During the first two weeks, I was busy sorting out housing and work. Ogunquit is a tourist town, so real estate—and consequently, rent—is sky-high during the summer season, especially with the current exchange rate. The only option, if you hadn't taken care of it in advance, was to find a job that provided housing. The problem was that these two things are directly linked: you can only live somewhere as long as you are working there. I chose to go by my own to get deeper in to entire American culture to feel the whole experience living in US. I avoided Russian people, trying to communicate only with local ones. It was very helpful to learn language as well, so at this point I think that the best way to talk about US is to talk in English. In the first part of a day I helped two gay guys in the small bed and breakfast inn called Trellis house. Owners are Laurence and Glen. Laurence activity was connected to staffing, human resources and recruitment; he worked in Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company, and Digital Domain in LA; and then 10 years as Vice President of Global Employment at Nuance Communications, a speech recognition software company in Boston. Glen directed Theater at Campbell Hall, a private K-12 school in Studio City, California. So as I figured out their previous work was full of stress, and now despite being engaged in this business with full-time availability, they enjoyed spending summer doing there job in the best way and making people happy. On there website it’s written that they have put their heart into renovating and thoughtfully handling Trellis house and it’s very true. Space of their inn is smart organized, they renewed design, let the fresh sea breeze into old-fashioned stuffy rooms. They gave new life to old things by restoration, beautiful colorful painting and patterns of textile. As for me it was the first place I’ve ever seen where something white was really white for long, plates, cups, towels, blankets, garden furniture – everything were shinning with whiteness and cleanness. So actually helping them about the house was delightful for me, I didn’t feel this job like routine, it was so naturally and it seemed like I was at home. Laurence loves cooking so breakfast was the way he could express himself while creating. He has great taste of everything including food and the point that he was cared about guests preferences made the breakfast important part of their experience staying at the Trellis house. Ones I’ve heard in the breakfast room about his cooking, what every food with his love in this harmonic atmosphere is the best they ever tried. Even people that didn’t want to have their breakfast or any special dish were like: «I am an allergic to grapefruits.. Well, actually I just don’t like them.. But your grapefruit Brule look so gorgeous; can I try just a little? Oh, and what about the whole thing?» And then of course they joined the second course.. Laurence was inspired by people and nature around, so he grown some bunches of blueberries, and made with them traditional Main breakfast with blueberry pancakes and sausages. Many guests were asking to share recipes and according to their advices now he is thinking about publishing his own cookbook. As well important part of my job was turning down service, it was about drawing curtains, leaving sweets and flowers in rooms before night. Laurence baked by himself and let me making some cakes as well. It was a great lesson and he showed me my usual mistake about creating pastry by telling that the main point of baking is that it is an exact thing so you just have to follow the recipe directly. They had a thought about Ogunquit that it is the place where sea meets garden, so I were very grateful to take part in gardening and making flower arrangements as well. It was my way of coloring world, creating, expressing and finding balance at the same time. As Laurence is a great teacher about external world, Glen helped me with finding harmony inside and
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