Big journey to the big mall!

On Thursday it was my only one day off and Niki worked from 5.30pm so we had enough time to FINALLY go to WAL-MART to buy "some" stuff. We woke up earlier than usually and walk to Orange metro to go on the edge of DC. Google Maps told us it will be an hour and half long journey but we made it in 45minutes!

We bought everything! Rice for a month, so much cereals, chewing-gums, pasta, sauces for pasta, eggs, blanket, Frisbee, peeling, perfume, super cool termo cup, toilet paper, scarfs, chocolate, honey, oatmeal, running shorts, some cans, back-pack for longboard-almost even longboard and some other stuff. And what is more, I found the Dubble Bubble chewing gums for my mum! ;) We were like super-happy when putting it to the basket nor realizing we are several miles away from home and that we do NOT have a car standing at a parking lot outside of the mall.

Each of us held approx. 6 bags full of food + one purse loaded with food too. I had almost 10 kg in my new back-pack ( the 10 lb rice and the heaviest things helping me exercise my muscles).

Our hands were aching, our feet were burning, my back hurt. But we did it!

We spent there a lot of our money, but we bought a lot of food and made provisions for some time for less money than we expected

.

Besides spending our money we also spend some time earning it...
...We work almost everyday Niki usually from 5. pm till night as a Host and me either from 4pm or even from 9am till late night as a FoodRunner, PrepCook and also (as I found out yesterday) as a LineCook which training starts on Friday.
But...The more the better! Working in HRC is FUN! Our co-workers are great people to work with and surprisingly also the managers are amazing. We talk to them like to friends, we make jokes and pranks so the working atmosphere isn´t at all like in Slovakia in style of  "Beware, boss is coming! Good afternoon sir..." but mostly like "Heeeey A.J. what´s uuup??" mostly accompanying with a highfive or bumping to ribcage ---> which is actually AMAZING! :) We love that!

We finally found out how to get some extra schift so hopefully we´ll make a fortune! :) We´ll see...

How are you dear friends? Hopefully most of you have already the exams done and are enjoying the SUMMER 2013 as we are! :)

It gets pretty tough...

Things got pretty tough last days.

We are working barely 6 hours a day earning almost nothing. We spend our days at home because wandering DC all alone (and without longboard) pretty sucks. When Niki works I am at home and vice versa. We don ´t have a single day when we are both at home so we could go to the ZOO or one of milion amazing places in DC for the whole day. My camera is covered with dust because I have nothing to take picture of.

We went to a manager to ask him  for more working hours (we would love to work from 6am till midnight if it was possible) but they can´t give us more because they hired too many people and everybody wants to work as much as possible.
Don´t get us wrong- we like our job, it is really fun to work in Hard Rock Cafe (GREAT atmosphere) but we have to earn some more money to pay our rent (and it is like 70% of our salary if not more), to buy something to eat and importantly- we want to TRAVEL!!!

     I got a second job in HRC- a Prep-Cook. I love it because I´m making desserts, sauces and dressings, and cutting some fruits for drinks and what is more a get one free meal per schift (yesterday I made by myself a guacamole sauce just following the recipe!). (However I thought that it will be second job so I´ll have twice as much working hours but I guess they just splited the hours between two positions.)
    All around there are Spanish people in the kitchen so instead of getting better in English I started to learn Spanish :) Yesterday when I got 2 hours off, I spent it in a bookstore reading and learning Spanish book :) It is pretty fun and the cooks and Jamail can help me with the pronunciation. It is the easiest language to learn in the world so I hope I will be on the level of my French at least at the end of the summer :)

   Niki has the validation test today. She´s been studying till late night and from early morning so I know she will pass :) Keep your fingers crossed for her :)

   If the situation won´t get better we would have to end working in HRC (because finding second job with HRC is almost impossible because the working schedule is not regular) and find another job- better paid and with more (much more) working hours!

    Hopefully it gets better by the time but if not... we´ll have to figure something out. I would love to work in HRC because it is really fun and we made some friends there but if it won´t get better we´ll have to quit :(

Pray for us, beg for us, keep your fingers crossed for us!
P.S. We got our social security numbers! yay!! :)

Positive thinking brings positive things :)

Party weekend, working week...

The weekend was fun!!! :)

We had guests in the apartment- Jamail's best friend Luis came from North Caroline to spend the whole weekend with us. It was great!

