sorry i'll get back to posting stuff again soon.
but did i mention that i've finished work already?!
we're in florida disney world now:):):):)
photos and posts coming soon!

 
that's tops alone. oh no!

heyhey sorry i havent blogged in ages!
i shall flood this post. so your com's prob going to lag if you want to read this post:)

26 june thursday

we had the day off, 
so we decided to bleed dry the only shopping centre in richmond that we had not shopped at.
according to repliable sources, we could take bus 1 or 2 to regency square.
turns out 1 was wrong. and we took it!
so we were stranded at a very sunny and shadeless bus stop


  

when we reached i just shopped and shopped.


and then we took the RIGHT bus back

regency square was ok only. i could have finished walking it in an hour:)


we cooked pasta:):)

then went for buffalo wings with emily!


28 june saturday

we drove to washington!


  

we took the metro!


  




the trains look similar to our MRTs - just very much less crowded

their museums are all located around the same area
i would say washington's rather touristy
but i'm happy to be anywhere without pools to guard.




we went to the national museum of natural history first.
it was a mistake to go on a weekend and fight with more tourists like ourselves.

they had lots of fossil and bone and animal stuff.
you know vanessa's not that into such stuff:)
skip!



  
that's daryl and dael embarrassing us in front of so many tourists and bones.
and that's how bored we were.



next stop was the air and space museum.
i think the boys liked this one but it's a pity we didnt have much time.




at 630, we joined a free dc by foot tour.

the guy in light blue is brody. he was goooooooooooood.
his storiies were probably the highlight of the day!

we saw the washington memorial...
  

...the WWII memorial





if i didnt rmb wrongly, each gold star on this wall represents 1000 soldiers who died during the war

...the vietnam war memorial

this memorial was gorgeous. 
the designer had all the names of soldiers who died/went missing inscribed on the long black wall.



...the reflection pool(cant rmb the exact name)


...lincoln memorial.. which was croooooooooowded




  

then we just sat on the steps overlooking the reflecting pool and the washington monument.
we're so blessed to be able to travel out like this. it's been one super duper summer:)


29 june sunday

we were blessed with breakfast!
i dont know why or how we got coupons, but i was smiling throughout the whole meal:):)



we had make-it-yourself waffles!


grumpy-default-face-dael

after that, daryl and i rushed off to meet the rest of the group at the stadium

i dont know how well the teams played.
all i know was that beckham was playing:):):)
and that the atmosphere was A W E S O M E




these guys just returned from a long drive back from florida.









we met up with dael again at the spy museum.
too bad we couldnt take photos in there cos it was fun!
we joined a tour where we actually pretended to be spies!
we followed a plot and did stuff like uncoding, spying with surveilance, rummaging the office...
FUN!




we had dinner with the girls at chinatown
and the last stop was walmart again:)

30 june monday

the sharks drove up to shawn's cabin for his birthday party!

that's chris on the left:) he's really friendly!


this is funny funny wei jean


josh, who's nonsensical


shawn's cabin was beautiful. it was overlooking the sea.





  


that's shawn the birthday boy.

ok i'm super duper tired. i'll fill you all in again soon:)

i just got back from work but the showers are all occupied, so i shall blog.
haha but i'm so tired now, so captions will be minimal.

off day no 2 (thursday)
we woke up early to have breakfast

  

as usual, i slept all the way to VA beach:)
and we stopped by the nice visitor centre for photos.




  
wang zheng joined us today. he looks like hiro nakamura. haha

we had lunch at Big Sam's.




  
food was good. the only downside was that we had to gobble everything down in 10min to rush back and catch the boat.
i miss calamari. haha


we joined a group trip to go deep sea fishing.





we each got rods and bait.


  

  



  



  




wangzheng got to keep his fish.
the rest that were too small had to be thrown back into the sea.




that jellyfish thing is the only thing i caught CAUGHT
fishes dont like me. haha

  

we reached the beach at around 6, then we walked the streets.
  
VA beach feels like a happy holiday place, but i think their shops were crappy.

we settled for mexican food!


