Advertisement
Published: July 25th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Package!
In the middle of my sickness, I was VERY excited to get my first package since being here! Thaaaank you Sarah :o) love you! So I've been sick for a little over a week now. It started with like a 48 hour flu type thing, then I felt better for a couple days, then I got one of the worst soar throats of my life, and by the time that Theresa and Cassandra got here I could barely talk. I actually lost my voice for the first time in my life. It was mostly annoying and really painful, but KINDA cool at the same time 😊.
Because I've been sick though, I haven't really worked for a week. As many of you may have noticed, I have yet to write anything in my blogs about my job, since my initial entry a few weeks ago. This has probably seemed strange being that the whole reason I'm here is for my internship right? Well, to be perfectly honest my lack of discussion about working with the Porterhouse has been on purpose. I've been embarrassed about what my "awesome job" has turned out to be, especially knowing that there are people back home who I really had to convince about the legitimacy of working at a pub in Ireland as my internship. Thus far it's been
Swiftcare Clinic
Where I went to see a doctor really frustrating, and not at all fulfilling. Basically, I've just been waitressing. yup. serving tables. Worked my first week at the Central location and worked the floor, then moved onto the Temple Bar location, where the general manager there said he would take me under his wing so I could really establish myself at one location and make better relationships with people rather than jumping around from place to place. I was to make a list of all the things that I wanted to learn about for the rest of my time here, and he said he would do what he could to facilitate those things whether it be by connecting me with people who could show/answer me or doing it himself. After my first week of basically no one really understanding what my internship even was, or my position within the company (being that I was trained purely as a server) I was excited about what this new manager seemed to be able to offer me. He did make it seem that my first week would be to work the floor at Temple Bar, as a way to become accustomed to how their location was run and to get to know the other employees there. I honestly enjoyed my second week of work, even if it was working evenings and doing somewhat simple and mundane tasks, because of the other staff members there who seemed to actually genuinely care about making some kind of relationship with me and not just in the workplace. I hung out and got to know people outside of when I worked and it was fun! Everyone at the Temple Bar Porterhouse are wonderful people, and it's obvious that the way that it is run by the managers is in an extremely effective way. However, I don't know if it was partially due to the fact that as I got more sick the more grumpy I got, but I began to realize that no matter how nice the people were, I really was not there to serve tables. The manager was on Holiday last week to, so I couldn't talk to him about what the next steps were going to look like. Basically, I began to feel exploited for what I was being expected to do, and the cost of the program being to flash more frequently in the back of my mind.
So I called the director of the company that places all of us into these businesses, and set up a meeting to talk to him about my frustrations. Had my manager been around, I would have most definitely gone to him, but he wasn't, and being that I blame a lot of the confusion about my expectations, and internship itself on EUSA for not properly communicating to the Porterhouse or finding a place that could properly accommodate my needs, I kinda just wanted them to take care of it. I met with the director one of the afternoons that theresa and cassandra were here, and left the meeting glad that I'd talked to him, but felt frustrated and belittled by the way he handled my concerns. He was basically pissed at me for not having complained sooner (which, technically I had during the first week) and for being "too flexible," and "too understanding". When I told him that all I'd done so far was serve, his response was; "you know that's not what you're supposed to be doing right?" ugh. I kinda just wanted to punch him in the face. Of course I know that's not what I'm supposed to be freaking doing! I wanted to tell him it was his fault I was even doing it in the first place! However, he told me he'd take care of it within the next couple of days, and because I was sick that I should take the rest of the week off till I heard from him again.
I got an email the next day letting me know that he had spoken with someone from the PH and they were very understanding of my frustrations, and that I should come into the head office on Monday to discuss how they could accommodate me and the internship for the rest of my time here. The annoying thing, is that the woman from the head office that I had initially interviewed with was also on Holiday, so all of the people that I had actually interacted with weren't even there. And with the already present frustration I have with EUSA, I can't help but feel that the whole communication between PH and the EUSA director wasn't very positive. I just hope he didn't piss any of the people off that I actually had grown to like and respect in the past few weeks. obviously there needs to be a change so that I am able to actually grow in some way professionally while I'm here, I just hope that I have a chance to explain myself to those at the Temple Bar PH so they don't think that I don't appreciate what they had to offer me while I was there.
I'm supposed to go into the head office Monday with a fairly concrete list/message/etc. of what I hope to accomplish with the rest of my time here, but at this point I feel kind of stuck. I feel that it would be in my best interest to really focus into one part of the business, but I don't know what that should be. I honestly don't feel they have the ability to cater to much my culinary desires- the kitchens are somewhat disorganized and isn't exactly "cutting edge." So then I feel that I should either try to focus on how they do their ordering and stock, the brewery itself, or try to just stay in the head office and work with marketing stuff or something even though it's completely unrelated to what I was initially trying to do.
basically... It's really, really frustrating, and I'm very jealous of Ally (another girl from SU who is a psych major as well) talk about her job at the hospital she works at, and the clinicals she gets to sit in on. I can't help but kick myself in retrospect for not just being rational and try to obtain a internship that would help me with my degree. I'm beginning to reconsider how reasonable my desires to become some kind of amazing, renown chef really are.
well, that was written a bit schizophrenically and perhaps did not make a whole lot of sense, but we'll see Monday what Porterhouse has in store for me for the last 4 weeks I'm with them. I'm starting to feel better sickness-wise too which is good. The day Theresa and Cassandra left, I broke down and went to the doctor to see what they had to say. 150 euros later they diagnosed me with severe tonsillitis and prescribed me antibiotics. So I went to the pharmacy, stocked up on heavy duty cough medicine, throat numbing spray, cold medicine, and my antibiotics. I've also spent far more time than I'd like to admit watching south park online (southparkstudios.com is apparently the only online television watching site that works overseas) and friends reruns that Ally let me borrow. The SU group is heading to Kilkenny tomorrow for the day as one of our planned excursions, so I'm pretty excited to get out and do some stuff!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0392s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Sarah
non-member comment
Darling Sister.
I hope Kilkenny was amazing and that you have your voice back. Sorry I missed your call yesterday- I was on the phone and saw a 206 number calling me... didn't think about your phone card routing through a local number until I got your voicemail (sorry- I totally suck). I bought a Rick Steves Ireland book. Lots of info about car rentalling, hostels, etc. I'm going to put together a tentative itinerary for us to add to... LOVE YOU and miss you very much. Hang in there! S