What a Start to a Week!

Whew! Well, I am EXHAUSTED. My legs are just dying. Let me try to recap in a not too rambly way.

Worked the past 3 days at Zellers. When I was called to work my first shift we arranged that shift then I was told we would "Hash out a schedule for the rest of the week when you get in." Apparently that means, "I'll have a schedule for the next week ready for you." So, I ended up working the past two nights until 9:30pm then having to walk home...not cool considering I had to be up at 5am the next morning for school! After just standing in place at work and running my feet off at school, my legs are just tired and in pain today.

I haven't even hit a week of working there yet and I already got a call today to come in to cover a shift. Not a great sign. I'm going to give that place another couple weeks, then I'm going to re-evaluate whether or not I want to stay there.

My week did not start out so great. I could play the blame game, but that's a giant waste of time. Shit happens, you deal with it, that's life! I've been getting a ride to school from a friend at 6am and on Tuesday I was waiting for him and he didn't show! Ah! Takes me 40 minutes to walk to school, class starts at 6:30, so by 6:05 I was freaking out. So, I texted him, phoned him, nothing. I ended up just phoning a cab to get to school and managed to get there and get changed JUST in time for class...WHEW! Turns out the classmate just slept in...oh well! I'm quite sure he had just a bad a start as me that morning, so we just got to be slightly miserable together. :P I get to class and we're not making what I was told we'd be making! Which means I don't have any recipes to use. Which makes me mad because I SPECIFICALLY took the time to ask in theory class what recipes to bring and I was told cakes. Liars. So, fortunately my classmates rock and lent me some recipes.

Chef Richard, the main pastry chef, is headed off to Germany on Saturday for the Culinary Youth Olympics with the team from our school. He's going to be gone for a month! The Olympics aren't that long, but I have a feeling that he'll be visiting home while he's there - he's from Austria. Therefore, this week we've had his replacement come in to work with him and make the transition to taking over the class - she'll be here for the next 4 weeks. Her name is Chef Karen and she is AWESOME. She's very approachable and knows how to teach very well. I'm going to of course assume that this is because she is from the west. The last place she was working was at SAIT in Calgary, teaching the Pastry Arts course there. We were a touch worried about who we'd get as a replacement for Chef Richard while he was gone and I'm happy to say that I'm loving the replacement.

Today we started making cakes. We made Pound Cake, Sponge Cake, and Angel Food Cake. My sponge cake collapsed in the middle. :( Tomorrow we are decorating them and making the icings. So, perhaps I shall have pictures for you tomorrow.

Yesterday we had a day to just remake something, so I decided to remake the Vienna Rolls as my rolls turned out horribly the first time! I just don't quite get the rolling thing - the technique used is one that I'm pretty sure most of you don't use in your kitchens. Or if you do, none of you bothered to teach me which makes you just terrible! But yeah, after re-making the Vienna Rolls, I got the technique down! YAY! And now I have a picture for you that I'm willing to share!