It has been a week since I started my internship with the best hotel chain in the world and all I can say is that it has been everything that I imagined it to be, and even better.

I remember when I was a kid, travelling with my family, and being fascinated by the entire hotel setting, I always thought it was an amazing place to be in. Funny though, how I actually wanted to serve and be part of the team working to keep the place running (always felt a tad awkward to be served), when on the contrary most people I know would rather be served.

It's really different, working with the creme da la creme; the system in place to guarantee the best experience, the people who execute that system and bring a human touch to the guest experience, and the level of professionalism that emphasises nothing is personal, it has been nothing but WOW, WOW, WOW.

Having joined the service line since I was 16 fresh out of O levels has allowed me to gain loads of exposure starting from a cafe, to a mid-range restaurant and now a world-class, 5-star hotel. It has also provided me with much insight and perspective to the difference in standards.

Knowing that they want the best to work for them, and now that I am working with them, it really gives me an ego boost as well as the desire to exceed their expectations.

And honestly if not for the Employment Act which stipulates that "no employee should exceed 44 hours of work" which really annoys me (I will only be based locally for a month), I would really like to be at work. Doesn't really help that I don't really know what to do with my off days and that most of my peers are working too in various industries. So today, on my first day off, I went on a walk about town to familiarise myself with the area, where's what, what's in what, and how do I get there by foot and taxi.

I'm a concierge by the way, and on the way I also met two fellow school mates of mine who are also concierges at another property. It seems we're all enjoying our work now and I'm pretty sure we'd enjoy the Maldives come Oct 20th when we jet off to continue our internship for another 14 weeks.

As quoted from Wikipedia:
"In hotels, a concierge assists guests with various tasks like making restaurant reservations, arranging for spa services, procurement of tickets to special events and assisting with various travel arrangements and tours of interesting places to visit.

In upscale establishments, a concierge is often expected to "achieve the impossible," dealing with any request a guest may have, no matter how apocryphal or strange, relying on an extensive list of personal contacts with various local merchants and service providers."

This provides a pretty good idea of what's in a day's work for us. Though I'm not quite sure if it's my calling, I can definitely see myself doing it for an indefinite period of time for now at least, I'm really scoffing at only being there for a month. Well there's still my duty as a able-bodied Singaporean male to serve my nation so we'd see how that goes.

My Chef Concierge A was asking me what Shawn does normally in which I replied, "I read, work out, stay home, spend time on the internet, catch up with friends and that's basically it."

He told me, for this month, just for a month, Shawn loves fashion, Shawn loves wine and dine at the hippest and trendiest restaurants in town, Shawn loves local history, and Shawn knows how to get to these places. I think I could do with that. :D

Being in the world of a upscale hotel really shifts my perspective of the surrealism that I read about and see in magazines, to one of reality and that it's not quite hard to imagine, afterall it's all in a day's work.