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.