I began my internship on a rough day for the Boxing Cat. Gary, the brew-master, died from unexpected heart problems the night before my first day at work. So, needless to say, everyone was incredibly sad when I got there - people were crying and hugging. I barely new him. I actually just met him a couple days ago and he seemed totally healthy to me, but I gave out a few hugs myself. I guess he was the guy at the brewery that all the customers knew, who really enjoyed having a good time and always wanted to be the life of the party.
I could definitely see these traits in only the few minutes that I spent with him the other day - it's too bad that I won't have a chance to really get to know him. I guess it just goes to show you that you never know when your time is up, so you really have to take advantage of all the opportunities you have.We began the day with the weekly managers meeting, where we talked about different upcoming events, changes around the restaurant, problems, etc. Some big things happening at the BCB soon will be a 'Gary Memorial Party' in the next couple weeks, 'World Cup Game Coverage and Promotions' from June 11 to July 11, a '1st Anniversary Cook-Out' for the Boxing Cat on June 13th, and also a 'Forth of July Party.' :-) These all sound like they'll be a lot of fun.
As I said, Kelley wants me to start with the nuts and bolts of the BCB - which is the food, beer, and the people. So I began my internship learning how to be a server in the restaurant. It was pretty fun, although in China they don't tip :-) So I'm definitely learning to respect all of the hard-working waiters and waitresses in the U.S.! Customers are usually pretty easy to deal with, but there are many people who like to make things tough. I learned that the best way to handle people like that is to just smile and try your best to make them happy. The BCB has 3 floors. I worked the 2nd and 3rd floor yesterday and I was pretty much thrown right into it. But I think I did pretty well with everything. The menu isn't very difficult to understand and as long as I remember the soup of the day and what time happy hour ends, then I think I'll be just fine as a server :-) I get an allowance of $150 every month at the brewery to spend on food/beer/etc, so I'll probably use it to eat dinner every night during my break. Which means every day I'll only buy my lunch and it's real cheap, about $2 - $4 depending on where I go.
The brewery is open from 5pm to 2am everyday. So I work 4pm - about 1am. I'm not sure if this will continue after I'm done being a server, but I definitely start to yawn a lot after about 11pm :-) We'll see if I handle today a little bit better. After work, I ride my bike home and biking at night in Shanghai is really beautiful. It is a pretty tranquil city at night time and there are no horns, very little cars, and lots of lights on the buildings. In comparison to riding to the brewery, it's an entirely different world. During the day, I think people honk their horns just because they have them, and no one is a good driver =) I also save a lot of money riding home at night because the metro closes at about 1030pm and it would cost probably $4 for a taxi ride everyday, so thank god for the bike!
I just finished up my first Mandarin lesson this afternoon. It went really well! My tutor's name is 'Linda' and she's Chinese. Her English is not great but it's good enough to help me compare things. She's kinda wacky and makes a high pitch sound when I say something correctly, but it's funny. She also has crazy comparisons for things when she tries to explain something in English, I rarely understand what she's talking about when she does this, so I just laugh and nod my head :-) I learned a lot in just two hours with her. I felt like a 1st grader learning the alphabet and easy words because we had lots of colorful flash cards and pictures that we were using. It was good though. She said that I am a fast learner, so hopefully I'll breeze through all this simple stuff and I learn how to converse soon! Mandarin isn't easy but it doesn't seem to horrible yet. I'm going to probably set up every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for my tutoring times.
Day #2 at the brewery starts in a few!
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PMM
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