Final Portfolio Piece (crap pic)
And my Bio (kinda long, so dont feel like you have to read it,whatever)
The last few years of my life has comprised of travel across Europe. This was a dream I had for many years. Before I left for Europe I worked a series of warehouse jobs trying to finance the trip.
Like many things in life, dreams can become obscured due to material issues. I made a few bad choices when it came to purchasing fast cars. Ironically because of where I lived I could rarely take out and drive. I soon came to regret buying these vehicles but continued on working myself slowly out of debt.
Like many significant changes in my life I came to a major self realization. What I was actually doing in my life was not getting me to where I wanted to be and I changed. I quickly put my cars up for sale and started preparations for the trip. However, because one car was somewhat of a speciality car there was not much of a market for it. Just over a year later I finally sold the car at an incredible loss of $5000.
On November 5th, 2003 I left for Europe with a long time friend from high school and $3000 in my account. It was the day after my girlfriend, of two months, birthday.
We landed in Frankfurt and quickly made our way to Rome. We spent two weeks immersed in culture and history of the legendary city and we found it very, very hard to leave. We explored every major city south of Rome to Sicily. We spent time off the beaten track, sleeping in farmers fields while looking unsuccessfully for work on olive farms. To spending a week outside the largest fish market in the world, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells.
Our money was running thin a month into the trip and we took the advice of our fellow travellers and headed north to the Alps in search of work. We ended up in the most expensive city in the world, Zermatt, Switzerland, home of the Materhorn. We could barely afford bread. We left several days later to Kitzbuhel, Austria, our new home for the next four months.
I found work in several places in the home of the World Ski Championships. But first I bought a snowboard and ski pass. You have to have priorities!
I worked in a Chinese kitchen for about a week. Then I found work in a bar as a glassy that boasted of clientele like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Finally the season slowed at the bar and I found steady work as a ski tech for the final two months of the season.
My life was filled with a mental case landlord, a bunch of seasonal workers and of course the other travelers we would meet for several days at a time. Like many others find the relationship with the person you travel with degrades over time because of the close contact and lack of personal space.
I kept in contact with the girl I had had a relationship with before I left. She had plans of teaching English in Brazil but the contract fell through at the last minute. We decided to meet in Salzburg.
My final month in Austria was spent zitferbabing and teaching my girlfriend how to snowboard, unsuccessfully. I lost nearly all contact with my friend prior to her arrival and during the final month of our stay. We left without him and went to Portugal at the end of the season.
We spent time in Lisbon, staying in a pension room overlooking one of the main squares with a view of a castle and the ocean. We watched the beautiful world go by from our balcony. We then left to the southern tip of Portugal in the Algarve.
We both found work in the ancient walled city of Lagos, a city where the slaves were the main means of economy and fleets of ships set off to find the new world. Now an ancient city comprised of endless streets of bars and tacky souvenir shops. We both worked in bars, she a bartender and I a flier boy, forcing me out of my comfort zone.
We made friends with other couples who found themselves in the same place as us. Life was hard on us both mentally and physically. We found an escape two months into our stay there. A job we had applied for several months earlier was given to us in the south of France in the Ardeche.
We found ourselves running a campsite on the famous Ardeche River. We lived a wonderful life sipping wine and gazing into the clear stars of the French night sky. We got to know the area intimately for three months.
At the end of our stay we decided to continue working for the company helping to take down campsites across the Costa Brava in Spain. The work was a shock compared to the ease of the job during the hot summer months. We finished on October 15th.
The next several months was a blur of Barcelona, Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, Paris and probably several other places I cant remember now. As always the faceless hard airport and train station floors left a lasting impression on my back as we spent a number of nights waiting for connections.
We arrived back home on December 6th, 2004, thirteen months from the time I left. I got my old job back at the place I was before I left. Life sucked.
Five months of working the same jobs we could not take it anymore. On a snap decision we made a phone call to the same camping company we had worked for the previous summer and two weeks later we were in the Ardeche again at the beginning of May. This site was 20 kms from where we had been before and was even more beautiful.
On June 16th I proposed to Kaytee under the Pont Darc on the Ardeche River after a French picnic of gold medal winning wine, with cheese and a baguette. Life was amazing. It was full of discovery and beauty.
We ended the season on September 5th and left for London, one of the places we didnt see on our first trip. We stayed with an older couple who we had made friends with on our first stay in France and who ended up with us at the different campsite that summer.
We arrived home on September 16th 2005.
I got a job landscaping for a month before I had to go for surgery on my shoulder. I had wrecked my shoulder snowboarding in Kitzbuhel. Two weeks after the surgery I found myself working for a soon to be opening fine dining restaurant under a red seal chef. Grappling to learn new skills as a cook with a sling on my arm was difficult at times, to say the least. The new restaurant opened October 30th.
Two weeks before Christmas the head chef was fired. I found myself put into a very interesting situation at the busiest time of the year for a restaurant.
I am now working as the head chef at the only fine dining restaurant in a 35 km radius. I am still learning new techniques and recipes as I go, earning the praise from the patrons and staff all the while.
Kaytee and I separated and went our separate ways at the beginning of December.
My life is one of learning and growth, full of ups and downs. But I know I can succeed at whatever I put my heart and mind into. I live a beautiful adventure.
