Back from Atlanta

finally come back home from atlanta! wasn’t thinking of coming back in such a short time de, but due to training reasons, no choice la ah, lol… else I would like to stay for at least a week more to do some sight seeing and shopping! :P

so early morning at 745am I woke up, supposed to have breakfast at 730am de, haha… too tired la :P so woke up a bit later n decided to take cab instead of the train. due to the following reasons: 1) luggage too bulky for taking train. 2) train waiting time too long, is like 30mins to 1hr? so at 850am we took the cab to the airport, and checked in at 930am. then we went into the departure hall and did some shopping. we boarded the plane at 1145am. the whole flight to korea was 13hrs long… just to mention, I watched movies on the plane until I have nothing to watch! its like more than 10 movies I have watched to and fro.

frm atlanta to korea takes 13 hours, from korea to singapore takes roughly 6 hours. so in total I took a 19 hours flight! gosh, sit until my backside pain sia… anyway, its still a good thing to be back to singapore, cos eat there eat until sian sia, the food. everything is western, eat until don’t know what to eat, lol. singapore, I am home!!!

Day 7 at Atlanta

yeah! one more day to go home! today i woke up very late, at 830am, cos was too tired le, haha… so had to quickly wash up and head down for breakfast. after breakfast, i went to settle the coach order which hasn’t reached us by yesterday. lucky us, cos the order we made online for coach which will not be able to arrive by today, was able to cancel through some calls, lucky! this is wad made us want to travel all the way down to the outlets, which is like an hour trip by car!

the receptionist was very helpful, helping us to call for cab. the cab fare was $75 each for to and fro. it is quite expensive, but we know we are going to have a fruitful harvest there. haha… at first the receptionist told me that there is free wifi there. but when i reached there to search for wifi, there is none at the outlets chain! i had to search for a while before finally found ruby tuesday at one corner of the carpark. so i went there and contacted baby thru viber to gather some information before buying my coach bags.

after buying the 1st batch of coach bags, we decided to lunch at ruby tuesday, cos there is wifi there ma, lol… the food was very nice!!! not very expensive for a restaurant that serves so good food! i ordered mini bacon buns with free salad bar and root beer. i wanted to have 2nd round, but too full le! so sad, the salad really nice!

so after lunch, we spilt up to do our shopping, i really went thru all the columns of shops and bought REALLY lots of stuff, amounting to almost S$900! omg, i didnt know i spent so much sia, lol… but i believe its going worth it cos the stuffs there compared to the retail stores is sooooo much cheaper. really worth the trip there. as for hock yong, he didnt get anything after the lunch, only gotten his coach bags before lunch, lol…

the taxi driver reached here earlier than expected, which we agreed on at 5pm. he reached at 440pm and i was still shopping! i had to rush to get all the stuffs before i met them at 515pm, wahahaha… actually is i walk to the wrong end to find them! the front and back looks the same to me! oh ya, during their winter time, the nite falls early, at 6pm is already dark. during their summer time, nite falls earliest at around 9pm? gosh… nite falls at 9pm… guess is becos of the area they are in.

after we reached back to the hotel, we made a final trip to target to get extra stuffs, i bought an extra bag so i could keep more stuffs that i bought today, lol… ended up i still need to carry another paper bag -.-‘’’ i went back to pack my stuffs while hock yong went to hard rock cafe to buy some stuffs. good day today! fruitful harvest!

Day 6 at Atlanta

last 2nd day i will be at atlanta le. so fast time flies, and i will soon be heading back to singapore. miss my girls at home sooooo much. looking at them this morning thru face time, makes me so wanna see them when i get back! but still, i need to make full use of my last 2 days at atlanta. might not have anymore chances to come to the states in future for business trip, so must make full use!

today woke up a bit later than usual, at about 630am, luckily i woke up, else will be late for class! usually we would gather at the lobby for breakfast at 630-7am, then hop onto the shuttle bus at 715am. by the time we hit the road n the train to the training place, it will be around 8am. we always start class at 815am, cos frank comes early, so we also make do and come early too. we also handed them the gifts that we bought yesterday. it turned out that godiva seems to be frank’s favourite!

today, we were invited to their emergency center in georgia, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, also known as the GEMA. this place is the state’s emergency center in case of any emergency cases that might happen in georgia. the people there were also very open and shared all they can with us. am glad that we made it to this center and learnt so much about their emergency operation center and procedures. hope this will help me in my future projects for domain knowledge.

