Desi Buzz - Volume 1 - User Articles

America! The land of dreams for many. For a long time, I had been planning to do my Masters’ at Drexel- which faculty to work with, research areas, funding, future goals, companies, etc. However, after landing here, the first question was how I would fend for my living expenses. I applied at the library, Creese reception desk, the residence hall reception desks, the bookstore, a Physics TA, ISSS website administrator, and any other position I saw available.

One place popular among International students to work at is Creese cafe. However, being a software engineer, I was not sure about working in a restaurant. After quite some thinking, I decided to apply at Creese Cafe as well. The application process itself was a funny experience. I was asked to submit a resume indicating my skill set. After a day's thought, I failed to identify any skills relevant to working in a cafe.  I accepted defeat and submitted my resume listing all my grades and the professional experiences of checking SAP products for accessibility to visually challenged users. Surprisingly, I got a call from a man named Emrah for an interview. The interview was a cakewalk and I ended up with my first job.

For most students, getting a job is difficult and obtaining an SSN (Social Security Number) is easy, but it turned out otherwise for me. My parents were happy to name me Shankar Narayana Mahalinga Iyer Gopalakrishnan as it appeased several deities in the Hindu mythology. They are still happy, but the staff in the SSN office was not. After many trials to fit my name into the system, the woman somehow managed to get me an SSN.

Now came the first day blues. I had my first day training at 9 am and was told to see Jade, who was the supervisor for the day. Jade was very welcoming and she asked Durgesh, the shift leader, to train me at the smoothies section.  In 5 minutes, he showed me how to read the recipes from the chart and the amount of fruits and syrups to be used for different smoothies. He asked for my favorite smoothie, made it for me and at the same time, taught me how to make it. Now it was my turn to show what I learnt. I carefully mixed the fruits, added the syrup and placed the jar on the blender. The moment I pressed the button, there was a big ‘grrrrrrrr’, followed by a brief moment of silence accompanied by fumes. I looked at Durgesh, he looked at me and we looked together at the blender. And that was the end of the smoothie section for the day.

In a few days, I got used to the smoothie section and was promoted to the sandwich section. Making a sandwich is not quite as easy as I thought. There were a variety of meats, many more types of sauces and even more varieties of bread. Initially, remembering the names of the bagels was a daunting task for me. For the first 3-4 days, I had a failure rate of 60% in choosing the right type of bagel. With my failure rate, I used to pity the person who ordered it, who curiously watched me fiddling with the bagels. I had a tough time differentiating buffalo and barbecue, pesto and mayo, thousand island and Creole mayo sauces. A week passed, and I gained momentum and experience in making sandwiches. Weekly appraisals used to happen in the form of oral tests. Experienced seniors at Creese used to test me with questions like “What goes into a BLT?” and “Which bread is used to make a New Yorker?” After three weeks, I got a hold on the sandwich section.

I used to go to get fruits, ice, sandwiches, bread etc. from the stock room in the basement. Depending on the availability, new orders for sandwiches were made to Rene, the lead staff in charge of handling our orders. My language and Rene's were completely different and we both had difficulty making conversation. Almost 75% of our conversations happened through sign language. However, with practice, communication between us improved.

Handling the register needs considerable skill as one should know everything that Creese Cafe sells. There will be occasions when you should advise the customer about the sandwich depending on their taste. At the same time, working at the register is treated equivalent to a white collar job as you will be handling the money. I was trained to handle the register and things went smoothly until I got requests about combos. Creese cafe used to give discounted prices on different items when coupled.  Often the customers order things separately and it is our job to treat them as a combo when we punch it in. Most of the time, I would charge things separately and then realize that it could be a combo. So, I had to void the transaction and reprint a new bill. Too many void transactions are a fault on our part, which irks the manager. I was blessed to collect 12 such wrong bills on the first day. Day by day, the number of wrong bills reduced and eventually, it reached zero. It was fun to work with morning shift manager, Bernard, who is well known among the Creese employees for his kind words and humor. We would affectionately refer to him as “Uncle Bernie” and he used to call the cafe “Bernie's cafe”.

My hard work paid off at Creese cafe and I was felicitated with an award “Employee of the week”. Apparently, they just initiated the award and I was the first recipient. Later it so happened that they could not give any more awards and I became the only recipient. Jokes apart, my work at Creese Cafe taught me the American way of life. I met many people, learned lot of different cultures and made some good friends. Though I had to leave Creese to work as a research assistant, I will cherish these Creese memories forever.

Shankar Narayana