It’s the Golden Week Holiday so we decided to go to Hang Zhou for a short trip.
The people that went were: Yu Hong (YH), Yi Juan (YJ), Jie Ying (JY), Angela and me.

Woke up at 5am today when I slept at 3am at YH’s place. Took a bus down to Dong Chang Road and reached my place at around 7am where everyone was still sleeping.

Time was spent waiting for YJ, JY and I to pack our stuff and then Angela started packing too. I didn’t have a bag to bring so I stuffed everything into YH’s huge bag while I carried all his camera stuff (you do not know how much camera stuff this guy has man!).

We then headed for lunch downstairs our house before taking the MRT to Shanghai MRT station. When we went out to the train station, we bought our train ticket to Hang Zhou but it was standing tickets which meant that we didn’t have a seat for the 2 hour ride.

To make things worse, we were at the wrong train station. We had to take the MRT all the way to another station to board the train to Hang Zhou.

Our ride was at 2.10pm but we were early. We tried sitting at the then empty seats but soon enough all was filled. We were left standing in between the cabin and it was super squeezy.

The bad thing was that the people would walk back and forth which made us had a hard time standing on the small space. There were even push carts going around throughout the whole journey.

Already being used to being stared at, we started sitting on the floor. Thank goodness no smoking was allowed and the train was reasonably clean.

Finally 2 hours passed and we reached Hang Zhou in once piece! I was already super urgent so I had no choice but to visit the toilet. You wouldn’t wanna know the experience in there! It was classic.

As this was a last minute trip with nothing planned, we still didn’t have a place to stay. We decided to cab down to Shangri-la to ask if we could get staff price because we were seriously clueless where to head to.

Reached the hotel and sadly, we couldn’t get staff rate because it was too last minute! So we tried calling lots of other hotels to ask if the had rooms available but majority of them only have 1 night free and the next 2 nights fully booked because of the Golden Week Holiday.

We were calling other hotels at Shang’s lobby and even got the Front Desk people to help us call hotels! Did this for like an hour before getting a hotel that was available for 3 days at a reasonable price.

Cabbed down to Hua Yang Bin Guan and to our surprise it looked quite nice! Checked-in our stuff and we started planning where to visit for the next few days.

We got hungry after that so we went down to find food. Ate at this franchise beef la mian store which was cheap and good. A bowl of beef la mian costs only RMB4!

Walked in the middle of the road after that to take jumping shots before heading back to the hotel to crash.

With nothing to do on my off day today, YJ and I took a bus down to visit Yu Hong. Finally after almost 1 moth living in Shanghai, today’s the day I took a public bus.

The environment Yu Hong is living in is freaking nice; quiet and it doesn’t feel like China at all.

We then proceeded to have lunch at this restaurant called Hao Xiang Lai. They serve both western food and Chinese food. I ordered a steak set which costs only RMB32 and it comes with soup, drink, cocktail shot, bread, egg, pasta and a piece of steak which was medium rare! It’s been so long since I last had a proper western meal (:

The funny thing that happened was that before serving your main course, the waiter would ask you to shield yourself with the napkin because he was afraid that the food will splatter on you (it’s served on a hot plate).

However, Yu Hong accidently broke the cocktail glass when the waiter asked him to shift his stuff so that he could put down his main course on the table. How fragile can that stupid glass be, once it was pushed it broke into 2 pieces.

Would the restaurant ask you to pay for the broken cocktail glass? Apparently the waitress asked us to pay RMB1.80 for that broken glass. Wth.

Yu Hong then quarreled with them and in the end he gave them RMB10 to shut their mouth and embarrass them.

After the meal, we explored around the neighborhood and we saw vending machines selling condoms for RMB1 each.

Yu Hong and I decided to cab down to Carrefour after that to walk around. Over there I saw SECRET RECIPE!!

Walked around Carrefour and bought junk food and some necessities. We then went to eat at Secret Recipe. Ordered 2 slices of cake only because we were still full from the western meal in the afternoon. I so wanted to eat the Singapore Laksa they had!

Cabbed back to Yu Hong’s place and slacked for awhile before Hans drove to our place to pick us up for dinner. We went to eat street food nearby.

Yes, I’m eating on the streets and I ate stuff like duck intestine, chicken stomach, soft chicken bone etc etc. I think I’m getting a little bit crazy because I told myself never to try weird food!

After stuffing ourselves with so much food, we headed to Han’s house to take a look. We got stuck there doing nothing because Yu Hong was on the phone most of the time and Hans was waiting for him to teach him how to use his new camera.

It was already 2am when Yu Hong explained the camera functions to him and guess what; we forgot to bring out the junk food when we went out! So Han’s drove us back to Yu Hong’s place and I decided to stay over because I didn’t want Hans to send me all the way back home (Han’s is living quite near to Yu Hong).

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KC: I think your lungs are already tainted? HAHA. I'm getting off for 6 days again! :D How's your work huh? Haven't seen you online.

Everyone’s telling me the same thing; but is that the fact?
I don’t know; only you’d know.
Why don't you tell me the answer?

Finally after 6 days of off I went back to work!

There was nothing much for Yu Hong and I (YJ’s on off) to do at work today; we toured around the function rooms to see what events were taking place.

The other function rooms that were under renovation last week had been completed already and is already in use! They are just so damn fast.

We also saw the setting up of some big shot event that’s gonna take place tmr (450 pax) in the largest ballroom in China. They were building platform stages for a fashion show that were inches away from the ballroom’s ceiling (highest ballroom ceiling in China too).

Lunch was spent crapping in in-room dining first for like half an hour before we headed to the staff canteen for lunch. When we went up, our manager attached us to different people.

I was with this lady who toured me around the function rooms (again) and then I just slacked at one of the function rooms where they were doing set-up for the next event happening later on.

Mrs. Tan called us because she was at the Lobby Lounge slacking so Yu Hong and I went down to pay her a visit. Chatted for a bit before she had to leave for a meeting and then take her flight back to Singapore!

Oh, the tailor came down today too! Yu Hong and I got our measurements done already so hopefully we’ll get our tailor-made suits ASAP! :D :D :D

After going to take our measurements, we went to in-room dining again to slack for a bit! This time round the manager and 2 assistant managers were entertaining us (:

Yu Hong and I were supposed to go meet YJ for dinner and we asked if Hans (in-room dining manager) wanted to come along. He agreed and coincidently I met Angela in the changing room so she went too.

Good thing is that he drives so transport wasn’t a problem! I don’t know what street we went to, but it was filled with a lot of street food.

While waiting for YJ and her 2 friends from Singapore to come we walked along the streets and Hans started buying ‘appetizers’ for us to try.

I FINALLY TASTED SMELLY TOU FU!
Eh, it wasn’t THAT smelly. And I quite like it! Haha.

We also ate octopus, duck stomach, chicken wings and takopachi.

Finally YJ and her 2 friends came so we proceeded for our main course- Sheng Jian Bao.

It’s somewhat like Xiao Long Bao; with soup and meat inside but the wrapping is half deep fried and half steamed.

It tasted quite nice but all the food is like super unhealthy! They put in so much MSG.

Oh, did I mention that I’m gonna be off again? From tomorrow onwards I’m off and I’m only going back to work on 5 October. That’s like another 6 days of not working can?! OMG.

So I’ll owe them 4 days; not that I want to okay, its because they aren’t working during the Golden Week so it’s pointless for me to go to work.

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Yasmin: Thanks for the wishes! :D Hope you're having fun for your IAP! :D

KC: Oh I read a lot of bad things about it after we tried it that time! I swore never to do that thing again! Haha.

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!! :D :D :D And I’ve finally turned 19!

My day started off pretty late. We had to wake up earlier because they needed to check out of the hotel before 12pm.

We witnessed a quarrel between some woman and the housekeeping people at the motel before we left. She was shouting and screaming her lungs out!

We also saw another quarrel when walking towards my apartment. 2 teams were quarreling over a tiny scratch on a car. OMG.

And and, after SO long I’ve found a short cut from my apartment to Motel 168!

After that they came over to chuck their luggage at my place and slacked for a while before we headed out for lunch.

I swear I’m getting so sick of the food here! There was nothing nice to eat nearby so we ended up eating Pizza Hut (again!).

Oh, today’s weather is freaking hot- feels like I’m back in Singapore.

We then came back to our apartment to slack a bit before JW and his Godma had to leave for the airport to go holidaying in Hong Kong!

After sending them off (downstairs my house) Joanne and I went to the train station to meet Yu Hong and YJ.

We took the train all the way to some far away station in Puxi and then cabbed down to some place to meet Mrs. Tan for dinner.

The dinner cost over RMB1000 and we had live lobster and I don’t know what other food.

I was like super tired already, but we walked along a street of pubs and I saw shisha! Right that was just so random.

After that we decided to cab back home but had to split cuz we had 6 people so YJ, Yu Hong and I took 1 cab. We sent YJ to some hotel Gina’s staying in before we headed to The Bund to take the ferry back to Pu Dong.

After Yu Hong and I alighted at The Bund, we walked FREAKING FAR to find the ferry terminal! I was in heels, jeans and a knitted top. And did I mention that the weather resembled Singapore? Ugh.

Anws, we finally found the stupid ferry terminal and waited for the ferry. It cost RMB2 only, and the journey took less than 5 mins.

We alighted somewhere near my place but we still had to WALK back to my apartment.

I’m finally going back to work tomorrow! Bye bye holidays :(

Oh, to all that wished me Happy Birthday be it in person, phone calls, on my tag board, friendster, msn, smses (China line), smses to my local line (?)..

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

These wishes really mean a lot to me. Before getting access to the internet, today didn’t feel like my birthday at all. No celebration, no presents, no cake, no song, no special people I wanna spend my day with.

Why can we pretend that nothing has happened? I really wonder what’s going on in your mind..

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KC: Thanks dude (: Why are you so busy?! Work huh? HAHA.

Yi Ting: HELLO. Our apartment's internet was down for like a few days. And your sis is quite lazy to blog. LOL. I'll tell her when I see her tmr!

