Life as an Illegal

Today I am getting paid for the first time since June. It is going to be really nice to actually have an income. My boss told me on my first day, 'Just write your hours on a piece of paper. Whenever you need money, let me know and I will give it to you.' Kind of a strange way to handle it, but I should be getting close to 400 euros cash today for my 6 days of work! It looks like I am going to do a lot better than just break even this winter. I have been skiing when I have time in the middle of the day. Still not a lot of snow yet, but I'm not giving up. I worked Christmas Eve, Christmas, and will be working New Year's Eve and Day as well. It is sure a lot of work days, but I am not feeling overwhelmed yet. The food and the money more than make up for it.

A bit about work: Overall, the job is going very well. It is pretty simple and basic kitchen help, kind of mindless work but not too boring. I generally wash all the dishes (yes there is a quick automatic machine), sort out the recycling, peel vegetables, mop the floors, sort and dry silverware, that sort of thing. The hotel/restaurant is owned by two German brothers in about their 40s. One of them spends his time in the kitchen while the other does the bar and the general hotel stuff. The other kitchen helper guy is named Klaus. He has been the main one to 'train' me. He is definitely the big dumb doofus of the kitchen. He hardly speaks a word of English to me, which would be very helpful to my quest to learn to German, except he just mumbles quickly even when I ask him to enunciate slowly so I can understand. Instead he points to something and mumbles instructions, I just nod, say OK, and figure it out myself. It's not worth asking him to explain anything twice. He has a certain way he does every task and of course wants me to do things the same way. Since I always find my own way, he seems to think I am incompetent. That actually often works out in my favor, because he just does the difficult and annoying tasks himself. I don't really mind him too much, I just ignore him most of the time. One of the chefs in the kitchen is a younger guy inamed Tommy. He speaks English the best, though I need to tell him to stop talking to me so often in English because I will never learn German if he does.

The best part of my job is the free food. The restaurant is very nice with a fairly wide range of Austrian and international food. The main courses range from about 15-30 euros. I can eat first thing when I arrive in the morning, just a quick snack for breakfast. Then at the end of my shift, there is a big lunch for the staff. Usually salad and bread, plus a big stew made from the previous night's meat, plus multiple side dishes of potatoes, rice, etc. After my evening shift, we all eat again. Usually we get whatever the daily dish was. So far, I have had filet mignon three times, plus duck and an angus beef roast, all with loads of sides. It is not quite food straight off the menu, but much better than most 'staff meals' that my friends are getting at their restaurants. I fill up my own plate, so I usually eat a ton. I can pretty much snack all day long as well on soup, bread, etc. We often get a beer or two at night as well.

Commuting to work twice a day is a big pain in the ass right now. I definitely need to move out of Kitzbuehel and into Kirchberg. Right now I have to take a bus and a train each way to get to work. I have the schedules down for the most part, but it is really stressful on the weekends, holidays, etc. when the schedule changes and/or the busses are late. It would be really nice to live within a ten minute walk to work (i.e. anywhere in Kirchberg). While I glad to be working a lot of hours and also be able to ski in the middle of the day, I might get burnt out at some point. I was told I would be working 6 days a week, but I am not exactly sure how that will work. I am currently working 14 days straight, I hope after that I start getting a day off. I am allowed to take any day off I want if I can find a replacement to send in to do my job. That shouldn't be a problem, but they want me to only send in one guy as a replacement for the whole season. That way they can train him in a couple of days. It will be tough to find someone who is willing to do that whenever I ask for the whole season.

I skiied Saturday and Sunday afternoons between work shifts. Saturday was some of the iciest conditions I have ever experienced, so I went to a new area yesterday which had soft snow and great runs. This weekend I was only been able to go up for 2 hours each day because of my work schedule and the fact that runs close at 4:00. Once I move over to Kirch, I expect to get 3-4 hours a day on the slopes. I'm keeping count of days on the mountain, 9 times so far, already more than my last two seasons combined!

It looks like I am going to be able to save a lot more money than I expected. I don't have to pay for food or transportation (my ski pass covers it), so my expenses are incredibly low. Assuming I pay roughly what I am paying now for rent (300 euros) for the remainder of the season, I should be able to save at least 1000 euros/month and maybe up to 1500. That could put 5000 euros in my pocket by the end of the season which would be great! I'm not entirely sure what I will do come spring, or what I am saving for, but I have a few crazy ideas in mind (to be revealed at a much later date, obviously). Maren is with her family in Austria and I am trying to see if I can get my shift covered at work so I can go ski with her for a day, though she is about a 4 hour train ride away. She will be coming here in a little over a week.

I just posted the pics from my first couple of weeks here. Happy New Year!