Last day in In-house dining

17th day in Shanghai (16/09/07)

Today is the last day in in-house dining. And it’s my busiest day since I started working… *by the way, I ate 饺子again for breakfast =)

WHY???

Cox Kim, Yu Hong and I were called over to help out in packing mooncakes by pacing all the boxes into the paper bags..

We went over to the room at about 10am and not long before we realized, it was 11.30am already. It was very fun coz we crapped and joked a lot.

Joanna called to ask if we wanna have lunch with her. Met her up at 12nn and went back to the room to continue packing…

After a while, one bad thing happen (where I tot it would be good at first).

The supervisor asked kim and I to go down to the finance office to do some stamping on the mooncakes’ voucher, to indicate that the voucher can be redeemed.

So, I tot that it would an easy job for us coz it’s just stamping… BUT, there is like a whole box of few hundreds vouchers for us to stamp!!!!

We stayed there like 1 hour plus stamping the vouchers with no air-con. And my whole hand was like breaking off and it was so super boring!!!

After finishing one box of voucher, the person told us that there was another box of it.. I was like ‘forget it, I am not going do it man’.. And she told us to call another 2 other stuffs to do it.

But in the end, we couldn’t get anyone up and (NO, I AM NOT GOING TO DO IT!!!) we just couldn’t be bothered to tell them. Opps…

Continue packing the mooncakes until abt 5pm before we end work.. Today ended super quickly and fast =)

Headed to 正大广场 for dinner coz both Kim and I cant stand the food in the canteen already… Yes, I know that it’s like the end of the 2nd week only……And I got another 5 months to go!!!!

Had Pizza Hut and we ordered super supreme but It’s not as nice as the one in Singapore =)

Went to lotus and finally, I bought some fruits for myself =)

The next week is going to be orientation (yea, only after 2 weeks of work, it's orientation) followed by another week of banquet training...

And Gina is confirm coming on the 28th sept.. YAY!!! i am going to bring her to Yi Cafe for buffet lunch =) cant wait for her to come =)

Waste of time???

15th day in Shanghai (14/09/07)

As usual, work doesn’t seems like work coz we are still not doing anything much.

And since it’s the last few days we are in in-house dining, we decided to take some photos related to in-house dining. Went to the laundry, the stewarding, etc…

(we were using our manager’s camera and planned to use Yu Hong’s SLR cam the next day coz the quality will be better =))

After work, meet up Jie Ying to go gourmet, a bakery in the hotel I am working in to buy some breads (the breads are damn big and nice. And they are all damn cheap!!! It cost only RMB10 for one and it will be of half price after 6pm.)

After that, it was to our apartment for some gossiping/chatting/chilling session. Chatted till 12+am and poor Yu Hong got to take a cab home himself ( which cost him RMB40 for a 30 mins ride)

16th day in Shanghai (15/09/07)

Woke up in the morning with a very bad sore throat =(

Today is another day of ‘doing nothing at work’.

I am getting pissed with myself of being so useless (not learning anything) and wasting my time there. Haha

I so can’t wait to go banquet as the event ‘coordinator’/ ‘communicator’. It is going to be tough, but at least I am doing something more meaningful and I can learn and gain experience from it..

I just feel that I have wasted 2 weeks of my attachment here…

Anyway, went for food message again =) and ate 饺子for dinner again =) (I had it for breakfast too)

Finally got into contact with Karen and webcam with her =) glad that she is doing fine and we are all doing well.

Tomorrow is going to be the last day of work in in-house dining. Next week is going to be another week of training for I duno what HR program. The following week will be orientation cum training for banqueting and my first month of attachment is gone..

Time is passing so quickly…

*I duno if it is good or bad.. But I just feel that I dun like it…

Change of job!!!!!

14th day in Shanghai (13/09/07)

It’s the end of the 2nd week here. And as usual, woke up at 0730 today to get ready for work.

Had breakfast and continue slacking when we got to the department.

After slacking for 2-3 hours, it’s lunch time. Went for lunch and got back to the dept to help clear up some stuffs.

