One day in Grand Canyon

Sun rose at 4.30 . I can feel the warm ray from the sun shone on my face. I wont wake up untill 6 a.m. 6.30 , the alarm from my handphone rings ,I closed the heater which was turned to mid high because the night was too cold . I washed up and get changed for work. I am wearing red Xanterra's shirt now - i'm an newly-promoted inspector. I took my jacket and walked out from the warm dorm hall with my friends . It is a five minutes walk to the employee cafe which we will have breakfast at. The sun was bright and yet the wind was cold . We walked on the road where the mules will pass everyday ... , leaded by a cowboy-attired park ranger. They are supposed to go to the bright angel trail , where they will bring the tourist down to the river. i passed through pine trees , which we will occasionally see elks and deers grazing for grass here. They are not afraid of people , from afar. They'll get pretty upset when we getting closer. There are lots of "flying" - winged-grasshopper on the ground. Then i saw the old and historically significant railway - that brings countless tourists to witness the grandeur of the canyon since 100 years ago. Then i will see other employees , and we said hi and how are you to each other.
Those are the warm greetings that will brighten up my days .

After some american styled breakfast , it is time to get to work. They are 6 lodges/hotel in grand canyon village. I am working in Maswik south lodge which has 190 quite above average rooms. My job in maswik is to make sure the guest will get the best possible rooms they have when they check-in. We have 10 guest room attendents everyday(which I was one of them before this) . There are 3 inspectors everyday , who will assign dirty rooms to the attendents according to their ability, and we have to make sure every room is clean , and fully supplied with coffees , shampoes , towels etc. Other than that , we have to take care for special projects like preparing VIP rooms or preparing rooms for inspection by national park service. Other than that ,we carry one walkie talkie each , for which it connects all the inspectors , managers and front desk the 6 lodges in the village . The front desk will call us if the guest needs extra services , or something that need us to do - like rushing some rooms first or checking room's status. We have to contact the other departments for special needs like engineering for fixing some major problems , laundry department for clean linens or even porter for extra beds or coffee makers etc. I will normally have 60 rooms to take care .. i will just walk around , checking if any attendents needs some help .. or i have to push them alittle bit so they work faster. Then i will walk into their rooms after they cleaned it , see if it is up to the standard. If not--- i will have to either do it myself , or , scolding time !

Maswik lodge is a special place. there are 12 buildings scattered in a yellow pine forest. I saw squirels and ravens all over the place. Squirel will act cute to beg for food , while ravens will act stupid but to sneak on the rubbish bins to get food everytime. Ravens , when they are on the ground not flying , looks like a black chicken. They are funny .

get back to the work , i have to make sure all the rooms are ready by 4 a.m. By 2 am , i heard the sound and honks produced by the century old steam-powered train coming from afar. The train will normally bring around 100 hundreds tourist to the lodge. then i will occasionally have a walk with my manager before 2 oclock , he will talk about all the experiences he had , and the advices he has for me to improve my management skills .

4 oclock i finished work. the Sun is still strong . I only have an hour to rush to the general store which is 20 minutes by bus away for my 2nd job. I will take shutter bus together with the tourists. Well , they are generally curious about my ability to speak english, but at the same time they are proud to have us here in US. Well , in the general store, it is a crappy job . ALl we have to do is take some stock from the inventory and put them on the shelf . If the shelves are all full , I will do something call "facing"- just arrange the things on the shelves so that the brand faces the front. This is the best place to communicate from tourists tho -- people from france , german , italy , europes , japan and china. Well , malaysians dun speak the lousiest english , france people do. They are too proud and too arrogant to learn english.

At 10 , I walked out from the store and ready to go home. Night is cold and i need to wear few layers. When i walk to the bus stop , i will just raise my head and look at the thousand stars in the sky.Usually there will be no clouds at all on the sky at night. The moon will change every day , and the ever bright north star will outshine every other stars . Well , occasionally i get to see shoting stars too .

When i get back to my hall , i will take a short shower , and then go to the TV room. THis is a crazy place to be in -- where all the employees from all over the world interacts with each other. Normally i will just take my laptop here and online. I watch NBA and see the americans screams when somebody from lakers scores . When NBA is off , they will watch cowboy movies , or other movies. Few of them are frequent drinkers. I should call them alchoholic . They will generously give out beers to anyone who wants it. They will talk about anything , and most of their stories are very interesting and wild.

About 11 at night , i went back to my room. I am thankful that another wonderful day has passed.

Xu SHen atlantiz0
p/s: Having day off tomorrow .. going to hike again !! now we are hiking part desert and unmaintained trail .. wish me all the best !!