After MIAing so long =)

Okie, I haven being blogging for a super long time and I decided to be determine to continue on my daily blog if possible… so,

20th day in shanghai (19/09/07)
Okie, so when we woke up in the morning at about 6 +am, it was like ‘fine and sunny day’. There wasn’t even any sight of clouds in the sky.

So we decided to call Hans and ask him not to fetch us to work. Coz we can all slp for another 1hour plus. I feel so damn thick skin then…

Reached the hotel for breakfast, we saw him and all of us were like super embarrassed.

It’s the 3rd day of orientation and there was a test for us to complete at the end of the day. Everything taught by them for the past 3 days will be tested and we got to get 80% correct before passing it…

So, during lesson that day, we were given a chinese booklet and we were supposed to fill up some blanks in it. It wasn’t very interesting and all of us just fill in the blanks to keep ourselves awake.

So, after lunch, the speaker taught finished everything and gave us some time to revise through. All the chinese staffs were like damn hardworking studying for the test while all the 7 of us plus the Australian guy either talked or slept in class.

But well, anyway, we have got 8 brains to think and do the qn tgt.. so y worry =)

Then it was the test. The paper was still in Chinese but we can ask them to help us translate or explain the question. The questions asked are actually quite stupid. Questions like how many levels are there in the hotel, who is the founder of this hotel, the history of the hotel and stuff..

The lucky thing was most of the qn are either multiple-choice or true/false and we can write in English for those short-sentence qn.

Anyway, I think we got like 100% for the test coz it was actually quite easy.
After the test was a tour around the hotel and we manage to skip it coz we have toured the hotel like 3 times already…

Headed to the laundry after we ended coz Kim, Yu Hong and I need to change our uniform.
WHY???
Coz we will be transferred to event concierge and we need to wear SUITS!!!

The happy things is not really abt wearing suit but going into a department that I am interested in.. EVENTS.

So, when we reached the laundry and tried out the clothes, the manager wasn’t really cooperating with us.

After trying on to our new attire, all of us were not very happy with it. It’s either the sleeves are too short, the skirt and pants are too tight or the pants is too long.

When we asked the manager if we can change our bottoms/top, she said that she dun have anymore extra clothing for us. I presumed that she didn’t want us to change as she didn’t want things to be so troublesome and asked us to bear with it until we get our new attire.

Apparently the suits that she gave us belongs to someone else coz their suits are all custom made and therefore, there wouldn’t be any extra one or what-so-ever.

We gave the manager a few solutions on how she can help us make our attire more comfortable and she said something like ‘I am speaking normal chinese. Cant you guys understand?’
All of us got so damn angry that Yuhong went to call our manager and told him that the laundry manager was giving us a hard time.

Not long later, a phone rang and the manger was called up to meet someone, which apparently is my manager.

The moment she came down, she allow us to change into something we are comfortable with =) we won the war.. haha

Once we were done, went to our zheng da guang chang to wait for joanne and Angela to finish their dinner in the staff canteen before going home tgt.. (we ate burger king =))

So in the windy and rainy night, we decided to walk all the way back home (we missed the shelter bus and wanted to save some money from taking the cab plus our landlord is waiting for us so we cant afford to wait for the next bus or wait for the rain to stop)

Got home and my whole leg was WET!!

Reached home, watched Dr Doolittle 3 and I fell asleep half way through.

I wonder what I will be doing tmr.. hmmm

21st day in Shanghai (20/09/07)
Today didn’t start off good=(

I FORGOT TO BRING MY LOCKER KEY!!! AND I GOT TO PAY RMB 20 TO HR SO THAT THEY CAN LEND ME THE SPARE ONE… BOO!!!

And when I went into the locker room, I realized that the key I borrowed was wrong and I have to go back HR to change it..

All this made me miss my breakfast!!! BOO

Work was supposed to start at 9am in the morning at the event concierge counter reporting to our manager, EHui and asst manager, Cherry.

But they were late so we decided to go to QingDao Ting, the mooncake room to look for people to chit chat with.

