Orientation, Uniforms & Elk

Monday and Tuesday are orientation days. The Monday was a short day, all we did was sign a few papers then they let us go. Tuesday’s orientation was MUCH longer. It started at 8:30 am and ended at 4:30 pm, with a break at 12 to have lunch with your leaders.  The orientation-covered things like policies, procedures, wildlife (and what to do to protect yourself), staff housing information and many more things. 

After the long day of orientation my leader came back to the room to pick us up and he told us when our shifts were and we went downstairs to housekeeping to pick up our uniforms. Now picking up your uniform is no simple task when there are about 30 people down there trying to do the same.  So after about an hour of waiting it was finally my turn to pick mine up, it took so long that by the time it was my turn my leader had to quickly inspect that the uniform fit right then he had to leave to go back.  I was left down in uniforms with a fellow porter trying to sort out the mess of the too long pants. The uniform lady it seemed gave up on me and handed me a fist full of safety pins for me to adjust my pants.

Rundle Lounge 

I found out yesterday what my job of being a porter actually dose. Rumor has that the Rundle Lounge kitchen is quite far from the lounge so my job is to read the orders, put them up, prep all the sauces and extras that go with each order, stack the orders onto a large banquet style tray then run it down to the lounge and give it to the customers.  It has been said that its all about team work which is great and lots of table charts.  I have my first shift tonight at 5 so ill be seeing if what everyone says is true.

Elk on the golf course 

Later that night a few friends and myself decided to go for a walk down to the golf course which is where I had my first wildlife sighting. On one of the greens there were about 5 elk just munching on the grass. It was a really cool thing to see, until I remembered about what they told us in orientation about elk being quite dangerous cause they could charge you at any moment. After remembering that we decided to keep our distance and head back up to the hotel.

Mountain view from the hotel