I woke up at like 1pm today! :D :D :D

Went back to my apartment to bathe and headed back to the motel. JW’s Godma went to buy back KFC (again) for our lunch.

Then JW’s Godma and I took the train down to Qi Pu Lu! SHOPPING! But I didn’t shop today, I’m BROKE. We just walked around and only got a few stuff.

After that we walked back all the way to the MRT station to wait for JW to come join us. And I saw Yu Hong and Jie Ying there! Omg Shanghai’s so huge and we can actually bump into each other there!

Right, so we met up and headed to a restaurant for good food. Sadly, we’re not going to the café in the hotel to eat tmr :( so tonight’s dinner is my substitute birthday dinner.

And it was the best meal I’ve had having spent like more than 3 weeks here in Shanghai!

After the meal, we headed down to Nan Jing Lu to walk around and guess what.

I SAW THE WHOLE GANG OF OIAP STUDENTS WITH MRS TAN. They went out for dinner together and so coincidently I bumped into them!

Walked some more along the streets before taking the last train back to Dong Chang MRT station. After we alighted at the station, we got LOST.

We were walking 1 whole big round all the way back to my apartment so I could get my laptop before heading back to their motel.

My holiday period is so gonna be over soon. Sigh.

Stupid, YJ and Yu Hong lied to me about the job thing yesterday! OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY BELIEVED THEM. Makes me look so stupid -.-

Okay so I woke up at 4am today. For the first time in Shanghai I woke up before the sky got bright!

Went downstairs my house to meet JW and his Godma. The people started setting up their ‘wet market’ already. I saw live chickens being killed okay. OMG.

So a mini-bus came to pick the 3 of us up to Shanghai Train Station. We then had to take the train 2 stops down to reach Su Zhou. The total train journey took about an hour and cost only RMB10. The train was quite clean and nice when we went there.

After arriving at Su Zhou Train Station, we met up with a tour lady who brought us onboard a coach where more (old) people joined the tour.

We visited quite a few places (can’t remember the names though) but we saw a lot of olden days architecture and lakes (rivers?).

Personally I thought that the tour was okay only- I was expecting better because many people said it’s a beautiful place.

The air is as bad as Shanghai’s and it’s much dirtier. The people are quite rude too.

The whole tour lasted from 9am until 5.30pm? And when it ended we had like 2 hours of free time because our train ride back was at 7.30pm.

I hated the train ride back man! Small cockroaches EVERYWHERE. It was so dirty (caused by other people sitting in the train previously) and the cleaner didn’t care! OMG.

I had to sit with my legs curled up for the whole journey cuz I was so scared some cockroach might just land on me somewhere. EEW.

So we took the train back to Shanghai Train Station then cabbed down to Dong Chang MRT Station to shop along the streets (it’s somewhat like a flea market style).

Walked along the streets and bought some stuff. Found “I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry” DVD and we’re gonna watch it later! :D :D :D

I woke up at 11am today :P Went back to my apartment to bathe and wash up before meeting JW and his Godma downstairs my house to eat Jiao Zi for breakfast/lunch.

After that we headed across the road for foot massage! The lady there told us that we could actually book a day tour to Suzhou just behind my apartment!

So after the massage we headed there to enquire about it and yup, we booked our tour already and it cost us around SGD50. I think it’s quite cheap because transport is provided and they tour you around.

Digressing a bit with the holiday mood I’m having now since I’ve got 2 visitors from SG and I’m on leave, I received a call from YJ today regarding work.

She told me that I’ve got taken out of Event’s Concierge because they had way too many people. Actually they didn’t want all 3 of us but because the other 2 were working today and wailed and whined, they only took me out. :(

And now I’m department-less. I don’t even know when I’m going back to work! I’ve actually applied for my off days to be on Mon and Tues and my golden week holiday I’m taking it on Wed and Thurs. So now I’ve gotta wait for them to call me to tell me where I’ll be. I swear this feeling sucks to the core.

We then cabbed down to Super Brand Mall again. We went ICE SKATING!

This time round, the whole rink belonged to us (: And I was crazy enough to wear tee-shirt and shorts AGAIN to skate.

After skating we headed to Pizza Hut for dinner. We then walked around The Bund to snap some photos. I was already so stonned because I didn’t have proper sleep the previous night despite waking up so late.

We then tried hailing for a cab at around 7.50pm outside Super Brand Mall but failed. We tried for like 20mins! Gave up and headed over to the hotel’s taxi stand to wait instead.

I gotta wake up at 4am tomorrow because the meeting time for the tour is 5.15am. Thank goodness the meeting point is just 5mins walk from my apartment.

(I think this is my shortest blog entry so far for OIAP!)

I got woken up by Yu Hong in the morning; he was throwing pillows at me! Ugh.

Anws, it was raining so I wore my shorts and flip flops out but I brought along jeans and heels because there was a dinner at the later part of the day.

Headed over to Motel 168 to look for JW and his Godma. We then went to eat KFC for lunch.

We then cabbed down to Super Brand Mall because they needed to change SGD to RMB. JW also went to get a China line so I can finally contact him.

We roamed around Super Brand Mall and Lu Jia Zhui. Then I toured them at the hotel I was working at.

I was supposed to meet the rest at 4pm outside the hotel because we were all heading out for dinner so the both of them cabbed back to the hotel.

Met Joanne, Angela, YJ, Chang Fang and Jie Ying outside the hotel. Coincidently Mrs Tan and Mrs Ong were shopping at Super Brand Mall so all 8 of us cabbed down to the restaurant.

Turns out that a batch of yr 2 ACC and BFS students were here on a study trip so Mrs Tan arranged for all OIAP students in Shanghai to meet up with them to share our experiences.

Dinner lasted for only an hour so I cabbed down to Motel 168 to look for JW and his Godma.

They hadn’t had dinner so we went down to the lobby to ask where we could find Hairy Crabs. Hopped onto a cab and the uncle drove us to another place which is like an ally of stalls selling hairy crabs, baby lobsters, scallops, quail, oysters and shao kao.

We settled at the most decent looking stall and ordered all of the above except shao kao. We could even go to another stall to buy food and they’ll deliver it to where we were sitting! So we ordered this big bowl of mutton noodles and baked scallops, quail and oysters from another stall.

After eating super local food, we cabbed down to Xin Tian Di. Walked around and settled at some bar. By the time we left it was already very late and we still had to plan our itinerary for the remaining days.

So I went over to the motel to list out the things we wanted to do for the next few days. I was like super duper lazy walk home already cuz it was like 1am so I just stayed overnight there.

It was so hard sleeping cuz I didn’t have my boster to hug and the bed was quite small to squeeze 2 people!

Finally it’s my off day!! :D :D I’ve been working for like 10 days straight if you haven’t noticed.

It was a gloomy day though, rained non-stop. But that didn’t stop us from going out. We went to Puxi to go eat the famous Xiao Long Bao!

It’s quite cheap too. 1 dozen for like RMB8? Depends on which type you order. And it’s so nice!!!!

After the meal, we attempted to walk to Qi Pu Lu to shop. It was supposed to be 1 MRT station away but we walked for like half an hour or more! To make things worse, it was raining and the floor was dirty and muddy and wet and I was in jeans.

We reached our destination but none of us had to mood shop. Maybe because we were too tired. We first looked at bags and shoes and no one bought anything.

It only started when we went to look at clothes. In total I spent around RMB300 there today.

After Qi Pu Lu, we took the train home and then I cabbed all the way to Pudong International Airport (cost me RMB128) and took about 1hr. I reached there at 5.40pm when Jun Wei’s flight was supposed to arrive at 5.30pm.

There was no sign of his flight on the arrival board so I waited for a while and realized that his flight was delayed and will only reach at 6.50pm.

I was so hungry and trying to look for a fast food restaurant to eat but failed. In the end I bought Lays potato chips and a drink- that’s my dinner.

Finally Jun Wei and his Godma came out at 7.30pm. I GOT MY TONG HENG EGG TARTS!!

Cabbed all the way back to Motel 168 so they could check-in. Their room is so much nicer than what we had last time! Omg so not fair.

I slept for awhile while Jun Wei was so excited he could access the internet. It was already 11pm when I woke up and we went down to take a walk.

I brought them to my apartment to take a look and then we went hunting for food. But nothing was opened at like 11.30pm!

So I went home and they headed back to their motel. I went to iron my clothes after that and the stupid internet connection isn’t working again.

OMG I just realized its 4.15am after typing out my blog. :x BED TIME!

I had to wake up at like 6.30am today because there was an extra person that needed to use the toilet.

And we managed to squeeze 5 people into a cab to work today! :D

Today’s another day of training. This time round it was about food hygiene and safety.

The class was quite small today and we didn’t get to sit right at the back.

From the start of the class at 9am until 11am I was busy “blogging”. I brought along my notebook and pen to class today because we wanted to settle our money. The speaker today was also stricter than others and because there were so little people it was quite hard to talk and make noise. We also heard the HR dept complain to our lecturer that we were quite rowdy during orientation. :/

So in order to keep awake, I started writing away. I wrote like 5 and a half pages in my notebook.

Then it was lunch time. The speaker told us that our lunch ended at 1pm.

We took our own sweet time to go to the moon cake room, find our assistant manager, chill at in-room dining and ate lunch.

When we went back at 1pm, it was actually time given us to revise what the speaker told us in the morning because at 3pm there was a TEST.

Yeah right, who would actually study? I didn’t even listen to a single thing the speaker said in the morning!

Slacked in the room and fell asleep until 15mins before the test.

There were some hardworking people who tried to study, but sadly I can’t remember anything under these circumstances.

The test was quite funny; there was no test paper- only a piece of blank white paper given to us. The speaker wrote questions on the board and we had to answer them.

Thankfully again we could write our answers in English! It was supposed to be a closed-book test, but after the first question the speaker said “don’t be so noisy, just see whatever you need and write the answers down” so everyone took out their little handbook to find answers!

In the end everyone helped everyone and we finished 20 questions in 1 hour (:

So we were dismissed from work at 4pm. We didn’t go back immediately though, we went to collect more moon cakes and then went to in-room dining to slack until 6pm.

