Day ???

Well everyone I apologize for the lack of blogs, but there was not too much to report the past like 40 days so haha. I did just return from Bintan, Indonesia which was awesome. Jubi, Rachel and I went on a two day trip there and was able to just enjoy time doing nothing and some amazing weather. I was told though that the ferry we would be taking would only be 45 minutes however this was not the case it was two hours!!! Once we arrived in Bintan we had an hour massage and then lunch. Indonesian food is amazing by the way and I will be needing to find a really good restaurant when I come back to the states. After lunch we had an hour drive to the resort. The drive was an interesting experience because it reminded me of Mexico and the low class towns. Seeing this though I can appreciate the things I have and I saw how happy the people were with so little. The room was nice, it was right on the beach which was white sand! The water was clear as well compared to the dirty merky water of Singapore that no one goes in. We needed another bed for our room since there was three of us and I figured it would be a cot they were bringing but nope they brought an entire bed and box spring. Once we were settled we just laid by the water and enjoyed the wonderful 75 degree weather. Then we went to dinner at a local restaurant and it was another amazing restaurant and it was cheap! The following day we went in kayaks which I was able to do by myself and did not end up in bushes. Not too long after kayaking though we had to return to the ferry and head home. Although it was short the trip was much needed besides the mosquitoe bites that we are now covered in. Work has been good, not too busy based on my colleagues experiences but for me it seems busy. I did a buffet for 700 people almost by myself but help eventually came which was greatly appreciated. Then there have been set lunches for like 1500 while there are multiple buffets of 300 plus so I think its busy. I have become the cookie queen cracking out about 800 cookies almost every other day when I work. One of the other trainees made over 2000 so I was glad I did not work that day haha. I will soon be leaving this department which is in our convention center to go to sweet spot and chocolate room which I can't wait for! Rachel and I and possibly one of my friends I met here will be going to Bali in October which will be exciting I will take lots of pictures. Oh F1 occured recently and I was able to watch some from Skypark. The sound of the cars were so loud from where I was I can't imagine how they would sound at the seats by the track. I will post pictures soon I am headed to bed. Hopefully this makes sense :) Be Home Soon :D

Day 66

Hey everyone sorry for the long delay I have been so busy with work and catching up on sleep :D. So I have changed departments now and I am in the Bakery making bread and boy I did not realize how much bread gets made in one day! The newspaper said we make about 2000-3000 rolls a day but I believe its like around twice that haha. My last department was very stressful, but I was happy at times when I finished everything I had to do on time and by myself! The people here are wonderful and always was able to find a way to make me smile. I was able to attend one of my co-worker's wedding and it was awesome! The traditions in a Chinese wedding is so different than the weddings in the states. Here the groom has to go pick up his bride from the house and the braidmaids makes him and his groomsmen do some activities before he can pick her up. What we went to was the dinner, it was in Malaysia! There was a shuttle that took all the friends from Kranji, Singapore to the wedding which was about an hour. There were two checkpoints we had to go through one in Singapore and then another one in Malaysia. When we arrived there we had time to walk around and I was able to take a nice picture of the sunset which is above. Then during the wedding there was a 7 course meal, slide show of the couple growing up and then growing up together, and other traditions that do. Drex, the groom, from work was awesome he sang a Jason Mraz song to his wife in front of everyone. We did not end up getting home until about 12:30 am and I had work the next day at 7am so that was a fun day.  I also have now tried frog and I have had steamboat which is where you cook your food in a pot of boiling soup and eat it. My friend from orientation was having it at her house and invited me to come with. Her mom was very nice and kept making me different condiments to use with the food. There was liver, chicken, fish, veggies, meatballs, hotdogs, lobster meat, crabmeat balls, mushrooms so much food! Lately with the olympics on I have been lucky to watch some of the events at work while on my lunch break. My schedule for the next two weeks is from 7am to 4pm which makes me get up at about 4:30 to get to work since it takes an hour pretty much to get there. I have mastered sleeping on the train now on the way home :D. Rachel and I also went out to eat some burgers at one of the restaurants inside the mall and Marina Bay Sands and it was really good the meat seemed different but I realized it was because it was from Australia. Right now Jubi, Rachel and I have booked our trip to Bintan, Indonesia for a little getaway from work. There really has not been much of an update on what is going on here just going to work and sleeping :D. Love and miss yall. Three and a half months left.

Day 46

Hello friends and family! Hope all is well with you guys! I am still doing well just very busy with work sorry but here is the update on my life for the past week. Um Tuesday the American student as in me, Jubi, and Rachel went out for an American breakfast. We went to Wild Honey in Orchard which is one of the main shopping centers in the area. I had a breakfast burrito, I know this is mexican but still it was delicious and much needed. Rachel had the same thing, while Jubi had like an eggs benedict but it was on french toast that was stuffed with cheese and ham. Jubi and I went window shopping for a little bit and then we were so caught up with the idea about going to Australia that we came straight home and did research for almost the entire day. Wednesday was my day off as well and I did not do too much. I relaxed by the pool and read the Help. Jubi had me realize that we are underground for almost the entire day besides going to work and coming back so I figured it would be a good idea to actually relax outside for once which was nice. Friday we had Mexican! The restaurant was in an area where many expats go and there were so many places to eat there. Pretty much any type of food you could think of was in this like 5 block radius on top of shopping. It was a great place to people watch and we had about six of us that went from work.Other than that I have been working like crazy and finally one of the coworkers I work for has backed off on things like putting in pastry cream in a piping bag. However, he thinks the other trainee is crazy because apparently she is stubborn so now he always he telling me good job or coming up and asking me if I like working with him. All I want to say is no but how do you say that so I just mmhmm and finish what I was doing. At least the trainee and I find ways to make us smile and just enjoy the day! Here are a few pictures of the food above. Oh yesterday I was able to make more ice cream as in putting popsicle sticks in squares of ice cream it was so nice. I was in the freezer for an hour I believe and if it was not for my hands being so cold I could have stayed in there forever. Sunday is my only off day this week so Saturday I believe we are trying to get some people from work to go out again. Hopefully we will go bowling soon!!

