The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

It's been 4 months since I started a job that I like and that makes me learn new things everyday. There are guests coming and going everyday - some of them are nice, give us cakes, smile to us everytime they pass by and there are those who try to get more that they are supposed to, who wouldn't smile back no matter what you do and who just want to shout at someone. Talking with the nice guests is fun, but it's those irrate guests that teach me more. I feel quite stressed about dealing with angry guests, I believe with experience I will learn how to deal with them properly.

But for now I'm counting days to my holidays. In exactly one month I will be in Malta, burning myself in the sun and drinking sweet, red wine. I'm travelling alone, but meeting some people there. It's not gonna be the first time I'm travelling alone, so I don't feel weird about it, I'm just soooo looking forward to it. I bought new bikini, new flip-flops, Malta guide book is ready, everything is ready to go. Just that I still have one month to go.......! I want the time to go by faster this month!

Malta, wait for me!!!!!!!

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

After quite not as big failure as I thought it was (look: one post earlier), I started my new job.

'Trainee' means don't get angry on me, Mr Guest.

It's as cool and as hard, as I thought it is this time. It's never boring at the reception. In my earlier job, I was sitting there and waiting and wishing for someone to go inside and then, even not caring anymore, as all the rooms were already taken and I was checking my facebook for the 10000th time and watching movies on my night shifts and it was a job I could actually learn in 2 days and be able to do it normally already.

But here it's different. There is always something to do, things to check, guests coming in and out to ask for your assistance. Hotel system is the most popular one in big hotels, thanks god not Fidelio, but Opera, which looks quite similar to the ones I was working on in China (although still more difficult). I will get my uniform next month maybe, all the stamps with my name, IDs for systems and official e-mail address will be created for me as soon as I deliver them some missing documents.

But, as it is a hotel, it's work connected with people. And believe me or not, this is what I like the most. On my very first shift, I could meet a group of older Americans, who looked like Asians actually, with a nice tour leader called Mike, who sometimes was nice and sometimes I was thinking that he's slowly crosing the thin line of what is a joke and impertinency, but there was actually nothing I could do, but give him a killer smile and thank him for everything (making me slowly loose my patience). There was also a situation in our room, where a guest peed on his bed, which made the matrees damaged. It added him 150 pln to his room charge and a terrified looks on receptionists' faces when we heard about it on the shift-change meeting.

Another thing is that after my Emirates fail, I'm still not over the flight attendant idea of mine. And working where I work from now, I will not forget about it. Why? Because everyday we have at least 5 people from Lufthansa flight crew staying with us. But when I told my new coworkers that I want to see stewardesses in uniforms, because I think it's cool, they laughed at me. "Come on, the flight attendants coming to our hotel are usually older ladies" - one girl said. "I'm working here for 1 year and 5 months and I've only seen around 7 beautiful flight attendants from Lufthansa" - one guy added with a serious face - "One came yesterday".
"But the pilots are better" - added the Girl No 1 - "Although they are older, they look quite ok". I think I can believe her statement, because I saw her husband, who's quite a guy. No matter what they say though, I want to see uniformed staff of some airlines and I'm looking forward to it.

I had another reflection too. I think all the things that I plan or wish about doing come to me very slowly. Like, when I started Japanese studies, I wanted to go to Japan, but it became possible only after considerable amout of time passed. When I started thinking about going to China, it was more than a year after I managed to. Working in a good hotel? It took me quite some months to start my current job. So, every year can be named somehow:
Year 2011: LD year (ok, now, that's a shortcut for something I'm not really ready to confess yet haha)
Year 2012: Chinese year.
Year 2013: I hope it will become Hotel&Dance year.

And 2014 is MY year, the year of Horse, so I believe it's when everything goes my way~~~!

I'm always busy, but I'm lazy as well.

