Fremantle VI

My eyebrows smell like French Fries.

This week was my first shift at McDonalds. Prior to that I had 2 hours of online training and another 2 hour in store training. Both are probably as exciting as you would expect. We just went over the most mundane things like why we dont mix mix chemicals, is the deep fryer really hot, and how to use a mop. A big part of the orientation was actually on how to deal with a robbery and how to spot a counterfeit bill. That was actually pretty interesting.

Robberies at fast food joints is actually much more common then you expect. I was told that the store I was at was robbed a few months ago by a guy who asked for all of the money in the store and said he would blow up the store if they called the police. He then ran away and then showed up the next day with all the money and said he just wanted to see what they would do. Crazy stuff!

I was in orientation with 4 other people. All, except for one 15 year old Kiwi, were travelers. One Frog, 2 Pommies, and the Kiwi. Im the only Yank.

But a lot of you were poo pooing my decision to work at McDonalds but guess how many people applied for those 5 positions?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
292

287 people were rejected. You think things are bad when you WORK at McDonalds. Imagine what things are like when you are REJECTED from McDonalds.

But as a whole it hasnt been that bad. My first day was actually kind of overwhelming to be honest just because they have such a huge menu now. And you have to be able to find all of this stuff on the cash register (Im a cashier) and then fill these orders in a pretty quick time, while the there are 20 other people in line glaring at you. But by my third day I was so money.

The mornings arent so bad, because it is just usually old people getting coffee who want to talk with you about the sea gulls outside. But at lunch it gets much worse. People are always in a hurry, the store begins to fill up and the food preparers get bogged down. So there is not much you can do. And a lot of people just treat you like garbage. They walk in expecting bad service, mumble orders to you, and then get upset when you dont hear them. But what can you do?

The McDonalds faces the ocean. There is a beach that leads right up to the Place place in the store. And the water is about 10 m from the stores edge. When I am taking orders I can look over peoples shoulder and see the ocean. Its great. Every morning there is a homeless aboriginal man that takes a shower in the beach shower next to his shopping cart full of stuff.

But it doesnt matter anymore, because I was just told that they are closing the store on the 5th of April. My McDs career will end after only three shifts. They said they may be able to transfer me to another store. But well see if that actually happens.

Until then Ill just keep my eyes open.