[[*---Branched Over Me---*]]

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

CP Frenz!

Today's post will focus on the international frenz i've made @ Cedar Point. the international employees there come from all over the world, Poland, Slovakia, Thailand, Lithuania, Taiwan, Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, Germany, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Ecuador, Columbia, US, France and many many others.....

from left: me, damon, scott, chris (all 3 usa), fikri (turkey), edward(usa), Michal, Magda (poland), vaida (lithuania), vladimir (slovakia) and anothony (usa)

work sux, but they've made it more bearable..... it was great as i got to know alot of things from them, their country, culture, language, food etc.....

the funny part is the language.....u know, u'll juz tend to get ppl to teach u some word in their language. and of course, the most popular words to learn besides basic greetings is.....Vulgarities!

i remember vaguely i've learnt how to say 'lick my balls' in polish. it sounds like this 'she-me-ya-ya' ok dun ask me why i learn it since i dun have any balls...but it juz happens that the guys had these words flying across the kitchen alot of time.....i also know 'fuck off' or 'fuck you' in turkish.... it sounds like this 'see-tree-geet'.... i remember getting vlado to teach me say jerk/bastard in slovak it goes like this 'yeah-ber-nu-ti-deh-be-yo' and bitch is 'sprosta krava'... okok i shud say that i've made up the spelling, but they sound like that.....

this is taken at our big bash, its a cool las vegas theme bash.....

they are the people whom i knew i'd miss when i leave cp...... i remember the guys are quite helpful.... some of them would not let the gers do heavy work like carrying ice....thy'll offer their help when u need them....then there'll be girls chat when its not crowded.... this especially so when i was at fountain custard, selling frozen custard. its fun sometimes when there're only two or three of u there and u'll juz start talking and talking..... remember talking to anna from poland at FC and being constantly in a conservative envt, i was wowed by how open-minded she is and even more amazed that i was engaging in a conversation like that with her..... see the cultural differences! she was telling me abt her sex life and how her bf is good in bed and this quickie she had during their lunch break....haha....

the girl in blue is from kazakhstan.....man, she has beautiful features like that of the girl from final fantasy..... asian facial features with light colour hair and eyes.... at this point of time i can;t really remember what color is her eyes..... but heck!

magda and i

this is a candid shot.....were getting ready for a pix when vlado tickled me from behind..... shucks, scott has this super ugly pix of mine that has my face distorted with fear and shock..... i dun remember even taking that pix and was surprised when he showed me the pix.... i felt the urge to tear that pix into a million pieces....

i started talking to vaida alot more after michelle left.... we seemed to face to the same problem on ldr....at that time she did not want to start a relationship with chris, the black american, who's also my best american friend there... cos its like being happy for one month and then when u separate u'd be sad for an even longer time.... then fikri and i were together liao and we kept encouraging her to just give the r/s a try.... which in the end, she did... okok, now i really get what she meant abt being unhappy for a longer time.... they said they'll visit singapore together next yr....well, i'm certainly waiting though not bearing too much hope that they'll really be here then.... (damn, my face seems to be 1.5 the size of hers.....its really not that big ok....and look at the skin color contrast...hehe....)

here's damon. he works at the warehouse and not at Hot Potato.... he liked me before but there was just no chemistry..... ok he's a sweet guy whom, like i've said to some people before, will be really nice to his girl.... he took on a long queue and got me a frozen custard without me knowing and even after i was with fikri, he'd call a couple of times to bid me farewell before i leave cp.... i hope he gets a great gal he likes soon....

here's vlado and me.... vlado the foul-mouth.... haha...that's what i told him in the farewell card i gave him..... he's funny and nice.... and why foul-mouth? he;s always complaining how stupid americans are haha.... always have something to voice out...like his country's govt and stuff..... but it was fun having him around, especially towards the end when the other singaporeans leave.... i'd go slovakia one day in one sept and harvest grapes and make my own wine....haha......his family has a little vineyard, which is common in slovakia.... its funny how he refused to write anything on my little contact notebook cos he said we'll keep in contact, so there's no need to write those farewell stuff.... but then till today, i haven emailed him...oops... ok, soon i will....

this is kyle, my supervisor..... first thing u notice abt him is that he's cute good-looking right? haha.... yah....quite.... he's only 17 this yr...that's like 5 yrs younger than me..... life seems to be pretty rosy for him, coming from a well-to-do family (his dad is a lawyer and i hear from angela he stays in one of the very nice houses by lake erie....) and his gonna become a doctor in the future.... too bad, he's a little snobbish and has low EQ hahaha....maybe its cos he's still young....

i think anthony looks like ashton kutcher. sometimes when i see him, and can't instantly remember his name, i'll call him ashton, the words juz came out of my mouth easily... he's briefly with the kazakh gal for maybe one wk plus?

