My First Day of Work!!!!!

July 1, 2013

Wow. Day 1 complete. It's weird to reflect on the day! I don't even know how to process everything! I feel like I've gone through so many phases, had so many thoughts, done so many things...everything is so new. But wonderful! I'm glad I'm reflecting on this, because I'm realizing...things are actually going really well! Of course I'm nervous, of course I'm unsure of myself and how well I'm doing, of course my imperfect French scares me, but...all in all, it really was...a successful day.

The biggest problem for me is understanding French. Without a doubt. Since I'm new and I don't know the ways of something, my job right now is just to do what they tell me on a moment to moment basis. They tell me something to do, I do it, and then I wait for them to tell me something else. I can't really start something new without instructions because I know nothing about their ways. But they've given me and taught me way cooler things than I way expecting already!

Battiste, a young guy, probably around 20, is usually a server, but there weren't many people in the kitchen at the time so he was helping, gave me my first task. My first task today was to clean some stacks of dishes with vinegar. Yep, dishwashing. That was pretty much what I was expected. Then I started removing all the little pieces of grass from a bowl of mushrooms. I think the variety was 'moushrins' in French, but I'm not totally sure. Also a job I was expecting.

But then I started to help prepare lunch for us staff! We heated up some pizza with sardines, I cooked some burgers medium rare, and grilled some polenta. I felt a little emabarrassed because the polenta stuck to the grill because I didn't put enough olive oil. I learned that when I was shown how to do polenta later on for the guests. Then I went back to cleaning the mushrooms.

At that point Joackim came back. I didn't understand where he was for the day, but Quentin had told me he was away. Joackim is the main chef. Everyone at the restaurant calls him "Chef", never Joackim. That's typical of restaurants in American too I think, but since I've never worked in a restaurant anywhere, it's still funny and new to me. In the pictures online Joackim looks kind of dorky and not particularly cute. But he's...well, he's damn good-looking! Okay, enough of that. Good thing no one here knows I have a blog. Otherwise...well, otherwise that would be embarrassing. He's also probably like 34 and he has a girlfriend names Elena - I met her today, and she's really nice. So back to the restuarant. Joackim came back and after a little he told me I could stop doing the mushrooms and go eat with the others.

Lunch had many options for us! But all different from the restaurant menu! There were the burgers and polenta I made (oh, any they didn't even have buns for the burgers!), kebabs, the pizza with sardines, this pasta salad with avocado, tomato, some sauce, etc, a sauce thing (I really have no idea what was in it) - and something else I think. But the food was really good! I had a burger with the sauce stuff (which was delicious), some polenta, and some of the pasta salad (it had a lot of veggies in it too) - the pasta salad was really, really yummy.

Anyway, afterwards someone told me I could go take a little break, smoke if I wanted to, hang out outside for 15 minutes. I went to wear he pointed me to and say the other staff members smoking and talking together. I felt pretty awkward because I don't smoke, and when I said someone told me I could come out here but I'm not sure what he meant for me to do, and I don't smoke, someone said 'prendre le soleil!', or take in the sun. So I said down by them and did just that. Joackim also joined us, and there were 4 or 5 staff members hanging out.

