Monday, October 27, 2014
Palawan Island Adventure!
This weekend was awesome and made the whole month worth it! We had a beautiful beach front suite, drank cocktails continuously, played on the beach, collected sea shells, enjoyed a massive rain shower during a boat ride, chilled out with monkeys and experienced one of the seven wonders of the world - the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (or known as the Underground Caves). It was a jam packed, relaxing and amazing trip! See photos below (and soon to be on flickr). Now off to bed! :D
Monday, October 20, 2014
Manila Ocean Park Day!
Unfortunately I was unable to go to Tagaytay on Saturday. My team didn't get paid in time and therefore couldn't afford to go. Turns out they got paid that night. I understand that feeling, but it still sucked nonetheless. Now I just tell myself that for some reason, I was not meant to be there that day. Instead, I ate breakfast with a couple of people, then proceeded to go to the mall to get some exercise (it's a huge mall and even though I didn't want to shop, I power walked my way around and ended up going in many, many circles). I saw others walking around with a strangely shaped food, and decided to find it. Turns out it was an ice cream cone called a Jipangyi! See picture below. The rest of the evening was spent watching movies and dealing with the new headache that arrived.
Sunday I awoke to the same headache. This sucked, as I decided to sign up for the Manila Ocean Park tour. So I spent the morning eating a breakfast of mini croissants, coffee and miso soup, and hoping to rid the headache. At noon I left for Ocean Park with a couple from Melbourne, Australia whom also joined. This is basically why I chose this tour, as all others would have just been me, by myself, all alone. This couple was lovely and a good choice to spend the day with at the park. They were probably in their 60's, very sweet and loved to talk. The park was definitely not the most amazing thing I've seen, but it was nice to be out! I took many pictures of all the fish (mostly aquariums of random fish, sharks, jellyfish and stingrays). The only really good part of the park was the short moment you could spend touching the sting rays and then enjoying the 20 minute sea lion show. The best part of the day was paying an extra $6 to get my picture taken kissing one of the sea lions (Izabela or Victor - not sure who it was, but you'll see below)!
Of course after the trip we all went back to the hotel. My headache still slightly throbbing. My dinner plans were then canceled due to the fact that my co-worker was also suffering from a headache and needed to sleep it off. So I definitely didn't mind, as I nursed my headache as well. Something in the air maybe? A little too hot this weekend and became a bit dehydrated perhaps? Who knows.
Today is now Monday and the headache is still slightly around - going away little by little every day. My tummy is still not accustomed to things around here either! We had pizza delivered to our office for lunch, and boy was it not a happy afternoon! (Too much information? Haha). Now I'm looking forward to the end of the week! If only I could skip ahead. I booked an hour and a half massage at the nice hotel on Friday for only $25. Yay! Then on Saturday morning my co-worker and I are traveling to Palawan (Puerto Princesa) to spend the evening in a nice, beach front resort, enjoying cocktails and sandy beaches. Then have a fun filled, 2 hour adventure through the underground caves! Sadly, back home by Sunday evening. So a very short trip, but it will be worthwhile. :) Once that is over, I will definitely be ready to fly home on the 31st. If it weren't for this trip, I'd be ready now. I miss home, and I am much more appreciative of fresh fruits and vegetables washed in clean water available to me anytime. And my tummy will be very happy to be home too.
Thanks for reading! :)
A Jipangyi!
Kissing a Sea Lion <3
Sunday I awoke to the same headache. This sucked, as I decided to sign up for the Manila Ocean Park tour. So I spent the morning eating a breakfast of mini croissants, coffee and miso soup, and hoping to rid the headache. At noon I left for Ocean Park with a couple from Melbourne, Australia whom also joined. This is basically why I chose this tour, as all others would have just been me, by myself, all alone. This couple was lovely and a good choice to spend the day with at the park. They were probably in their 60's, very sweet and loved to talk. The park was definitely not the most amazing thing I've seen, but it was nice to be out! I took many pictures of all the fish (mostly aquariums of random fish, sharks, jellyfish and stingrays). The only really good part of the park was the short moment you could spend touching the sting rays and then enjoying the 20 minute sea lion show. The best part of the day was paying an extra $6 to get my picture taken kissing one of the sea lions (Izabela or Victor - not sure who it was, but you'll see below)!
