Update

Work

This last month hasn’t been that interesting, unfortunately. After finishing working as a concierge I decided to transfer to the restaurant department. It felt like a good time to change, especially since my last day of work was like hell. In the morning I felt ill and had to call to work and say that I would work in the afternoon instead of the morning. It was a good decision, not only because I felt bad, but also because we would have a lot of arriving guests in the afternoon. With me working in the afternoon we would have one extra person to take care of the guests. We had a lot of problems with the arriving guests that day, because of many reasons, so I was relieved when it was time to go home, knowing that it was the last day. I had a very good time working as a concierge though. The colleagues were very good and helped me with whatever I needed. It also gave me the chance to try out the job as a general concierge in the lobby, as well as a more personal concierge in our VIP section “The Excellence Club”.

The following day I had to organize with returning the reception/concierge uniform and get the one for the restaurant. When meeting with the person in charge of all the restaurants I was told that I would work in our French restaurant “Chez Isabelle”, supposedly one of the best and most popular restaurants in the hotel. When the French restaurant closed I would be alternating in our Mexican restaurant “Agave”. After the meeting I went to get the menu for the French restaurant and some utilities to be able to work. The rest of the day was off.

Working in the restaurants reminded me of the days in Les Roches. Every day I started at 15:00 with a briefing with the afternoon team, normally between 10-15 minutes long, where we went through what was going well, what needs to be improved etc. After the briefing everybody then went to the restaurants to set up tables and prepare for service. That included folding napkins, polish some cutlery, set up tables, get ice, wine etc. At 17:00 we could go down to the employee area to have something to eat and freshen up before the pre-service briefing in the restaurant at 17:40. Our restaurant opened at 18:00, so we used the twenty minutes to go through different things and do the last preparations before the guests arrive. I enjoyed working in the restaurants and the ones that I worked with were helpful and corrected me when I made mistakes. After working one month as a waiter I realized that it’s good to have working experience from a restaurant if you want to be a successful manager. The experience will help one to maximize efficiency and give you good ideas of how to run a restaurant in a hotel for example. I liked to talk to the guests while serving them and many were interested in me as well. They were always asking me where I’m from, probably because I was the only light-skinned person there. The hotel’s occupancy was around 45% during this time, so we weren’t too busy every night, which gave me the possibility to learn without stressing too much.

Illnesses

During week three of work in the restaurant I started to feel pain in the stomach. I went to the doctor in the hotel and he told me to wait a few days for it to wear off, otherwise I’d have to go to a clinic to run a few tests. The pain continued, which made me miss a couple of evening services, so I went to a clinic in Higuey. After receiving the results it was clear that I had some kind of bacteria that I got from eating something bad. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics that I needed to take for a week. During the treatment for the stomach I started to feel really bad one day when we were doing the pre-service in the restaurant. The following day I woke up with my throat aching and a fever. With no power at all I stayed at home and slept all day. I went to see the doctor again and she told me that I had an infection. I was prescribed with more antibiotics, again...

Now...

The manager of human resources told me to be off work for a week, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in my apartment. In the beginning it was good, I could rest a lot and recuperate, but the last days have been boring. The only times that I’ve left my room has been to go to Higuey to buy some groceries or to the hotel to eat dinner. The other day I was told that I seemed to have lost some weight, which is not that surprising, since I have not eaten to well because of my throat infection.

Lately I’ve been having the urge to finish my internship so I can be able to go home and continue the things that need to be done before going to Chicago. (Oh, yeah.. for the ones that don’t know, I’ve been accepted to Kendall College. That was around two months ago...) When I get home I’ll have a lot to do. Since my passport expires next year the school wants me to renew it so they can send the necessary visa papers. I’ll have to go to Finland as soon as I can to get it as soon as possible. Another problem is that we don’t have an apartment in Chicago yet.. Being stuck in the apartment has made me want to go home to fix these issues instead of being here.

Next

Well, next department is going to be Bar. I feel like a beginner in this area, so I’ll probably learn a lot. I’ll report on how things are going.