On Friday there was a party in our apt. And because we have almost no friends here YET it all consisted of Jamails' friends :) But it was amazing anyway... Everybody was nice to me :) we were drinking, singing, smoking and dancing :)

At about 11pm we had to pick up Niki from work because DC is not very safe after sun goes down. 

When we got home Niki and Luis stayed at home because they were tired (Niki from work and Luis from eating too much food) and Jamail and I (and one friend of J. whom name I don't remember) went to the bar called Codmother :) We were there till 2am.

The next day we (Luis, Jamail and I) were watching the series New Girl :))) And after my work day on Saturday Niki and guys came to pick me up so I didn't get murdered :) 

Jamail is super nice!!! He came to pick us up from the work so he makes sure that we will be safe and sound :) Love him for that :) !!!

Today (Monday) I had my validation test (Niki has the VT on Friday, she is still doing her training). I was studying all the table numbers in Hard Rock, the (hi)story of Hard Rock Cafe, my employee handbook and the Buddy Pad which is a cheat sheet for all meals, sides and drinks in HRC.

I passed! YAY! :) A.J. ( our general manager) was hilarious! I felt like I was talking to a friend and not the main manager of the HRC. He told me funny stories to make me understand things that I didn't get right. Best boss ever! :)

When I was setting my working schedule our manager Julian offered me another position in HRC. I couldn't say no! Another position means more working hours and that means more money and that means more fun in California :))) 

So as a FoodRunner my training is already done and from tomorrow I'll get my tips finally and from Thursday starts my training as a PreCook :) (another training means free food in HRC...yummiiii the Veggie Leggie ;) )

Wait for another stories and photos! ;)

Take care and send us a note if you are okay and what is new in the country where the bread is not sweet ;)

Yeaaaaah and I almost forgot! Today we got our first mail on our new DC address! Yeeeey! :)

Check the PHOTOS :) 

Yes!

Yes! is an Organic Market near our house in DC and thanks to this market I won´t be hungry anymore :))

In Slovakia the organic or bio stores are much expensive than the regular ones but not here in DC - which is good for me. In the Yes! store there are many kinds of food for vegans and vegetarians so I will be a regular customer :)

Today I bought 4 sausages (soy of course), potatoes and some peanuts and made a late lunch at 5pm. (Till then I only ate some cereals and fruits) I cooked the potatoes and baked the sausages with mushrooms.
D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!

And... btw...the most important news- In Yes! they have regular pastries that is NOT sweet! Heaven! :)))

P.S. It is Niki´s first training day so keep your fingers crossed for her :) She should end by 12am, then we´ll (me, Jamail and his friend Luis) pick her up from work and we´ll party in the heart of DC! :) ♥

First day at work

It was my first day at Hard Rock Cafe (Niki is going to work tomorrow) ---> well it is not the first day at work, it is the first training day and when I´ll be done with my training, I´ll have to pass the validation test and then I´ll be finally part of HardRockCafe family! I am kinda nervous about it. They take everything too seriously and I am not familiar with that yet.

Luis was supposed to be my supervisor for the three days during my training. He was very sweet and nice to me, he always assured me that it is okay to make mistakes (that he still do mistakes eventhough he´s been in HRC already for like 8months) and that I am doing great job. It kinda calmed me down.

I have to learn where which table is and also the names and abbreviations of all food in HRC (and it´s not a small number of it! ). It is kinda fun because everyone was so nice to me, everybody was asking me if I needed any help or anything, everybody was very friendly and open-minded :) I love that!

As long as I am the FoodRunner I´m always running up and down the stairs holding heavy (metal) plates so I guess it is a great excersice for my arms, legs and also for my ass :)

Kinda great feeling to make some money already :) Take care and comment how are you doing :)

It sucks that Niki and I have different working schedule so we are just passing out each other :( I hope when the training is done we´ll figure something out to make the working schedule the same so can can wander DC together :)

LOVE ALL- SERVE ALL
TAKE TIME TO BE KIND
ALL IS ONE
SAVE THE PLANET

...and always... deliver KICK-ASS service ! :)

Getting to know DC :)

We are at DC already the third day and we feel like we can't get lost here :) it feels great to know where to go, where to turn etc.

