Friday, June 15, 2007
Soup Runner for a Day - 7:59 PM
If you recall, I worked as a banquet server for a hotel in Singapore before.... yep, all 1 day of it. And the reason why I didn't went back was cos... well, well.. where should I start... But lets just say it includes harsh working conditions, power abusive bosses, and zero job pride.But the past week working in the Westin Peachtree's Banquet department was really different. Though it was tough work, we had fun, and felt really appreciated.
The Banquets department was awesome, with them giving us nice(r) schedules to start off, so we could come in at 6AM instead of 4AM like the other servers... Yes, in case you think its a typo... we did get up at 4:30AM to make it to work at 6AM....but the servers were there from 4AM to midnight for the entire week!! But oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
I stayed at Kai's place the past week so we could wake each other up in time and walk in Atlanta's early AM ghettoness together. She has a 2 bedroom apartment in the ritzy Buckhead neighborhood that her parents paid for, and which I conveniently stayed in the bedroom with a king bed, attached bathroom, and walk in wardrobe... I swear its a hotel!!!!! But sigh, I never did get to enjoy it as much as I could, cos we had to get to work early.
But anyway, Banquets was really fun!! Though it was super tiring, and some guests were very demanding, it took real team work to get through the past week. They had buffets for their meals cos they had a 600-strong group. And I swear... I was picturing how awesome it would be if we had Hogwarts house elves working, and the food would MIRACULOUSLY replenish itself on the buffet table...
And on Wednesday, they very kindly gave us the job of being SOUP RUNNERS!!! Ok, so our job duties was running behind to the kitchen and replenishing soup on the buffet table.. Bad idea. We managed to get soup like, ALL over ourselves and the floor instead of into the pitcher... bleah... Ok, of course I was exaggerating, but the job basically SUCKED cos it was so messy... Kai even burnt herself in the meantime. But we managed to laugh at ourselves, cos we were just so pathetic! A captain saw us squatting on the floor trying to get soup into the pitchers, and he couldn't help but laugh at the sight of us too. I guess it was pretty funny, now that I think back about it.
Thursday we worked the PM shift (2pm - 11pm), cos it was their last night in Atlanta, and had a big bash. Theme was 1992 because it was when they launched their medicine (its a pharma group), and they had all these games brought in. And they had KARAOKE TOO... Its weird how Americans view Karaoke as drunk people screaming...I mean, we treat karaoke pretty darn seriously in Singapore, don't we?? But these people were just singing like really high. But they are pretty good though, compared to... ummm, American Idol rejects. But everyone got super drunk... and they are not young people!! This lady was at least 45 years old, and had lost her shoes for goodness' sakes!!! She was going around hugging everyone, BAREFOOTED, and boogying her way thru the night. It was kinda crazy... I wonder what I would say if it was my parents doing that... nahhhh, they're too zen.
Oh yes, Shiyun, I HAVE to tell you.. it was themed FUN NIGHT on Thursday to complement the games and ktv... And therefore the buffet menu was like potato salad, RIBS, FRIED CHICKEN, HAM, POTATOES... OMG, I nearly fainted.. Its like my fantasy come true BUT I COULDN'T TOUCH IT. And the desserts were awesome too... THOSE I took. Heh
But no worries, we're VERY tight with Chef Khoi, the head pastry chef. He likes us alot, and always offers us goodies whenever we go into his kitchen. =)
And we were back at 6Am today to help with breakfast... but we made it, WE MADE IT!! I definitely enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. All thanks to the super nice captains, and the very friendly servers who made us felt so appreciated. They would ask for us whenever they didn't see us, and they were wondering where we were on Thursday cos we worked PM instead of AM.. they are really nice old people. I like them.
Alright, so next week is back ot the ol' 8-5 desk job... its gonna be so....slow...bleah.
Leave me a message!