Philippine Travel Logs - Ummm...3 days before I leave I think...

Sleeping during the day can be interesting. If you forget to put on the “Do not disturb” sign you get woke up by housekeeping. The Edsa Shangri-La is a great hotel, and they keep me amused. Besides everyone knowing my name (how do they do that!?), my room cleaners leave me notes to “Ms. Jessica” asking me if the room is cleaned to my liking. People here are so polite…and it’s a genuine politeness. I had to try and throw away my hair dryer 3 times because they kept taking it out of the garbage telling me that I must have made a mistake in putting it there. The wake up calls are funny…never quite the time I ask for but they do wake me up so I am grateful for that. I asked for one at 6 PM, with a follow up at 6:15 PM. They came at 6:15 PM and 6:18 PM. But that was only once….usually they are within 5 minutes of the time I asked for. Also it seems that the messages that make it to guests do not always make it to the employees…which I can understand working for a huge international company. I received a typed note on my desk on very nice paper telling me that they were going to be painting the outside of the hotel today, right outside my window. There was no date on it and I didn’t know how long the note has been there. I called the front desk to confirm and the nice lady had no idea what I was talking about, they were not painting the hotel. So when I was woke up at noon by someone swinging around on a gondola outside my window I was a little startled. The kitchen staff is funny too. Since I eat dinner in the AM, I order off the Night Owl menu, which I am finding is relative. The menu says “served from 11 PM to 5 AM”…but unless it’s a breakfast food they do not really have it. I tried to order fried rice with prawns (which they DID have available at 8 am last week) and they didn’t have it. I did point out that it was on the Night Owl menu and was apologized to like 80 times...I felt kind of bad and will not be pointing that out again. I would rather they think I am rude for asking for dinner at 8 AM rather then make them feel incompetent. But I am not complaining. I have found the errors refreshing because the first week I was here and nothing was amiss...I was feeling too pampered. I like being pampered, but not to the 5 Star Hotel level. You don’t have to change my sheets every day. Folding my clothes is unnecessary. I can use a bath towel more than once. I do not need slippers. I will not be calling you to come take away my food cart…I can live with it in the room with me till I leave for work. No need to call me in 30 minutes to ask if the food was to my liking. I do not need a newspaper everyday (though I know some do, but I just throw mine away). No need to have the kitchen staff prepare dinner food for me on special request…I can eat eggs if it’s easier on you guys. They don’t even tease me when I say “good morning!” at 8 pm when I leave for work, and they always correct me when I ask for a pickup at 7 PM instead of 7 AM like I really need. I like the call center and all, but I think I might go mad if I had to be there for 23 hours straight. So after eating burgers and eggs for the last two weeks I decided to change it up a bit. Ordered a traditional Japanese breakfast this morning (before I went to bed so to me that would be “last night” but whatever). It looked safe because it was salmon, rice, Miso soup and Japanese pickles. I mean how bad could Japanese pickles be right? Well the salmon was good, and the rice was…well it was rice. Not a big fan of Miso soup, which I already knew. But those pickles…let me tell you….I can still smell those things. They were nasty. I didn’t actually eat one. I just smelled it. That was bad enough. The smelled stayed in my nose. It got to the point I had to take the rice and salmon and move them to a separate plate…and take the plate with the pickles into the bathroom and close the door because I was having trouble eating my food smelling them. Why didn’t I take them off my plate? I was not touching them. I touched one to smell it and my fingers still smell of Japanese pickle, and I have slept 7 hours, showered and went out for Italian since then. So what I am getting at is…I am not a fan of Japanese pickles. I was invited to go eat with a group here. Ariel (Process Lead) and his team were going to go have dinner and meeting here at 5:30 PM. I went to best at 9 AM this morning so I got in a good 7 hours before I had to get up. When I got here I turned on my computer and discovered it was 3:30 AM at home. WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING AWAKE??? I figure that means I got up at 1 AM! So most the team couldn’t make it so Ariel and I went to a nice Italian restaurant in the mall. It was fun, Ariel is a cool guy. I told him that all Italian restaurants must have the same decorating motif worldwide because this place was very similar to Johnny Carino’s/Olive Garden. They all seem to have an exorbitant amount of framed black and white photos on the walls. So now I am at work, albeit an hour early but that’s ok…I needed to update my blog anyways right? So “tonight” after I sleep I will be going to see The Last Airbender with some of the team, then work, then shopping, then dinner. I think. I might be messed up on the order. All I know is after work tomorrow I will not sleep until Saturday evening. Jessi might get a little loopy.

