My Routine

I thought I would talk about how my day usually goes, for those of you who want to experience it with me, read on. I generally wake up whenever Albert wakes up, so that depends on his class schedule. I have recently been trying to just get out of bed when I've initially awoken instead of subjecting myself to extra hours of sleep simply because Albert is still sleeping. I get really drowsy and fuzzy for the rest of the day when I do this. I will then eat some kind of breakfast from my store of vegan goodness in the room, so oatmeal, or whole wheat bread and Almond butter, or Granola and Soymilk. Albert will get ready and go to class, and I will go to work, or, depending on how early his class is, I will go running. Then I go to work, lunch service at 11:30 am. Lunch at PFA sandwich bar, I generally just grab a bunch of fresh fruit and keep it for later :) When I am done I generally go back to Albert's room and do some research on Vegan stuff, simple living, yoga health retreats, happiness, stuff of that sort. I also tend to hang out with Dave, my Amercan manager, and occasionally we go shopping at the Costco like Aligro, or just hang out down in Sierre. I sometimes excercise during this 4 hour period between work shifts. Then Dinner shift begins at 5/5:30 depending on my schedule for the week. This continues into normal CDV operation (selling food and drink as opposed to service class time). We open the doors for normal operation at 8:00 pm. Sometime between 8 and 8:30 Albert stops in and we have dinner together during my break, then back to work until 12:30. I then go home and sleep.

Weekends I wake up at 10:30 when Tahir picks me up to go running and gyming. By 12:30 we're back at Albert's where we have lunch, today was granola, yum! We usually just chill for a while depending on if I have to be in at 1 or 3, then off to work until midnight again. The weekends are nicer to work because they are very quiet and calm during the day. I bring my laptop in and do some research and reading, or I write in my journal, or I'll prepare mise en place for my meals for the comming week. Yesterday I roasted some vegitables with arabic spices, and today I think I might make lentils and rice. It's very relaxing sometimes, and others it is a rush of people all day. That is when we get close to breaking 2,000 chf! Which happens much more often than during winter batch.

On another note: Mr. Taylor has given us incentive to do the extra work that has come with working summer batch. The extra effort and time that we don't get paid for. We are given the opportunity to create specials and prepare them for Fridays. Whoever works on planning and preparing these specials gets 100 chf. Not bad. We have to make specials anyway, so getting extra pay will certainly keep us motivated and creative. It also keeps us learning. Planning a menu for fridays, ordering what we need, and preparing mise en place by ourselves is a very good learning experience for us. I was getting worried that CDV would turn into a more stressful than pleasurable experience, but Dave and Taylor seem to be doing something about it.

The Uniforms of CDV

CDV staff has always had the privilege of being able to wear casual clothes to work, jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. This semester, however, the "higher-ups" decided that it was time to implement a uniform, I think because we now work during service hours too instead of just during normal burger flipping time. I have now been working there for 6 weeks and have been assigned 3-4 different uniforms. I go in casual because the indecision and lack of communication between the different authorities allows me to. Nobody knows who dictated the most recent uniform requirement, so we get continually nagged about it, but have about 3 official uniforms to follow, so we follow none. Today we got yelled at by one of the chefs for not being in kitchen uniforms. I am curious as to where this will lead. Mr. Taylor, the ultimate authority, is adamantly against uniforms for us. He says it takes away from the casual atmosphere of the place. I agree with that. I also like to be able to dress how I want.

On another note, I took Tahir to my special spot that I found running the other day, and this morning we ran there at sunrise, it was beautiful! As for the healthful living thing: going well, but I need more vegitables and less grains and less chocolate.

