Day 19 of Work & Travel - Grand Tetons Day

This is really the most tiring day i ever had since coming to yellowstone national park but also one of the most fun one.

There were 5 of us going on that trip, Lance, Kelley, Danny, Terrence and myself. We met up at 10am and loaded our stuff in kelley's car. It was a long distance to the Tetons. Some of us packed sandwiches from the EDR during breakfast for the hike. It was a long drive to the Tetons, we past by many places, but we did not make any stop cos i think I've had too many shots on those kind of scenary already. So not much pictures were taken along the way.

We did make a few intermediate stops before we arrive at our destination.

A stop at the Signboard into the Tetons. We also made a stop at Colter Bay, where we went to the visitor center to get info about our hike. While at Colter Bay, we saw this rainbow forming around the sun. We came to learn that this is due to ice crystals in the atmosphere that caused this sight. But i'm more amazed with this shot i took.

hahaa. really cool, looks like a halo around the hand.

We were also quite lucky to see a fox close to the road. there were people gathering around, and so we joined in the crowd and saw the fox, it looks as if it was posing for us. or maybe it was just waiting for food.

We head off to our destination next, Jenny lake, this is where we would take a ferry to the other side of the lake to begin our hike to a place called Cascades Canyons. The ferry trip was quite interesting, the ferry guy quite fun, and we took quite a few videos on this short trip. The lake was huge and had very very clear water, but i dun see any fish, and the wind was super icy cold.

Soon we began our hike into the mountains. First stop was hidden falls, a waterfall which has been hidden by the trees, it looks pretty nice from far. But we couldnt get near it cos the roads to it was somewat closed.

Next was to hike up to this place called Inspiration Point. Great view of the lake from there. We ate our sandwiches there, and there were loads of chipmunks which will appear the moment we took out our food. The chipmunks are very very cute, even though we were not supposed to feed them, it was TOO hard to resist playing with them. Super cute, totally reminds me of my chipchip.

I think we are very lucky during this trip cos we saw many different animals, we saw the fox, moose, chipmunks & marmots.I have yet to see a bear since arriving here. Although i know seeing a bear may be very dangerous, but i still wished i saw one.

As we carried on into the mountains going thru Cascade Canyons, the tracks were mostly covered in snow and it was really difficult to walk, it's like walking on flat ground going forward, yet like climbing stairs cos you keep sinking in and have to lift your legs to get out of it. VERY VERY tiring.

Lance brought a water filter and pump so we could refill our bottles directly from the icy cold streams. The water tastes really nice and cool, no weird chlorine taste or watever. really good.

We hiked on further for about an hour plus before turning back. I was feeling that they turned back becaused of me. Cos i was totally shagged out already. I was actually quite relieved we turned back, but den i realised we had a really really long hike back to the car as well. We couldnt take the boat back too, cos it was late, that was 2 xtra miles around the lake to get to the car.

Basically, i was dead tired by the time we got the car, and it was late so we decided to go to a near by resort to grab some food. It was too late to go back to Old Faithful for dinner. But we were once again very lucky, this place we went to had pretty good food, at a good price and it has a fantastic view of the Grand Tetons.

I ate this burger called Wildgame Chilli Burger, it's actually Bison burger with Elk Chilli. It's pretty much like beef burger with mutton chilli, but it was good. Especially cos i was really hungry after the hike. YUM!!

We also had loads of fun on the way back. Especially when we were singing to the backstreet boys songs!! SHIOK SHIOK!! hahaa...

Day 18 of Work & Travel - New roommate.

This morning there's a compulsory meeting for all of us staff working in the gift shop at 7am. And i'm suppose to work today at 7 am. but guess what?? I woke up at 7.30am, i totally freaked out and ran to the bathroom, wash up and ran to the gift shop. everyone was already there by the time i reached, well almost everyone. there was 1 person who was later than i am, that's blake, another new guy. We have several new ppl coming in today. Not very good cos that means our work time will be reduced.

Spoke to my boss, mike, abit later in the day to catch up with whatever i missed early in the morning. He told me that i would have be promoted to be a lead if i were staying to around august or september. I just smiled when he said that, but i was very happy even though i din get the promotion. means i'm doing well and being appreciated. GREAT!

Oh i've got a new roommate today. His name is Adrian. He's a quite nice guy. He's from US, cant remember which state, he drove here and abrought along his bicycle. Quite pro one somemore. Rich kid i think, oh yah, bio major & future doctor to be. hmmm. cool!

I'm going to the Tetons mountain ranges tml for a hike. One of my colleagues, Lance will be driving us to the trails. i think it's going to be super tiring. time to sleep!!!

Day 17 of Work & Travel - PayDay!!

Really did not feel like coming to work today. After yesterday, that feeling was even stronger after a whole day of fun and travelling. :P but i have to come in, cos i can collect my pay today. My 1st paycheck since starting work here. Pay comes in every 2 weeks on a wednesday. since i wasnt around yesterday, i collect it today.

