And my new job

(Hmm…so I’m not very good at Blogger. I thought I posted this on Friday but I guess I didn’t hit the right button. Anyway, pretend the timestamp says Friday.)

So on my first real day (Thursday), Mehmet sat me down to tell me about my job. Last night I was told that Turkish people do not plan—everything happens in the moment—but that was already pretty apparent to me. I arrived in Turkey having almost no idea what I was going to be doing, and while before leaving I thought this was just a result of my own irresponsibility, it became obvious pretty soon that actually no one, including Mehmet, knew what I was going to be doing. At first he just sort of said, “You will work here in the hotel, and at the restaurant at night!” and that was it. Some prodding elicited that while at the hotel I could check people in, tell them about the area, answer their many questions, and generally attend to their every need by being helpful and knowledgeable about everything. All of which sounded fine, barring the fact that I had been in town for fewer than 12 hours and knew NOTHING about the area. Haha. Oh, well. As long as you know a little bit more than someone it’s easy to pretend that you know a lot more, right?

Actually, in order to get me in working shape, Hasan has been sending me off to “research” all of the things that I’ll be recommending to guests when they first come in…going on the “History and Adventure” tour (the name of which I misheard at first—I was pretty excited to go on an “Eastern Adventure” tour), getting a massage at the hamam (might have to investigate that one a little further), doing a little wine tasting so I can make good recommendations (also might require some more in-depth work)…all in all, not a bad way to start a new job. Still to come is the hiking tour through the Ilhara Valley and the sunrise hot-air balloon ride.

At night I’ll be working in the restaurant. It’s really quite lovely, situated on a little terrace with a view of the village below and the red walls of Rose Valley above. Stella kept telling me before I left that I was terribly unsuited to waitressing, and since it seems to mostly be about being discreet, not dropping or forgetting things and being endlessly pleasant and ingratiating (none of which I would consider my strengths) I fear she might be right.