The weather at night now is quite cooling. We walked home and went to eat dinner at some place we passed by. RMB15 for this HUGE bowl of beef noodles!

Walked back home and headed out to Jia De Li to buy 4 huge bottles of mineral water and a broom (because you can’t imagine the amount of hair 4 girls can drop in like 1 week). I also went down to Motel 168 to book a room for the 2 people that are coming to visit me tomorrow! :D :D :D

I’m gonna get like 1 week off from work. From tomorrow onwards I’ll be on off and only going back to work on Saturday!

YJ and I decided to take a cab down to work today because the weather was quite hot. There’s no more typhoon in Shanghai already! Boo hoo.

It was our official day at our new department and when we reached at 9am; our manager was still on the way to work. So, the 3 of us went roaming around from in-room to the moon cake room to the event’s office.

We met our manager’s assistant and she started by letting us read about our job scope. Basically what we’re doing is to coordinate between the client and hotel when they want us to help them plan an event.

She then toured us around all the function rooms in T2 and then to T1. We also saw some function rooms that were still under renovation.

After the tour (which took around more than 1 hour) our boss finally arrived. He explained more stuff to us and soon enough it was 11am. YJ and I were hungry by then because we didn’t have time to eat breakfast in the morning.

Oh, YJ forgot to bring her locker key out today and he had to pay RMB20 to ask the HR dept to lend her a spare key.

So yes, we went for lunch and were told we could re-tour the function rooms to take photos after that.

When we went into the lift to go back upstairs after lunch, we saw our HR Manager. We knew that BA’s directors and Mrs Tan was coming to pay us a visit because they were already in other parts of China visiting other OIAP students.

We didn’t have Mrs Tan’s China mobile number so we decided to ask our HR Manager if she knew what time Mrs Tan was coming over.

So coincidently our HR Manager was on her way to meet them! So we followed them to the lobby to look for them.

Chatted for a bit before the 3 of us went back to ‘work’ while our HR Manager toured them around the hotel.

We then roamed around the function rooms to take photos and we bumped into them at the café. Gathered all 6 of us (Joanne was on off) and took group photos right in the middle of the hotel. I think a lot of staff knew that we had some big shot people visiting us from Singapore :P

After all that, the visitors and our HR Manager went to the café for lunch. We met our manger and told him that our lecturer was here and brought him to visit them.

Turns out that my new manager knows my LO! This world is so small.

Right, after the big hoo-ha about our lecturers coming, it was back to work. Our assistant manager gave us 2 thick stacks of SOPs to read while they went out for lunch. We were inside the meeting room and they left us alone. If you think we religiously read the think stack of notes, you are thinking too highly of us :P

Armed with Yu Hong’s DSLR, we started taking photos of us “studying”!

After 1 hour, they asked the 3 of us to follow them to somewhere because they were preparing for an outdoor catering event.

They hired a big bus because banquet support staff was supposed to go there to work and we tagged along to see how the whole thing works.

We were like on an EXCURSION! And yes, we did take the camera along with us to snap photos!

I feel that it was an eye-opener for us. I saw whatever we learnt in CEM being applied in real life.

The event was scheduled to start at 6pm but since yesterday our hotel staff had been down to location to prepare everything.

From banquet staff to people from housekeeping to the stewarding department to kitchen chefs, the hotel provided all manpower needed to run the event. The only thing about outdoor catering is that the location is not in the hotel itself.

Even dinner for the hotel’s staff is by our staff canteen.

We toured around a bit and with nothing to do already; we cabbed back to the hotel with our assistant manager. Reached the hotel at around 4pm and we ended work! :D

Was supposed to go down to Puxi to meet Mrs Tan and the rest for dinner but it was still so early so we changed and went to in-room dining to slack.

Saw the staff there getting moon cakes and we asked if we had any. Our manager gave us a ‘hamper’ each (: Yup, the hotel gives all its staff moon cakes and inside the ‘hamper’ are 6 moon cakes. Quite generous.

Crapped with our mangers till 6.15pm before meeting the rest to go to Puxi together. We went to some Chinese restaurant at a high-end shopping mall to eat dinner.

Dinner was great! The company was great as well. It’s only been 3 weeks since we’ve got here and we already have so many stories to tell Mrs Tan and the directors! In the end, we finished dinner at around 10pm.

Since we were already in Puxi, we decided to head to Xin Tian Di to chill. Not everyone went though, only Yu Hong, Jie Ying, Joanne, YJ and I went down.

There was like no cabs in sight and because we had 5 people, it was quite hard for us to sneak into a cab.

First, we flagged for one cab and all of us got in but the cab driver refused to start the car when we were already seated nicely in the cab with the door closed. What to do? We went out of the cab and SLAMMED the door shut. It was so funny!

After that we were walking to and fro across the road trying to hail for a cab. We even stood in the middle of the road to try to get a cab. We are already quite used to the traffic scene in Shanghai now.

The second cab, we flagged it and opened the door from one side. Before going in, some bitch opened the door from the other side and hopped onto the cab!

Stupid CAB STEALER! We let her have the cab but we were loudly cursing and swearing at her across the road until that cab driver looked out of his window at us.

Imagine this scene. Wide road, full of cars, 4 girls and 1 guy walking across the road like it’s our grandfather’s and cursing and swearing and laughing at the same time! CLASSIC.

Finally we managed to get onto a cab and distracted the driver so he didn’t realize it was 5 people. Reached Xin Tian Di at around 11pm. I don’t know why it’s a tourist attraction though because the clubs/pubs are all so limited.

We first went into this German restaurant and wanted to order a jug of beer. But guess what, they don’t serve beer in jugs! We then decided to give them face and ordered an ice-cream to share but the policy in the restaurant was that each person had to order a drink. Yes, we walked out without ordering anything in the end.

Headed for another bar after that and settled down there. There was a band from Philippines playing live and we ordered drinks.

It was quite crowded at first but by 12am almost everyone was gone. Maybe it’s because we went on a Thursday night but the bar closes at 2am.

We spent quite some time there and left at around 1pm. Cabbed back to our place and Yu Hong and Jie Ying stayed over at our apartment.

Washed up at all of us slept at like 2.30am when ALL of us had to go to work early in the morning the next day. Call us crazy.

Because we heard that there was going to be a typhoon this early morning, yesterday night we thick-skinly called our in-room manager and asked if we could get a lift to the hotel but that means that we have to meet him at 7am downstairs our house.

And when Joanne woke up at 5am today and I woke at 5.30am today THERE WAS NO SIGN OF RAIN WHAT-SO-EVER. So we called our manager again and told him that we could go to the hotel ourselves.

Headed back to sleep and we left our house at 8.15am.

It was the last day of orientation today. Same thing, we spent the whole day inside Training Room A.

We were given this booklet (in Chinese) and there were blanks we had to fill up (in Chinese too). It’s been so long since I’ve written Chinese and we were always the last ones to finish copying all the stuff. I don’t know why I bothered to copy because I couldn’t read or understand what I was writing but copying made me not doze off!

After lunch there was a test we had to do after the whole orientation. And yes, the test was in CHINESE.

Like seriously, we didn’t study nor pay attention in class for the past 2 days! We were so going to be screwed.

But in the end during the test, the 7 of us and the Australian guy started helping one another and passed answers down. We even got help from the speaker to help us translate whatever we didn’t know how to read. We also wrote our open-ended questions in English. Thankfully we could do that!

It was no ordinary test where you passed with 50%, you needed 80% to pass! And they tested us from the year the hotel was built, who was the founder, who is the current CEO, how tall is the building, mission, vision, guiding principles etc etc etc.

But hey, 8 brains can do wonders! We were just slow in handing up our paper because of language problems.

After the test there was a tour around the hotel but we were exempted from it because we had already toured it like 3 times!

So Yu Hong, YJ and I had to change our uniforms because from tomorrow onwards we’ll be in Events Concierge.

We’re wearing SUITS! :D :D :D

But we had a difficult time at the place where we exchanged uniforms. The in-charge there was so bitchy and refused to give us what we want. There weren’t extra suits for us and we had to wear other people’s suits.

The thing is that these suits are custom-made for the staff and it takes 1 month to get it done. So they tried their best to find what best fitted us but the one they gave me, the sleeve was too short and the skirt was too tight.

YJ’s had problems too and we requested if we could change our skirt and the bitchy in-charge kept saying NO.

Yu Hong’s suit was like too long for him also lah.

So what could we do with such a bitchy person right? We called our new manager to tell him the situation and asked him if he could tell that in-charge to give us whatever we wanted. He didn’t even want to speak to her! He said he’ll ask his assistant to call the department.

Soon enough, we heard the phone ring and that bitchy in-charge was like called up. We waited and waited and when she came down she changed our skirts to something similar and it fitted much better.

I think she hates us man; because just 1 phone call and she had to give us what we wanted. Too bad our manger’s a big shot Singaporean there :P

After all that, we could go home. But since YJ and I changed out of our uniform we couldn’t go into the staff canteen to eat dinner.

We headed to Super Brand Mall to have Burger King for dinner while waiting for Joanne and Angela to come over.

It was raining already and the wind was super strong. Heard from a French Manager that there’ll be a typhoon soon and it’s the worst so far in Shanghai.

After dinner it was raining and there was wind. But it wasn’t that strong. We could even WALK HOME. Yes, I think we’re mad. Got cab don’t wanna take, chose to walk home when it’s windy and rainy.

I just finished watching Dr. Doolittle 3 and now we’re watching Garfiled the Movie which is in CHINESE.

First day of work in Events Concierge tomorrow; how exciting!

Replies

KC: There's nothing to take during a typhoon eh. And they said there was going to be 1 today but nothing serious! It's like normal rain, but with stronger winds!

I'm sick. Damn it. It was sore throat a few days ago and yesterday night I coughed like I had TB. And now my nose is blocked. Oh wth.

It rained the whole night yesterday and we stupidly left our clothes out to dry. And it’s still outside now and it’s still raining! Ugh we intend to bring it in tomorrow morning and re-wash it.