Philippine Travel Logs - Day 4 though "I don't know what day it is anymore..."

I have gotten used to working at night, though I have to admit it was not that hard. Beings that I didn’t have to change my schedule from the States it has been easy. After work on Friday Kath, Ron S., Mylene and I went shopping at Greenhills. Wow. It is a shopping mall that is like one big craft sale. Tons on knockoff purses and wallets, scarves, shoes, jewelry and everything in-between. It was strange because everyone yells at you “Buy a purse Ma’am” and hands you things. I told them it was difficult for me because where I am from when someone talks to you, you acknowledge them, but that was impossible there. I had to learn to ignore people, though I am pretty sure I said “no thank you” about 800,000 times that day. I managed to get most of my shopping taken care of there, though I have a few more to buy. I kept asking everyone if they were tired but they all said no, however Ron did mention on the way back to the hotel that I was not kidding when I said I could shop for long hours. When I finally looked at my watch I had been up for 22 hours straight. It was around them my decision making skills took a dive. Who knew Brandi was so hard to buy for. I am hoping to make it back there, there are some things I wish I would have bought. Since I don’t fly out till Sunday I should be able to do that. We ate and once I got back to the hotel it was 6 PM, which is when I usually would be getting up for work. I laid down and was out and did not even open my eyes for 12 hours on the dot. I woke up at 6 AM. I ate, facebooked and watched TV for a few hours and went back to bed. Slept for another 10 hours and work up at like 1 am. Perfect. Stayed up watching TV and playing on the internet. At one point I did have to call the front desk to ask what day it was, because I was getting a little confused! On Sunday I got to talk to Xavie and Casey on webcam. At first only mine was working so they could see me, but I could only hear them. I heard Xavie saying “Mama! Mama!” and I wanted to see him so bad. He is just so precious I could hardly stand it. I wanted to hug him so bad. Times like that make me so excited for when I get off the plane back home. My wish is that he will always run into my arms and hug me, though last time when I got home from Panama all he did was look at me and yell, “Clock!” Maybe that was his way of asking me why I was gone so long or something. This week I need to focus on pictures. I don’t want to forget the people I have met here, and leaving will be hard knowing I will never see them again. In Panama there was a chance I was coming back, so I think that made it easier to say goodbye. Monday starts my last week at Dell. I cannot explain how that makes me feel. Part of it doesn’t feel real at all. Dell has been a constant in my life, and since I am not in my normal environment I am having issues separating leaving the Philippines for leaving Dell overall. I have to admit though things have not seemed normal since the call center closed. That place was my second home. Anywhere I can sit on the toilet seat without hovering is somewhere I consider home. Only a handful of places fit this requirement…My house, Mom and Dad’s house, Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Brandi and Mitch’s house, Tiff and Tyler’s house, my Father-in-Laws house, and the call center. Anywhere else and you can bet your butt that mine is not touching a toilet seat. Working from home instead of there never really felt real. Felt more like the whole thing was temporary, and now I know why I guess. Because it was. That site closing stated a countdown; a countdown to a change. I just didn’t know what that change was going to be. It could have been going to Texas, it could have been leaving Dell all together….only time would tell. And now it has. J So while my job here is not yet done I do find myself thinking about what I will do when I get home. Casey has told me to take a few weeks and just be home with Xavie and pretend to be a stay at home Mommy like I have always dreamed of being, but I am not sure I can do that. Not when I know the money is slowing running out and nothing is refilling it. I will be a mad woman looking for a job. I will be sad to leave here too….the Philippine call center is awesome. I could see myself sitting on their toilet seats in a few months time. The cubes are my size, the cubes are Dell blue, they have free good coffee that is all you can drink, the building lights up rainbow colors on the outside (I freaking love LED lights!), there is a mall across the street, and there is Chinese and Japanese food is everywhere….it’s like this place is made for me or something. So off to bed to start a new adventure in the morning!