  


my fajita





then we walked the beach. it was coooooooold.


  







we found the lifeguard's seat and we had to try it.
i think it's terribly hard to be a beach guard.
the water's so vast.
there's no 10min wave cycle, no Estop, no 5333. B.A.D.
  

  


it was really late by the time we got back.
but i had a lot of fun sleeping in the car, not catching any fish and freezing at the beach.
cant wait for my next off!

little miss pink is old and retired.
but she's served me well and i'm proud of her:):)

 ahhah i only post about my day-offs cos that's where most photos come from.
last night(tuesday), we met emily(one of the locals) on our way back from work
she invited us out for buffalo wings, and of course we agreed!

we reached there and i couldnt get in cos i had no ID
so we went looking for steak.

we settled on TGIF cos emily used to work there and it was one of the few places still opened

i was very happy with my food. i was happy to go out!

it was really cool to see what the young pple here do at night.
it's impossible to go anywhere without a car. haha

today(wednesday) we went to shenendoah national park and luray caverns
it was a long drive up,
but i slept most of the way, so i cant complain:):)


  

on our way we stopped over at a visitor centre

and we couldnt stop gushing about how much we loved the view and the weather

  



the national park had a lot of overlooks.
the view was WOW.


  

  



we rushed to join the halkview tour group at 2


  
that's Mara our ranger guide. she knows everything about the forest. EVERYTHING.


the hike was about 2h long. but it was very interesting.


witch-hat something. mara explained about them but i cant really rmb the details now.

  




this deer was the only animal we saw on the way up.

then we reached the summit
  









after that we drove over to luray caverns



these caves were formed millions of years ago. stalagtites and stalagmites.


ok i'm pretty sure someone has better photos, we just havent consolidated them.
we were laughing at the guide's funny script and how it looked like pangsai kingdom.
it was just funny all the way. we paid money to go in and laugh.


and you're not allowed to touch any of the formations in the cavern.
apparently there are laws and you can get sued for it.
i'm not touching, just pointing:)



the day ended with walmart.
we ALWAYS visit walmart when we go out. haha
and there was a lovely triple rainbow

can you see it?

ok tmr we're going to VA beach to fish!
i'll reupdate this post again when i get more photos.
lovelove:):)

if 1h of sun=30 days of aging,
my skin is probably about 10 years older

 for all my lovely pple at home

this is the ride that i guard:)

 there was employee field day today
it was kinda fun cos everyone was so relaxed.
matt was BBQing burgers and hotdogs.
they had random games like 3legged race.
i was kinda taken aback becos the angmohs were so enthu about the games. fun!




  

  

  


nick in the icecream machine

photos with our supervisors

matt's smiley face


kyle


hilary


laura


nick






that's a failed attempt to take a pic of the pitch black themepark.
i dont think we'll ever get to run thru the dark park again:)


we were in the bus taking photos of the lightstick that daryl won from the sack race.


ugly photo in the bus

anw, my friend shimin is sick.
please pray for her.
she had a wound on her foot that got infected and today she ran a temperature.
the kd pple called an ambulance that cost her $450!
she's back from the hospital now but still very sick.
now we'll be her mother, father and family cos she's sick overseas. poor her.
please pray for healing and a speedy recovery.
pray that she'll stop throwing up her antibiotics.
thanks:):):)

i had off today and it was a lot of fun!
this is how every offday should be:):):)


both daryl and i had off today, so he drove!


we drove the five guys' 8seater. nice air-con:):)



  
noisy GPS. noisy and outdated.

ok we got lost looking for wachovia, then daryl forgot his license and we gave minrui and gang a lift.
after that we started the fun day proper. yay!

we went to the civil war memorial

  
thank God the exhibits were indoors and in aircon


daryl was very fascinated. wahahha




we tried the uniforms that've prob been worn by hundreds of visitors.
for the fun of it:)


just posing outside the museum before going for lunch. i was starving!



we drove over to park at the holocast museum before looking for lunch.
they had BEAUTIFUL flowers at their carpark. AT THE CARPARK!