So, meet with with cherry and all we did for the whole day was quite simple;
Cherry toured us around all the function rooms and ballrooms, to allow us to locate the rooms and know the function of each room. By the time she finish touring and explain some things to us, it was already 11am and both Kim and I were super tired coz we skipped breakfast.
Had our lunch and after that, Cherry gave us some time to snap photos around the function rooms.

So when we took the lift, we saw our HR manager and she told us that she is meeting our lecturer, Mrs Tan and BA’s directors. (We know that they were coming but didn’t know what time coz we didn’t have their china no and couldn’t contact them.. it’s so coincident to meet our HR manager in the lift)

Met up with them, chatted for a while and we told them we need to go back to work. We headed to the function rooms and on the way, we walked past Yi Café and saw Angela there. So we started telling her that the Mrs Tan and the directors were her.

At the same time, the HR manager and the 3 guest appeared and our training manager happened to walk pass.

There was like a small little gathering just outside the door of Yi Café. Then we went to asked Nick and Gabriel out so that we can all take a group photo with the Managers.

After the mini gathering, we went back to work; snapping photos and reported back to our New Manager. Told him that our lecturer was here and we went over to Yi café to look for them again.

After meeting them, we went down to banquet office and he took out some files for us to read. Some ‘banquet bible’ that we were supposed to read finish in 1 hour.
Our manager left for lunch while we went to ‘study’

After an hour, they asked the 3 of us to follow them to the outdoor catering site.

It was like an excursion to us. We took a coach out, sat by the window side, feeling so excited…
The site was at a museum and it’s some successful business award event.

Went there and I think we learned/applied a lot of things. Things that were taught during CEM in year 2 were applied there. How things were planned and schedules, how things were organized, how manpower has being deployed.

Although I worked in banquet before, I wasn’t given a chance to view things the way I am able to view now. I am viewing things as the planner, as the organizer now. It’s quite cool.
We toured around the place for awhile before cabbed back to the hotel with Cherry. Reached back at 4pm and ended work =)

Since we were meeting Mrs Tan and the directors for dinner, we were still very early and decided to go to in-house dining to slack for awhile.

Planned to stay there for ‘awhile’ but ended up chatting for an hour plus there. Met up with the rest and headed to Puxi to some chinese restaurant in some high-end shopping mall for dinner.

Both the dinner and the company was great. It’s just a few weeks in shanghai and we have like got endless things to update them; lots of experience, incidents, stories, etc…. Dinner lasted till 10pm.

After dinner was to Xin Tian Di. Calling for a cab was quite terrible there. We either got cabs that doesn’t want to fetch 5 customers, cabs that don’t stop for you, meet cab snatcher and many more…

After a lot of cabs went pass us, we finally manage to get a cab. By the time we got there, it was near 11pm already.

And that place is totally no fun.. I dun understand why it was a recommended place to pub/club. The place is actually quite boring (at least me)

Thou it’s not that fun, we managed to stay there till 1.30am in the morning. Cabbed back home and yuhong and jieying stayed over our apartment.. coz both of them got no keys to go home..
Washed up and headed straight to bed… Everyone got to wake up early coz all of us are working in the moring!!!

22nd day in Shanghai (21/09/07)
It was the last day of Orientation and it was about some food hygiene and safety lessons. It was so super boring coz most of it I had already learned in my f&b module in year 2.

So after the whole lesson, we got to take this chinese test before I complete this orientation. And in order to pass, I need to get at least 80% or more.

The speaker seems quite fierce and all of us didn’t dare to talk/joke to each other. But apparently he isn’t as fierce and strict as we thought he was.

The whole lesson lasted for about 2+hour an d we went for our lunch. After lunch, we have like got 2 hours to revise on the test ourselves and none of the 7 of us bothered..

During lunch, we went over to the mooncake room as we need to help Mrs Tan buy some mooncake and Kim wanted to buy some too.

