Its been a little over 3 weeks now that I've been here on Mackinac Island. Learning and training ALOT! The Grand Hotel opened this past Friday, May 6th. We started off serving a dining room filled with about 900 people! I will admit, it was a quite overwhelming having 30 tables to serve all at once. Guess this is when the old saying "practice makes perfect" comes into play. Each night serving as a wine steward in the dining room gets more comfortable, I'm still trying to create my routine and get over stage fright. During the peak of the season the dining room can hold up to 1500 people from what I hear. Thank God I have wonderful people around me and back at home encouraging me everyday. I've been blessed to work with some pretty cool people and serve some pleasant guests. Working as a cocktail server and reception bartender have been fun experiences so far. Walking about 3+ miles a day. I get the chance to interact with the guests, where in the dining room I don't really get the chance too because of the rush. It gets so hectic. I wish I could have more time in the dining room to talk to my guest in detail about their choice of wine. I'm all about quality over quantity, but I might just have to bite the bullet here for now so I can get the experience to come home with and perhaps work at a more intimate restaurant. My next goal is to work at a winery or on a vineyard. I study study study while I'm here. We have a 20 page wine list that I have to get familiar with. Today I assisted in training some new beverage servers, which made me feel kinda of special. Figured I've been here for 2 weeks training so I better have an idea of what I'm talking about. My uniform makes me look like a penguin! (hahaha) a cute penguin. Me and white clothing dont get along, especially dealing with RED wine. Not a fan of having to button up my collar, don't know how you gentlemen do it. Oh yes, and my vocabulary has improved...yes sir, yes mam....welcome ladies and gentlemen. And I hate having to wear nylons!
I had a chance to exlore the island a bit....beautiful! I cant get over how Lake Huron looks like the ocean and its not even the biggest of the great lakes. Even cargo carrier ships past thru here. I've learned from the locals how to indentify parts of Michigan by using your hand as a map (kinda the same shape). Many of the guest ask me where I'm from and wonder what I heck I'm doing out here from California (hahaha) There's a handful of fellow Californians working here as well. Aparently there's quite a few places I need to visit while I'm here, like Traverse City, MI. Hope I can get some time off to do so. I'll need to get off this island once in a while; can feel pretty isolated here at times. I'm excited to go to Walmart on the main land tomorrow. How sad! (haha) Tried some local wines here from Traverse City, MI...I'm impressed! I've learned to always