Next, Kim and I went for this make up training that was lectured by this China lady. This is like my 3rd make up lesson in my 3 years in poly. And this time, everything is in chinese.

The lady was quite nice and friendly but I just got too tired (everything that she taught, I know it).

Decided to go to the washroom to wash up but ended up celebrating my manager’s birthday.
What happened was that today was my manager’s birthday and he is involved in some training lesson.

And so when both kim and I reached the washroom door, which was just in front of the employees’ lift, all the in-house dining people came out of the lift with trolleys filled with plates of foods and a cake.

They planned to give him a surprise and we just coincidently saw them on the way. So, we followed them into the training room and celebrated his mini birthday party tgt.

By the time we are done, it was more then 15mins already and both Kim and I were planning not to go back to the make up lesson. (but her HP and my keys are inside the room so we dun really have a choice. Plus, even if we dun go back, there is nothing to do in the department)

Went back to In-house dining department and they said that Alan-the 2nd man in F&B dept, wants to talk to Kim, Yu hong and I. (We all guessed that the reason he wanted to see us is because he wants us to be in banqueting.)

Went to look for him and he started asking us abt our work in in-house and did we learn anything…blar blar blar…

So.. after the long conversation with him (dun wanna go into detail coz there isn’t anything much too), it is confirmed that all the 3 of us will be going to banquet.

HOWEVER, we are not going to do waitressing but ‘coordinators’ between the guest/organization and the hotel.

This may seem fun coz basically our job scope is that each of us will be assigned to different events, and for each event, we are to communicate between the guest request and the hotel (and sometimes, we got to be translator!!! Hope I dun fail!!!)

So from next Monday onwards, I will be having another 5 days of training and then my attachment will OFFICIALLY START. =)

And yea, I can view blogs already =) thanks to KELVIN!!!!!

Becoming a translator!!!

12th day in Shanghai (11/09/07)

Another day to settle all our apartment stuffs.

Woke up at 9+ am coz someone was here to fix the washing machine after which kim, Joanna and I started watching Perfect Stranger. Not too bad a show…

After watching the show, it was near 12nn and we started sweeping and mopping the floor, washing some other bed sheets and clearing up all other stuffs.

By the time we were done, it was near 2 pm when the landlord came and helped us settle some internet stuff.

Decided to go for a hair cut and asked the landlord if WenFeng is good, he said that that was the worst salon he ever seen (opps, although I thnk it’s not bad already..). The hair cut isn’t that nice and it’s expensive plus the workers are mainly students/interns.

So he brought us to another shop (just opposite my block) which he said was recommended by his friend. Hair cut there is only RMB25 (wenfeng’s is RMB50). Tried it out and yup, think it’s not bad =)

After the haircut both Kim and I went over to some shopping area (I think is NanQuan rd) in hope to buy some stuff for our accommodation (clothes rack, floor mat, basket, etc…)

In the end, we only managed to get 2 things from the road side stores; a box to put my make up and a basket to put our dirty clothes in it. Plus duplicate our main door keys

Decided to cab down to Lotus ( a place like Giant) at ‘Zheng Da Guan Chang’ to get rest of the stuffs plus more junk food. (Forgot abt the keys!!!)

Cabbed back home to put down all our stuffs and headed to buy Kim’s bolster and exchange a pillow cover and to get our keys back!!! On the way there, there were a lot of road side stores and we started shopping around there. Kim and Joanna got themselves new branded wallets (hmmm). And Kim and I got some pretty umbrellas (rainbow color =))

Went to collect our duplicated keys and headed back home. Kim and I decided to get some dumplings (just beside my block) for dinner and it tasted not bad (but we had took away so all the skins stick tgt by the time I reached home and start eating…)

After dinner was settling money stuffs again and OMG!!! I realize that we have been spending quite a lot on this hse (although split by 4 of us) and I thnk there are quite a number of things that we wouldn’t bring it back to Singapore.

Watched Fido at night and that show was BORING!!!!

13th day in Shanghai (12/09/07)

Work finally started after 4 days of off-days…(this 4 days has past so quickly!!!! Coz of the new hse!!!!)