Sad to say, it really isnt much. I had 300+ in gross, but after tax and all the room and food deductions i'm only left with 230USD, which is actually ok considering i only worked 5+ days in the 2 weeks for my 1st pay check.

Something else happened today. I received a package from dear today. It was HUGE!! my fren Vj brought the box over from his PO box. I feel kindda bad to have him bring it all over from the post office. It's a pair of hiking boots!! They look pretty cool too. But if you read my blog, you'd realise i bought a pair of boots from walmart yesterday!! So.. I had to do wat i had to do. I sold off the pair I bought to a fren. a few dollars cheaper than wat i got. But it's fine. I like the pair dear got me. :)

Once again. Thank you dear!!!

Day 16 of Work & Travel - Full Day Tour!!

I had a great day today!!

Met up with Mike in the EDR for breakfast, he was suppose to bring me and a few others on a roadtrip around Yellowstone lake area. So there was actually 6 of us going in this trip together in the end. At first i was thinking, "oh shit, there's 6 of us. How are we going to squeeze into his car?" it turned out that my worries are uncalled for. He drives a 7-seater!! So there's plenty of room. haha.. anyway, there's mike, his roommate, Dan, Zing, Pui Ee, Dawn and ME!!

First stop was a place called kepler cascades, it's a pretty nice waterfall. Took a few photos there and we were off. Nothing much there, except we met this bunch of people who were on the yellow bus tour. The yellow bus is a very classic vehicle. Looks very very 60s.

We basically we're just going to go around the lower loop which is around the yellowstone lake. We took many nice scenary pictures along the way. And we met this tiny little chipmunk which was like so cool. Just look at the pictures we have on him. I compiled all the pics we took of him, and he looks super emo in some. Cool chipmunk yeah!??



Den we went to the west thumb geyser basin. Also took a few nice pictures over there. Colourful springs and awesome skylines. But the geysers and paint pots are rather depressing cos there was rain and it wasnt really bubbling away very well.

We were at the lake hotel next, it's a very nice and cosy looking place. Yellow paint on the outside and pink walls on the inside. There were a few yellow buses parked in the hotel driveway. So we took the opportunity to snap some shots with it too. the view of the lake frm there was really nice. I took a long panorama picture of the hotel. I think it turned out very well. :)



As we drove out of yellowstone for lunch, we passed by mountains which are totally covered in snow!! pure white and nothing else. We made a stop at this place where there's a point that's totally frozen and cover in snow. Next to the parking lot we found a snowman, which was actually very nicely done.



We had our first meal outside Yellowstone and first non-EDR meal. We were at Cody, a town to the east of Yellowstone National Park. We ate at this diner called Irma's. It's a very cosy place, not crowded like the food places in singapore. Yet it serves very good food. I had a cowboy berger, 0.5 pounds of beef, very well done one somemore. It's quite reasonably priced too. 9.75USD for that, but there tax and tips to push the price higher.



After lunch we went to WalMart, I bought a pair of hiking shoes, some socks and a folder. While the rest of the gang bought much more. They really bought provisions. I dun have much of those to buy cos i basically brought from singapore. so yah din have much to buy. The gals really spent a long time shopping at Walmart, I think they are really too deprived in Old faithful. Nothing to buy and even if there is, it's usually too expensive.

The rest of the places we visited after WalMart were quite nice too. But everyone was just kindda drained and exhausted, din really have the energy to carry on walking or hiking. So we pretty much browse thru the places and very soon ended with dinner time.

For dinner, we headed west, to another town called west yellowstone. Mexican food, at a restaurant known as Grizzly Claws. I totally can't figure the relation between grizzly bears and mexican food. Thankfully, they server pretty good and authentic mexican food. Yum. Very cheesy, very tasty.

The dinner pretty much marked the end of the day, super tired by the time i got back. Full day tour around the lake area is really tiring, and i'm not even the one driving.

Day 15 of Work & Travel - Off Tml!!

The day started off with me dragging myself out of bed for breakfast, it's my first breakfast of the week. It's the usual eggs & sausages, but i liked it. :) went back to room and take a nap after breakfast. Went to work after that. Seriously nothing exciting happened today at work, perhaps i was a little low on energy, mystic falls took my energy away. still feeling drained. I wasnt able to make anyone laugh much. :P

Mike, not the manager Mike, but the store&shipping guy Mike, plans to take some of us on a trip tml around the area. So i ask for a day off from Mike the Boss! And he gave it to me!! that was the most shok thing that happened to me today. hahaa.. but i kindda expected he would give it to me, cos we are kindda overstaffed and i heared he was rather tight on budget. So anyway, that means i'm off tml and i get to go on a road trip, and i'm quite looking forward to that.

After work, i headed down to the rec hall for volleyball. This was the best volleyball i've played since i've gotten here. played some 3 on 3 with some better players and it just makes everything so much more exciting. But my shoulder is really acting up on me. I just cant seem to get any power or control into my spiking or serving. Kindda depressed about that. time to sleep, gonna be a long day tml. :)

Day 14 of Work & Travel - Monday blues?!