The Beauty of Life and the World

I know I already posted today, but I had something of a revelation since my last post. I decided to run to Montana-Village today and just see where I went and what I might see. It was much more of an experience than I expected. As I was taking my normal route, I noticed a road that went downhill and in a different direction than my uphill road. I took the new rue and was even more impressed with the beauty of Switzerland. Montana-Village is a very old, quaint village with large house front gardens full of ripening vegetables and occasional apple or pear trees. There are old farm houses that are falling apart, new chalets overlooking the valley (valais). I happened to find a more secluded part of Montana-Village with red currants and blackberries growing, one of the happiest sights to me. Then I found myself on the edge of the town and miles of grassy fields, so I went off trail and onto field, but the Swiss know, so they threw in some trails through the fields. After hopping a fence and running across the countryside I entered the woods, and followed a trail to the crest of a gorge. There was a fire pit just out side of the woods, and at the very edge of the rocky ledge was a bench perfectly placed to overlook the entire Valais region. I just cried. I sat right on the edge of the rocks and felt so happy. I sat there for a good long while listening to Eluvium, and then silence. I remembered who I was...that sounds rather sketchy and "runner high-esque" but I remembered how connected I feel to the earth, how much I love the outdoors and camping. I realized that I am the kind of person who WILL be happy doing whatever she ends up doing and I have to keep in mind what will make me happiest. So, I am going to refocus myself on the outdoors. I want to do my next internship as a chef at a vegan health/ yoga retreat, maybe here in Switzerland, maybe not, and I think that I want to run one one day. We'll see how I feel about that when I actually go to one. Basically, when I was up there, I could htink of nothing that would make me happier than taking people out into the woods, or through the countryside, or up mountains, and having them live it and appreciate it while discovering themsleves. That is my perfect future.

A Change in the Plan

There has been some drama with the stagieres recently. I was the one who got affected by it all in the end, though not in a necessarily negative way. So what happened? I'm not exactly sure. One of our fellow stags, I believe I am not supposed to share who, is not changing departments next half of the semester. He is supposed to be swapping with Cherisse, one of my CDV buddies, and she is supposed to be taking his job. Since he is either not moving, or is being fired, Cherisse was going to be made to stay in CDV for the last 3 monthes. She refused. Apri, our other CDV compatriot, felt it would be absolute torture to stay in CDV longer than our designated 3 monthes, and I was okay with the idea. I would actually enjoy it. I would enjoy wherever I was put. I know that. I did admit that I would prefer to go to Market Place because it would be an excellent and worthwhile experience for me, but I would be the least upset by having to stay in CDV. I would also get rotating days off, with weekends off every 3 weeks. In Market Place I would only get Weds. and Thurs. for the whole 3 monthes. In CDV I have access to a kitchen and pantry where I keep my vegan deliciousness. My hours are a bit impractical, finishing at 12:30 am every night, but I don't really mind it because I have the mornings free to exercise and have some alone time. Cherisse also mentioned something, before this all became official, that made a lot of sense to me. She was talking about how this is her second internship, technically the kitchen internship, and she wanted to be in the kitchen. This was her main opportunity because she planned to do a management internship for her third internship semester, like most people would. I took that into account when reacting to the news that one of us would HAVE to stay. It is my first internship, and I am hired as a kitchen stage, so I have 2 opportunities to work in the kitchen. This year I work part kitchen, part service, to a minimal degree, in CDv, and I also get a taste of Market Place kitchen during midterm and holidays. To conclude: as of now, I will be staying in CDV for the whole semester. I would like to talk to Taylor about getting a raise or something since I will be the most experienced stage there and will be helping to train two new stages who will be joining me after midterm. I will also be given more responsibility, by default, due to my experience. I don't think my attempt will be very successful, but I may as well try.

A Healthier Life

One of my goals, being away from home, is to be healthy. I want to lead a healthy life. I really do. I know how to do this back home pretty easily; I mean I'm vegan back home and I can get everything I need easily. Not so here. The school caters to vegetarians, sort of, but it certainly does NOT cater to vegans, or healthy vegetarians. Everything is cooked with cream and butter. Almost all vegetarian options have cheese, which I don't eat. The grocery stores do not offer much for vegetarian protein. I have yet to find a store that sells tofu, or meatless meat products. Some of the larger supermarkets have soymilk, which I stock up on when I find it. So, I found a grocery store today that is just in the town next to Bluche. It is walking distance, a long walk, but I like walking. It has fresh bread and veggies and fruit and even beans! I'm very excited about it. I don't have to pay to get there like I would if I went to the only other stores I know of, and they have good stuff for me! I hope to implement the food from this store into my diet and refrain from compromising my prefernces for the sake of convenience.

I also want to exercise more. I have become quick and close friends with one of Albert's friends, Tahir, who runs and go to the gym 6 days a week. He encourages me to go with him, which is wonderful motivation for me. I only need someone to ask and I will join. He is in wonderful shape and pushes me really hard, so my Tahir days are my push days. We actually discovered the grocery store in Montana Village while running, so it is just radiating positive, healthy energy.

