The JOB & Chinatown

It’s Wednesday here in the future. Which means I’m half way thru the first week of my new job. I gotta say, I hate being the new kid and I miss my peeps at the ProxPit™. But, I guess that’s to be expected. So far, the office is very quiet. Everyone is hard at work.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kinda a loud person. My voice carries. And when I get excited, when I think I’m being funny, or when I’m trying to make a point, I just get louder and louder. It’s something I’ve always been aware of. When I was an 8th grade cheerleader the other team made fun of me for cheering too loud. I didn’t even know that was possible. But, my volume is even more obvious in this office than inside the West Jr. High Gymnasium.

A lot of people of have asked me about the office. Here’s where I sit.

I actually really like it and have always preferred the open work environment.

Ok, on to more exciting stuff. Yesterday I met up with Alice, the girl I met at my hotel after nearly stabbing her with an umbrella. She makes me look really, really, really boring. She’s from South Africa and has spent most of her adult life traveling the world for work. It’s so nice to meet an inspiring independent woman who is enjoying a successful career. I have a feeling I could learn a lot and have a lot of fun with her.

She was near my office in the Clark Quay area to pick up her employment pass. So, we met here and walked along the riverfront for a bit. There looked to be a lot of nice restaurants lined up along the water but they are pretty pricey. I’ll save them until after I get a paycheck. But, we discovered that neither one of us had eaten at a Hawker Centre yet, something a lot of locals have told me to do, so we decided to walk to Chinatown and check one out.  Here’s a picture of a street in Chinatown that we saw along the way. The streets were beautifully lit with an array of different colored paper lanterns.

For those of you who don’t know what a Hawker Center is, don’t worry. There’s a wikipedia page for that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_centre

In essence, it’s an open-air complex with a bunch of local vendors selling inexpensive food. It reminded me a bit of the Jasper County Fair except with more rice and dumplings and less elephant ears and corn dogs. Here’s a picture.

From what I’ve heard, getting good food at a Hawker Centre is hit or miss. So, we chose the vendor with the longest line hoping the people in front of us knew what they hell they were doing. And, they did. The food was great. Alice and I shared  Chicken & Rice, a Chicken Mushroom and noodle dish and I only spent S $5.50. Here’s the vendor I chose.

Here’s a vendor with a wonderful name, literally. The “Yummy,Yummy” made me smile.

And since we’re in Asia, here’s a picture of our food.

I always considered myself to be fairly good at eating with chopsticks, until I moved to Asia. I’m really,really bad. But, I guess it’ll keep me skinny.

After dinner, we split some soybean pudding from this vendor. 

We had the original flavor because you have to start with knowing what Soya Beancurd tastes like originally before trying the others, right? It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Honestly. But I’m not sure I’ll eat it again.

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. The next thing on my list is to find an apartment. That starts tonight.