after the trip to GEMA, we were introduced to the best fast food in atlanta, the Varsity, the biggest drive in restaurant in atlanta. this place is very special, at one glance, it looks like a normal fast food restaurant from the outside. but as we walk towards the counter, the crowd gets bigger n bigger, n u know what? today’s crowd is still not the busiest. i oso agree, cos we walk to the end of the long stretch of counter n there was no queue, lol. i ordered a double cheese burger with rings n coke. food tastes ok, just that the onion rings are quite special. this fast food also only resides in atlanta, they have only 5 branches all in atlanta. their drive in to eat is really drive in to eat. what i mean is that the drivers will drive their car n park at the drive in area. someone will take their orders for them and they will go into the restaurant, make the order, then take the food back to the drivers. in return, the drivers will pay them and give them some tips. interesting right? really is something we dont see in singapore.

after lunch, we headed back to esi and finish up the rest of the class. we did the survey and took a group photo for remembrance. sad to say goodbye to them, but there is always an end to the dinner. nonetheless, i greatly appreciate what they have imparted to us for the 5 lessons. hope i will be able to see them soon again, be it in atlanta or in singapore. will be so glad to bring them around if they were to come to singapore. :)

so after leaving the university, we went for some short shopping. i didnt buy anything though. after which we went for movie at regal cinemas, watching skyfall (james bond)! haha… cinema was quite good, but the tickets and food is expensive, but once in my lifetime will i get to watch movie in a cinema in the states, lol… just try it!

the movie ended at 725pm and we headed back to the hotel. parcel not here yet, but gotten info from the receptionist that they still do delivery on saturday, so i pin my last hope for tomorrow!

Day 5 at Atlanta

before i talk about what i did today, let me stress on some things i observed during my 5 day stint here.

1. the people here are very courteous and friendly. can already see from the way they greet you from physically anywhere u might need to communicate with them. they will always say, “hello, how are you?” and when i reply “i am fine, what about you?”, they will reply “i am fine too, thank you.”.

2. the food they serve here are in huge portions… its like having 2 meals at once in singapore. this is how much they are eating for each meal.

3. drivers here are very thoughtful and courteous too, although sometimes i see quite some cars having accident-made ‘injuries’. when we want to cross the road and a car is approaching, the driver will stop for us to cross first before the driving off. Even when we attempt to cross the pedestrian crossing on red light, they will stop for us to cross.

4. the waiter n waitress here are very observant and thoughtful too. they will occasionally come to ur table and ask is everything alright and will ask anything else we need. they will also come n check on the drinks and ask whether we need refill. we dont need to ask them to come de.

5. last but not least, you can refill drinks for free in all restaurants! even fast food also can! i mean all drinks that you can order are refillable.

ok, back to what i did today, haha… as usual for class was as normal. breakfast to lunch to end of class nothing much happened. just that today’s lunch, we went down to greenwood restaurant. this time round i never order salad, instead i ordered boneless pork chop with honey-glazed carrots and mashed potato. the portion looks big to me, but i still managed to finish all of them, lol…

at nite we went to godiva at perimeter mall to buy some chocolates for the trainers of esi university. just as a gift of appreciation to them for treating us like family during the stint here. then we had dinner at mcdonalds, me ordering club meal. its some sort of mcchicken with bacon and tomato in it. actually i wanted order 10 piece nuggets meal de, cos its only $5.89! so many pieces for only $5.89! even without the meal, it costs only $3.49! or something like that. is like virtually $0.34 per nugget! how cheap can it get.

after dinner we went to target to get some gifts for my colleagues and my family. cant disclose everything here cos its a secret, lol… then we headed back to hotel by 830pm.

