Today was Orientation Day for us newbies. Don't ask me why I'm only attending orientation after more than 3 weeks on the job. Anyway, I had a fun time today. And real hilarious moments too. See right, we were expecting a talk from the engineering department and the guy who was supposed to talk to us was called Rahim. My Indonesian colleague said he couldn't understand why anyone would name their son Rahim and so I asked why. Lo and behold, in Bahasa Indonesia, "rahim" means the female um, shall we say... entrance. But of course, in his deadpan way, my colleague used the "V" word and my other friend and I just cracked up. And I said I couldn't look at Rahim with a straight face when he came. True enough, when Rahim came in, I started giggling. And my other female colleague starting giggling as well. Now, if you've ever tried to control your laughter (think those stifled giggles during assembly and flag-raising, or maybe during sermons, or lectures and tutes), you will understand the pain you have to go through to stifle your amusement. It's mixed with a sense of fear that you'll get called up and embarrassed in front of everyone. So there I was, trying my darndest to stop laughing but I couldn't. And when I looked at my friend, she would start laughing too. And then the worst thing happened. Rahim introduced himself. I nearly died. My shoulders were rapidly going up and down and my face was contorted in a pained fashion. Man, I can't even begin to tell you how much I wanted to burst out in rolling laughter. But for the record, I wasn't being mean. It was just a funny thing.

The funnies continued when Rahim took us to the rooftop to show us how to use the fire extinguisher. He fired (no pun intended) the extinguisher at such a strategic level as to evoke a round of giggles from us newbies. And then he realised that perhaps he shouldn't place it so near the nether regions to simulate some other sort of activity.

So it was quite a fun-filled day and I also realised that should there be a fire in the hotel, I would be one of the last to leave because Security, Engineering and Front Office are part of the fire fighting team. Yay. I'm so thrilled. Oh, and I also learnt that a firefighter gets paid about $6000. How nice.