The test was not easy, but it was a open book test. He wrote the question on a mahjong paper and gave us white paper to write our answer . And I think all of us got 100 marks for this paper too?

we all wrote in English with like messy handwriting so hopefully he can understand what we were writing about.

After the test, we were all dismissed and we went to collect the mooncakes. After collecting, went to in-room dining to slack and chat with the people there till about 6+pm before going home. (At the start, we wanted to go home earlier but now, we want to stay longer to chat with the people. Hmmm)

Walked back home and tried out beef noodle in a small restaurant. I got quite pissed off with the waiter there coz when I asked for recommendation, he wanted to say every single thing from the menu. What he did was like flipping the menu page by page, telling me what is in the menu..
And what I asked for was RECOMMENDATION!!!

Went home and headed to Jia Der Li to buy mineral water, some chip, broom and dustpan.
It’s off day tmr. Like finally!! After 10 days of work!!!

23rd day in Shanghai (22/09/07)
It’s my off day and I am still waking up so early in the morning.. WHY???

Coz we plan to go huanghe rd to eat their famous jia jia tang bao =). And if we go late, we might end up queuing up for very long or it might even be sold out.

So, we met up Yu Hong at 10am at ren ming guang chang. By the time we met up, it was 10.15am and we headed off to that place. Reached at about 10.30am and we were lucky that the queue wasn’t that long yet.

The xiao long bao there is nice.. I think can fight with the one at tanjong pagar;chinese pizza. Compared to many other that I have ate, it is really one of the better one.

After the meal was to Qipu Rd =) for more shopping. And we decided to walk there.
And our dear Joanne was damn cute. She didn’t know how to read a map. She dun even know the use of a compass haha.. the conversation started when YuHong say that it will be better if we have a compass.

‘why need a compass?’
‘it will be easier to read a map.if not it’s quite hard to read it’
‘Y hard to read?’
‘coz you need to locate your direction first before you can find your desitnation’
‘how do you locate? As in how the compass knows where is north?’
‘then where is north now?’
‘in front’
‘why?’
‘coz I am facing the front.’

OMGOMGOMG.. she is just damn cute pls.. so in wat ever direction she is facing, she is facing north..

So we started teaching her how to read a map and she lead us all the way to Qipu rd.

We did some shopping although my mood wasn’t really there at first. *to prevent this, never to shop for bags and shoes first.. always start off with clothes!!!

Headed to the clothing area and when the mood is coming, Kim got to go and meet Jun Wei in the Airport.

Took the train home tgt and Joanna, Jie Ying, Yu Hong and I meet up with Hans for dinner at the museum-the place we went for excursion.

Had our dinner at one of the café and heard from him that some of the stores in Xiang Yang Jie were moved to that place so we decided go there and take a look.

Quite a disappointment thou.. I still prefer my Qipu =)

After shopping around w/o buying anything, we decided to go to somewhere to chill out and play cards. Went to Da Mu Zhi Guang Chang and found a nice pub.

We stayed there for like freaking long, from 8+pm to 1+am I think. All we did was playing cards and true and dare.

Quite a fun night with them. Yu Hong came over to our hse again coz I think he dun have his key with him. And poor Joanne got morning shift the next day.

By the time we washed up, look at photos, etc, it was 4+ in the morning. Went to bed and I think I sub consciously continue taking to them, haha

24th day in Shanghai (23/09/07)
I practically slacked at home the whole day!!

Woke up by Yuhong and Kim’s laughter at 9+am in the morning and I have totally no plans for the day,

Wanted to eat Sheng Jian Bao at Wu Jiang Rd but I think time was quite rush. I want to do some house work, Yuhong going home to wash his clothes, kim going out with her friend and Angela to the Church.

So in the end, I am alone in the house watching my HK series show.. And my lunch for today was a pack of lays, ¾ of a mooncake and a few cookies…

What I did was wash my clothes, slp the floor, watch the tv and watched till I fell asleep. OMG!!! I love just days!!!