Really wanted to wake up for breakfast today. But nope, couldnt drag myself out of my bed, just too tired. Whole body basically still aching from the 5hr hike yesterday. I think it will be at least 5 days before i go on a trek again.. body and mind needs to rest. :P I am so so weak!! :P

Went for lunch at around 11, starting work at 1130am. Early lunch is good, makes me not miss breakfast too much. I think having a full stomach before going to work is so so important. It just gives you more energy to work, talk, smile, EVERYTHING!! Seriously, i totally cant remember wat i had for lunch. But i was quite sure i was full, and i quite like the food. hahaa.

Work today is pretty good, tried out a few new things in my cashier position. Finally had a traveller's check coming in, and i really think traveller's checks are SO SO dum. oh well, some ppl still prefer using that to credit cards. I wonder why. And i also sold a few art pieces without the artist being around. Usually the artist will do most of the paper work and we just check out and cash. When he's not around, there a little more for me to do. I'll need to write down his painting codes, write the price, check out the item, wrap it up. Print enough receipts, one for white, one for yellow and none for pink.

Work with 2 new ppl today, both from US, John whose hair covers his whole face, he totally reminds me of a caveman!! and something else, he sucks at folding t-shirts. He only wanna stand behind the cashier and cash out customers, everything else he does, pretty much crappy. The other person is Alison, she much more active and positive compared to John. And i was like being a joker the whole day, and ya, i think i made everyone's day a happier one, even the guests. :)

I remember what i had for dinner, it's spaggetti with a simple tomato & basil sauce. They had fettucini labelled on the dish, but i knew it was more than that. There was fettucini, spaggetti and angel's hair all in the same pot. MUahaha.. oh well, nobody seems to be bothered, so let it be. :P there's meatloaf too, had meat loaf a few days back too, but this one today is so much better, at least for my tastebuds.

Oh well, there was suggestion from shawn and lorraine to buy a car. I'm very tempted to get it with them, then we could drive aroud easier on our off days and that would basically solve the issue of bring dear from the airport to yellowstone. :) Let's see how this works out. Shaw & lorraine are doing more research, they are very thorough in this aspect, and i like that. Saves me from work. hahaa..

I got off at 8pm today, well not at 8pm slightly after due to a last minute crowd coming in. So me and alison stayed back for a while to get rid of the crowd. I did my packing up and counting of my bank balance pretty fast. guess i'm getting good at it. alison is still new and not very fast at it yet, so i had to show her many things. I feel good!! hahaa.

came back to my room to rest for a while before heading to the Bear Pit, which is a pub next to our gift shop. Went there with Lance and alvin, it was lance's suggestion, cos he had 5USD spare to spend. haha. that's basically 1 glass of beer. I ordered 1 glass too, it's called Moose Drool. It's tastes quite good, flavour is much stronger than the usual beers we have in singapore and not too bitter. Not bad, for only 4.50USD.

My face is red and eyes bloodshot after just one glass. But i still feel very clear, however, I feel tired now and in need of sleep. time to go to bed, I want my breakfast!! I'll start taking photos about daily activities tml!! :)

Day 13 of Work & Travel - Sunday Off!!

Guess wat!?? i somehow overslept again!! i missed my breakfast and also my bus tour. I hope that tour was actually fully booked so i wun feel so bad about missing it. so when i figured i've missed my morning activities, i went back to bed, and only woke up at almost 12 for lunch. i had a seemingly light lunch, cos i only ate some meat and dessert.

I went back to the gift shop after lunch, cos another manager is leaving, and today is his last day. His name is Travis, tall, big, old guy. Nice person but always intimidating. Scary sometimes working with him, always have to worry about "did i do something wrong?". So we took a few pictures with him as remembrance.



he's more of a strict father figure than a friendly boss, however in no way is he mean or bad. :)

I continue walking around the old faithful area myself. I really explored the general store and the gift shop at the old faithful lodge this time. I bought a sweater for myself. It's a really big and cosy sweater, with yellowstone printed in front.. i think i really liked it. :) and it's quite cheap also. It only cost me 21.19USD compared to the 25USD i had to pay for a pair of gloves!! CHEAP CHEAP lar.. :)

I came back to my room after wandering around the place, just to wait for an early dinner. I decided to join shawn and Lorraine on a hike up to the mystic falls. Su join us also cos her boyfriend was working. At dinner we met terrence and rachel who are also planning to go to the mystic falls. So 6 of us went on the hike together after dinner. It was almost 5 when we set off. and it was a long long trek just to get to the base to mystic falls. it took us almost 45mins but that was the easy part. The bottom of mystic falls is a hotspring basin known as the biscuit basin. And the picture below shows me in the mist if the famous sapphire pool. quite cool, feel like sauna. :)



we took a rather adventurous route to the mystic falls, we went up to a lookout point with is way up on top of the hill. The tiny trails were steep and winding, i was super exhausted halfway up. I took a brief rest and catched up with them. reaching the lookout point is only half the journey. there was another mile or so before reaching the falls and as we continued on the trail, there were several parts which were still cover in snow. We have to trek thru the snow, and I only had SAF-issued track shoes. Ice was in my shoes and pants. COLD!!!

