Day 39 (June 14, 2010)– Another Pay Day

     Today was pay day again. I was really surprised by how much I made busing. Originally, I had decided no to climb the mountain due to cost, but now I am thinking it might be possible if my tips stay the same or go up. But they still haven’t fixed my room and board costs.


     This time I skipped my manager and went to their manger, Wes. Wes had me call a few people and get the run around and then he got the run around, so he got his boss involved and hopefully it will get fixed, but we will see how long it takes.

Day 38 (June 13, 2010)– The Dreaded Brunch

     Today was the first of the Paradise Inn Dining Room Brunches. It was very chaotic, because I got there late due to some miss communication on what time to be there but it wasn’t my fault. Once Brunch started we got really busy, and about the time I got the table turned the table was re-sat. After Brunch was over and all the people left, they let the dining room staff eats the remaining food.


     Oh, my God, the food is amazing. More or less the desserts are amazing. Tarts, cakes, and strawberries. I will try to get some pictures next week, but I might be too busy.

Day 37 (June 12, 2010)– More World Cup and shift switching

Last night one of my co-workers asked to trade shifts with me and I agreed as long as we could trade shifts today and I could watch the U.S. game. I was really disappointed the U.S. tied, but hey we tied England. Though, getting to what the game also meant getting up a 6:00 AM to work the breakfast shift. But hey, I got to watch the game.

Day 36 (June 11, 2010)– World Cup

     Today is the big day the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The first game is South Africa verses Mexico and guess what I have to work so I missed the first game of the world cup but I did get to see France tie Uruguay. It was a good game, though the game times really suck out here on the west coast: 4:30 AM, 7:00 AM, and 11:30 AM. I don’t mind the 7 and 11:30 but that 4:30 is killer. Right now, I have to walk down to the boys dorm to watch the games, its about a 10 minute walk and really sucks when its raining, snowing, windblowing or just in general.

Yet again, I don't not halve off to watch the U.S. play England tomorrow which really sucks.

Day 35 (June 10, 2010)– The Turks Arrive

     So today, the Turkish arrived. Basically they are a group of like 15 guys and 6 girls who are from Turkey. Two of them work in the dining room and a couple more have yet to arrive. There are five in the dining room. The three guys work on the floor, and two of the girls are hostess. For the most part, they all speak really good Enlgish. Sometimes their English is a little hard to understand, but we work though it.


The guys are named:

• Berkay - the Turkish Godfather, he has been working at Paradise Inn for 5 years and has recruited about half the Turks
• Metin - my new best friend, not sure how this came about but he calls me his best friend
• Arda – started as a dish washer but got promoted to busser and his English is the hardest to understand

    The girls are named Esme and Irma. Both are nice and Esme is teaching me Turkish along with Berkay, and Metin.

Day 34 (June 9, 2010)– Mount Saint Helen’s Trip

Earlier in this blog, I mentioned that it was the 30th anniversary of the Mount Saint Helen’s eruption. Well today, I went to visit Mount Saint Helen’s. I went with 3 of my friends: John, Libby and Nadine. We had to take this long out of the way route due to the short route was closed. So we drove up to the Johnson Observatory.

We timed out trip just perfectly. We got to one of the overlooks just in time for the mountain to come out from the fog bank.

The area around the Johnson Observatory and the overlook was very interesting; despite being 30 years later much of the land around the mountain is still dead. All that remains of the lush forest that once lived there are the tree stumps from where the trees were ripped off during the eruption.

We had planned on going hiking but the wind was blowing like 10 miles per hour, it was raining, and it was like 40 degrees out and we were wimps. So we spent a couple of hour exploring the Observatory
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Day 34 (June 8, 2010)– More Wonderland and two repeat trails

     Today, I went hiking with one of the Singaporeans, Jonathan. I call him John for short. I think he is my favorite of the Singaporeans. I decided that we were going to hike a short section of Wonderland that I knew the trail conditions on were not bad. By short I mean 2.4 miles. We started out at Box Canyon. Box Canyon is a canyon carved by a glacier and has a glacier stream running through it. One of the interesting things about this canyon is the rocks have been polished by the glacier.

     The plan was to hike from Box Canyon to Maple Creek Camp and further if the trail condtions where ok (the rangers said they weren’t but we were going to see). So we started our hike, and about a half mile into it we saw two black-tailed deer. They ran away to fast for me to get there pictures. They were not the most intresting thing we saw. The next animals we saw were two elk. They were out of photo range. But still not the most amazing sight, well really it was a surprise seeing as I almost stepped on it. Now what did I almost step on you might ask. A snake, yes a snake.

     I was talking to John when I took a step and as I was taking my next step I noticed this snake in my path so I jumped backwards. My first thought was “I almost stepped on a snake and is it poisonous” and my next thought was “wow, this is cool.” (I was pretty sure upon looking at the snake he wasn’t poisonous but I checked with a ranger when I got back and found out he is a common _____________) Past the snake, we continued to follow the trail to the Maple Creek Camp Site. At the site we ate lunch and then followed the trail a bit further. However, we meet a slight problem. The problem came in the form of a rather large creek. I would be just fine wading it with my water proof boots, but John was wearing tennis shoes. So we decided not to cross the stream.

     We turned around and headed back the way we came, sort of. Just after the bridge we passed on the way to the campsite the trail forks and heads to a river view point. We decided to take a different route back to my car. Part of this route involved hiking up the road, but that was so much fun because we could stop and enjoy the scenery that most people drive right by.

     After we got back to my car, we had plenty of time so I took John out to hike Grove of the Patriarchs and to Silver Falls. Though this time I took the short .3 mile trail out to Silver Falls rather than the 2 mile loop.