Philippines Travel Log - Day 3

Day 3 I woke up and turned on the news. They said something about a Typhoon but I wasn’t really paying attention. I noted the word Typhoon and on the way to the call center I got a little worried, then I calmed back down. I thought Typhoon was like a weak hurricane…and tsunami was the big one. Nope. Turns out typhoon and hurricane are the same darn thing, though I think the word typhoon is prettier…hurricane is more descriptive. It was raining when I got to the call center, but not bad. I had no idea. I mean I know what hurricanes do….I am not that naïve, but since I have never seen one in person I was unprepared….funny thing that through the whole thing I was kind of excited. Not to see bad things happen to people by any means, but just to be in a hurricane….typhoon whatever. This got looks from people when I would say I was excited for the experience. I don’t blame them. If anyone told me they were looking forward to the big blizzard and driving the snow the next day I would think they were nuts too. We risked going outside to smoke and it was INSANE. Rain like I have never seen. Two seconds in it and you would be soaked. Wind like I have never seen…and I have seen wind thank you very much. Twin is always windy, but not so much gusty like this was. Close to the building it was just kinda breezy, then a gust hit and my hair came clear up over my head. And since it is so humid there I don’t think it ever really recovered that day. There was crazy lightning, which I couldn’t tell was lightning because the building around me are so tall so I didn’t know if it was a light flashing or real lightning. Then came the power outages. Power went out about 6 times throughout the night, but the longest one was only about 3 minutes before it came back. Well the power didn’t comeback, but the back-up generator kicked on. Lunch that day was in the “pantry” or cafeteria as we call it in the States. Everything look quite good. I chose rice and BBQ chicken. I have to say Filipinos are a clean folk. They eat with both spoons and forks at the same time (spoon the right hand and fork in the left, if they are right handed) are very tidy. These are my kind of people. They keep food separated and mix it right before they eat it on their spoon. See I am not weird after all. They have no use for knives when eating and cut everything with their spoon which I thought was amazing. I was trying to cut something with my fork and got some weird looks….and they recommended I try the spoon and hold the meat down with the fork. And WOW…it really works! I never thought a spoon could cut anything. I am amazed how tidy they are when they eat. I asked if they ever use their hands because I had to eat my chicken, and well it was a drumstick so I felt hand usage was essential. They laughed and said yes so I dug in. It was pretty darn tasty…and the meat was dry. I love dry meat. And no I am not being sarcastic…I perfect my chicken on the dry side. They did laugh watching me eat rice with just a fork (or spoon) and again told me to try it with both….pushing the rice on the spoon with the fork. INGENIOUS! Why have we never thought of this? After lunch we hear a rumor that the higher ups were considering making everyone stay at the call center to sleep that day because the storm was getting bad. I wouldn’t have known, the walls in this building must be made of steel wrapped in some alloy I have never heard of, wrapped in a sound barrier that is wrapped in more steal. I did not hear a peep of that storm but when I got outside I didn’t understand how I didn’t hear anything. So while contemplating the fact I might have to sleep on the call center floor in a sleeping bag with no deodorant, or AC I got a bit horrified, and then excited again. I mean SLEEP OVER! With awesome fun people! w00t! But eventually the storm passed and they released us. When I went back to the hotel I discovered I forgot to remove the do not disturb from my door so My food cart was still there from 36 hours before. Awesome. I called they removed it and I have to say it was the first time I seemed to get an irritated employee from the hotel. I am telling you these people are TIDY! They like things CLEAN and 36 hour old fried rice was NOT something he was impressed with! We will see what tomorrow brings!

