Last Day of Training... Hopefully

I was a little nervous for work this morning after my two day weekend of not going over the script at all. That is, during my conscious hours. It turned out fine, though. The very first thing we did this morning was take a truck out. There was a celebrity in the park today who I didn't drive around, but I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have recognized her even had I driven.

As I drove, I suddenly felt something on my arm. I continued talking as I reached over and flicked it off, realizing it was a giant stingy sort of bug. It scared the crap out of me, and I was really proud of myself that I continued my spiel as I silently swiped it off. But then Jeff had to get involved. He started teasing me about tourrettes as I spieled. Then I was working to not giggle as I spoke about the wildebeest. And that's when I accidentally said that "1.5 wildebeest make up the largest migration in the world" instead of "1.5 million wildebeest." Then I was teased for that. Even harder to not laugh. Thankfully, the guests didn't notice and as I listened to them speak amongst themselves, I didn't hear a word of confusion. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if none of them spoke English.

I also worked grouping today. You know, the person who stands at the front of the line and asks "how many?" Easy. Or so it seems. Except that people don't like to listen. Or they don't speak English. Or, worst, when they pretend to speak English and don't and then try to put themselves on the truck or go places they're not supposed to go. My favorite is when the following occurs:

"How many?"

*blank stare*

"How many people do you have?"

"blank stare* "....yes!"

"How many in your group?" *I hold up my fingers to show counting*

"Yes, group! We have group!"

*facepalm*

Today I also saw the big tour group coming down the line. The one where there's about 30 matching bright blue shirts with tons of noisy kids with the chaperone flags. And then the guests I'm loading start to say things like "Looks like we got here at a good time!"

My trainer wished me good luck and then disappeared. The average age in the group was about 10 years old, but the worst part was that when the first kid got to me, and I asked him how many, he responded "Twenty-four." And then I learned that "Twenty-four" was the only word in English this kid, or any member of the group for that matter, knew.

After telling me the number, the kids flooded the loading dock. Entirely out of my control. I finally decided that they'd get their own truck, and explained to one of the chaperones how I wanted the kids loaded. The chaperone, thankfully, spoke English and translated to the group. All I got across to him was "Put four people per row. Four per row!" Then we had an extra couple of rows on the truck I could load so the line kept moving smoothly. Thank goodness!

That job, and the disability area, were the final areas for me to train. We covered both today.

And so alas, I find myself finished with training. Hopefully. I say hopefully because tomorrow is my assessment day. And if I fail assessment then I have to do more training. But hopefully I'll pass. I've never met the guy who's going to assess me, so I'm just hoping he's nice. But I'm also pretty confident that I know everything I need to know as well.

So tomorrow is the big assessment. Hope I pass!