Journey to the West

Crescent!!!

2007-07-04T02:27:00.000-07:00

gosh...Now i realised how ugly my hair was when I look back at all my blog entries..Now I know why lots of freshies gave me weird look when I talked to them....Crescent only wat...very ugly meh? hey hey...dun judge a book by its cover k!

Ya anyway gotta admit that it was really ugly! But pls dun circulate anymore k(especially xinyi)! No more crescent I promise!

Volleyball victory for 4 consecutive years

2006-09-09T04:05:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad that we managed to retain our title this year. Superb performance by by Jackson, Alvin, Kelvin, Joshua, Marc, Kuan Thye, Daniel, We Liam, Tan Wei, Chwan Sang (on the phone...haha), Liwei, Mahen, Zikai, Hasikin, Jinxian, Liren and Brendon. It means so much to me cos this year is my fourth year winning this title. I'm so happy that we managed to achieve this in my final year in Kent Ridge Hall. It might not have any significance to lots of people. But to me, it means so much. Not forgetting our girls who fought so hard in 3rd-4th placing and most importantly, the C block supporters! The turnout today was fantastic. Really wanna thank all C-blockers who have been giving me their fullest support. Thanks for cheering ur hearts out even u were not playing in the court. Thanks a million!!!!

I wanna end this entry with Brendon's favourite line..."Look at that…look at this….tell me who won". Yes we indeed won everything!

C block Ai Zai!

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Washington DC, Niagara Falls & New York

2006-08-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of my trip....sorry for posting late!

Fremont Street Experience , Las Vegas

Laser Screen @ Fremont Street Experience

Da Jie, Me, Manting, Zeliang @ Vegas

Me & Marilyn Monroe

Studio Tour @ Universal Studios

Hollywood Sign @ Univeersal studio

Special Effect....I was called on stage...haha...damn funny!

Night @ Universal Studio

Disneyland 60th anniversary

Disneyland anniversary parade

Castle @ Disneyland

Lombard Street, the crookediest street in the world, @ San Fransisco

Market Steet @ San Fransisco

Gay Street @ San Fransisco

Golden Gate, San Fransisco

Audio tour, Alcatraz

Alcatraz, San Fransisco

Union Square, San Fransisco

The Capitol, Washington DC

American Indian Museum, Washington DC

Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

World War II Memorial, Washington DC

Korean War Memorial, Washington DC

Niagara Falls, Buffalo

Maid of the Midst, Niagara Falls

Statue of Liberty, New York

Broadway, New York

Chinatown, New York

New York @ night

Time Warner Centre, New York

NBC, New York

Rockefeller Centre, New York

Time Square, New York

Time Square, New York

Back in action

2006-08-31T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hey pals, it's been so long since I last blogged. So sorry for not being able to update u guys....especially bunch of good frens in the States. Hi Jakub, Bertha, Joanne, Amanda, April, I-Hsuan, Da Jie, Er Jie, San Jie, Princess of Taiwan, Czech brothers and sisters etc....How are u guys doing? Hope u guys have a great time there. I was really caught up with lots of stuff....dunno wat excatly they were but there were so many small tiny issues which I have to attend to....

Life goes on....I'm now busy with school work, final year project as well as hall stuff. It's fun so i have no complaint.

I'm in my final year now...it's time to think bout wat I really wanna achieve in my life...I have lots of things that I wanna do when I am young... But I cant possibly just do things I wanna do...instead I have to do things which I ought to do. Hope I can accomplish all of them before I couldn't do them physically or spiritually. Feeling like I am approaching the "reality" of life.

Went to send Kel Choo off last night. Somehow it reminded me of the time I left for the States and when I left Grand Canyon. Really hate to say goodbye cos u will never know wat's gonna happen next. Maybe things wont be the same after one year...who knows. Time waits for nobody...Lesson to learn: Cherish every moment with ur frens!

New resolution for new semester: Be firm with wat u wanna do! Be determined!

Last Day of Work

2006-07-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Bob's Farewell

2006-07-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

2nd last day of work

2006-07-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

April's Birthday

2006-07-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was April's Birthday..couldn't think of wat to get her cos we have limited resources in Grand Canyon North Rim. Somoehow I came out with this idea...make a birthday card using unwanted materials.....not bad...it turned out good!

I brought back a cake from restaurant last night as her birthday cake. It was her favourite chocolate cake.

We had an enjoyable birthday celebration for her.

I really gonna miss her man...she's really a nice and sincere girl!

Hapyy 21st birthday April!

Victor came from South Rim

2006-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Victor was here yesterday. He hiked from South Rim to here...just like wat we did last time. He's damn good...he finished the entire journey in 12 hours...haha...he's the record holder so far!

He treated us very nice when we were in South Rim. He provided us with free accomodation and brought us around. Too bad I couldn't have time to bring him around cos I was working when he arrived in North Rim. Chatted for awhile in my room last night before he went to bed.

Sent him off this morning at the lodge. Luckily he din miss the shuttle bus like us!

Have safe ride back Victor...see ya back in Sinagpore!

They left!

2006-07-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Weiming, Gigi, Liying and Kiann Soon (my room mate) have left Grand Canyon North Rim...sigh...next week will be my turn to leave.

You better watch out Tim!

2006-07-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

I'm so happy today. I've finally done something that I feel I ought to do before I leave this place. If not doing for mysef, I did it for other people who still have to work with him (The lao3 bu4 si3, Tim) for the rest of the season!

Tim...you better watch out....he might be in trouble!

I went to the HR office to talk to Pat, the Grand Canyon North Rim HR manager. It was a long serious talk and I throughly told her what had happened for the past 2 months, what happening now and what's gonna happen in my workplace. Most importantly, I told her all the bad things that the asshole did to me. She seemed to take this thing very seriously. She said she'll talk to Daisy, the regional manager, about it and she might want me to talk to Daisy personally. She also asked me to write a letter so that she can pass to upper management.

Pat was so glad that I told her all these things. She said the management has been watching him and they are waiting for people to complain to them. Thank goodness....she told me that I'm the first person to feedback to her. Yeah!

Tim has made so many people fired and left. I hope this time round is his turn to leave!

Now I realised whistleblowing is indeed a good way to report all the wrongdoings of your superior. There's politics everywhere.....we really have to be careful in dealing with interpersonal relationship.

I hope I've done a good deed to everyone who works with him.

Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon Dam

2006-07-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I forgot to upload pictures of Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon Dam. I went 2 these 2 places the day before I went to South Rim. The trip was an eye-opener and we had a great time there. Here are the pictures!

At night, we had a farewell dinner for Paulina and Martina at the lodge restaurant.

Take care Martina and Paulina....Have fun in San Francisco!

Rim to Rim to Rim

2006-07-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

We made it! We finally made it from Grand Canyon North Rim to South Rim....yeah!!! The trip was indeed an adventorous one. It wasn't as easy as we thought. Though it wasn't extremely hard physically....it could be a mental torture if your determination is not strong enough to complete the entire hike. The distance from North Rim to South Rim is 23.9 miles. Not flat ground all the way, it was 23.9 miles uphill and downhill plus 3-hour walk of flat ground. But then again, the flat ground was the toughest part of all cos it's at the bottom of the canyon and the temperature went up to as high as 108 degree farenheit or 40 plus degree celcius. There wans't any shade at all for the 3 hours and we were exposed to the sun all the way and the worse thing was there wasn't any water points along this long stretch of trail at all. It was indeed like walking at desert for 3.5 hours. We alomost collapsed when we arrived at Phantom Ranch (the deepest point of the whole canyon.....but we survived!) It might not sound difficult to professional hiker but it was really tough for people like us who have never gone through proper trainings.

We started at 6.45am from North Kaibab trail (North Rim). We met Cindy's and Edward's frens on the way down...they were hiking up to North Rim from South Rim, the opposite direction of us. After 4 hours walk, we arrived at Ribbon Falls, a place where we could cool ourselves down. We took 2-hour break at Ribbon Falls and carried on our trip to Phantom Ranch.

This stretch of trail was the toughest of all as I said....flatground but extremely hot. The moment we arrived at Phantom Ranch, all of us were like survivors stranded at desert....we literally ran into to the restaurant to snatch some cold drinks. We almost died of thirst man. We were too tired to continue and slept 2 hours on the bench outside the restaurant.