Of course after the trip we all went back to the hotel. My headache still slightly throbbing. My dinner plans were then canceled due to the fact that my co-worker was also suffering from a headache and needed to sleep it off. So I definitely didn't mind, as I nursed my headache as well. Something in the air maybe? A little too hot this weekend and became a bit dehydrated perhaps? Who knows.
Today is now Monday and the headache is still slightly around - going away little by little every day. My tummy is still not accustomed to things around here either! We had pizza delivered to our office for lunch, and boy was it not a happy afternoon! (Too much information? Haha). Now I'm looking forward to the end of the week! If only I could skip ahead. I booked an hour and a half massage at the nice hotel on Friday for only $25. Yay! Then on Saturday morning my co-worker and I are traveling to Palawan (Puerto Princesa) to spend the evening in a nice, beach front resort, enjoying cocktails and sandy beaches. Then have a fun filled, 2 hour adventure through the underground caves! Sadly, back home by Sunday evening. So a very short trip, but it will be worthwhile. :) Once that is over, I will definitely be ready to fly home on the 31st. If it weren't for this trip, I'd be ready now. I miss home, and I am much more appreciative of fresh fruits and vegetables washed in clean water available to me anytime. And my tummy will be very happy to be home too.
Thanks for reading! :)
A Jipangyi!
Kissing a Sea Lion <3
Friday, October 17, 2014
Week 2 down!
So these last two weeks have been pretty uneventful unfortunately. I think I'm starting to get my bearings and am feeling the urge to see new things and get out more. It's still tough as I am feeling alone.
Tomorrow my team is hopefully taking me to Tagaytay (a volcanic area) to see the sites, then to Mall of Asia. I say hopefully because these poor guys have not gotten paid yet, and they will either get paid at midnight tonight or at midnight on Monday. So if they don't see money come through, no one can afford to go. So I feel bad for them. Let's hope it works out for all of us! They need to get paid and I want to get out of my hotel! :P If it turns out they don't get paid, Tagaytay is out, but one Manila trainer did say he'd show me around Manila with his fiance as a back up plan. Next weekend I am hoping to travel to the Palawan Islands and enjoy the beaches and underground caves!! I'm tempted to freaking do it alone if no one will go with me. I have a lady from Reno here that said she'd like to go, but it's not definite yet. Fingers crossed!! I'm all the way over here and I want to see things! I just don't want to travel alone - safety wise. Though I'm thinking if I pay a little extra, I may be able to travel alone safely if it comes to that. I will see as the time comes.
My team is still planning on taking me to karaoke in the next two weeks. I really want to go to karoake! Haha. I'm also trying to get others who are training here from Reno and Dublin to go out to dinner and drinks this Sunday. Monday night I'm getting together for dinner with another team who's training for a different job. So things are starting to happen, thank God. For the last two weeks it's been work, work, and more work. Lots of room service and going to the mall. I've only had one night out. This has to change. Though tonight is another night in of room service, wine, blogging apparently, and watching Carrie Underwood in the Sound of Music on my tv. I have a couple of movie channels in my room - this has been important since I've spent a lot of time in my hotel room working and having movies on in the background.
Training wise I have felt overly stressed this week. My company sent me over to train a lot of information I do not know. They knew that, so within a couple of weeks I've had to do crash courses on these processes. Then they expect me to be able to answer every question a trainee has. They also had me prepare a lot of my presentation and somehow I need to know how to develop these trainees into well knowledgable employees. They start their jobs the week after I leave, so they will be under a lot of pressure as well. But I do what I can and I'm working really REALLY hard to make sure these guys succeed. You should see the recruitment process here for employees. It's awesome these guys got this job in the first place, so I want to make sure they keep it. They are really good guys. Anyways, two more weeks of training left. This next week deals with more processes I do on a daily basis, so teaching should be easier (except for a couple of things). Anyways, work has been crazy!! It's embedded in my brain.