Yesterday we were at Hard Rock Cafe to get them know that we are already here in DC. Maggie - the lady who takes care of us in HRC was very nice to us nd explained us everything we needed to know.
We went to a grocery store- Safeway- which is supposed to be one of the cheapest store in DC. We didn´t realize that we are more than 17 blocks away from our temporary home and we bought 6 bags of food ! We took the metro but anyway we came home totally exhausted, thirsty, hungry and with no energy left.
When we came home we cooked a dinner- elbow pasta with chilli-tomato sauce and cheese. We were that much hungry that it tasted as the best meal in the world. :)

When our roomate Jamail came back home from work he brought us fortune cookies :) that was very sweet of him :) Mine says: If you aim to do a favour, then go the whole way. Never do anything halfway. and Niki´s says: Don´t be afraid to smile, you never know who´s falling in love with it! :)  (Then in the night he tried to force us out of the apartment when he turn on the air condition to "Antarctica mode" :D I guess he is a polar bear originate from Porto Rico :D )

On Thursday we had to get up early because we had to go to the Social Security Office to get our SS cards.  We were told that it is better to get up earlier and go there before 9am because there use to be a lot of people and sometimes people have to wait there for more than 4 hours! We got there at about 8.30am and in an hour we were done. Fortunately :)

The last importnt thing that we had to do is to open a bank account so our employer could send us the biiiiig money that we are going to earn :)))) We had no idea which bank we should pick so we did a small research and the SunTrust bank seemed like a pretty good option.
We met there the most nicest person ever- his name ws Carlos- he is an immigrant from Columbia nd he works in the SunTrust. With Carlos we saw how peole in America are nice and helpful. Not only that he opened the account for us, he also gave us some advise how to not lose our money, where is the drawing up for free and also where to go in DC for free (and is worth it). We were amazed how nice and helpful he was.

We´re fine, happy, amazed but always hungry :) They don´t have normal bread..I mean they do sell some bread but it is SWEET! Bleh :-/// It ruins the whole meal when you have to eat the sweet bread with it :(
(Jamail made a surprise for us in the evening when we talked for about an hour and half and tought each other Spanish and Slovak language :) - he bought some wine and cooked for us the best meal ever- mushroom ravioli with cheese. My stomach is finally happy for a while :) )

Please send us some tasty salty bread and we´ll be the happiest in the world! :)))
We are aready going to work tomorrow and we can´t wait for that! :)

Take care and let us know how are you doing :)

First day in DC!

We left our home at 2am heading to the Airport at Vienna. We left Austria at 7:05am. The flight was mild and the only thing that was scary about it was that we have only 25 minutes to get to the gate to DC on the next flight. We ran as fast as possible through the whole airport CDG which is as big as Bratislava :D

     The flight to DC from Paris was about 8 hours long. I don't know how the pilot did that but but we departed about 45 minutes later but arrived just on time. I guess he just stepped on it ;) It was noticeble that the plane is from Europe- Niki and I had almost no space left- the seat was just as big as out butts and we could barely move our feet. We saw several guys who must crossed their legs to fit the seat (it was pretty funny :D)

In DC we had to pass through an immigratory check. Everybody told us that it is some kind of very important interview and check up so we should be super polite because if we woudn´t be, it might result into not letting us go to DC. It wasn´t like that at all. The guy ask us only if we have any food in our baggage (I guess he was hungry ...Just kdding :D ) then we took our fingerprints and that was it.
He said "Welcome to the United States" and that felt just great! :)

We took the bus from the Airport to downtown and then took the Metro to U-Street. Somewhere there was supposed to be the apartment where our future roomate Jamail shoud wait for us. Because of the fact tha we had no idea how does it work with street labeling we had to use our GPS through McDonald wifi.
When we found the apartment (we already knw how does it look like because of the Google Maps) Jamail saw us through the window and went to say Hi :)

He is super nice guy, he explained us everything- how the apartment devices work and stuff and he also showed us arround. He spent 5 hours wandering DC with us!

At the first day we saw quite a lot! We saw Drum Circle in Meridian Hill Park next to our temporary home- There was many people making music on drums or just anything that makes sound :) It sounded amazing!  :) Than we went to Hard Rock Cafe to let them know that we re already in DC but we have to do so again today in the mornig anyway.