Leslie! haha....my 'secret admirer'.... a mild and well-mannered guy.... used to work at hot for a while before mr potato open for the season.... still keeping in contact with him.... seeya soon, me banser!

a glimpse of my work place, Hot Potato....

gals in uniform....these pix are taken towards the end of my contract and by then many ppl have left liao.....

he's daniel, from ecuador.....he looks more asian...cos he's quite fair for a south american..... i'd have thought he's from some asian country like thailand or what....

michal, from poland......oh he's a true gentleman.... he's the one always offering to take over heavy task like carrying ice, carrying postmix syrup, trash, aquafina... 'come, i will do it..' polish are hardworking....so are slovaks.... damn hardworking..... always looking for something to do and always wanting to clock more hours...

this is the timesheet i have to sign every day...... see 'teng teng lim'? that's me!

philip, jumbo fat ass....hahaha.....this 17 yr old boy always get bullied.... even though he's one of the more experienced ard.....its his 3rd season there....

gulmira from kazakhstan.... man, remember one of my last modules i took in uni was global marketing strategy (GMS) and we actually covered quite a bit on kazakh and my group even did a project research on it.... having known quite a little on kazakh already, i was thrilled to see someone from the country.... i wonder when and how on earth would i have met a kazakh if not for this program....

here's thailand representative...haha....he has an interesting name.... Bright. the singaporeans are quite close to the thais...all asians what.... then the singaporeans and thais both guys and gals share apartments as well, that's why we always get chances to eat great delicious thai food. did i mention the thais brought alot of food from thailand? like chili pastes and spices.... and their cooking is good, even though most are rich kids who probably dun have to do their own cooking back home.....

chris, my best american friend! he's very different from most other blacks i've seen.... not that i wanna say something stereotypical but most blacks i know are loud and rowdy..... but this guy is different.... he's more mild mannered and well-behaved...... there were once he took me to his hometown, toledo, a neighbouring city. ok that day was my off day, was initially supposed to be having off day with fikri and thought we could go out on a date or what (we were not together then) but ended up he couldn't change his off day so in the end, i decided to go to the CP beach alone...... i knew that chris had the same off day as me as when i was at CP before going to the beach, i gave him a call..... he was going to toledo to settle his matriculation. he asked if i wanted to go and i was like oh sure, why not? i have no specific plans anyway.....

so we drove one hr to toledo....i was thrilled at the thought of going to toledo, cos the last time i was there, it was a shopping spree hehehe..... however we din go shopping...he had proper business to do..... we went to his new college, owens community college to matriculate, spent a hot afternoon in the ulu place. the good thing abt this trip is that i had a chance to visit an american family for the first time!!!!! his house is in this humble black neighbourhood. besides his own house, i also visited his uncle's house which has a white and cosy theme.... ohh....i love his house.... then we went to his father's workplace, which is a garage and his auntie's cookie shop which is juz around the corner...... we went to his high school too...... think its a simple but fruitful day cos i've done something that i had always wanted to do for the trip.....visit an american family!......i probably won't feel as safe as i was if i were with other blacks (maybe also safe with damon and leslie)....

Jake from finland..... jake was my neighbour at bayside apartment. the guys apartment is juz oppsosite the girls' thus we're pretty close....the first time i got to know jake was that he's 'finnish who finished chee wah's laptop' hahahahaha.....rhymes huh.... apparently when jake first got to cp, he borrowed chee wah's laptop to install something....then somehow the laptop crashed! thus the phrase.... Jake has a wierd allergy. the most absurd/inconvenient allergy i've ever known. he is allergic to wheat products and other cereal stuff. therefore he is unable to eat alot of things.... bread, noodles, pizza, pasta, most sauces etc.... and hey, aren't most of these food americans' staple? so poor him often had to make and pack his own lunch to work.... and when we cook, he can't eat all the dishes since we tend to use oyster sauce that contains wheat flour.....

one fond memory i have is when the two of us drove slightly more than two hrs to a factory outlet to shop. well.....actually according to friends who've been there before the journey only takes like one and a half hours..... so why did we take 2 hrs? haha.... cos i was the navigator! first time as a navigator and i knew even before that that i suck at navigating! often times its only after we've passed certain exits then i realise we shud have exited the highway.....heehee.....but still we got to our destination lah.... then on our way back, i fell asleep half way back and he managed to get us back to sandusky.....oh man..... i felt so sorry..... during our journey he blasted the stereo and we sang along our way.... got to listen to songs from finnish bands too!

another group of close frenz the singaporean had were the taiwanese... same reason, we're all asians and more importantly, we speak mandarin.. which i suppose, was pretty important to the taiwanese. we've made good frenz and the fact that singaporeans always watch taiwanese shows made us feel even more related.... all singaporeans would have to stopover at taiwan thus most of us actually planned to travel in taiwan. thus these taiwanese became our guides, giving us their suggested itinerary and suggestions on where to go and the best places to go for certain food and fun....

the ladies above are ray (rui yu) and yi chen...... they're the closest tw frenz i have amongst all others.... both are really nice people. ray is pretty straight forward and has a frank personality and yi chen is this kind hearted gal who's considerate and great to talk with..... she works at a pretzel place and never fail to deliver pretzels for ppl who asked for it...... her pretzels are the best in cp!

This is taken on mich and meverly's farewell party....

i think i'm pretty fortunate to be able to meet so many ppl.... they are one of the main reasons why i would say i will never regret my trip there.....

wow....this is a long post....of course there are many others whom i have omitted but there are juz too many ppl to cover..... i might continue another day, i might not.... see first... i've got my travelling adventures to cover too.....haha.....

i started writing since 1 plus in the afternoon and now its 1 plus in the morning.... its bed time.... tata!

gera!

[[ Hit by a fallen branch ]]*|1:57 pm|

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