  

we found this prayer room thing. they have worship all day and anyone can come in and pray.
cool!



i thot it was so cool to be able to drop-by during lunch.

then we found a diner
  



and we ordered garbage


  
garbage before and after. we tried our best!

i think the holocaust museum was very very good.
we had audio sets to listen to, and we walked around for about 3h.
it was very very very interesting:):)
it was mainly about the testimony of a survivor called jay








  

  
it was fun cos we had to crawl through small doors and see the farm that jay's family seeked refuge in.


jay's family hid underground. and we crawled down the tunnel to see them.





  




we stepped on the nazi flag.

  



  
i love love loved the holocaust museum.
i recommended it to everyone else on my floor. good place.

our last spot was shortpump!



they sell guns for hunting in the sports shop!


this wonderful christian shop's called c28. they prayed for us when we left.




starbucks!

we had dinner at cheescake factory which was ABSOLUTELY good
ambience was good,
service was good,
bread was good,
mains were good,
dessert was good,
everything was good,
and i was feeling soooooooo good:)


  



we went to walmart last before GPS brought us back to hall:):)


i had a lot of fun today. thanks daryl!

i found this random photo from last week


with five guys at five guys
i love five guys

hello everyone!
missed me? haha
sorry i've been working so there wasnt much to blog about

but we had our off-day on thursday!
we went to williamsburg burg burg
which is an outlet mall mall mall
and we shopped shopped shopped
the entire day day day

photo credits to daryl. thankyou! i was too lazy to use my xiaomantou camera

7 of us rented a 7seater. i'm pretty sure someone has a decent photo of the car.
to be updated again soon.


and the guys took turns driving. that's xianjie driver no.1


that's winnie and sirong



  
minrui's arm and daryl with bad lighting (dael in the front seat)


sunny shoppers paradise







then the boys and i were hungry so we went to grab a bite




then we started shopping:):)


  


i honestly didnt buy much:) those bags arent mine

after that we went to another walmart.
and i had my first macs of the trip:)




  



on friday morning, we decided to visit belle isle before work.
i must have been crazy to agree to meet at 6am
but i think belle isle was totally worth the 2h of beauty sleep.
it's just one of those places that calms you immediately.
we did a bit of QT there before driving back.




  





at work, we had lots of drama today (friday).
first there was a code S on pipeline(means SNAKE!)
then there was my whole dramatic episode.
i think i've probably repeated the story at least 7 times.
but just for the sake of blogging and for when i need to repeat 8,9,10 times,
i shall share the story here too:)

well i was doing 77dispatch (basically i was at the peak point of my ride).
i notice a young lady sitting on the floor and i ask her friend what happened.
turns out she's giddy and she cant quite see properly.
i put up my 5 fingers and ask her to count how many there were.
FOUR.
bad.
i call 5333 (which is the emergency number)
kyle comes up followed by the EMT (aka medical person).
everything seems under control, until...
the EMT collapses! 
she had an asthma attack and goes unconscious.
the pple in blue short start taking out the oxygen tanks and doing artificial respiration.
but dang the oxygen tank the EMT was carrying's faulty.
matt comes up with the other bag and tank.
then the original guest in distress lies down too
she's totally delirious and laughing to herself.
by this time, the whole 77d deck is filled with big shots and medical staff.
vanessa's just stressed and utterly helpless.
kyle and lisa ask me to just stand around.
but there were 2 pple lying there ON MY SHIFT!
hmmm prob the best thing i could do was just stand there:(
bleh after abt 15min the EMT regains consciousness and she's inhaling something
she's numb all over and you can see it from the way her eyes and hands are twitching.
somewhere along the way someone brings up a really cool wheelchair.
they carry both girls down and send them off in ambulances.
the worst part's prob when they reopen the lines and pple swarmed up.
i was so shaken i couldnt even instruct properly.
thank God the rotation came about 15min later.
end of story

daryl also had a bad day with his rescue and all.
i hope the summer guests will be nicer to us!
stop collapsing and having emergencies in our waters.
we'll panic k.
dont do stupid things in our park. go to some other place to do it.

after work we treated ourselves to some well deserved chinese food:)

we had HAIL!
vanessa's first natural disaster:):)
everyone was running for shelter when the ice started coming down
but i think we were prob the only jokers who were happy to see hailstones.
whahahhahaha

hello i'm bored, so i'm posting photos of us when we were bored.
haha this was today when the bus that picked us up from work broke down.
  