At the end of the "DC-trip" we went to a Gay Pride! It was amazing- there were many many people wearing rainbow clothes, flags and signs like "Born that way!" "Straight but supporting" but also a guy who has a shirt with a sign "Deal with it- I suck dicks better than you" :D It was amazing to be there, it takes 3 days ussually so we came to the last one only. The atmosphere was friendly and happy :) Not like in Slovakia where there are haters everywere wanting to get into fight. Maybe it is because it is very liberal city- the gay marriage is permitted here :)

We got back at "home" at about 9:30pm. We were tired as hell and our feet hurt. We took shower, check our mails and went to sleep. We woke up at 1am both shaking. It was cold in our room and because we were told that it is hot in here we didn't take any warm clothes. We went to Jamail's room ( he almost got a heart attack when we sneaked out to his room after midnight because he was smoking pot as he told us :D) He was very nice though :) We told him that we are cold and ask him to turn on the heating. He thought we were kidding and he laughted at us (the weed also worked I guess :D). When he saw that we are serious about it he turn that thing on and borrow us some blankets and pillows :)

DC is amazing! It is not a typical american city- I mean it is easy to see that we're in the US but it feels somehow like... Europe :) 

Take care dear friends, let us know how are you doing and what's new in Slovakia :)

        

Farewell to our friends and family

The Day D is getting closer and closer. In less than 24 hours we´ll depart from Vienna Airport to France- Charles de Gaulle Airport. There we´ll have about an hour and half to find the right gate to Washington DC!

As the depart is getting closer we say goodbye to our friends and family. It is too bad that many of our friends still have exams so we can´t spend as much time with them as we´d want to. (Well...Niki has the last  exam only few hours before we leave but that didn´t stop her yesterday! :) )
But thanks to the Internet we can stay in touch with them (with YOU all)  for the whole time in the USA so check the blog everyday and leave us a comment of what is new in your lives or in SR :)

We´ll promiss to write here as much as we can -about every fun and sad story- and post as much photos as possible (The camera is ready and the battery is charging at this moment)

We need to pack-up all things and get ready for the "trip". I thought I won´t have enough space in my suitcase but it is almost empty (I´m wondering what did I forget).

Keep your fingers crossed for us! :) We´ll write as soon as possible to get you guys know that we are okay :)

We found our temporary home! :)

Few last days were pretty crazy! Or...at least they made us crazy... more than ever.
Our friend Xavier (he is from Serbia so we know each other just from Couchsurfing) found a room for us in DC. We were super happy that we won´t sleep on a bench. BUT! It is not as awesome as it seems... I did some research on the place where we should stay and I was terrified!

The neighbourhood called Trinidad is possibly one of the most dangerous quater in DC! I´ve looked up some CrimeMaps and it just confirm me in the thought that we CANNOT stay there! Not only for a while... We are two young girls, we have a job there in HRC so it is more than possible that we will work till late hours and it would be nor at all responsible nor safe to wander the streets in Trinidad quater.

We were horrified. We already canceled the hostel we booked before so we literally had no place to go. (Well, only for the fisrt 3 days- we couldn´t cancel it all). I´ve sent about 30emails to people who were offering their houses, rooms, apartment on the web site Craigslist. (At first this website looks like super blind but you figure it out in a while don´t worry).
Only about 3 people sent us a response, all negative. Exept one.

This nice guy- Johnathan sent me a response that he would like us to move in.
We set the dates, exchanged our numbers and made a deal! :)

We will live in a pretty house with one roomate- Jamail (easy-going guy) in a friendly neighbourhood (well... when speaking of DC) which is quite close to Hard Rock Cafe so on longboard it will take only few minutes :) When we´ll be there we´ll post some photos for sure :)

Happy as hell, Alice and Niki :)

How bad is it to be homeless in DC?

As it turns out it is not as easy as it seems to find some accomodation in DC. Well I mean an accomodation where you do not have to have a knife or a gun in your pocket. Our friend Xavier (he also works in HRC) found some house for us three but as I found out (and maybe I shouldn´t do that) it is one of the most dangerous area in DC. The Blacks are 96% of the population. We are not rasists at all but the crime reports do say it for itselves (you just check the crime maps, it is horrible!)

We´ve sent MANY emails but we got only negative answers. We start to be a little nervous, anxious and desperate because being homeless in DC is like yelling out "Hey we are here- alone and defenceless."

We are really curious if anybody will respond to any of our email...
We´ll let you know for sure if we get something!

If you have some free time feel free to look for our place to live on Craiglist :) We are not demanding...we just need some place to lay our head where we won´t be afraid to walk or skate through the streets so no NE or SE as we were told by several people.

Keep your fingers crossed for us! :)
Hope we won´t have to "be in the A TEAM" ;)

(Only 5 days to go!)