A Walk Around Munich

 WE ARE HERE!! After two fairly long red eye flights and very little sleep, 18 LOTAs arrived in Munich, Germany where we are spending the first three days of our travels.

After a super long wait for all our luggage to arrive from the baggage claim. We were greeted by our tour guide for the week, Rolando. We got to get onto to this super nice Mercedes coach bus. We got to see some sights while driving to our hotel. Honestly, despite the excitement of being in a foreign country for the first time without it being a family trip, all I wanted to do was sleep. But why waste the precious time we were being given to go around Munich and explore.

We got to our hotel and were given our roommate for the first hotel and got some time to freshen up before starting our afternoon walking tour around Munich. 

Below are some pictures from our walking tour of scenic Munich:

These are just a handful of the pictures I was able to snap while we were walking around the city to the various destinations we explored in just the first day or two in the city. 

Amy and I ventured into one of the soccer stores and had to take a selfie with the World Cup champions.

We went to the most beautiful Cathedral of St. Peter. It had amazing gold work and such grandeur of architecture. Since I am the daughter of an architect, any place that I get to admire such great historic work is a good day in my book! 

Then we ventured into the city's center, Marienplatz, and location of city hall. It was such an amazing building and we got to listen and witness the ringing of the bells. We also explored all the shopping districts which we are returning to tomorrow. When then ended the day by going to Ratskeller, a very popular restaurant under city hall, for dinner. We then got to experience the German subway system to get back to the hotel. It was then an early night to catch up on missed sleep. 

Cinderella's Ball



The kids and celebrities entered the Willard on a red carpet under the swords of the Marines!

Geez! I have been very bad about my blogging! I should have posted this almost two weeks ago but I've been so very busy and I simply forgot. On May 30th I worked my final event at the Willard for the time being. I know that my time hasn't ended there but for now I must walk away and spend my final summer with my family and friends. The Willard has been my second home over the past month. I would spend almost every waking moment working and wore myself out everyday but it gave me the necessary skills to prepare for the work force.

Marines holding the flags during
the National Anthem.

I have always had so much respect for the military! They do so much for this country and risk their lives everyday to protect us. When I was working I got to spend a lot of time around the Marines that were there for the event. I got to see two sides of them. In the morning when they were holding the swords, they had to stand extremely still and you didn't even see the slightest grin on their face. But when it cam time to party and dance later in the afternoon, they totally changed! They were dancing like a whole bunch of teenagers at a school dance. My phone is filled with tons of videos of the Marines doing the wobble (with RGIII), the cupid shuffle, cha-cha slide and many more.

Anyways this Cinderella's Ball was definitely the best event as my final one for the summer. It's an amazing charity event, just like a prom, held for kids who have life threatening diseases or have other special needs whether it be they were homeless or abandoned or just needed helped to get through school.

Everyone is greeted and treated like a rock star to enter the home under the swords of the marines and walking on a red carpet. There are many celebrities guests that attend. I got the chance to meet Robert Griffin III and one the stars from Shark Tank and a dancing with the stars contestant, Robert Herjavec and his dancing partner. Others would include: Jussie Smollett from the show Empire and an MBA star.



Robert Griffin III walks the red carpet.

A Marine dressed as Cinderella takes a spin
on the dance floor with some of the girls

The speeches broke your heart but you were also laughing so much. It was such a great opportunity to get to witness all of the hard work the House puts into this program.

My favorite part of the night was definitely getting to go out on the dance floor with the kids. The music was awesome and everyone got into it! Whether we were doing the Cupid shuffle or slow dancing, I didn't miss a single song with those kids. I will never forget the memories I made that day and all of the memories at the hotel!

Onto more adventures!

Welcome to the Willard

Ladies and Gentlemen of the internet: Welcome to my blog! This blog is called Singing Through the Summer because I'll be having many adventures this summer and how better to enjoy the summer than to sing? The beginning of my summer adventures began on April 28th. 