Day 38

Well Saturday was so crazy I went to pretty much every where in Singapore kind of. I started out in Bedok which is about an hour away on the train from where I am staying. Jubi started to come with me but she is still under the weather so I just went out with one of the girl's from orientation. The day started out with getting breakfast which was boiled eggs, prata and kuay. The eggs are boiled but are soupy so I was supposed to drink it. This was the weirdest thing ever like it tasted not too bad because you put soy sauce and pepper in it but the texture was more slimy than oysters and I could not get past it. The prata is toast and like a sort of jelly I believe and then the kuay is an Indian bread kinda looks similar to naan. A curry was given with it which of course was a little spicy for me but when i dipped it in sugar as well it was delicious! The uncle of the restaurant gave us the royal treatment and cracked the boiled eggs for us. Yvonne told me normally you have to do it yourself but for some reason he wanted to do it for us. We had many instances where uncles wanted to be nice to me it kept the day interesting. After this I went back to Yvonne's HDB flat which is similar to our studios but no where near as nice. It was nice to go there because Yvonne shared with me her photos from when she was younger and I met her grandmother. After that we went to a wet market. It is called a wet market because there is fresh fish here and like fresh meat and chicken. There are stands that are for the malaysians because they have certain was their food needs to be prepared than how we have our food prepared. Then we went and had lunch and I tried bean curd. This is a dessert and is done two different ways, one way is putting the dessert in a sugar syrup which was not my favorite. They have a new way that makes the bean curd sweeter, this is similar to tapioca I believe. I also had some sticky rice with something on top but I forget but that was really good and I had a drink made with sugar cane. While we were eating one of the uncles at the hawker centre came up and started talking to Yvonne and had her translate what he was saying to me. She just kept laughing because this normally does not happen and she thinks it is because the area we were in not to many ang mo (white skinned) people are in the area. On the way back to the train from lunch another uncle was trying to give his corgi to me for free. I was so confused because I was not sure if he was serious or not and I wanted to cry because he was like I cannot feed my dog anymore and I need someone to take it home. After this we headed to the haw par villa. This is a an not run by the government and is owned by two brothers created in 1937. There are statues everywhere and apparently the people here believe the statues come to life at night because of the spirit in the area. Of course I was told this while I was entering the place so I kept thinking the statues were moving even though it was during the middle of the day. I learned so much while I was there it was a very cool experience! Then we went to the tea art near Chinatown. On the way there we passed the wedding photo places. Here couples spend thousands of dollars to take pictures in different dresses. Yvonne said some couples would rather have this than a dinner at their reception. The tea art was so much fun, the auntie showed us the proper way to drink and make the tea which was cool because this is normally in a lesson that they provide for like thirty dollars or something like that. For some reason we kept getting the royal treatment where ever we went it was funny. I told Yvonne that whenever she wanted the royal treatment she should have me come with so that she can get the treatment too. It was so nice to talk to someone else and experience their culture and she is willing to take me out soon again so I am looking forward to it. Today at work was intense. I was so frustrated all day due to being treated like a baby and someone that has never been in the kitchen. The person that we had watching out for us is normally not in charge of us and he decided that we needed to learn how to wrap things in seran wrap and how to put pastry cream in a bag. He is lazy and pulls us away from what we are doing so that he does not have to either clean or put away something. It was a very stressful day and tomorrow he is still in charge of us and then I am by myself on Saturday with him so hopefully it will not be too bad! The other team members kept laughing at me whenever I said I was going to this location and I guess they could really tell I was pissed today because everytime I saw them they always had a smirk come on. This department I am learning patience and working with people you cannot stand :). Above are some of the pictures from my day out around the town enjoy :D.

Day 34

Today was not too bad! It was not too eventful except they had burgers and hot dogs at the cafeteria for all the expats so that was exciting. One of the Chefs that I work with up in the Chocolate Bar I also see him for the new department I was in so that is fun, he always gives me a hard time but it is fun. I will miss these people so much it is not funny. The heat I will not miss at all and the food is okay but boy can I use some really good American food so if anyone wants to send me something it should be a chinese translator and american snacks like goldfish! :D However the burger was not as delicious as the ones in the states but hey it was still nice. I did not see any fireworks though and they are illegal here to get so I did not try to find anything. It was just me and one of the head guys of my department today so we were busy! I mentioned an idea of having chocolate chip and cranberry scones and we are still in the process of making them and hopefully they will be baked off tomorrow. It will be very busy this week though there will only be 2 out of 4 of us working this entire week and we have over 3000 cupcakes to make so this will be fun!!! Saturday though is something to look forward to though we are going out with one of the girels form orientation and she is taking us out to do things locals do here so I am excited so two long days of work and then a day of relaxation except the relaxation part. The above picture is my view of where I go for work except in the morning since now I am doing the morning shift, pretty insane! :)

