Highlight of the Week

Saturday
22:47 hours
Cafe Faru
Four Seasons Resort Maldives Kuda Huraa

I have officially lost track of time and forgotten that today is a Saturday.

Pretty much has happened here in the Maldives and let's just roll with it.

My team of four including myself made a presentation to the board, which consists of over 30 managers, with regards to service issues that we were facing and during the course of this project I would say that I have learnt a lot.

Firstly, to have been granted a project of such a scale, and not something like data entry, I was already feeling very thankful. To be included in the monthly Board of Ops meeting which is only meant for managers and above, was a huge bonus, but the BIGGEST bonus was that our Director of Rooms, wanted US, to present to people at that level.

Don't you just feel special? :p

When we had lunch with M about three weeks ago, the task seemed so unclear, it was pretty generic and was petty much a sketch. The following week I remember Sarah and Jean printed out all the service issues we faced for the month of October and we started sorting them out, for easier reference and to pin-point some trends and recurring issues, before providing some solutions.

It seemed like an easy task until a week before we were about to meet up with M for a quick preview so that he could provide some feedback before the BIG day.

We were all frantically reading through service issues one after another, after or before our 10-hour shifts, six days a week. Finally got around setting some dates to meet up despite our busy working schedules and before long we had something concrete in place, a presentation and the flow of things.

Morale booster.

Come Friday, which was yesterday, we met with him again in the morning and before we knew it, we were in front of our Director presenting. And I stuttered, I honestly cannot believe myself but quickly composed myself. We got some feedback from him about our content and essentially we did good and he was looking forward to the meeting later.

Went back to work and after my lunch we met again for a quick run through before making our way to the meeting venue, Baarabaru restaurant.

To be honest, a meeting venue like this is a distraction in itself. >.< The entire horizon of blue waters in cascading shades, perfect sun and a beautiful resort restaurant of such a calibre, I was really quite taken into the entire view, I just stood at the edge of the restaurant just before the waters and took in all of the view.

There were wonderful cookies, piping hot coffee and tea.. Slurps.

The meeting started quite promptly and the content for the day just makes an intern go WHOA.

The information made available to us during that short afternoon, it was just like opening Pandora's box. I cannot reveal what we learnt but it was definitely not within a intern's concern but you really get a feel of what it's like to work at management level in a hotel, the responsibilities to ensure everyone's happy, the owner, your staff, and guests.

I opened the presentation and in my opinion I think I did myself and the audience justice. Jean was really entertaining though. Have you ever seen an intern that presents in front of top management and her mannerism was pretty much like Queen Latifah, I honestly don't know how else to put it.

I hoped we impressed them 'cause definitely I wouldn't think it was a wow, but definitely it was something fresh as compared to their normaly monthly meetings. :) A few of them came up to us to compliment that we did well and the dive manager was too kind to approach us for more details of our findings.

We'd be presenting again come end December and I believe we will do a lot better.

In the midst of my cyclical work cleaning resort bungalows, the presentation was certainly the highlight of the trip.

I'm starting to become a lil more independent when it comes to rooms cleaning, trying desperately to work at speed and not compromise quality so that I can have sufficient break time for gym and to rest before coming back in the evenings to do the evening service.

Today was good, my trainer and I did our work in good time and it was a lil rushed but I was able to walk out the gym leaving a trail of sweat.

Speaking basic Japanese really does come in handy and I intend to enroll myself in Japanese and Spanish courses when i return. I have been able to converse with my Japanese guests using my limited vocabulary from a semester of school and years of watching anime which uses pretty crude language.

I remember one off day I went out surfing and a guest was also onboard with his wife, both Japanese. Shortly after entering the waters I got a pretty good coral cut and I got back on the boat. It was then that I had a good 20 min conversation with the Japanese lady, with minimal English and mostly Japanese.

Just makes me more and more hungry to learn and devour more languages. A handful's the target.

I have two more weeks in housekeeping before I see the light again, in Front Office, GUEST INTERACTION!

Working in housekeeping is tough, but it certainly taught me many lessons, helped me build friendships with the entire Maldivian housekeeping team and it really teaches you to respect the profession.

For me I could go on like this, or I could essentially do what I love most, interacting with people and leaving them with lasting impressions.

It has been a good internship so far. A month has passed just like that and I think before long I'd be feeling Maldives-sick and not wanting to go home.

I HAVEN'T LOGGED A SINGLE DIVE YET! ARGH!

23:24