Emi-loves’s Weblog

it’s now 0343h, jan 9th in florida, we’re gonna be leaving vista way very very soon for new orleans. i’m super sleepy now, just finished really packing luggage. i’ll prolly have a longer post later, on account that i’m really seriously exhausted and am gonna be flying in only a few hrs. for now, it’s just byebye 1508, byebye vista, byebye disney, byebye friends and byebye florida. but of course, it is hello adventure.

i’m trying to make it a point to blog more often. hahah. so we’ll talk weather today. it’s suddenly so so cold today ! hahha. omg. i think it’s like 5/6 degrees celsius out today: a change from the warmer temperatures that we’ve been having recently. it’s really kinda odd having these fluctuating temperatues -.- back home it’s always fluctuating too, with the rain and sun, but not in terms of SUPER COLD and UBER HOT. so weather forecasts are really necessary and important. this morning i was half asleep when i heard shimin exclaiming to someone,” omg, today’s lowest temp is 6 degrees.” hahah. i am looking forward to warm temperatures again actually, though of course singapore’s weather is plain old hot.

anyway, yesterday was 冬至, so we kept tradition and ate tangyuan! i bought them at the asian market the other time i was there, but didn’t buy them on purpose. it’s the spring house brand frozen kind( i remember there is in singapore) so when shimin told me that it was, i told her to go ahead and cook it. red bean, sesame and peanut. yummmmmm. hahah. i likeee.

okeeokee. no more random crap. merry christmas to all and happy new year in case i’m too busy to blog!

oh wow. 1 whole month of no posts! i’m amazed myself, seriously. there has been so so much i wanted to share with everyone but haven’t found the opportunity to. time does pass very very quickly and i really do appreciate every single day, time and moment that i have here. there has been a fair share of ups and downs but regardless, i will remember. lots of photos to share as well, but will put them online when i get back i think. it uploads super slowly here. brief summary of the past month(19/11-21/12)

wednesday 19/11

i went with jells, candy, siewfong and siewfong’s colleague to do volunteer activity. it was both because our classes and program needed for us to do it and also because i really wanted to do some volunteer work. it’s called give kids the world and is for terminally ill children. they really don’t look their condition; they all look so happy and curious. if only life were fairer to them and let them live long and happy lives. in times like this, i am honestly grateful for all the healthy children in my life, even all the little crying brats i see all the time. i would like to do more volunteer work if possible. don’t get me wrong, i’m not trying to make myself sound very noble or anything, but i feel that it does help you open up your eyes and see things more clearly.

friday 21/11

I WATCHED TWILIGHT ON ITS PREMIERE. hahah. i seriously seriously love twilight. edward cullen is the man. oh wait… is THE vampire. watched with jells, candy, siewfong and poovanes. but sat separately cos we went quite late. didn’t get fantastic seats either. but the movie rocked. i didn’t read the book before hand even though jells lent me cos i didn’t have the time to. but after the movie i started to read it at psycho speed. haha. read the entire series by thanksgiving. still preferred twilight to the other three though.

quote by edward: ” you are exactly my brand of heroin.”

thursday 27/11

not something we really celebrate back home. here, how better to celebrate than to go for black friday sales? HAHAH. a colleague drove us to prime outlets to shop. woohoo. i love. but i was quite controlled i think. the main pt is quite.

monday 1/12

winter formal. one of those days i seriously regret not wearing something nice and attending properly. went there for the food while everyone were dressed to the nines and looking oh so good. bloody hell.

tuesday 9/12

my 19th birthday! wheee. a very different and memorable birthday. i went with jells to play at hollywood studios. i love hollywood studios; it’s a really fun place to be at. although i have no idea how working there would be, i do know that being a guest is fantastic! hahah. we had fun there in the morning, then checked into disney’s port orleans riverside resort in the afternoon.

let me tell you this: it is simply gorgeous.

granted, the facilities weren’t that of the grand floridian or coronado springs, but the surroundings were beautiful. it was the woodsy foresty type, very natural and wonderful. i adore it. we then went back to hollywood studios to watch fantasmic! the fireworks show. stunning and exciting. ended off with dinner at Trail’s End restuarant in Disney’s Fort Wilderness. it is relatively ulu, but the food was nice and hearty and we had excellent service. the server was super nice and friendly.

wednesday 10/12

my ‘graduation celebration’. we officially graduated from disney! hahah. the weather was still as fantastic as that of the previous day. several of my colleagues and i went to the picnic at mickey’s retreat near chatham square. then a colleague drove us(all chinese girls ! WOOHOO) to the asian market. and that is when i realised how much i do miss home. could have cried when i saw yeo’s. and  vitasoy and khong ghuan biscuits and apollo cakes. i will never ever take anything for granted anymore. crappy american food. i bought loads of stuff to share with everyone and drank bubble tea and ate charsiew. my chinese colleagues and i had a steamboat later. had loads of fun!