Day 31

Saturday was a very eventful day unlike today. Jubi, Rachel and I went to Gardens by the bay which are some of the pictures posted above. We had a late start for the day because it decided it was going to rain on our parade, so we did not start our day until a little after one.We went down to work first because Jubi had an issue with her paycheck so Chef was like you guys are here on your day off get out of here haha. We went to the Harry Potter exhibition and Andy Warhol exhibition and it was amazing!!! I wish I could have taken pictures in the places because it was awesome. In the Harry Potter exhibition they had all the costumes and props and it was just cool remembering the movie and seeing the props. I did not want to get anything from the gift store but I caved on a coffee mug that said Dobby is a free elf! :D The Andy Warhol exhibition was very interesting and had I believe most of his works and each pictured said what he used to make it which was crazy learning how he made some of his artwork. The Garden by the Bay is insane! Anyone that goes there could spend all day there, there is so much to look at and really pretty flowers. There is a Chinese, Malay, and Indian Gardens and then a Meadow and more with two indoor forest in AirCon. After that we went and ate dinner at a hawker centre in Chinatown. It was already dark outside so we decided to just eat and head home. We all had chicken rice of course, it is something that your stomach will always be happy with. I however am really craving stingray and I seem to keep forgetting to look places up. Hopefully I will find time soon to go and walk around Chinatown and get some postcards. Since we were exhausted from being outside and walking so much Jubi and I came back and took an hour nap before we headed out to the club. They dress casual here for clubs but not too casual. However casual is not the same thing here as the states so we were very confused and we decided on just doing our best to dress right. When we got to the club not too many people were there but after a while people came in and we had a blast! We went with a few people from work and stayed there until 4:30. I did not realize what time it was until the club was over. There was also a cop raid in the middle of dancing, apparently they do this just to make sure everyone is 18 plus, but this took about 45 minutes and you could not move from the area you were in once the raid started. It was not too much of a big deal besides the music having to stop and a few random people getting asked for IDs and stuff. So today the plan was to go to Sentosa however this did not happen. Jubi and I did not wake up till about 2:30 in the afternoon and figured it would be a waste of money to go to Sentosa for half a day since there is so much to do there. Instead we just hung out with Rachel and got some food at a hawker centre and went in the pool. After swimming we were still hungry so we ended up at McDonald's again, sorry. We were going to delivery however it would take about an hour and a half. Tomorrow is a new department in In room dining and work starts at ten so hopefully my body will get me up tomorrow. Well goodnight everyone ttyl.

Day 29

I am alive do not worry!! :D I have been busy working and sleeping so I figured you guys did not want to hear how exciting the back of my eye lids are. The past week has been crazy I have been working since the 19th and I finally have two days off this weekend! Um I finally found my first guy with saggy pants on the MRT today it was kinda awesome because no one does that here, but seriously the things the women wear here is crazy. There are women covered from head to toe with just a place for them to see, sorry I cannot think of what that is called right now, and let me tell ya that was kind of scary because all I could think of was ski masks and robberies.  There are so many women that wear skirts or dresses where there bottom is about to show, it almost puts American style seem not as bad. It has rained here for the past two days however it is about for maybe an hour max. Today of course I decided it was not going to rain and took my umbrella out and it poured the second I started walking so I ran back upstairs to get my umbrella. By the time I came back down the rain pretty much was over of course. I finally got used to everything I had to do for the Chocolate Bar and today was my last night. :( It is sad because I was not able to work with the servers from the Chocolate Bar that I always talked to so yesterday was not as entertaining and today I stayed downstairs. I did not dip ice cream popsicles this time though so maybe I can ask to do them on Monday that way I can hang in the freezer :D. Today I piped ganache into macarons and I glazed a dessert called banana whim and then placed it in a dish. I did not realize how long I had been doing this task because I was in my own little world since no one was in the kitchen but me. By the way anyone that thinks baking is only for women they need to rethink that statement because whenever I work 90 percent of the people there are men! At the end of the shift tonight a gentleman proposed to his girlfriend. It was the cutest thing ever because she got an Ipad 3 and I believe was able to skype with her family, which I am assuming she has not seen in a while. After she talked to them for a little bit the boyfriend came out with a bouqet of flowers and went down on one knee! I can only assume what happened because I was behind the glass cleaning up the buffet, but this is what I am guessing happend on the Ipad. Jubi and I both got goosebumps and almost had tears in our eyes. It was so cute because it was also the girls birthday! The male servers looked at us like we were crazy and I asked me what have you never been proposed to? Seriously I did not know what to say to this besides I am only twenty so no haha. There was also a Jason Mraz concert going on earlier during my shift and I could see all the people waiting for the concert to start. I tried taking a picture of the people but my flash was not working. Well I just wanted to let you guys know I am still alive and doing well tomorrow is a jam packed day so I will have plenty of pictures and stories. Above is the garden by the bay which I will be going to tomorrow and then the next picture is megatron I could see from the sky park and then the last one was my camera working its magic and I can kind of see the people waiting for the concert to start :D Adios for now.

