I have internet!!! Until the power goes out for the 6th time today.
So here's a quick run-down of life thus far:
1. I checked in 5 new employees
2. Two of them are from Chile
3. Thank God I still remember some Espanol!
4. My boss needs some sort of anti-anxiety meds...pronto. Seriously.
5. I'm betting that 2 of the 5 will be fired in less than a month.
6. My other boss (i have 2 since I'm in 2 positions) is off the island, so I'm walking her 2 dogs (2 many 2's in this sentence)
7. Yay dinner.
El translation:
So these new employees...most of them in their early 20's (as in still-sucking-up-mommy/daddys-money-green-around-the-gills-of reality, EARLY 20s) Was fun to give the "tour" of the hotel and info they will need to survive life on the island. One guy wants to be a magician, and it will be magic if he remembers what time to show up to work tomorrow. We'll see if he lasts for long.
One chick was wearing a sun hat. Go figure, since it was snowing yesterday. Odd behavior from that one.
Two employees from Chile were really down to earth and sweet. Amazingly some spanish was able to come out of seemingly nowhere, through my mouth, and into their ears with out them looking at me like I was from another planet. I think they understood me. I did understand what they were saying. "Necessito platos?" Yes, they did need plates for their apartment. :-) Yay Los Angeles spanish class!
I love my job. It's sooo busy, and lots of interaction with people. People from Chile, US, Jamaica, Argentina, Mexico, etc. But my boss #1 today was driving me crazy. I'm her assistant. Basically i run around fixing what she broke and vice versa. It's a nice match. But today she was driving me insane. I wanted to tell her to take another smoke break, or whatever she had to do to get it together. I mean, could she lose anymore paperwork that I was supposed to be processing?! And since it's "lost" of course it's the assistant's fault. Riiight.
She also cusses like a sailor. Gotta love that. :-) Lots of new sailor words in my head today. I didn't know a computer could be the spawn of satan's asshole. But that's what hers was today.
Boss #2 is out of town. I offered to dog sit. A task I enjoy.
Dinner is now being served! So glad for that because I'm nearly out of pretzels, and I am beginning to think Coolwhip and Tootsie rolls are not the best dinner for such busy work days. The best thing about working/living here is that for $375 bucks a month, I live in a sweet loft apartment, and all my meals (eventually) will be included. And the meals are prepared by Sous Chefs.
It's the only place in the world that I eat like a queen, and never consider the consequences :-) Because from all the biking/hiking/walking/working, you'd have to make an effort to gain weight here. Only possible if you drink too much beer :-) That's been known to happen.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Library Day
The barge blasts it's horn as it crosses the straits. I'm sitting in the cutest library I've ever known. I wanted to post pictures, but my computer won't recognize that my camera actually has pictures on it! So that will have to wait until later.
It's my first day off. Since I'll be working this weekend, my boss decided that it would be bad to incur too much overtime before the hotel opens in two weeks. It's such a chilly rainy day, that I'm glad to be off while the library is open. The back doors overlook a small porch with rocking chairs that people enjoy sitting in when the weather is nice. But for today, it's just me and the librarian and another island worker who is passed out in the comfy chairs by the fireplace :-)
I woke up this morning to the sound of my automatic coffee pot. That is the perfect alarm clock for me! It will take much restraint NOT to steal that coffee pot when I leave. I think I'll ask my boss if she can take the cost of it out of my bonus at the end of the season. I'm already attached to it.
I wore a big coat today, as it's not feeling like spring just yet. The island welcomes spring in slowly. It's like Sleeping Beauty every year...coming out of the foggy winter slumber to wake up to the green of spring. In a few weeks it will warm up enough to sit outside. But June is the best, because that is when I will help the gardeners (mostly from Latin America) plant loads of seedlings around the hotel. I have many fond memories of the first of June planting season.
The month of May is training time. Currently I have been working on processing all the paperwork for new employees. Wondering what kind of season it will be? Who will get fired first? Who will quit? It's hard work up here, and many college kids just coming for a good time forget that the next day when they have to go to work. My employers do not tolerate repeated lateness or hangovers. With the fine dining restaurant and the hotel rooms at $300-900 dollars a night, they can't afford bad service! It was hard my first season to tolerate their perfectionist standards, but once I "passed" I got into the swing of things. I love the long busy hours! I hope to make enough money to take the month of November off to work on a little house in Kentucky that I shall purchase.
But for now, I have the island...I was thinking today that this is the first time in 2 years that I've felt safe. Totally safe. I cannot describe the peacefulness of this feeling. The completeness it brings to my soul. What was I so upset about last week, last year? I do not remember. I occasionally have a flashback of soldiers and guns and checkpoints...but then I look out the window and see the crystal blue waters wash the thought away. If I could create a heaven for myself, it would be an island like this. And me a happy little clam on the shoreline...
It's my first day off. Since I'll be working this weekend, my boss decided that it would be bad to incur too much overtime before the hotel opens in two weeks. It's such a chilly rainy day, that I'm glad to be off while the library is open. The back doors overlook a small porch with rocking chairs that people enjoy sitting in when the weather is nice. But for today, it's just me and the librarian and another island worker who is passed out in the comfy chairs by the fireplace :-)
I woke up this morning to the sound of my automatic coffee pot. That is the perfect alarm clock for me! It will take much restraint NOT to steal that coffee pot when I leave. I think I'll ask my boss if she can take the cost of it out of my bonus at the end of the season. I'm already attached to it.
I wore a big coat today, as it's not feeling like spring just yet. The island welcomes spring in slowly. It's like Sleeping Beauty every year...coming out of the foggy winter slumber to wake up to the green of spring. In a few weeks it will warm up enough to sit outside. But June is the best, because that is when I will help the gardeners (mostly from Latin America) plant loads of seedlings around the hotel. I have many fond memories of the first of June planting season.