Thankfully, the view we had of mystic falls at the end was pretty amazing. We took quite a few pictures there before heading back home. Basically the whole trek took us almost 5hrs and covered at least 12KM!!!

Day 12 of Work & Travel - Off again!!

after working for the past 7 days it's finally time for me go off again!!! yeah..but however, i did not have anything planned for today initially and i also waked up late. missed breakfast again. been talking to dear the whole morning since i woke up. haven talk to her for along time. connection kept breaking, luckily it held out today. lots of things have been happening while i'm not around her, and i think we really miss all the stuff that we do together.

We talked until i went for an early lunch. Burger set, I have to say it again, i think i really like the food here. hahaa, but i do miss the local food back in singapore. especially when dear said she's gonna have minced meat noodles!! aarrggghh.. :P

planned to go out for a hike around 3plus to 4, but it's raining. I wonder wat else i could do. the rain gods of yellowstone seems to like playing with me. at about 4, the rain stopped and the sky looked good to go. so i gather a few people to have dinner before heading out to the trails. But as we finish our dinner the rain came pouring down even heavier then before!! aarrrggghh.. there goes my trekking.

I din want to spend the whole day in my room, so i went to the rec hall. there weresome sports going on and so i join in. basketball and volleyball. my shoulders are now hurting from all the sports. luckily, i have my yoko yoko with me. gonna soak my shoulders with that later on. there was a hiking trip to mystic falls at 6pm leaving from rec hall, there was vacancy but i wasnt prepared for wet weather dun have the clothes nor shoes prepared for that. so too bad.. but it turned out to be a good choice that i did not go. cos my frens, xiaodan and wanglin who went, were totally soaked!! PHEW!! hahaa...

oh yah.. i'm gonna take part in the 3on3 volleyball tournament. i'd most probably be joining 2 others from ukraine, a guy and a gal. not sure if we could win anything. but it's for the fun. so we shall see about that. I'll be joining the volleyball league as well. I hope there are more pro players there.

I hope i can have a more eventful day tml. I plan to go on the bus tours organised by the hotel and emplyees get to go on them free if there's vacancies. so ya.. time to sleep early, cos the bus leaves at 8.15am.

Day 11 of Work & Travel - Movie Night

2nd morning shift in a row, i can really feel the strain to get out of bed. Especially after quite a long day yesterday, work at the inn and lodge followed by volleyball at the rec hall. Even though it was rather amateurish, it still drains me. Perhaps it's the altitude. Today it's been on of my busiest days so far. there were endless guests coming in for the majority of the time. Worst still was that one of my co-worker, Kelley, she got sick too. So she was sent home to rest after a while leaving me in the cashiers ALONE!! sobzZ.. but it was alrite, just handle watever i could and the rest will have to wait.. no choice...

The rest of the selling of the day were normal, nothing really special happened. there was this group of taiwanese aunties, who were very troublesome. I find the taiwanese aunties the most troublesome of all the different countries i've seen so far. They were like buying 1 key chain each.. and they couldnt decide to pay with cash or credit... or to pay together. in the end.. all 3 aunties used credit card to pay for a 2.5USD key chain... totally a waste of my time...

that was the more irritating incident, but there's also these 3 guests from new zealand. Me, Su & Alvin were chatting with them. About the trip, about Singapore, New Zealand. Basically i think we made their day. They even came back in a while with a comment card saying how much they appreciated us. That pretty much made made my day too.. think perhaps tml i'll go look for the comment card and take a picture of it.

Since i started early i was going to end early too.. 3.30pm and i'll be off. just before i knocked off, i met george. My roommate back at mammoth, he was with his wife and they are here for the morning. Yup, he was the guy who drove us to old faithful. I was actually contemplating to have them drive some of us down to the lake where they are at for the night, but he scooted off before the rest knocked off.. hahaa... scared already... :P

oh well, so i arrange to meet up with su and lorraine at 8pm at the lodge. cos lorraine moved to a new dorm with better facilities at the same price. so i wanted to go take a look. so me went back to the dorm to change, expectiing to play some ball b4 8pm, den i met up with xiaodan for dinner before heading over to the rec hall.. played some basketball till 7 den they started showing movie, cos it was movie night. thanks to popularity vote, we watched "the illusionist" good show, but i've already watched it. but since i was still waiting for ppl, i watched it again. But in the end you know wat? They left for the new dorm without me!! SObzZ....so i went back to my dorm. actually even if that dorm is really very good, most likely i would not move, cos it was much further away. Now i only take less than 3 mins to walk to my giftshop.. whereas the new dorm is like 15-20 mins away.. no good...

so that's like my day, time to catch a good sleep.. super tired after 2 morning shifts.. oh and volleyball too... shoulders & back all aching.. feel so old.. and it was so cold when i playing.. it was quite hard to warm up..