Well after 15 minutes we all went back to work. Jean-Baptiste is a worker in the kitchen. He's 20 years old, turning 21 this Tuesday (so he has the day off Tuesday). He's pretty cute. When we started work again, he told me I'd be under his direction. It was great. He showed me everything he was doing for preparing the food, which was preparing, cooking, and making the first arrangement of the meat/fish and vegetables to accompany them. He taught me a lot of new French words for all the different vegetables and meats. And after several repetitions, I remember a lot of them. I tried hard to concentrate and memorize the words for the ingredients. There are so many new words. But that's not all - I didn't just watch him make them and learn the words, he then told me it was my turn! So after demonstrating what combination of vegetables goes with the sole, and showing me how the cook them, he had me portion out, cook on the grill (well all the vegetables are cooked beforehand, but we reheat them/grill them lightly), and then arrange them on the sole. It was really exciting!! And then you put plastic wrap over, put it in the ovenish thing to keep it warm, and after put it for Joackim to transfer to the plates they're served on, where he also added the other side things (that vary for different dishes), like mashed potatoes, garnish, etc. After they are on the new plate and are given to the server to put out - wow, the foods are beautiful. And oh. my. god. they taste good. So Jean-Baptiste gave me lots of little tastes of various things. When he cooked the first lamb, he cut off a piece at the beginning to cook separately, and said - "pour toi", or "for you". I looked a little surprised and confirmed that it was for me to taste, and he encouragingly confirmed, and said you should taste the things you serve! It was a pretty large taste of the lamb! And it was UNBELIEVEBALE. Like really. Maybe the bets lamb I've ever eaten. Actually. I can't get over it. Wow. He also gave me a bite of the mashed potatoes, earlier on some mozzarella, and later on some sole as well as chicken. Everything was superb. My goodness. But he didn't taste anything. So I asked him why he doesn't try more things, and he said he's had it so many time he's tired of it. Ha. I don't know if I'd get tired of that lamb! I suppose so, if the menu never changes and he's worked here for a long time. Anyway it was really cool working under Jean-Baptiste. He was really friendly and never acted annoyed even though I really did need demonstrations for everything he asked me to do.

The worst part is my lack of French comprehension. Especially of vocabulary of French cuisine. Honestly, though, they talked quite a bit in the kitchen, and I understood practically nothing. It takes a lot of concentration to understand, and when I'm doing other things, they're speaking quickly and not annunciating really excessively, and there are other noises in the kitchen that drown them out a little, I have hardly a chance of catching anything they say to each other. It's really, really hard. And that's the hardest part by far right now. I want to help more, but in order for them to give me a task, they really have to explicitly show me. If they tell me something to do, I have to ask them to repeat, say it more slowly, and then still I always need them to show me. Jean-Baptiste was very good at showing and talking to me - he also turns out to speak some English so he would translate some of his instructions to English. But Youen, another worker in the kitchen, could really not communicate with me at all. I hope I learn quickly.

Joackim is hilarious. He's really, really funny, friendly, joking, etc. He loves to mock people, he is full of life and energy, he sings all the (French) songs loudly and enthusiastically, and is just...so much fun! Every time he uses a paper towel he throws it like a basketball towards the trash (which is just a little hole in the counter like 8 inches in diameter), and every time he misses. Then every time (since I've been right next to the trash basically, and he's on the other side of the kitchen), I pick it up for him and put it in the trash. I'm enjoying this little system. He's just so silly. It really is a fun atmosphere. I just wish I could understand more.

After we finished all the meals, which was at around 9:45pm, we started clean-up. And let me tell you, THAT is an ordeal. I don't even want to describe the whole thing, but BOY does it take a long time. It turns out Sunday is the day of the week where we do the most thorough cleaning. There are some things, like cleaning the place kind of at the ceiling where all the steam goes, that are only done once a week - Chef (Joackim) did that, and it was kind of crazy - he stood up on the burners/counters, kind of squatting in a crablike position, washing all the parts of the ceiling, using a spray hose thing, getting water absolutely everywhere, including all over himself probably, sometimes throwing buckets of water in Jean-Baptiste's direction, etc. It was crazy. I've never seen something like that kind of cleaning procedure. Meanwhile the rest of us put away all the foods, cleaned the countertops, sprayed the entire room with the hose thing (it's so weird to me how you literally just water the entire room down....everything just goes down the drain), scrubbed the floors with a broom thing, squeegeed the floors, repackaged the sauces for the various kinds of meat, etc etc etc. But when I mean a long process, I mean...a long process. We were probably done at around 11. Then Youen asked if I wanted a coffee. I did, and he, Jean-Baptises, Battiste, Joackim, Elena (Joackim's girlfriend), and I had coffee together. I was quiet for a while and just listened (pretty unsuccessfully) to their conversation. But then Elena asked me some questions, I started talking a little about myself, where I'm from, my French learning, etc, and explained that I don't speak much French but understand even worse, especially culinary terms. They were all more impressed than I expected given that I understood nothing in the kitchen. But they all thought I spoke well, understood better than any of them did in English (even though I thought Jean-Baptiste may understand English better than I do French, he disagreed), and were impressed that I've only studied for 6 months. Anyway they were all really nice.

