Monday, July 31, 2006

wooooo hoooooo.............!!! in Los Angeles now, just got here this morning at 7am after a 7 hour overnight bus ride on the greyhound bus from San Fran. SF was a nice place and convenient, considering how the hostel i was staying at was around downtown area, near chinatown where there was cheap food (and yummy too) and near union square are where there were the shops and other upmarket stuffings. it was very walk-able too....since the streets were in a grid-like structure and downtown are was relatively small.

but....it's time to move on. so now, we're in LA, all 6 of us....isaac nick esmond thomas me and yongchang. staying in this rather cool hostel called The Orbit, situated along Melrose Ave, near Hollywood. actually, it's walking distance to Hollywood!!! back in Pacific Tradewinds Hostel in SF, we split up into 3-3 for the rooms so i was sharing a room with yongchang and thomas and 3 other erm..hostel-ites. but Orbit here in LA managed to arrange for 6 of us to share the same room, and there is even a bathroom in our room, so it's like a hotel room with 3 double-decker beds and a shared bathroom. the only drawback is that internet access here isn't free wireless....there's a US$8 charge for 24hrs wireless internet for 1 account only -_-. i suppose jas might say:"yowryowryowr". haha...

according to Lionel (who is still back in cedar point working...and probably leaving that horrible place soon), there's a really famous hotdog place called (read this.....) PINKS that apparently serves excellent variations of hotdogs!!

after hearing how lionel HAD to eat hotdogs everyday while in LA, we walked 25 mins across numerous blocks and finally smelled our way to pinks! the horrible scare we had was that the queue for hot dogs was disgustingly long, curving and turning and stretching to behind the little shop.Get this: we queued for 1 HOUR before we got to order. that's the longest time i've ever lined up to place an order for fast food. sounds ridiculous, but it was definitely worth it!!!

at the top of their list of famous dogs was the 10-inch stretch chilli cheese dog which was what i got, and which tasted awesome :) another hotdog that nick and thomas tried was the 12-inch jalepeno hotdog....yummilicious!!! nachos cheese chilli fries were amazing....way better than any other chilli cheese fries i've tried. we'll probably go back there at least one more time before leaving LA since it is within walking distance :)

walked on somemore to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, where there were stars on the tiles in the ground, with names of artistes on each star; and the footprints and handprints of more artistes imprinted into the concrete tiles outside of the Chinese Theatre. pictures will be up soon because i'm using nick's laptop to type this now.

as of now, only yongchang and i are bathed and smelling nice. esmond is lying in bed deep asleep without bathing, and (horror!!) nick is lying on My bed and he hasn't showered. eww. isaac is in the shower and is dying to use the internet so this entry is about to end soon, and thomas went clubbing.

tmr is going to be so exciting i think...because we're planning to go to Universal Studios!!! by a rented car hopefully, we'll see how it goes tomorrow. more updates later................

Cors is driving me insane again, no modules to take again and noone to take with again. this is the 5th semester in nus already and its still like that...argh!!!

p.s.: been seeing ben & jerry's ice cream stands around in san fran and in LA, and everytime i see them, i just get reminded of the boy cos he likes B&Js so much....sorry dear, i cant buy any back for you, you know you'll be drinking milk by the time it reaches our sunny little island of singapore :)

p.p.s.: saw something i thought i could have bought for chuan's bday...but i'm just worried thatit'll be invoncenient to bring back and what if it breaks on the way back? i'll faint if that happens. sigh. hang on chuan, i'll bring you back something i promise!!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

out of cedar point! for good!!! never have i been so elated to be out of work before!

honestly, but the only thing that kept me going, and kept me tolerating all the nonsense that was happening, and kept me from going insane were the friends i made here. everyone from my thai roommates, to the malaysian housemates, to my singaporean roommates, to the singaporean/malaysian guys i met here, to some of my colleagues at skyride (the rest of them just drive u mad...), to the BOY, to mummy and chuan.

unfortunately for me, there's no bonus to wait to receive...so please people, be nice, and don't discuss your bonuses in front of me. it's highly depressing to think of how i was 1 WEEK close to getting at least an extra 400USD. sigh.

tonight there's a potluck party at the guys' apartment. supposed to be a farewell-birthday gathering for the asians especially, cos most of us singaporeans are leaving cedar point within the next coupla weeks and sherine's and britmand's birthdays were on monday and tuesday respectively.

feel sad to think of how i've spent 3 months living and working with people who were strangers at first, and yet now i'm gonna leave them, really hope that we keep in contact...