Day 10 of Work & Travel - Volleyball

My first super early monring shift today. Start at 7am, 6am must wake up and start doig stuff and have breakfast. Quite tiring to wake up and work so early. especially when i din really sleep super early last nite.

Met corry in the dining area and a few other co-workers in the morning, during breakfast. He just came back from the grand tetons and will be on his way to his new work place soon. Starting work at 7am although tiring but it's actually quite slack, cos morning not much people coming in, mostly looking for newspaper. And yes, we sell newspaper too.

nothing much happen during work today, except Mike, my boss asked if i could go help out at the Lodge after my shift. I agreed cos i wanted to play volleyball today after work, the place to play is just next to the lodge. Went over to the lodge to help out, nothing much to do there, really dun see why they need the extra help... hmmm..

anyway, i treated volleyball as the highlight of the day but it was rather disappointing cos the standard really very amateurish. So i just play along and act dum every now and then. There will be a volleyball league going on soon, i hope i can be part of that. Hopefully the standard is more exciting. :P

Day 9 of Work & Travel - Snowfall

It started off as rain early in the morning. As i went for breakfast, the rain got lighter and becamed snow. It the first time i ever saw snow. Started work today the earliest i've done so far, 10am, it's a rather weird timing, cos there's 2 meals during this shift, which is also quite a waste of my $$ earning time. I skipped breakfast today so i could sleep alittle more. However i think i still had a pretty good day.

I got to know the resident artist for our gift shop, his name is James Reed. He does paintings which are very very very life-like. So i spoke to him for a while about what he does, what i do. Oh yah, he's a full-time artist now and he was a fireman before he retired. Cool rite? When he told me he was a fireman, the first image that came to my mind was all his painting burning up and he fighting the fire to save them. hahahaa..

That was slightly after lunch, during lunch i ate with a few co-workers who were from US, there's Kelley from yesterday, her sister Katherine who works at the gift shop at the Old Faithful Lodge (we work at the Inn) and also Lance from our gift shop. It seems the snow brought ALL the crowd to the lodge and they were having a crazy day over there. Perhaps because of that Katherine seemed really sick, anyway I'm actually quite glad everyone stayed at the lodge instead od coming to us. hahaa..

It's GAD (Guest Appreciation Day), we were expecting hoards of people coming in to grab the offer items, we have caps, mugs, Tees, photo frames, plush toys and tote bags all going for 5USD. I believe that wouls cause a stir too, but thanks for the snow, not too much of a rush was created here. Like i said the lodge was going crazy, cos the snow prevented people frm getting out, and the lodge is the place where they could see the Old Faithful geyser from indoors.

I did about 2hrs of extra work today, cos Zing, also fell sick. So i cover for her as she went back to rest. Those 2 hrs did not feel like extra hrs as all. I think i was kindda enjoying my time working there. I'm starting to learn to talk to guests more and that makes my time happier.

I took a few pictures as went for my breaks during lunch/dinner and also after work. Seeing snow really got me pretty excited. But too bad i could grab someone to go take photos with me. Only managed to get Lance to take a picture for me during lunch.



Oh, I had Lasagne for dinner, it was really good!!! hehee...

Day 8 of Work & Travel - Work

My shift timing is the same as yesterday but i woke up for breakfast today. I told myself not to eat too much for breakfast cos i'll be having lunch in a very short while. Breakfast the the usualy american breakfast stuff, but it's nice, it's like eating macdonald's breakfast everyday.. quite shiok. hahaa.

Went to the general store before going for lunch & work cos my shoes have opened mouth both front and back for both pairs. So yah, in need of super glue which doesnt really work when i tried it on at night. i wonder how long my shoes can last me. I also bought a pair of gloves, 25USD, the cheapest ones in US, but those are the only ones here. Brrrrrrrrr cold..

work went pretty well today, accounts balanced at the end of the day. another manager from snow lodge came over to help out while corry is gone and waiting for another manager to arrive. so in any case there are always 3 managers around. Travis is the manager from snow lodge, he's very very organised and sticks very closely to the book, whereas the manager of my shop, mike, is quite casual about most stuff. relaxing to work with him.

several interesting things happened during work today. first there's this indian american couple who came in for a shopping spree. Our shop has this promotion where you can get a wool blanket for 15USD when you purchase above 50USD, and when you spend above 100USD, we will aloow you to buy as many blankets as you want. And since this couple was on a spree, they had above 200USD to start with. And guess how many blankets they got? 13!!! They only have 3 kids. Anyway, I helped the deal along the way and i'm very happy with that. :) that was definitely the sale of the day.

then there was this other couple whom i identified as french due to their accent. and so we start chatting abt some french, they were very nice and very eager to teach me some simple french words and i have a few.

mer ci = thank you
s'il vous plait = please
de rien = you are welcome

I could only pronounce the 1st 2, the last one totally destroyed me. I cant make the croaking throat sound at all. hahaa. interesting couple. :)

Work was following and i was just going on and on. Tml will be a special day called GAD day. Guest-Appreciation-Day, this is a day where there are several items which will go on sale for 5USD only. Supposingly a very busy day, so me and alvin stayed a while beyond our off time. And in turn we were given 5USD of cash vouchers to use in yellowstone. COOL!!