saturday 13/12

watched candlelight processional alone. it’s an epcot annual tradition to have a choir and orchestra, where they would sing and play while candles are lit. very christmasy and amazing. some poor choir girl fainted during the performance though; there was a rustle of commotion during the performance. was kinda obvious to us in the fron row.

wednesday 17/12

ate german food at biergarten restaurant in epcot with my colleague stephanie and a few of her schoolmates. i love the pretzel buns. haha. it was relatively good, although a bit too many meat dishes. one of stephanie’s schoolmates didn’t quite like it, although i think it was quite fine. went to buffalo’s party night as part of a farewell celebration for one of the coordinators at Sunshine seasons.

thursday 18/12

went florida mall again! this time with stephanie and her roommate. hahah. i bought a pretty abercombie sweater! and some other stuff. 

friday 19/12

jells cooke dinner for me. hahah. and we went to watch the movie “Australia” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. oh my god. Hugh Jackman is super duper hot and fit. hahah. and the storyline was interesting too. though parts were a bit unrealistic. hahah.

movie quote: “Just because it is, doesn’t mean that it should be.”

and that’s about all of my very busy month and very long post. it’s gonna be a busy few weeks before i go home. will try to blog if i can! everyone take care!

pretty many things happened since the last post. let’s see…

8/11 saturday

i got to help out with food and wine festival! it was the second last day of the event, so i was really glad i got the opportunity to be deployed there to help out. i was stationed at buenos aires, argentina’s kiosk. they have a highly popular grilled beef chimichurri and beef casserole and wines. i burnt my wrist by accident(not badly, just slightly). i spent the rest of that day opening a lot a lot of wines. but it was a great experience altogether. considering the fact that the estimated arrival at the park then was 40,000. x.x the festive feeling, especially at later in the evening is very memorable.

wed 12/11

i went to florida mall with my colleagues. i love florida mall cos there’s so much to see. though nothing much to buy cos everything is full priced there. i just loitered around there the whole day.

fri 14/11

my chinese colleagues and i went to this taiwanese uncle and auntie’s house. they are a couple i think in their sixties and they live in kissimmee(?) i think, which is about 30 plus miles from orlando. they work seasonal at our restaurant, which means they are here about once or twice a week. they live in a housing community which is absolutely gorgeous! they have a golf course, swimming pools and community centres. and their house is extremely lovely as well. and the best part, our nice and gracious hosts served us wonderfully authentic chinese food~ we loved it sooo much. the food and drink flowed, as well as conversation. and i think that day, i was never more thankful for the opportunities of life as well as the great people we get to meet. 

sat 15/11

someone pissed and upset the hell out of me today. not gonna elaborate too much here since it’s not really related to my experience here, but i might put it on my lj if i’m in the mood to.

sun to tues 16/11-18/11

just recovered from a slight stomach flu from sunday. it isn’t the usual full fledged kind i’m accustomed to, so i doubt i really can call it stomach flu. nonetheless, on sun night when i got home from work i was still fine. i showered and blah, was still fine. i sat down at 12 plus to watch tv and started feeling SUPER queasy. not not not a great feeling i assure you. i simply told shu ting who was also watching with me that i was gonna go to the toilet to puke. and so i did.

my dear dear housemates, namely shuting, eunice and shimin, were i think, very shocked that i was throwing up like a crazed psycho, but helped me nonetheless. although they did try to pour some weird drink down my throat which i think did help. i’m so much better now. was so worried it was going to be a stomach flu which was going to be terrible cos medicines are so expensive here. but i think it’s such a case of indigestion or acid reflux. so yeah. i’m good now. all thanks to my housemates too. i’m thankful for them tooo.

i haven’t updated in such a long time i feel so outdated! HAHAH. so this is gonna be a very long post. like. very very VERY long. we’ll use a backward chronological order starting from right now.

it’s 1207 hours in florida. i’m blogging plus watching E! news. i was washing dishes and cleaning kitchen this morning and will be cleaning the rest of the house in the afternoon cos i’m off and have no class today. maybe gonna go out but depends. yesterday off too. went epcot for food and wine tour with my mgr and colleagues. ROCKS. seriously. i got to try like 24 countries worth of food without having to even leave epcot. we had conversations with  the F&W coordinator and rounded off with a backstage tour with one of the sunshine seasons chef who went over to help for the food and wine festival. really fun, really enriching. i seriously enjoyed myself and i learnt lots. then at night i went to buffalo wild wings at crossroads with jells and candy, though i didn’t really eat much cos i was uber full.