Jakub wanted to do Rim to Rim to Rim, which means from North Rim to South Rim and then back to North Rim. But looking at our condition at Phantom Ranch, we could barely make it for Rim to Rim. To fulfill his dream(Rim to Rim to Rim), we decided to CHIONG all the way to South Rim on the same day, else we couldn't make it back in 3 days. We set off from Phantom Ranch at 6pm, estimated arrival time at South Rim was 1am. Wah....we still gotta locate the campground at South Rim and set up our tents...it might take another 1.5 hours to settle everything. In the end, we decided to hike only to Indian Garden on that day and carried on our journey to South Rim the next morning. Anyway it was just 3 hour from South Rim.

We woke up late the next morning. We were supposed to wake up at 5am but we woke up at 8.30am instead. That also means that Jakub's dream of Rim to Rim to Rim was no longer possible. Haha...the rest of us heaved a sigh of relief for the scrap of plan....haha! Since we no longer have to do Rim to Rim to Rim, we took our time slowly walk up to Southh Rim. We were lucky enough to watch a helicopter rescue along the way up. The helicopter rescue costs USD5000....hmmmm never ever take it even you stucked there.

4 hours later, we arrived at Grand Canyon South Rim. We were so excited that we finally made it to South Rim.

Hmmm....I personally feel that South Rim is not as beautiful as North Rim. It's developed and commercialised but it's not done in a proper way. Everything is so inorganised and messy. I'm so glad that I chose North Rim.

We headed directly to the employee cafe hoping that we could bump into someone we know. We were so lucky to meet this chinese girl called Lan Yuan who was willing to provide us with free accomodation. Girls dorm and guys dorm in South Rim are separateed...not like North Rim, girls and guys live together in the same dorm. Lan Yuan brought us around South Rim to show us all the "must-visits". At night, we joined Lan Yuan's frens for a farewell BBQ. So glad to have her there. We slept in Alfred, Victor and Peixing's room that night. Haha...the world is so small, Peixing was the guy whom we met along the way down to the canyon...and he stayed in my room with my room mate when he came to North Rim (when I was still hiking towards South Rim). Haha...that was really interesting.

Thanks victor for bring us around the next day. We had a great time in South Rim.

However shits do happened! Our shuttle bus back to North Rim which scheduled to leave at 1.30pm left without us even we were there on time at the front desk. I was damn pissed and I was damn nasty with the people there. I belived that this the way we should deal with this kinda of situation if not the people would just take it lightly. I held the front desk guy responsible for everything that happened cos he was the one who told us to wait at the front desk. Even though I knew that the shuttle bus was the only transport back to North Rim, but I just din care...I kept pushing the guy to provide us transport by hook or by crook. I tried calling Trans Canyon shuttle bus service but to no avail. The guy who answered the called was damn freaking rude...typical ignorant and apathetic American. I really really hate this kinda cocky Americans. I have no choice but to keep bugging the front desk guy. I even went to South Rim HR office to talk to the manager to see if she can do anything. She tried helping us but too bad, we failed again! I gotta go back to the front desk to bug that guy again. Felt sorry for him cos it wasn't completely his fault. But I just had to find someone to responsible for it. I would describe myself as a dog which doesnt let go when it bites on something. We even made a placard with "WE NEED RIDE BACK TO NORTH RIM" on it and stood at the main lobby hoping that someone would give us a ride back. After a while, the front desk manager came to me to tell me that he found someone to send us back. We were really overthrilled when we heard that...jumping and shouting like crazy at the lobby! We made it again! We gave our email addresses to them before we left just in case they wanna visit to Grand Canyon North Rim, Malaysia, Singapore or even Czech Republic. Haha....felt a bit paiseh for being nasty with the people there.
Lesson to learn: Never give up even it might seem impossible.

The girl who sent us back is Celia. She had a day off the next day and she wanted to visit North Rim. She even brought us to Desert View, a must-visit in South Rim before we left. Another good thing was, we only paid USD5 for the gasoline instead USD35 for the shuttle bus. It was indeed a blessing in disguise man. We provided her with free accomodation and free food as a form of appreciation. We were really lucky.

I just received an email from the Front Desk manager from South Rim when I was writing this blog. The manager apologised for whatever happened yesterday. He has shown his professionalism in handling situation like this. Thanks so much Glenn.

I was really an unforgettable trip! I would never forget this interesting trip.

RIM TO RIM TO RIM!!!!!

My comp crashed

2006-07-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm damn sad...my comp crashed when I need it so badly everyday! It might be infected by some stupid viruses which deleted some important files in my comp...there's another guy here facing the same prob so we suspect it might be due to virus... damn!!! Now the system couldn't even boot normally...

boot.ini missing
hal.dll corrupted

Let me know if u know how to fix it!

Right now Javier is helping me to solve the prob. He's good at computer...hopefully he'll be able to solve it! **Praying hard**

By the way, I just realised that I'm gonna leave Grand Canyon real soon. Last night, I was telling Jakub and Bertha that I'll leave in 3 weeks time. Time really passes fast....Still remember my first few days in Grand Canyon, I was counting down to the day I leave. Now I'm hoping time to slow down...so ironic...

I need to work for 4 more days before I get 4 days off in a row to hike from Grand Canyon North Rim to South Rim. We plan to camp one day near Colorado River and hike all the way to South Rim the next morning. The hike will take more than 2 days. When I come back from South Rim, I'll work for the last 10 days in Grand Canyon before I get 2 days off, which are my last 2 days in Grand Canyon North Rim. I really have to enjoy my last 2 days to the fullest! Will definitely miss lots of good frens I made here...

Finally....Volleyball Tournament!!

2006-07-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a fantastic day to me. Firstly, the volleyball tournament organised by Jakub and I finally realised. It was great....we fulfilled our aim which was to bring all the employees together in a sport event. The HR manager was so happy that we took the initiative to organise such a successful event for employees. We also received numerous compliments from lots ppl...yeah! A guy who has been working for Xanterra for the past seven seasons even told us that it was the the biggest event that he had ever seen here.

Initially we decided to postpone the competition indefinitely due to lack of teams. But somehow during lunch time yesterday, a lot of ppl came to me to ask me if they can sign up for the competition. I din expect that to happen at all....and I was over thrilled when we finally managed to get 10 teams to participate in the tournament. The game had to start at 2pm so that we could finish the whole tournament in one day. We had only 2 hours to plan the schedule, set the rules and regulations, discuss with HR about the prizes and etc. It was so rushed but we managed to start the game at 2pm (after the Brazil vs France match....brazil lost). Everthing was so smooth sailing. Thanks lots to those volunteers who offered to be line judges and ball pickers.

Martina (a super stylo girl from Czech) and me

We had excellent turn out yesterday. Many ppl came down to cheer for their favourite teams especially those who were not playing. They really cheered their hearts out...not just clapping hands. I think the huge turn out was probably becos of the park is not gonna open till Monday due to forest fire so everyone din have to work. Yesterday was really the perfect day to hold the competition.

Our team, D.K.G (Deli, Kitchen, Gift shop), consists of 5 players, namely Amanda, April, Lina, Jakub and I. We advanced all the way to the finals and the finals was the real challenge. Our opponent played pretty well in the first 2 sets and they won. I think we played well too...maybe we just couldn't follow their fast pace in the beginning. In the 3rd set, we started to pick up our momentum and we played really much better than the previous 2 sets and we won the third set. In 4th and 5th sets, we more or less knew their weaknesses and we won convincingly to be the first volleyball champion in Xanterra Grand Canyon North Rim (haha...cos this was the first time the game was held). It was really a strong comeback and we really played as a team. The atmosphere in the court was really exciting. I could tell the audiences really enjoyed themselves watching the long rally volleyball game. Thanks to all the supporters who cheered for us. It was a excellent game! I love it so much!! Remember D.K.G whooooooooooosh!

The winning team...Lina, me, Amanda, Jakub and April

Lina, Jakub, me and Amanda (April missing?)

