Living & Working at Old Faithful

Old Faithful erupting in the background

2 months in Yellowstone - settling down in no time, exploring the hotsprings & geysers, watching stars in the freezing cold nights, hiking here and there, visiting quaint little towns nearby, roasting marshmellows by the campfire & making smores for the first time, sitting at the lodge lobby just chilling all night, making friends from all over America, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Bulgaria, just being amazed and in awe of God's creations and love every single day of my life.

I started working as a dishwasher at the Cafeteria in Old Faithful Lodge for 2 weeks when I first arrived. I was the only girl there and it was kinda a tough job cos some of the pots were quite big and heavy, and yeah it's dirtywork. But God sustained me every single day, blessing me with co-workers that took good care of me :) And I always wanted to know how dishwashers work so that was kinda cool. Soon after I moved on to work at the icecream shop and bake shop, which were whole loads of fun. I got to do cashiering in usd, talk to customers from different countries, swirl lots of icecream which was something random I have always wanted to learn, watch Old Faithful erupt every 90 minutes from the icecream shop, make too many hot chocs at the bakeshop, in addition to toasting bagels and warming up pretzels.

Work was fun (esp at the bake shop), slack (very actually, in the early days of icecream), time-consuming (when i work up to 11hrs on some days), crazy (when the machines did not work, we were out of huckleberry, and the long lines of customers were growing impatient). But that's the whole experience I guess. I thank God for the awesome company at work which made bad days bearable and good days even better:)

And here's a peak into my daily life at Old Faithful. Old Faithful's one of the 7 villages in Yellowstone, it has the largest number of employees and is the most "town-like". As you can infer from its name, it is famous for the Old Faithful geyser which many visitors flock to see, but the area has many more geysers besides OF.

This is my dorm Columbine, there are 4 other dorms in Old Faithful, not including all the log houses behind my dorm. It's 3 storeys, guys on the first, girls on the second, attic on the third. It's 3 to a room with one bathroom for each gender. I like my dorm cos it's less than 5 mins from my workplace (one min if I run haha) and my good friends are all staying in the same dorm. & I am super thankful for really good roommates that made my stay very comfortable:)

Here's my room

My fifteen bucks phone:D 

Most Americans have to get another phone too cos only Verizon works up here.

 Introducing our Employee Dining Room (EDR)

There are 2 EDRs in OF. One at Snow Lodge, the other at Old Faithful Inn. We are not allowed to cook here so all meals have to be taken at the EDR. We have a menu that changes every 20 days. We are also allowed to order up to 4 lunch packs a week which are really useful if we go on hiking trips. The lunch packs consist of sandwiches, a fruit, a pkt of chips, a pkt of 4 mini oreos and a box of raisins. Mealtimes are really early here! 6-8.30am for breakfast, 10.45-1.30pm for lunch, 4.30-6.30pm for dinner.

EDR @Snow Lodge

The newer EDR @Inn

Food

Here's the lobby at Old Faithful Lodge. The icecream shop cant be seen here but it's beside the cafeteria and that's the gift shop with the green door. The bake shop can't been seen here too but it's on the right of the photo. This place is usually extremely crowded esp after a geyser rush. Took this photo really early in the morning.

My icecream shop

Joe cleaning the machine

At the stockroom behind our shop

Dining area in the cafeteria

Bake shop

Salted pretzelsss

Lights at the walkway

The Employee Recreation Hall

Here's the place to play bball/vball/tabletennis/use weights etc. We can even watch movie on the 2nd floor. It's also the place we register for all the trips.

And here's a moment where the bisons came really near the people, in between Old Faitful and the lodge. 

The lady who came toooo near the bisons and many people started screaming at her.

Here's the path from the Lodge to the Visitor Centre & Inn

Bison on our way to EDR at Inn (and hence we had to take another route)

Laurel dorm, just opposite the EDR at Inn

The general store which we past by everyday on our way to snow lodge. The general stores are operated by Delaware North, the only shops not owned by Xanterra in Yellowstone. They have a wide range of souvenirs and daily necessities. The have good ice creams too (12 scoop flavours, $3+ huckleberry in a tub & 99cents huckleberry sandwich)!

Here's snow lodge on the inside

Old Faithful Inn