Today, I went to work in the Kitchen. At first I was seriously dreading it. I was tired and just wanted to sleep…and the thought of working for nearly 12 hours in a kitchen was going to be a nightmare.

It turned out to be a pretty awesome day.

I have no kitchen uniform…which was freaking me out initially (since I’m Direct Entry into HOIII I wasn’t issued a Server or Kitchen uniform).

It turns out that the weekend Kitchen teacher is a really cool guy, very friendly, and fun to work with. He’s no Chef Brian or Chef Paul…but he is a good guy.

Pretty quickly he realized that I wasn’t just some kid that didn’t know a fork from a spoon…so to make a long story short he excused nearly everyone for a break at 2, had me and 2 other experienced guys stay until three…and sent us home. How about them apples? Leaving at 3 is a HELL of a lot better than leaving at 7!

It was fun being back in a kitchen again too…using all that amazing giant equipment and being able to do much more than I ever could at home. I’d compare the kitchen to the Pac Bell building (MUCH better than what we had at DVC)…and even then Les Roches kitchen is better laid out and MUCH better designed than Pac Bell. Granted there were the usual kitchen issues…some machines not working, some equipment missing…but it was well organized, they had replacements for nearly everything that didn’t work, and time flew.

After he dismissed us all he pulled me aside as I was walking out…and asked me, very directly, what the hell was I doing there? His words were (almost exactly), “Douglas, you are Management…you know your way around a kitchen…why the hell are you here?”

I explained the whole story to him and he laughed…

He said “come in tomorrow and we’ll think of something better for you to do than chop. A Manager should lead.”

Oddly enough I’m actually looking forward to tomorrow.

PS: There was a wine festival down in Sierre today…and I’m pretty grumpy that I missed it. I really wanted to try the local Swiss wines and compare ‘em to what we get in CA. Boo.

At the beginning of the semester, during Week 1 I, as a management student, was to spend 1 day working as a Steward (aka busser), 1 day as a Server and 2 days in the kitchen as a chef.

Well I did my Stewardship and Serving…but didn’t do my kitchen work. I had a nasty cold and talked to both the nurse and the program director…and all was well. I was told I’d have to make it up (it is 10% of my Food and Beverage class grade).

On Thursday my program director came into my Marketing class and asked to speak with me. He gave me a letter which said…

“We would like to draw your attention to your repeated failure to follow the correct meal reservation policy. This policy is an important part of the Les Roches “Market Place” operation. Refusal to follow this policy cannot be tolerated as it causes the waste of valuable resources. This policy is very simple and straight forward and your failure to follow it shows a serious lack of respect.

You have no failed to follow the proper procedures 4 times. You failed to follow procedure on the following dates…”

It goes on to say that I am having 0.4 points deducted and that I am to have kitchen duty on Saturday (today) and Sunday (tomorrow) from 8:30 – 7:00. Yay.

When my director gave it to me he was very apologetic and explained that it is primarily due to my missing those first kitchen sessions.

Obviously this note made me VERY ANGRY. So I wrote a response, signed it, and turned it in the next day (Friday). I’ve yet to get a response. Here is my response…

“Dear Mr. Small,

First and foremost I accept the responsibility (or lack thereof) of missing those scheduled meal times. I had signed in for the meals and did not attend them. I understand that the school operates on a budget and that it is a waste of school resources.

I also understand that part of my Food and Beverage grade depends on my work during that first week of school, and although I was sick, making up the time in the kitchen is understandable.

In other words, I accept full responsibility for my actions and have no issue with doing extra kitchen duty on the weekend.

Having said that, I am rather upset at the tone of the letter I received. Considering the facts that I have not received all my textbooks (especially a crucial Marketing text which has forced yet another schedule change in our curriculum), as well as a lack of a teacher for my Human Resources class I feel that the wording in the letter addressed to me was uncalled for, unnecessary and, to be honest, insulting.

I believe my “serious lack of respect” is heavily outweighed by the schools lack of respect when it comes to the core of my existence here, my actual education.

As I said before, I understand that it is wrong to waste the school resources. What about the resources, time, expectations and effort I put into my education here? And yes, I was sick and am willing to make up for my time missed. How is the school going to compensate me for the lack of text books, and the lack of actual class education? Is the school going to put in extra weekend effort in order to balance out this inequality?

I expect nothing less than an apology for the tone in the letter addressed to me. I expect nothing less than the rapid delivery of my missing text books.

I feel that my education here at Les Roches, with a few minor exceptions, is going to help me tremendously in my life and profession. I came here with very high expectations of this institution. I certainly hope those expectations are fulfilled completely.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Douglas Neil Crawford”

I haven’t gone into full details about the issues I’m having with the school…but to make a long story short I’m missing 3 textbooks (which I’ve already paid for) and had my Human Relations class for the FIRST time last week. On top of that there has been massive schedule changes and a general lack of respect.

I am fed up…and I am fighting back.

(FYI, you have to sign up for meals 2 days in advance…when you go eat you get your name checked off. You can’t go eat unless you signed up. Obviously I missed 4 meals.)

PS: Last time I went to dinner my name was already checked off. The girl at the front desk tried to argue with me…telling me I can’t go in twice. I told her I hadn’t even gone in once and that she had damn well better pay good attention to who is coming in to eat. I think I scared her.

I was invited to a Korean dinner last night…which was pretty odd. I don’t mean the food was odd but the circumstances were.

One of my neighbors in PFA is this guy named Brandon. He’s 1st generation American, both his parents having moved here from Korea. He speaks perfect English and has a History degree from UCLA or UC Riverside. He’s in freakishly good shape (like one of the most cut bodies I’ve ever seen) and a down to Earth nice guy. He was the guy that invited me.

Molly is a girl in my Management classes who worked on the Project with me. She’s in her mid 20’s and has been going to Les Roches for the past 3 years. She actually met her husband here and got married last year. She’s Korean and speaks with a fairly thick accent. She’s very intelligent and an excellent student. She invited me also.

The other guest was this girl…I forget her name…but she’s Korean too. She’s nice but tends to speak more Korean than English. I’m not quite sure what her story is but she’s lived in South America for some time now and speaks very good Spanish (with a Korean accent…which is REALLY hard to describe). She’s Andrea’s (the Norwegian/New Zealander) roommate so I’ve met her once or twice.

It was a really cool meal. Brandon and I just sat there talking and drinking wine while the girls prepared everything, cooked everything, and cleaned up everything. I tried to help…but got a rather shocked “no!”…cultural I suppose. We all sat on the floor with a big bag of lettuce and they cooked up some pork bellies, eggplant, onions and mushrooms, and we’d make little lettuce wraps with the different things along with salt and this amazingly good spicy chili paste. It was a blast!

But what made it really strange was that, as the night progressed, it turned into Neil Talking About Everything. They were all enthralled by my life, my thoughts, my decisions, my knowledge. I was told, repeatedly, that I was the most intelligent person they all knew. They kept asking me about all kinds of things…politics, science, education, the world, everything…and it was really surreal. I didn’t quite know what to make of the whole thing. I felt like…I don’t know…it was just strange. Very cool but very very strange.

At first I thought they were trying to set me up with the other girl…but she has a boyfriend and they are really serious. It seems…and this is so bizarre, but it seems that they just wanted to hear my thoughts on…everything.

This place gets stranger and stranger every day.

Note: I really am not trying to sound cocky here…but it was seriously like that!