Champion and Runner-up
From left: Monica, Fernando, Lina, me, Amanda, Jakub, Mike
Front: Serhat, Ibrahim and April

Volleyball buddies

Amanda and me

Pat, the HR manager, gave us USD10 each as the "winning" prize...haha USD10...Ya...in fact we din play for money, we played for the fun of the game. I guess everyone enjoyed it! We really felt great sense of complishment and satisfaction after successfully organising the tournament. Arghhh......I'm so happy!!!!!!!

haha....USD10...better than nothing!

Yesterday was indeed a fantastic day to me!

Celebrating by drinking???

Are we drunk....?

Ghost Town

2006-06-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

After staying 2 nights in Fredonia, I'm finally back in Grand Canyon North Rim. Suddenly realised I miss this place so much! There are so many things I wanna blog about, but I can't possibly note down every single incident that happened in Fredonia. In short, I would say the experience in Fredonia was unforgettable one...cos it's something that I would never experience in my entire life if I wasn't there. Everthing was so unpredictable and unusual ...sometimes I even wondered if I'm in the States cos things were so different from what I expected before I came.

On Wednesday, which was the evacuation day, I woke up at 5.45am to get everything ready. My company, Xanterra, decided to evacuate in the morning cos fire usually grows more rapidly in the afternoon. After loading all our baggages into April's car, we headed to the lodge carpark to form a line (all vehicles were to leave in sigle file). We waited at the carpark for about 1.5 hours for Route 67 to be reopened. We weren’t just sitting waiting...everyone was so well equipped. Some brought frisbee, some brought badminton rackets, there were even ppl who brought juggling equipment...interesting….

@ Lodge Carpark
From left: Cindy, Zeliang, Joey, Seek Yin, Monica, Da Jie, Hongwei, Weiming, and me

Marinza Juggling

Badminton session

Ready to go....April and me!

Thank God Route 67 was reopened at 8.30am. (else we gotta take an alternative route called Route 22, which is dirty, bumpy, partilally paved and it takes so much longer to get to our destination). We had a great time riding on April's car. After 1.5 hours, we arrived at the "ghost" town, Fredonia. The town is so small and dead. There's absolutely nothing in the town except a gas station, a fire station and a library. I wondered how we gonna survive there if we oughta stay there for long period of time!!!

Initially we decided to go to Las Vegas with the rest in the car, but the problem is Lina, Manting and I will be going to Las vegas after we end work. If I go without them this time, I might need to go there with them again...sigh…that’s the reason we scrapped the plan. I came out with another plan which was to Grand Canyon South Rim with Jakub, Bertha, Joanne and April....but it failed again cos Jakub already promised his Czech frens to stay in a nearby motel...Fated to stay in Fredonia.

Actually the condition in the Red Cross camp wasn't as bad as we thought. Everything was well taken care of...we were given free food, free accomodation (just that the bed was stretcher kind)....also we had all kinda games to play....basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball etc….not that bad lar…but everyday play sports can be boring too!

@ Fredonia Red Cross Camp

I decided to move to the nearby motel with Bertha, Jakub, Joanne, Dorota, Tom and Martin cos there was nice bed there and we could stay up as late as we want to play! Guess how much it was......haha....it was only USD6 per person per night...damn cheap!

Our room!

We spent our first day playing volleyball, hanging out at a playground, chit-chattig with frens of cos....It was boring but everyone tired teir best to make it fun!

The "Ghost" town...Fredonia!

Our first meal in "refugee" camp

What's wrong?

Me with Bill's bike

Bertha and me @ pool

Jakub, bertha, Joanne and me with Czech flag!

Second day, woke up early to have breakfast...the rest of the ppl couldn't wake up for breakfast so only me and Jakub...We brought back the food to motel and had a long chat outside the motel. We talked bout anything under the sun, somehow I felt that Czech culture is way different from ours in many aspects! But that’s the whole point of coming for this programme... To see different things and experience different culture! Rested the whole day till dinner time. Weiming they all went to Kanab to find some chinese food. He bought us a packet of chinese beef fried rice...It tasted so good….maybe we haven’t been having chinese food for so long! After dinner, we played at the playground with some local kids. Hmmm....we could tell their upbringings are very different from ours.....hmmm....cos they were really really rough when they played...haha maybe I’m stereotyping! There was this strange girl who kept bugging me to run with her....she kept saying I'm cool cos I'm SHORT! Diao...dunno if I should be happy!! Played some softball at the playground till dusk and after that went to gasoline station to buy some beers. Beer here is really cheap...USD2 for one big bottle (32oz or 900ml)...Prepared to get drunk in motel room but we didn't...We just looked thru all the pictures we took for the day and watched tv....wat a relaxing day in Fredonia, the ghost town.

Jakub and me outside our motel

Lunch time!

Drinking session with Bertha, Jakub, and Martin

It's time to go home after spending 2 days in Fredonia...Yeah!! Fredonia is small and boring but we had a great time day. This place gives us a lot of unforgettable memory...!

Me with South Americans

Last picture in Red Cross camp

Ready to go home!

Forest Fire

Seddar (our driver) and me

Dedicated to Sha Da Jie....You're the dancing queen!

My buddy and me outside Sha Da Jie's room

Forest Fire in Arizona

2006-06-26T23:01:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody...I gonna be MIA for a couple days cos there's forest fire going on in Arizona. The fire is about 22 miles away from the place I stay. It's pretty near but dun worry about it, I'll be fine...everything is safe here. Kinda excited to be evacuated...like drama! Everyone is forced to evacuate cos the only road to Grand Canyon North Rim will be closed to give way to fire fighting. So fun! We'll be evcuated to a town called Fredonia. Accomodation and food will be provided for free. Also I heard we'll get paid for these few days...but I doubt we'll be getting the full amount...**cross my fingers**! I need money for travelling!

The business at the restaurant today was damn slow cos most tourists have already left Grand Canyon North Rim due to forest fire. We spent lots of time waiting of order to come in. Most of the time we din even get 1 order in one hour. That's good for us...we could just slack since our pay is independent of the restaurant's business...Really hope everyday is like that! Now I realised how fragile tourism business is.

Went to Deli to chit-chat with Jakub, Weiming and April to kill some time! Packed some nice restaurant food for them...luckily the idiotic manager din see! Hmmm....I think it'll be much more fun if I could work in the Deli.

I gonna make these few days as fun as possible. Just treat them like my day-offs. April will probably drive us to Las vegas if the evacuation gonna last for a couple of days...Maybe it could even last for a couple of weeks...Nobody knows. Hiking might be a good choice as well...yeah Zion is quite near Fredonia! I'm sure we'll have tonnes of things to do during these few days! YEAH!!!

My life here is really full of uncertainty. I can never predict wat's gonna happen in next few days. So I've decided not to think bout it. Just live my everyday to the max!

Zion Trip

2006-06-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

I would say the trip to Zion Natinal Park was the best trip I ever had here in the States. I dunno why i felt so much for the trip...maybe Zion is just very different from Grand Canyon North Rim(the place where I stay). Oh ya....this is my first time stepping out of Grand Canyon North Rim since the day I came!!!

Both of these places have their strong points. Grand Canyon is one the 7 Natural Wonders in the world so of cos you would expect more majestic and grand scenery here. Its visitor lodge is located on the top of the canyon so visitors can enjoy overlooking the canyon at high altitude. It's cold even during summer. In contrast, Zion is located at the bottom of the canyon, totally opposite of Grand Canyon. Visitors have to look up to see the beautiful canyon. It has the lowest point in the whole United States which is about 25 feet below the sea level. Low also means that the place is hot and dry throughout the year! The temperature can shoot up to 110 Fahrenheit, which is about 40 plus degree celcius during the summer. The best time to visit Zion is during the winter cos the weather will be pretty good....not too cold...and not too warm as well!! I really love Zion so much!

We set off from Grand Canyon at 7.30am and arrived there 2.5 hours later. We had a short trail to the place where the Indianas used to stay, to check out all the carvings which were left behind by the Indianas. After that, we headed straight to Zion employee dining room to have lunch. The lunch there was so much better than the one we always have in Grand Canyon but I still prefer our dining room cos is much more cosier than theirs.