Allison is a server and Francesco is the sommelier, and they are together and both live at the house in the room next to me. They were the first people I met because when I woke up from my nap before work (at around 4:30) they had just arrived at home, and introduced themselves to me. Francesco asked if I understand French, I said a little, and they said something about if they make to much noise to tell them. I had just woken up though and I think was kind of out of it. But I think they said something to each other in the other room about my not understanding. And I was afraid they were not looking forward to my living there, or were annoyed that I didn't understand better, or something. But I think I was very mistaken!!! Because after work, after I had my coffee, Allison said if I waited a few minutes for Francesco to finish they could drive me back. I was delighted (not because I was so relieved not to have to walk the half mile, but because they were welcoming me so nicely!), and I waited, spoke with Elena (another Elena - not Joackim's girlfriend, but another server, who is so cute and sweet) and Allison. They told me that Allison's boyfriend's name was George. I was so so confused and then felt bad because I had thought his name was Francesco. But when he returned, I said I didn't realize his name was George, and he told me it wasn't, it was Francesco. I got so confused until he explained they were just joking - I told them it wasn't fair because I get very easily confused in French, so I'm to easy to mock, but they insisted they weren't making fun of me, but of Francesco. So I accepted it and later reassured them I would call him George - Elena then said in English "I like you!" Hahaha.

Well I drove home with Allison and Francesco. And they invited me to drink a glass of wine with them. I felt so so excited. Of course I said yes, so I hung out with them in their room, talked, listened to music. They're super into music, especially Francesco, who plays the guitar, drums, and African drums (!!), owns around 700 CDs, and is super into the sound system as well because he doesn't enjoy music with bad sound systems. Ha. They offered me a beer, which I tried but didn't like, and they let me try to almond liquor, which was really strong, but pretty good - I liked the flavor anyway. I brought up my chocolates from Laval and shared them with the two of them. We hung out from 12ish until a past 2am I think!!!

Well right now it's 3:30am. Jeez. I'm going to go to sleep. But it's our weekend right now because Le Jardin des Plumes doesn't serve breakfast and lunch on Mondays, or lunch on Tuesdays. So I have all of tomorrow and Tuesday afternoon off, then start again Tuesday at 5:45pm (like today). This is a good was to ease into it, because starting at 5:45 today and finishing at 11 really was tiring! So I have a day off, another days like that (but probably shorter because Sunday is the busiest and when we do the most extensive cleanup), and then I'll start working in the afternoon as well. Tomorrow I'm going to explore Giverny a little, and then go "faire des courses", which basically means run errands, with Francesco and Allison, who invited me to join them if I want. That means getting a second key for me, maybe doing some other things, and grocery shopping. AH yes, and he said he'll find the internet box, which means I'll be able to get online here, put up these blog posts, tell my parents, Gloria, and her family that I made it here safely (I haven't been able to contact them at all since getting here today, so I hope they're not worried).

We'll go shopping at the supermarket some, thought only for things like toilet paper, etc. For food we're just going to all the little specialty stores, where Francesco insists on getting all his groceries - like the charcuterie, the fromagerie, etc - which makes me very excited because I love all of those. He says the fromagerie where we're going the superb, and where we get all the cheese we use at the restaurant. I'm so excited! I'm really happy with how much they're welcoming me and how much they're inviting me to do with them! They said if I ever want to go to Vernon for something (that's where we're going to go for groceries and errands, because there's nothing like that, not even a grocery store, in Giverny), just ask  them and they'll be happy to take me - it's only two miles away, so just a few minutes by car, but 30+ minutes walking. They're so sweet. Alison also invited me to do this par course class with them tomorrow if they go!!! It was called a tree adventure or something haha. Francesco reminded her they're not actually going to tomorrow, so they said another time then, when they do go, I'm welcome to come.

I'm so excited to be here. I think I'm going to become closer with the staff, which will make me really happy. I really like them.

(3:45am)