service that allows you to rent out properties directly with the owner instead of booking a hotel. Its 100% safe – your money goes to the Airbnb platform so you never pay the owner directly and most of the time you don’t even meet the owner of the property. Unless it’s to collect the keys at the beginning of your stay and give them back at the end (Although sometimes not even then, I stayed in one place in Canada that just had a keypad to let you in).
Airbnb has completely changed the way I travel, I can’t remember the last time I stayed in a hotel in the past 4+ years, excluding 1 month in Morocco last year, and I have used it all over the world. Plus, if you like to cook or are on a budget it’s great because you have cooking facilities to make your own food, saving you the money of eating out 3 meals a day that you would spend at a hotel. Even if it’s just breakfast at home, every bit counts towards your budget!

House Sitting

The basic idea of House Sitting is free accommodation in exchange for taking care of their house, and usually their animals or gardens as well. The part I particularly like about housesitting is being able to assimilate with other cultures. You are very much lead by where the availability of the house sit is – so you end up travelling to areas in countries that you may never have thought of going to.
The requirements are also so varied so if you keep your eye on the availabilities you could find a week long stay in NYC, a weekend in London, or 1 month in a beautiful house on the southern coast of Turkey with 6 dogs & 4 cats.

House Sit in Kas, Turkey (4 weeks)

View from the back veranda of our house near Granada, Spain (6 weeks)

Woofing

If you’re up for a little more of an adventure, love the outdoors and aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty then Woofing is a great option. Another international service that will help prolong your budget by giving you free food and accommodation in exchange for work (the arrangement varies per agreement, although ours was 3-4 hours of work per day Mon – Fri). Of course, there are some horror stories floating around so do your research, but everyone I have spoken to has had a similar great experience to me, met some fantastic people and learned a lot of new skills – I now know how to heard 40 odd sheep.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks

Never leave home without one, they’re completely invaluable. With their suggestions for accommodation, restaurants and itineraries this can help you save so much time and money. Plus, after travelling for 18 hours on a bus and finally arriving at your accommodation the last thing you want to do is sort through rubbish Tripadvisor reviews to find a terribly overpriced restaurant.

Happy Travels!

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Chilled

I stopped to ask this chips vendor in Lima if he minded me taking a photo. His reply was, loosely translated: “Yeah sure, but I’m not going to smile for the photo. I never do.”
Peru remains indelibly stuck in my mind for many reasons, but the fact that there were so many varieties of potatoes must be one of the strangest things I found. There were times when we had 3 or 4 different potatoes in the same dish. This guy was selling normal potato crisps (chips), sweet potato ones, and, quite naturally, popped corn.

Coffee

We visited  farms where a good amount of the world’s coffee and chocolate is grown and processed. It’s quite an eye opener to see how far something we consume on a regular basis has to travel before getting to us. It’s also humbling to see the hard work that goes into it at source (and that we tend to take for granted since it magically appears on a supermarket shelf close to us.

The Mayor

This was the mayor of the community on one of the floating islands in Lake Titikaka, on the border between Peru and Bolivia. She keeps a hand-made rifle to protect her fellow villagers (around 10 of them) when their husbands are out fishing – sometimes for days on end.

Pisco Sours

This is a photo I took in a bar of our hotel in Lima. It’s one of the two or three bars that claim to have invented the Pisco Sour – a delicious cocktail I’ve only ever had in Lima.
I’ll be writing more about my trip over the coming months – hopefully at some point I’ll find the time to put everything together in a format that I’m happy with, but till then you’ll just have to follow my pictorial and anecdotal stories that pop up from time to time on my Facebook page.

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After recently graduating, I have decided to take the time to get inspired by other cultures – even if that meant moving to a foreign country on my own. This is why I have decided to travel 3,000 km away from home.

Moving to Malta from the United Kingdom was definitely a big change. My desire to learn how to design for a different audience other than the UK and expand my knowledge was what pushed me into packing my bags and move to a tiny hot island. This is something that I believe is important for a designer to do: expand your knowledge, reach new audiences, and understand new markets.
Needless to say, what I am currently gaining from this experience abroad is vast and memorable. There is just so much that I am learning everyday, sometimes by simply wandering around the streets and seeing a different lifestyle, architecture, or colors. I have also contributed my work to designing in the Maltese language – completely foreign and incomprehensible to me, but still incredibly interesting and creative.
I have not just gained more from the design point of view, but I am also learning a lot about life skills. I have met new people, made new friends, and working in a fun environment such as Switch Digital has been an abundant way to experience my move to Malta – in the best way possible.

What am I trying to say?

Don’t restrict yourself to where you are – MOVE! Take the leap and enjoy the journey. Remember: design is creative, so have a creative lifestyle.
Don’t forget to make the most out of every experience, as they will help you become the best designer and human that you can be.
I am not saying that having a creative lifestyle is easy; packing your bags and moving to a different city or country (and why not, continent) can be extremely terrifying and difficult. Pierre Bernardo said ‘to travel is to evolve’, and I truly agree with him.

‘Design is a journey of discovery.’ – Derek Parker

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Whether big or small, change is something that scares us. Starting a course at university, trying out a new restaurant, moving house or simply going to the hairdresser for a make over. Change can be absolutely terrifying.

But why is that?

Change scares us simply because we fear the ‘unknown’. I must tell you though the unknown isn’t all that bad. There is a sense of excitement when starting something for the first time, and let’s be honest – do you really want to spend the rest of your days pursuing an unhappy life?
I have moved country, I have changed school, I have had different jobs, and I’ve changed my hairstyle many (many!) different times. I was scared every single time. Scared I wouldn’t fit in, I wouldn’t make friends, I wouldn’t enjoy my job, or I would look bad because of a new haircut – and, oh! Have I looked bad!
I have learnt something though, something important that we must never forget: change is good. We tend to forget that and just go with the flow. We may be unhappy, but we accept it and remain where we are, simply because we are afraid of it.

When I graduated from university, proudly holding my Communication degree, I was determined and ready to conquer the world. How adorable, right? On a beautiful sunny day, life decided to slap me in the face with a good dose of reality, and suddenly I realised how very difficult it was going to be to find my dream job, with the perfect workmates, the amazing working hours, the fun boss, the pretty stationery (because, let’s be honest, we all love new stationery) and that wonderful paycheque at the end of the month.
I am not going to lie, I have changed job several times before finding out what I really wanted to do. I have had different bosses, colleagues, desks and job titles. But I never stopped looking, and never settled for anything I wasn’t really sure of. I have only recently switched to Switch, and I was indeed afraid of yet another change in my life. I must say though, for the little I have been here I have already learnt a lot and really I’m enjoying it. I get to do what I love most – writing– surrounded by a bunch of fun and creative people. And you know what? I have so many pretty pens, highlighters, sticky notes and note pads. Oh the joy of new stationery! 

Why is change good?

1. If it weren’t for change, we would never learn new things. We would simply be stuck in a repetitive and soon enough boring routine.
2. It’s a nice reminder that the bad times don’t have to last forever. It’s okay not to be okay, but remember that you can change things round if you are not happy.
3. It’s a wake up call. One day you will realise that you actually need a change, whether it’s moving the furniture around the house or travel to another continent.
4. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. There is a very thin line between living and existing – which one are you going to choose?

There you have it folks, change is inevitable. Everything changes – so embrace it, don’t fear it.

Change is good. Change is healthy.

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