This past weekend I went to a club with the lobby lounge girls. If I see you in person, I will tell you about it because it would be entirely too difficult to write about my bizarre experiences there. Now that I've piqued your interest, I will drop the subject entirely for a neat conversation piece upon my arrival back to the states.
Hah.
Starting today my schedule has been made to match up with my new buddy, Mark. Mark is about thirty something (I think...) clean cut, very professional, speaks English perfectly, (and by that I mean I can talk really fast and he mostly gets it) and I think he'll actually teach me something about the restaurant. I'm moving up in my training and going from just "strange, obviously foreign server" to "more educated about the check procedure, but still strange and obviously foreign server". And the scope of my nationality has been widened to Holland. (Which I realize is not technically a nationality, but the guest made a wild guess and that's just how I phrased it. soo... Hollandaise?)
Speaking of guessing nationalities, I had a guest the other day who came in alone, and ordered a pizza. I, of course, being the friendly and nosy person that I am, immediately went over and asked the western gentleman how his food was. He told me the pizza was ok, it just needed some adjustments. I was delighted by this comment because it meant I could finally pester someone to fill out a feedback form to turn in to Robbie, my manager who chuckles all pleased like when he gets one, and says, "Excellent, excellent". I got his name and room number, but as I was writing down his name, a one Mr. Hines, I remarked on how that sounded like a good strong Nebraskan name. He looked astounded. He couldn't have looked any more amazed if I had gone up and told him what color shoes he wore for his fifth grade school picture. By that I mean I had a really good guess, and lets be honest, Hines is like one of five names I know from the Nebraska area so...I got lucky. After that he told me his family is from the Northern part of NE, and that there is a huge population of Hines running around there. So, moral of the story...know the common last names of your home state, and pull that party trick out whenever you can. It'll have a great payoff and people will be flabbergasted.
Another fun thing I did last weekend is go shopping. Yes, I will admit I had fun shopping, and the clothes are not too expensive and of better quality than Victory Plaza. No bargaining is involved, and I can just pick something out and pay for it. What a relief! I haven't updated my wardrobe since 2004, which means I've been wearing the same clothes since I was 19. I bet the style of my clothes are about as mature as a Justin Beiber fan. *shudder* So...I need new clothes.Luckily I have a calm friend to go with, who has this ability to look at something and in one glance decided to try it or not. I walk into a store and my body seizes up in fear. I start sweating profusely and the left side of my body kinda goes numb* as my eyes are overwhelmed with Choices. This is my biggest problem. So. Many. Choices. How does one even begin to choose what to try on, let alone if its worth picking out?? Also trying on the clothes is such a hassle. If you wear anything that is not easily removed, you begin to hate yourself every time you have to undress. Plus, once you've tried on the new item, you still have to put back on the sweaty, and probably now static-y, old clothes. If I do happen to mistakenly wander into a shop that contains trendier clothes, I freeze at the entrance or hurriedly walk through and pretend to look at dresses and shirts like I know what I'm doing. As soon as five minutes pass I gracefully duck out and heave a sigh of relief. That's why my wardrobe is five years old. Plain and simple. Also I don't like spending money on clothes. That could be partially another reason.
*the left side doesn't actually go numb, but the stroke like symptoms seem likely to happen at any moment, so I'm mentally prepped. Just in case.
On Friday I was walking back to my apartment which requires me to go down the the basement level and through the parking garage. The laundry is also located on this level. Usually I leave from the first floor which is a short jaunt down, and over to the residences, but I had to leave from the second floor and that's about four flights of stairs. The stairs are in a narrow corridor, which is echo-y and kinda of smelly.(Actually all the back hallways have a lingering scent of shrimp, body odor and old wet rubbish.)(Yes. I said rubbish.) I started walking down and this girl from laundry was in front of me. I literally followed her down into the basement from the second floor. She got more and more nervous the more flights of stairs we descended. She would glance back at me, and I would try to smile reassuringly like, 'Oh no, you have it all wrong, we're just headed in the same direction'. I think the smiling made her more nervous because she picked up the pace and practically ran down the hallway, and darted to the right as soon as the hallway allowed her to. From there she probably waited til I walked passed to make sure I wasn't going to double back and follow her some more. Now that I think about it...laughing about it while walking behind her probably didn't help either.
I forget that you haven't been here, that you haven't seen the buildings I've seen, or walked the sidewalks I've walked (sometimes skipped), nor have you heard the way people talk to me, or seen their faces when I act weird to them...It's hard to remember that we aren't connected that way right now, and the only way you could know is if I took some long extensive footage of it, or if you came out here. I think the latter is the best option. Think about it.
Also, Purdue wants Shangri-La to do a promotional video of the interns talking to guests in the lobby. Guess who's gonna be in that video wearing a metallic tiger claw slashed beige shirt and springy gouchos? That way all the girls that will see the video at school will see just how beautiful they will potentially look if they go to China and work in the iCafe. Great marketing skills, guys! Way to hone in on a great selling point.
With that, its nap time before I head back into work. Split shifts are 'da bomb'.
Ooh! Another phrase I can teach!
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