So we used our rainbow coloured umbrella’s today! :D When it rains, it’s super hard to get a cab. We waited around 10 mins before we persistently went into 1 cab.

Our whole day was spent inside Training Room A again. This time round they spoke to us about security, HACCP / SFSMS and fire safety.

Security and HACCP / SFSMS was before our lunch break (9am – 12.30pm).

At first I was still quite awake, but after the first topic I started to feel sleepy. Dozed off quite a number of times because I didn’t understand what the speaker was saying and I’ve actually learnt all those stuff during FABM and HOM in school.

After the lunch, we had around 3 hours of fire safety procedures (which we already learnt during the IMF period). I couldn’t take it already, I slept! And after sleeping I got restless and this was when the 7 of us made quite some noise because we were laughing at our own jokes.

Then at like 4.30pm there was a walk-about at the back stage of the hotel (which we already toured like 2 times because we asked our manager to bring us around when we were free).

So we walked pass the laundry area, in-room dining, offices etc etc.

Oh did I mention that there was a typhoon at Zhe Jiang area today? Quite serious I think, and our manager told us to come out of our house earlier tomorrow because there’ll be a typhoon too. :/

We ended work at 5pm? We met Aaron in the lift and decided to go to the staff canteen for dinner together.

Who’s Aaron? He’s this little boy that we met when we were packing moon cakes. Yes, he’s damn young, turning 17 years old this year. He’s from Si Chuan and ran away to come to Shanghai to work. His name is actually Shen Xin and I gave him the name Aaron because everyone in the hotel has a Christian name!

Seriously, if you don’t have one the HR dept will give you one. This resulted in me seeing really strange names such as Forrest, Echo, Lemon, Cissy etc etc.

Okay so back to Aaron, he’s really innocent and keen to learn. He just started work for 1 week and is actually in the Banquet department working in the store room but because of the moon cake thing going on, he’s being posted there to work until the moon cake thing is over. He’s so quiet and shy lah (and not too bad looking).

So all of us have like a soft spot for him because he now lives in the hotel’s dorm (which is super small, dirty and smelly) and he comes across really genuine.

And since all of us were off from work and he also ended his shift already we decided to bring him to Super Brand Mall because after working for 1 week in Shanghai can you believe that he hasn’t walked around the hotel at all?

We brought him to the arcade to play games but stopped by a restaurant first because we wanted to try their Portuguese egg tarts. (I MISS TONG HENG EGG TARTS!!!)

We then headed to the arcade to play some games. He hasn’t stepped into an arcade before you know. He was quite shy at first but after a while he got more comfortable with us.

After playing games like car racing, shooting basketball into hoops etc we stopped to play some bowling game where you earn tickets to exchange for stuff.

We played until we had enough tickets to get Aaron a Nike wristband. He was really happy and thankful.

Did I mention he was also very keen to learn English? And because he was never taught English before it’s easier to teach him the correct pronunciation of words. We are planning to buy for him a notebook so he can record down the English words we teach him.

We’re also encouraging him to quit smoking (he’s been smoking for 3 years already) and he’s really listening to us! Like, we told him he can’t smoke anymore today and he really listened.

The scenario was like this. We were all outside his locker because we were waiting for our manager and he told us he received RMB20 tip yesterday. He then took out his packet of cigarettes and put it in his pocket. So Yi Hong asked how did he spend the RMB20? He said RMB10 was on that packet of cigs (yes they are DAMN cheap here) and he still had another RMB10.

I then said “are u going to use that RMB10 to buy another packet?” He nodded his head and YJ, Yu Hong and I started “preaching” to encourage him to kick the habit. Yu Hong then said “you give me the RMB10, I’ll keep it for you and return it to you next time.”

If you were him, would you give Yu Hong the RMB10? No right. But he took it out of his pocket and gave it to him! Obviously we didn’t take it lah.

Such a nice guy right, how can we not have a soft spot for him! He’s the kind that will surely kanna bully by other people in the hotel lah!

So after the arcade session we went down to Lotus to walk around a bit and show him around.

It was already 8.20pm and we decided to walk home while the guys went to take their bus. But we knew that there was a shuttle bus from Super Brand Mall to somewhere near our home.

Explored a bit and realized the last bus was at 8.30pm. So yay! We had our first bus experience in Shanghai today although it was a shuttle bus and not a public bus.

I have no clue what we’re gonna do for orientation tomorrow man. Hopefully we’ll end early!

Gonna watch Pink Panther now! :D :D

Replies

KC: Yes, I'm like holidaying! I think I'll officially feel like I'm working ony after the first week of October?! :D

Nadia: HELLO BEST FRIEND!! I miss you tooo!!! Quick, come and find me! :D

It’s been quite some time since the 4 girls went to work together. And since there was 4 of us, we decided to CAB (:

Boy oh boy was it boring during the orientation. There were about 30+ people altogether inside the training room.

It started at like 9am when the speaker introduced the mission, vision etc. It was so boring because we heard all these before already!

Then all the big shots of the hotel came to present 8 guiding principles.

Okay, did I mention that the orientation was all in CHINESE?

Except when the big shots were presenting, because 90% of them are not local. But there was still translation into Chinese and it wasn’t very accurate.

Lunched for 1 hour, but we only took half an hour. We then headed back to in-house dining to go drink honey lemon water! We made like 5 cups altogether and even told our manager. He didn’t say anything!

After the break we had to back to the room again. Another speaker came in and spoke to us about grooming standards.

At that point of time, we were quite restless already. Some comments were passed which resulted in very loud laughter!

Oh, something totally embarrassing happened to me. I made peppermint tea after the lunch break and brought it back to my seat. While stirring it, somehow I slipped and the whole cup of hot peppermint tea spilled all over me.

OUCH. Damn painful cuz the water was very hot. And it was super embarrassing also cuz everyone stared at me!

We also started drawing all over our booklet (which was in Chinese) because we were so bored. Then we had to fill up some blanks in the book (in Chinese) but I gave up and wrote everything in English.

Good thing is that not only the 7 of us were poor in Chinese, but a guy in front of us (Australian) didn’t understand too!

Joanne then started to teach YJ and I how to sing Happy Birthday – hotel’s Café’s version.

We went outside the room to try to sing! I got the tune (because it was the same as Barney’s theme song) but YJ took ages to get it!

The training ended at 5pm. Oh, there’s a test after the whole orientation? We are so screwed because it’s in Chinese. We told them we’ll need like half a day to complete the paper not because we don’t know how to do it but because we can’t read or write.

After the orientation, we decided to go to Super Brand Mall to check out the ice skating rink. No intention of skating- just to check out the prices and all.

BUT only today there was some discount thing going on and the total amount each person needed to pay was RMB50 for 2 hours to skate. Quite tempting because this discount is only on every Monday for this month.

And I was in such a wrong attire for ice-skating. Tee shirt and shorts!

But because we don’t know when the girls will have the same shift again we decided to ice-skate!

And the rink was EMPTY. We had the whole skating rink to ourselves for like 1 hour before a few more people came to skate (:

I was COLD, but not that cold! I could still survive despite wearing so little.

After the 2 hours, we walked back and went to the supermarket to stock up on juices and junk food. I am so going to die, buying junk food like nobody’s business.

Orientation is so boring; I’d rather be packing moon cakes!

I woke up today with a worse throat. Downed Pi Pa Gao like nobody’s business and popped Strepsils, but it still doesn’t work :(

Time passed fast today because…. when we went up to the in-room dining department, the guy in-charge of the moon cake’s came over and wanted to borrow staff to help them pack moon cakes! So our assistant manger sent YJ, Yu Hong and I down to help them.

There was a huge room specially for customers to collect their moon cakes. They would purchase vouchers and then come over to claim their goods. The “store room” was filled from top to bottom with A LOT of cartons of moon cakes!

We were practically a factory production line.

Yu Hong would take out the moon cakes from the carton box, I would check if the moon cakes are properly placed and YJ would put the moon cakes into paper bags.

That’s how we worked from 9.30am till 12pm, and then we went for lunch. I’m so happy time passed so fast!

After lunch, the in-charge at the moon cake thing asked YJ and I to go down to the finance department to chop vouchers. We were quite excited at first because we could get away from the manual labor job.

But when we arrived there, chopping the vouchers sucked big time! There were only 2 of us chopping the vouchers and the finance department didn’t turn on their air-con!

In total YJ and I chopped like almost 3000 vouchers. HAND PAIN.

We were like MACHINES chopping, flipping the vouchers, packing the vouchers etc etc.

Imagine, we were told to chop 2 boxes and we only completed 1 box (3000 vouchers) and we were already half dead. The person at the finance department asked us to do the next box and we refused! In the end she asked us to send another 2 people down to chop the other box but we didn’t bother cuz no one wanted to go down.

Headed back to the moon cake room to continue packing more moon cakes and continued our production line until 5pm.

Oh, they also let us eat moon cakes! The most expensive one some more, we’re just so lucky!

The people there are real nice too. Very easy to talk to and crap with, even with our in-charge.

And by 5pm they let us off already!

Yu Hong, YJ and I then headed to Super Brand Mall to eat dinner because we are all so sick of the canteen food already.

We ate at PIZZA HUT! :D Each person only had to pay RMB36.

After that we headed to Lotus to buy fruits and other stuff we needed at home.

Tomorrow’s actually my off day!! But damn, I have to go to the hotel’s orientation programme :(

And the best part, IT’S IN CHINESE. I pray hard I don’t fall asleep tomorrow.

Replies

Jun Wei: WHAT LIE?!?! See you when you come find me here! :D :D

I woke up with a sore throat today morning :(

And, we cabbed to work. Ugh. It took us less than 5 mins to get there by cabbing and 25 mins by walking!

Anws, we did NOTHING again today. Our manager was on leave to celebrate his birthday so we only had his assistant with us.

He took us to the other tower’s in-house dining and we snapped photos. I got Yu Hong to bring his SLR along so we could take nice photos.

We also laughed non-stop again today. I can’t believe we did nothing but laugh, eat, chit chat, learn some shanghainese, laugh, eat etc etc.

