The job i had lined up was working at Ice Cream and Candy Bazaar, in Edgartown. After two days rest in order to recuperate after travelling, and in order for the boss to start the two new girls together, we were in the shop at 9:30am and given our new T-shirts.
The first few days of my new job mostly involved learning where things were kept, what the prices of different things were, and how to do the simple things around the shop such as restocking, serving an ice cream perfectly, and using the till. Thankfully, because it was early on in the summer season, business was quiet and it was easy to learn on the job.
The first time I served a 'small' ice cream i was told by the boss that it was no where near big enough. Whereas in the UK one scoop would be a small, here it seemed the the equivalent of two and a half scoops was a small! Even the size down which is called a 'kiddie' is still a scoop and a half! That's the ice cream meant for tiny children in prams!
Learning on the job, we made sure that serving customers and keeping everything neat and tidy was our main priority, but there was lots of side jobs to do, such as bagging up sweeties (candy) into little clear bags weighing half a pound, or restocking the teddies and gifts that were hidden in every nook and cranny of the shop! Although at the start id have to try to remember what i should be doing once I finished a task, towards the end of the summer it was all just coming naturally, always keep busy.
My favourite 'side task' was to make waffle cones, even though they burnt your fingers a bit and i was utterly rubbish when I first made them, and couldn't get them to stick in the correct neatly rolled shape. However, as I practised, i got the hang of it, and was able to multi-task whilst making them, and only muck up a few of them in each batch!
One of the (many) bonus's about working in America for the summer, as opposed to staying in the UK and getting a summer job, is the pay. If you work it right, you can get the same rate of pay as you would get at home, plus tips. Generally, summer jobs in the UK are barely above minimum wage, so if you're between 18 and 20, you would get £5.03 an hour. This is the equivalent to $8.30. A lot of the jobs that were available to the BUNAC work America participants were over $9 per hour, with bonus's available the longer you stayed towards the end of summer. Employers are desperate to ensure you stay at least until Labour Day (1st of September) so a lot of them raise the wage about 50c per hour each month you work, so for every hour i work in September, ill be earning $1.50 extra compared to June.
Tips in the UK are uncommon. I can work a 4 hour shift at a hectic gig behind the bar, and barely break £10 in tips, the average for the majority of shifts is £6. Tipping in the UK just doesn't really happen, unless the person you're serving doesn't want change jangling around in their pocket, or if you are waitressing a sit down meal. In America, its just common to tip. This is because a lot of serving jobs get a much much lower minimum wage, and rely on tips to make it up to a normal rate of pay. However, if you start off with a decent wage, any tips you earn are just bonus to your day. It wasn't uncommon on a busy evening shift to break $50 in tips, which is about £30. Tips paid my rent, and I was left with my weekly wage to live on, and save.
Its going to be hard to go back to the UK and not give evil glances to people who aren't atomically dropping their coin change into my tip jar...