The carvings by the Indianas

@ Zion Visitor Centre

@ Zion Visitor shuttle stop

After lucnh, we took a shuttle bus to the starting point of Riverside Walk. The shuttle bus is pretty similar to the one we have in Sentosa. It's so convenient to get around in Zion cos the shuttle will stop at every hiking point. Gigi went for a hike alone at The Grotto cos she has been to Riverside Walk.

Me and Bertha on shuttle bus

The Riverside Walk is basically a river with canyon on both sides. What we did was just walking against the river heading towards the ending point. It's about 16 miles from the starting point to the end but we din go all the way in due to time constraint. The feeling is completely different at the bottom of the canyon. It's freaking hot down there but you can dip into the freezing cold river!! It was so damn fun!!

We divided ourselves into 2 groups, one group would try to go as far as they can and the other one will slowly enjoy their time taking nice pictures...haha...of cos we were the one who ent slow cos we are all photo sluts....always! We enjoyed it...who cares!

Bertha and me @ Riverside

Washing hands

From left: Hongwei, Sha Da Jie, Zeliang, Jing Jing, Zhou Zheng, Bertha, Lina and me!

The water level could rise up to ur chest when the canyon gets narrower...(for my case is neck level). It was fun walking with your body submerged under the water and u gotta carry ur bags high up in order to kep them dry!!!! It was nothing but fun!!!

Oh gosh...almost to my shoulder...not the deepest yet!

We took about 2 hours to walk as far as possible in and made a U-TURN back to the starting point. Along the way back, I climbed up to a small cave on the canyon to take pictures. The cave was pretty high, unfortunately I slid on the way down and got myself a deep cut on my body. Haha...it hurt but I had fun. The whole trail took us about 4 hours!! It was a great trail!

Lying down on freezing cold water

Me and Micheal in small tiny cave

This is how I got my cut!

Chipmunk...looks like Chwanz!

Headed back to EDR for dinner @ 4.20pm. After dinner, we had our last minute shoppings at the gift shop. After shopping, we quickly hopped on to the van and had safe ride back to Grand Canyon North Rim. Thanks Micheal for being such a great driver! I guess everyone had a great time in Zion! Bye Zion...I'll be back for sure one day!

Bye Zion...I'll be back!

Sunset on the way back

I was still very energetic when I came back. Went to play ball with my volleyball buddy Jakub and some other frens. After the game, had a quick shower and headed to EDR pub for a special event called International Night. The pub played all kinda of international music on that night such as Turkish, Czech, Slovakia, Ecuador and not forgetting our chinese music. Haha...my fren passed the the bartender the song "One Night in Beijing" and he played it....damn off la! You would be surprised if you were there. Ppl could be so wild when the drink! I'm sure lots of ppl made up after the party on that night. I was more mild kind...I played pool...haha...managed to beat most of the ppl I played with but lost terribly to Marinza...she's way too good than me...!

From left: Oscar, Joanne, Bertha, Jakub and me!

I also learnt a special "stun" from Jakub...it was cool....maybe can show u guys next time!! We hang out there until 2plus and lots of ppl gotta work at 6 or 7am the next day...I wondered how they gonna survive man!

Special "stun"

My cut!

Another wonderful day in Grand Canyon!!!

Volleyball Photoshoot

2006-06-22T13:04:00.000-07:00

haha...a volleyball game became a photoshoot!!! Anyway it was fun!

Group Photo

My volleyball buddy Jakub and I

Joanne, Jakub and I

Step 1: Digging

Step 2: Spiking

Step 3: Jumping Serve

Step 4: Blcking Position

Step 5: Blocking (haha....i used my face to block)

Time flies!

2006-06-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Time flies...Just realised I haven been in Grand Canyon for 5 weeks, another 5 more weeks to go to our extended trip around USA. Looking back to the first few days I arrived in Grand Canyon, I was actually counting how many days more I have to be here...Now I dun have to anymore...Life here is becoming more and more interesting...I enjoy every single moment here! 5 weeks are in fact very short period of time. I'm sure we'll be sad to leave this place.

Yesterday was one of my best working days. Maybe it was because of the person whom u worked with. There were only 3 ppl on thel line yesterday, namely Tim(the manager I hate the most), Lina and I. The management seems to trust us a lot man...hmmm maybe not so much of trust...maybe they just wanna stretch us to the max. They only assigned Lina and I to prepare ALL the food for that night...Normally we hav at least 3 ppl...Tim din cook at all last night..he just took in orders. As I said, it's not always good to be efficient. Efficient means more job and you might be taken advantge of.

I dun like working with Tim. I performed badly when I was with him. I kept forgetting orders. Too bad..I dun really care cos I dun like him!!! Tim left after 2 hours and Graham, the F&B manager (Tim's superior), took over. Working with him was so much different from working with Tim man. I was like turning into another person....(like gui3 shang4 shen1). I was energetic, fast, accurate...in short I was superb when working with Graham...haha! He did nothing but nodding his head. I could tell that he was very impressed by our performance. He even left the line to both of us for some time so Lina and I had to take in orders as well as preparing the food...I have never seen only 2 ppl operating the line before man! But it was fun and challenging! But then again...Pls dun stretch us!

Looking forward to working with Graham or Jesse...BUT NEVER TIM!!!

Anyway I have 2 days off tomo...YEAH! I must really enjoy these days to the max cos I have been working so hard for the past week! I deserve it!

Still planning the volleyball tournament...already asked the Deli kakis to request for same day off so we can do things together. April keeps saying I should be working in Deli with them and I really wish I could...though I'm earning more in the kitchen. So no complaints!

I've been talking to much! That's about it. Take care pals!

Tournament

2006-06-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Yoyoyoz...so glad to see my tag board is full of messages despite being called KAMPONG BOY! My greatest gratitude to Faith for giving me such a nice nickname...Now the kampong boy is not gonna act "phunk"...he's gonna act "sporty" this time round...!! He plays all kinda sports everyday....hahaha!

Let me clarify all ur doubts...I dun think I gain weight nor becoming more "muscle-killer". If I really do...it's all at my tummy!!! Yuacks...i gonna be like those american with big tummy...! Anyway we really eat lots of meat. American food can really shorten ur life man. It's either overcooked or raw...super unhealthy...somemore is oily...I REALLY MISSED CHINESE FOOD A LOT!

Did i tell u all that all the food in the restaurant is pre-processed, pre-seasoned, pre-made and pre-marinated. All the sauces are from cans and all vegetable is from packages....wat we need to do is just open up and heat up in the steamer...as simple as that. Some more the restaurant is exclusive kind...Lesson to learn: Do not be fooled by the outlook of a restaurants...Looks can be really deceiving! Now I supposed most restaurants in Singpore are like that as well...cos they cant possibly make their own sauces and cut vegetable...They simply dun have the time! Maybe chinese restaurants still do that...I dunno! Anyway at least I'm still doing something useful...grilling steaks...which requires some sorta observation and a little bit of experience...haha!

I met this couple from San francisco last week after their dinner at the restaurant which I work at. Chatted with them for awhile and asked them how was the food....u know wat they said...?

"Wow....the food was excellent...we had a great dinner at the restaurant....I had a nice steak and my husband had a fantastic salmon". I was like....I cooked them!! Nice meh????

Anyway Jakub and I are planning a volleyball tournament for all the employees here...Hope it will be a successful one...But it's kinda impossible to find a day which suits everyone...we're trying to work things out...Most importantly Jakub, Fernando, Amanda, April, Lina and Gigi have to be able to make it!

Looking forward to the torunament and my day-offs! Hang on...just 2 more days for another 2 days off!

Yeah I'm going to Zion National park this Friday!!!! Will update u guys!

Pictures of my room!

2006-06-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

My bed

Toilet

My laptop

Kiann Soon's bed

Sports day!

2006-06-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

It's now 3pm, Monday in Grand Canyon. I finnally could have time to sit down in my room to blog. Initially I thought I could have just relaxed for my 2 days off...but who knows so many unplanned but exciting incidents happened in these 2 days and they made my days. I would say these 2 days are one of the most enjoyable days to me in Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona.

First of all, let me anounce a good news to all of u! I'm sooooo glad that the management finally responded to my requests regarding my job. They finally put me permanently in the Line as a cook....yeah!!!! It's not an easy job though but at least I get to learn something new! On top of that, the manager whom I hate the most gave me the particular day-offs which I requested. What a "miracle"!