We even went to open the mini bottles of honey and made honey lemon drinks for ourselves. Our assistant manager saw and didn’t even say anything.

Oh, the stewarding department had a big quarrel today! We heard someone scolding someone. Damn funny, we laughed until I had stomach pain.

It was like 4.45pm and Joanne came over and said it was her dinner break. I tried my luck asking my assistant manager if we could go down to eat and he said YES (we already had our lunch break at 11.30am).

We finished eating (slacking) and went up at around 5.10pm. Hanged around for less than 5 mins and one of our colleague said we could go off already.

Okay, today was my worst locker experience. I think I went in at peak period and there were so many people inside!

I was surrounded (left, right, behind) by NAKED women parading around happily cleaning themselves and chit chatting. I swear it was not a pretty sight.

After work Angela, Jie Ying, YJ and I went for FOOT MASSAGE! :D :D :D

It wasn’t as good as the previous time; the lady didn’t have enough strength. Oh well, I shall request for a guy to massage me the next time I go.

We then went across the road to buy dinner home. Jiao zi and suan la tang (:

I’m super sleepy man. Tomorrow’s the last day in in-house dining already.

And to think I’d get Monday and Tuesday off, but I don’t think so because we’re changing departments.

I pray hard my new manager keeps his promise of giving me my off days man.

Work was boring today. It rained in the morning and YJ and I had to carry an umbrella to work but we still got quite wet.

Oh, today’s exam results day! And having to report to work at 9am, I couldn’t go online to check my results.

But not to worry because I got my daddy to help YJ and me check and he called us at like 9.15am to report to us how we did!

I don’t know to be happy or what. But I’m fine with what I got.

The whole time of today, we were laughing and laughing. We also went around taking photos because we had like nothing to do.

Went down for lunch, went up and did nothing again.

I seriously don’t know how we managed to pass the day man.

Sent a few emails for them, laughed and crapped. Sat in for their meeting and it was already close to 4.30pm.

Somehow or rather they asked us to go eat dinner? Weird, but heck we had nothing to do anyways.

Ate till around 5pm and when we were taking the lift up, we saw our manager and he said we could go home already! :D

Headed over to Super Brand Mall and after that planned to shop but I didn’t buy anything. I had my dinner at Burger King (couldn’t stand the same kind of food I’m eating now).

Then we went to meet Jie Ying outside the hotel to go to the bakery to buy food.

While we were walking home, we suddenly heard some loud noise. Saw a firework shoot over behind the building. We thought it was someone putting fireworks so we didn’t bother.

Walked some more, and then we heard more sounds. We RAN towards the light and sound and realized that it wasn’t people playing with it. We literally saw the fireworks display for around 10mins.

Yu Hong and Jie Ying then came over to our place. Gossiped, laughed, crapped, watched some videos they took during Cambodia and gossiped some more.

Sleepy already man. And tomorrow we’ll have nothing to do again. Will be laughing and laughing until they can’t stand us and send us down for lunch again :P

Replies

KC: Yes, Karen emailed me already!! Heard she's waitressing there. We're soon to have lots of stuff to do I guess!

I killed a nymph yesterday! YJ substituted the insecticide for our only air freshener and I slapped it dead with a slipper! :D

And I didn’t spend a single cent again today!

Went to work, and from 9am-10.30am Yu Hong, YJ and I were folding and pasting paper rings. The rings are supposed to hold the napkins. In total we made around 320 of those things within an hour and a half.

After that we had nothing to do again until 11.30am we went down to have our lunch break.

After lunch, we were also quite redundant. I spoke to my manager about my leave and finally he allowed me to carry it forward (:

There were like no emails today for us to help them type though.

We were then told to go for training about putting make-up at 2pm.

Headed over to the training room and the whole training session was in Chinese!

It was quite boring, mainly because I’ve been through these classes like 3 times before. After like 1hr, YJ and I decided to go visit the toilet cuz we were honestly quite urgent.

While walking past the HR dept, we saw our whole in-house team walking past with 2 trolleys of food and cake. They were going to the other training room to give our manger a surprise because it was his birthday today!

Good thing YJ and I went out of our training room because we joined them. Cut cake, sang song etc.

After the whole mini celebration we had to go back into the boring class. The speaker was already putting make-up on the model and after a while we were done (4pm).

Headed back to our department and we were told that the second F&B head wanted to meet us at 4.30pm. This spells trouble man.

And yes we were correct, all 3 of us in in-house dining are going to be shifted to the Banquet department ):

Sucks. There goes our honeymoon period at in-house. But we’re not Banquet banquet, our job scope’s more like an event coordinator. The middle-man between the client and the hotel’s staff.

We’ve gotta go thru another week of training next week again. And our working hours and shifts will so not be regular anymore.

But we get to change out of our current uniform (which isn’t very nice in my opinion) and get to wear suits? Something like that I think..

The most important thing, can I still get off on the days that I requested earlier for at in-house?

I asked and asked them to confirm like a million times. And yes, thankfully, I hope it’s confirmed that they are able to let me off on 24-28 Sept.

So we’re gonna change manager soon, our new manager’s a Singaporean.

Personally I think that I’m gonna learn a lot more with this new position because being in in-house, I’m not really learning anything but I have a real good manager and working hours and off days.

I have like the last 3 days in in-house. And you know what day tomorrow is?

EXAM RESULTS DAY :O

Replies

KC: I'm shifting to another dept already, so I think I'll have more things to do! That French guy, heck him. His accent's real strong though, quite sexy. OOPS!

Day 12 (11 Sept 07)

Today’s our last off day!

Oh right, let me first send out a birthday shout out to TAN JUN WEI.

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY!! :D :D

At around 8am, the door bell rang and they came to repair our washing machine while Joanne and I were still sleeping. YJ was the only one that entertained him.

We then finally woke up at around 10am and watched a DVD- Perfect Stranger (:

Then we did housework (AGAIN). Washed the new bed sheets, swept the floor, mopped the floor, cleaned the kitchen etc etc.

Oh I’ve also mastered the skills of folding up plastic bags already!

After that YJ went down to cut her hair and Joanne accompanied her. I went to bathe and all before joining them downstairs.

We realized that the salon just opposite our apartment costs RMB25 for cut, wash and blow!

YJ took quite some time, so Joanne and I headed across the road to eat our lunch! We ordered “jiao zi”. RMB12 for 18 pieces!

Bought more DVDs along the street. I think all my off days will be spent watching DVDs.

After that YJ and I walked down the streets and we bought some box to hold our make-up and another laundry basket.

We couldn’t find what we still needed, so we decided to cab down to Super Brand Mall (Zheng Da Guang Chang) to shop at Lotus (the Giant look-a-like thing).

Bought more necessities and then cabbed back.

The 4 of us then went down to buy our pillow and mat. While walking there, there were a lot of roadside stalls selling a lot of stuff.

I decided to buy a fake Chanel wallet (the stupid guy asked for RMB75 and I bargained until RMB30) so I don’t have to use the one I’m using now.

I then spotted an umbrella which was super pretty! Its RAINBOW colour! Bought it at RMB20.

Okay, I think many of us are very forgetful. I forgot to take my receipt while at Lotus, YJ forgot to collect our keys we went to duplicate earlier in the day and YJ also left our adaptors at the salon she went to cut her hair at.

But, we got everything back in the end (:

Came back home and settled money issues and also household rules.

Can’t use the internet again for god knows what reason so we’ll be watching Fido later before sleeping!

WORK TOMORROW. Boo hoo.

Day 13 (12 Sept 07)

YJ and I broke the record today, WE DIDN’T SPEND A SINGLE CENT :D :D

So, work started at 9am for the both of us and we walked down earlier to have breakfast. They had “jiao zi” again. Yum yum.

We thought it was going to be a damn slow and boring day because we still had like nothing to do. And Yu Hong wasn’t in the same shift as us today. We didn’t know until we got there and called him. Apparently he was asked to work at the Banquet side today from 3pm till I don’t know what time. Poor guy.

From 9am till about 11.30am YJ and I practically did NOTHING. We were stoning, helped to clear some plates when there were trolleys being sent back and FINALLY, finally we felt that we weren’t so useless after all!

This lady called Grace asked YJ and I to help her reply emails! IN ENGLISH (:

So we practically helped her send emails to different people until 11.30am. It was a fun process because we got to know what was going on and all.

After lunch, our manager also asked us to type emails for him too!

We got first hand information about guests’ complaints and how the department is going to resolve the problem and also internal miscommunication within the departments.

I was helping my manager type this email about this ice cream incident that happened yesterday night. Apparently my manager and the chef agreed that the chef’s staff would deliver the ice cream to our tower but they refused to yesterday. After typing the whole email, guess what. THE CHEF CAME OVER TO OUR ROOM.

And I was then asked to be their interpreter and the whole email was wasted.

Lets talk about the 2 complaints we’ve typed out today too because I think it’s quite retarded, especially the first one.

Some guest ordered room service and said that the food was COLD, but in actual fact it was warm enough to eat and not burning hot. And in the email we sent to the head of F&B in the hotel, we mentioned something like “next time we will ensure that we serve this guest extremely hot food”. Weird people, how can they consume food that is extremely hot :/

The second one was 2 Japanese men at the bar. Firstly they ordered some kind of whisky and when the waiter took it for them and told them the price they said it was too expensive. They then ordered another kind of whisky, asking for double whisky. The waiter mistook it for double shot whisky and sent only 1 glass to them. In the end, they realized it was 2 glasses the guys wanted so the whole process took about 45mins so the guest complained.

Right, enough about emails and all. But that was what we did the whole afternoon! It’s quite time consuming because first our manger has to tell us the whole story so we get the picture, then slowly he’ll put what he wants to say in simplified Chinese and we type out the email for him in English.

We were also involved in their meeting at around 4pm. They told the staff about all the complaints that we’ve known already and also today a lot of VIPs are checking into the hotel.

Then this French guy (I think he’s quite big shot) came in and there was like a spot check. Hair, nails, accessories, shoes, socks and the 16 non-negotiables.

