Hi! How're you doing?

And my answer to that question is always 'good' whenever asked.

So bad to lie.

Anyway, finally got time to blog since i knocked off early today at 5.30pm (Yes, it is really early considering the park here closes at 10pm everyday now). And the wireless is finally up, though we can only detect it at the Recreation Center which is a 2-min walk from our apartment..

Have been working everyday since 9th May and i only got my first day off on 24th May 2007. Not forgetting our travelling time of almost 36 hours since we boarded the plane from Changi Airport to reach Cedar Point.

Thanks those who sent us off at the airport but i've got a bad news which im still damn sad about it - I've lost my camera on a train from Cleveland airport to another place. My stupidest mistake to forget to take it. So all the photos taken at the airport are gone! Hiaz........

So, i don't have pictures right now except from KR's camera. So just bear with it.

Work
Well, since im a food host which is different from KR's housekeeping a.k.a chambermaid and YT, YL and ZY and his friends' merchandise work, basically i don't get to meet them at all during our working times. Hence i got to know other Singaporeans who are working as food hosts and at the same area.

The park is so huge that with my already fast walking speed, i still need to take 15 mins to walk from the location where i get my cash bag to the place i work.

The working hours here are long and many of us (food hosts) are complaining about how we are like being ill-treated. Since the park opens at 10am till 7pm last week and till 10pm from last friday onwards for everyday, our working time can be like from 9am til 11pm with 1hr break in between and sometimes even til 12am for some pitiful ones. But of course, that will also translate to more money from the working hours. So at the end of it, it depends if you want to earn more money or more rest time.

Working environment
The workers here are generally slow and inefficient. Most of them are younger than us but their attitudes towards work are not as positive as most international employees. Even during one of our training, the trainer agreed that international employees are very hardworking. But i guess that is probably the reason why we seem to be exploited and made to work long hours.

The park gets really busy during the weekend and during peak hours of weekdays. Yet, we are understaffed at times. When they have more staffs than required, the supervisors will send people to go for half an hour to 1 hour of break since breaks are not counted towards our pay. So scheming. Sometimes they even send people home.

But well, i wont mind getting send home since i rather have more rest time than work long hours. But then, i have to work to earn money to get a new camera (the cameras are cheaper here than in Singapore). So dilemma.

Weather
The weather is extreme here. 2 weeks ago it was like around 10 degrees and dropped to 8 degrees celsius at night and 2 days later, the weather rose to between 25 to 30 degree celsius. When the weather is cold, we really suffered. Our uniform is berms and a short-sleeve shirt and a undershirt and with another sweater if we bought one. That is still not enough definitely!

But well, the weather is just nice at least for the past few days at around 20 deg Cel.

Oh, and the sun sets at 8.50pm for now and the sky is still pretty bright even at 9pm.

Food
The food we eat the most in the park is either cheese burger, fries, chicken strips, pizza etc. But those are for lunch only when we have breaks. Dinner, fortunately, we cook ourselves at our apartment. And we have rice, pasta, soup, vegetables.. etc.

And the food here are not cheap. A lunch can cost around US$3, but as food host, we will try to kope some if possible. Haha.

A loaf of bread at the supermarket can cost US$2. But we usually get the cheap one that is less than US$1. There are cheap food still though, like pizzas at US$1 when in Singapore it is around S$4 in NTUC. And there is a US$6.99 Eat-All-You-Can Pizza buffet near our apartment and we are waiting for a day to eat there!

Transport
There is a Cedar Point shuttle bus to take us from the Cedar Point pennisula to outside the park where the apartments are. Also, it will take us to the mall and supermarkets at certain times. Other than that, everything else has to be on taxi which cost US$2 to 3 per person per ride from our apartment to the mall/library/supermarket/bank etc.

Shopping
The mall here has lots of stuffs but recently on my off day, i went to Aurora in Ohio which is 90 miles away from Sandusky (where we work at) with 5 other Singaporeans that i got to know here. We rented a big MPV car and drove about 1.5 hour there. We took turns to drive though. Ha. But when it was my turn, we were already back at Sandusky and had our dinner at the town before going back to our apartment. And yet, i missed a turn and get lost. In the end, we kenna stopped by a police car just because i forgot to put a turn-right signal. And i thought what! But luckily, we told him we were lost and then he gave us the direction back. Lol.

Anyway, why Aurora? Because it has an area where all the factory outlets stores there, selling really cheap stuffs.

And i spent there least among the 6 of us at US$120 while others US$200 - 300+. While, branded stuffs like Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hifilger, Calvin Klein, DKNY are cheap. I bought a Tommy Hifilger jeans for just US$18 when it can cost S$100 to 200++ in Singapore. And the t-shirts are dirt cheap. We went there during their sales period and when we saw the price tag of US$5.99 for tshirts, we thought wow, must buy. Later we realised there is still a further 50% off, which means US$3 per tshirt. And they are really nice looking. Haha. Oh, and berms sell at US$8!

So anyone needs anything, just let me know, i will get them since i might be going Cincinatti, Ohio where there are other brands of factory outlet stores too. Ha.


Okay, that's all for now. My laptop is running low on battery. And i have no idea when i'll have time to blog again.

I have off this coming tuesday and im gonna play the roller coasters!


P.S. I just checked my Semester 4 results and they sucked.

P.S. And the time of this post is adjusted to the US time which is exactly 12 hours behind Singapore time! So i guess everyone is still sleeping when im typing this. MSN has no one online too!