Anyway let me tell u bout more exciting things, things which happened during my 2 days off. Let's start with yesterday (Sunday). It was my first day off of the week...I woke up early for breakfast and went for a church service at the campground with Manting, Joey and Bertha. The service was planned and conducted by April and Amanda (A&A), who were posted to Grand Canyon North Rim by the Ministry of National Park to hold the the Sunday service here. Both of them are really devoted christians.

Had lunch with Amanda and April at 11.45am after the service. Din plan to do anything after lunch cos i would rather just slack in my room than going for a hike. Saw Weiming, Ze Liang and Seek Ying during lunch, they were planning to go hiking at Mid Frost Trail. At first I was quite reluctant to go cos I was tired and needed some rest.....But they insist and persist, I couldn't resist and decided to go with them....I told them i din mind going if they could wait for me till I finish my lunch. Without second thought they said, " SURE!!!!!!!!" Guess wat happened next....they disappeared when i finsihed my lunch..........?????????? Maybe there were some misunderstandings.

After lunch Amanda invited me to join Fernando and her for a hike at Cape final. I agreed since they left wihout me. Cape Final is abut 1 hour away from the place we stay. We had a wonderful ride in Amanda's car, partly becos of she has excellent driving skills and we could sit back and relax listening to her favourite jazz music.

Fernando is from Ecuador, Amanda is an American and I'm from Malaysia. Even though we are from 3 different countries, we had a great time chatting with each other regarding all kinda of things under the sun....from lifestyle to culture.....from religion to politics, we had a never-ending chat along the trail. Maybe it was due to the vast diversity that we have that's why we have so much things to talk about.

Fernando is a fun-loving and humourous guy, even though he can barely speak English...He always the one who brought laughter to both of us....Haha...He dropped his super "afro" kinda sunglasses in between 2 huge rocks..he was so sad cos the sunglasses were passed down to him from his dad and it had been with him for 5 years. Look at the bright side....maybe that's a nice place for the glasses to rest in peace.

Amanda is a sincere, obedient and "mild" american (not party-goer type). She's pretty, attractive and with very intelletual look...too bad she has a boyfriend...haha...no hidden meanings....She's simply too nice a girl. She's kinda conservative and her life seems to evolve very much around christianity....which I think it's good. By the way, she's the only George Bush's supporter I found so far in Grand Canyon. She said that Bush is a good christian. Hmmm I shall reserve my comments on this issue. Usually when you mention the name of Bush, you gotta bear with all kinda of vulgarity from the Americans...(haha that reminds me Mike D).....Interesting!!!!

What about myself....? guy next door....? muahahaha!

Maybe should talk more about the Cape Final Trail. Hmmm..it's pretty much similar to the previous trails that I've been to. The trail is 4 miles (6.4km) round trip, it took us about 2.5 hours to complete the entire trail, including the resting time. It was a great trail except for the fact that my camera ran out of battery....arghhhhhhhhh...Sha3 Da4 Jie3 never helped me recharge my battery after using it....arghhhhhh!!!!!!!! wanted to kill her man!

Met Mark , Huiling, Allan and Amy on the way back to Amanda's car...what a coincidence..there are so many trails in Grand Canyon North Rim and we happened to meet them at Cape Final which is the furthest from the place we stay. I was tired after the trail and fell asleep in the car on the way back to Employee Dining Room (EDR).

That's not the end of the day. WE PLAYED VOLLEYBALL right after we came back to EDR!!!! Yeah!!! Amanda can play volleyball as well!!!! She told me that her favourite past time is reading so I supposed she isn't a sports person....But you never know when u see her playing volleyball man..I was so impressed....she dived for every single ball and she played pretty well despite her obedient look!!!! Impressive!! Hmmm....lesson to learn: Do not judge a book by its cover.

The game was extremely enjoyable especially when we played 2-on-2 towards the end. I paired up with Fernando and Amanda with Jakub (from Czech Republic). Jakub is a damn good player. He can play all kinda of sports really well. He can play basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, squash and ping pong and he was a springter. Shen! Some more he's quite good looking..wah so unfair! haha....! He's going to be a PE teacher back in his country. According to him, they are required not learn all kinda of sports in order to be a PE teacher. He's damn good! Fernando is good too. He has excellent ball sense and he knows lots of sports especially soccer. He has never had proper volleyball training before but his control of the ball was really impressive....like Jieming sia! We were tired but we were so enthusiastic when comes to volleyball. We played for 5 hours non stop!!

Had dinner for a short while and carried on with our ping pong game with Jakub. It was 11.15pm when we ended our game. I was simply exhausted after that and decided to go back to my room to sleep.

Who knows wat happened next....Manting was in my room when I entered. She told me they gonna celebrate Javier's birthday at the pub and asked me to come along. I decided to go even though I almost collapsed cos Javier treats us really well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAVIER!

Javier.....quite pro!

Manting...trying to be pro...good try..haha..!

In the pub, I was asked to play pool with this quite good player..but i forgot his name...I thought I would lose the game cos he's a patron of the pub....surprisingly I defeated him...haha....lucky me...everyone was so shocked when I won...haha!!!

Yesterday was a sports day to me. We went hiking, played volleyball, ping pong and not forgetting pool at the EDR pub...wow...what a wonderful sports day!!

Went to bed after drinking at 1.30am....woken up by Weiming at 4.30am...arghh....I only slept 3 hours after a long tiring day....This is how second day off began....Sunrise @ Bright Angel Point with Cindy, Hongwei, Liying and April (she dove us there). I almost died man...However everything is worthy when you see the sun rises. It was so beautiful!

Sunrise @ Bright Angel Point

Liying and me!

me with the rising sun!

April and me

April, Liying, Cindy, Hongwei Weiming and me!!

Me with 2 frenly Deli's staffs!

Came back for breakfast at 6.15am and concussed till 11.15am..Oh no...I forgot I promised Jakub to play volleyball at 10am at the court...Without wasting anytime, I quickly washed up and rushed down to the court...poor Jakub...he really turned up at the court at 10am...I felt so bad...

Lunching after volleyball and now I finally have a chance to rest in my room....hmmm not really...I think I'm gonna meet Amanda at 5pm at the court for volleyball..u know wat..she helps someone to babysit today...haha!!!! She's o caring....muahahaha!!

That's bout it for yesterday and today! Hope I would have more intereting things to update u guys. Have fun and take care!

Confidence booster

2006-06-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

I worked in the Line (cook) again last night. The night was fantastic cos i din have to see the disgusting face (when i say disgusting, i really mean it)...Just realised my day can be so wonderful without seeing him...There are tonnes of ppl out there who dun like him but somehow he got promoted to manager...why???? Nobody knows...I'm still wondering how can someone with zero management skill and pathetic interpersonal skill can be a manager....maybe angmoh likes this kinda of person. Just wanna say....he sux!!!

So sad...Jesse got demoted by the upper management...dunno wat the exact reason is but i guess it was due to the tensed relationship with the disgusting old man...! Anyway Jesse said it's just the title thing and he doesn't really want to be involved in any management related things...Maybe he's happy about it...Hope he is.

Let's talk about my interesting things...I improved tremendously in cooking steaks..haha...now i can distiguish different types of temperatures better...the senior cook wasn't around last night so i was sorta like the "senior" cook of the night, teaching another cook wat to do for our section....muahaha! A couple of days ago, Jesse still gotta check the steaks i cooked before he passed out to the servers. Last night, he seemed to trust me a lot...none of the steaks that I cooked was rejected and most of the time he din even check my steaks....he did nothing but nodding his head whole night...haha...yeah! That was really a big boost to me....

But still, I dunno where the disgusting old man gonna transfer me to...sigh..I think I'm the one of the most multi-task person in the kitchen now cos I've been thru so many departments....Really dunno why he likes to move ppl around especially when we only gonna stay here for another 1 month...my frens said maybe we are way too effiicient than the angmohs...I dunno...if that's really the case, being efficient might not always be a good thing.

Sunset @ Bright Angel Point

2006-06-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

I thought I would just be spending my whole day off in my room doing nothing...Unexpctedly I managed to gather another 4 frens to see sunset together @ Bright Angel Point.

