The German Jerk and Life at the Lodge

So yesterday was my second day on the island and it was GREAT! My favorite part of the day was helping Brittany, Josh, and Jordan haul lumber. We worked quickly and they even said I was one of the strongest girls that they've hired! I got to know them a lot better and feel like I earned their approval and like we were all starting to be great friends! I definitely feel a lot more comfortable around them after working with them yesterday. When Brittany would take the loader truck up to the top of the hill to dump the wood that we had hauled, I threw sticks to Sadie, the golden retriever. I threw them right into the freezing cold ocean and she would jump in and get them and I started to feel this love for the dog (weird, right? since I'm not a dog person) but I really like this dog and I really love this island. I love working here so far!

Below is a picture of the view from our window. Yes, from OUR WINDOW. This is what I wake up to every morning, guys!

A few things are uncomfortable just because it's only our second day and we really have no clue what we're doing yet. I don't like that feeling because I feel like I knew what I was doing at Golden Spoon pretty much right away, but I just need to give this time. There's a lot of specific things to do. I wish I had a list that I could check things off of as the day goes on. I should make one.

We were thrown right into serving guests/the staff their food like waitresses, asking them if they are done with their food once they seem finished, putting away all the dishes, and setting the table. We also cleaned the cabins yesterday. Soon we will be doing a lot of gardening and yard work, which I'm excited for. I think it's nice to be outside doing stuff and right now I prefer the hard outdoor work opposed to the indoor serving guests type stuff. But once I get the hang out the inside work, it does seem like it'll be fun.

I just can't believe that I'm here. I look out our window and I'm seriously astounded at how beautiful it is outside and I just can't believe that I'M IN ALASKA! And that I'm living in a ginormous lodge, working with incredibly nice people. I LOVE IT!

So we live in the staff lodge. There's a shop below, on the first level, where bears and fish are skinned. The second level is where Luke's room is and where the (I can't think of the word right now, ahh, a room with a TV and couches, haha) are. Then we are on the third floor, along with Brittany and soon Brian will be up here too, a college kid who's a handy man here.

I love our room. It's completely made of wood, besides the floors. And it just feels light and happy in here, and everywhere else. I would say the three words to describe this whole lodge area are light, happy, and cozy.

Below is a picture of our room! Well, that's how it looked before we unpacked.

There are 3 guest cabins that are quite large, a very large staff cabin (Shannon wasn't lying when she said that her staff have amazing accommodations) and there's the main lodge, where the guests and staff eat and lounge around and watch TV.

It's already beginning to feel like home here! And I really like the other staff. I'll write a little bit about each one of them.

Shannon is our "boss." She's' the one that hired us. She is very sweet, but according to all of her family members that work with us, she has been living in isolation for awhile, so she has some funny interesting things to say that she's gotten from the internet/TV. She's quite funny, without trying to be. I'll put it that way! She is incredibly sweet though.

Then there's Luke and Josh, her sons. They have a good sense of humor, aren't intimidating at all, and are very kind! I really like them!

There's Jordan, Shannon's nephew, who is from Hawaii and lives there when he's not in Alaska. He's somewhat quiet, but very nice, and has a good sense of humor as well. He's very easy to talk to, even though he's "cool" I guess I'd say, haha. I just feel like everyone is genuinely nice here, which is refreshing. Yet, I do REALLY miss my Golden Spoon co-workers. I just loved them and they were so fun to be around!

Then there's Brittany, Shannon's niece, who is probably the most intimidating, but I feel like I got more comfortable around her yesterday, while hawling wood. She's kind of like me in that she's very passionate about things and believes that you should respect other people's opinions, yatta, yatta, haha. Very non-judgemental and fun to talk to.

There's Manny, who is the chef. He makes breakfast, lunch (which we help with), and dinner. He's very "chill." He's extremely helpful and nice and willing to teach us how to make food and how to do our job the right way, which is much appreciated! We have quite a lot of questions to ask him, and he answers them all patiently! He's got an air of confidence and is really funny, while still being cool, calm, and collected, haha.

I think that's everyone that's here so far...

A few more people will be coming soon, I believe. And we'll also get to know the crew who is working on the new main lodge, I'm betting. It's funny, I feel like we're "regulars" at Andrews Airways even though we only went there once. When the guy who flew us, flew in the German guests and the two other guests, I was like, "I KNOW HIM!" At Golden Spoon, we had a lot of regulars come in that we would talk to and we knew their order so they didn't even have to say what they were ordering. I just like that feeling of knowing people and seeing them often, I guess, haha. It gives me that small town unity feeling that I always talk about on here. I'm a weirdo, haha. I'm all sentimental, I've realized.

One more thing. Getting to know the guests is going to be a REAL TREAT. Already, I've learned so much and just feel like my eyes are being opened to different kinds of people. A German bear hunter and his wife came in yesterday, as well as a very sweet Hispanic man and a guy who is friends with both the Hispanic bow hunter and with my co-worker, Luke. Before the German and his wife came in, everyone was in a real panic because they heard from Andrews Airways that the German man had become VERY upset because they were just a few minutes late picking him up at the Kodiak airport. He had refused to get into their van and so they had to get Island Air (another float plane company) to come pick him up and deal with him. So we were all like, oh no the German man is coming and he was even given the nickname, "The German Jerk." But when he arrived, he seemed completely nice, which was a pleasant surprise. His wife is a sweetheart, and besides the fact that he asked Manny, our chef, to make him "Muslee," German for "oatmeal" (which took awhile and a lot of pictures of different foods to finally figure out what the heck the German meant by, "Muslee"), they are a very pleasant couple. Shannon has said some outlandish things about Germany to them, that could have been taken offensively, like that their people killed millions of Germans, but they haven't gotten into any arguments yet. Shannon is a funny lady.

Well, that's about all I got for the blog, until next time! I've got to go clean up the cabins and then get a lesson on how to cook chef standard pasta!