My First Week

I have already finished my first week, but I thought I would enlighten you as to what occured. We had our stagiere meeting and got told what to wear when where, hehehe, how meals work for us, our hours, pay, keys for access to school, and name tags. Then we got to set up Market Place and A la Carte (the "fine dining" restaurant on campus). Then we set up buffets and got the dishwashing section set up as well, which I will generally use the term stewarding to refer to dishwashing related things. Gamberoni, one of the practical teachers who I have found to be somewhat intimidating, told me to be in charge of the stewarding area for that day and the next. This put me in charge of about 4 student volonteers and 3-4 other stagieres. I will admit that I felt rather honored to be chosen by Gamberoni to be put in charge like that. I did my job well, and found that generally the stagieres don't like to tell students what to do...I admit to doing more work than I should have as a "supervisor." This is something that Gamberoni pulled me aside to tell me. "Tell the students what to do, do not do it instead." After my first week in the Market Place, Gamberoni and Mrs. Rachney, my previous housekeeping teacher, and one of my favorite teachers at Les Roches, told how they missed me being there. I was rather touched, and blushed a bit.

After that week, I really felt that I was made to manage. I felt so comfortable doing it and it was a great feeling, knowing something well enough to teach others and get things done efficiently. I remembered more of what needed ot be done when I was put into a managerial role than I did when I was a student in stewarding, which I found rather interesting. All in all it was a good week. I started meeting Albert's friends, so I finally had faces to go with the names.

The one slightly irritating part of this week was when I had to find out which room I was living in. We were told to come to school the weekend before the 21st of July in order to call a number and get the key to whatever room we were assigned. I did as I was told and, hoping to get a good room, arrived at 8 am on Saturday. It turned out that the person who was supposed to take care of the keys was on her day off Saturday and we were supposed to come on Friday. In the end I got an excellent room. I'm the only stag. not in the community stagiere building. I have a nice single in a newly renovated building. They told me I would have to move when the "key woman" finished her contract and moved out of the stagiere house. They ended up extending her contract until December, so I get to stay in my awesome private room, which I am rather happy about.

All in all the start went well with minor glitches and slight disorganization on the school's part, as usual. Now that it is expected, it is not as irritating.

Introduction

This is going to be used to inform people about what I'm doing here, what I'm learning, and how I'm growing. I am currently fulfilling the first of three required semesters of internships for my school. They can be anywhere as long as it is for 4-6monthes and is related in some way to hospitality. First semester at my school, Les Roches in Bluche, Switzerland, is focused on service. The practical half of the semester includes serving in the buffet style, a la carte style, fast food style, and banquet style restaurants of the school, as well as a short stint as dishwashers. The academic half is focused on the basics, an introduction to the world of hospitality. This includes a taste of front office, housekeeping, rooms division, Intro. to Hospitality, food knowledge, a required language (I did spanish, but may change it to intermediate french next semester), and required writing course.

Most Students find a 5 star hotel to work as a server, a front office person, a dishwasher, a potatoe peeler (this is actually true and rather unfortuanate), but I chose to remain at Les Roches as a stagiere. The school hires about 10 stagieres each semester to aid in the practical classes. They help teach the students, oversee the work, set up mise-en-place(prepping food for later use by students), etc. The stagieres are required to have completed thier second year here (kitchen year), but because I went to NCC (my community college) and completed the same courses there that they offer here, the school hired me. I did have to fight for it though, they were rather reluctant.

I was initially stressed about this, thinking that both the stagieres and students would not see me as qualified to do my job, though I know I am, and I would have to work harder than the others in order to earn that respect. This was not the case at all. I was respected right off the bat, so all is well there. Another worry of mine is that I will not know "the way" of Les Roches when it comes to Kitchen. I know what I learned in the US, but they may do things differently here, and the chefs have little patience for incompetent stagieres. I plan on shadowing my fellow Stag. who is currently in the position I will be in.

The first half of my internship is spent in the Cafe du Village (CDV). It is the fast food restaurant on campus. I help teach the service students how to handle angry impatient guests, and how to serve correctly. I also help the kitchen students organize thier orders and occasionally make the food, if they are short staffed, or someone is particularly slow (physically or/and mentally). I often times help prepare desserts (aka scoop icecream and cut tarts). after lunch and dinner service I just hang around, sell drinks and greasy food, cook it, yell out order numbers, smile a lot, keep people happy, that sort of stuff. This is a good place for Americans...we're used to these kinds of jobs I suppose hahaha.

The second half of my internship will be in Market Place, the self serve, mass production, main restaurant here. I will be spending two days teaching the service students and 3 days doing Kitchen. I have no idea what this entails....the service part yes, but not the kitchen.

I'll post more later, but this seems like a pretty good introduction. Love you all.