There's a short trail (next to the place I work) to Bright Angel Point...and that's usually the first trail which everyone will go to cos it's the easiest, shortest and the most accessible one...but I only went there 1 month after I arrived at Grand Canyon north Rim...That's really really weird...maybe I'm surrounded by all kinda weird ppl in my workplace....and now I'm becoming one of them....Dun talk bout my work...the management simply cannot make it la...!!

Sunset @ Bright Angel Point is beautiful...the pictures tell everything...The sun went down real fast...hmmm maybe we were talking too much and din realise it was going down....managed to take couple of really nice pictures....and they are lots coming from my fren's camera....here they are...

me with Grand Canyon!

Weiming and me!

Yes....me again!

@ lodge lobby...
from left: Cindy, Liying, Kiann Soon, Weiming and me!

Rot Rot Rot!

2006-06-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

Wat can i do today? Think probably just rot in my room since we have no special plan for our day off. Sad!!!!

Argh....i missed the trip to Page and Lake Powell cos I failed to get a day off from the old man.....cursing and swearing....I promise i must do something to him before i leave cos he's really too much!!!!! It's a long story...Anyway I have nothing to lose....I actually considering asking ppl ard to sign a petition to ask HR fire him...haha....just saying for fun...BUT I WILL DO SOMETHING!!

All of them came back with nice pictures....wahlau...still dare to use my laptop to show me the pictures man!!! It's too much la....haha....Hai....I wanna go too....!

Must find things to do today leh....I think i will go see sunset at Transcept Trail....see how bah!!

She's still young!

2006-06-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

hiy...this news affected me very much emotionally....i feel so much for it becos i'm in the same programme as Lena Cheo, she was Sheares Hall Block A Head...She passed away in a car accident in Canada...it's really hard for the family and close frens to come to terms with this news...My gravest condolences to her family and frens.

This is the weblink Emily found...http://dexxie.fotopages.com/

Change of job

2006-06-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

Finally i got transferred to Line (cooking) after requesting tonnes of times...hiy...i gotta fight so hard to get it lor...anyway dunno if it's permanent though..hopefully it will be!! Cooking can be so fun...u get to learn how to prepare different types of steak...mediun rare, medium, medium well, well etc....cant really tell the difference still....it's fun but it's damn hot in there!!!!

While waiting for shuttle back to dorm after work, we sat at a resting area overlooking the canyon...it was full moon last night...the view was really really impressive..should have brought my camera along...hiy...

They are watching movie now...think i will join them in awhile!!

Frisbee to Volleyball

2006-06-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to play frisbee just now but in the end we switched to volleyball....u know why? Chris went to town without informing me!!! Argh...he was the one who kept reminding to play on Saturday morning...yet he was the one who pangseh us....he gonna get it from us...

Met Scott outside Liying's room and he passed me a volleyball...ok lor..then played volleyball lor...we were not exactly playing ball....we spent most of the time picking ball...haha...ball flew everywhere! But it was fun!Went for Lunch after the game and headed back to my room...Gotta wait till 3pm to start work...sien!

First day off to Roaring Spring

2006-06-08T04:53:00.000-07:00

It's now 6am US time...I slept at 7pm and woke up at 5am....wah it was 10 hours...this was first time i had so much sleep in Grand Canyon....think i was over exhausted.

The Roaring Spring hike was very fun but extremely TIRING. Guess wat...i only slept 3 hours and had a bad day the day before due to my work...I was damn tired, frustrated and pissed after i got back from work...already decided not to go for the hike cos i was totally crashed but omehow I changed my mind the next morning....I managed to wake up at 5am (slept at 2am...crazy) and I was fresh and awake....I knew if i din go i would just sit in my room...cursing and swearing!!!!!

Weiming, Manting and I had breakfast at 6.45am and set off at 7.30am. It was drizzling when we were about to set off but we believed that the rain wont last long and decided to go ahead with our plan even though the weather was freezing cold...it was not exactly a bad thing cos the weather in Roaring Spring could be extremely hot and dry during normal days. The whole trip took about 9 hours and we managed to get back by 5pm. We were realatively fast compared to our other frens who went before considering we rested 2 hours at Roaring Spring and we took quite a number of long breaks along the way.

We took a shuttle bus to the starting point of the trail. Thanks to Julia's husband for sending us there....usually they dun send ppl there cos it' beyond their jobscope and hikers gotta take a half-an-hour walk to the starting point.

We arrived at starting point of North Khabaib Trail. It is the longest trail in Grand Canyon North Rim and it links North Rim and South Rim together...It was down slope all the way down the canyon but never dun think down slope is easy...the impact on ur knee joint is so great that we were forced u to walk like an old lady (like how Manting walked..haha) to absorb the impact on both knees...it took us 15min to arrive at our first stop...The Coconino...It has one of the best view of the Canyon for the trail...! Took tonnes of pictures there before we moved on to the next destination.After 30min, we arrived at Supai Tunnel...nothing impressive...just a big hole in a big rock whereby we could walk through it underneath...It is a resting point where there are toilets and water filling points...Before we left, we saw lots of people riding on mules coming..the ride was expensive and not really comfortable cos ur butt will keep banging the back of the mule...it costs USD125 for the whole trip...hmmm we saved USD125!!After resting, we quickly moved on cos we din wanna walk behind the mules cos they would shit along the way...u know wat...mules are so funny...they shit and pee at the same spot as the leader...u will see them walking in single file...stop....shit...and the next mule will go to the same spot to shit....haha....We arrived at the bridge which links one canyon to another in less than one hour....we walked really really fast cos the mules were "chasing" us...Met this interesting Ameicanon the bridge, he was lying down in the middle of the bridge...haha...we left after i took a picture with him...heh!After an hour, we finally arrived at Roaring Spring...Just when we were about to arrive, it started raining again....I quickly took out my waterproof bag and dumped all our cameras inside and ran all the way towards the shelter...Thank god it wasn't heavy downpour!

It is not a huge waterfall...Nothing compared to Niagra Fall or even the water fall in Kota Tinggi....We were damn shag..had some much-needed energy bars outside the restroom...haha...we had no choice...that was the only shelter there...

We stopped there for nearly 2 hours. Lied down on a big rock looking at the sky and the canyon....hmmm....when would be the next time when u look up and there's be a huge rock appear in front of u? maybe not in near future...It's so expensive to come here as a tourist...when u have the time u dun have the money, when u have the money u probably wont have time to do wat u wanna do...
This was not the end of the trip. We still gotta take exactly the same path back to the starting point. Remember it was downslope all the way to Roaring Spring....hehe...Upslope will really kill u man!! Anyway look at the bright side, we dun have to suffer the impact forces on our knees...This time round, the mules were ahead of us and we gotta avoid stepping on the "landmines"...yucks...it stinks! We were exhausted on the way up...Gotta keep talking to each other to keep the morale high and also made us stay awake...Our legs cramped a couple of times along the way...cos we rested too long at some points. Everything was excellent apart from the tiredness.
Finally we reached back Coconino...it was 15min from the starting point...We almost made it! Met this American famiy with their damn cute kids...They are bunch frenly ppl and we had a long chat with them...However it's kinda hard to understand their culture sometimes...the couples already have 2 kids but they adopted another one from Russia(the cute baby in piggy back)...will u do that? I dunno...probably not.....hmmm maybe yes...cos the baby is damn damn cute la...felt like bringing him home man....so cute!!!!!!!!!! U can tell that they are really nice ppl....they were sincere when talking to us and we din talk superficially...Nice to meet these ppl.
After 15min....we finnaly came back to the starting point of the trail....the whole trip took us 9 hours!!!! Damn shag!!! We almost had no more energy to walk back to the lodge which was half an hour away....we decided to try our luck to hitchhike even though we knew that it was no longer a common thing to do in the States...it used to be 20 years back...Thank god we met this guy along the trail....he was loading his into his car at the carpark."U guys wanna have a ride back to the lodge" he asked.

"Sure...thanks so much sir". We were so excited and hop on to his car...WE WERE SO LUCKY!!!