wednesday i got to go home very early from work. HAHAHA. went to wal-mart to buy hairdryer( so annoying to have to wait for hair to dry. and it’s only like 8 bucks.) and some other essentials. then had dinner with jells at bennigans, which is super near vista way. tuesday i worked damn long hours. tired tired tired. which also explains why i agreed to go back early on wed. on tuesday, nov 4th 2008, a miracle also happened, senator barack obama became the president of the united states of america! i really do think it’s amazing, really does prove that US is ready for change. take a new step into the future.

then we rewind to last wed! woohoo~ i went to watch the first NBA game of my life at downtown orlando’s amway arena. fabulous fabulous. totally fantastic. wasn’t that terribly exciting. i can assure you that watching it on tv makes it look better cos it’s nearer and more upclose, but the atmosphere and ambience make up for EVERYTHING. the buzzing sounds and feel is infectious. i didn’t particularly support either orlando magic or atlanta hawks, but i enjoyed watching it. my friend was giving me info about who was playing what position and explaining what they were up to. got plenty of pictures, though they’ll take a while to be up.

further rewinding to oct 26, sunday. future world west halloween party. not quite really a party la. just a couple of hot dogs, treats and movie screening of super old movie, poltergeist by steven spielberg. not really that scary, kinda lame and funny at parts. hahahaha.

oct 24th, thurs. jells and i went to disney’s hollywood studios! my first time there and i totally loved it. the old world glamour of hollywood plus the modern touches from HSM/playhouse disney. we started with the great movie ride. it was as if you were sitting through and being part of all those old movies from the twenties all the way up to today. i loved the rock’n roller coaster starring aerosmith. the moment the ride took off, you could feel your hair blast back. OMG. totally fun. then tower of terror. the sudden drops(seven stories ?) had me scrambling to keep my bag on my lap but was superb tooo. then we watched the ariel show and beauty and the beast musical. romantic and sweet. very pixie dust invigorating.

after that we went to downtown disney, an area with lots of shops and eateries. we had sandwiches and watched High School Musical 3: Senior Year at amc pleasure island. i know i know. lame and weird of us to do something like that, but it was fun in a campy way. hahahah. i like the song ‘i want it all’. seriously. and zac efron does look better than i thought. hahah.

23rd oct, thursday. i went florida mall with my colleague, candice. the ride there was long and frustrating. but the mall itself was huge and had me going psycho. i didn’t buy much, just mac eyeliner and slippers. we both were supposed to go universal studios with our respective schoolmates but we went back late. we caught a ride with another colleague who was going instead. it was okay. that’s the only word i can think of. i was pissed cos the weather sucked. it was so rainy and cold and the queues were horrible. they winded so long backstage. x.x. the haunted houses were all rather similar too but i would say it was not too bad la.

that basically wraps up my exciting stuffs of past two weeks or so. 不知不觉we’ve been here a little more than two months! woohooooooo. i love being here. i’m bringing memories that i’ll never forget home. but but but. i still miss home and my family. and my friends. and normal food. hahah. take care everyone. pictures up asap.

aiyoh. haven’t updated for like two weeks! bet everyone’s waiting for the new adventures of emily. i’ve been busy. it’s not all busy and no play though. mostly eating adventures galore, i think i’ve been putting on weight ! :X everyone’s been complaining the same thing too. so it proves that really, you can become fat just coming to US. i’ve been trying to limit my snacking, but it’s almost impossible!!!  i’ll prolly try to lose weight when i get home la.

last week on my off days we went quite a few places, firstly, golden corral buffet. nice and affordable, very family restaurant-ish feeling. i like it. i think my brother would probably wipe out the place. then we went orlando premium outlet mall and prime mall. yay. i bought boots, armani xchange shorts, fcuk and aeropostale tshirts, forever 21 top and rue21 brown pants. must indulge once in a while~ and i dont really spend much. serious.

then yesterday jells and i went to crossroads to eat and play. not terribly far from vista either. we went to TGI Friday which is oddly reminiscent of cafe cartel/new york new york. food pretty nice too. the entire area is very east coast-ish, especially now at the big splash area, which has the boardwalk feel. i made my usual pilgrimage to wal-mart yesterday too. topped up more daily essentials.

at my apt, we’ve also gotten a new telly, though i’m not around most of the days to watch it. i do watch sometimes at night. lots of channels was watching an old season of america’s next top model. and that ‘i wanna be paris hilton’s BFF’ show. omg la. why in the world do such shows exist.