But I got to bath and get ready for the dinner with the other OIAP students and some study trips students that are here in shanghai and the lecturers and directors at 5pm. So I got myself ready at 3+pm, took a cab down with jieying to meet up the rest of them first.

The dinner wasn’t too bad. The food was okie but the company was..er… abit dull. After dinner was back home again and I started watching coffee prince (fell asleep half way through)

Got myself washed up and was ready for bed when sis called for a chat… Then Gina msg me and I called her back..

Finally, I know where she is!!! IN CHINA!!! YAY so I am going to see her on the 26-28 of sept!!!!

At least I know that she is still fine is China coz I lost contact with her ever since my internet went missing.

Chatted with her for quite some time and the phone suddenly cut off… Called back to check my phone value and realized it’s negative 13+++.. OPPS!!!

Cant wait to see her on the 27th sept and which friend she came with =)

25th day in Shanghai (24/09/07)

Woke up at 7.30am without Kim waking me up (coz she is not at home.. hmmm)
Got myself ready and went to woke alone. This is the first time in the 3 weeks I went to work alone.

Had my breakfast in the canteen and was to work.

It was the 2nd/3rd day of my training in event concierge and there wasn’t many things for us to do.

Cherry bought us to some of the event rooms that are setting up for the later event. One of the events was some official government and business partner meeting.

Meeting was in China Hall with 450 guest and I think it’s quite a big event coz a lot of sales, event and banquet managers are up there in the event organizing it. Some of the clients are quite old and can be quite hard to handle.

One of my managers told us that never to offend Chinese officials’ coz you will never know how much impact they can make on the company or any other country’s economy. Imagine the amt of $$$ you can dig out from there…

So, after viewing the event set up, we went back to the office and Cherry started planning our off-day for this week and the golden week while we went for our lunch.

On the way for lunch, we went to look for Mrs Tan and the directors as they wanted to meet up with our F&B director. And I think we dun really have a very good feedback ???

Back to the office after lunch and Cherry told us our off days. Off days are from 28th sept to 5th of Oct. 8 days of holiday seems COOL huh.. but I think it’s very good coz it’s during the Golden week.. And if we go out during that week, it’s going to be super duper crowded.

So we are planning to go over to Hangzhou from the 29th-2nd Oct. Hopefully, it is still not that crowded when we go there.

Then we had a meeting on HACCP, sth on how to prevent more damage to the hotel property. The speaker was the EAM of F&B (biggest in F&B dept) and although the talk wasn’t that boring, I was so tired that I almost fell asleep… and I was sitting at the first row…

It was after the meeting when the asst director-in charge of banqueting came in to elaborate on some points that was funny and kept me awake. The way he talk and his actions are just damn funny…

So after the meeting, it was 4+pm and Cherry went for ‘lunch’ and she got a meeting at 5pm. Which means that we got no in-charge already + there is nothing to do already.

Went over to In-hse (again) and chatting/argue with Hans. And he called Cherry if we can leave first coz he wants Yuhong to accompany him to buy a new camera.
(Apparently he was stupid enough to drop his camera into the river.. while figuring out how to change to camera lens or sth..)

Went to this place that look like Sim Lim/Funan but he couldn’t decide his mind on which camera so we decided to go for dinner. I was so super hungry already at that time.

Went to Wu Jiang Rd to try out Sheng Jian Bao and it was NICE!!!!

It was pan-fried and they added some sesame on top of it I think. There is soup/gravy in the bao itself. It’s like a fried version of xiao long bao. Who ever comes and find me in Shanghai I will definitely bring him/her go to that place =)

We ‘da bao’ it and went to a nearby restaurant to order small other dishes.. All of us couldn’t finish the food and we were so damn FULL!!!

Went to the shop that Hans did his tattoo coz he wants to amend his (the color starts to fade off after 2 weeks)

He didn’t amend in the end coz the person told him that his skin hasn’t fully recovered and need to wait till next week.

Didn’t know where to go after that and he drove us back home…

Went to buy my top up card first and I asked the uncle to top up my card first before I gave him the money. =)