Daily Life

So, no pictures again but tomorrow is my day off so soon to come! I've been working almost a week now and I feel I'm doing well. Parts of it are easy and other bits not so much. I'm finding that alot of what I have to do is familiar. I did a lot of the reservations, availability and money stuff before at Oasis and the people part come from hostessing. I still catch myself following rules for speaking and acting that I learned at Lucky 32. Smile when answering the phone. Don't say "no problem" only "certainly, one moment".

My daily routine is very simple. I'm up by 8, if not before. And I immediately get on the computer to check the hostel's reviews and answer emails for reservations. Then I do the till from the night before. Making sure my accounts all match up and I have enough money to make change for the day. Then breakfast and help direct the maid which rooms to clean and if we need anything else done. Usually everyone in the hostel is up by 8:30 so there's a lot of question answering and helping people make plans. Then a lot of waiting. I'm both busy and bored at the same time. I can't leave the hostel because I'm the only staff so I'm mostly sit around and wait for people to check-in or the phone to ring. Through out the day I check the hostel, talk to people and make them feel welcome to try and get good reviews, order taxis, book tours and constantly check emails, make reservations and update availability. I feel so lazy because I have so much free time but I haven't gotten much done. It seems as soon as I sit down to something I am distracted. I have plans to study Spanish, Korean and go job and house hunting on-line but I always seem to be distracted. Anyway, around 4 people start coming back and it's more questions and cooking and entertaining people until 11pm when I send them all to bed. I'm exhausted by then so I usually am out by 11:30. Unfortunately, it's a 24 hour job. The past two nights I've had check-ins after midnight and people leaving for the airport in the early hours of the morning and people leaving for tours. Meaning I have to wake up to let them in and out. I can see why people burn out so quickly in this job. But I do enjoy it and I feel I'm learning a lot. It's really my show. The owner is often out and since I run all of the daily management I can almost forget that it's not my hostel.

Something I've learned about myself here is that I really love money. I get so excited when I get paid for a room or make a commission on a tour. It's not much but it makes me happy. I also really like people. I enjoy talking about their day and what they've done and I like making them feel at home and playing hostess. I feel like I could really own my own hostel some day.

Cultural fact: I had lunch at a "soda" the other day. A soda is a basic, little take away restaurant with basic Tica (Costa Rican) food. Rice, beans, a choice of meet and a plantain. I was eating lunch with Sonia, the cleaning lady, and she showed me how Ticas eat it. She added salsa, ketchup and mustard to the rice and beans and then mixed it all up. It tasted like hot dog to me but wasn't bad.

So, I'm coming to a close on my first official day working. I currently have 7 people in the dorm, and 6 in the private rooms two people waiting for a night bus and a dog and a cat and a three year old. The cat lives here so I'm used to her presence but the dog and kid arrived this afternoon. Both are well trained (the dog and the kid) so the cat tolerates them. But I'm just waiting for the battle royal to happen at any moment.

So far this position has gone well. I spend a lot of time on the computer just waiting around. I'm going to have to take up some hobbies, or actually do what I plan to do like exercise and study. I really need to learn Spanish. I can handle all my other duties but when a taxi driver calls and asks for directions I start praying there is someone around who can understand the garbled accent on the phone. The cleaning lady, Sonia, has been a big help with that. She's an older Costa Rican lady with 7 kids and grandchildren. I'm just one more. We understand each other, sort of. There's mostly a lot of smiles and nods from the other side when we try to talk to each other.

I still haven't met my boss yet, the owner Frederico. Though I've taken plenty of calls for him. Supposedly he's coming back from the beach tomorrow. I've heard a lot about him but it comes down to he's a good man and boss with a lot of eccentricities. So, we'll see.

Still feeling good. Not too tired though I get up at 7:30 which hasn't happened since high school. I haven't worked a night yet, but I'm not looking forward to getting up to let people in. If Iola and Robin are anything to go by I'll be tired and a bit grumpy in a few days. Yay!

Oh and the 3-year old's name is Jaykan Vishnu. He appears to be half spanish/half black. Just sayin'...

Back in the Saddle Again!

So, it's been quite a while since I posted on this site. But I'm back to traveling again. Sort of. After a long two years working I'm now still working but in exciting San Jose, Costa Rica! Yesterday I arrived and I am being trained to work as a manager of a hostel here. The hostel itself in very nice and is in an old building right next to the government buildings in downtown. It's obvious that the owner is from a rich family because the building and everything in it is very nice and antique. Whoever let him turn it into a hostel must be crazy but I like it. The area around the hostel is very pretty as well... in the day time. It's apparently a safe area but it doesn't feel like it at night. The crowded streets and the shops of the day quickly empty when night falls and while nothing is overtly threatening there is still a weird feeling. But during the day it's great. Lots of people, lots of parks, lots of sunshine. Today I took a quick walk around to familiarize myself with the area. And took some pictures.

Parque National is the park directly across from the hostel. Very nice, lots of benches.

This is the hostel itself. Casa del Parque. The owner, Frederico, also runs the apartments next door and apparently there also used to be a hotel somewhere in here too.

Avenue between government buildings.
National Monument
Supreme Court

Cultural Ministry





There is a lot of street art. I've posted some here but there are hundreds more. I'll have to make a video and post it sometime.
Today is Saturday and one of the parks was hosting a children's festival.


