I Knew This Day Would Come...

Days have turned into weeks, and each week goes by it gets harder and harder to be so far away from home. I know that a lot has to do with my job, and that I spend SO much time at work, it is finally starting to take it's toll on me. I am physically exhausted, not to mention I am at my wits end. For the first time since I started my job, I left without feeling 100% confident in what I was walking into in the morning. Let me give you a little insight as to what it is that I do every day...

2:00 am- I wake up and get ready for work.

2:30 am- I step into the cab outside of my apartment and make the half an hour trek to Media Village 1.

3:00 am- I get to work, change into my uniform, and head to the kitchen to fetch my packet of paperwork that has been prepared for me the night before. This packet includes advance withdrawals for proteins, recipes, pick lists, bulk prep lists, etc. I then have to sort through each recipe (now I know how Terita feels), and organize them by breakfast, lunch, dinner, and overnight.

3:15 am- I begin setting my students up with job duties. I like to fabricate all the meat for the day in the morning, so I can organize my carts, and then work on vegetables and sauces, etc. In a given day, I have over thirty recipes that have to be weighed or measured out exactly according to the recipe. Each recipe feeds up to 900 people. So when I have my students dice chicken breasts, they are not doing a couple breasts, more like 200 kg (which is about 400 pounds). And that is for one recipe!!! Imagine having to do this over and over thirty times a days, with ingredients ranging from lamb shoulder to calamari steaks. This takes most of my day.

12:30 pm- Chef's meeting: we discuss tomorrow's menu, and make any changes, and also prepare for the menu two days out.

1:30 pm- Continue preparations, and meet with my Chinese chef to go over the night's duties and responsibilities.

3:30 pm- Finish all of my things, and attempt to change out of my uniform.

4:00 pm- Still at work answering questions.

5:00 pm- Finally get home from work.

6:00 pm- Usually bedtime.


Did you notice I didn't put down any times for breaks, lunch, relaxation, etc.? Ya, that's because I don't get those things. Which is probably why I had so much fun the other night. I finally felt relaxed.

This sounds like a tough job to do day in and day out, right? Well take into consideration the language barrier, the fact that we only get 60% of the produce that we order any given day, that things change ALL the time, and that the stress level is at a constant high, and then you could empathize with me.

This is, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done. It is taking all of the strength that I have to go to work with a smile on my face, do my job well, and leave with my head held high. I knew this was going to be tough, but never imagined that it would be as hard as it is. I will become a better person for it, I know, but what's keeping me going right now?

I guess it will all come together soon...

But in the meantime I will do my best, keep my mouth shut, and know that I will be home in just a few weeks.