1st day

Today was much more fun.

We managed to find the employee cafeteria and lunch was a big slice of pepperoni pizza for $1.95 and a hot cocoa for $1.10. Then we were supposed to meet at Park Operations and ended up waiting ard half hour in the cold wind. haha. My nose was alr starting to run.

Then came a briefing for rides and ecology..all those rules, protocol, phone no.s, hand signals, codes etc..actually it was mostly directed at the rides ppl but we had to learn them too. It was pretty boring, and i was sleepy. We had a walk round the park after tt..didn't get to see all the areas but got an idea of how it was like..wow it was really happening. alot of ppl! on a cold day. so weird. and they said there're guests even when it rains. haha. the park's like a mini village on its own, with a zone dedicated to kids, shops, eateries, different zones like "congo" and "international" zone and the waterpark. Saw a bungee-like thingy where 2 ppl are suspended by 2 ropes and they lie on their bellies on the seat and basically fly back and forth. looks pretty exciting. and cold. haha.

Had dinner at the cafe after tt..this time a burger for $2.10 (i think the 10 cents either came fr tax or fr the bbq sauce tt i took). Was pretty boring cos didn't have much to talk to the china guys abt..an indon guy and a vietnamese girl were at our table too..indon guy's fr NTU CBC yr 1 and viet girl's fr NUS econs yr 2..and we were trying to teach them chinese haha. cos viet girl took chinese level3 and indon guy took chinese level1 in uni. Oh btw. I haven't intoduced the 3 fellow eco PRCs. Wang Hai Tao is from Liaoning, Tang Di is from Wuhan and has a bro-in-law who is a TCM physician and whose father is apparently a pro TCM physician too who has written duno how many of his own prescriptions (and Tang Di says his name is acty a herb but i honestly haf not heard of such) and Hu Meng (胡猛) is from Haerbin and i think his name is damn cool. lol. Hai Tao and Tang Di are in NTU EEE yr1 and Hu Meng's in NTU mechanical engin yr1. And Hu Meng's acty the one i tot who was from union but today i found out they got tt singlet from the goodie bags. hahaha. speaking of goodie bags, our supervisor was very amused by the little pen hu meng got fr an NTU goodie bag. lol.

Yup we got our schedules and met our supervisors after dinner. He's Duane Taylor, is a nice guy and is younger than me. Yup. Apparently they start young here, cos i came across another employee who's like 15 or 16 and in high sch/college, and another guy called Micheal who's 17. So anyway Duane just turned 19 and is in his sophomore (2nd) yr in VCU and he's been at KD for 5 yrs. So he works here every summer and is currently our supervisor. pretty cool huh. He said he played football for 4 yrs in high sch. And he's in biomedical engineering. So he thinks tt the 4 of us eco ppl are all engineers altho i alr said mine is biomedical SCIENCE, not engin. haha. And he thinks Americans are stupid, for reasons like walking into wet toilets and falling down and not knowing why, not knowing how to throw stuff in the bins etc. Basically during the briefing i was acting as translator the whole time, and it was pretty funny cos i was like stuck btn a chicken and a duck. Like Duane speaks english and the guys speak chinese. So dear me, being effectively bilingual, had to make things easier for everyone and translate things like toilet bowl, broom, mat, spills and toilet paper. You can imagine how much fun we had. I was basically laughing my head off at the retardness of many conversations btn tang di and duane cos it sure was damn hilarious. I'm 100% certain that anyone of my frequency who was there with me wld have the exact same sentiments. Lemme give u some egs of hilarious convos btn tang di (Jerry) and duane.

Oh yes. Before tt i just wanna quote duane cos this line just made my day. "Ecology is in fact ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE". spoken like a true science and tech/engin person.

Duane: I got good grades in high sch and i love chemistry. I'm a chemistry geek.
Jerry: Gay?
Duane: No, GEEK, NOT GAY! u see, *gesturing with his hands* i go straight, this way, and i don't ever go the other way. Geek. NOT gay!

