Pictures speak louder than words...riiiight?

I've been in the kitchen for ten hours-- we serve our first meal tomorrow, and there was a loooot of prep work to do... from weeding the garden to making granola to brewing iced tea and coffee to taking in deliveries...and a million dishes (the dish washers don't get back until tomorrow...). It was really fun and the time went by super fast-- it sure helps to love who you work with! Who can really complain about helping Mariella, the pastry cook, make (and taste) half a dozen different kinds of cookies, or about taking a lunch break with the whole team outside in the courtyard, at a long banquet table, with two different pasta dishes, or about tanning one's shoulders in the garden while randomly snacking on cherry tomatoes while weeding?

Still, we are all exhausted and ended the day with a shot of tequila at the Academy bar... Slightly buzzed, and with a basked to organic milk and yogurt, carrots, pepper, and various other provisions from the garden, my roommates and I walked back to our apartment- determined to leave it again quickly to find another bar, and another drink!

I have to be back in the kitchen tomorrow at 7am. Usually Wednesday should be my day off, but it's the first day, and I could learn a lot and help a lot by being there.

So instead of more words, feast your eyes:

our kitchen table, straight from the garden

we'll be making red chili flakes out of these

the courtyard of the academy

the hall where we our staff lunch
(oh yeah, and starting tomorrow, serve our guests their meals too!)

the kitchen, in its clean glory