Monday through Wednesday was indeed quite busy, and I must say I had a rollicking time running around serving drinks, taking orders and yuckin it up with the guests. I've never seen so many foreigners all in one place, here in Shangri-La and it was amazing how quickly I could ease back into chatting freely with people. I've missed that interaction after my iCafe rotation was over. Most of my guests were not English speaking, or at least not fluent. It was a relief to have those interactions, jokes and stories after the lack of it over the past few months. I had my "regulars" and we were all on first name basis from day one, just as friendly as can be! Seeing familiar faces every night made everything more fun, and I am so glad the convention fell during my rotation at F2. A lot of the people I've met in the past few weeks really have made the time fly by, and I feel like without them it'd be a miserable wait. I'm thankful for the distraction. I was surrounded by Canadians, Scottish, Danish, Russians, Spanish and other miscellaneous types of people. I must say that its awesome how different each culture is, but teasing and joking really brings everyone together. We had a booth of almost every nationality from above and despite occasional language barriers it was barrels o' laughs. I'm just excited I got to meet that many different kinds of people all at once too, and get a firsthand comparison to all their behaviors. I think traveling for work is in my future, especially after seeing what it's like to meet all kinds of people that like.
Really, its quite amazing now how soon I'll be home, and I can't hardly wait to touch American ground again and see my family. These past two weeks have yielded such a shift in my thinking, that I think I'm gonna need some time to really mull it all over and process it fully when I'm home.
Today is my last Thursday in Dalian, yesterday was my last day in F2, and I'm wrapping up work with a little updating of the SOP's and not much else. Tomorrow is a half day of learning stewarding (not washing dishes thankfully, just learning about breakage control and costs) and then I'm done with work! I am completely free for the next four days, and my roommates and I have big plans for our last hurrah's here.
F2 was an interesting rotation...my main job was guest interactions, and I didn't get much chance to learn actual bar "stuff". I learned a few drinks, how to promote events, controlling liquor costs and ordering...other than that...not much to say. I am glad it was my "last" real rotation, and that my time at the end was so busy. Time flew by and here I am now, all 6 rotations done, and my internship coming to a sudden yet agreeable close.
Chapter 6: F2 Bar, closed.
I'm so full of stories now, I'm surprised I'm not leather bound and do not smell of rich mahogany.
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