Day 23

Hello everyone, it has been a while. Um the past three days I have been busy with work. I did manage to go to a 24 hour shopping center in Little India on Friday. This place is huge it is two building with five stories each. It has everything! It has food to books to clothes to electronics to hygiene. You name it they will have it somewhere you just have to find it and remember how you got there and how to get back to your spot. From there I almost got hit by a motorcycle. I thought the light was red for the on coming traffic but apparently not so Jubi yelled at me and pulled me back. That woke me up. Also once I got to work I tried to get hit in the head with a metal container when I was trying to pull parchment from underneath it. Saturday I got to see some fireworks while setting up for work. They are practicing their fireworks for Singapore's National Day in August so every Saturday there will be fireworks till their National Day. During one of the shuttle rides I got completmented on my eyes, eye lashes, and eyebrows. The guy was like I can tell those are natural. Apparently here many women like to draw on their eyebrows as well as put on fake lashes. It is extremely funny when I go into the dresser room and I see all the women putting on lashes in the mirror. I really am enjoying the experience I am having here. There are so many jokes and people that I have met so far the I will charish. It is funny the other day one of the waitresses thought I was younger than 18 and covered my ears when something was said because of the previous student that was here just turned 19, while she was here I believe and the waitress thought I was the same age. I know I have like less than two months till I am twenty but who is counting :). If I could get on a nice sleep schedule I could probably get myself to get to the Botanic Gardens and the gym before work haha. I am really enjoying the food here besides the fact that it is really greasy and contains chili sauce in almost everything. My favorite thing to eat is Chapagetti, Korean noodles as well as Thai sausage, chicken rice of course. Well that is a small update have not done much. I have learned a few more words in chinese so maybe I will come back speaking sentences I don't know but it would be awesome!

Day 20

Nothing too exciting has happened since the zoo besides work, but today I just ordered Mcdonald's delivery!! Yes I know this is not ideal but who can say they had Mcdonalds delivered to their door!!!! Tuesday I had my interview for JWU. This was an interesting experience because they had a camera crew and everything. We had someone put a microphone on us. Sadly no make-up artists, I did not know what was going to happen so I expected the unexpected. We did the interview in the Presidential suite and let me tell you that place is huge and I would stay in there any day of the week if I could, it was a home away from home. I am not sure when the interview video will be put together but I cannot wait to see how it came out because I forgot everything I wanted to say and I want to see if it turned out okay. After the interview Jubi and I passed out in the locker room since the interview was at 9:30am and we did not have work till two and four. There was no point in going back to the apartment because it would take an hour and then another hour to get back to work. Work was slow yesterday and today I did production. I have one more week in the chocolate bar and I am going to miss the wait staff from the 57th floor!!! I will try and take pictures with them for the rest of the week so you guys can see who I am working with :D. Chef Ryan is awesome he checks on me almost every hour. I told Jubi this and she did not believe me and when 5pm came around Chef comes up and says how is everything. I look to her and go 1 hour because I started at 4pm so it was like clock work. Today the food was not so ideal so I made a tuna sandwich, thinking this would hold me for the entire shift I was wrong. I am used to munching on the desserts while I am working and during production today I did not do that so much. The Mcdonald's actually tasted like Mcdonald's by the way. I had a BigMac and they gave me a chili sauce packet for it. It was a chili garlic sauce and I decided I had to try it and boy was that a mistake!!! That was my day today and I will probably write at the end of the week because I have nothing exciting planned for the rest of the week besides sleeping and going to work.  I might try and go to the botanic gardens but i say that everyday. Above is my beautiful BigMac.:D

Day 18

Yesterday was our adventure to the zoo! Chef Ryan, Rachel, Jubi and I went to breakfast and arrived at the zoo right when it opened. For breakfast we went to a place called Hatched. This restaurant was probably the only place open for breakfast before nine and it was delicious. We all had some form of eggs benedict. I had ham and bacon on my, Ryan had corn beef and something else on his, Jubi had cream spinach and Rachel had ham and bacon as well. We arrived at the zoo and the states zoo is nothing compared to the Singapore zoo, Brookfield cannot even compare. Although the zoo is probably smaller than some of the zoos in the states there were no fences. All the animals had between us was a big ditch that they would not think of passing. Right when you enter the zoo there are monkeys just chilling on trees at eye level. There were a variety of monkeys and some would just be swinging in the trees above your head like the orangutans could have brunch with you. They would swing from thier exhibit to the area of where brunch was held and it would be across the pathway. We saw one almost pee on a little kid because the child was about to walk right under the line of fire. There was also a sealion show nothing like Seaworld but it was still nice to sit and see a show. They had elephant rides and lots of feedings for the animals. The problem was I had to be at work at two or at least I thought I was until I showed up and they said it was not till four. Before I rushed to work we stopped in a hawker centre that Ryan goes to in Newton. This is where I tried bbq sting ray and chili crab. Chili crab is the locals favorite dishes. It is spicy and kind of sweet. The problem with this item is that it is very hard to eat! The manners we were taught in the states go right out of the door when you eat here, so I was just eating it however I could to actually get a good bite. The sting ray was amazing though. When I saw BBQ it is not like Texas BBQ it is more just cooked in a BBQ sauce than actually put on the grill. We also had shrimp fried rice which is my favorite dish anyway so it was nice having something familiar. I left lunch early because it was getting close to when my shift started and I was freaking out I was going to be late. I managed to get a cab, get to MBS, and get changed with two minutes to spare before I was late for work. When I walked into the kitchen though I was told I did not work until four and it was only two. Instead of trying to figure out what to do I went to the locker room and fell asleep. These benches are wooden and have gaps in between each panel and when I first saw them I did not understand how people fell asleep on them, but I passed out the second I laid down. I was also running on two hours of sleep due to not going to bed until four thirty AM and waking up at six twenty to get ready for breakfast and the zoo. Monday was my day off so I was able to catch up on all my sleep. I slept for twelve hours and just relaxing today. We are trying to go to Thailand at the end of July so I will be looking up what we can do and how much it will cost to stay there and get a flight. Hopefully the three of us can all go! We get paid next week and we are so ready for that check!!! It is hard to do stuff around here on a limited budget but there are many parks so I might just keep people watching whenever I have nothing to do. Of course it is nice to just stay in and be in the A/C :D. Well that was my experience at the zoo, there is also a Night Safari and a Bird Park we might go to but the rest of the week I will be working so it is going to be a long week!