hmmm. what else what else ?

oh. the plenty assignments that we chionged the recent few days. i’ve been really uber long hours this week, which basically leaves me with not much time to do my assignments. so no choice but to rush them. tiring. at least it’s over. on the other hand, that means work again tmr. sighs. dont take it wrongly, i don’t dislike my job. i’ve been gradually getting to like it. but once in a while, you’ll have the ” walao, i’m doing manual labour sia” feeling. not great feeling i assure you. i still like disney though. and i love epcot more and more. it’s superb place to be. i love walking through the park every day, no matter the time. there’s a  nice comfy buzz to it which i love. anyway, my next two weeks will be lesser shifts too i think, so have opportunity to rest then.

and i’m gg watch NBA on 29/10 ! hahah. i managed to get day off~ atlanta hawks vs orlando magic. pretty excited. was supposed to go with jells, then she couldn’t get day off. but then i found out that my colleague was coincidentally going so i’ll be going with them. hahah.

on a random note, i got my social security no.

i’m watching GTO with jells now, so ta ta everyone. i’ll try to update again soon! missing everyone. everyone take care.

omg. almost lost this post a moment ago cos my battery died. lucky sia. hee.

hihi everyone. a bit slow i know, but here are some recent adventures in orlando. hahah. after class on friday, jells and i went to eat japanese food. typical typical behaviour for two of us honestly. here in the US of A, jap food becomes rarer and weirder. we went to Tokyo Dining (i think that’s the store’s name.i think) near Publix supermarket cos we’ve noticed it for quite a while and wanted to try. so it was sushi versus subway (also nearby) and sushi won cos i haven’t had it in a while.

i was originally quite sceptical but curious on what in the world they would serve us. honestly, here, oriental/asian food is bizarre and sometimes downright scary. just like what citrus garden (a chinese restaurant also nearby publix) offers, MOO GOO GAI PAN. i was like… !? what in the world is that ? i read the caption below. mushroom and chicken or something like that. only then i realized. 蘑菇鸡片. jells and i were laughing so hard. and i remember i saw at wal-mart what huijoo once asked us to look out for. the general tso’s chicken thing. really really weirdo asian food. anyway, i digress. Tokyo Dining was actually not bad. i mean, it’s one of those places that i would probably never ever go to again if i were back home but here, i think it can be almost considered a blessing !

i had japanese chicken fried rice, jells had jap chicken curry rice. then we had california maki and chicken teriyaki maki (sounds weird, i know) and gyoza. jells also had an an unagi (eel) nigiri sushi and green tea. the green tea ended up being cold green tea. jells was like… never mind. my fried rice was pretty good i think, though not very japanese, more like chinese style. jell’s curry turned out to be chicken pieces with like ALOT of veg in a bit of curry sauce. kinda disappointing she says. gyoza was rather nice, sushi was okay only. i miss sushi tei ! haha. jells says we should go to my old workplace to eat when we get back. i wholeheartedly agree.

sat till today( wed morning for me) i worked. i think i’m starting to accept and tolerate my job, starting to get along with my colleagues too. i started on cash registers on sun and mon, had assessment yesterday. i passed! hahah. it was difficult okay. from operating procedures to theory questions like who are our managers and president of epcot were asked. my colleague and i (we took the assessment together because we came in at the same time) did pretty okay i think.

cash registers. the old familiar marche-vila’ge feeling came surging back. i remember the months before i left i was full shift cashier every weekend that i was so bored of cashiering, of having to count float, of having to fill cash and credit forms for end of the day. those were the days. HAHAH. well. funny how the past can be, isn’t it.

oh. and monday jells and i tried to be less boring and we went to chatham square, a neighbouring housing estate to ours, also for college program to watch the mary poppins movie organized by the housing program people. err. we didn’t really go there for the movie, more for the food i guess. pretty cupcakes with too much frosting ( i didn’t eat the frosting, just the cupcake. hahah) and popcorn. but it was fun i guess. i realize that coming here, not only work and study should occupy all my time, but play too.

i guess, i’m appreciating life here a lot better. and i hope it does get better onlyyy. HAHHA. i still miss everyone though. hope everyone’s well, esp my beloved family back home and my darling friends who are busy with uni and itp! everyone jia youuuuuuuu. HAHAHAH.

i’m addicted to bagels. gosh. seriously. yesterday i went for my Disney Experential Learning class, which looks interesting but with plenty of assignments(SIGH). after that i went wal-mart. unfortunately alone because my other housemates ended class later. i wandered around and at the end of it, bought bagels among other stuff. i met the rest of them there, but i went back early. so i had a bagel in a bag, for the first real time in my life.