I had lunch with a co-worker called kelley, she's from washington state and in nursing. the both of us closed the sale for that indian couple together. chatted with her quite a bit during lunch, mostly about singapore, cos she is like totally alien about singapore. she's never been out of the american continent before. I was introducing her to come to singapore at some stage of her nursing career, cos singapore is so short of nurses, especially nice ones which i believe she will become.

Oh yah, i got to know a few more people tonight, they are basically frens of another of my colleague, sze ying, who goes by zing over here. She just had her 21st birthday yesterday. Really cute gal, and her frens, a few guys and gals are like so surprised that my room has internet connection. :P it was nice knowing everyone. :)

hahaaa.. until tml....

Day 7 of Work & Travel - Work & Hike

I slept thru breakfast today, but it was ok, cos i'm working at 11.30am so i'll have an early lunch. I figured that i would have too heavy a meal when i had breakfast and lunch in like 2 hrs interval. Anyway it's off to work and today i was incharge of stock. I seriously don't like stocking, i dun mind carrying the stuff up and putting them into the shelves. What i really hate is to look at the shelves and deicde what needs to be stocked. I just cant figure wat i need or dun need. 8 hrs of stock is really very tiring, i would rather do cashier whole day. :)

Today's the last day of one of my assitant managers, he's Corry. He's going to take charge of another shop at Canyon. He's a nice guy, very corny and always teasing gals. That seems like the common factor for most of the US guys.



After work, I rushed back to my room to change and get ready for a full moon hike. The moon was really full and bright. You could really see the ground just under the moonlight. The hike consisted of a huge group of people, there wasnt any registration required, just be at the rec hall and be ready to move off. There were 6 of us in the gang initially. Su & shangzhi, lorraine & shawn, wanglin, and me. We were going up to observation point. Although i've already gone thru that way with wanglin a few days back, but going there at night was a totally new experience.

I was totally ready for a long hike, with xtra jacket, tripod, torch, food, 1st aid kit. I could hike for a long time. But the hike was pretty short. And it was so crowded at the observation point that we could hard find space to take photographs, anyway we did end up with some photos. My camera just din really perform too well at nite. sucks man. oh well, that's wat you get for being just semi-pro. hahaa.. the pro part is acredited to my tripod.

Day 6 of Work & Travel - Back to Work.

After 2 days of off, it's time to get back to work and start the money rolling. I wonder if it's working blues, cos i didn't really felt like going to work today. Maybe cos it's a sunday, but ever since getting here, it doesnt matter wat day it is. As long as there are guests coming into yellow/old faithful, there's work to do.

This was only my 2nd shift of work, so i'm still relatively new to everything. But i feel quite confident about most of the procedures already. So quite good. There's a few new staff who came in today, Jane from Ukraine and Kelly from Washington State. Also got to know a few more seasoned staff who werent around the past few days, Rob, Lance and Delicia.

I think there's nothing much to say about the day, cos there were too many customers and i couldnt really remember anything special happening. I was focused on making sure my numbers tally. Anyway, my numbers did tally today and i clocked in 2.6k USD. which was about 1k more than thursday. Woah!! Never expected myself handling so much cash. Real cool.

Because i was working for most of the day, there wasnt any pictures taken except a few which i tried to take of the moon while i was walking back to the dorm after work. None of them looked nice anyway. :P

Tml will be a better day.

Day 5 of Work & Travel - Off Day 2!!

This is my second day off and there wasn't much plans to start with. Except to go to the Rec Hall office again, this time to sign up for hikes and trips and not just looking. That in itself had been topsy turvy. So let me start from the beginning of the day. I've arranged to meet Su and Wanglin for breakfast @ 8am. Wanglin only woke up at 8 when i went to knock on her down. Damn funny, cos when she finally realised someone was knock on the door, she went 我的天啊! I almost burst out laughing, but i left her to get ready while me and Su went ahead to the EDR first.

breakfast was the usual stuff, there's always scrambled eggs, which is fine. Anyway, the food here suits my taste!! I'm good with it. :) sidetrack a little, carlos, the guy from columbia, he totally dare not try the food here. He says the tastes are different from his home and he doesnt wanna eat them. So he's always having sandwiches and salad. Funny guy.

