Here we go again.

So, it is that time of week again: the one where we have to clean the apartment before the maid comes. Yay!!! *sarcasm*
But before I bore you with that, let me recount the details of the weekend. On Saturday I met some friends, Heather  and Clayton, at the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are huge, and a really popular place to hang out. We walked around some and checked out the Ginger Garden, but then spent the rest of the late afternoon relaxing by one of the ponds with a bit of wine until dark had fallen. The gardens were beautiful and have a section that is like a rain forest!...can't wait  to go back and see that part!
Afterward, we headed over the Holland Village via the MRT...which brings me to the most exciting news of all... The Orange Line is open for business!!! Yay!!!! There was party stuff going on as the Singaporeans celebrated, and a stage with a live band was set up outside of Holland. We ate at the Hawker Center and enjoyed the last couple of songs played by the group before the show ended, then chilled with some Frolik (the yummy froyo, pineapple flavored today). By now the group had managed to become 5: myself, Heather, Kevin, Dexter and Annie. I think I might have already mentioned this a few posts ago, but Heather, Kevin and Annie are all here on a Fulbright Scholarship program. They are doing some kind of work-study deal for 9 months. Annie and Kevin have already started theirs, but Heather has quite begun hers yet. Dexter is here doing an internship with the US Embassy.
Anyway, we pretty much just hung out at a bar in the Holland area for a while before heading home. Of course, about 10 minutes before we all were leaving, the weather  decided to storm. Typical Singapore. Luckily, since I live around Holland Village, I only had a short walk through the downpour...and of course I had my umbrella.
Sunday was sort of a lazy day. My throat has been mothering me some, so I just worked on some school work (the stuff I had procrastinated on earlier  in the week), ate at our usual Mexican place for lunch, and ended up watching Thor with the family that night...which I actually enjoyed more than I thought I would, though I think I prefer Iron Man and Captain America more.

So back to today.... cleaning! I really dislike how every week we have to make it a big deal to clean the apartment before Jane (the maid) even gets here! On top of that, she likes to text my Mom  about what time she thinks she will show up, but my Mom doesn't hear her phone go off half the time! Last week Jane didn't show up until almost 1 and didn't leave until right after 6!!! How am I supposed to make dinner when she is taking up the whole kitchen with the ironing board and mop and stuff? I wish this whole Maid stuff wasn't so ingrained in the Singapore culture!

*sigh* anyway...with that mini-rant out of the way, I really don't have much ore to add. No plans yet for this week or the weekend coming up, but I will be sure to fill you in as we go along!