work

so i officially have now been hired at three different places: a wedding reception venue, pizza place, and coffee place, but until today was yet to actually be called into a shift. i've been counting on having an income for the past few weeks now, so i was quickly becoming desperate for work. however, i worked at the coffee place this morning from 7:30 to 2:30 this afternoon. this means i had to wake up at 6:30 this morning: by far the earliest i've been up this entire trip including when camping. somehow i dragged myself out of bed and made it in on time: a small miracle in itself. working at a coffee shop comes with its perks though - all the free coffee you need. and i needed it!
so this coffee place is out of control busy at all times. my training was: "this is how to use the juice maker, this is how to use the dishwasher...oh shoot it's busy - abby, can you go take orders?" "umm....sure." "oh by the way this is a shout kitchen, we don't write anything down, just memorize what they say and then shout it out." ok.... first of all i'm not much of a yeller when it comes to being in the work place. secondly, i don't even know what we serve - and there are no menus. so people are asking me questions about the food that i didn't know the answers to, or ordering things and i wouldn't have the slightest idea what they were saying. this was for two reasons. 1) the slang in this country is out of control. nothing is the same as it's called at home - short flat, tall black... and to make it worse they shorten all their words such as brekkie, toastie... and 2) the accent doesn't help. plus people have a tendency to mumble and talk softly around here. annunciate!!! you may think i mumble...they are ten times worse for sure!
ok so it comes time for me to 'shout' to the kitchen and i don't know what to say. and if i say it wrong they make me do it again and seem angry. of course i got about 10 orders wrong and put the kitchen into a bit of a fit. faye, my boss would tell me about 8 things to do at once, and she'd turn around 30 seconds later and if just one thing wasn't finished yet she'd say it again. of the 5 people working, the names of three of us were abby, avie, and matty. talk about confusion in a shout kitchen! but i tried my best, i really did!
by the end of my shift i thought everyone was pretty irritated at me, but faye kept saying how good of a job i did. i wish that encouragement would come after getting yelled at when i feel like crying! :( i sugar coat everything i say, and i wouldn't mind if people would do the same for me. haha. maybe this job will toughen me up a bit. but i don't see what's so wrong about keeping a soft voice and adding pleases and thank yous to the end of comands. the one thing i've got going for me is while working i have a permanent smile stuck on my face. this is what faye liked the most. i feel like i should come with a disclaimer though: although i may be smiling, things are NOT ok, and i am silently FREAKING OUT! haha. oh well! mom: she also wanted me to thank you for making me stand up straight and walk gracefully. (she obviously didn't see me almost fall down the steps over a stool - haha!) but thanks anyway mom!
through all the mishaps, i think i did more good than bad today: stayed out of the red - which is all you can really ask for on your first day. best of all, she paid me $98 in cash for my seven hours and i am now scheduled 2 shifts per week. assuming that's the way it's actually going to be, i may be able to keep myself out of the red the rest of the time i'm here which makes me a very happy camper!