  

   

   

  

i love these people.
they make me smile even when i'm tired and hungry and grumpy

we had vietnamese food the other day
    

   

    

    

i miss rice:(

hello honeys!
i did my first rescue today! yay yay yay!
ok i'm not sure why i'm feeling high abt it but yay!

basically i was guarding at zone 3 of tidal wave pool.
then chris cam to rotate me and i pointed out this boy who was struggling.
chris followed the usual rotation procedure and went to check bottoms.

chris: i think you'd better go down, he's calling for help.
me: must i? are you sure he needs help?
chris: he's saying HELP HELP
me: okaaaaaaaay i'll go in [reluctant]

i peeeeeeeeeeeep my whistle,
walk over to the boy
and compact jump in (without even checking if there was anyone below).
the dumbest thing i did was ask the boy to swim to my tube.
wahahha i pushed him to shore then his dad came.
nick and melissa came to record too.
that's it for my first rescue. yay yay

matt said there'll be at least 1 rescue per day this whole summer.
yay that i successfully did one:):)

wahaha no photos for all this. sorry
oh oh and i found some christian friends in my sharks team
we're going to try to have fellowship tonight. wahah
i'm praying for all of you at home:):)

 we started work today.
i think it was quite fun!
oh well, i prob got happy seeing how happy the visitors were.
i was high then, but now i'm tiiiiirrrrrreeeeeed.
i've got no off day next week. madness! )))):

muahaha i'm going to spam another blog post.
when i start working tmr onwards, i doubt i'll have time to blog,
so i'd better do more now:):)

anw, after doing mundane cleaning on tue and thur
we managed to convince nick that we should have off today(friday!)
so we mapped out our route and met at 10.

waiting for the GRTC bus to cary street:)



we reached carytown.
carytown's quite cute. they've got lots of unique little shops.

the first shop we stopped at had lots of accessories and funny stuff from all over the world.


    



    

then i saw this outside some small church

YES YES!

the second shop was my fav shop. absolutely cute.




the deco inside is sooooooo nice. 
nice isnt even a good enough word to describe how nice it is.


    

    





    

the cookie shop. yes, those are cookies:)




beautiful bead shop
    

and the christmas shop that sells christmas things all year round


then we had buffet lunch at this indian restaurant.
the boss there said that he moved from india 20 years ago. that's how old i am!




 







after that we went to play pac man in the tee shop






then we went to the CHOCOLATE SHOP




    


CHOCOLATE BLACKBERRY

    

    
all their chocs were in jars


jellybean dispenser

we bought these


finally visited a thrift shop. yays!


other sightings in carytown
   




the first macs i've seen around


i didnt see tom cruise around

after carytown, our group of five got lost and separated from the group.
thankfully somehow we found our way to maymont park.
















after that we went to the animal side.
we thot that it was rather disappointing cos we didnt get to actually see baby animals.
and animals still smell as bad here.
i'm so not an animal lover.


















then the japanese gardens




    







and lastly the italian gardens








by the time we left the park,
we were SOOOOOOO tired.
walking back to the dorm would be at least another hour.
thankfully, we managed to ask around and we found a bus back.

i've never been happier to see a bus:):)

that's it for today.
tmr the waterpark is opening for REAL.
i'm pretty scared cos i feel like we still dont know a lot of things.
hopefully i wont get a VAT on my first day.
i pray pray pray that it'll be fun cos work ends at midnight tmr):
tata! enjoying me chocs now!


dont you think he looks like bae yong jun?