He said my hair was too messy (because of all the baby hair) and my watch was too stylish, but who cares. My manger doesn’t bother. Haha.

After the whole meeting thing, there was a request to bring up this barrel of Carlsberg Beer to a guest’s room. Having nothing to do, YJ and I asked if we could follow them up and also see the room! :D

We were back by 5pm and had like half an hour left. We felt super out of place because everyone was busy doing stuff and YJ and I stood there doing nothing. Good thing our manger asked us to help him send another email again, this time round regarding the dessert counter at the café.

Apparently they just changed menus and the chef there doesn’t know how to cook apple pie. And they don’t want to use their printer at their counter.

I finished typing the email at 5.20pm and we could knock-off!

Had early dinner at the staff canteen before leaving. YJ and I planned to go to their bakery because after 5pm, it’ll be 50% off.

And guess what, we saw our manger there! But who cares, we went in and chose what we wanted. Chatted with him for a bit and he offered to treat us to the 3 huge pastries we wanted to buy! That’s why we didn’t spend a single cent :P

I really hope we’ll be able to help them write more emails. It’s so fun to get to know first hand information and how they communicate with people in other departments.

Replies

Cass: Cassie is that you? HELLO CLASS REP! :D :D Yup, now we're enjoying ourselves! How's your attachment?

KC: I have no choice okay! It's like my first time doing those chores. And yes, it feels like holiday! Our work is damn slack too (:

Jun Wei: You confirm coming or not?! NEVER REPLY MY EMAIL.

First things first,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NADIA CHAN!! :D

Since I didn’t have the internet connection working properly at my new apartment and over at Chang Fang’s apartment I couldn’t post up my blog yesterday. So this will be 2 entries!

Day 10 (9 Sept 07)

We wanted to wake up late today, but somehow it failed. Firstly, we were disturbed by the sounds of China people talking so loudly outside our house (or maybe because the wall was super thin).

Then there were so many people walking in and out of Chang Fang’s place because they were fixing the wires and all.

We couldn’t go out because the people were fixing the wires so Jie Ying, YJ, Joanne and I started watching DVDs because we had nothing to do.

Oh did I mention yesterday we bought DVDs @ RMB4 each?! :D

We watched High School Musical and Shanghai Kiss today.

After that we were so hungry and lazy to go down to buy food (fifth floor w/o lifts) we called our landlord (because he was having lunch break) and asked if he could help us buy KFC (yes, we ate that yesterday already) for our lunch.

Apparently we ate the same thing because we didn’t know the Chinese terms of the food and we just ordered “number 3” (:

It was already evening time after our lunch and at around 6pm Jie Ying, Joanne, YJ and I headed out to the nearby supermarket to buy necessities for our new home.

We bought pillows, bed sheets, covers for the mattress, pillows and quilt, detergent, cups, bowls etc etc. The total bill came up to around RMB500 which is considered quite cheap because it’s being shared among 4 people.

We then came back and started clearing out stuff from our tiny room at Chang Fang’s place to our new apartment.

I swear it was so tough man; the amount of stuff 4 of us had was CRAZY.

We then started cleaning the cupboards and all and started unpacking our luggages and putting our clothes in the cupboards, and toiletries in the toilet and everything into place.

It’s 70% done already I guess.

But the sad thing is that I was supposed to have the internet connection ready (it was working okay in the afternoon but somehow all of us couldn’t connect at night) so I could webcam to Ah Ma and all at Tanglin Halt :(

We then cleared more stuff, gossiped about certain people, cleaned, packed and everything.
Thank goodness we don’t have to work tomorrow man.

Okay, there’s a certain someone that we don’t really like here. She’s so so different from all of us and its getting on my (our) nerves. But oh well, gossips make the world go round.

It’s already 12.45am and we still need to settle our money stuff. Tomorrow will be spent on settling more stuff in our new apartment.

I really love where we’re living now. It feels like a home (despite the no lift and the need to climb up 5 floors part).

Day 11 (10 Sept 07)

Poor Angela had to wake up early to report to work at 7am while YJ, Joanne and I are still on off.

We decided to wake up at around 10am to get our household chores done up.

We bathed first, and the heater wasn’t properly installed!

I BATHED IN ICE COLD WATER.

And because our new bed sheet and comforter was so damn dirty (dusty) we decided to do laundry.

Imagine 4 girls, we had accumulated laundry of like 10 days because we were living in the motel and didn’t get the chance to wash any of our clothes.

Since our washing machine wasn’t installed yet we borrowed it at Chang Fang’s place.

YJ went to put in the first batch of clothes and washing powder before she came back to bathe.

Then Joanne and I headed downstairs to the supermarket to buy clips (so our clothes won’t fly) and a bit more necessities. YJ and I had like 2 big packets of sushi (RMB8 each) for our lunch!

After that we went to check on the laundry and guess what!

WE DIDN’T TURN ON THE WATER SO NOTHING WAS WASHED YET!

So we turned on the tap and let it wash and then we started sweeping, cleaning and mopping our floor.

Then we went to check on our laundry again.

This time round, it finished washing but THE WATER DIDN’T DRAIN OUT BY ITSELF!

So we tried pressing a few buttons and water started draining out but somehow it drained out too fast that the floor started flooding a little.

“Chang Fanng’s gonna kill us” – that’s our favourite phrase at the moment.

So our first batch of clothes was done and then we started hanging them outside slowly incase we dropped something (FIFTH floor). And indeed, we dropped a clip.

Then we started washing our second batch of clothes (the bed sheet, quilt cover and pillow cases). I’ve already mastered how to use their washing machine so it wasn’t much of a problem this time round.

While waiting, YJ was busy watching her HK series and I was trying to install the webcam Nadia gave me and Joanne was trying to tap into people’s wireless but failed.

We then borrowed Chang Fang’s window rack to dry our second batch of clothes because ours was full already. I tell you, we’re so lucky they are our neighbors and we got their key today because we were supposed to help them duplicate them (:

So basically today we walked in and out of their house so many times it feels that we have a real big house!

Okay, we then put in our third batch of clothes to wash and waited for our clothes outside to dry so there’ll be space for us to hang the new clothes.

Our landlord then came over to install our coffee table, study table, curtains and fix our internet.

We then went out to duplicate our keys and headed to the bank to withdraw cash. Our neighborhood is so convenient! (:

Oh I also went to buy another DVD for RMB4. Guess which?

Ratatouille!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D

We then came home and settled our MONEY issues. We’ve been owing each other money since the second Qi Pu Lu shopping :P

Tomorrow will be the last day where the fridge and washing machine come and we can finally call our place home (:

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Jun Wei: RAT MEAT?! That guy is nuts! Oh well, maybe I've already eaten it but I just don't know it is. When you come will you try eating it?! :D

KC: Eh don't show off! I'm already missing local food! I'm like feeding on fast food and maggie mee these few days when I'm not working! I've also gotten emails from Karen already! That girl is like miles away!

Oh my, today was such an adventurous day!

First things first, we’ve moved out of the motel already!! :D :D
But, the 4 girls lugged our luggage from the motel all the way to Chang Fang’s place which is like 1 street away. 4 huge ass luggages’ and a lot of hand carry! It was super duper heavy and we were like mad people walking on the streets with such huge luggages.

You think that’s all? Did I mention that Chang Fang’s apartment is on the FIFTH floor?! Yes, FIVE (5).

We lugged everything up slowly and we succeeded! Imagine 4 girls, doing all these stuff without any help!

Oh, our apartment’s not completed yet so we’re living with Chang Fang for like 1 or 2 nights first until our unit is done.

After chucking our luggage into the room we then headed for lunch! KFC’s just down the road (:

Angela also went to cut her hair at Wen Feng’s and then we headed down to Qi Pu Lu for more shopping!!

We took a train for the first time in Shanghai, like 1 stop only.

We walked quite a long way down to the shopping mall and I tell you, we literally went crazy shopping!

We found the best way to bargain to get the cheapest prices (near to the cost price of the goods) and we didn’t have to talk so much. Haha, go shopping with me next time there and you’re sure to gain.

In the end we carried 4 huge garbage bags back! Couldn’t get a cab outside the shopping mall so we walked down to the main street and also no cab.

We then decided to walk to Nan Jing Lu to find Chang Fang to get the key for the house. We had no clue how to walk there so we just decided to follow the crowd. And tad-ah! We found the place! :D

After getting the key, we tried to hail a cab and the funniest thing happened. Joanne’s garbage bag tore and a lot of clothes fell on the floor! OMG ALL OF US LAUGHED LIKE CRAZY.

We cabbed back to the house and omg we had such a hard time walking up 5 floors up with our stuff and then down again to buy cup noodles for dinner and up again 5 floors to eat our dinner.

The room we are living in now is quite tiny and there’s so much stuff we have including the new stuff we bought.

Okay today I spent like around RMB400+, it’s not a lot compared to YI JUAN (who is like sitting beside me reading what I’m typing now). That girl shopped like MAD today.

Most prolly we’re gonna move into our new home tomorrow night or the night after. We so need to move so we can unpack our stuff man!

I’m really happy with our new accommodation in terms of location wise. I can like also exercise (climbing up 5 floors everyday) up to our apartment.

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KC: Okay, your treat man! We really miss local food. I've also heard from Karen, a bit only! You have any updates on her?!

It has already been a week since I’ve arrived in Shanghai!

I forgot to mention something we saw yesterday. Okay, there’ll always be a lot of construction workers on a certain road squatting to eat dinner and we always seem them on our way back home. The thing is, we saw their bus coming to pick them up after dinner and all of them ran for the bus and you know how they entered? No, not by the door, but by the WINDOWS- to ensure that they get a seat! We saw so many of them squeezing into the windows of the bus we started laughing like mad!

So today basically we had an emotional rollercoaster in the morning when we went for work.

YJ and my shift start at 9am (we walked there!) and when we went to the in-house department to report, we had nothing to do again.

Our manager then came to us and said “I think I’ve got bad news. Some other manager wants the 3 of you to be put into the banquet department.”

We were like OMG okay! Whining saying we don’t want and all because banquet is tough, we might not be in the same shifts, we might not get the same off days.

