Thursday, June 14, 2007

The bulgarian girl

I'm working at a relatively small restaurant. There really isn't a lot to do, because most things we serve are pre-made, so we just have to take them out of the freezer and heat them up. My boss there is a bulgarian girl. She's a really nice and smart person. However, I want to kill her. She's really anal about the most stupidest things in the building, so she's always bothering us about the way cups and silverware are put in the front counter, or if we put one extra slice of pepperoni on a pizza, but them when we have a lot of people waiting in line, we always run out of food because she's not fast enough when cooking. I always try to help her, but she has such a high concept of ehrself, that she thinks she's the only one that can make things go well. She's so narcissist, that nomatter what we're talking about, she starts talking about how she's so perfectionist, and how she has an "innate ability for doing things rapidly", or how her senses are always overstimulated, so she can hear or see when somebody is talking about her.
I also work with other guy from Ecuador I met last year. He's really fun, and he always makes us laugh with his jokes, which helps a lot to deal with the long hours at work. We are always laughing at the bulgarian girl in spanish, so she can't understand what we talk about her.
But tragedy occured when her best friend told a friend of mine she took an intensive class of spanish so she could understand what people from Ecuador and Colombia talked about on her back. Of course, she didn't tell anyone but her bulgarian friends. After I heard that, I almost had a seizure when I started thinking about all the shit I've said in front of her. The next day after I heard it, I could barely look at her face. So I started acting like I never knew anything, and now I only make jokes about her to my close friends, and only when I know she's not around.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

10 minutes of internet access

Summer has officially started here. Rain has stopped, and now the temperature during the day is unbearable. But most important, there has been some serious partying going on. It basically consists on going to the local bar, getting a fake ID (I'm 19), dancing latin music (most of the people at the bars are working with me, and most of them are from either Colombia or Ecuador), then leaving at 3am and then hanging out outside our rooms until 5 or 6am. Right now I'm not drinking, so I haven't really been doing anything crazy....but those nights out are great because you get to talk to everyone in the park, and laugh at the drunk people doing crazy stuff.

Although it's been fun, I still don't feel entirely adapted to the fact that I'm going to be here for another two months. There are so many cities I want to visit, so many things I want to do, that sometimes the idea of being in this small town is just too lame. Some of my bosses are really annoying about the most stupid things, so everytime they tell me to do something entirely unnecesary just because they feel like it, I just want to quit that stupid job and traveling to NY, even if I have to ask for money in the streets. My parents told me if I'm not happy with my job, then I should try to get something in NYC, since I already have the ticket from NY to Bogota, but I haven't bought one from Minneapolis to NYC (So basically, I could travel right now). But I've been looking for it, and found nothing. Anyway, I'm having fun with my friends, going out and enjoying the summer, so I guess I'll try to accept I'm not leaving Minnesota for the next seven weeks.

I really wished I could write about everything that happens here, the people I work with, the funny things that always happen to me at work because I'm really clumsy, and what's it like with living with so many people from different countries. But computer access is really difficult here, so I can barely check my mail and writing posts in the 15 minutes we're allowed to use the computer at the dorms (God, I feel like I'm in jail). I also haven't been able to catch up with all the blogs I used to read, so I'm feeling kind of weird since I've lost some contact with the gay people i've met on the internet through their blogs. I'd really like to meet gay people here, but since I'm here with some friends from college, I would feel a little shy about hanging out with the one or two pople I know for sure are gay at my workplace (which by the way, I really hate, because they're really obnoxious).

Anyway, I hope this week I'll have access to a REAL computer (not the one I usually have to use, which is probably older than I am), so I will be able to make a more detailed account of what has happened to me so far here in the US.

Friday, June 01, 2007

In America

I arrived on Monday Morning. Flights were horrible...I didn't sleep more than an hour, I got the aisle on both flights, so I had to spend flight attendants hitting me in the head for like seven hours I spent flying...Plus, my bag got lost at the airport in minneapolis, so spent like and hour waiting for it to appear, until it turned out to be mixed with bags of some flight from Chicago.
Anyway, I'm all settled up here at work. It's been hell, because they're short of staff, so we've had to work from open to close...which is good, since I'm making more money, but it's hell because I've had to spend 10 hours without being able to sit down. Plus, I've tried to cut my expenses, so I bought shoes for work at Walmart for $9.87. Big mistake. Now, I feel like my feet are going to fall down.
It's been weird, because even thought the Work and Travel program is supposed to be an opportunity to meet people from other countries, the administration decided to hire less people from Europe, so the majority of employees are colombian, and from my college. So instead of meeting new people, it's been more like hanging out in the halls of my college back in Bogota. The same people, same social groups, just different location.
But I've met some really nice people too. There's this polish guy who barely speaks english, so he carries around a pocket size polish-english dictionary, so he can look for the translation of what he's trying to say. It's really funny when he can't finish a sentence and he has to look for some word in the dictionary, while he courses in polish. I hope I'll never have to work with him, otherwise it won't be funny, just really upsetting.