Day 16

Sorry for taking so long to write I have been busy doing papers, work and sleeping. :) Um so Wednesday and Thursday were my days off so I pretty much slept all day. Wednesday I did go to Orchard which is a shopping center and found a movie theatre and billiards. Rachel and I spent about two hours people watching which was fun because we found out that men like to have purses bigger than their girlfriends and they also wear fanny packs around their shoulders like a messenger bag. Our thought is why there is no crime here of people stealing bags so why do you need to carry a bag rather than just putting it in your pocket. I also saw someone fit an Ipad I believe in their front pocket. We also saw so many white people it was as if we were home so at least we found a place to go when we get homesick. Thursday I slept till about three and met up with my coworkers at a local grocery store to get food for the BBQ. There was no brisket or hamburgers or hot dogs at this BBQ if you guys were all thinking about that. Instead we had satay, Korean pork, Taiwan Sausage, regular sausage, steak (rachel and I were thrilled about this), mushrooms wrapped in bacon, chips, and watermelon. The weird thing Rachel and I notice was the women were at the grill while the men were watching/ eating the food that was ready. Out here in most families the women will also go to work while the men take care of the children especially in the Philippines. The BBQ was fun though I got to try many foods I would not have tried on my own probably and I was able to enjoy nice breezy weather on the East Coast beach. Although there were only oil ships in the water it was still pretty and it is a place where locals and others go to rent bikes or roller blade around the park. Um Friday was a busy day I was in charge of the buffet again and it was crowded but tonight it was twice as busy. I ended up making like 30 molten lava cakes and I had to get help because I needed like eight arms to get everything done and ready for the guests. I really like it here. The people are amazing! I know this is kinda short I will add more tomorrow maybe I have to be up in two hours to get ready to go to breakfast/zoo and then work from 2-11 but Monday is my day off so that will be nice maybe I'll get myself up to go to the Botanical Gardens.

Day 12

Today went pretty smooth! I did manage to not set my alarm to the correct time so I almost slept through work, but other than that it went really well. After I helped set up the chocolate bar I made ice cream popsicles. This is the task that everyone hates since the ice cream melts so fast and it takes so much time, however I enjoyed it! I put the popsicle sticks on the ice cream bars in the FREEZER! Doing this not only did I spend less time doing it but I also stayed nice a cool. This I believe will be the only way I can enjoy seasons if I decide to come back here and work here. I was supposed to run the chocolate bar again but when one of the girls heard this is what she would be doing she wanted to do the chocolate bar instead. Before I leave this department I have been told I will be making the ice cream pops again since everyone hates to do it. As I was leaving work auntie called me Barbie. I was shocked because I have never been called that before but apparently here that is a compliment. I love seeing the differences in culture and words here. It is hard to communicate with anyone in the kitchen because of an object being called something else, but I am getting used to it or look at someone that speaks better English that can translate for me. Apparently here wrestling is a big sport to watch because I keep getting asked if I watch wrestling that is one of the questions asked more often. While I was on the shuttle home I was talking to a lady about being new and how I will be here for six months and she goes oh well when you get a boyfriend he can show you around or something like that. I do not understand why having a boyfriend is on everyone's mind here I am not even twenty yet and I will only be here for six months but geez that is all they talk about haha. Anyway I believe that is all the events that have happened today and I am really getting a hang in the kitchen however my brain always dies when people start talking. Good Night :D

Day 11

Sorry everyone for the previous blog if there was a ton of grammar problems!! I am taking many words out of my speech here as well as being over tired haha. Today I decorated the same desserts that I do everytime I go in but today I managed to cut my time in half from the first day I did them. I feel so accomplished that I have managed to become faster and help out more in the kitchen. Today also was the first day I managed the chocolate bar all by myself meaning I was in charge of restocking and making some of the desserts when they were ordered. When they told me this yesterday I sort of freaked out because I did not think I would be able to handle it but I did just fine! I am making many new friends here that I work with. One guy always saying I'm watching you whenever he passes by not sure if that was due to the kitchen window to go to the main dining area that I look in to see if people are coming through or not. Today I also had auntie (one of the older dish ladies) come up to me and ask how I liked the Asian men and if I had a boyfriend. Apparently one of her friends likes me and so she decided to ask these questions. The problem with these questions is that I can hardly understand what is being asked that I always have to reanswer the question after it is repeated another two times. The new questions here from everyone is where are you from and how old are you? So many people do not look like their age here, it is as if they were put in a skin time machine because the people here look so young compared to their ages. Someone asked me if I like Taylor Swift and I thought they said Harry something so my brain goes on overload trying to understand everyone. The one statement I hate that keeps being said to me is you look tired! Most of the time I am but sometimes I am wide awake but seriously I hate being asked this! I think it is from trying to listen to what everyone has to say. I learned a few more words from uncle today like pinapple is bolao and good is hen hao, ang mio also means caucasian I believe I spelled this right. I learned some other words but I cannot remember how to spell them, like thank you and good bye. Whenever I go home I always get moved around for the shuttles to get to my house and there was one other guy in my bus that was Singaporean. He spoke English so well it was so nice. I was able to learn more about the area and some of the culture here and how somethings are different than from the states. He also told me I could get the sports games out here as long as I watch at the time that the games are on. Bears and Cubs I will try to watch you!! He would have been a great tour guide but I did not even think about that until I got out of the car.  Well tomorrow is another day of hot humid weather but I really am enjoying it out here! Thailand and the surrounding areas we are probably going to visit within the next few months. Thursday I have a department BBQ not sure how great the BBQ part will be but hanging out with other coworkers will be nice!