Scenario: Duane explained to us how to deal with bees stuck in the dustbins.
Duane: Do u guys know wat bees are?
*weird looks from the guys*
Me to the guys: mi feng
Hai Tao and Hu Meng: ORH!!! *nod vigorously*
Jerry: The things that make honey.
Duane: You guys are smart! Yeah, bees make honey and they make u go "OW!"
-a while later when duane was testing us on wat he told us. somehow the bee thing came up again.-
Jerry: Will they bite me?
Duane: Sorry?
Jerry: Will they bite me?
Duane: *weird look* (i think he cldn't really comprehend jerry's weird brand of english, cos u know how their pronunciation is far from correct)
Jerry: Bite. Will they bite me?
(By now, everyone's laughing cos it's really a silly qs)
Hu Meng: That depends on whether the bee is interested in you.
Duane: If you're not comfortable, you can always inform your supervisor- that's me. And I will get rid of them for you. I do hunting, fishing..i'm an outdoor person, so such stuff don't bother me.
Jerry: Then will they bite you?
Everyone: -________- *burst out laughing*

Ok i guess u guys all get the idea right? If you don't, you really have to be present to witness those witty exchanges btn a chinese guy and an english guy. And Duane knows spanish, shall try to pick up sth from him :D

I really need to get a calling card. The lifeguards ended their work at 5 but i was supposed to work till 10 and my frens were gonna wait for me for dinner but we alr had dinnertime assigned to us so i had to find a way to inform my frens. And none of us had calling cards, and i was seriously contemplating asking my area supervisor or employee services to help me get in touch with the lifeguard supervisor to pass the msg to my frens. But i didn't. Luckily during dinner break i saw 2 lifeguard trainees fr our batch (and they're both PRCs too) and i had to ask them to do me a favour and go to my room or yy's room to inform them tt they didn't have to wait for me for dinner. Apparently they didn't, or they did but nobody was in cos my frens didn't get the msg. Luckily Anette saw me after she ended her shift and knew i was gonna end late so she told me frens. And they went out to play in the park without me! boohoohoo. i got back to the hotel at 9+ and nobody was in. Lucky i had the guys for company on the way back, cos it was pitch black under the overpass and was scary and cold. I'm gonna have to work till 11pm some days, and it's a good thing we're all in the same shift and in the same area (the waterpark) altho we'd probably be assigned to diff locations. So anyway i'm gonna be working tmr (sunday) all through next sun, and my off-day is this coming mon. prob gg to walmart, cos there's a bus taking us there from the hotel but my frens won't be off so i'll prob have to go with the china guys again. lol. and maybe the rides ppl like the indon guy.

I hope i'll meet more nice and funny ppl tmr! Humour will take u a long way! Many a time i catch the english joke and end up being the only one laughing/sniggering and i know tt if any of my gd frens are with me we'd prob laugh till we're rolling on the floor but for now i shall just have to enjoy the humour myself. Jerry doesn't actually try to be funny, he said he just says wat he thinks but it so happens when he says it in english it is just so hilarious. esp when he tries to put it across to an angmoh.

I wonder why they have to check out bags and make us walk through a metal detector each time we enter and leave the park. Are they looking for guns?

Oh yes. Jerry seems upset to be in eco now (maybe tt's y he's so cynical and sarcastic) cos he said he originally thought the jobscope will be farming, like rearing cows and planting veggies. ya right. tt's damn funny too, doncha think? what has farming got to do with an amusement park?!

YY said it's 11 degrees outside. I think i really need to wear a fur sweater or sth inside cos we can't have long sleeves sticking out fr under our uniform. But at least i don't sweat and can wear my clothes for many many consecutive days!

It's late. Tmr work starts at 12 and we're meeting at 11 for lunch first but it's alr 1.30am. so good nite! remind me never to eat instant porridge again cos it takes damn long to cook (couldn't cook in YH's metal bowl so i borrowed the juniors' rice cooker and it took like half hr or more and there wasn't enough water.) By the time my hunger had alr diminished and it wasn't really appetizing so i threw away half of it and had to rub the porridge stains out of the pot and bowl with my fingers. lol. ok i'm tired. everyone has conked out alr. good nite! hope it doesn't rain tmr! photos of my uniform the next time. haven't got a chance to photograph the park yet cos we figured i shdn't be doing tt in my uniform. hope i get to play soon though.