It all began from Friday morning, 11 am, Central Distance Time (CDT)! At this time, it was already 18th April, 12 am, back in Singapore! Well, I woke up early that day so as to use the computer, for the usual fb plus forum surfing! Logged on to MSN and began webcaming with Pam. After some time, Andy tried to initiate a webcam session with me. But I could not accept coz I was in another webcam session! So sorry Andy! :x Then about an hour later, Ting Fu talked to me as well, and I was kinda surprised by that coz we usually do not msn much! Haha. Turns out that it was YYY using Ting Fu's msn, and from then, I realised that 78 was having a class gathering back in Singapore! So I said goodbye to Pam, and accepted Andy's webcam invite! What a pleasant surprise I had from them! There they were, gathering in front of the webcam, with a cake for both David and me! Oh man! What's even more interesting about this celebration was that both David and I were not physically present at the gathering! David is in Australia for studies while I am in USA for WAT! Haha. So it was a damn cool, virtual celebration via msn/webcam, from my wonderful 78 friends! Totally love it! We even took a class photo together, with both David and my faces on the laptops! Lol. 78 sang a birthday song to me, and then I virtually blew the cake through the webcam! Haha. Thanks for remembering my birthday and going to the extend of getting a cake for me! It was one crazy celebration! 78 simply rocks! :D
Would have preferred to stay online longer, but it was then time for me to be heading to work! Oh wells. Had not much mood to work on that day, and so when Mike asked whether if I would like to go home earlier, I simply said yes! Ha. For a day which I had to work double, usually being able to return home only at like 11 pm, arriving back home at 9.30 pm that day was truly the earliest ever! Ha. Borrowed Kokwai's laptop again and viewed all the wonderful well-wishes from my friends on fb. Replied some, and then decided to go on MSN again! Webcam with Berns this time, sharing my life here with him, while he kept me company whilst me counting down to 12 am, CDT! Meanwhile, Kokwai was behaving rather mysteriously back then. Coz I kept asking him what we'll have for dinner, (usually we'll just cook something up from stuff that we've bought from Wal-Mart) but he simply just tell me not to worry, that he'll do the cooking! But at like 10.45 pm, when I was starting to feel real hungry, and wanted to do the cooking instead, he still insisted that he'd do it, and instructed me to just keep using the comp! Lol. Then at 11 pm, he suddenly told me that he'd be going out to get some ingredients which he'd require to do some special cooking! From then on, it was quite obvious that he was up to something! Lol.
So I continued to webcam with Berns, and as it gets later and later, I realised things weren't quite right. Coz I remembered that the park was closed earlier than usual, but the 2 Thai girls who reside with me were not back as well! Haha. It just made me wondered more on what the 3 of them were up to! Then at the stroke of midnight, I finally heard the much anticipated knock on the door, and to my huge surprise, they actually got a cake for me, with 21 little candles on it! AHHH! I honestly thought that I would not have a cake on this birthday, coz there aren't many cake shops around, and that cakes here are rather expensive! So when I saw them bringing a cake into the house, and singing happy birthday to me, I was very touched, and felt extremely blessed! But it doesn't end there! I came to learn that the 2 Thai girls walked all the way from work to Wal-Mart to get the cake for me, while Kokwai went to get Domino's Pizzas for dinner! Oh man! It's really super nice of them to throw a celebration for me, felt so happy and loved the entire night! Haha! :D
Woke up early the next day to webcam with my family! Finally, the webcam and the microphone could work simultaneously for the first time! Which meant that my family could hear my voice for the first time, from since I left home! Ha. Talked to them about my life here, friends I have made, the work I have been doing, places I have visited! Then they sang me the loudest birthday song ever, and it just feels so good hearing my parents and sisters' melodious voice over the webcam! Ha!
Then at around 11 am, Kokwai and I left the house for what I'll say is the most eventful day I've ever had in Panama City thus far! We first headed to Emerald Falls to collect our paychecks, and it's the fattest paycheck we have earned, thanks to some 58 hours of hard work in one short week! We then headed to the petrol kiosk, where I bought some Florida State Lottery, in hope that my birthday luck would shine and I would strike it rich! Haha. Of course that did not happen! :( Lols. We then cycled some 2.5 miles to Goodwill thrift store, where I presented my birthday donation of $21 to them, in hope that my small and random act of kindness will be able to benefit people who are not as fortunate as I am. :) Once done, we began our long journey of cycling straight into town, having to walk up the Hathaway Bridge that links Panama City to Panama City Beach. Ha. Caught the movie, State of Play, at Carmike Cinemas. Realised that watching movies isn't a popular culture here, as the theatre I was in probably only had 10 people watching maximum, and that all of them were either middle-aged or senior citizens. Lol. The movie was great though, enjoyed the thrill and the constant twists in the storyline.
After the movies, we cycled for another 3 plus miles to Panama City Mall. It's actually somewhat like a shopping center, just that it's only one story tall, and is extremely huge. There were 3 departmental stores there, namely Sears, JCPenny and Dillard's. Oh wells. Though the mall is huge, there's nothing much that's interesting to see. We then headed on to Best Buy, another departmental store that sells mainly electronics. At there, I was so mesmerized by the PC games and laptops there, I would have bought all that I want if I've had the cash! Ha. They even have FSX Gold Edition over there, going for only USD $40! So took note of certain prices, then left the place for dinner at Chow Time! It was an eat-all-you-can Chinese + American buffet! Food was certainly fantastic compared to what we always have back at home. However, the Chinese food certainly had been Americanised, and so certainly isn't as good as those back in Singapore. They do have a great variety of food though, ranging from sushi's to chicken cooked in all sorts of styles, to all kinds of cakes and brownies, all kinds of fruits and even ice-cream! It's also extremely value for money, as the dinner simply cost USD $9.99 only! Ha.
We were being served by an oriental lady, and when she served us our tea, I couldn't help but said thank you to her in Chinese! When she heard that, she was like asking where we were from, and what were we doing here. She then told us that she's actually from Fujian, China, and has moved to the US to work! From then, it was rather awkwardly funny as all the Chinese ladies working there would be smiling at us as they walked past us. Haha. It was also interesting to note the unusual stares we were attracting from the local Americans when we were using chopsticks instead of the fork and spoon! Haha.
After the great dinner, my stomach was totally bloated! Cycling back home therefore was a rather daunting task. When we were back up on the Hathaway Bridge, we stopped for awhile and tried to take some photos. Unfortunately light was not sufficiently bright so our faces turned out to be rather dark. We then continued to cycle back home, stopping by at a liquor store, with me trying to buy a Chardonnay. Unforutnately, I did not have a government-issued photo ID with me, and so the lady simply refused to sell me any alcohol. Lol.
In anyways, it was a day really well spent! Had a wonderful time and a truly 'time-of-my-life' birthday in the US of A! Thanks to my family for giving me the opportunity to be able to do this WAT program. Thanks to my dearest friends, especially 78, for all the wonderful well-wishes! Thanks to Kokwai, Blue and Rainbow for throwing a party for me, and thanks to Kokwai again for a great Saturday! The 18th Day of April of the Year 2009, a truly special day I will never forget! :D
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