Day 10

Hey sorry everyone I have been really busy or really tired to update how my days are going but here is an update. Friday we were lucky enough to get the aircon fixed (air conditioning). This of course was done at nine or ten in the morning meaning neither Jubi or I were moving so they fixed it pretty much while we were sleeping and hardly noticed they were there. Now we have wonderful A/C that makes our lives so much nicer :D. When I work sometimes we have to go down to the freezer to change things out and I will always offer to go down because the people here do not like cold! They make fun of me a litte when I get so happy to just be able to be in the freezer or by an A/C vent. The bad thing about this is when I step out of the freezer I do not want to leave it because the temperature change is a big gap! But needless to say I still love going in there and will continue to offer to go down! I told them if I ever go missing look for me there first, but then of course they will have to fight over who will have to come get me because none of them like being in the freezer. Um Saturday afternoon Jubi and I met up with a Dean's nephew for brunch at Ku Da Ta which is located on the 57th floor of Marina Bay Sands with the swimming pool. For brunch we had many small dishes first we had to get waffles :D they came with apples and I believe whipped cream. Then we also ordered oysters, curry prawn, foie gras, eggs benedict, and a few more dishes, along with a buffet that contained fruits, sliced meats, bread, salad, and desserts like bread pudding, truffles, custard I believe, and fruit tarts and many more. I like everything but the foie gras the flavor was good but I could not get over the texture! Peter has been living in Singapore for three years and loves it here he has given us some great pointers on where to visit and what food to try if we have time! It was nice getting an "American" viewpoint and ideas about what to do in the area. I also managed to take the above picture of the swimming pool which helps with seeing that there is a sidewalk between the pool and the edge of the building so people cannot fall off. Peter also said he could take us around the area if our schedules work out which would be great!!! After we had brunch we Peter I went to work and learned how to make some of the desserts which was nice! It was a change from just decorating items that would go up to the chocolate Bar. Since I have the late shift at work I do not get to sleep early its more like early early morning like 3 or so by the time I get home so I have been trying to sleep as much as I can. Lately I will stay asleep until about noon or one so I have enough time to get ready for work since it is about an hour to get there and I have work at four. Sunday I was slow moving and got up around 1. I arrived at work and realized I left my name tag so wonderful Jubi came to the rescue and part my ID to me! Today I worked a little faster which makes me feel tons better about if I am improving or not but of course by the time I get really good at the jobs for this department I will have to change and learn something else. During my dinner break I started to learn Chinese!!! Ni hoa ma I believe how you spell it means how are you :D I learned a few more but I do not remember. I have decided that I should learn some of the language and I will master some of the words in six months :D. I also taught one of my coworkers words in Spanish and French which was kinda cool because that means I remember words in other languages :). Tomorrow is going to be a big day for me though I will be running the chocolate bar all by myself, hopefully it will not be too crowded haha. The picture above is part of the Chocolate Bar. Well I just wanted to let ya'll know I did not forget about you and hopefully I will not fall to far behind again. This week I am going to a Bar-B-Q with some coworkers on Thursday which should be fun and I am known by most as the girl that can bowl. There was a bowling tournament that I missed due to registration had closed so some of the people want to go bowling sometime so hopefully we can and I will be able to bowl close to a 242 again haha. Thinking of going to Thailand sometime in July but I will keep ya'll posted! Love ya

Day 7

Ah today was my first day of work! I had no idea what to expect besides knowing how the kitchens were run at school and it is nothing like that. It is much easier and I have someone helping me out through out the day so I do not mess up. The accents are hard still and it is very weird being some where where you do not understand a language being spoken. It is like being in Texas and the janitors start talking in spanish and you can some what understand what is being said, yeah it is not like that at all. I have no idea what is being said and at the end of the conversations I get what was said translated for me so I can participate, but it is not too bad. Today I helped finish the desserts for the chocolate bar. So much tasting gah my tummy is not going to like this but boy does everything taste fantastic! I found a fellow Austinian however you spell it, so my day was made. It will always be nice to find someone from back home :D. I will be on a strange schedule since it is 3:30 in the morning and I am writing this and I am still wide awake! Tomorrow shall be fun though I should be in the production area and learn how to make a few dishes! I will post pictures of some of the stuff I make hopefully tomorrow I forgot my camera today but here is a picture that is awesome. This is a skyline picture of downtown Singapore! Sorry for a short post, my body is taking to cave to sleep. TTYL :D

