my first day of work

before my first day of work I spoke with my grandmother who asked me to start my first day by going up to the Chef and telling her, "my grandma in california says that i'm wonderful and thought you should know that!" needless to say, i didn't not say that to Chef Kelly upon my first minutes working in her kitchen, but my first day was a hit!
i worked an AM shift which is 9-5 doing all sorts of prep work for dinner. The am sous chef, graduated from the CIA in may, but externed at Primo for one of his 3 required externships. he seems like a really nice guy, proving to me that some CIA grads are actually nice people and not as bad as their reputation that precedes them. I spent the day working along side Tom, who is a mid 50's career changer. he worked in pharmaceuticals to put his 2 kids thru college, once they youngest graduated he enrolled in community college in bangor which is a 2 year culinary program. I can't stress enough what a nice guy he is, but still very new to the world of professional cooking.
most of my time yesterday was spent making meat balls...400 meat balls. these particular ones contained ground beef, ground pork, eggs, bread, marjoram, oregano (picked from the garden), parsley, Parmesan, lemon zest, nutmeg and white wine. the test patty i tried was delicious.
one of the guys (whose name i don't remember so we'll call him X) was making food for family meal and asked me if i knew had to make rice in beans. that is one of those things that would NEVER happen in a NYC restaurant. for the 2 months I worked at the Cleaver Company, where 2/3 of the staff was spanish, I saw rice and beans made every day for lunch. rice and beans in usually a staple in many of the family meals in NYC for obvious reasons. X was making rice and beans to switch things up a little, i was very quickly reminded of the cultural differences between NY and Maine, which many might think is a "duh" kind of thing, but in the context of the professional kitchen in a huge thing to get used to. In a kitchen where I have the best knowledge of how to make rice and beans and the dishwashers are all local high schoolers i guess i'm not in Kansas...oopss i mean NYC anymore toto.
So today is day 2, an evening shift, on the line. i'm very excited and equally as nervous. i know it will be intense, but that's why i do this right?