【職場點滴】Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament

When we  just arrrived in Toronto Canada, we lived in an apartment in the south west of Toronto, only about 5 to 10 minutes's walk to Exhibition Place, which is a 192 acres site located along Toronto's waterfront on the shores of Lake Ontario. The site includes a football and soccer stadium, parks, foundtains, a rose garden, statues and several interesting buildings. 

When weather permitted, I often took my child  to play in the park inside that place ( the right part in the following picture) . Sometimes, I cooked the food for dinner and we carried the food to that area. We sat  on the grass  and  ate our food,  while watching  the  birds and boats in the lake.

Do you notice that building in the left side of the following picture? isn't it unique? I often saw groups of people in or out that building.  I was alway wondering what was that building used for? What was inside that building? What were people doing in the building?  

One day, I walked close to the  building to take a look. I saw some words  on the wall: "Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament". I had no idea  what exactly that meant. 

 

One day,  I was reading a free local  newspaper. A small piece of  ads caught my attention. "Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament is hiring". "Is't the place we've been seen many times?" I thought. I continued to read. They were hiring some kitchen helpers and servers. I decided to give it a try.  Why not? If thing didn't work out ,  I didn't lose anything, not even a bus ticket. 

I didn't have the guts to apply the position as a server.  I had barely spoken much English when I was in China, not much even after  I arrived in Toronto.  We did grocery shopping in Chinatown. We went to banking in Chinatown. Both our family doctor and dentist could speak Chinese.  

So I applied the for ketchen helpers position, went for an interview  and got the job. I worked in the ketchen area, helping preparing the foods and drinks, loading dirty plates and pans to the dishwasher , taking the clean ones out of the dishwasher and etc.

I was lucky that all my co-works were very nice, especially  Tony.  

Tony and I started to work  at the same day  and we had the same role. Tony was a white man, in his sixty, with wispy grey hair.   He had a lean body with a slight hump.  He didn't talk much. But he alway got the extra mile to get more things done and he  was alway happy to lend me a helping hand.

Once I worked here, I started to know that there was some kind of show was going on  inside this building. Sometime the show was performed one time a day. There was more show a day during weekend or holiday. The food were included in the tickets.  The audiences watched the show while enjoying their food.

But I didn't know exactly what  the performance looked like  untill  I got a few free tickets on the day of my birthday.  We entered  the show room, took our seats, serviced by the  server with the food and drinks  and watched the performance.  I didn't get the story of the show, only heard the people's shouting  and the horses's neighing. 

Finally, the mysterious veil covering that building was uncovered.

Soon,  we moved out of  Toronto.  But every time when  we drived on the highway, passing this area, I alway took extra  look at this building where I had some unique and fun experience.

In case you never heard about "Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament" before , please refer following introduction from internet.

Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament is a family dinner theater featuring staged medieval-style games, sword-fighting, and jousting. Medieval Times Entertainment, the holding company, is headquartered in Irving, Texas.

There are ten locations: the nine in the United States are built as replica 11th-century castles; the tenth, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is located inside the CNE Government Building.