The month of May is training time. Currently I have been working on processing all the paperwork for new employees. Wondering what kind of season it will be? Who will get fired first? Who will quit? It's hard work up here, and many college kids just coming for a good time forget that the next day when they have to go to work. My employers do not tolerate repeated lateness or hangovers. With the fine dining restaurant and the hotel rooms at $300-900 dollars a night, they can't afford bad service! It was hard my first season to tolerate their perfectionist standards, but once I "passed" I got into the swing of things. I love the long busy hours! I hope to make enough money to take the month of November off to work on a little house in Kentucky that I shall purchase.
But for now, I have the island...I was thinking today that this is the first time in 2 years that I've felt safe. Totally safe. I cannot describe the peacefulness of this feeling. The completeness it brings to my soul. What was I so upset about last week, last year? I do not remember. I occasionally have a flashback of soldiers and guns and checkpoints...but then I look out the window and see the crystal blue waters wash the thought away. If I could create a heaven for myself, it would be an island like this. And me a happy little clam on the shoreline...
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A Ghosttown in the works.
I arrived on the island a couple of days ago. The familiar ferry bobbing up and down on the icy waters of the straits. The Round Island lighthouse giving me that feeling of being pulled into a different time zone.
I am surprised at how shabby the island is! The streets are so empty and void of the hustle and bustle of the summer. But that won't last for long, as people are sawing, hammering, painting their way to the grand opening season...sometime around the first week of May.
I also did not hear from my employer that our meals are not provided until the opening. :-( So peanut butter and pretzels will have to do for now. It's not a bad dinner, when mixed with a good Canadian beer to wash down the stickiness :-)
It's kinda lonely here now, but in a good way. I'm nested up in my little studio room in Webster cottage. Originally my employer said I would be up in the apartments with the other staff (even though I'm "management") but she gave me a great surprise and I got my old room in Webster! I will post pictures soon, but that means I'll not be bothered (unless I choose to take part) in the late night drunken festivities that tend to frequent the apartments up the hill from town.
I'm glad to be here. It's chilly. There is still patches of snow up in the woods. I don't have to dress up for work (yet).
I am surprised at how shabby the island is! The streets are so empty and void of the hustle and bustle of the summer. But that won't last for long, as people are sawing, hammering, painting their way to the grand opening season...sometime around the first week of May.
I also did not hear from my employer that our meals are not provided until the opening. :-( So peanut butter and pretzels will have to do for now. It's not a bad dinner, when mixed with a good Canadian beer to wash down the stickiness :-)
It's kinda lonely here now, but in a good way. I'm nested up in my little studio room in Webster cottage. Originally my employer said I would be up in the apartments with the other staff (even though I'm "management") but she gave me a great surprise and I got my old room in Webster! I will post pictures soon, but that means I'll not be bothered (unless I choose to take part) in the late night drunken festivities that tend to frequent the apartments up the hill from town.
I'm glad to be here. It's chilly. There is still patches of snow up in the woods. I don't have to dress up for work (yet).
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Moving to Michigan...again
Well, this is something I'd never thought I'd be doing again: Moving back to Mackinac.
But it's time for me to settle down. I'd love to settle down in a place with the beauty Mackinac provides, but let's be honest, I shiver when the temps are in the 60's...a Mackinac winter? No way.
The summers up there are the best: low humidity, not so hot you think you will suffocate, bike everywhere, horses everywhere, bars everywhere, fun times always. This is what I remember from the past 3 summers I worked there, off and on. This shall be my last working summer. I know I have said that before, but this time I mean it. Unfortunately.
I want to quit the nomad life for awhile. Mackinac was one of my first ventures into the unknown (more on that later). I just packed a couple of suitcases and took off for half the year. It was a very difficult year, back in 2003, but being on the island made it so much better. The nature trails, the perfect gardens...what more could I ask for?
Basically, this island is my Holy Land. I've come to be familiar with what others refer to as the "Holy Land" and I know that is not the place where my soul connects to God. Jerusalem is an awesome city, full of traditions and history. It is now apart of my history, but not a place where my spirit was nourished. If anything, my soul is crying out for something beautiful, something without war or guns, without oppression, at peace.
And the only place that connects to me like that is Mackinac. So I shall enjoy my summer there, post a thing or two about the island culture for the next 6 months, let my mind unwind from the past year and a half, and go wild one last time :-)
Wa-hoo!
Shannon
But it's time for me to settle down. I'd love to settle down in a place with the beauty Mackinac provides, but let's be honest, I shiver when the temps are in the 60's...a Mackinac winter? No way.
The summers up there are the best: low humidity, not so hot you think you will suffocate, bike everywhere, horses everywhere, bars everywhere, fun times always. This is what I remember from the past 3 summers I worked there, off and on. This shall be my last working summer. I know I have said that before, but this time I mean it. Unfortunately.
I want to quit the nomad life for awhile. Mackinac was one of my first ventures into the unknown (more on that later). I just packed a couple of suitcases and took off for half the year. It was a very difficult year, back in 2003, but being on the island made it so much better. The nature trails, the perfect gardens...what more could I ask for?
Basically, this island is my Holy Land. I've come to be familiar with what others refer to as the "Holy Land" and I know that is not the place where my soul connects to God. Jerusalem is an awesome city, full of traditions and history. It is now apart of my history, but not a place where my spirit was nourished. If anything, my soul is crying out for something beautiful, something without war or guns, without oppression, at peace.
And the only place that connects to me like that is Mackinac. So I shall enjoy my summer there, post a thing or two about the island culture for the next 6 months, let my mind unwind from the past year and a half, and go wild one last time :-)
Wa-hoo!
Shannon
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