Philippines Travel logs – Day 2

Well, day two stated off with a bang. And I am not kidding it was a loud pop and a flash of light and a power outage in my hotel room. That’s what I get for using my own hairdryer while overseas I guess. So after a very embarrassing call and visit from the nice hotel handyman, I was informed it was just a breaker flipping but that my hairdryer is fried. I just got that hair dryer like a year ago! Good hairdryers are hard to find….then there was the visit from one of the hotel managers because I couldn’t get into my safe. I work for a computer company but apparently typing in a 5 digit code I picked out to open the darn thing is beyond me. Turn out I was not pushing the door hard enough when I was keying in the code. *eye roll* Since I didn’t know what time I needed to be to work I chose to go in early. If I knew this entailed me sitting in a lobby for 45 minutes while they decided to do with me I would have slept in. Once I got to where I needed to go (which was the 3rd floor not the 2nd) it was just fine. Working at night has not been an issue. There are windows in the call center, but since I am used to working in one without any the absence of daylight goes unnoticed by me. The hotel has great black out curtains so I don’t have issues sleeping during the day. In fact I find myself being surprised when I open them right before I got to bed and find it is REALLY bright outside. That was about it for day two. Ate some fried rice with prawns and ordered a chocolate croissant…which turned out to be 6 croissants….so I have breakfast for the “morning.” I did see on the news and they are expecting a typhoon, which from what I gather is just another word for hurricane. Awesome, rain and wind here I come.