Work up at 6am and it was so super bright outside. I thought that I was so super late that I jumped up of bed and stretched out for Kim’s HP. But my hand was too short that I dropped it… OPPS!!!

Had our breakfast before reporting for work. Reached the work place at 9am and continue to rot as usual… And when it was only 10.30-11am, the asst manager asked us if we wanted to go for our lunch.. OMG!!! There is really nothing for us to do!!!

Went for lunch at 11.30am and when we went back, one of the staff asked us to help her typed an email..

FINALLY WE ARE NEEDED… OF GOOD USE!!!!!
We became TRANSLATOR!!

The lady told us about the entire story in chinese and we would translate it to English and typed it out in the email.

After which, the manger came in and asked us to help him typed out emails. We translated about 5 or more emails I think.

I am so so glad that we are bilingual and we are able to understand both languages well enough.

It’s so cool helping the manger typed his email as we are the ones getting first hand information too. And I think that he is quite amazed too.. He said something like ‘Now I know that you guys are not paid that highly for nothing..'

After typing all the emails, it was a meeting for all the in-house staffs and all issues are regarding the emails that we typed.

Hopefully for the next 2½ months, this will be our job scope; translator!!!

And my chinese is not that bad!!!! I am able to understand 90% of the things that they said and I dun really have a problem translating.. =)

Finally got my apartment settled!!!

9th day in shanghai (08/09/07) The day of adventure

Accommodation settled =)

Gonna be neighbors of chang fang and Jie ying.

So, in order to save some motel money (coz we can only move in either on Sunday or Monday, which means that we got to spend more money on the motel over the weekend), we decided to move Into Chang fang’s apartment for a day or 2.(she got this freaking small room available)

So early in the morning 9am (we got to check out by 12nn), the girls started packing up their luggage. What most of us did was putting all our moisturizers and toiletries into one big plastic bag so that our luggage wouldn’t be that heavy.

After everyone finished packing, our average no. of bags to lug over to the apartment was 4-5;

Kim got her handbag, a big luggage, 2 medium size plastic bags and her laptop

Joanne got her handbag, a big luggage (those hard cover type where she couldn’t put her hand luggage on top of it), a big hand luggage and a medium size plastic bag

Angela got her big handbag, a big luggage, and a 5L mineral water to carry.

I got my hand bag, a big luggage and a big hand luggage and my laptop.

So, the mission started the moment we leave our hotel room. We waited for a lift with no one inside, and then squeezed all our stuffs into the empty lift. The moment we reached the lobby, I could see eyes staring at us.

Checked out, and the mission officially started. As the apartment is very near our motel (abt 200m away) we decided to walked all the way to save some money and we doubt any taxi would want to drive us too.

We didn’t want to trouble the guys for help (they live super far away) so we did everything ourselves. We were like ‘okie, today we are going to be superwomen. Independent girls dun have to depend on guys and yada.’ (yea, lugged all our luggage down the road at 10am in the morning)

So how things go was like we lugged our stuff in one row, me being the first and kim was the second followed by angela and joanne. And after 5m, Ms kim said that she was tired already..

The entire trip was dam funny. We keep laughing and joking. Super tiring but fun.

Reached the apartment and that wasn’t the end. We got like 5 storey high of stairs to climb.

So, all the pitiful girls started carrying all their barang barangs up slowly. It has being like super long ago since I did hard labour. Super tiring and we were all sweating like hell….

Reached the apartment and most of us were drained out. Angela went back to WenFeng for a hair cut and the rest of us decided to have lunch at McDonald (not craving for Singapore food but western food haha) but ended up in KFC..

Met up with angela again and off we go, the 2nd shopping trip =)

Back down to Qipu road. We boarded the taxi the uncle said that it would be better to take a train down coz there will be a jam somewhere along the way.

So we decided to follow what he said and took the first train ride in Shanghai (which means that I have either being taking cab or walking for that past 7 days in shanghai). Reached Nanjing north station and got to walk like 10-15 mins.

So, our plan was that since we took a train down, we will take a cab back home.