We literally whined to our manager because at 10am he was going for a meeting to decide if the 3 of us are really going to shift to the banquet department or not.

And when he left for the meeting, the 3 of us was like “omg we’re so dead”.

But, I really must be so thankful for my really nice manager! He managed to convince the other managers that we are of use to his department and he’ll teach us stuff in time to come.

So, we’re still staying with ROOM SERVICE! :D :D :D

After that we didn’t dare to slack, we kept asking if they needed us to help with anything or not. So from 11am until 12pm we were helping them clear the tables and food that came back after breakfast.

You do not know how much food is being wasted man.

And after lunch we came back to help them wipe glasses and cutlery. We were just ensuring that we were useful in that department so that we didn’t have to move!

We even went to help them fold A LOT of napkins!

And by 3pm, we had to go for our second half of the spirit training! It wasn’t as boring as Wednesday’s one because it was held in the bar.

First thing that happened was a mini quiz. It was basically just answering questions posted by the speaker based on Wednesday’s class.

And because the speaker is Australian and only speaks English, and he knows that 7 of us Singaporeans understand him only w/o the need of translation, he practically asked all of us to answer his questions!

We didn’t let Singapore or NP down okay! All of us could answer him correctly w/o much reference to any notes! :D

The last question he posted to me was nowhere found in his notes; it was “what do you do when a guest complains?” OMG SO HOM RIGHT!

Lucky that came out for exam and I still had it quite fresh in my mind.

Anyway, I don’t really like the translator. I think he’s very rude in the way he orders people to do things and stuff and he’s full of himself. I don’t know him though, but that’s the feeling I get when I see him. And he even translated some parts wrongly okay.

After that mini quiz which we aced, he then proceeded to make cocktails for us to sample. There was Vodka Martini, Gin Martini, Cosmopolitan, Singapore Sling and I forgot which else already.

He showed us how it was prepared and we all could taste it (:

And by 5pm we were done with work! Headed to the staff canteen to eat our dinner and then after work we went to the hotel’s bakery to buy bread because it’s 50% off after 5pm and their take-away bakery is HUGE (tomorrow’s breakfast you see).

Oh did I mention the good part yet?

I HAVE 4 OFF DAYS CONSECUTIVELY. Yes, I have the weekend off because of this week and we requested to get our off days on Mondays and Tuesdays (:

However, I’m feeling quite vexed about our accommodation part. I wanna get it settled before I start work on Wednesday. But, the 2 of them aren’t giving us definite answers. I swear YJ and I will just move to the accommodation even w/o them.

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Jun Wei: What special service you want huh? HAHAHAHA. I can provide you 5 Star hotel service because that's what I'm being trained for now! :P

KC: Eh, don't start making me think okay. Now when I think of the roadside satay thingy we ate, it might not be their claimed chiken/mutton/beef! OMG. It might be rat?! Maybe you should be a nice guy and send some lovely Singaporean food over. Yum!

Today’s an important day!

Because we got to know which department we were posted to! (:

The day started early because we went down to the hotel for breakfast. The breakfast is like so much better than their lunch and dinner!

I loved their “jiao zi” because they had free flow of vinegar! :D

No orientation today, all 7 of us were deployed into different outlets.

First we headed to the room service room, and guess what! I’M POSTED THERE!
With Yi Juan and Yu Hong!

The other 4 are posted to that buffet café.

I heard it’ll be a 2 and a half month rotation thing so we’re all gonna be exposed to room service and the buffet café.

So basically we did nothing today. Our manager’s quite nice though, or shall I say SUPER nice (:

Because we were so so bored doing nothing, he offered to tour us around the whole staff area so we could see the HUGE offices they had.

We toured around the old tower and the new tower. Those bigger shots offices weren’t in the underground, but at the fifth floor (rooms converted into offices).

We also saw the smoking area and it is so unglam and ugly and dirty and smelly.

You see, our boss was so nice that he let us go off at like 3.30pm when our shift was supposed to end at 6pm.

He also allowed us to work from 9am-6pm everyday because of transportation issues (:

And we can have like 2 off days in a row and we’re choosing Monday and Tuesday.

So we ended at 3.30pm, nothing to do right. Yu Hong, YJ and I headed to the mall next door, yes AGAIN, to go eat dessert.

After that I was supposed to go meet Uncle Albert at the hotel at 6pm. It was like 4.30pm and having nothing to do, we walked all the way down to somewhere near our motel to “wen feng mei fa mei rong” to WASH OUR HAIR :D

Did I mention wash and blow only costs RMB20?! That’s like freaking SGD4 okay!

We then tried to hail a cab back to the hotel, but we couldn’t catch one. And while hailing for the cab, I spotted Uncle Albert inside a cab! Ahhhh.

Okay, who in the world is this Uncle Albert guy right? He’s a colleague from my aunt’s office and I got to know him when I was touring in Taipei with their company.

He so happened came to Shanghai for business and arrived on Monday but was out of town until like today noon time.

We met him and he brought his other friend along. So the 2 of them, YJ and I cabbed down to Puxi to have dinner at this restaurant which serves local dishes.

I HAVE NOT SEEN SO MUCH OIL USED IN FOOD BEFORE MAN. Its like oil is free in China!

But overall the food was nice and the bill came up to only about RMB200+.

Then we cabbed down to “xi men ding”. This place is like Singapore’s Boat Quay.

I feel quite at home there because a lot of Caucasians hanging out there and almost every word I heard were in English.

We settled down at this ice cream place and our ice cream and beers came up to around RMB200+ too. That place is just overpriced and it’s for tourists.

So it was a wonderful night because I got to meet Uncle Albert! :D

He’s my first Singaporean guest to come visit me! But he’s flying home tomorrow noon time already :(

I’m sleepy, gotta work again tmr.

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KC: I hate you. But hey, I think I'll be having a slack time in the hotel too aye? Room service dept! :D

Day 6!

It was the same old thing again, reaching our working place at 9am.

Today was quite slack though, we were brought into another training room this time round.

And guess what we had to do.

Remember the little exercise thing we had to do yesterday regarding the different foods?

Today, each of us had to go up to present on a counter and recommend the different foods that they have. :0

It took quite some time because all 7 of us presented on 1 different counter. It was quite stressful though because we didn’t really know what we were talking about.

Oh, we met another Singaporean today too! :D

After that we had lunch, and then we were told to help bring in chairs and tables from the Banquet room because there was some training going to take place at 3pm then.

It was a tough job. The tables were heavy and the chairs were heavier. We had to squeeze in like 35 chairs and about 5 more tables into the room. And the Banquet room was not very near the training room!

I like, scratched my toe while carrying the chairs into the room and it hurt like hell okay!

We then sat in for the training also. It was about Spirits. Today the guy talked about Vodka and Martini’s. Quite dry though and there was a translator there because practically the other trainees didn’t understand English.

And today’s only the first half of the training. Friday’s the second half. But it’ll be better because it’s gonna be held at one of the hotel’s bar (: We might even get to try some drinks.

Okay, we ended work at around 5pm today and didn’t go anywhere. We need to rest, it’s so tiring!

Tomorrow we’ll get to know which department we’re gonna be posted to already. So no more orientations and hopefully I’ll enjoy work.

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KC: Holiday my ass man. Omg I think you're enjoying yourself at work with the attire that you can wear. I have to like change everyday and the shoes are so painful!

Today was quite a short day at work (:

It rained in the morning though, super hard to flag a cab! But we were all on time reaching at 9am.

We had to like change into our uniforms and bun up our hair. And then we went into the training room to hear someone speak about the hotel’s blah blah blah for like 2 hours!

Okay, I got caught dozing off. Seriously, I was like damn tired and it was kinda boring. Everything the speaker said, we learnt before in school already. The information was also kinda useless for us because our main focus was our job scope and shifts.

After the super duper long speech, we went for lunch at the staff canteen! Finally, we weren’t being started at like fishes in the fish tank. But people still did look at us when we opened our mouths to speak.

We were then brought up to a café in the hotel to observe the serving procedures and stuff like that. Met a Singaporean chef there!

YJ and I also did our very first clearing of plates at the hotel there because we literally stood there doing nothing for quite some time and got bored!

Then suddenly, we were shoved with rough paper and a pen and were told to go around the café to draw out the layout of the different stores and food that they served LIKE OMG.

It was madness I tell you. Our feet hurt from the super hard shoes they provided us with and I totally don’t see a point in asking us to write down all the names of the food in the café. But maybe, there was a purpose. Hmm.

The suffering was finally over at 3pm! We changed and headed over to “zheng da guang chang” again so I could bank in more money!

I’ve also learnt how to update my bank book already! (:

Guess where we went to next. The ARCADE at the mall.

Didn’t spend much time there, I’m so not an arcade person.

Then we headed down to this supermarket called Lotus. It’s like Singapore’s Giant which sells EVERYTHING.

They were selling sausages for like RMB1.50 per stick. CHEAP, and it tasted not bad!

After the mall, we decided to pamper ourselves a bit and headed for FOOT MASSAGE.

70mins for RMB60. They massaged our shoulders and then our feet. IT FEELS DAMN GOOD OKAY.

I think I’m gonna make this foot massage thing a weekly affair (:

After that we went down to the same store again for the satay-like thing! We ordered 15 sticks of mutton, 15 sticks of beef, 15 sticks of chicken and 10 sticks of chicken wings!

7 of us paid only RMB9 each!

However, we sat like inside the store and the atmosphere was kinda dirty. Then suddenly someone shouted “lao shu!” and OMG everyone immediately lifted their feet up! So freaky man, a rat running around in the shop!

Okay after the whole rat saga, we managed to eat a decent meal. And when we finished eating and were waiting outside for Gabriel to end his phone call, I spotted this other rat on the corner of the road and I screamed and then YJ screamed and then Joanne screamed and the 3 of us held hands and ran all the way to the end of the street!

Yes, everyone there was staring. It’s okay, they don’t know us.

Sad to say, the 4 girls got a bit lost when walking home. We made the wrong turn and ended up god-knows-where. But we passed by this small shop and I bought a pair of bling bling ear rings for RMB14 only!