 The past three weeks, I have had the pleasure of working at one the most historic hotels in Washington DC: the Willard. The hotel has been on site since 1816 and the current building was built in 1901 and renovated and reopened in 1986. I could spend an hour talking about all the history attached to the hotel and name all the presidents and famous people that have stayed at the hotel at one point in time, but I don’t have that kind of time.

I have gotten the chance to meet all the executives of the hotel and interact with them at mealtimes or at various events. No one is treated below someone else. The executives are seated downstairs in the cafeteria socializing with housekeepers. And with over 350 employees, there are a lot of people to meet.

I worked in the Catering and Conference Service Department where we service all the in-house groups that come to stay with us and all local social events in the hotel. On a typical day we can be servicing anywhere between 10 and 20 events. Some are just using the hotel for meeting space and require very little work and some are huge productions from all members of the staff. Inside my department was surprised to learn that I was working with two AHC alums: Katie Newkumet ‘03 and Kalynne McGregor ‘05.

My daily routine would consist of arriving at the hotel around 9:30am and going up to the Executive Offices. The administrative assistants would give me lots of tasks ranging from creating menus and labels for the next days’ events or working on upcoming BEOS. BEO is a banquet event order that basically lists all the requirements for that event. I spells out all the necessary setup, what food will be served, how many people are expected, etc. And everyday all the executives from the different departments meet in the afternoon to go over the BEOs for the next three days. I got to sit in on this meeting almost everyday and saw just how important BEOs are. Without them, the hotel would not be able to run any of their events. I also learned how to do phone and email inquires from potential clients and how to make shop calls and call competitors and find out rates without letting them know you are another hotel. So I would get to make up a story that I just got engaged or I wanted to host a fundraiser event for 200 hundred people and what are the rental fees and food and beverage minimums, etc. This was one of my favorite things!

I got the chance to work at galas, corporate events, and weddings. The hotel also does a huge amount of business with delegations from all over the world. One day I was sitting at my desk and was told to go get in a taxi and go to Union Station to pick up an Armenian flag because we needed to fly their flag outside the hotel. It was a cool adventure for the afternoon. The next week I had to go around to various guest rooms and suites to deliver menus and brochures in Arabic for a State's Department that was coming to stay with us.

But my absolute favorite thing was working at the weddings!! I helped with the setup of one and then actually got to stay through the event for another one. The florists that come in to decorate for the weddings do an amazing job captivating the true beauty of the Willard and the surrounding DC area. Since it’s still spring, we have been using a lot of cherry blossom trees to set the stage. Some of the weddings are both ceremony and reception while others are just reception. So in one evening alone we can be using up to three rooms for just one event! That’s a lot of work for banquet staff but believe it or not it’s even more work when the ceremony and reception are in the same room because then we have to ‘flip’ the room. I got to assist on many ‘flips’ while I was at the hotel. If they knew about a big flip ahead of time, I would be asked to jump in and start setting tables and chairs.

The day of a wedding can be either extremely chaotic or controlled depending on how you manage it. We were able to pull off an amazingly smooth wedding this past Saturday, which left the bride and groom speechless. The room looked amazing, everything went according to schedule, and the guests enjoyed themselves. The most important thing is to never tell a bride when something goes amiss. Yes there were a few glitches but you take them in full stride and fix them fast. Large weddings use fake cakes so when you have sheet cake cut in the back ready to serve. It looks nicer and your wedding cake can be as big as you want it to. But sometimes the brides chose two flavors of cake and the other day we couldn’t tell them apart. So I had to try both and figure it out! I had no problem having some amazing wedding cake to solve the problem. Another one of my jobs was to stay with the bride and father of the bride before the walked in for the ceremony. I loved getting to witness firsthand the interactions between a father and daughter on her wedding day. These are the best moments as part of my job.

I am super sad that time at the Willard is almost over but I shall be returning at the end of the month to help out with an event called Cinderella’s Ball. It’s almost like a huge upscale prom for teens with chronic diseases. The event takes place on a Sunday afternoon and apparently is one of the most fun and saddest events that team ever witnesses. Celebrities come and provide music entertainment. This year we are expecting Mrs. Obama. I am looking forward to being able to make this one evening as special as I possible can for these kids. They deserve it all!