We got up early... it was about seven in the morning... The manager was supposed to pick us up and take us to work.

We had coffee with donuts we bought yesterday at Walmart.

We loaded into the car and drove to work... It was a 20-minute drive.

Personally, until the moment I worked at McDonald's myself, I always wondered—how??? How do they manage to serve your order within 2 minutes???? After working in this global megacorporation myself, I can say—yes, everything brilliant is simple!!!

A customer places an order—the cashier enters it into the system—a kind of living conveyor belt works in the kitchen—the order appears on a small screen—workers start assembling the order—the color of the paper used to wrap a specific cheeseburger or hamburger is chosen—and then, everyone follows the paper color to add the specific filling to the sandwich... usually, 1 to 4 people work on the line.

Once, a bus full of prisoners was brought to us (they were coming from community service), and each of them ordered 2 double cheeseburgers... We had to assemble all those double cheeseburgers in 10 minutes! We made it...

Lyrical digression number two

If you are ever offered to go work for the benefit of McDonald's... DO NOT AGREE! THIS IS THE HARDEST JOB I HAVE EVER DONE! EXHAUSTING, ON YOUR FEET ALL DAY, YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SIT DOWN EVEN WHEN THERE ARE NO CUSTOMERS! NO PEOPLE—WIPE THE LINE OR MOP THE FLOOR, SWEEP, BUT DON'T SIT! AFTER ALL! WHAT ARE YOU BEING PAID FOR??? A LOT ALSO DEPENDS ON THE LOCATION OF THE MAC... OURS WAS ON THE WAY TO THE BEACH, SO THE MAIN BLOW FELL ON US (WE WORKED FULL-TIME AND EVEN MORE, WHILE OUR FRIENDS IN THE NEIGHBORING TOWN WERE EXPERIENCING A LACK OF WORKING HOURS!!!)

WE WORKED MAINLY WITH ROMANIANS, THAIS, AND RUSSIANS (THEY WERE A MINORITY, UNFORTUNATELY)...

AT WORK, IT WAS FORBIDDEN TO SPEAK ANY LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH! SUPERVISORS GOT WILDLY ANGRY WHEN SOMEONE STARTED SPEAKING THEIR OWN LANGUAGE, GAVE SIDE-EYES, AND MADE REMARKS...

BUT! BY THE END OF THE FIRST WEEK, EVERYONE AT MAC WAS SPEAKING RUSSIAN!!!!! MOREOVER, WE SANG SONGS, IGNORED THE MANAGERS (WHO TURNED OUT TO BE TOTAL SWINE LATER ON).

WE BROUGHT LIFE TO THE TEAM :)

WORK AT MAC IS MONOTONOUS AND BORING, IMHO. YOUR FEET GET TIRED QUICKLY... AND ALSO—EVERYONE CHEATS MCDONALD'S IN THEIR OWN WAY))) PERSONALLY, I LOVE CARAMEL, SO I ALWAYS HAD A CUP FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH CARAMEL AT HOME... DURING BREAKS, WE WERE ALLOWED TO BUY SOMETHING AT HALF PRICE.. AND EVEN THEN, THE MENU WAS STRICTLY LIMITED...

THAT'S ALL ABOUT THE WORK... I GUESS.