Last Day in Orlando

This is the last day in Orlando before i take that ordeal flight back to my dear country, Singapore. Today is Saturday, so it is my free day. No work, and none of my colleagues can take me around - good and bad. Good is i can explore on my own without feeling imposing on my colleagues and go here & there as i pleased. Bad is that im of bad direction sense. I am so afraid i will get lost!! anyway, i surfed on the net to check on some of the places i shld go and wat bus i shld take before i ventured on my own.

I have decided to go on a bus ride to anywhere, that is, just take any bus and let it give me an overview of Orlando. then i will move down to International Lane... it is a stretch at Orlando which has most of the places where tourists will go. is a long stretch full of difft things... Ripley's Believe it or not! museum, Universal Studios, etc...


The traffic junction of US..big and sparse and spacious... one driver thought im funnie to take a photo of the junction..haha



So i was a bit lost in the beginning and at the end..but all things work together for good! haha...
The Ripley's believe it or not has a very interesting infrastructure. i did not go in cos my destination was Universal Studios. The building is upside down and lopesided.. interesting design. it is like defying gravity and it looks real from the outside. should have taken photos of it!

Before i can reach Universal Studios, i came to this place that looks like Big Splash and Wild Wild Wet from the outside.

Heated pools for the cold weather!


looks fun!



Then i got to universal studios. i didnt go in cos it was too ex i thought and im alone. would have went in if i have someone with me.


walking..walking...


and reaching!




Citywalk...


and im inside! the trademark of Universal Studios..


the famous car@ Hard Rock cafes...


the cute store where i bought my gingerbread man from the animation, Shrek!




and i saw them: the Scooby doo!


then i head to Disneyland which is on the other side of the island... and i got lost. i didnt get to Disneyland in the end, but i got to this place called the Premium Outlets... and all the malls there are branded stuff..it is the factory outlet area! woo.. i walked around.. they are worth buying cos many of them are on sale. i din buy much as i was on a budget. bought a pair of pants and a watch. would have buy a coach too but did not find anything i liked. i got on a direct bus service back to the hotel. and it was then i realised i have a direct service to Universal Studios too! i wasted much time to go there...




some panaromic views of the Universal Studios...


anyway, i packed my bags and was all ready to fly back to my homeland... my flight was an early one i remember.. i left 5am from the hotel. the flight itself was another memorable one...

3rd, 4th, 5th days at work in Orlando...

got to lump them together cos i cldnt recall anything very interesting...cant blame me since this trip was taken in 2007. only remembered i got a bit jet lag on wed... was v sleepy at work. i was ok on mon n tue..wat happened to wed? i duno..anyway, Rob managed to come into the office and we had another mtg. of cos, since he is the one who requested me to be in the US office for a look. other than that..hmm.. nothing much. i think everyday was v leisure and everybody knocked off 5pm sharp. nobody did OT. nice! and again, i have much time..so i walked around the mall and bought somethings. i bought many toiletries from bath & shower. i bought a wacom tablet from the Apple shop. was cheaper there due to the exchange rate then. is even cheaper now cos of the exchange rate now! but then, i think the model that i bought is now discontinued. is either u buy a high-end one or a consumer one. the consumer one is horrible, and the high-end one is too expensive. im glad i got to buy a consumer one which is good for professional use. :)

wat else? i tried walking out of the hotel..but it got dark too quickly cos is near winter time. cold wind kept blowing too..so i didnt reali go out of the hotel that long... here are the photos...


the most impt place in the office... the pantry! looks like a canteen to me though


the big n long panoramic crusade shot greets u when u come in by the front door


the shops near the hotel when i ventured out in the night...
Michaels - like the Spotlight we have in Singapore...DIY stuff..
and Americans love it.

a pet shop..i went in..but weird it is... it doesnt have the usual pets we see like dogs or cats.
it has a lot of different types of mouse... white mouse, hamsters, rats!, chinchillas and birds...