Monday, July 24, 2006

RELEASED from the clutches of the Blue Tags at Cedar Point!

i can barely believe that i no longer have to go to work at skyride, nor take attitude from any supervisor or blue tag, nor work till closing and clean up till 11pm, nor listen to the jarring buzz of walkie-talkies whenever a supervisor or area manager struts through skyride, nor take in the sight of k**sh* shaking her bon-bon wherever she moves.

Officially, monday 24th aug should be my last day of work, but i asked jon (my new supervisor) if my off-day for next week could be arranged to be on monday and apparently, he said:"no problem".

UNofficially, i brought forward my last day of work to be yesterday, saturday 22nd august 2006. and boyyyyyy was it a looooooooooooooooooong day at work yesterday --> started at 8am and didn't get to leave till 1030pm. start counting.....presto! that's 14.5 hours of work. how did i sustain through that with merely a 1-hour break in between?! well, i did. and so did ivy and marcus, both of whom worked a similar number of hours.

as i was saying, today i was supposed to be at work from 12pm till 11pm, but i called in and told them i was NOT going to work because of personal reasons and because i had to pack and settle school matters. guess what, how unlucky of me, i was at the park practically the whole day and i saw my supervisor -_- so silly. oh well, whatever. they didn't even put my name on next week's work schedule which is good, cos this way i don't have to call in tomorrow to let them know i'm not working again :)

i'm off from work!!!!

hip hip hurray!!

Saturday, July 22, 2006

can there possible be another place on earth that has a worse working environment than cedar point?!

things here at cedarpoint and at skyride have gotten so bad to such an extent that we (the singaporeans at skyride) have concluded that the Blue Tags don't think we are working unless we are unhappy. how horribly sadistic does that sound to you?!!!

1st, they transferred the supervisor that's really nice and considerate towards us and whom we really love;

2nd, they send in new supervisors who have no freaking idea whatsoever of how things work in skyride and try to impose new (and might i say, extremely ridiculous) rules and regulations on us;

3rd, the new supervisor gives us unfair evaluations on work performance and even displays evident favouritism towards a certain skin colour and gender;

4th, i can't even shorten my contract despite providing documentation for OFFICIAL SCHOOL/ACADEMIC MATTERS based on the fact that i signed the contract in october last year and hence have to fulfill the work period in order to receive my bonus (this bonus is worth USD$400 at least, mind you);

5th, their sheer arrogance and stupidity just amaze me everyday, as can be seen from the little things they do and the little things they make us do. oh, btw, "their" here refers to the Blue Tags. just in case you guys have no idea, the Blue Tags are of a higher rank than the Red Tags (this refers to ordinary employees like yours truly).

it's friday night already, and it's so fast i know but there is (unofficially) only 1 day of work left --> saturday from 8am-6pm!!!! officially i should be working satuday sunday and monday before leaving, but since i won't be receiving any bonus anyway, i shall just call off on sunday to play in the park and monday to settle any remaining issues and leave on tuesday. take it that i quit!

never before have i felt such angst and helplessness in a job, to the extent that circumstances can leave me so upset, hot angry tears can just well up in my eyes. how disappointing.

i expected alot more from this place considering how cedar point has the reputation for having america's best roller coasters (or so it is repeated everyday). who would have known that the management here (especially in foods department) is so bias and political and have practically negligible employee welfare and consideration whatsoever.

nothing can describe how SICK i am of this place. nothing can fully explain how much and yet how little i want to get out of here.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

all 9 of us at a chinese restaurant in chinatown chicago. lunch for that day was wonton noodles. but it was too dry....the sauce wasn't tasty enough, there were too little wontons....and lastly, the chilli was NOT spicy. what a disappointment!

clockwise from the left: dorothy, joey (hidden), isaac, esmond, marcus, shaosheng, britmand (turning away), nick.


the night view of chicago from millenium park. ain't the lights gorgeous?
the interesting thing about chicago is that the tall buildings are all neatly arranged in straight lines along the streets. it's so organised! so unlike singapore's streets and buildings.


this ancient looking castle-like building is in the middle of chicago's main streets, smack in the midst of modern buildings and victoria secrets and saks fifth ave! and guess what, it's actually the Water Works Public Building. haha.