And my Bio (kinda long, so dont feel like you have to read it,whatever)
The last few years of my life has comprised of travel across Europe. This was a dream I had for many years. Before I left for Europe I worked a series of warehouse jobs trying to finance the trip.
Like many things in life, dreams can become obscured due to material issues. I made a few bad choices when it came to purchasing fast cars. Ironically because of where I lived I could rarely take out and drive. I soon came to regret buying these vehicles but continued on working myself slowly out of debt.
Like many significant changes in my life I came to a major self realization. What I was actually doing in my life was not getting me to where I wanted to be and I changed. I quickly put my cars up for sale and started preparations for the trip. However, because one car was somewhat of a speciality car there was not much of a market for it. Just over a year later I finally sold the car at an incredible loss of $5000.
On November 5th, 2003 I left for Europe with a long time friend from high school and $3000 in my account. It was the day after my girlfriend, of two months, birthday.
We landed in Frankfurt and quickly made our way to Rome. We spent two weeks immersed in culture and history of the legendary city and we found it very, very hard to leave. We explored every major city south of Rome to Sicily. We spent time off the beaten track, sleeping in farmers fields while looking unsuccessfully for work on olive farms. To spending a week outside the largest fish market in the world, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells.
Our money was running thin a month into the trip and we took the advice of our fellow travellers and headed north to the Alps in search of work. We ended up in the most expensive city in the world, Zermatt, Switzerland, home of the Materhorn. We could barely afford bread. We left several days later to Kitzbuhel, Austria, our new home for the next four months.
I found work in several places in the home of the World Ski Championships. But first I bought a snowboard and ski pass. You have to have priorities!
I worked in a Chinese kitchen for about a week. Then I found work in a bar as a glassy that boasted of clientele like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Finally the season slowed at the bar and I found steady work as a ski tech for the final two months of the season.
My life was filled with a mental case landlord, a bunch of seasonal workers and of course the other travelers we would meet for several days at a time. Like many others find the relationship with the person you travel with degrades over time because of the close contact and lack of personal space.
I kept in contact with the girl I had had a relationship with before I left. She had plans of teaching English in Brazil but the contract fell through at the last minute. We decided to meet in Salzburg.
My final month in Austria was spent zitferbabing and teaching my girlfriend how to snowboard, unsuccessfully. I lost nearly all contact with my friend prior to her arrival and during the final month of our stay. We left without him and went to Portugal at the end of the season.
We spent time in Lisbon, staying in a pension room overlooking one of the main squares with a view of a castle and the ocean. We watched the beautiful world go by from our balcony. We then left to the southern tip of Portugal in the Algarve.
We both found work in the ancient walled city of Lagos, a city where the slaves were the main means of economy and fleets of ships set off to find the new world. Now an ancient city comprised of endless streets of bars and tacky souvenir shops. We both worked in bars, she a bartender and I a flier boy, forcing me out of my comfort zone.
We made friends with other couples who found themselves in the same place as us. Life was hard on us both mentally and physically. We found an escape two months into our stay there. A job we had applied for several months earlier was given to us in the south of France in the Ardeche.
We found ourselves running a campsite on the famous Ardeche River. We lived a wonderful life sipping wine and gazing into the clear stars of the French night sky. We got to know the area intimately for three months.
At the end of our stay we decided to continue working for the company helping to take down campsites across the Costa Brava in Spain. The work was a shock compared to the ease of the job during the hot summer months. We finished on October 15th.
The next several months was a blur of Barcelona, Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, Paris and probably several other places I cant remember now. As always the faceless hard airport and train station floors left a lasting impression on my back as we spent a number of nights waiting for connections.
We arrived back home on December 6th, 2004, thirteen months from the time I left. I got my old job back at the place I was before I left. Life sucked.
Five months of working the same jobs we could not take it anymore. On a snap decision we made a phone call to the same camping company we had worked for the previous summer and two weeks later we were in the Ardeche again at the beginning of May. This site was 20 kms from where we had been before and was even more beautiful.
On June 16th I proposed to Kaytee under the Pont Darc on the Ardeche River after a French picnic of gold medal winning wine, with cheese and a baguette. Life was amazing. It was full of discovery and beauty.
We ended the season on September 5th and left for London, one of the places we didnt see on our first trip. We stayed with an older couple who we had made friends with on our first stay in France and who ended up with us at the different campsite that summer.
We arrived home on September 16th 2005.
I got a job landscaping for a month before I had to go for surgery on my shoulder. I had wrecked my shoulder snowboarding in Kitzbuhel. Two weeks after the surgery I found myself working for a soon to be opening fine dining restaurant under a red seal chef. Grappling to learn new skills as a cook with a sling on my arm was difficult at times, to say the least. The new restaurant opened October 30th.
Two weeks before Christmas the head chef was fired. I found myself put into a very interesting situation at the busiest time of the year for a restaurant.
I am now working as the head chef at the only fine dining restaurant in a 35 km radius. I am still learning new techniques and recipes as I go, earning the praise from the patrons and staff all the while.
Kaytee and I separated and went our separate ways at the beginning of December.
My life is one of learning and growth, full of ups and downs. But I know I can succeed at whatever I put my heart and mind into. I live a beautiful adventure.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
scullyt:
brandi77:
That was the best journal entry I've ever read. Tell more please.