the scent of rain

company outing to this really gorgeous place which is around 45 minutes away from the hotel. i had loads of fun.

the people here bbq in the afternoon unlike in singapore. the bbq ended in the afternoon where many of us went back to work. a super long day.

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look deep in.

and looking at the foot of tian ping,
there's a scenic view waiting for us when we climbed down the dangerous steps of the mountain.
i even seek help from strangers when i could get down a boulder.

it was close to sunset when reach the foot.




at the entrance, we were greeted by many flowers, they are still blooming during autumn.






the rock floor and the trees all blend in nicely to give a peaceful touch to the place. really very pretty.






there are also walk ways just like what we see in the shows.



and here's meiqing admiring a piece of art which costs her 5RMB





there are many people who went there to take photoshoots. we saw at least 8 couples, and this lady made us felt like we were in the olden dynasty of china.



the place was really nice. although the maple trees was not fully yellow yet, we still had fun. but i do hope to go visit there again to see the beautiful trees when the weather gets colder.

look at our bitter faces.

we went to climb and conquer the well known tian ping shan. but we've went there a little too early because the maple trees is still green, the leaves are not yet orange. it will be once it gets colder

a ticket for RMB18, and two for RMB 15 each.




before heading to tian ping shan, we went to have our first KFC meal. it's so much different from singapore. also, we both feel that it's a kind of luxury food because a meal at normal places are priced at a quarter.




because of the unsatisfying meal, we decided to buy some snacks from the roadside stalls. of course, it's cheap and tasty yet unhealthy and definitely much dirtier.

after buying the food, i saw the uncle using his bare, dirty uncut nails, hands to do the rice cake satay. hygiene standards in china is like so.

therefore, i shall pretend i have seen nothing.






we sat 2 buses to get to tian ping shan. there is many locals going over and alot of students having BBQ and outing.


the climb was ab…

here's my uniform, zebra skirt and blazer with a white shirt underneath. they say that once a person wears a zebra printed skirt/pants, the person would be a manager. anyway, we're going to change uniforms soon. so i do hope that the new ones are warm, comfy and most importantly nicer. pardon the toilet bowl.

today i worked at the bar. it's busy busy busy and confusing, messy. i'd rather be busy with something to be bored to death with nothing. i did alot of hands on like service, writing order list(which is very irritating sometimes because i can't write it in english).

it's break tmr and thurs.
translating english to chinese is the toughest job ever! i'd rather do the opposite.

meiqing said that my chinese improved! and her english improved too, and it's mostly attributed to us talking in english whenever we wanted to gossip about people in front of them.

thurs and fri we had dinner with the GM. thurs we had a new loyalty manager who joined us. fri was training for the management and we had dinner at the chinese restaurant there after. the thing last from 4 - 8pm. and i was scheduled for work from 2-10pm. at the dinner was super filling and super delicious.








we went shopping at guan qian lu yesterday and seriously, it's like orchard road with affluent people walking along the roads and big names like fendi, chanel, gucci on the roads. most people wore really trendy clothes and the clothes they sell over there is super pricey.



of course, there are cheaper alternatives. we've bought 3 shoes for 150RMB, aka 30SGD. my boots alone costs 20SGD. the rest is math. 






we have also tried their street stalls and bought yummy food while shopping along the stre…

i'm still sick.
but much better than yesterday. i ate like 7 pieces of panadol already. i was wondering why it didn't work. until i asked my missy friend aka ashley, that i realised that the panadol i had was for fever and headaches.

everyone asked whether i'm home sick or not.
so far so good. not home sick yet. i still have MILO and meiqing here to combat the homesickness if it's coming to attack me. skype is also useful to feel home.

anyway the cars are left hand drive over here. so when you cross the road, you would have to look left right then left which is different in sg. so the first few times when meiqing and i cross the road, we keep looking at the wrong side and a few times we didn't see the oncoming cars.

work is from 2pm-10pm again today but since it's friday, i will be happily working. oh yesterday something super odd happen, i was greeting and smiling to some guests who were coming down the stairs from the second level, chinese restaurant, and th…

i'm dead beat. i'll be working from 2-10pm for today and tomorrow. long day of standing and the shoes they gave us isn't comfortable at all. so i'm looking forward to the weekends!

today i found myself a little bit useful and i think i'll gelling up well with the rest of the f&b people. the service crew are really young, the youngest is like a 90er.

there's so much happening in a hotel within a day even though we are like a really small hotel.

work started officially on tuesday. monday was an orientation.

meiqing is in the front office while  i am in the food and beverage department. tuesday was tiring and by the time i went back to the hotel, i was dead beat. and today, i caught a cold.

alot of things to say but can't remember. hotel staff are great and friendly to us. it feels like a small family.

made a new friend today. and we went for 100RMB sushi buffet. didn't order much the sushi was alright except i really love the okonomiyaki and sashimi. we talked loads and the place is quite nice. it's so easy to click with new friends.


suzhou is really easy to travel around. so me and meiqing took the bus to meet them. the ride there was not too bad. but as usual, very dangerous.




this is our hotel.
not very grand or what, but the people are really nice here. friendly and easy to talk to. very homely.



we walk around the new suzhou alot. it's a clean and nice place. the roads and walkways are much nicer than our area.





and also starbucks!




and the bing that this auntie sells are yummilicious! it's 0.50RMB per piece. so big and cheap!

i'm beginning to adapt more to the life here but the realisation of myself being in suzhou really hasn't set in much. it still feels a bit like holiday. i've learnt and experience alot in barely two days. there's actually alot of different culture and different ways of the things work here.


we skipped breakfast as it was already late when i woke up at like 11am this morning. the night before i slept at like 1.30am because i was busy skype-ing with xinying.
but anyway, we were invited for a steamboat lunch by christine today, our sales and marketing manager. she introduced a singaporean girl to us. i do hope we get to meet more people. it was an enjoyable lunch which last for about an hour. christine introduced us alot of stuffs about china,suzhou as well as the hotel. we ended the lunch with a basket of crinkled fries with ketchup. there's no chilli sauce here i think.
 after that we retreated into our cozy rooms and waited for dorcus and yvonne to meet us at the …