we had no choice but to visit the cheesecake factory at the john hancock tower Twice!! once was on the first night we were there...for dessert, guess no one could resist the thought of cheesecake! (especially britmand...he's such a cheesecake maniac...he was the only one who had the entire slice to himself, and a cup of latte to go with the cake although he was so so so full already haha!) the 2nd time we were there for dinner...and more dessert. haha. check out the menu, it's sooo pretty!! i heard that there might be another branch in newyork or something......exciting!


that's the Kahlua Cocoa Cheesecake that isaac and i shared...it's positively Heavenly!!! the boy would melt if he tried it, i bet....dear i wish u could have tried it! or better still, if i was there in chicago with the boy, how nice........

in the background, it's joey's and shaosheng's strawberry cheesecake which was yummilicious too!! see how shaosheng can't wait to tuck in to his cake...haha.


shaosheng, joey and i at the cheesecake factory


the restroom at the cheesecake factory. the tiles and mirrors and lamps were so pretty i couldn't resist not getting a pic of it!

Friday, July 14, 2006

the subway in chicago, a little different from our trains back home. that's britmand in the foreground.......stoning away haha.


the subway from the station. the train stations there really look run down and dark and dank and damp...nothing like mrt stations....but at least it's something different! that's joey in the blue sweather and isaac in his usual striped polo.


this sign was taken off one of the stalls at the taste of chicago food fair ...it was a thai stall. "pot stickers" actualy refer to what we call "dumplings" or "guo tie"...literally translated! haha. apparently, it's not only this stall that made this weird translation....practially the whole of the US calls dumplings "pot stickers". even wal-mart and meijers sell frozen pot stickers haha...

shaosheng and i...ain't the background and the lights beautiful? SS is so vain...he deliberately wore a shirt shirt because he knew that we'll be taking photos and he erm..wanted to look good in them. haha!

pics from chicago...was there for 3 days 2 weekends ago. with joey dorothy esmond isaac nick britmand marcus and shaosheng. drove up for more than 5 hours, was really tiring just sitting in the car. cos i can't drive.....can't imagine being the one driving!!!

we chose the independence day weekend to visit chicago cos of the food festival there "taste of chicago". tried quite abit of stuff, haven't gotten photos of it yet, but there was turkey leg that isaac had and boyyyyyyyyyy was it HUGE!!!! wait till those pics are up!

the photos above are pics of chicago's streets, including Millenium Park and check out the beautiful outdoor concert area above!!! so pretty, the band must haf felt really good performing there. saw a huge victoria's secret store....whoaaaaaa it's way larger than the one in sandusky. should have stepped into that store but there just wasn't enough time i guess.


Excalibur is this supposedly really cool club in chicago, and we were THIS close to going in, save for the fact that joey didn't have her passport id and that i was under 21 yrs..........what a let down. was actually really excited about checking out that place. oh well. i'll have to come back after 21 years then.

joey and i found bubble tea in chinatown. and apparrently the restaurant selling it is really famous and popular among the americans and asians there. felt so homely to see pao pao cha there!!! not cheap though...it was US$3.60 which converts to about SGD$5....for bubble tea!!!

look at the pic in the middle of the collagte....the one that says "erin.....". saw that sign on the building just beside excalibur so decided to get it down for keepsake.

chicago is a really cool city, love that place. maybe because in comparison to boring old quiet sandusky, chicago is really so much more exciting and happening with night life and people actually walking along the streets!!!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

visited Cleveland a coupla weeks ago..it was a day trip with joey, shaosheng, britmand, thomas, esmond and yongchang.we all squeezed into the guys' car was quite abit of a squeeze honestly but it was a fun trip!!

check out the pics below...there's this place called the rock and roll hall of fame. it's cool!! we went in to realise that there was a live rock band performance, and the security guard chased us out cos we didn't have an entrance ticket haha.

had a great lunch at this italian restaurant in Little Italy. the taxes and calculation of the bill was a little insane esp since we had to pay an extra $3 for every extra plate they gave us to share the meal. there's such a pasta called Angel Hair..which is really fine and thin pasta, something like mee sua as what we'll prob call it back home. angel hair in olive oil and sauteed shrimps were awesome, never tried anything like it before. singapore should have angel hair pasta!!! i'm so gonna buy some home :)