After breakfast, Su went giddy she went back to her room while i'll help her sign up for the trips. So wanglin and I went to the rec hall to sign up trip my trips, wanglin already signed up yesterday. But since she had nothing better to do, she tagged along. We got to the rec hall, only to realise it's not opened yet. We were there at almost 10am, but it only opens at 1pm.

So we decided to venture into the trails and to our best of luck, the trails which were closed due to bear sightings were being opened as we are walking there. So we were lucky enough to be the first few people to walk trail ever since it was close due to bear sightings. The trail itself leads us to several places, Observation Pt, Solitary Geyser and also the Upper Geyser basin. The toughest part it the first part of the trail UP to Observation Pt, although it's only an ascent of 200ft, it was 2km of walking uphill. Super exhausted when we reached the top. But the view was great. :)



The next part of the trail took us to the Solitary Geyser, like its name describes, it's a geyser by itself way up on the hills. Geysers look very nice and are deceivingly dangerous. They are filled with bacteria because of the high temperatures, they could also cause surround ground to become brittle and if some unlucky guy steps on the brittle ground and falls into the hot spring or geyser. It's SAYONARA!! The water temp inside is way above 100 deg celsius. scary but beautiful.



Finally we got down the hills and arrive at the upper geyser basin. When they say geyser basin, it's literally loads of geysers gathered together in sort of like a basin kindda place. Some of them go exploding all the time. Some take a few yrs to explode. After going thru the various geysers at the basin we had to go for lunch before it's gone.



Lunch was quite good today, we had burgers at the Snow Lodge. It was quite good, better than the burger i had at mammoth. Met Alvin and Lorraine at the Snow Lodge EDR. And Alvin went on with his blabbering again. Can't stand him. Talks super non-stop. After lunch Alvin tagged along with me and Wanglin to the rec hall office.

It was not a sight i was expecting as i got to the office, all the trips and hikes which i was interested in are already filled up. I was kindda sad and disappointed, but the good new is, more trips will be available every friday. So when the new ones are up, i'm going to sign up immediately. Rraawwrrr!!!

That's basically the end of my day already, wanglin and i intended to continue our track up north from where we left off. But after lunch we were feeling the strain already. So some other time. We just went back to the dorm and rest.

Xiaodan came to my room to chat after she finished her work, cos she was the one who was super enthu in the hike up the hills. It was close the past few days so she couldnt go, and when the trail finally opened, she's working. She wanted me to bring her there, but i was just too drained already. hehee. So we just chat and use comp in my room. Later alvin join us in the room, and my room kindda became a lan shop, everyone with their own lappy. hahaa.

So far Alvin has successfully made everyone who he came into contact with be afraid of him. Why? cos he talks non-stop. He is very knowledgeable, and he can talk to you about everything in the world and he will always ask you questions you CANT answer. He's nice but just don't know when to stop.

Gotta rest, working tml. And very sleepy now, seriously, i dun think i'm losing weight. I hope i can.

Day 4 of Work & Travel - Off Day!!

Several dum things happened over the nite. I sent my clothes to the laundry for washing. I was in Tshirt and shorts and the laundry room was in the next block. SO just imagine pitch black, super cold, Tshirt & shorts!!?? Ya, you can imagine. :P Anyway, i was actually in Tshirt and shorts the whole nite. COLD...

2nd dum thing i did. My dorm room will lock whenever the door closes. I took a bath in the morning, all was fine, i remember to bring my keys, but when i got back to the room, pick up my toothbrush. I closed the door, with my keys still inside!! that's it, i locked myself out of the room, SUCKs!! I was in tshirt and shorts again... so smart of me. :P.. I had nothing except for my toothpaste and toothbrush, so i could go for breakfast, the RC (resident coordinator) will only be in at 8, which was time the breakfast ends. I kindda accepted the fate that i will miss breakfast due to my stupidity, but @ 730 i felt i had nothing to lose. So i walked to the EDR (employee dining room) and go ahead with my breakfast. Luckily the staff allowed me to eat after i told them i locked myself in the room. When i got back from breakfast, the RC is in and i could open my room with his master key!! SO all's well!!

I've been trying to get online when i came back into my room but it seems the connection really sucks when there's more people using. I'm constantly surviving on 1 bar on connectivity. But somehow the photos slowly get uploaded, emails are slowly received and MSN sends messages with a lag. AND I wanna re-emphasize SLOWLY!!

Cos it's my off day, i intended to walk around the area and get to know it better. However, due to the not so fast internet connection, I only started my wandering around old faithful after lunch. but i'm glad i only started after lunch. cos the moment i step out of my dorm, I met wanglin whom i knew from san francisco airport. It was great to see her again and it's her off day too. So we went walking around together with another guy called carlos. he's from columbia and a very funny youth guy, I knew him from the bus ride in bozeman to HR.

We asked our way around and got to the recreation hall office. That's where we could find out abt organised trips for employees. On the way to the rec hall office, i spotted another fren xiaodan, and 4 of us went to the office together. There were a few trips which we wanted to join but i wasnt sure of my work schedule so i have yet to sign up.

