Report continued -

you cannot drink before 11 a.m. in a bar.
I then set up the terraces with
tablecloths, umbrellas, etc. The setting
up of the restaurant is the important part
(helping the waiters and waitresses).
Everything is very professional and has to
be just right. The knife has to have its
cutting edge on the left-hand side,
serviettes have to be folded into a very
complex shape and each table must have a
bouquet of fresh flowers. All this takes a
couple of hours. The staff eats lunch at
11 a.m. and the public arrives at mid-day.
Sometimes I returned to the bar, sometimes
I set up the reception rooms—it all
depended on the day. I also worked as a
waiter in the reception rooms as well as
serving drinks and cleaning up afterwards.

In fact, I did a little bit of everything
in the hotel. As I was a foreign student,
my employer expected a lot of me. Sometimes
I didn't stop working for 14-15 hours on

“1 cooked everything from pastries
to crayfish, prepared salads, sauces,
carved meat and prepared banquet
meals, plus a whole lot more. ”

end and I was constantly on the go. The
other employees, on the other hand, had
long breaks between lunch and dinner.

For part of my stay in Strasbourg, I had
the chance to work in the PLM kitchen.
This was a fantastic experience, since I
love to cook; I also ate like a king. I
cooked everything from pastries to
crayfish, prepared salads, sauces, carved
meat and prepared banquet meals, plus a
whole lot more. I noticed that the
substance used most in French cooking is
cream. There is cream in most of the
sauces, in drinks and in all cake,
pastries and ice cream. Talk about a rich
combination—please pass the Alka Seltzer!

When I was told that people in France were

very knowledgeable about France and
‘nothing else, I had a hard time believing
it, but sure enough, about one fifth of my
working companions knew nothing of Canada.

Doing everything “just right

One person actually asked me how long it
took to reach Strasbourg by car! Luckily
my bosses knew where North America was,
but when it came to Canadian lifestyles,
they knew nothing. They couldn't believe
that our stores stay open on Sundays, that
I eat my meat with salad and that our houses
are made of wood. There was alsoabig joke
about all the tomato ketchup I used. If I
were to ask for a 7 Eleven slurpee they
wouldn't know what I was talking about,
but when I mentioned the words "Canadian
Whiskey", their eyes opened wide.

I had three supervisors and one boss. My
boss was the hotel manager, a very busy
man whom I didn't see often. My three
supervisors were great. We all worked
professionally when there was work to be
done and when the work was done, we chatted,
joked and laughed as friends. That's what
I think a boss should be—a boss and a
friend. I went out with my supervisors,
ate meals with them sometimes, and enjoyed
working with them.

I was the first foreign student to work in
a PLM hotel. I was treated very well and
everyone was kind and asked all kinds of
questions about the mysterious country I

come from. Everyone was using me as his or
her English professor and I used them as
my French professors. It worked well. It

was really funny to hear people walk
around speaking one line of English all
the time and just repeating it over and
over again. “Hi, my name is Didier. How
are you? I am fine. Oh very good." The
majority of the staff was French and out
of seventy-five employees, six spoke
passable English. Everyone wanted to speak
English before I left.

Quality control in Europe seems to be
high. Everything has to be just right or
it won't do.. Food has the first priority

in relation to quality control. Food jis an
art in France. Lunch is more than a Burger
King Whopper, fries and a shake that take
ten minutes to wolf down. It is a relaxing
hour or two all the time, never just
sometimes. Everything closes down for
lunch (well, almost everything—the bars
stay open). Food at the restaurant is
fresh most of the time. Every second or