Day 3, and left overs of Day 2

Day 3

Highlight for today- Stool sample! Getting the cup filled up wasn’t fun nor a sight, but it had to be done. Anyhow, Verena, Ute, Steffi and I took a cab to the “Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control” Headquarters, which was actually a block or two from where everyone else was doing the health examinations. So, after a good 20-30 minute wait for everyone else to arrive, we approached the guard house to ask for directions and a nice dude walked us to the examination hall where we had our (on sequence): 1. Photo taken, 2. X-ray, 3. Stool Check (they stuck sticks up for some of us), 4. Heart, Lung and “feeling around” check, and lastly 5. Blood testing. After all that, we went to the HoS for the general briefing (after collecting our uniforms!). Filippa briefed us on upcoming events, the general rules and she set the boundaries for the new work culture. We had a short tour and followed by lunch. Around 13pm, we had our briefings in our respective departments. Sebastian, Ute and I are all in the Public Restaurant (THE restaurant) where it seems we would be running the busiest and most complex part of the gastronomic department. However, the team seems to be a great mix and we seem to get along already! Later, the three of us were called to help out in the kitchen, where I remembered why I never want to be in the kitchen- the work culture doesn’t suit me. After a full late noon making chocolate sweets, mis-en-place, and cleaning up other people’s mess, I sneaked out with Sebastian to get some Pizza hut for dinner over some Hotel Babylon. And half way through dinner, Steff came to our apartment to steal my Pizza Hut box to use as a plate, our aloe vera plant AND to announce that she has bought her apartment a new pet- a FISH! Awesomeness! I bet it’s a Siamese Fighting fish from the supermarket near by! Anyhow, off to bed- long day tomorrow. Expecting to work from 10am till late.

Trivia Roll:

• The haze is still bad
• You have to request for the doctor to change to new gloves
• Can the locals STOP assuming I am Chinese?
• Our Converse shoes have no “Switzerland” on it, but at least they’re original
• Our Shirts are tailor made in Hong Kong
• Staff food in the HoS is great
• Apparently I get charged for receiving calls
• Sebastian is now addicted to Hotel Babylon (Manuel soon)
• Hakon knows what KK is!
• I found 2 other Malaysians in the HoS!
• Pizza Hut is DAMN expensive
• Luka and Mike seem like a lot of fun!
• Love the service concept and service outline
• Filling up the pill box was NOT fun nor was it easy
• Apparently it will rain next week (Chinese government will make it rain)
• Sebastian and I met Kitty and her friend Elena last night in Yoshinoya
• Kitty promised to get us into the Pangu Plaza
• Steffi thinks the moon has a face
• WE SAW A CLOUD! (yesterday at the Forbidden City)
• Kitty is Chinese now, and I am suppose to pass her “present” to Magnus (don’t ask)
  
  Till then for now, IC

The Center for...

Collecting our Uniforms

Our REAL Converse All Star Shoes

The Girls Doing a little more than trying

The Briefing

Day 2 Photos (delayed)

Can't escape marketing! the Forbidden City is made possible by AMEX?

4 Star Toilet

This picture some how scares me. What is she doing with the gun?

Day 1 and 2 in Beijing

Day 1

Arrived in Terminal 2 of the Beijing Capital Airport- and already, not impressed. Due to the ground staff inefficiency, we could only disembark after a 15min wait, luggage took almost an hour after disembarking to reach the belts! Taxi driver tried cheating me of 10yuan by giving less change and not giving me the receipts and toll coupon.

On a more reportage note, supermarket goods cost about the same as in Malaysia.
Today was easy, where i caught up with sleep (some kid kept staring at me on the plane- very disturbing). After Sebastian arrived, we went to check out the HoS in the 798 Beijing Art Zone (awesome place).

