It was November and I had caught a cold. Lying on the bed and trying to get myself together, I really wasn't expecting this to happen. What was 'this'? It was a phone call from my collegemate. She informed me that our tutors decided to give me a practice in Radisson Hotel. They were told that I was very good in English, so I was dependable enough to send me in five-star hotel. What was my reaction? I was very scared! I don't know what it is, maybe my very low opinion about myself, but if there is something good and interesting in the offing, I am too afraid to try it and I will rather be hidden at home 'till the end of the story than go and try it on.

Nevertheless, it was first of December and I was in Radisson Hotel. In the firsl day of practice there wasn't one at all. The locker room was shown, I was given an uniform (in order to put it in my loker 'till next day) and magnetic key and some piece of laminated paper to be my ID on the territory of the hotel.

My second day of practice started at five-thirty in the morning - not because I was to be so early in the hotel but because I needed to wash my hair and I was to be in the hotel at nine. First of all when I was in, I reached the locker room and changed my clothes.

Here, words need to be said about other people in the hotel. When you enter the building there are several men who are to check your ID. I always say to them 'Good morning' and am given the same in response.

The locker rooms are divided into women's area and men's one. There were one or two women when I entered the locker room. I greeted them with polite 'Good morning' but they obviously were in a hurry and didn't seem to notice my words. As I noted, almost everybody are in a hurry when they are in the locker room. Of course, I don't doubt a lot of them work in this place long enough to adjust and to change clothes quickly. But still, I think, there are people who like to go-slow as I do.

Also, I want to mention about modesty in a locker room. There is not at all. Women there are shameless mostly, and I can understand it in some way - we all are women and have the same bodies, so there is nothing to be worried about. But, firstly, I really am modest. I'm ashamed of my body and am not self-confident enough to let people see me half-naked and feel comfortable about it. Secondly, I'm a lesbian. I can't look and not see their bodies. I'm trying, of course, but still I'm terrified if they will notice my looks and say something. Too risky. And, thirdly, it follows that I see women's bodies and they turn me on with little help of my imagination. How many stories are in my head in the moment about a beautiful woman and I in the locker room, falling on each other and then kissing passionately!..

My first day was very nervious. And who could have stayed calm and self-assured in this kind of situation? First of all, I didn't know where to go after I changed my clothes. Anna B., who had interviewed me two weeks or so ago, were absent. Her instructions for me were to call '0' and tell somebody from Front Office to come down and pick me up. Front Office is a place where I was supposed to practise. In that moment I didn't know it is called so, but I had learned it very soon as I had learned a lot of things about hotel industry.

It was Julia who had come down for me. I don't remember my first impression about her, though, I'd like to remember it. Well, I guess, it was a relief in some way because Julya was very friendly and smiled as sincerely as I did. She had shown me the way to Front Office and I was very glad she come down to meet me because I would never be able to manage on my own. (By the by, I had lost my way on the second day but it's not time yet to tell about it. )

Already in the Front Office I had met Anya and Ira - a switchboard and a receptionist, respectively. As I found out, Julya is our Manager. She is the main person in our departure. She has a lot of things to do and that day was no different. So, Anya was asked by Julya to teach me simple programmes on the PC and to show how to deal with handwork. I'm not going to tell you all the details because I have written too many words already. I'll just say that I had to work with foreigners' passports for the first day.

Actually, the main thing about switchboard is that he is to answer calls. People on the other end of the line can't wait too long, so switchboard is supposed to answer a call within three calls. When Anya were teaching me new things, we were disturbing almost constantly because people were calling and Anya had to answer. The first thing I had learned about calls is that there are three types of them: out-side, internal and calls from in-house guests. We are supposed to say three different kinds of reply for every kind of call so mistakes happen sometimes, but you don't have to worry about it; shit happens, too, right? I will write the kind of response for outside call: "Добрый день. Радиссон САС Ройал Отель. Полина speaking. How may I help you?" Russian and English are included in one phrase so people can understand that switchboard speaks the both of languages.

I was allowed to answer calls on the second day. It wasn't my own initiative because I was scared of calls but Anya has such an enthusiasm that I couldn't resist. My first call wasn't from people as I was making a call in order to wake up one of the in-house guests - it's one of our free services. Anyway, the guest was Russian so it was less scared than to make a call to English one, so I made it very well.

There were a lot of calls during the day. Some of them were easy to answer because people knew who they would have liked to talk to. But there were some ones when people were asking me questions about hotel and I didn't know what to answer yet. In that case, I put them through my colleague, Anya, and she solved their problems. Anya was a huge help for me during first days and I was very grateful for that.

Little by little, I was adjusting to practise in Radisson Hotel. After only two days of work I realised that I really liked it. I had been doing something useful, not just wasting my time. In comparison with my previuos experiences in different hotels this practice really taught me a lot of helpful things. I was allowed to know what works of a switchboard and a receptionists are, realising that textbooks are useless mostly. I had met interesting people who is a pleasure to talk to. Not everybody of them was nice, sure thing, but those who was, were enough to make my happy.

It's not the end of the story. I will try to write down a little more details about my practice but not right now.