Day 6

Yesterday was very calm day. We went to get our visas and our bank accounts. Then after that Jubi went to work and I met up with Rachel. We went to Ikea so Rachel could get pillows and there are two locations here! We walked in the wrong direction for about fifteen minutes and ended up figuring out how to work the buses here. Rachel and I have figured out that there is something satisfying missing in the food and we cannot figure out what it is. Even the American style food is missing something! I know it is bad to eat American food but there is something missing here in the food. I have had hawker meals but all I really want is breakfast! After we went to Ikea we headed back towards the city. We stopped in the financial district and found a spot to people watch. This was fun because we got to watch everyone in business attire head home. We also kept getting starred at(they are not taught not to stare) so it is hard getting used to that. They also do not say please, thank you, or bless you. There was one man on the subway that sneezed and all I wanted to do was say bless you but I knew I would get looked at weirdly. The rush hour here is like 8-10 and 7-9 ish give or take. I road the subway home for the first time by myself so that was fun and felt like I am just at school in Providence haha. I still feel like I am in a movie or this is unreal. When I got back my family had my try Korean noodles which was good! Juni is so cute she is the three year old girl and she reminds me of Aidan. The parents always have her not distract me while I am eating or anything but I really do not mind she is so cute. She also speaks better English than Korean so I understand her.

Day 5

The above picture is the four JWU students on the observation deck at SkyPark. We have almost all the campuses just missing Miami. Today was the final day of orientation, so starting tomorrow I will be in the kitchen!!! However, I have the day off so I am not sure what I should do. For orientation though we had a tour of the skypark. This is 57 stories up in the sky and has the zero edge pool meaning that it looks like you will go over the edge and fall in the sky. Surprisingly I managed to not freak out while up there on the oberservation deck. It was a cloudy day unfortunately so the pictures I was able to take are not as good as if the sun was out. After a long day in orientation we had uniform fitting! The lady there gave me a small in pants, I did not realize this until I tried to put my pants on. My attempt to get my pants on stopped right about my thighs haha. When I went back out she gave me a medium and I was questioning that size because these pants are fitted. Nope these pants did not fit either it was like goldy locks and the three bears except with pants :D. Once we got our uniforms we left and figured out how to get a bank out here. This is not as easy as we would hope but it will have to do and will get one possibly tomorrow. Rachel, Jubi, and I waited for the light show again tonight however we watched it with Marina Bay Sands in the background and it was a totally different view. Once the show was over we went to find food and managed to stop at Burger King sadly haha. There was air conditioning or AirCon what they say here so we caved. I forgot to mention a story about our second day here, on our way to obtain our visas we took a cab. The cab driver had a radio station on that was sharing horrible experiences that happen at work and this lady talked about how she had pooped in her pants for about twenty minutes. The moral of the story pretty much was if you are having a bad day think of this poor lady who pooped in her pants and your day is probably better than hers so you should be happy. I tried so hard to refrain from laughing but boy was it hard not too. The driver seemed like this was a normal conversation that would occur. My goal everyday is to drink a liter of water in the morning or when I get back from work due to all the sweating that occurs through out the day. When I get back in the states I will never complain about the weather again :). It still is amazing here and everyone is really nice! Again I apologize if anything does not make sense I maybe starting working on Singlish/ or brain is too tired to think :D

Day 4

Hey Everyone,

Today was orientation!!! So much to learn in one day. Imagine trying to figure out what is going on in a new establishment, but on top of it trying to understand everyone's accents! There was never a dull moment for me, but it was fun. The day started off with being at work at 8:30 which meant leaving for the train at 7:30. This is the wrong time to go because we found out it is rush hour. We managed to get to work on time with plenty of time to spare. For orientation we covered the basic knowledge of the property and the mission statement as well as a tour. We were able to see two rooms in the hotel and they were insane! We did not see the Chairman's suite but boy I can only imagine! Through out orientation we met new people and managed to find someone from the Charlotte campus of JWU. As of right now there are four students from JWU working here which would have been nice to know we could have worked something out for living. :) There is also a girl from Holland and many people from the Maylasian and Indonesia area. Through this orientation I learned that I would love to work in the kitchen of the hotels! When we walked through the pastry department it was cool seeing all the toys and how their stations were set up. I will get my uniform tomorrow along with a tour of skypark which is about 57 stories high and has an amazing view of the city. After orientation today the other two girls from JWU and I stayed and watched the water show that is right out front of Marina Bay Sands. It was about ten minutes long and showed the growth of a child and falling in love kind of thing it was neat. We are going to watch it again maybe tomorrow but on the opposite side because apparently it is better because there are lights coming off Marina Bay Sands and adds extra awesomeness,( I cannot come up with a better word my brain is on overload). Fun facts for today: everyone has iphones, couples will latch onto one another on subways for balance, people in Singapore have amazing balance since most travel on the subway and do not use the bars for balance, car park= parking garage, favorite fact of the day: there are no sagging of pants here by men!!!!!! Well tomorrow is a long day and then Thursday start work 4pm to 1am. I will do my best to keep updating.