At night, the Cesar Ritz team along with some from IMI and Gamma had dinner in a (duh) Chinese restaurant. Service was relatively good and prices are quite high comparing with Malaysian prices :S

Everyone except myself were in bed before midnight as i stayed up to blog day 1. Tomorrow we have a day off, and the plan is to shop and visit the city's downtown attractions :)

My Bedroom

The Public Area (still working on it)

They're building the catwalk for the Triumph Swimwear Fashion Show

The Bar/ Lounge

The Exterior of the HoS (also still working on it)

As part of this Blog, since i am too lazy to type things in chronological order, i'm going to have a random roll of things that occured which i will call the "trivia roll". so here is goes:

• I already bought ~7litres of liquids including 4.5l of water for drinking and brushing my teeth


• Sebastian has got class- he bought 6litres of Evian water (I got the cheapest Chinese Mineral Spring water)


• Dinner last nite at a 5 star-ish restaurant cost me RM60


• The Shower drainage is poor


• The washing machine is awesome! it dries too and takes forever to figure out


• Sebastian is Jet-lagged


• Julian bought his new dish washing pants- its Ralph Lauren from some street market


• Everyone seems excited about filling up a little capsule (filling it up with our self-made chocolate for health check)


• For some reason, we are really looking forward to the Triumph Swim Wear fashion show


• Its Humid, Hazy and warm


• The Kitchen is our apartment's smoking lounge


• My Room is so far, the only room with internet


• The nearest supermarket is 2 minutes walk from the apartment and they sell Durians! (fresh seafood and well, its alot of noise)


• We live on the 21st Floor in the Chaoyang District


• Dad, it's 220volts


• There is a KFC, Mc Donalds and a Pizza hut 4 minutes away


• Keith, my ulcer is healing :)
  
  Better start eating lots of healthy stuff if i want to make "smooth Chocolate" for the health check!

ps. My Chinese number is +86 13141314853 I can receive SMS but i cant send. So, do send me messages and i will reply via email or something. Take care all! Ps/ps. Be sure to check Mr Konrad’s Blog! There are photos and the usual fun Mr K authorship! :D

Day 2
Due to the uncertainty of food cleanliness, my breakfast today consists of a Snickers bar and a cup of chilled processed kiwi juice. So, at 10am I met the girls (Ute, Verena and Steffi) to take them to the place I got my mobile number from, where, they decided not to buy anyway. We met up with C bass and went to Touch café, and they charged us non-drinkers 12yuan (~RM6) for just being there and drinking their lemonaded water. We took two cabs to Tian’anmen Square after that (39 yuan) and it was AWESOME! Seeing Mao’s Mausoleum first hand and the Forbidden city was amazing, though the halls were becoming repetitively boring. The end finished off when we found an air conditioned bathroom which had a LOUNGE outside! We took a long walk and found the shopping street, where only Cbass bought a t-shirt. It was 17pm and we decided to head for the temple of heaven, of which, at 17.15pm, we found out they close at 1730pm. So we headed home. Tonight, the plan is to have an early night, and pizza hut. Yes, we are still a bit cautious about local street food, seeing that we cant even brush our teeth with tap water.

Today’s Trivia Roll:

• Verena, Ute, Steffi and Sebastian are tourist attractions to the locals (no one is interested in the Malaysian..sob..)


• We bought a toilet mat for 139yuan


• Entrance fee to the Forbidden City is 60yuan, WORTH IT!


• Taxi’s only carry 4 passengers and are relatively cheap


• I love our washing machine, it dries too!


• Some new guy checked into our apartment today. He is Chinese, does not speak English, but speaks German


• Tourist maps are not to scale!


• Beijing air is dirty, smogy and I am already sick of it- I hope it rains soon


• I still love my flatmates


• Met Kitty and her friend Elena today- they visited our apartment (Kitty is practically a Beijing-er now)


• Did I mention I love the washing machine? Oh, and our smelly fridge records vice messages too!
  
  Anyhow, that’s all for now!
  
  Ps. Temporarily, I am unable to upload photos on the blog, so visit my FACEBOOK ALBUM to view day 1 photos. Enjoy!