Reached Qipu Rd and this time, we went to the correct one; Lots of things, lots of people. Unlike the previous one with limited people and stuffs. All of us did crazy shopping there (coz we know a new strategy of bargaining, haha wanna know? Go shopping with me the next time =))

And with the whole lots of stuffs, which was like 1 super big bag full of shoes (10 shoes I think) and 3 other super big bags of clothes (about 30 of them), we decided to go back home (not because we are done, coz we all have no $$ with us already. Hah. I think if I go back a few more times, I will just spend my entire earnings there..)

Tried to hail for cab but there dun seems to have any and we decided to walk all the way back to Nanjing north rd (Which was like another lugging of stuff, and this time, much further) to meet up jie ying for her to pass me the keys.

Got the keys and we got to go to the main road to call for a cab. This time,, another joke happen. We saw a cab that was empty and joanne started running towards it. And suddenly, her big plastic bag full of clothes broke and all the clothes start falling off.

She and kim started screaming and laughing. It was real damn funny. And the cab obviously was taken by someone else already. All of us continue laughing so loudly while picking up the clothes that the security guard started staring at us ( I think is the same one we asked for directions earlier in the day)

Finally got a cab and reached the apartment. And we have got like 5 storey high of stairs to climb again… Plus all those big bags it was like crazy.. (but still, cant be compared to the one in the morning)

After putting all the stuffs and everything, we decided to go to the supermarket to buy some cup noodles for dinner (super broke already) and some tidbits. So, climbed down the stairs, went to buy the foods and climbed back up the stairs again…

Had the most adventure today and it was damn fun=)

Starting to like the environment and accompany here. =)

10th day in shanghai

Finally, we have moved into our new apartment.

After waking up at 9.30am in changfang’s small little room because of some loud china people talking super loudly, I slacked in the house blogging and watching DVDs with the rest. We couldn’t really go out of the house as there were some people in the house trying to fix in the internet connection.

And we were so lazy to go out of the hse that we decided to call for delivery. But I think shanghai is just too big that they decided not to deliver it to us coz our place is too far away. So, we called our landlord, mr wang to buy KFC back for us=)

Continue slacking till abt 6pm and after Mr wang confirmed with us that we can move in to the apartment for the night, we headed to Jia Der Li, the supermarket nearby and bought all our necessary stuff; quilt, quilt cover, bed sheets, pillows, detergent, pail and etc…

We got like a lot of things and have to lug everything back to the hse. (we have being lugging things for the past few days.. I so feel like hard labor…)

Chang fang cooked curry for our dinner and there is a price to pay (shall not elaborate coz I will get pissed off again…)

After dinner, we got to carry all our stuffs from jieying’s room into our apartment. Got a hell time doing it and the whole room was like super messy. Decided to pack up everything before going to bed and yea, we spend like hrs cleaning, shifting, transferring, placing, and organizing our things into the ware rope and drawers…

The whole room is so clean now (except of Angela’s cox she is having morning shift later and cant afford to do it with us) and I am so satisfied =)

And it’s 10th sept, 1.19am already!!!

11th day in Shanghai.

3rd day of off-day and we didn’t do anything much too…

Kim, Joanne and I woke up at 10+ am and we realized that all of us were covered with dust/dirt. Maybe coz we didn’t really clean up the room and didn’t wash the bed sheets and the quilt cover so we started cleaning up the entire room. Sweeping, mopping, washing up our clothes (for 3 rounds including our bed sheets and pillow covers).

After clearing up, all of us did our own stuff (watching dvds) while waiting for the landlord to come and settle the curtain, tables, chairs, etc…

Helped up a bit and we went out for less then 2 hours to duplicate the keys, buy some more necessities and back home for dinner (Maggie=()

And finally, I can get to slp comfortably with my winter quilt (although its still quite hot here..)

And I am so glad that my hse is 90% complete. The only thing missing now is the freight and the washing machine.

We even bought a DVD player coz I think we will spend a lot of time washing dvds here.. (coz the DVDs here are like damn cheap. Average one person has already bought like… 4-5 of it?

I thnk I am going to miss this little home badly after 5 months. It’s small but comfy =)

*gonna come out with some house rules. haha

work has started...

