First day of work!
Last night I did a 6.5 hour shift - my first at The Niche, a fancy restaurant on Quebec St. It's fancier than anything I've ever been to, which isn't a big shocker but it does make me feel very put-in-my-class. (There's a lot of class feelings going on just from being in Victoria...)
At first I was cleaning dozens and dozens of pots and pans and containers - everything that had built up from whenever until 5, when I got there. They were all super nice to me and there was 2 hours of down time when I first got there to learn how things worked and help out peeling prawns. (Moral of the story: shrimp brains are multicolored and absolutely disgusting.) Kylie, the assistant chef for the night, has been working there since October and she couldn't remember when I asked when they last had a dishwasher. The chefs and servers used to do them all themselves...I can't imagine. So there was much thanks and praise going my way, which was super helpful. We talked a bit and they asked me about my life and such and all was well. Kylie asked me if I'd ever worked in a kitchen before. "Actually, I've never really worked before. I've been in college for the past two years so I've been busy," I said. She was sort of shocked by that but said a lot of people said dishwashing was a great break-in job. They have a dishwasher at camp so I knew how to fill the trays...but there's only three trays (plus the ones for wineglasses) and no drying racks like at camp. So when things got busy, I was running back and forth between scrubbing stuff, running the washer, dodging very hot pans Kylie was throwing in the sink, and putting away the still-wet dishes amongst the legs and arms of stressed chefs and servers.
I thought it might be boring and solitary. It wasn't.
Right before 7, Kylie started getting nervous because there was a bunch of reservations and she kept saying that we were going to get "slammed". Now I understand what she meant. From 7:30 until 10:30 there was a non-stop flow of plates, bowls, wine glasses, silverware (it'd save me a lot of time if they just used one size of fork ::sigh::), granite slabs and hot frying pans that Kylie needed back as soon as she handed them to me. The chefs (Jason, in his 30s - I think he's the owner...he's the one who hired me - and Kylie, 24) were yelling at each other and the servers. I was thinking, "How the hell can they keep this up each night?" but they told me later that it was one of the biggest nights they've ever had. Kylie said, "If you can handle this, you can handle any night." When it got really busy, I was cutting bread and scooping hummus, too, because the servers needed help. One of the fun parts was keeping an eye on things I knew we didn't have a lot of - small, square granite slabs, won ton plates, small frying pans, cocktail forks - and making sure I got those through first thing when they showed up.
Oh, and the servers: Allen (late 20s, bald, didn't talk to me at all), Heather (red head, late 20s, had a pink-polka-dotted wedding cake), and Jacki...who totally, totally reminds me of Vanessa from camp. And that makes everything better, of course. She's super friendly and kept telling me what a great job I was doing and was just super chipper. She was able to gracefully shrug off anything nasty Jason shot her way (he was stressed...super stressed). Of course, these people are probably all going to be different the next time I work, especially if I switch shifts.
(Oh dear, now I've got a sleeping Sam in my lap. He just migrated in a big blue blanket from his bedroom. Silly boy).
I was supposed to stay until 10 but it was 11:30 when Jason told me I could go - and the dishes weren't even all done. I biked/walked home at midnight. I'd brought my bike, but my legs were so tired that I walked a lot - plus it's a lot of uphill.
I told Sam I'd be home at 10:30 but didn't get home until 12:15 (it's a 15 minute bike ride and I was walking a lot). I didn't think he would be worried because I don't know if he worries about things like that - if he even would notice that I was later than I said I would be. But when I got home he said he'd just called the restaurant to see if I was still there or what. That made me feel very, very special indeed. And he's waited up for me, too. And didn't complain when I went on and on about the kitchen set up and things that had happened.
I may buy a bus pass so I don't have to make that trek every night I work. Or I might just use Sam's. We'll see. Regardless, even with pepper spray in my pocket, I didn't feel very safe riding home on Douglas St at midnight.
I'm working tonight, which is sad because my favorite open mic is tonight, but I want to suck up to Jason so maybe I can get more day shifts in the future. At this rate, with nights, I'll never get to see Sam. He gets home around 3 and I leave for work at 4:30. I'd like to work about 20 hours a week - that'd be perfect. And if half of that was day shifts...that'd be very, very nice.
After I cleaned up the sink a little, I went up stairs and asked Jason if he wanted me to come back (when we talked on Tuesday for the first time he just said, "Come Friday" and didn't make any promises). He said, "Do you want to come back?" So he asked me to come back tonight and that we'd figure out my schedule then.
