This past Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I worked at the Starbucks in Harrisonburg.  It's across from JMU.  The parking sucks though.  10am-6pm along with Steve and Trevor.  Tuesday I showed up around 9am and just sat at a table watching people.  I didn't announce myself as actually being one of the trainees till just before 10am.  Then Steve showed up and Trevor shortly there after.  We learned how to make the mocha sauce and coffee / cream bases for frappuccinos.  Also whipped cream, which is the easiest thing to remember.

We let Steve go first at trying to steam milk at the espresso machine.  He managed to spray milk all over himself, so we saw what NOT to do. heheh.  "Good thing you went first, man!"

Fraps are the easiest thing to make, as long as you can remember what drink needs what.   I had a hard time getting the blended mix out of the jar into the cups..    This first day I got to make and try Strawberries and Creme, and Vanilla Bean.  That last one was way too strong for my tastes.

I spent most of the first day shadowing whoever was at the bar, asking questions and taking notes.  Yes I take notes.  I have everyday, even at the interview.

The thing I love about the layout of the Harrisonburg store is that it has a little counter that people can sit at you can basically watch whoever is at the espresso bar and down the whole lane.  You can see everything they do basically.  I'd sit there on break and before and after work.  I never really left right after work and even on the other days  I was really early, reading something and taking notes.

The second day Trevor called out, and Steve mysteriously left around 3pm instead of 6pm.  No clue what happened.   I practiced making the core drinks, trying to get the right weight.  I spent a lot of time steaming milk and rinsing out the metal pitchers to help out who ever was on bar.  Also taking any blended drinks that were ordered.  I managed to not burn myself too often or badly.  I see lots of lotion in my future though to counter all the hand washing.  So far my biggest mess ups are sending part of a blended drink flying thru the air trying to get it to slide out of a jar into a cup.  A customer was like "We saw that!!!!"  to which I could only reply "I know!"  I also manged to dump a massive amount of red sprinkles on a peppermint mocha frap.   As in all the whip cream was covered in red..  We had to spoon it out, and someone else finished the drink up for me.. I didn't touch the sprinkles again -_-  I also did the dishes and managed to be a spaz about the dish machine.  I didn't catch how it worked, but once I got it I didn't have any problems.  I honestly don't know how to work a dishwasher.  If I have to 'do' dishes at home they're done by hand.

Steve didn't show up Thursday, but Trevor did.   She went in the back first on the computer to learn about the register and how it worked and I did quality checks (on the core drinks), and asking more questions in the process.  Most of the time I always felt like I was in someone's way.  It's fascinating to watch someone work the bar, all these people training have been working for Starbucks for at least a few years.  I take so long on the bar my timing sucks.  Calling drinks or even cup marking is way over my head at the moment it's so fast.  I can't really remember it, I get tongue tied.   This is what bothers me the most considering the fact that the Staunton store is opening in a week...

Trevor ended up going home early, she wasn't feeling well.  I have no idea if she even got any practice on the bar, but she was going to work on Friday to make up for Wednesday, so maybe.. And I went on the computer.  I was back there for about 2 1/2 hours.  I took notes on EVERYTHING.  Also the tests at the end were annoying, because some times if you didn't do something in the order they expected, you were wrong anyways.  Now I basically just have more questions for Sue.  I don't actually work again till Monday.   I feel like so much time is being wasted that I could be practing or something.  I do realize that the weekend is probably the busiest but still...  blah.

The Harrisonburg crew was really wonderful.  They were very helpful and nice and didn't belittle me.  I did my best to make sure I thanked them all.  I really have respect for them.  I hope I can do as well as them.