8th day in Shanghai (07/09/07)

Work somehow started officially and somehow, there wasn’t anything for us to do. So early in the morning, our manager told us that the banquet manager needs more staffs and was asking him to realize 3 local staff to them as In-House service got 3 additional staff; kim, yuhong and me.

We were like OMGOMG!!! NO PLEASE!!! Coz banqueting is going to be tiring, tough and our off-days and shifts might all be different. And I had work for banquet before and wanna try out some other departments…

So lucky to have a nice manager, he told them that he couldn’t realize us cox of blar blar blar (some excuses. Haha)

So, today we made ourselves very busy to show that we are needed in In-House service so they wouldn’t want us to change dept again.

But I think we were too efficient that we always finish our work so fast that they got nothing for us to do. (maybe they are just too slow.haha). all we did was clearing away all the dirty cutleries and rubbish on the room-service trolley (those trolley that place the food ordered by the customer for room service) by placing/throwing them into the containers/dustbins, wiping clean the new cutleries and sorting out some recycle paper.. (quite meaningless huh..)

Then one of the staff brought us to the laundry area (we volunteered to go with him so as to kill time =)) and their laundry is damn big.. We applied what was in theory into practical. We see how the staff sorts the cloths, washed them, spin dry them, iron them, dry clean them, store them and etc…

Then it was the spirit lesson again at 3pm. And I think the speaker knows al the 7 of us are Singaporean and we speak English coz the first 6 or 7 questions that he asked, he asked us directly. Haha Maybe he heard us speaking English of something =)

Lucky we didn’t throw our own face coz we got all the ans correct and I think he was quite impressed too..so that’s good.

Had Singaporean sling and it wasn’t that bad after all.. I remembered the first time I drank it was when I was on SIA to Perth… and the drink sucks like hell.. hmm, maybe is the person that made my drink the other time was lousy. This time, Gabriel did it and it was quite nice… (the bar manager said that this Singapore sling was the best he ever had, better then the one he made it himself coz there is a Singapore touch in the drink. LOL how real can it be…)

I think that this lesson is real interesting and useful to me, better then the wine appreciation course I had in school. I get to see how he made/shake the cocktail or stir the martini and stuff.. I so wanna work in the bar!!!

After the lesson was to dinner in canteen and home..

Now my accommodation is abit troublesome…

Is money an issue??? Is money an impt issue?

ONE WEEK IN SHANGHAI!!!

7th day in shanghai (06/09/07),and it’s the FIRST WEEK here…

Things are still going smoothly=)

So, today we were all deployed to our departments; Kim, Yu Hong and I were to the in-house service where we take room service and stuff (which is like practically doing nothing coz the manager say that with or without us, it wouldn’t make much difference to them even when it is very busy except that our English is better…??) and Angela, Joanne, Gabriel and nick is in Yi Café doing either hostess or as the bar tender.3 months later and we will switch roles =)

And since today was like the official day we start work, we got nothing to do. So the manager just gave us a short tour around the hotel, showing us the different depts in the hotel (like we are some big shots going around where he introduces us to them. Haha)

Saw some interesting things today:

1) This French manager communicating with this chinese manager(who is in his 50s and I think he cant speak and understand English) using their hand gestures and they actually understand wat each other is trying to say. (thou there is this ‘know-a-bit of English manager’ as their interpreter.)

I think this made me realized how lucky we Singaporeans are. We are bilingual and have totally no problem communicating with anyone. We thought that our chinese is bad but almost everyone there say that our chinese is GOOD. (Very few people in china or Asia can speak fluently in both English and chinese)

2) On the way back to the Hotel (I went to wash my hair again.haha) at about 6pm, which is the timing where workers end their work too, I saw this old bus drove and parked at the side of the road. And then, the next moment I know, all the construction workers who were waiting for the bus ran towards it and most of them actually CLIMBED INTO THE BUS THROUGH THE WINDOW as they were so scared that they cant get a seat.

