By Damon Green
Upon arrival at Fort Lauderdale Airport after many
long hours of air travel and layover, myself and the rest of the Workawayers
were greeted by a smiling representative from Workaway. The excitement had
started getting more and more uncontrollable.
We all hopped onto a bus and drove for, what seemed
like forever, was only an hour, to the place that I would be living for the
next 6 months, a little neighbourhood called Midtown Delray. Beautiful houses,
quiet neighbourhood, greeted with smiles from the neighbours, a beautiful pool
and sunbathing area, as well as a braai (BBQ) area and a gym.
We were given our house keys and told that we would be
6 people staying in each house, like a little family. Once I found the house
that I was living in, 2312 Bloods Grove Circle, I was amazed. A 3 storey house
with a large garage, garage side room, 4 balconies, a very spacious lounge,
dining area, open plan kitchen fitted with all the necessities as well as a few
luxuries like a dishwasher and ice maker as well as a coffee machine. 3
bathrooms and 3 bedrooms in the house, 1 being an ensuite to the main bedroom,
which I was just too late to call dibs on. The house had air-conditioning and
ceiling fans in every room, which I soon realised to be a necessity in Sunny
Florida. We were stocked with a little welcome package of
noodles, coffee, sugar salt and a bunch of other small things to help us get
through the first few days before we could get to Wallmart or Target to do some
grocery shopping. Once we did go to the shops though, it was quite the
interesting place. Now I didn’t exactly see people wearing strange clothing or
people doing funny things at Wallmart, listening to all the different accents.
By the way, American tax is very annoying. If something says $1 on the price
tag, you don’t pay $1… you forget about the tax that they add on, back home,
they do that for you at the shops, so you don’t have to take a calculator with
you to make sure that you don’t get to the till looking around for extra change
because you slightly miscalculated.
4 of 6 people in my house had arrived at this point,
as the 2 Durban guys we were waiting for were held up because of flooding at
the Durban embassy and a whole series of unfortunate events. The 4 that were in
the house, including myself were all from Cape Town, South Africa, so I never
really feel too far from home. We all instantly get on like a house on fire.
But it was almost time to start training at Addison Reserve, the whole reason
for being in the US of A.
Picked up in a kombi (small bus), organised by Addison
Reserve, from the Leasing Office of Midtown Delray and take on the 15 minute
drive to work, which would become my daily routine. The bus was buzzing with
excitement. We drove through the main entrance, greeted by a giant “AR” logo
which was The Addison Reserve logo, obviously. Passing the hundreds of
glamorous homes on the massive estate made me realise how important this job
actually is. Heading towards the Clubhouse we passed perfectly manicured lawns
and hedges, gorgeous fountains and the 3 beautiful golf courses; Redemption,
Salvation and Trepidation. “Excellence is our standard”, the club’s motto, was
definitely not to be taken lightly.
We were met at the staff break room by a bubbly
Addison employee, and then taken to the Bistro, where we were going to be
trained to meet the expectations of Addison Reserve and the member base that we
were to serve. Walking into the Bistro I met 20 Austrians, Germans and Dutch
young people, which I didn’t know at the time, but I would befriend and end up
working with every day. The next week and a half was spent perfecting our
serving skills, Point Of Sale (POS) system skills and essentially preparing us
to dive head first into the work that awaited us. In that time of training,
however, we all got together and became friends, learning different things
about each other, forming friendships that will last a lifetime. All of the
international employees of Addison Reserve brought over by Workaway (South
Africans and Irish) and the J1 program (the Austrians, Germans and Dutch) were
all living in Midtown Delray, so our friends were all walking distance away,
which made things a lot easier.
During our training time all of the clubhouse managers
and restaurant managers discussed where we, as new employees, would be placed
to work based on the way we responded to certain aspects of the training. The
different outlets that we would be put into would be a Server in the Dining
Room (a formal dining room that focuses on making the member have a perfect
dinner with their friends and family with a full a la carte menu), StYr (a
bar/cocktail lounge that is slightly more casual but still pretty formal that
allows tapas and sushi orders on lounge seating but a la carte at the bar, on
the high tops and outside on the covered terrace), Bistro (a casual grill style
restaurant that has outdoor seating near the pool that offers a la carte menus
and fast service), Patio (a small area outside the Men’s and Ladies’ Card Rooms
where many golfers and card players will go for a quick meal, often cooked by
the chef outside on his braai or a sandwich or salad that will be brought from
the main kitchen by a food runner) or lastly, being a Food Runner, Server
Assistant Hostess or Point Host at any of the aforementioned outlets. I was
drafted to StYr to serve on the high tops and terrace. I was very happy with
the decision made by management.
During normal service in StYr, on the high tops, I
would serve between 50 and 80 covers a night, depending on the night, and
events happening in the club. So, I would spin around myself trying to get
everything done, but we have a saying that we would constantly say to each
other, that has almost become a joke, but we all love the saying that goes
“teamwork makes the dream work”. That saying helps us push through double
shifts and shifts where it seems like everything is going wrong. We work
together and make sure that everything works out while the members stay happy. Fast forward a few weeks and it was time for the
season opening party. The theme was Passage to India. The party ran through the
entire clubhouse, from the foyer all through the different dining rooms and
eating outlets all the way downstairs to the patio. Everything was decorated in
bright colours with silk and chiffon drapes. Really was a gorgeous evening. As
staff we were even more proud of the way things had turned out because we had
spent the entire day before all the way to 4am turning the clubhouse to the
Indian Palace that it was by the time the party started.
The next event was the Thanksgiving Party, where
similarly, we spent hours, as a team, making the entire clubhouse Thanksgiving
themed. We had pumpkins everywhere with hay bales and corn. We put out lots of
bright red and orange leaves everywhere to help make the members feel nice and
cozy with their families. That day we had just short of 800 people coming in to
the different outlets. By the time it was time to break down everything and set
up the rooms for the next day we were all exhausted, but “teamwork makes the
dream work” so we pushed through and got everything done the Addison way.
In the short amount
of time that I have been here in the States I have met some amazing people.
From my roommate who has existential discussions with himself in his sleep to
an Austrian that has almost exactly the same taste as me for everything. And
all the strange people in between. I haven’t been here for a very long time but
I have still had many unforgettable experiences. And I know that with this
group of people around me there are more to come.