It was a wonderful day cos lots of things happened were my first time...I had my first ever day off after 19 days straight of working and also had first dinner at employee dining room...Today was really a great day...had a great dinner with frens and concussed in my room at 7pm!!! It was a wonderful day!

Counting down to my first ever day off!!!

2006-06-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

yeah....2 more days to my first day off after working 19 days straight....19 days!!!

It's 10.40am here but my blog still shows Singapore time....had breakfast at 7am, played pool at lounge for awhile to kill soeme time and "soccer-volleyball"...haha...couldnt find volleyball so used soccer ball as volleyball....our skin is so dry la...can u imagine how painful it was when the hard ball contacted with our hands..but we still played it! we were crazy.

Went back to my room and chatted with Weiming..so sad...he just broke up with his gf...think he hasnt fully recovered yet...hope he will get it over soon...

Looking forward to our Roaring Spring hike on Wednesday...hopefully i wont be so tired that say...it has nice waterfall there i think i mentioned in my previous entry...my room mate just set off few hours ago..think they are having fun now...

Planning to play frisbee one of these days...Chris has a frisbee so maybe we can play it on his off day.

Yesterday was damn tiring...not so much of work but not enough sleep i guess....i could walk, eat, pee with my eyes closed...haha....luckily i got some entertainment for some weirdos in the kitchen...shouldnt elaborate more cos it's kinda bad to talk bad things bout them...they are just weird...

In order to keep myself awake during work.....i must find things to entertain myself. haha....i came out with this stupid idea...i aked Chris to pass a msg to Lina in Chinese..."ni2 hen3 fei2" and told him it meant "you are pretty"...haha...guess wat happened...he got beaten by Lina....I know is wuliao but i was sinply too tired yesterday! haha....

Waiting to go to work at 3pm...wah...5 more hours to go...better find something to do!

Sunday morning

2006-06-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

it's now 7.41 am, a Sunday morning, just had my breakfast and still considering if i should go for the service with Manting at the lodge theatre....should i? Hmmm...Manting still sleeping...i doubt she can wake up by 10 man...haha...see how la....we will go if she can make it in time...

Still planning a trail to Roaring Spring, a beautiful place with nice waterfall...the entire trail might take more than 7 hours and that depends very much on how fast we go and how long we stop....we'll probably go on this coming Wednesday as that is my VERY VERY FIST day off after working 19 days straight...I'm the record holder now...crazy! Currently we have Manting, Weiming....Javier might join us since he happens to have the same day off as me. Heard from Patrick that Roaring Spring is really nice.....Hope it will be fun! I will tak tonnes of pictures to show u guys!

Everyone is moving to new dorm...haha!

2006-06-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

Just helped Lina and Manting to shift their stuffs to their new room...ever since i moved to new dorm....everyone wanted to move over cos it's simply too nice...old dorm sux! They were so surpried when the manager assigned them a room! they stay opposite me now...noisy...haha!

Lina just came back from St George yesterday cos she managed to get a day off yesterday (Friday). Every fortnightly, on Friday, there will be this free shuttle to bring employees down to St George town for shopping. The town is not big but there are lots of hang out places though...there's a hypermarket called Wal Mart, owned by a popular billionaire in the States. Also there is factory outlet which sells all kinda of brands, ranging from Levis to Nike....and it's damn cheap...my fren got himself a pair of Levis jeans for USD39.99 and that is the considered the high end already....cheap right? if u all wanna buy anything just let me know...but im afraid i dun have enuff money to buy everything for u all...haha....see how...tell me if u really want ba....dunno how to carry back though!

Asked my fren to help me buy washing powder and body soap...and i emphasised...I WANT THE CHEAPEST ONES...but she bought one big box of washing powder and Dove Body foam...i wan body soap....diao...haha....thanks for her effort anyway...

hmmm....that's about it...i'll try to get a day off on the next trip down to the town...hopefully can get few pairs of my favourite Levis jeans...

Wonderful night scene!

2006-06-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

Just gotta back from work...not tiring but it was extremely boring...kept looking at the clock but time crawls when u wan it to pass quickly...

Went to get cup noodle from Lina's room and we walked back together with Aunt Lina to my new dorm cos she wanna use my laptop...

Looked up to the sky...there are myriads of stars....they are everywhere in the sky...so close to each other...wah...it's REALLY REALLY beautiful...never seen so many stars before....but i was with Lina....sian..not romantic at all lor....i closed my eyes...imagined myself with someone whom i REALLY REALLY like...WAH it's wonderful! opened my eyes...saw Lina again....xian diao!!!!

The atmosphere at night in Grand Canyon is so romantic...suitable for couple to PT...Next time I'll definitely wan to bring someone i like here....Start saving up!

From Singapore to LA....LA to Grand Canyon!

2006-05-31T01:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all…I’m so excited to anounce to the whole world that I finally set up a blog to note down all the memorable expericence along this long journey…cant imagine myself doing this cos I always wonder why ppl have so much time to blog….now I finally understand. This is my very first entry so u guys shld feel honoured reading it..haha…!

This entry is long for reasons. Firstly, it's a summary of wat happened for the past 2 weeks...Secondly i tried my best to note down every single thing that happened...that's why it so damn long...take ur time reading it..

FYI, I’m on Work and Travel USA Programme which will last for 3 months in the States. The plan is to work in the States for 2.5 months so we can save up for travelling later. I’m hoping that my pay here would be sufficient to cover most of the major expenses if not all, so that I dun have to fork out too much for travelling. I’m currently located at Grand Canyon North Rim…a place which is much less commercialised than Grand Canyon South Rim…Most tourists will go to South Rim cos there are more things to do there…more resorts, more trails, more ppl and the area covered is few times larger than North Rim…however North Rim is mostly for nature love…Everything is so natural…I would prefer North Rim!

May 17

First of all, thanks to Bao Zhu aka Babi, Ah Xian, Jieling, Mingjun (the ghost) and not forgetting Kel Choo (Thanks so much for one night of free accomodation) for sending me off….i was so touched and will u guys. Hiy cant make it back in time for my last FWOC man…sad…sigh...

Zhu, me, Ah Neo, Mingjun and Xian

Kel Choo and me!

We left Changi Airport at 8.10am. The plane took off on time. We chose China Airline cos it’s one of the cheapest airline to Los Angeles…but China Airline was surprisingly good…service is good, food is good…hmmm it’s generally not bad la considering we were so much less compared to SQ.

Arrived at Taipei 4 hours later. The airport is kinda old compared to Changi Airport. Waited 4 hours for the next flight. Rested at a waiting area to use its wireless service…luckily I brought my laptop here if not I would be bored to death.

It’s 4.40pm, time to board the plane. At the boarding area, we were checked by this weird officer. Dun even know wat he was trying to do…he checked our passports for very long, think he wanted us to bribe him…cant be bothered…we din do anything wrong, dun think he could do anything to us. Finally we boarded the plane and had a long ride to Los Angeles. Watched Brokeback Mountain on plane..hmmm quite meaningful..no wonder it’s award winning.

Arrived at Los Angeles International Airport safely. Tell u wat…this was where all the unpleasant incidents began! I was stopped by the immigration officer for a secondary inspection. Not everyone has to gone thru this procedure and only “randomly” selected ppl have to go thru this. Waited 2 hours there…asked them wat I was waitig for but they refused to tell…They only asked me to wait…was damn pissed off and went to argue with one of the officer..u know wat kinda response he gave me…SIT DOWN!! Wat the hell…..USA, such a civilised country. The fellar reminded of malaysian police officers….unreasonable and rude!! Disgusting! Now I understand my lots of ppl say Americans know nothing about wat’s happening outside USA….maybe they think the whole map only has USA! That gave me a very bad impression of US…but we cant stereotype la…There r lots of nice americans out there…..LIKE CHRISTINA!!

Poor Christina…she waited for us for 3 hours at airport…she was angry with how I was treated. Haha…shouldn’t complain so much la…we cant expect everything to be the same as Singapore la…different countries do have different culture and we just gotta accept it when we are in the country. What to do….at least we reached LA safely.