And since we were at the rec hall, we shoot hoops for around an hour. finally started sweating after a while but our shooting really really sucks!!! and the basket seems higher than normal. hmmm... anyway the rec hall looks like a cosy place, i'll be back for more sports and entertainment.

Carlos had to rush back to the dorm to get ready for his work in the evening. I brought xiaodan and wanglin the the gift shop at the old faithful lodge where i tried to show stuff which i found interesting as much as i could. to the extent of my limited knowledge at least. I wanted to visit the other gift shops also to visit my fellow trainees at mammoth. there are 3 gift shops in olf faithful area, I work in the old faithful inn and there's 2 other old faithful lodge and snow lodge.

Outside the gift shop, we met the driver who drove us into yellowstone from bozeman airport. Her name's kelly, very nice lady and she totally reminds me of a female version of hagrit. We chatted with her for a while and we went on to see the old faithful geyser. It was an amazing sight, the water shoots up over 10 storeys!! WOAH!! look at the photos for more insight. I've linked all the photos to the fotopic website so you see all the photos.

Day 3 of Work & Travel - From Mammoth to Old Faithful

Today I woke up at 3am and started going online to do stuff. When to bed at 10pm and i had 5hrs plus of sleep and i felt good when i woke up. Seems like we need to sleep less and the body seems to recharge faster. Den i went to study and read thru my manuals @ 4plus.. den i started packing my stuff into the bag to move to old faithful @ 6plus before going for breakfast.

after breakfast we had some familiarization practices on the cashier and i think i did quite good for a first timer, and considering i only read the thick manual this morning. :) it seems others think i'm doing well too.. so that's good.. Anyway, i only got news this morning that i'm on duty this evening!!! which was like super shocking to me cos i only read the manuals this morning and i'm suppose to handle customers in the evening!!?? anyway, it's done deal. I have to do it!! :P

we were suppose to start moving over to Old Faithful after lunch but cos of the duty in the evening, our trainer suggested we should go earlier. so at 10am we got a ride from my roommate was going in a similar direction. He was going to another village further south. so 4 of us packed our luggage and other stuff into his car, which was amazing cos we managed to get everything in.

Btw, his name was George, so he drove us all the way to Old Faithful, on the way we saw loads of stuff. Herds of bisons, elks, boiling rivers, piles of unmelted snow everywhere. it was a beautiful sight, and i forgot to take photos many times... we did stop at this one little fountain to take some photos though.

Old Faithful looks totally different from Mammoth. It still looks very countryside looking here, but there's much more people because of the famous Old Faithful geyser which spurts water up high at regular intervals. I'll be working in the gift shop, and the one here is 3 times the size of the one at mammoth. I'll be thrown directly into the thick of action.

but it wasnt bad. I think i kindda got into situation after the first 1hr or so. There were loads of guests but they were very patient cos i told them it was my 1st day there. And it was great. Most of the guests were very nice and very accommodating, but there were a few who were black-faced the whole night. But overall was good, at the end of the day i clocked about 1.7k of sales, but my final cash was $1 short. According to my sups, $1 is not a big deal. okie!! me and vj are supposed to be on duty, but su told the manager she wanted to work too. but she was just walking around cleaning up things everywhere, and she earns as much as i do, she is so SMART!! hahaa... so that's the end of my 1st shift!!

Here's some photos and a map of yellowstone so everyone wun be too lost about the wheres i'm talking abt.

Day 2 of Work & Travel - Training Day in Mammoth

Among those who arrive on the same day as me, there's only 2 people assigned to Retail and i was one of them. And i found out that i was a reserved position, which meant i was only allocated this position at the last minute. Think they figured they need more people and so here i was. The other person is Lorraine from NUS as well, graduating Biz student.

Yesterday i got to know a few people, Alvin from NTU Sociology, he has a weird british accent. Imagine a singaporean in USA speaking ina UK accent? WEIRD. But thanks to his introduction of the place and people, i got to know a few more people here. There's this guy Frank, he's from Germany, but he speaks good english and he's really funny. He's a bell captain aka bell boy, but he's 42 yrs old. Most of the older people are very nice. There a lot of retirees here, it's like this is the post-retirement job. How nice is that?

Anyway, today's my first training session and also my last. Will do some practice in the morning and i'll be off to old faithful. Had the full 3 meals here in mammoth's EDR (employee dining room). Food is much better when you arrive earlier. :)

Today's training consisted mainly on general knowledge and sales procedures, dos and donts and also how to use the cash register. First time on a cash register, kindda nervy on that. But it was fun, the training Marlene was very nice. I was lacking suitable pants for work as were Lorraine and Su, who came earlier then we did. Marlene drove us into town and got some from our uniform store, Su & Lorraine even got new shoes.

The 3 of us went up the hot springs trail for a hike after dinner. It was a vertical ascent of 300ft but the windings and steps really make us OUT of breath. It's not just me. :P here's some pictures to tell the story.