Meet up with Kim’s aunt colleague, uncle albert and another of his friend and they brought 2 of us for some good dinner, some shanghai food.. The food is like SUPER OILY… I shall just upload the photos the next time.. =)

Next was to Xing Tian Di, a place like clark Quay in Singapore. Both of us were like wearing some basic tees and shorts which made us look like super lok pok there.. Went to Ven-Ice for some ice-cream and headed back to the hotel =)

I think my life in shanghai is going to be more and more interesting??? Haha

And most prob my accommodation will be to the new apartment=)

getting use to life in shanghai =)

5th day in shanghai (04/09/07)

First half of the day was just seating in the training room listening to the training manager (I shall not say the name) telling us all about the history of the hotel, the vision, mission and blar blar blar..we were all so damn tired that all of us almost fell asleep.. (he did say sth about f&b stuff but still, the lecture/training is so damn boring)

After which we had our lunch and then was to an outlet called yi café to see how the service system work. (it wasn’t to much help as all we did was like seeing how the waitress and waiters clearing up the plates and setting up the table.. which I know how to do it since like 4 years ago…)

Both kim and I were partnered tgt and we were told to try clearing up the plates. Haha I think they treated us like really some newbies that knows nothing.. I mean, I remembered the very first time I started working as a waitress in Singapore, on the very first day of work, they just started asking me to clear plate and stuff.. and over here, we were told to SEE how they serve and TRY clearing up the plates… hmmm.. maybe that’s good in a way.

Then it’s the craziest thing that happens. So, what happen was: Yi café is this super big buffet restaurant that sells international food and there are several stations (10 to be exact) that specialize in certain cuisine like there is western station, japan station, desert station, asian station and chinese station. There wasn’t any food tag on each station as the concept was to allow the chief to interact with the guest.

So what the training manager asked us to do was to write on a piece of paper exactly wat each station sells; the food, the ingredients in it, the condiments, the sauce and etc… That was like crazy coz there were so many things and there were a lot of terms that I haven never come across (coz I dun cook at all..) and it’s either most of them don’t understand what I was trying to ask or I don’t understand what they are talking about. (its like I ask them in English coz I have got no idea what’s the chinese word of the item and they would like reply in chinese the ingredients name which I know nuts about it.)

In the end of the day, once the manager said that we can go off as he had a meeting to go, all of us just cant wait to get out of that place..(our legs were like breaking already)

After work was to this feet massage place near out motel.

The service is like damn damn good.LOL. I realized that china service is all very good but obviously got to go to those decent shops. Singapore service standard really can’t be compared to them. I think they are all very sincere (thou yea, they wanna earn our money..but still, the service they provided made me very willing to pay the money.)

Had our dinner at this road side store and when I was going to take my first piece of food, someone said very loudly(in chinese): ‘there is a rat that ran across my legs’. All the girls that heard it screamed and my leg immediately went onto the chair.. This is like so damn scary..my legs was up on the chair for the entire stay there.

And the funny thing was that after the meal, we quickly went out of that shop and as I was thinking to myself that I hope I wont ran into a rat, kim started screaming and holding on to my hand. And I could just took a glance on this small little mouse, kim starting pulling my hand and ran all the way to the end of the street.. that was like damn funny…

Went back to the motel and we actually went the wrong direction.. but anyway, we brought sth along the way =)

6th day in shanghai.

Today wasn’t that bad. The whole day we were practically seating down for lecture or doing some odd jobs.

Went through the homework we did yesterday (the one that we got to note down all the food and ingredients and stuffs) and I think I failed like terribly coz majority of wat the employee told me was like wrong.. I think they just guessed it and bluff me…

Set up the training room (fish bone structure) for this spirit lesson, waited for lesson to start and it was like damn super boring..

So, I am going to know where I am going to work already soon =) It will be either hotel hostess or in house service. So at least I am not clearing plates or what so ever =)

End our day after the lesson and headed back to the motel… reached back by like 6.30pm, the earliest timing ever since we were in shanghai I think.

FIRST DAY OF ATTACHMENT..

4th day in Shanghai (03/09/07)

But it doesn’t seems like its attachment coz all we did was waiting for someone to entertain us while waiting in the training room, trying out our uniform (banquet uniform for like 3 days only cox that’s the attire for orientation.. we got to change it once we got our confirmed outlet), get toured around all the f&b outlets and the meeting rooms there and it’s time to go home.

