THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140561
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER McMENAMIN
STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 90 lines
Most people visit the First Colony Inn for its views, four-poster beds, service and verandas that encircle the three-story bed and breakfast a block from the ocean.
But three students crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the privilege of folding towels, doing laundry, serving breakfast and weeding the grounds of the 64-year-old inn.
They are would-be innkeepers, studying hospitality management in Finland and England.
And their summer internship here calls for chores that might seem menial to someone unfamiliar with the hotel and restaurant management industry.
``We realize the fact that it is a small inn and everybody's got to do everybody's job,'' said Markku Lohi, a 26-year-old student from Tornio, Finland. ``Pulling up weeds and polishing silverware: Everybody does it. Especially us.''
``It's not our favorite job, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do,'' added 25-year-old Jonne Hurtig, also a student from Tornio, who, like Lohi, speaks imperfect English.
Camille Lawrence, the inn's general manager and ``one of nine owners all named Lawrence,'' said the students will learn all the skills vital to hotel management.
``What we're doing here is like keeping house on a grand scale and having a party every day,'' she said. ``Every day we have guests. We clean and get ready for them and whatever they want, we try to do -as long as they're legal and moral.''
Lawrence said an exception to the ``whatever the guest wants, the guest gets'' policy would be a request for alcohol from an underage visitor.
Aside from that, it is her job - and now the job of Lohig, Hurtig, Steve Finney from London and Beth Eldridge, 21, who joins them from Winston Salem, N.C. - to do what it takes to keep the guests comfortable and happy.
And although hotel and restaurant managers rarely are seen pulling up weeds, making beds and washing dishes, those tasks are integral to the students' training, Lawrence said.
``They'll actually be cleaning rooms and putting them back together and inspecting rooms with the head housekeeper. That way, if their housekeeper is having problems, they'll know how to solve the problem,'' she said. ``If they don't know, they probably won't get much respect from the housekeeper.''
Similarly, work at the front desk and with the accounting books will help them become familiar with all facets of their facility.
``For example, our executive housekeeper has been a maid,'' Lawrence said. ``If our housekeepers complain to her that they are being asked to do things that cannot be done, she knows what to expect and what is reasonable.
``She knows where to look for the dirt,'' she added with a laugh.
During their daily break from noon to 4 p.m. - the three overseas interns spend their time sunning, swimming, surfing and ``boogie-boarding'' with a goal of learning to surf.
With their home town of Tornio only 60 or 70 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Hurtig and Lohi said they were surprised by the climate and landscape of the Outer Banks.
``When I got here, I first thought it was a lot like Helsinki,'' Hurtig said, citing his home's flatlands. ``But when I got to the beach, it was like something I had never experienced before. No matter where you look, beach and beach and beach.''
And it's those beaches the trio heads for as soon as they have a break.
``We spend about one hour every day in the ocean because it's so different,'' said Lohi, who rarely went in the chilly waters of the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland - where winters last eight months.
It was the sprawling string of islands that surprised Finney. Used to London's extensive public transportation system, the Englishman described the Outer Banks as ``spread-out'' and ``desolate.''
``I like it because it's peaceful, but . . . if you don't have a car, you're really stuck,'' he said.
Among Hurtig and Lohi's ``must sees'' while in the United States are mountains, the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, an amusement park and other states, including New York. Also, they rank learning to play golf near the top of their priorities while Finney would rather try his hand at fishing.
Such a hobby would fit the 25-year-old, who placed in the finals of a British cooking competition for an original recipe for pesto baked cod with seafood minestrone. The aspiring chef cooked the fish on a piece of pinewood rather than a baking dish to give it a smoked-through flavor.
It's clear why Hurtig and Lohi are so fond of their summer internship after learning about their prior work experience.
``We used to work on building sites in winter in Finland,'' Hurtig said, grimacing. ``So this work is not so bad.'' ILLUSTRATION: DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
ABOVE: Steve Finney of London tends to the grass, one of his many
tasks for the First Colony Inn. RIGHT: The inn's interns, from left,
Jonne Hurtig and Markku Lohi of Finland, and Finney, hope their work
in Nags Head will one day make them better hotel managers. by CNB