My mistake mode is still on. Beginning with the big one, small ones come in jumping around me like bumble bees flying around the beehive. I'm trying to deal with them alone, but as easy as it seems, it gets more difficult as much as I'm trying to figure out the solution.

I was enough forgetful to take the reception keys home and falling asleep for another 4 hours and make the receptionist on the morning shift nervous about not being able to open the cash register. I sold a room to a lady, who was a total fox. Half an hour after checking in she decided she didn't like the room and I had to cash out the money back to her. Well, it must have been on my shift, of course. Not mentioning that the only Japanese guests that we were expecting cancelled his reservation. Damn it.

I don't know if it's me making mistakes that made our manager to take a leave. He's got a week off, so I'm not really sure whether I can call him in case of any problems or not. Better not. I bet he's making out with his girlfriend right now (no, please no, I'm not gonna imagine it yuck).

The snow fall from Wednesday continued non-stop for the whole day, so now the whole world around me is covered in a thick snow layer, which in a way makes it look nicer, but in a way not. It looks nice where I live. It looks dirty where I work. The city center and the snow is a no-no combination.

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday, which... we might not spend together... and no, not because of me. I will wake up in the morning to bake a cake for her, but she already announced that she's going out around 11 am for a few hours. And I have my dance practice at 5 pm, which makes it impossible to coordinate. I guess the celebrations will take place around 7 am in the morning. Thanks god, I'm not working the night shift today!

Happy birthday, mom!

I have so much chaos in my life, it's become normal. You become used to it. You have to just relax, calm down, take a deep breath and try to see how you can make things work rather than complain about how they're wrong.

I was sent to another hotel from our group today again. And hey, it's actually quite cool! I caught a cold almost (if not more than) one week ago and it's getting worse and worse, so at least I can work in a warm place. And seriously, is it some kind of irony that there are so many Japanese guests to arrive here? There are at least 5 or 6 reservations made by Japanese citizens here. In my usual workplace, we have only one reservation from Japanese guest, who is to arrive on 9th - the day when I work on the night shift. On the other hand we have many Chinese guests. Is it some kind of sign?

Well, this night shift seem to be a very calm one. It's Wednesday - that's one. In the whole hotel here (and the hotel is REALLY small) there are only 4 rooms occupied. No reservations for today either. The only disturbance might be the football game tonight. Poland plays agains Ireland and after 34 minutes of the game it's still 0-0. I had to fight the tv remote control...

Wait! Goooaaaaalllll!!!!! Ooops, it's a goal for Ireland!

So, anyway, the tv here seems to be working quite fine. It's hanging just in front of the reception desk. But when I started to watch a movie about American air forces, a guest came out of the room to ask about a few things. One - ironing desk and iron. Done! Shower gel - he refused soap and took shampoo telling me that it IS a shower gel. Ok, done! Can he and his chubby daughter watch a game with me, because the television is the room seems to have some problems? Ok, no problem, sir. But the television here.... The remote control looked like it had a looong and hard life. It took me around half an hour to figure out how to change channels. But as for the volume, no matter what I did it didn't work at all. The guest himself took the remote, pushed every button possible and discovered 'the' button. And so, I am writing my blog while watching Poland-Ireland game, blowing my nose and replying to e-mails sent by the guests.

It's 42 minutes into the game... Still 1-0.

How would it be to work in a hotel like this?

Today I saw an offer which made me think.... about Dubai. A city-state full of high-class hotels. The most sophisticated and posh place to go on holidays to. My chances to get a job in a hotel in Dubai are quite low, but trying never hurt anyone. And it makes me imagine a lot. With new flight connections from Warsaw (the capital of Poland) to Dubai, I'm beginning to think how cool would it be to go to Dubai! Have you ever been there?


EDIT:

It's 4:30 am now and it started snowing! When I went out to see it, I was amazed. It just looked so beautiful. Next to the hotel there is an old church too, so looking at the snow with such a beautiful background was delightful! I took some pics with my mobile and although not of a good quality, maybe it will give you some insight on my feelings:

That's what I see when I go out of the building.