Something I noticed is that there are police on every corner. Every where you go there are young (they can't be older than me!) cops standing around. I've not really seen them do anything and they aren't heavily armed so I think they're just for show. They also, suspiciously, disappear at night.
What is this? I don't know. It was in the fruit section of the market but it's being heated.


The main square. I've heard the name several times but can't quite remember it yet.




The National Theater
San Jose seems to have lots of old architecture mixed with new stuff. Kind of reminds me of Berlin.
The mountains.

JOSEFINA!

A street that runs next to the hostel. I think it's my favorite. Not too crowded, lots of cool buildings.

So, that just outside. It seems like I'm going to be spending most of my time indoors though. I'm the only one who works here besides a cleaning lady in the mornings. Meaning, I can't ever leave. I have to open the doors (can't let guests have keys), answer the phone and do all the online bookings and availability. It's not a lot of work really but because it's only me here it spans the whole day. Even at night. It's only my second day and I'm already tired. The couple who are training me (who've been here 4 months) tell me the important things is to go out every day or you'll go crazy and be organized to minimize work times. The owner left the morning after I arrived to go to the beach for the weekend so I haven't really met him yet. But it sounds likes he'll be cool. I guess I won't be sleeping much for the next few months but... ADVENTURE!

Good King Wencelas

While looking at a map Dad pointed out that Prague is actually fairly close to Berlin. So here I am. I took a few days out of my Germany trip to skip across the border to the Czech Republic to Prague. I'm so glad I did. Prague lives up to all expectations.

So, first some pictures to just show how beautiful it is. Even with 2 feet of snow covering everything.

The Vlata River

Tyn Cathedral
Random beauty on random buildings.
There is a small Jewish quarter that still exists with the oldest working synagogue. Even though the Nazi controlled the area the some Jewish buildings survived because Hitler had plans to create a "Museum of an Extinct Peoples".
Of course all three days it was snowing. But despite the gray colors and general mess on the ground (icy mud w/salt) the city was still beautiful. Here is the end of Charles Bridge named for their great king. Another famous king as you might have guessed was Wencelas I, who became a saint and subject of a christmas carol after his death. And yes I had the carol stuck in my head the whole time. The snow didn't help with the Christmas theme.

So, these kings must live somewhere and so Prague Castle was built. I like to think I've seen alot of castles but I've never seen one this big. This was is huge and sprawling. It takes up and entire hill top and there are not one but two full sized cathedrals inside the castle. An interesting fact is when the people here weren't happy with their rulers they might storm the castle and throw them out the window. This happened twice. And I always thought defenestration was just a fun word.

The most famous of the cathedrals in St. Vitus. I'm not sure who he was but is church was nice.

So was his grave.
And finally a look out over Prague. The famous red roofs are hidden under the snow though, as were some of the graveyards.

2010 in Germany!

Yay 2010! I was thinking last year at this time I was in Hong Kong. Now, I'm in Germany, Hamburg to be exact. A nice port city. So far it's my favorite. Big, cool, old and has water. Met up with my friend Mi-yeon here (right) she's a police woman and that's so cool!
But the highlight of this part of the trip was a visit to Ikea (a Swedish chain of cheap/ completely awesome things). Almost everything student's have comes from here because it's so cheap and easy to put together and match. And they have great ideas and meatballs. Mmmm.... I might have to find an Ikea in NC and buy lots of things.

I may not have complained to you already about this but let me do it now. It is cold, there is a lot of snow (more than most people have seen in 10-15 years) and I am not adequately prepared to spend long hours outside. Brr... But still having fun.

The main point of coming to Germany was to visit friends I met in Korea. All five of us met up in Hannover and had an awesome Korean dinner.
I stayed in a fraternity house (Frat Haus) in Hannover, I knew one of the brothers. I feel (this one at least) was a lot nicer than their American counter-parts. So, there are still stereotypes about them, mainly they're Nazis (racist/conservative) this really isn't true. They're nice guys, lots of foreigners actually, and kind of dorky (in a good way). I'm not saying that some of the stereotypes aren't true though. They drink.... alot. They may or may not have a walk in refrigerator only for alcohol and a basin in the bathroom reserved for puking. But this fraternity was founded in 1404 ("Our fraternity is older than your country" my friend liked to tell me) and actually is based around fencing, which all members participate in. It was a fun time.

BEER FRIDGE! AHHHHHH!

The Tiergarten, a huge park (former hunting ground) in the middle of Berlin. The streets next to it were modeled after the Champs-Elysee.
The Reichstag (German Parliament) was also scenic with a huge glass dome on top for passive solar heating and a nice view of the city. Take the free tour; it was informative.

So, this was supposed to be a picture of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe but ended up looking more like a poster for some alien movie. The memorial was kind of boring and I think totally missed the effect it was going for. I didn't feel somber and intent on remembering at all but more like playing an awesome game of hide and go seek in the field of 2,711 stone cubes. If they were a lighter color it'd be an awesome playground or park. The museum underneath got the message across much better though. Much less giddy after walking through that.

And last, because it was so cold and that makes everything take longer because of the constant hot chocolate breaks. Mi-yeon and I did 5 min tours of the Berlin Dome (very impressive) which turned off the lights and kicked us out because it was late and Checkpoint Charlie. Here is the guardhouse (original) between the American and Soviet Zones. Kind of cool. You can still see a difference in wealth between East and West Berlin.

Tomorrow, I leave Germany for a bit to hop over to Prague. I have high expectations for the city.