The first time

Arriving at the hotel was a first US hotel visit. Sleeping there was a first, waking up there on your first real day there is another unique experience. Over the hours I've built up many more firsts.
On August 28, we were picked up in the lobby around 7:45 to have breakfast in the Ilios restaurant, where breakfast, lunch and dinner is served. Ilios is the Greek word for sun. The sun is a huge influence in Florida itself (being the Sunshine State), but also in the hotel (though you won't notice that with all the airconditioning blasting around) as all the meeting rooms carry names which are translations from the word sun in some language. Sonne, Soleil and Jua are some of the names I've come across during a tour I got on my orientation day.
That orientation day started after we had breakfast with John Saglam, the man who also picked us up from the airport. Just like the night before, I treated myself on some fresh bread with creamcheese and red onions, finishing it all with a bowl of fresh fruit. The lovely waitress was keen on keeping our glasses with orange juice filled at all times, so in total I had 3 glasses of that to flush all the food with. After that we were escorted to the third floor, where we were seated in the newly opened training room (before that, trainings were done in meeting rooms, which, honestly, would look better than this room, but anyway). In here we got to watch quite a few videos, fill in a lot of forms, and listen to almost all department directors around. People from security, Food & Beverage, Front Office and Human Resources were all around to tell us something. With two small breaks (a lunch in Ilios included) in between we ended our day at 3PM. At least, the day in the meeting room for our training. After that we were taken to Paris (and yes, I made the same link, with her working in the Hilton) to fit suits to see what sizes we'd need for our working attire. As we (Bart and I) had rather unusual sizes (for the department we'll be working in at least, as there are mostly women MIT -manager in training- around) we were scheduled to start working on the computer systems instead, and not go to Housekeeping as those suits needed to be ordered for us.
With that done, we went over to Joseph again, who has been helping us with a lot of things ever since we got accepted into this hotel. He helped us filling in the last forms, gave us some more information on bank accounts, social security numbers etc., and made the deal for us to be able to have breakfast in the Ilios for the next few days as we have rooms without fridges so we'll have to get fresh food instead of food being brought to us, to have it stored in the fridge. Not at all bad, having to enjoy your breakfast in the restaurant. Not at all.
After that Bart, Yatha and myself went for a little walk. Over the Beach Blvd to Sunrise Blvd, heading to the Galleria shopping mall (where they have gone off to now as I'm writing this. Bart is going to purchase a laptop, and Yatha needs some tidy shoes). In this shopping mall we browsed around, I got myself some information about the iPhone which I'm thinking to buy this month, and we went for dinner in the food court there. A large space with lots of booths next to eachother, all with different types of food. Pizza, thai, sushi, chicken/turkey and more. Got ourselves a good meal there, stayed around for a little longer and then went past the hotel again, to walk over Las Olas Blvd, one of the more vibrant streets in Fort Lauderdale. The eastern part of the boulevard is all residential, with (private) streets to the left and right everywhere. Houses with yachts docked, Mercedeses on the driveway and pretty girls jogging with their dog. Rich neighborhoods closeby. Walking on, we passed the first restaurants, some fashion stores (which were mostly closed as it was past 9 already). Walked past Johnny V, a restaurant I remembered reading about in one of my travel guides, and took a look at the menu card. Not at all as expensive as I figured it would be, despite the fact that they parked an Aston Martin straight in front of it. The appearance seems pretty alright over there. Might want to take my placement mentor there as he is supposed to pay for dinner when he comes to visit. Wouldn't mind that.
Anyway, walked on, past more lovely sights, and came to the Riverfront. A little place at a river, yes, really. With a lot of nice bars there, including and Irish Pub that we might visit soon. Need to start at 9AM tomorrow, so might not be tonight, but we'll see about that.
Was a pretty long walk to get there in the first place (4,5 km) so we took a cab back. Paid 10 bucks for this little peace of convenience and said goodnight to eachother, each heading back to his own room. That's when I wrote my blog. It seemed like living two days in one. First the training, and then the spare time, all within 17 hours or so.

Decided to not put any alarms for the second day, and woke up around 9. After heading to bed at 0:30 I think I can say I'm pretty done with the jetlag already. It's 20:08 now and I feel like it's that time as well. All set.
Had breakfast around 10:15 until 11 or so, outside on the terrace, in the shades though. Ultimate vacation feeling, but having your work in the back of your mind kind of makes that less interesting (need to start tomorrow at 9:00). After that Bart and I watched a little episode of Wipeout on my laptop and had a few good laughs about it. We've got all the great TV channels on here anyway, so we need to get on schedule with a few things. Currently got CSI Miami running on the side here. Fitting.
After that we went to the drug test, and were brought by the Director of Guest Service, a great guy named Christian. He took us to Quest something, who took urine samples from us new people (Bart, Yatha, a German Front Office MIT named Sabrina and myself) and after that we went off again. Went with Christian to a store he needed to visit, after which he took us to Best Buy, a large electronic store, to see if we needed anything. I tried looking for a proper convertor plug as the one I brought wont work for my laptop, as I can't get the screw out (it's a 3-point screw. Most screwdrivers I've seen. Correction, all I've seen either have 2 or 4 points -line or cross). Didn't find one. Then went to Verizon where Yatha bought himself a phone he could use.
I'll look for the iPhone later this week when I've got a bank account worked out too.
Then went back to the hotel as Christian needed to work again. I asked where the closest supermarket was and then Sabrina offered to take us by car. Went to the valet to get her car and we drove off. Got something to eat and drink, but as we have no fridge yet, didn't take too much. Then went to get something to eat at the Subway and Sabrina dropped us off at the hotel again.
She's got an appartment already as she moved in with a German friend of her who has been living here with her boyfriend for a while already. She's got a pool at her house! Anyway.
We went to the beach then, had a bit of fun wrestling with the waves at sea and went back in to the hotel again.
Took a shower with some great shampoo, I didn't even need the conditioner. It's called Crabtree and Evelyn - La Source. If you can ever get your hands on that, do so, as it's magic. Then got a phonecall from Bart who was in a room with Bulgarian new worker Georgi, who studied hotel management in Switzerland and who has been here for two weeks. He was looking in to apartments and such for a while already and was wondering what we thought about 4-bedroom houses that he found in the neighborhood (one of them on one of the private streets left of Las Olas as I said, for 1750 a month. That would really be nice with the four of us, and he'll get to know more about that tomorrow, hope that works). It looks like we'll be living with the 4 of us somewhere. Georgi has got 19 more days in the hotel at best, so in two weeks we might be out of here too. He's been in the area before, has got himself a car (and an American license for 20 bucks, which is easy to get here apparently) so it might be a great thing living with him in general. He's a good guy too.
After the meeting with Georgi the guys went to Galleria again to shop and eat a little bit, and I went back to my room, working on photos, which, in the future, can be found at THIS little online photo gallery for you all to see. Keep it bookmarked somewhere, and I'll let you know when I've uploaded a great new batch of photos.

Now almost done writing the blog, and I found a song with it in the meantime.
Here's Loser's "The First Time"