it rocked.

i never thought bread could taste so WOAH. i am an absolute carbohydrate lover, which is basically a super unhealthy thing. and i really do adore bread and flour based products. the bagel was even nicer than i thought.  it was soft, dense and chewy. salivates. i don’t know why the extreme reaction to it, i mean, i had some before at starbucks. but they were crispyish after being toasted and didn’t taste really anything like what i had yesterday. the thomas kind of bagels in the bag tastes like soft pretzels actually. the plain auntie anne kind. 

so now, j’adore bagels. HAHAH.

anyway, back to the main topic. we had class yesterday, i have class again today. plus some powerhour outlook calendar that we have to take as an activity before that. it totally sounds boring and unproductive but i have no choice. all the nicer classes ones were snapped up. i’m supposed to be cleaning house today as well so i doubt i can go to downtown disney with the rest. but i think it’s okay ba. it’s a bit tiring having to go from one place to another to another plus my stuff is kinda messy too. so i shall not waste my beloved off day.

well. as usual, everyone take care. and have a bagel while you’re at it.

been pretty busy recently with work so sorry i haven’t updated in a while. hmm. so what’s up ? actually really nothing much. have no idea what to say either. just that i’m still alive and well and everyone take care. i’ll update when there’ssomething interesting up. got no work today but have lessons. sigh. two days of off but both with class. boringggg.

yesterday jells, shimin and i went to epcot, also better known as emily territory. hahah. i did have fun actually. amazing how one place is different when you’re a guest versus you’re a staff member. but then again, i don’t work at the world showcase.

anyway, i digress. yesterday i had off, we went epcot and we walked round the world showcase. i’ve not really been there all this time i’ve worked at epcot(which is a grand total of abt two weeks). that’s one reason, second reason would be because the girls wanted to see the cute french and italian guys who work at the pavilions. hahahah. i see them pretty often on the bus, so not that much surprise to me.

canada was gorgeous, we went into this circle 3D vision film thing that showcased it wonderful natural splendour. it’s wayyyy beautiful. i’d like to go there given a chance. at france we ate napolean. err. not literally, but a pastry named napolean. we shared it  and it was nice. sweet but not cloyingly so. i can’t wait to try the rest of the other french and italian desserts. at the italian pavilion they have tiramisu i think. i love tiramisu.

morocco pavilion we saw princess jasmine, aladdin and the genie and at germany, snow white. they’re gonna have an oktoberfest celebration there soon. oktoberfest is an annual racuous beer drinking and feasting celebration, it originated many many years ago as part of some royal wedding. it’s too bad US laws don’t allow under 21s to drink.

at the UK pavilion we saw some typical english pubs, so adorable and nice. we also saw a band preformance by british invasion, a british band reminiscent of the beatles.

at the chinese pavilion i actually saw things that are familiar, things that i used to think were pretty gaudy and can be only found in chinatown souvenir shops. hahah. but there i bought pineapple pastry. like the ones you can find in taiwan. i loved those when my parents brought those and sun biscuits back from their taiwan trip. and we saw restaurants( with bloody typical cheena names like nine dragons restaurant and lotus blossom cafe -.-) which we decided to try another time. hopefully the food would be authentic and not the crap that they pass off as chinese food over here.

at the japanese pavilion i was transported into mitsukoshi, one of japan’s largest departmental stores. there’s lots of japanese stuff, from kimonos to fans to jewellery to snacks(hahah, my beloved meiji hello panda!) and chopsticks. i didnt buy the snacks because they were much toooooo ex! as compared to back home la. but i couldn’t resist and bought a pair of gorgeous black lacquer wood chopsticks. bit stupid i know, but they’re really pretty and not exactly very expensive or anything so i just bought.

we didnt really walk much of the rest because we were to eat dinner with candy so we went back earlier. we’re gonna go see fireworks next time. i love fireworks. they’re so beautiful and literally illuminate your heart. but pity it’s so shortlived.

well. anyway. after dinner we went back, i showered and shimin plucked my eyebrows. HAHAH. painful sia. but she said the extra extra ones looked irritating and she attempted to tweeze them to my death. hahah. so concluded my friday off. today i’m off again and i’m going wal-mart with jells again. probably not buying much just some extra stuff for home. more veggies!

whee. mummy! i know what you can send to me!  can ship veggies! i want chye sim and xiao bai cai and chang bai cai and shanghai mian and chili sauce. ahhahaahahah. joking joking. they’ll all probably rot by the time they reach. eunice sent something over here by ship before she left and it still hasn’t arrived. she said it’ll take like 6 to 8 weeks.

oh me oh my. anyway, everyone take care, update again soon.