I love snow!

And cars... I love cars :P

Making mistakes is the only universal form of originality.

I started a new job. I signed the contract. I had a few hours of training (22 hours altogether). I was avoiding doing many things on my first shift. And although it's only my fourth day, I know I'm on another stage now. It's the mistake stage. I'm using my courage to do things now, not making others do it, and as a results I'm making lots of mistakes, as the one today. I'm still mentally unprepared for talk with the manager, but as soon as he learns my mistake, I'm too scared to think what he will do.

But on the other hand, I started my shift with the mistake, so it couldn't get any worse from then on. And I was right. It got definitely better. It got so much better that I even received an award-like present from one of the guests. He came at the beginning of my shift, finally he took a room and he left the hotel in the evening. He came back at 4 am in the morning telling me how much he likes it here and the beer here too. He took out bananas, chocolate and bread from his bag and gave it to me complimenting my looks and explaining that he's saying it only because of the beer which had made him honest. I didn't want to tell him that I am sick, I look like I was working for 48 hours already, not for 6. But I ate one banana after mister Security Guard refused it.

This month seems like it's gonna be a hard one. Lots of options and opportunities are coming and going. I feel like some of them are just waiting for me to grab them. On the other hand I don't want to take the easy road, although to be honest, lately I seem to be thinking about an easy way out. Like going to China again. Changing jobs. Choosing another career path.

I'll eat the bread I got from my guest. Soon I'll be going home for a short nap just to come back to work again. Hate it but love it. I like being busy. Busy bee!

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

I'm writing this post accompanied by sounds of chatter, singing and dining, as today I have a night shift in a different hotel! That's right! And no, I still haven't quit my job, neither have I found another. It's another hotel from our small hotels group. They didn't have anyone to work tonight, so of course they sent some fresh blood here. That is me, a person whose experience is limited to 22 hours of training and 2 night shifts in my hotel. Great.

The hotel i sgreat. It looks very cosy. The entrance leads you to the Mexican restaurant Manzana, reception is at the end of the corridor. Sitiing at the reception I can hear everything that's happening in the restaurant, and if I were to start shouting suddenly, I guess they would hear me too. It's very tempting to try it empirically, but I'll try to pretend I'm serious for once.

I came very early, almost one hour before my shift's start, because I wanted to see how it looks like and hear some instructions from the earlier shift's worker. She didn't seem to talkative, she scanned my attire from above of her glasses and she left after telling me that it'll probably be very calm and boring tonight.

Little did so.

I started off with selling some trips and one room, after showing it to the guests (and hell it took me long enough to find it myself). Then chats with the guests started.

"Wooof, it's so warm!" - said an older lady entering with her husband, her coat in her hand, reddish face and as warm a smile on her face.
"Indeed mean, it became warm so suddenly" - replied I, thinking that we really do have an early spring. Never expected it to became THAT hot though. I feel cold even with my coat, scarf, gloves and hat on.
"Oh..." - she said a bit confused. - "Good night"
They left.
Wait, something's wrong, I thought. I sat there for a few minutes... Aaaah! They came from the restaurant! That's why they felt so warm. Thanks god they haven't commented on my abset-mindedness, or maybe they should?

Another guest approached the reception to take his room keys. After confirming that it's no 20 that they're looking for I hear a question. "Pardon?" - I didn't understand it at first.
"Are you Sylvia?" - I'm sorry, I'm not. Again with the "oh..."?

Well, what is left for me to do is: wait for a guest that called she will come aroun 1 am (btw, she's still not here!) and after that I can consume my dinner packed by my loving mom, which consists of spicy, warming creamy carrot soup and potato pancakes. Just thinking about it my tummy starts talking to me with a sad voice: Don't care about the guests Don't care about anything Just give me something to eat Quickly I'm dying dyyying...