WARNING: long post ahead. read LJ cuts at own risk.
Alrighty... well, where to start.
Status of to-do list for the summer: minimal accomplishments. Ya, most of those things, no matter how simple, just aren't gonna happen. I'm either too busy working, or too worn out to do anything on my days off. Not to mention that hardly being able to see people outside of work makes some of those things hard to do as well. And this probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me so I will move on.
Next - first year of college. Awesome. That's a good word for it.
First semester classes...
Hospitality Career Focus (basically, we learned how to make resumes, and survive job interviews, and that type of thing.)
Basic Accounting I (we learned some of the basic theory and then how to use the main functions of Simply Accounting.)
Basic Food Prep (a 2hr demo where we got the list of ingredients and wrote our recipes as Chef Kerr made/explained the tasks of the week, and a 3hr+ lab where we were in the kitchen actually making the stuff. lots of soup. lots and lots of soup. I hate soup.)
Dining Appreciation (best. course. ever. one class a week where we were split into groups and then we had a lesson on different parts of etiquette and that type of thing. homework involved eating dinner weekly with our group in the fine dining restaurant that our division runs. oh ya... and the dinners were paid for in our tuition.)
Writing for Hospitality (aka english. boring beyond belief. imagine every wednesday at 8am going to a class where you're taught basic grammar and memo/letter writing skills, most of which you were already unconsciously using by grade 10. from a teacher who looks like colonel sanders, says "uhhh" approx. 150 times in 2mins, and can talk for 15mins without actually answering a question that required a yes or no response.)
Food Theory (trying to remember the actual point of that class. it was good tho. we learned about the history behind some things like soup [did I mention I hate soup???] and some famous chefs, and that kind of thing. also the theories of how things work in a kitchen, including the tools and stuff, but also the different positions of chefs/cooks. a lot of that was in french. b/c the titles of french. what sticks out most from everything I remember is garde manger = cold. very helpful point. 'cept probably not for you. anyways, lots about french classical cooking.)
Dimensions for Hospitality (if that title sounds vague to you, no worries, it is to me too. I think we mostly slept thru that class. I don't know how we passed it. from what little I remember, we basically learned about the travel industry and that it affects the hospitality industry b/c they're so closely related.)
Purchasing - Hospitality (note how half my classes have our industry actually in the title. anyways, this was quite the class. taught by a Frenchman. as in, from France, not from the province next door. complete with accent and attitude and everything. totally awesome. the class... well for the first half of the semester we learned about things like pigs and veal and lamb and I don't know what else. but it had to do with purchasing. somehow. it's summer, I don't remember. then for the rest of the semester we did presentations. our first week we were split into groups and were each assigned a "food group" - my group did herbs and spices - then we created a 2hr. presentation on 8 items in our food group. we presented them as if we were supply companies doing a promotion-type-thing to restaurant owners [aka our classmates]. definitely a lot of work, but still fun.)
Introductory Computers (most useless class I've ever taken. other then writing - no wait, I did learn something in writing. nvm. our first class was an introduction to the desktop. yep. next class was how to use a mouse. yep. but after that I think it actually got a little useful to people who weren't on computers all the time. we had three tests in that class - on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I went to almost every class only b/c attendance was taken, but never once paid attention. except when he told us when the tests would be.)
Second semester classes...
Basic Accounting II (continuation of first semester. basically it was just a project. make sure it balances at the end, hand it in before the semester's over, and you pass. the project??? a four-month restaurant simulation. we were given step-by-step instructions, online tutorials on how to do the tasks, and a binder-full of papers. mostly invoices and bank statements. all we did was input everything in. time consuming, but easy if you did it right and it balanced.)
Speaking for Hospitality (like writing, but speaking. basically we learned public speaking skills and did several presentations.)
Professions in Hospitality (sounds vague again, but this class was cool. every week for up to 2hrs we had a guest speaker from some area of the hospitality industry come in, do a little presentation, then we could ask them questions about all sorts of things. we got a sheet each week with suggested things to ask, and we filled them in b/c our teacher would randomly pick weeks to collect them and you had to have so many sheets done to pass.)
Mixology (aka our drinking class!!! interesting for someone who doesn't drink. anyways, one hour of theory each week on the productions/history of different alcohol and stuff like that, and a 2hr lab. what - a lab you ask??? that's right. with a different theme each week. [wine opening, rye/scotch, rum, vodka, beer, miscellaneous, to name a few.] we started off w/ sitting around the full bar for an hour. passed around the raw ingredients for tasting, then went thru each cocktail one at a time and McGregor taught us how to make them. then for the second hour, we practiced at our little portable bars w/ coloured water. sooo much fun. and we had to memorize all the recipes. oh, and since I passed the class, I guess I can now be considered a mixologist. so to anyone who's wondering... you stock the bar, I'll do the work. that's my deal. hahaha...)
Food and Beverage - Practical (our division runs a fine dining restaurant and a deli. this class is booked on our schedules for a full day. we served lunch, and served dinner at the restaurant, and worked in the deli, each for 4 weeks. interesting experiences. I hated working the deli. I will never, ever, ever work in a fast-food environment in my life. my kudos to people who do, b/c I can't handle it. and I will never make anyone a bagel again either.)
The Menu (the title is self-explanatory, and yes that's what we talked about for an entire semester. #1 selling tool, so it's pretty important. it's complicated to make a menu, there's a lot that needs to be considered. and did you know that the french classical menu had 13 courses?!?!?)
Customer Relations (again, the title says it all. it was kinda like most of my WestJet training, but glorified into 2hrs a week for a semester. learned a lot of semi-useful things, but definitely not the most interesting class.)
Food and Beverage Service Theory (the theory class that went along with our practical. taught by the same frenchman who I had for purchasing. good class... we learned tons: the very basics of wine, how to write bills, different types of service, and seven basic rules. lots of other little stuff too, including plenty of stories from his time as a bus-boy.)
And that's what I did all year. Hardly any homework, so that was great. Oh, and we had four-day weeks in our lil' Hospitality division, and lucky me ended up with Fridays off all year!!! So... first sem. I made a lot of friends and we had most of our classes either all together, or with about half of us together. Lindsey and I had identical schedules all year, except for our Food Prep labs. Second sem. tho, Lindsey and I had all our classes together again, but we only had one class a week with all our other friends. That sucked. We only saw them on Mondays (we ate lunch together, then saw them later that afternoon in that class) but we rarely got all of us together during the week. Oh well. Umm... what else. I think that's enough writing about college. Any questions???
So on to work. I won't go into too much b/c I've written more than enough for today I think, but basically... work has it's good and bad sides. We're stuck at check-in, saying and doing the exact same thing for hours on end, standing in the same small area. It's draining, esp. when I have afternoon shifts b/c I hate those. Mornings are better. Even at 4am. And our schedule's a nightmare!!! It's so complicated and not entirely logical. But there's some really good people there, and we've got a few agents who are always hanging out with us and keeping us company (even off the clock), so that keeps things interesting. And I've talked to several people including some of the support staff and one of the "big cheeses" about giving us something else to do once in a while so that we stay more productive... we're quickly becoming lazy about pushing the kiosks. That phrase probably doesn't mean anything... remind me and I'll explain it another time. So hopefully something will come from all my not-so-subtle hinting. And that's enough for today.