Day 3 at Orlando & 2nd Day at work

We met as usual at 9.30am..she again brought me to a breakfast place. this time we packed instead of eating in. so, i was doing my own stuff in the design department. just see see look look, not much things to be done. quite a boring day i remember... was suppose to be a workshop with the designers i think. but they thought i was busy and didnt ask me... i was actuali very free..:P

then lunch came, i had lunch with Vanessa Birkbeck, the publications head cum COO's wife. very nice person. oh, btw, i forgot to mention that Brad Bradland, i later found out was the worship leader of the church which i had the service on sunday in the hotel. no wonder i found his red hair familiar..haha.. but i was afar so i didnt reali got to see clearly until we chatted during lunch yesterday. Jacqueline joined us too yesterday. today was vanessa and brad.

nothing much after that except i had a very frutiful time with Alex. i learned a lot from him. very knowledgeable.


a photo of myself outside the office

introducing the graphics department...


the coolest office: striking pink wall, dimmed lights


only a light that shines on this photo... cool...


the artist's working desk...


my working desk... check out the 2 monitors...


and this is the printer room with printers...


cool.. and they have a large format printer too!

oh.. the most interesting that day i think is that i learned from Vanessa that Rob's (the COO) flight was delayed cos he missed his flight! cos of the daylight saving thingy too... he got his time wrong.. is so so confusing... and he has to spend a night at the airport...oh poor thing...

Orlando Official Day 2 - first day at the Orlando office

[note: wow..i reali took way too long to update this travelogue of mine... i must up my gear!! before i forget all i have done. :P ]

I woke up suddenly thinking of wat the time is! i looked into my mobile phone and there it appears 9.30am! arrgghz, i jumped and i thought to myself: oh no! im late..im suppose to meet MK at 8.30am at the hotel lobby! how come she did not contact me, i thought. nvm about that, i just got up and get changed as fast as i could and quickly went to the hotel lobby to meet up with her... but, when i got to the hotel lobby, she wasnt there.. nobody was waiting there. surprised... i smsed her to say that im at the hotel lobby waiting for her. after a while, she replied. she will be there about 20 to 30min's time. oh man, i thought, she's even later than me and she didnt even bother to sms me that she will be late... oh well...

abt half an hour later, i saw her and i got into her car. while on the car, she suddenly said," oh, do u noe that ydae was the starting of our daylight saving?" i was like.. whats that? never heard that in my whole life. she said, the clock sort of went back an hour yesterday cos is winter time in Orlando now. and she said, "no wonder u texted me so early.. i was thinking maybe u r just excited.. " it was then that i realised. ha.. so no wonder she din reach on time and no wonder she din tell me she's cmg late. cos she wasnt at all. so i wasnt late too. haha.. so confusing...

anyway, she brought me to a breakfast place to have breakfast. we chatted a little bit. im not sure if she reali understood me with my kind of Singapore-accented English... i think we missed each other a bit here n there, and ended up with polite giggles and such.

i went into the office about 10am their time... was introduced around in the office. it is huge! the whole office is more like a factory size kind of office. i guessed all offices in america is lidat, or at least in orlando. nice & spacious and simply furnished.


The Orlando Office


was greeted by this when i entered by the back door

i was introduced to many people and walked around the building and departments. those more related to me were:-

Brad Bradland - the person in charge of the mailout and impact magazine designs.
Alex - the person in charge of all the CfaN photos. also the photo editor.
Chris Coleman - not reali reali related but someone i will work with - he is in charge of the web area
MK - the one who picked me up from work - she's the copywriter and DonorOne systems person
and the designers of cos - Jacqueline, and 2 more whom i suddenly forgot their names... v cool ppl with v cool office.


MK, the pretty ger, and me...


Jacqueline, one of the designers and me


Brad, the red head guy and me...

the office is huge and i nearly got lost the 1st few times i was walking around. haha. will post up the photos as the days go by...

so, the whole day was mtg with Brad. he talked to me about the mailouts and the Impact Magazines.. some history and some SOP.

after lunch, it was mtg with MK whom spoke to me about taglines and the copywriting stuff. she wrote most the things in the office. reviews and all.

and then, it was introducing myself again in the designer's office and intro to some of the stuff they did... well, thats about the day and i got chauffeured back to hotel which is only abt 15min drive away. their operatng hours as which i found out was 8.30am to 5pm. quite nice timing.

anyway, night came.. rested, dined, bathed, watch youtube and then i found myself hvg so much free time! is only like 8pm... so went to the florida mall connected to the hotel.. and walked till abt 9pm. so early... i hv no idea wat i shld do too... haha...