I woke up this morning determined to take a walk. It was pouring rain but I put on my handy dandy red jacket and went out the front door. I was regretting my decision halfway up the hill. My jeans were soaked… I didn’t wear my handy dandy rain resistant pants and the cold water soon began seeping in… I reach the top of the hill enjoying my podcast and refusing to turn around when I saw the little church and perfect shelter from the rain: not to mention fitting for a Sunday morning. No one was there. It was just me, my little ipod, and the pews. I need to bring my camera next time and take a picture of this building. It is utterly adorable and perfectly sized for the number of people here. It is a catholic church (I think…. There is a statue of Mary and some Saint Jonathan) and built sometime in the 70’s.
It was such a pretty and peaceful moment and I fully enjoyed the stillness. It is a mixture of wood and stone, statues of metal and translucent windows allowing for only the softest light. I waited there for a while before deciding to officially give up the walk. I also didn’t want the regulars to show up to a stranger in their midst and an awkward me saying, “No thanks,” to their sermon. I’m neither catholic nor German, so I don’t think I would have gotten much out of it. So I left… but I will be back. So wish I had brought the camera though… I’ll be sure to next time.
The painful walk back… ugh… soaked, bent over to keep the wind from entering my huddled self. Not very enjoyable but once I got back to the room I had enough time to swap into some warmer clothes and huddle under my blanket for a quick nap before work. Before I knew it my alarm was going off and I had to change into the uniform. Still raining, still windy… but at least the kitchen is only a few minutes away.
Lunch is always an interesting event of my day. For the last week, Maya has had a different schedule forcing me to brave the cafeteria on my own. Generally I have a corner table to myself… This is preferred since sometimes someone else is sitting and I have to join them, making for an awkward meal of smiles and nods. I generally enter the Bavarino (their name for the place) at 12, same time as all the hotel maids. They are all dressed in pink dresses and white frillyish aprons. It is all women and it is quite funny to watch them without any clues to the conversations except for their facial expressions. Some are gossiping, others have heart to heart conversations, while others grunt in disapproval about whatever they are disgruntled about. A few moments later a small group of women and men dressed in green gather… They seem to be rather important since they are given space and more formal greetings from everyone else around. They also take smaller bite of food and chew their food thoroughly before swallowing… somehow making themselves look even more proper.
Around 12:25 another group enters: they are dresses in yellow. There is one man and 3 ladies. One of the yellow ladies always wets a paper towel with sanitizer and wipes the table and eats something she brings from home… She has it down to an impressive routine of balancing a newspaper and lunch in one hand and the swishing sanitizing paper in the other. Five minutes later… on the dot at 12:30 all the pink people get up and leave – my cue to start watching the clock. The green formal people in the middle rise moments later to resume whatever it is that they do and soon after the gardening crew and guys from the garage enters At this point I leave with enough time to walk across the small yard to arrive in the kitchen at 12:45 on the dot and start my daily prep work. Maya will be eating lunch with me tomorrow… That deserves a little: Yippee. I can stop being creeping and watching people and focus on the eating now.
Today involved more plating… But it was slow and the guys in the kitchen were pranking each other left and right… Happily I was not one of them making a plead for mercy and sticking my quivering bottom lip as far as possible whenever threatened (I’m good and looking pitiful :) hehe…. ), but I enjoyed the whipped cream into t-shirts and buckets of water being swung far from where I stood… I have never experience a kitchen so…. I don’t even know…. Crazy.
The end of the night… I still don’t know if I wish to revisit the events as I write…. After soaping and wiping the stoves and slowly allowing myself to think about leaving, Maya, one of the other girls, and I were given buckets of soapy water and given the opportunity to clean under the ventilation hood. I have always managed to avoid this job at school. Generally a guy felt like standing on the stove because it was cool and he could show of his cleaning skills (seems the only kitchen job guys jumped to do… I think it was just to stand on the stoves??? I don’t know) but this time… oh this time… ugh… the grease the small cramped space, the splatter of the grease, the smell of the grease… Grease… grease….dripping grease. I don’t like grease. I don’t like the feel of butter or lard… Imagine now…During this process I was touching a lot of grease… runny grease and watching the stream of grease flow into a bucket. I generally don’t have a problem cleaning… but oh… this time. This night… this process… May it never happen again. Only perk… I’m not craving any food tonight….And on that note I officially have no more to say.
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