Work Begins

It has been 2 days of getting acclimated. We ventured out on Sunday to see the town and get used to where everything is. Sorry photos haven't quite been working on Blogger, while the photos are posting to Facebook, it won't let me put captions of what they are. Complications always... 

 Monday we were starving since we had not eaten anything! So we found the grocery store and bought a couple of food products, laundry supplies, and hand soap! Hand soap has been the biggest issue we have come across. There was no soap in the bathrooms or rooms, or anywhere! At least the water got hot for the first two days while we waited for the stores to open. On Tuesday we got ready for work and got a ride from Mandy the pastry chef Emma would be starting with. It is a little difficult to get rides to and from work to the staff house.Not everyone has a car, and for us to go to work or come back to the staff house we have to wait for to leave and ask.

8:30 work starts. Emma is with Mandy, and I am with Deniz in Garde Manger. My main job during service is Amuse. Lunch is at 11:30 for 30 minutes, then right into service for the gourmet restaurant. Day one went well except for the language barrier, learning where everything is in the gigantic kitchen, and what everything is called. It has been easier to forget English for the time being and just memorize what things are by how they call them. Simple example, the blast chiller is a shock freeze. The break room is the Shuble. The dishwasher is the schpule. Certain ingredients are similar, but others are completely different from English. Most ingredients the cooks do not know what they are in English so we are all learning new words.

Then at the end of the lunch service, Emma and I received a pleasant surprise. We get a 2 hour break, and then must come back for the dinner service. Every employee does this, 5 days a week, with two off days. At the end of our day, which is usually over at about 11:30pm, we come back to the room and pass out. Wake up and do it again. Oh! I almost forgot… at the end of the dinner shift, the beverage cooler is open and fair game. One of our fellow employees showed us in and said, “At the end of each evening shift the Chef says we can have anything in here; beer, wine, water, Fanta, schwessers, anything. So go for it girls.” 

All the employees sit around in the shuble, drink their beers, and talk about the days to come. It has been nice sitting in there, yet we can't understand anything.