Day 4 at Atlanta

wednesday at atlanta today! as usual woke up at 6am for breakfast. set off for class at 715am. class proceeded as normal and frank is back after his mc yesterday. lunch today was at diner, same as on monday. but today i ate the house salad deluxe with blue cheese. not really to my liking cos of the vegetables in it, so didnt managed to finish.

today’s class was quite fruitful and we managed to get some answers that we need in preparation for our new project. we finished class quite late today, at ard 445pm. so we decided not to go for any shopping far away. we went to a small department store on the way back and i bought a small paper knife which cost $1.49, and i donated the rest of the $5 change to the charity. how come i donated? cos the counter ask whether want to donate, paiseh not to donate, so donate the change to the charity, haha…

just to add on a bit, today’s temperature in the morning was 4 deg celcius, very very cold. but when it came to the afternoon, the temperature rose, it should be around 10-15 deg celcius. when come nite, the temperature again changed to between 5-10 deg celcius… so huge fluctuation in temperature here, lucky my body strong, else cfm fall sick easily sia…

so dinner was at the hotel, ate some hot dogs with salad dressings and some potato chips. also brought down my clothes to wash at the washing machine. the washing is complimentary, just that we need to use our own washing powder. so i borrowed from hock yong. but the stupid washing machine was spoilt and i still tried to use it 2 times! cos first time i didnt know it was spoilt, so i tot maybe i missed something, then i restart the machine. let it run for another 45mins n see how. 45mins later go down see see, the machine really spoil! the water did not flush away and kept my clothes wet… luckily got 1 singaporean lady also happened to come down n collect her clothes. i then managed to transfer my clothes to the machine the lady was using. finally the clothes did finish washing and i did drying after that. after all was finished, its already 10pm…

day by day passed le. left 4 more days to go back to singapore! so miss my girls at home!

Day 3 at Atlanta

3rd day at atlanta already and have been a fruitful trip! still got 5 more days to go n have fun! today we woke up a bit earlier to have our breakfast and to go for class early, so can end earlier, lol… so after breakfast at 630am, we boarded the shuttle bus at 715am n headed for the train station. by the time we reached the university, it was already 745am. we thought we were too early as there was no one at the place. then as we thought we were trapped outside in the cold, jim arrived! just in time!

so class proceeded as planned at 815am, however frank was on mc due to diarrhoea. so jim took over for the day. lunch time we went to buffalo, i ordered the 8 piece traditional wings set with root beer, with spicy garlic and honey bbq as the flavouring for the wings. the spicy garlic was too spicy for me even though it is rated medium spice on the scale, lol… in the end i had to drink 1.5 cup of root beer (refillable). the food was nice, just that i chose a wrong flavour for my wings. :x

so after lunch, the class continued n ended at 4pm, as planned too. then we went off for some shopping at departmental store of (office depot and five below). i didnt managed to get anything cos nth to buy, lol… dinner was at the hotel, complimentary for tues to thurs. quite good, even though it is some sort of a breakfast style food, but still ate to fill. after dinner, we retreated for the nite at about 7pm.

Day 2 at Atlanta

after a day of rest from sunday, we r going for our first day of training at esi university! we got up at 7pm to hv our breakfast at the hotel. the food was not bad, considering that the restaurant is quite small. after having my breakfast, we took our stuff and boarded the shuttle bus at 815pm to sandy springs train station. we took the train to north springs and then took bus 87 to the bus stop nearest to the university. we actually lost our way n had to get the lady (erica) to come n bring us, haha…

once we reached the university, we were introduced to the staffs there, frank and jim. basically i only saw 3 of them, lol… we were oriented to the whole office before class began. the whole session started from 930am to 330pm. we lunched at diner (it is the name of the restaurant) nearby. the food portion was really huge, not for singaporean to eat de, lol… mine was still ok cos mine is caesar salad with grilled chicken breast. the most exaggerating one is the one ordered by erica, chicken noodle. the portion could be shared by 2 guys lor… oh ya, the owner of the shop is actually erica’s boyfriend, and also the owner of a chain of restaurants, lol… rich guy!

so after the class, we went down to perimeter mall to have a walk n shop. over there i managed to get some clothes for jie jie n mei mei, but didnt see anything good for baby. the only thing i saw is a coach bag which cost quite heavenly, lol… so i decided to check with baby at nite before buying. the mall was quite big but not much stuff to buy there. we had our dinner at the ‘foodcourt’ over there. i ordered a japanese western food which cost $8.86. while hock yong ordered a pizza set from somewhere else. both the portion is also a lot sia, lol… not meant for asians to eat de. :P

so after we finish our jalan jalan at perimeter mall, we went to super target again to get some more necessities. to my surprise, i found my black pearl there! so happy, its like 1/2 of the singapore’s price! woooo!!! haha… after all the shopping for the day, we rested back in the hotel at 9pm!