All the outlet seems very nice and yummy!!! I so can’t wait for each and every one of our birthday to come so that we can TRY it out at HALF PRICE!!! (all 7 of us are spending our birthdays here!!!!)

And this world can be so freaking small!!! I am in shanghai and I actually saw 2 of my ex so-called boss. Two managers in the hotel are actually from the hotel I used to work in in Singapore (swiss hotel). I think they could recognize me too but we just couldn’t remember each other’d name. GOOD.. get to know more Singaporeans already.. =)

Sis, is Alan and ‘kee wee’ I think. Haha so coincident!!!

After work, we went to ‘zhend da guan chang’ again for dinner. Did our bank account (bank of china) and atm cards(i feel safe now haha) before meeting up with Chang fang and jie ying and had our dinner in this chinese restaurant.. Xiao long bao there wasn’t too bad but I think the skin was too thick.. The one in Singapore selling chinese pizza is still the best =)
Had our desserts in this dessert shop that seems to sell real nice food.. But in the end, it was quite a disappointment!!! =(

Headed to the apartment where Chang Fang and Jie Ying is staying as she said that her neighbor is moving out/renting out his room (he is the landlord and is renovating the room into brand new!!!) Had a look at the room and it’s like perfect.. It’s super near to motel 168, the place I am currently staying. The place is near the hotel, near to the city area, near to the shopping area, near to the shops, just along the road side and best still, the house got a washing machine, stove, internet, sofa bed, queen size bed, air con, tables and a freight.

Well, got to check out the new accommodation (if it is save, fun and etc…) before I deicide to move to that apartment which I think is damn good.. and I can save so much money compared to staying in a hotel.. hostel can be quite fun too. And I so dun wanna miss out any fun!!!

On the way back, Angela wanted to cut her hair and we ended up at this salon that I think is quite well known in Shanghai coz it has got abt 300 branches across.. I ended up washing and drying my hair coz it’s too cheap to resist. Haha it’s like S$4 to wash and dry it, and they did it in such a professional way.. the head massage (abt 15 mins) was damn comfortable and the person that hair dry my hair styled it like I am going out for some fun afterwards when I am actually going back to the hotel to slp…

Cant really remember wat’s that shop name but its so damn near the place that I am currently staying that I think I will be a frequent customer there =)

Getting use to the life here already and I think my chinese is improving. That’s so great=)

First shopping trip =)

3rd day in Shanghai (02/09/07)

Today is such a great day… WHY???

Coz what we did was SHOPPING!!!!!

So, the day was planned by first walking to the hotel to familiarize ourselves with the area, then down to Qipu rd to check out the place first (so that I can bring Gina and sis there next time) and to Nanjing rd and the bund for some night scenery and views.

So, after walking down to the hotel, we went into the shopping mall beside it called ‘Zheng Da Guan Chang’. Had our lunch there (burger king!!! OMG we are in china eating burger king and not xiao long bao!!!), check out the movie tix (which is surprisingly more expensive compared to Singapore. The English movies are all 70 yuan!!! and the chinese ones are from 35 - 60 yuan) and headed off to Qipu rd.

Met Chang Fang and Jie Ying in the shopping mall itself (the world is so small.. shanghai is so big and we met each other). Maybe there is another alternative for my accommodation =)
Went to Qipu Rd with the intention of just checking out the place coz we wanted to see how that place looks like. Thought that we wouldn’t buy many things but in the end, WOW…. Hahah (u know what I mean =))

Hope that I am getting use to life here already = )

first 2 days... and drained out..

Reached shanghai at 5.55am yesterday and the whole day was damn damn long… Meet up with our host, ying lao shi and she accompanied us for half the day to do some official stuff.