Philippine Travel Logs - Day 1

Brandi dropped me off at the airport at 5 pm Saturday July 10th. I was in for 20+ hours of flying....thank goodness she told me to wear yoga pants. I was not as scared to fly this time. Airports are fairly easy to navigate. Most have English, which is nice but unexpected. I feel for travelers in our country that don't know English. Of course getting out of Twin was easy, SLC even easier. I smoked two cigs there because I had a feeling Vancouver BC was not about to have smoking areas. Canadians are not big on smokers eh. I asked the customs attendant if they had any, and was looked at like I was bat-turd crazy. For living so close to Canada, I have never been there. Got to tell you the Vancouver airport has to be my lease favorite, but I will reserve judgement till I experience Houston's. It was a pretty airport, lots of dangling glass walkways. That were empty. I mean empty. I was the only person in that airport for like 20 minutes. I was beginning to wonder if I was lost and somewhere I shouldn't be when the nice guy in the gray glass box waved and said Bonjour. Vancouver is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, but unexpectedly humid. I didn't think i would be being so far north, but it was in the 70s and my palms were wet. I was dreading the flight to the Philippines. 14 hours on a plane I expected to to speak only Tagalog. Shockingly, they used English only, until we landed when they used both English and Tagalog. I was not ticketed for the flight and was a little concerned. The loudspeaker system in Vancouver was about as useful as the empty walkways....I couldn't hear anything. I strained to hear but since the actual gates were behind glass doors and walls I was sitting on the floor in the main gate hallway with 200 Filipinos. They like to talk....loud and fast so I could not hear my name when they called it 7 times. Finally I grabbed an airport employee when they were leaving the gate. She asked for my name and said "We have been looking for you!" Really? TURN UP THE VOLUME. I hear very well, my firends tell me I whisper when I talk and am always telling others they are talking too loud...there is nothing wrong with my hearing. Took them 10 minutes to ticket me. When i got to my seat a nice 80+ year old Filipino woman showed me her ticket..and we had the same seat. I was not going to share so i went to the stewardess, while the lady took my seat. I stood in Business class for 20 minutes while they figured it out. She told me to wait there, which gave me time to wish I could stay there the whole flight! They were passing hot hot towels to the travelers in 1st class. Kinda glad I didn't get one. What am I supposed to do with it? The lady walks past me and get the lady from my seat. Seats her in 1st class and tells me to go back to my seat. At first I was irritated, but she was like 87 so better her then me I guess. The guy that sat next to me was an armrest hogger. I am a sharer, he was not. I spent the whole flight with his arm touching mine or my back because he refused to move. Even when he played with his Ipad. Speaking of I want on of those bad boys. When we filled out of customs declarations form he asked to borrow my pen. I wanted to ask him if I could borrow the armrest, but thought better of it. I managed to pass out 10 minutes after take off. I was asleep, my butt was asleep, my neck was asleep, and my left arm was asleep (mainly because the before-mentioned Ipad man would not move his dang arm). But...at least I was asleep. They passed out those eye covers for sleeping. Never used on before but I used the crap out of that one. Got woke up for dinner, which smelled awful so I didn't eat. I woke up at 4 am (Idaho time) which was 4 hours in. Not bad but I had 10 to go. Passed out again and woke up at 8 am (Idaho time). With 6 hours to go I just need to get to sleep again. Was worried that my tummy was gurgling....not because I was hungry but because I had gas. I managed to sleep. Woke my self up by farting really loud. Looked around in horror to find everyone sleeping and made a mental note to SILENTLY dispel gas BEFORE going back to sleep. The arm rest stealer next to me never reclined his seat so I figured I would lean on the side of his chair. I mean we were cozy anyways since HE WOULD NOT MOVE HIS ARM and we had been touching for 8 hours anyways. As soon as I got comfy he decided to recline. Moron. Bet he heard the fart too. This guy must have no bubble. If I heard and felt someone fart I think I would move. I wrote it off because I thought maybe he was from a culture that just didn't have much of a bubble, but his passport was American. Weirdo. The next time I woke up we had 2 hours to go. They served breakfast, which smelled just as bad as dinner but I tried it because I was hungry. Managed about 2 bites, drank my coffee and nibbled on a roll. I was bummed I didn't have a window seat because we were flying off the coast of Japan, which I would have loved to see, but I would have had to reach across arm rest stealer to open the window so I just hope I will get to see it on the way back. I watched a movie that they were playing. The person across the isle asked if I wanted their head phones. Wish I was sitting next to him instead of arm rest stealer, but I declined noting there were subtitles so I didn't need any. Had a cute conversation with a 2 year old boy who was speaking Tagalog. He looked nothing like Xavie, but had the same build and big eyes so I took to him instantly. He spent the better part of the next hour bringing me his toys to play with while his mother laughed. He was a cute kid, but I never got his name. We finally landed and I was not looking forward to immigration/customs. The humidity here was not as bad as in Vancouver, which again confused me. Immigration took like 20 minutes, not too bad. Didn't grill me with questions like Panama immigration did. Got my bags and headed to customs. Easy again, less then 2 minutes! The airport instructions told me to take a right out the airport to their service station. Not there. Talked to a security guard who pointed in another direction entirely. I was at 17 hours of not smoking but lighting up without knowing I could for sure spelled disaster so I waited. Walked to the left till I found the transport station. Turns out it's to the right if you are LOOKING at the airport, not coming out of it. That would have been useful to know! My flight was early so i had to wait about 30 min for my driver. I asked where I would smoke and got the complete opposite reaction i did in Vancouver....I can smoke anywhere outside, and inside too unless there is a no smoking sign posted. w00t! Chain smoked two. Not a good plan because i was hungry and shaky from flying. Got my driver and got to the hotel. It was 5:30 am in Manila but i could have swore it 8 am rush hour by how busy the city was! The hotel is really nice! I don't know how everyone there knows my name. It was like and episode of Cheers. I walked in and 5 people were like "Ms Markwell, this way please." Alright, sure. Got my room and did a currency exchange. Feel rich because I have over $1000 whatevers in my wallet, but really that's like 40 bucks. Went to my room where i was given a tour. Huh. Then called my family and Brandi, who didn't answer! :D Decided I would order room service. Don't usually even though I can but since I will only eat one other time today and I am tired it seemed like a plan. Breakfast was HUGE and included asparagus.....which was very good! The milk here (for my Rice Krispies) is like half and half. The Mango juice was awesome and the pineapple amazing. The only thing I didn't like was the sausage. Oh and I can smoke in my room. So now I am going to bed to go to work tonight! :D

Well, it's here. What's here? Summers here! About time too. I have been so tired of the cold, the wet, and the windy. But this change in seasons is bringing big changes in my life...and I am a little lost I think. Stay? Go? Apply? Decline? Travel? Stay home? Business? Health care?

Really, all I want is to be a mom.

But that's not an option. So I am left in the spot of trying to figure out what I am going to accomplish that. I hate decisions. I really, really do.