Yo, peoples - I have a job! All that searching and...I have a job! If I can keep this and work 3 or 4 nights a week I'm totally going to get to stay in Victoria longer than March. Eee! Now all I have to do is trick the border guards...
At first I was cleaning dozens and dozens of pots and pans and containers - everything that had built up from whenever until 5, when I got there. They were all super nice to me and there was 2 hours of down time when I first got there to learn how things worked and help out peeling prawns. (Moral of the story: shrimp brains are multicolored and absolutely disgusting.) Kylie, the assistant chef for the night, has been working there since October and she couldn't remember when I asked when they last had a dishwasher. The chefs and servers used to do them all themselves...I can't imagine. So there was much thanks and praise going my way, which was super helpful. We talked a bit and they asked me about my life and such and all was well. Kylie asked me if I'd ever worked in a kitchen before. "Actually, I've never really worked before. I've been in college for the past two years so I've been busy," I said. She was sort of shocked by that but said a lot of people said dishwashing was a great break-in job. They have a dishwasher at camp so I knew how to fill the trays...but there's only three trays (plus the ones for wineglasses) and no drying racks like at camp. So when things got busy, I was running back and forth between scrubbing stuff, running the washer, dodging very hot pans Kylie was throwing in the sink, and putting away the still-wet dishes amongst the legs and arms of stressed chefs and servers.
I thought it might be boring and solitary. It wasn't.
Right before 7, Kylie started getting nervous because there was a bunch of reservations and she kept saying that we were going to get "slammed". Now I understand what she meant. From 7:30 until 10:30 there was a non-stop flow of plates, bowls, wine glasses, silverware (it'd save me a lot of time if they just used one size of fork ::sigh::), granite slabs and hot frying pans that Kylie needed back as soon as she handed them to me. The chefs (Jason, in his 30s - I think he's the owner...he's the one who hired me - and Kylie, 24) were yelling at each other and the servers. I was thinking, "How the hell can they keep this up each night?" but they told me later that it was one of the biggest nights they've ever had. Kylie said, "If you can handle this, you can handle any night." When it got really busy, I was cutting bread and scooping hummus, too, because the servers needed help. One of the fun parts was keeping an eye on things I knew we didn't have a lot of - small, square granite slabs, won ton plates, small frying pans, cocktail forks - and making sure I got those through first thing when they showed up.
Oh, and the servers: Allen (late 20s, bald, didn't talk to me at all), Heather (red head, late 20s, had a pink-polka-dotted wedding cake), and Jacki...who totally, totally reminds me of Vanessa from camp. And that makes everything better, of course. She's super friendly and kept telling me what a great job I was doing and was just super chipper. She was able to gracefully shrug off anything nasty Jason shot her way (he was stressed...super stressed). Of course, these people are probably all going to be different the next time I work, especially if I switch shifts.
(Oh dear, now I've got a sleeping Sam in my lap. He just migrated in a big blue blanket from his bedroom. Silly boy).
I was supposed to stay until 10 but it was 11:30 when Jason told me I could go - and the dishes weren't even all done. I biked/walked home at midnight. I'd brought my bike, but my legs were so tired that I walked a lot - plus it's a lot of uphill.
I told Sam I'd be home at 10:30 but didn't get home until 12:15 (it's a 15 minute bike ride and I was walking a lot). I didn't think he would be worried because I don't know if he worries about things like that - if he even would notice that I was later than I said I would be. But when I got home he said he'd just called the restaurant to see if I was still there or what. That made me feel very, very special indeed. And he's waited up for me, too. And didn't complain when I went on and on about the kitchen set up and things that had happened.
I may buy a bus pass so I don't have to make that trek every night I work. Or I might just use Sam's. We'll see. Regardless, even with pepper spray in my pocket, I didn't feel very safe riding home on Douglas St at midnight.
I'm working tonight, which is sad because my favorite open mic is tonight, but I want to suck up to Jason so maybe I can get more day shifts in the future. At this rate, with nights, I'll never get to see Sam. He gets home around 3 and I leave for work at 4:30. I'd like to work about 20 hours a week - that'd be perfect. And if half of that was day shifts...that'd be very, very nice.
After I cleaned up the sink a little, I went up stairs and asked Jason if he wanted me to come back (when we talked on Tuesday for the first time he just said, "Come Friday" and didn't make any promises). He said, "Do you want to come back?" So he asked me to come back tonight and that we'd figure out my schedule then.
Yo, peoples - I have a job! All that searching and...I have a job! If I can keep this and work 3 or 4 nights a week I'm totally going to get to stay in Victoria longer than March. Eee! Now all I have to do is trick the border guards...