So glad to meet Christina again…it’s been so long when we last seen her…she slimmed down a lot and she’s so much prettier now. She drove us around in LA. We visited her school UCLA….took some pictures at the place where The OC was filmed…

Headed to a place called The Grove. It’s a shopping and eating area in LA…things here are not cheap at all even for american standard. We had our dinner at a very nice restaurant called The Cheesecake Factory. It’s an exclusive restaurant with really really good service….this restaurant really made me understand the real meaning of service man. The servants are so proactive and frenly…we were really treated us like VIPs…nice place... Christina insisted to treat us this meal as an appreaciation to all the help she had when she was in Singapore….feel so bad cos the meal was really expensive….Thank you Christina…You’ve been a really nice fren.

@ UCLA library

Whisper Lounge, The Grove?

@ The Cheesecake Factory...yummy!

Musical Fountain @ The Grove

Christina, Lina, Manting and me!

After dinner, we headed the Greyhound(bus service) terminal to catch a bus to Saint George, the place where we gonna meet our employer. The terminal wasn’t exactly safe. There were lots of homeless ppl along the streets and lots of beggars. Actually Greyhound is meant for lower class ppl in the US.

It was an 10-hour ride and we have to transit at Las Vegas Greyhound Terminal. Guess wat..I met my frens at the terminal and we are going to the same place…haha…now we got 2 more ppl to travel with us liao….total 2 guys and 3 girls…

@ Saint George, Utah

@ Saint Geroge Mcdonald's

From left: Hongwei, ne, Lina, Manting and Cindy

May 18

Arrived at Saint George at 8am (US time). The employer will only pick us up at 12pm at Mcdonalds. Haha….5 of us only ordered a meal at Macs and sat there the wholde morning….there was this auntie who kept giving us free refill of coffee..felt damn paiseh…While waiting, I called home and a fren…so happy to hear from them!

The employer arrived at the Macs at 12pm…we settled some administrative stuff and headed straight to Grand Canyon…. I was damn tired cos didn’t sleep well on plane and Greyhound …..I slept throughout the 3-hour journey to Grand Canyon.

Met our employers and they are bunch of frenly ppl…(unlike those cocky immigration officers).

Today is our first day here so din do much…we just walked around the place and rested te whole day cos eveyone was too tired.

May 19

Today is our first day of work. Before we started working, the employer brought us around to show us some of the places that we need to know.

After introducing to us our department manager, we started work immediately. Lina and I work as kitchen helper. It is an easy job but after 10 hours of work I almost died la….we worked from 3pm thru 2am non stop man….was damn shag after work…felt so puzzled after work cos we are supposed to come here and enjoy…not suffer lor! But come to think bout it….because of shortage of manpower we got a chance to work extra hours and save up more for travelling….maybe it’s a blessing I disguise…always look at the bright side….maybe cos it is only the first day….we still time to get used to it….tomo will be better I hope!!!!

May 20

Things are not as bad as i thought it would be…today was much less tiring as compared to our first day…I think we really needed time to adjust to it. I’m happy working with the ppl here…they are generally nice and frenly ppl. So glad that we are not ostracised by the people here like wat Bao zhu told me wat Shengwei’s fren encountered. A fren of mine is working at the Deli next to the place I work. He kept feeding us really food from his place to keep us full…so nice of him! Ended work at 1am and headed back to my dorm. Today is a great day…think tomo will be even better!

May 22

Woke up late today and missed my breakfast…and that was the only breakfast I missed so far…haha it is oppoite of wat happened back in kent Ridge Hall…! Today is freezing cold…tempearature dopeed below 0 degree celcius in the afternoon….IT SNOWED TODAY!! I was so excited…quickly rushed back to my room to get my camera….took some picture of it but couldn’t really see the snow....sigh….! Anyway this is my first time seing snow and im sure it will snow again.

Snow!!!!

Made a much-needed call back after work…So glad to hear the heart-warming voice again…I was happily sitting outside the staff lounge talking on the phone… It was even colder at night. ….the ppl here must be thinking wat this guy doing outside while everyone was hiding inside….haha…it was simply too cold outside but I enjoyed it….hulk..

Went back to my room after making the call….there was a little note pasted on my door….“Wenhao..pls enter and leave the room quietly…No offence..trying to catch up with some lost sleep”…I was very stunned cos I din know what I did that disturbed him….maybe he’s a light sleeper? sigh…too bad…maybe I really gotta enter my room quietly…

May 25

Today I had my very first trail in Grand Canyon. Lina and Manting did Transcept Trail and Bright Angel trail but I haven..cos I couldn’t get up of my bed. Lina, Javier (a really nice Spanish guy from front desk) and I went forUncle Jim Trail. Uncle Jim Trail is a branch for Ken Patrick Trail. It took us 3 hours to complete the entire trail. It was tiring but fun.

After the trail, Lina told me that she actually knew that my room mate was disturbed by me cos Manting told her…diao! How come Manting knows? My rom mate actually asked Manting to tell me that cos he wont have chance to talk to me…when I come back rom work he will be asleep….or maybe he felt paiseh to tell me? I dunno….but I dun like to involve thrid party….

I better take a nap before I get back to work at 3pm…it’s another long day so better rest well! Here are some pictures we took…enjoy!

Javier and me @ Uncle Jim Trail

Beautiful Canyon...North Khaibab Trail is right behind me!

May 26

As usual, I woke up at 5.30am….think I must be very sensitive to brigtness. Met Patrick , an american guy working at the same kitchen, at EDR (employee dining room) during breakfast time. I used to suspect he’s a gay cos he usually doesn’t talk much to ppl but he always came to me to talk….He’s not bad looking and some of frens even said that he’s the best looking guy in the kitchen. After a long chat with him I realised that he has a girlfren…haha..! Think too much…haha…Anyway he’s a really frenly and helpful guy but he’ll be leaving soon…so sad! Hopefully we can still keep in touc via email…

Manting came while we were chatting...then we started discussing bout our flight ticket to Washington...when we were done, Pat asked..."were u guys speaking English? I could hear some English words but couldnt completely understand u guys!"....muahaha....Manting and I suddenly burst into laugh....YES we were conversing in English, hmmm to be mr precise Singlish la...damn funny...then we started to explain to him.

Sometimes we found it hard to understand them...guess so they are...it's becos of the american accent...Ppl from Calinornia still ok...No much problem. But other states like Texas, Winscosin etc, the accent is simply too strong that we can barely understand wat they trying to say...Manting said she repeated 3 times before her boss understood her...sometimes we gotta rephrase and rephrase before they could understand us...haha...but it's really fun...so sometimes we must fake angmoh accent in order for them to understnad us...haha!! interesting!

May 29

Couldn’t sleep well for the past few days….sleep at 2am and wake up at 5.30 almost everydaty…dunno why…I guess maybe it’s too bright at 5.30…

Woke up for breakfast early today cos we’re going for a trail later. Initially was only 4 of us, Javier, Manting, Lina and I. But Hongwei and Madonna (an american lady) joined in at last minute. So 7 of us squeezed into Javier’s car to the detination. Im not gonna explain how the scenery in Grand Canyon is like cos it’s simply beautiful. Picture says a thousand words so I think I’ll just show u guys the picture that we took along the way.

Madonna was so weird, she was so crazy over “holes”. U know she was so excited when she saw a hole between the 2 rocks and some little holes in rocks. WE DUN UNDERSTAND. Apart from that, Madonna is horny too. She approached a guy who’s quite good looking to ask to his email address and took picture with him….we were so stunned!

I din really enjoy the trip as much as the rest did cos it was too cold and I din wear enough clothing! Really hope I could hug someone to keep me warm.

It was a wonderful trip I would say. Thanks Javier for bringing us around.

Here are the pictures….enjoy!

Javier, Madonna, me Hongwei and Manting!

May 30

went to Patrick's room to use his laptop cos he has high speed wireless internet connection in his room...his room was in a mess the moment i stepped...it wa horrible...clothes were everywhere...gosh....

Patrick and me in his messy room!

So sad Pat and Sam are leaving on thursday...they are here cos there's shortage of manpower in North Rim.

Went back to EDR to see if i got a room at new dorm....YES YES YES! I got it...!!! i finally could use high speed internet connection again! let me show u how different my new room is compared to my old room...u will be surprised! It's 10 times better than our hall rooms...it's more like a hotel room man!!!

Good bye my old room!

Welcome to my new room!

New dorm corridor!