love ya'll

Day 3

Today we did not have anything planned because we wanted to just relax and see what happened during the day. We still woke up at like 7:30 or at least I did Jubi got up at 5:30ish. We started to get ready for the day and walked over to the tennis courts with the children and the maid of the house. Yes Jubi and I have a maid and it is going to take some time to get used to. She picked up our room when we leave and cleans the bathroom after we use it for the day and she even did our laundry today, which we did not expect at all! After the tennis courts we hung out with the kids at the park/pool and one of the sons David was pushed in the pool. He is the middle child and is ten. Steven is the oldest and is thirteen and then there is Juni who is 3 1/2. She is the cutest thing in the entire world and is smiling for the most part. :) The Sir took us to another food market and boy are there so many shopping centers with four floors at least and they all are underground. We then went to the Hawker Center again for lunch and I had wanton noodles which was pretty good as well, but I think tonight I will eat PBJ haha. When we got back from the center the family had gone to church, so we decided to head to the city and see what was all around there. We went to Raffles Place which is the financial district and has a few museums and the merlion which is the main symbol for Singapore because it symbolizes the country as a sea port and fishing and a lion because when the country was first settled a lion was the first thing spotted. I finally started to realize all the people awkardly starring at us. We started to go towards the museums but our jetlag was starting to kick in so we decided to head home, but took a detour towards the shopping center in Ang Mo Kio. This is the shopping center we went to earlier in the day but we wanted to see what else was inside this four story mall. There were so many shopping stores as well as food courts. Finally we headed home and starting to crash soon we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow two full days of orientation starting at 8:30. Fun facts for the day: I found my first ginger!!!!! Not everyone that is white is from America, walking around the mall with afros looking like LMFAO and loud music is not the norm, you may jay walk, but a car will hit you if you are in its way (i did not get hit, Chef told us this yesterday), couples love to wear matching clothes or same design but different colors like blue and pink. I will keep a book of facts for everyday I cannot remember a few more. I will apologize ahead of time that if anything is spelled wrong or sounds weird it is because I am still in zombie mode :)

Day 2

Day two went pretty well today! This is our room, I have the bottom bunk first and then we will switch at some point. :) First we started off and headed to the Hawker Centers and had Roasted Duck and Rice for breakfast, and bought apples and bananas. The fruit here is pretty expensive but the apples are delicious!!! The trip to work does not seem as bad after doing it a few times and taking the subway every where. Jubi and I met with our Chef which was pretty awesome and boy this internship will be an amazing experience!!! We also met the other girl Rachel that will be working with us and she has been here since Wednesday so she is now traveling around the area. Still dealing with the jetlag though, I went to bed at 8pm last night and woke up at 6am and all my body wants to do is go back to sleep and it's four in the afternoon. Trying to stay awake I try to watch some movies however nothing works here unfortunately like Netflix and Hulu so sleep is looking amazing right now! After we met with Chef we came home and then headed to Orchard Street which has an underground mall with A/C. :) There was probably eight levels of shopping ranging from Forever21 to Dior and food! Our stomaches however did not want anymore local food, so we enjoyed Subway. I know this is kinda sad since we have only been here for two days but boy did it taste good! There was also Popeyes, Burger King, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts. Fried chicken never smelled so good either. I am sorry to say but my hair is still staying strong and not going crazy but it is still unusual for the people here. Jubi says people keep starring at us and assumes it is because of my hair though. I think its also because of the wonderful American curves.:p At the shopping center I did fit in a little better, but not by much.When we talked to our Chef today we were informed that we really won't get adjusted to the heat here. This means the first thing we do when we get back to our room is turn on the fan and A/C and cold showers will now be enforced. Found out today there is a Universal Studios here and there is a night Safari so hopefully I will find time to get out there. There are so many things I will like to try and do so hopefully I will manage everything I want to do. While we were on the subway back from the mall I saw four police men I believe walk towards us and all I could think was I did nothing wrong that I know of. They didn't do anything don't worry. :) Maybe we will go to Chinatown or Little India tomorrow not sure most likely we will sleep or hang out at the apartment since the mom will be back from her trip so we can figure out what is expected.

Day 1

Hey Everyone!!

Sorry for the delay of time but I am finally here, 30 hours later of traveling and I am in the wonderful country of Singapore. For the most part everything went well a few bumps in the road like leaving LAX airport and having issues getting my boarding pass from Singapore Air, but I did get to see the wonderful beach rather than sit in a terminal for 7 hours. When Jubi and I got to Tokyo we had to get off the plane and go back through security and get on the plane. Hearing that we had to deplane instead of being able to sleep did not go over well with us. Singapore Air is crazy there are suites on the plane with beds that fold out and looks like a private room in a train like Harry Potter. The business class had reclining seats as well. We of course were in coach but the food was delicious and the seats were not too bad. We arrived in Singapore at 3 in the morning and the temperature was 79 degrees. This being said I have a long trip ahead of me, but my hair is doing fine. It has not exploded into too much of an afro. Today we woke up at nine to go get our visas and that was a trip in itself. We tried to get a cab which took twenty minutes and gave up and called one. We then found the visa place with four minutes to spare before our meetings. Then we walked around and figured out the SMRT which is the subway. When we arrived at the resort we became lost very fast. We arrived from the SMRT inside the shopping center of Marina Bay Sands and found the casinos and random shops. When we found the actual hotel we were too hungry and tired to actually go inside. Once we were back in our apartment I crashed for two hours and then we went to the market and I ate a my first Hawker Center. I had the Roasted Chicken Rice which was delicious! Now it is time for bed and catch up on some much needed sleep. Tomorrow we meet with the Chef so I will keep ya'll updated! :)