Things that I have gone through on the first day (31/08/07):

-China Eastern airline suck totally
Its like going into a sauna. I was sweating for almost the entire journey.. which coz me not slping throughout the whole night…

-went into the accommodation provided for us
That place sucks like hell. Firstly, it was to carry our super duper big luggage up to the 6th storey high apartment (yea, they dun have lifts and we stayed at the highest floor!!). Reached the small little room meant for the 4 girls- and although it’s a little better then expectation (cox my expectation was like negative already)I still cannot take it; the room stinks of new/old wooden smell, no fan nor air-con, the beds look like thousand of people have slept on it before, the floors were dirty (imagine wearing your shoes into the house and walk around. This is what they do!!

The toilet looks like those in the prison, and I think our room mates were like super dirty (empty bottles were all over the floor.. and its not like one or 2 of it, but 15 or more of it!!!)

And all those were only the apartment itself. The apartment is like a 1 hour bus ride away from the hotel I am working for and the whole place is damn deserted (after alighting the bus, I think there is still a 20-30 mins walk in).. there were no shops (that sells national brand), high rise buildings or wat so ever.. and the apartment that I am staying in seems to be surrounded by a lot of men. And worst still, there wasn’t any lights there at night!!!
It’s so dangerous and insecured!!!

Then it was to the guys apartment which is big, with new bed, nearer to the road/gate with gym and some other facilities I think.. and they stay in the 2nd level.. everything seems so much better there…

-medical check up
Then it was to some medical check-up (the girls were already deciding if we wan to either more in with the guys apartment or to a cheap hotel)

First, they gave us this Chinese form to fill in.. (all 7 of us just suck in Chinese.. ) and as we were filling up the form, we saw things like anus check, liver check, blood test and stuff. All of us (esp the girls) were so freaked out.. ANUS check. What the hell was that.. some of us got too scared and started crying.. and I never have a body check up before!!!!

I was so nervous and stuff (lots of ppl say that china clinics are not very safe to go to) and after a whole mess, we completed all the stations of check up and there is this Chinese test to complete (a 6 plage chinese comprehension) and I think we got to get 100 marks to considered it as passed. All of us didn’t even bother to read the passage. We tried copying from others and getting ying lao shi to do it for us. (she did all 7 of it and so all the papers were of the same ans..)
By that time, all of us were like hungry and stuff and after taking the blood test, my whole went so numb and tired.. I think everyone almost fainted…

-lunch at Shangri-le hotel (still deciding on the hotel.. )
Went to the staff canteen for lunch and food wasn’t that nice.. but I think the canteen is so much better then the ones in Singapore.

We felt like some pola bears coz everyone is starting at us and stuff..Then we started slacking (for 1½ hours) in this training room while waiting for their ‘family event’ to start. All of us just slept in the chairs like no body biz.. until someone entered the room.

Their employee welfare seen quite good.

Then we felt that we were all transparent coz no one is bothering abt us..
Had a short tour around the motel and we continue slacking in the hotel to wait for Linda Xuto settle some stuff for us (confirm going to stay in a hotel already…)
Went to the hotel for check in (4 girls in one bigger room) and I am so so happy with the hotel. I got a proper bed, air con, proper toilet, internet connection, shops around the motel, supermarket nearby. I feel so save here =)

By then, everyone were emotionally and physically drained out…
I cant wait to just slp on the bed. Went back to Shangri-la and the guys were nice enough to go back to the old accommodation and help us bring over all the girls luggage(which is 4 big one and 2 small one). They almost went crazy over it.. coz they lost their way, and had a dirt shirt time finding the apartment. Thank goodness we moved to the hotel….

By the time we settled everything. It seems like a few weeks have gone. Every min seems like days… I just hope that my life here wouldn’t be hell anymore.. day 1 is bad enough…
Had a very late sleep but by the time we head of to bed, my mind went shut immediately once I was on the bed all the way to 12pm the next day.

Second day (01/09/07)
Woke up today at noon and by the time we went out, it was near 2pm already. We spend the day very relaxingly.. All we did was went for lunch, took passport size photo, buy our sim card and IP card and walked around our neighborhood. Had our dinner and headed back to the hotel.. reached back the ,motel at around 8pm..

Tmr will be a day to go some roaming and shopping in shanghai and OIAP will officially start. Just hope that I wouldn’t get hell…

And yea, shanghai stuff are still CHEAP!!!!!

I am going to survive through!!!!!