First Day on the Job

Ciao!

So its been a couple of days and I have too much to say and not enough time to blog.  As I forgot to mention in the last blog, I got convinced into volunteering at GANZO, a school restaurant where students and chefs work to cook food for locals and other FUA students like myself. Well ya see this is how it happened. I go to get my vouchers for meals and I ask about what volunteers do at GANZO. Due to a small, but crucial, language barrier, they think I'm signing up to volunteer and bring me the paperwork right away and ask me to be in on Monday at 11am. Done deal, just like that leather jacket I just couldn't say no to. Anyways, I was a little scared about what I would be doing today but I gotta say it really wasn't bad. Besides not knowing what everyone was saying/ them not knowing what I was saying it, was a really good day and i think i made some lifelong friends (I actually could be wrong on this one, i'll get my back to ya once my italian get a little better). I ended up getting there at 11am and (again) was easily persuaded to stay until 6pm with no pay. I don't even know if i can call it being persuaded because its all my own fault, i just feel so bad about saying no that I literally offer my services to anyone. I worked with a man named whoknowswhat and a woman named Valentina, who works at the restaurant every day from 12pm to 11pm...how COULDN'T I feel bad?! They had her doing everything too...running to get bread every hour and fetching water, coffee and ice for them! Plus it was freezing and it doesn't help the kitchen isn't connected to the dining area. I learned a lot today, such as coffee does not equal a delicious Marylou's iced Mochanillanut, but instead a shot of purely espresso, which I took 3 of over the course of my 7 hour shift (the reason i have the enthusiasm to write this post). I fondly recalled times of forcing my fellow employees to take these "coffee" shots for losing water pong at work as I slowly sipped on my espresso-sugar mix (mostly sugar). I also learned that Italians love American music, but have literally NO CLUE what the songs on their iPods are saying. I don't know if they really love the "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" soundtrack or if they think those songs are normal American music. Either way, I really enjoyed hearing Russell Brand's "Inside of You" while serving guests delicious Penne con Gorgonzola. Really quite a treat. I also learned that I really don't enjoy when people are laughing around you and you have no idea what they talking about. Were they laughing at me? Probably, since they're blatantly staring and laughing at me for a reason iIam not sure of. Am I going to attempt to ask about this joke in broken italian/spanglish? Hell no, especially since one of them already made sure I didn't speak Italian OR Spanish. All in all, everyone actually seemed really great and I could tell that they didn't hate me, if that says much. Can't wait for next week so I can volunteer for some more unpaid labor. Until next time!

:) Nicole!