Oh yes, I’ve saw photos of the new hostel already. Everything’s fine except the distance and the toilet part. It’s a MASS TOILET. That means, all the girls bathe together! OMG.

Will open meeting tonight with the girls to discuss about our accommodation. I hope it’ll be settled quickly so I don’t have to like continue living on my luggage and spend money on the motel now.

Replies

Jun Wei: yes it's damn cheap! So faster come over and find me! :D :D

First day of work!

Our reporting time was 8.30am but a lot, like A LOT of waiting and wasting time was involved.

WE MET PEOPLE FROM SINGAPORE WORKING THERE.

I saw hot guys working there too!!!

And it’s like most people speak English so I feel quite at home (:

Okay, so we got our temp uniforms so we can walk around. Its, uhm not very nice but still acceptable.

But never mind, it’s only for like 1 week until we get assigned to our different places.

Oh, the shoes they provided are so painful! I was like literally crawling by the end of the day because we were walking SO fast.

We’ve also gotten our personal lockers already. It’s like ours for the whole period we’re staying there.

The uniform right, they provide EVERYTHING. From top to toe, like the hair net, stockings and shoes!

We didn’t do much at work today, just touring around so we ended quite early. We then headed over to “zheng da guang chang” to hunt for Watsons to buy the invisible gel for sore spots for feet!

Since the Bank of China was still opened, we decided to get a bank account also instead of waiting until the end of the month.

The process was quite hilarious. I had to like enter my pin number TEN, yes 10 times and sign my name SEVEN times! The process took quite long and every time I key in my pin number, the button will beep so it’s quite noisy!

And guess what. I only deposited RMB5 inside my bank account! And the amount we had to pay to set up the bank account was RMB15 only.

Coincidently, we met Chang Fang and Jie Ying at the mall too so all 9 of us went for dinner at some restaurant. YJ and I shared this big bowl of chili noodles which only cost RMB10! And we were so full. Although it was freaking oily, it tasted not bad!

We also ordered “xiao long bao”. Okay, this is like my very first time eating xiao long bao! Damn kuku right. Whatever. It was not bad, only that the skin was a little too thick.

Not satisfied enough, we headed to another place for dessert! We were like stuffing ourselves with food. I love the mango sago thingy and the black glutinous rice! :D

Oh, it rained today! Okay, sort of drizzled. We then cabbed over to Chang Fang’s place to look at the place next door that was going to be rented out.

We realized that it was SO FREAKING near where our motel is. Like, just 1 turn away.

OMG I AM IN LOVE WITH THAT PLACE OKAY.

Gonna really consider it if our new accommodation is like not confirmed by tmr. I really wanna live in that apartment man.

Okay, after the whole apartment thingy Angela wanted to go cut her hair. So we walked down the road and saw this big hair and beauty salon. Apparently they have like 300+ chain stores in Shanghai only!

It’s cheap okay. A hair cut (+ wash and blow) costs only RMB50 and washing and blowing costs RMB20.

And they provide real good service! So meticulous and all.

Alright, another day of work tmr. I think we’ll know where we’re gonna be placed at. *cross fingers*

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Jun Wei: Can you like do the calculation yourself? Someone's mental calculation is like SO much better luh. SGD1 = RMB 5 okay.

Vanessa: HELLO YOU!! :D :D Eh, I can't type the hotel name down. Hahaha. I'll PM you if I see you online (: You're going maldives right?! Email me!! Updates cuz I can't access blogs in China!

Today’s a good day!

Becauseee WE WENT SHOPPING! :D :D

We took the day slow, left our motel at around 10.15am and walked around to familiarize ourselves so we won’t get lost tmr.

Then we went to this huge shopping mall called “zheng da guang chang”. I found my Watsons, UCOB, Espirt, H&M, Novo and many more familiar brands! Yayness.

We also found a ciniplex but the English shows are super expensive! RMB70.

Guess what we ate. Burger King (:

We also bumped into Chang Fang and Jie Ying and guess what! They are living like very near our motel and their accommodation is so good. I heard from them that the home next to them is under renovation and will be able to rent it out in like 2 weeks time!

We then took a cab down to Puxi to go to “qi pu lu” a very famous warehouse shopping area!

Shopped from like 1pm till 5pm. I didn’t buy a lot of stuff okay. I only spent like RMB412.50!

We were so damn tired from bargaining. But we felt quite guilty because they were like selling their stuff to us at cost price!

Took a cab back to Pudong and chucked all our shopping stuff in the motel before heading to the supermarket to buy stuff for our dinner.

We bought like 2 boxes of sushi and cup noodles and camped in our motel to eat!

Tmr’s our first day of work! It’s orientation though. Hopefully all goes well.

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KC: It tasted quite nice okay! And yes, we're very careful what we eat! Roadside food is a total no-no man.

Jun Wei: anal test is SO NOT FUNNY okay! I think Karen can't find an internet connection man. She's been MIA-ing!

Okay, FYI I can’t see my own blog from where I am now lah. Apparently, China’s internet can’t access blogs on blogger! Argh. So I can't reply my tag board so I'll just do it at the end of every post.

Finally its day 2!

The day started off quite late cuz all of us woke up at like 1pm. Haha. And then we made our way to dine at this really nice café for pizza and movenpick ice cream! :D

We then walked down to the nearest train station to go get our local lines! Yup, we’ve all got our local china numbers already so I won’t be using my SG SIM card now.

We also bought some card so that we can call overseas. BUT I tried like 30+ times to call back and I can’t!! I think its my phone problem.

We also went to take passport-sized photos which cost like only RMB10 for 4!
I know right, it’s so cheap! But the quality, AHAHAHA. Who cares, I’m not keeping them, it’s for the hotel.

Anyway, I found MAC DONALDS and that’s where we had our dinner (:
Ordered like 2 meals and asked the guy to cut our burgers into half.

I also found a KFC already.

10mins walk away from our motel has like so many stuff already. So much better than that ulu accommodation.

OMG and we saw some cute little puppies for sale for like only RMB260!!!

We also bought like some satay looking thing to eat. 1 stick only costs RMB0.60. CHEAP OR WHAT lah.

Okay, crossing the roads here really takes lots and lots of guts. We were “oh my god”-ing all the way thru when crossing long long roads cuz the cars just wont stop for us when they want to turn. And we had to like run across this long road cuz the timer was going SO FAST.

I think people in China walk damn fast.

So basically today wasn’t as drama as our first day. We didn’t do much also.

And tomorrow will be our last day until we need to report for work on Monday!

Oh btw, the vitamins that the doctor gave me before I left, sorry I am not eating any. Because, for one, it stinks like hell. I haven’t even opened it and it stank up my whole luggage. And yes, it tasted HORRIBLE! Not for human consumption please.

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Janice: Thanks babe, you have a fun time in Hong Kong :D

Karen: OMG WHERE ARE YOU?! I hope Wales ain't as bad as China. You wouldn't wanna know abt the medical check-up we went thru.

KC: Okay at least day 2 is better..

CW: yeah, you don't have to rub it in you know.

A HELL LOT OF DRAMA HAS BEEN HAPPENING AND IT’S ONLY DAY 1.

Right right. First things first, the flight.

Omgwtf it was my worse flight ever in my entire life! The airplane was like hot and stuffy and we were living in an oven.

AND I PUKED ON THE PLANE LIKE THREE TIMES OKAY.

So I didn’t manage to catch any sleep on the stupid flight.

The moment we reached the airport, some lady met us and transported us to our accommodation.

So the guys and girls were staying in different places and we first went to the girl’s side.

I swear it looked like shit, and it was super ulu! Although we had a car to transport us inside, it was like omg so far away from the main road! And we still thought it was the male’s side cuz there were so many guys living there.

Whats worse, we reached and we had like many big and heavy luggage’s right! You know what floor we were staying?

SIX.

And you know what’s best, THERE IS NO FREAKING LIFT.

Yes, the 3 guys and 4 girls took so much time and effort to bring the luggage’s up.

Damn it right. Damn it. 6th floor okay. No lift!

So how was the room you ask. LIKE SHIT.

It was really tiny, with like only 2 bunk beds which filled up majority of the space already. We were told there was no air-con and there was like no fan too. The only thing there was was a light!

It stank (maybe we weren’t used to the smell) and the toilet, OMG I SO DO NOT DARE TO BATHE IN THAT ENVIRONMENT.

And the ppl that were living with us were so dirty too. Bottles of drinks everywhere.

Okay, then we went to the guy’s side. They had a big room with a connecting room and a personal toilet! OMG NOT FAIR.

But the guy living with them, brought a girl home lah.

Okay after chucking our luggage in that accommodation, this lady brought us to the medical place to get a check up.

WTH RIGHT. WE HAD ANAL TEST, BODY CHECK UP, BLOOD TEST, X-RAY AND A TEST IN CHINESE!!!

I swear it was the worse moment of my life. But we all survived that hell check-up man.

Then we headed down to the hotel for lunch at the staff canteen. After that we waited, and waited and waited. Slept in some room, waited some more, thought about our accommodation and decided it was so not happening.

We finally decided to go rent a room in a motel 20mins walk away from the hotel. GOOD CHOICE MAN otherwise I think I’d die. We then realized that the lady’s living in our actual accommodation brought men home too! EH EXCUSE ME; THIS IS SO NOT SAFE CAN.

2 poor guys had to like go back to that ulu accommodation of ours (1hr away by bus) and lug our luggage from the 6th floor down and had a damn dramatic experience back to where our new motel was. The whole process took like 3hrs okay.

AND AFTER ALL THIS DRAMA, WE HAVENT SLEPT SINCE LIKE THE FLIGHT.

We are so worn out man. It’s like the longest day ever!

I WANT TO GO HOME CAN.

Right, latest update. Our motel is like filled with all 7 of us now. HAHAHA. Damn funny. Luggage everywhere, we’re dirty and smelly. People sleeping, talking to family members, using the internet, writing journals.

Will blog again SOON. Thank goodness for this motel that we have a pathatic 1 LAN line for internet man.