The first week of placement is over.. There were many things learnt this week from placement, and there is a lot more information to take in. The easiest way to talk about my first week is to go through day by day happenings of the first week. First some brief information on Admirals Cove;
Admirals Cove has two club houses and a private boutique hotel, "The Inn", which can be used for members of the country club and their guests that visit. Throughout the clubs there is a Spa, two state of the arts fitness centres, a Salon, men's and ladies locker rooms (located on both sides of the club), 45 holes of golf, with two golf retail shops and two driving ranges, 12 Har-Tru tennis courts, over six miles of Marina with 650 private docks, a marina general store, an "olympic" sized swimming pool along with three others, 3 restaurants, 5 bars, banquets and events facilities, men's and ladies card rooms, and two half way houses. There are 9 members on the board of governors, who make the final decisions on goings on within the club (this is because it is a private club - meaning they do not make profit). The club has a vision to utilise any and all resources that they have available. The mission of the club is to preserve the quality of the club throughout, to keep them amongst one of the highest rated country club throughout America. Admirals Cove use lateral service, which is an environment of work in which you help each other out to get goals accomplished, throughout my first week I definitely felt when I worked.
Monday;
First day of training. On our first day of work we were sent in the morning for a our drug test. After this was completed we then went on to enter Admirals Cove to complete paper work, this was done through writing and filling out forms on the iPads. The first day I anticipated a lot more work, but it was a nice ease in to what was to come. Admirals cove completely beat any expectations that I had, the grounds were beautifully kept and the amenities on offer that we were given to learn about the club were to an extremely high standard and quality; this has given me high hopes for the rest of the year/ rest of learning.
Tuesday; Tuesday was a general introduction in to Admirals Cove. Kara Wiswall is Admirals Cove training and development manager (councillor and seamstress), and she is in charge of training us all throughout our time at Admirals cove. Throughout Tuesday we managed to get more of a feel of Admirals as well as the start of introductions to several directors throughout the club. Everyone is extremely friendly and I definitely felt that staff and members of the club were interested in hearing about us and why we are at the club. One of the main lessons learnt throughout this week of the club is the vocabulary that we can / can not use whilst talking to to members and even fellow team members, for example; We are not allowed to say, 'yeah', it has to be 'yes', 'No Problem',- 'you're welcome' 'absolutely' 'my pleasure', we are not allowed to include 'like' throughout our speech, which my mum will be other the moon about as I have been told on several occasions to stop this, as it is not needed.
Wednesday;
Throughout our training we have taken part in several review games with all of the information we have learnt throughout previous days, these I felt helped me really retain the information, especially when it came to general information about number of things throughout the club, (for example timing standards). Today we properly met Flavio and Kelsey who are F&B manager and head of banquets throughout the club. Helped clear up after an event in harbour view, doing this it helped me understand how the events spaces can be transformed and even how the kitchen works whilst an event is going on. Kelsey and Flavio are both lovely and I am excited to be working with them especially in the events that will be going on throughout the club over my 7 months there.
Thursday;
On Thursday we went over the drinks and food that are available on the menus throughout the three different restaurants found throughout the club. Doing this helped me to gain an understanding of every restaurant that is on the property. Blü is a fine dining restaurant, Golf Village is a bistro and Marina Cafe has more of a relaxed feel. On Thursday we were offered the opportunity to work Friday night shadowing in Blü, to understand the concept of the service offered by Admirals cove. We all took this opportunity, (we also always did this for brownie points from managers).
Friday;
When it finally hit Friday I could not believe that it had come around so quick! Time flies when you're having fun. I also couldn't believe that we were going to be shadowing tonight in Blü. I felt completely in the dark about working that shift despite the amount of times we had gone over information. However, the shift eventually came around and I really didn't think it was as bad as I thought it would be!! I enjoyed the shift thoroughly, but I felt this was helped because I was shadowing one of the nicest people I have ever met, Rebecca. I also felt extremely apprehensive at the start of the shift when I realised Kara was watching us and the guests seemed to be coming in, in large groups. I felt that Blü service went well, but I most definitely need to keep an eye out on how I speak to guests, as I know it could have been more formal.
Saturday;
Saturday after working on the event we were asked to work on a 'Celebration of Life' for a member that lived within Admirals and died earlier that week. The event was beautiful and again it was interesting to see how Kelsey and Flav put together the event, especially within the short time period that is given with 'celebrations of life'. I have enjoyed my first week of training very much, but I am looking forward to a day off tomorrow, as I am extremely overwhelmed by the amount of information I have also learnt. One reflection from my first week of work is I definitely need to work on my managers names throughout the club, as with it being a very personal club a name basis shows a higher level of respect I feel I need to give the managers.
Sunday; Day of rest. Sunday was a very chilled day which was definitely needed especially after a night of drinking as well. We didn't have a massively productive day, however it was needed to replenish the batteries. The flat are getting on so well and the J1 visa group work so well together.
I also caught up with my family as I had hardly any time to speak to them throughout the week, because of the time difference and being so busy. I feel like I have coped well with changing to the working life style and I feel I am ready for the week.
Some Reflections; I need to remember that ladies are always served first when I am serving throughout the club, I can not engage in informal conversations with the guests, only use employees entrances and exits, use proper posture and not to speak too fast when conversing with members.
I am extremely happy with my first week of placement, despite the hassle of getting here it has so far been worth it.
Living the American dream!