I hope to have more exciting stories in the next 2 weeks. If I go home without anything to tell, that will be incredibly sad. So that won't happen. Have a happy weekend everyone!
A view of my office in Manila (Alabang) taken by my co-worker:
Tomorrow my team is hopefully taking me to Tagaytay (a volcanic area) to see the sites, then to Mall of Asia. I say hopefully because these poor guys have not gotten paid yet, and they will either get paid at midnight tonight or at midnight on Monday. So if they don't see money come through, no one can afford to go. So I feel bad for them. Let's hope it works out for all of us! They need to get paid and I want to get out of my hotel! :P If it turns out they don't get paid, Tagaytay is out, but one Manila trainer did say he'd show me around Manila with his fiance as a back up plan. Next weekend I am hoping to travel to the Palawan Islands and enjoy the beaches and underground caves!! I'm tempted to freaking do it alone if no one will go with me. I have a lady from Reno here that said she'd like to go, but it's not definite yet. Fingers crossed!! I'm all the way over here and I want to see things! I just don't want to travel alone - safety wise. Though I'm thinking if I pay a little extra, I may be able to travel alone safely if it comes to that. I will see as the time comes.
My team is still planning on taking me to karaoke in the next two weeks. I really want to go to karoake! Haha. I'm also trying to get others who are training here from Reno and Dublin to go out to dinner and drinks this Sunday. Monday night I'm getting together for dinner with another team who's training for a different job. So things are starting to happen, thank God. For the last two weeks it's been work, work, and more work. Lots of room service and going to the mall. I've only had one night out. This has to change. Though tonight is another night in of room service, wine, blogging apparently, and watching Carrie Underwood in the Sound of Music on my tv. I have a couple of movie channels in my room - this has been important since I've spent a lot of time in my hotel room working and having movies on in the background.
Training wise I have felt overly stressed this week. My company sent me over to train a lot of information I do not know. They knew that, so within a couple of weeks I've had to do crash courses on these processes. Then they expect me to be able to answer every question a trainee has. They also had me prepare a lot of my presentation and somehow I need to know how to develop these trainees into well knowledgable employees. They start their jobs the week after I leave, so they will be under a lot of pressure as well. But I do what I can and I'm working really REALLY hard to make sure these guys succeed. You should see the recruitment process here for employees. It's awesome these guys got this job in the first place, so I want to make sure they keep it. They are really good guys. Anyways, two more weeks of training left. This next week deals with more processes I do on a daily basis, so teaching should be easier (except for a couple of things). Anyways, work has been crazy!! It's embedded in my brain.
I hope to have more exciting stories in the next 2 weeks. If I go home without anything to tell, that will be incredibly sad. So that won't happen. Have a happy weekend everyone!
A view of my office in Manila (Alabang) taken by my co-worker:
I dont' like this picture of me - so tired as it's my first day at work here, but I still have to post it! :P
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Same ol' Manila
This last week has not been eventful. Stressful and overwhelming, but definitely not eventful. All I've done is wake up, go to work, come back to the hotel, and work more. I have too much work. Also, I don't like wandering around Manila by myself, so I pretty much stay in my hotel since everyone I work with from my company works the night shift and I am the only one who works the day shift. Hence, there is no one in my hotel to play. Boo. I'm really looking forward to Saturday because I'm FINALLY getting out of the hotel and seeing the Philippines. The team I am training are taking me to Tagaytay to see the volcano and the sites, and then to Mall of Asia. So that will be a fun day. Sunday I'll hopefully go to the bigger hotel and use the pool. Filipino men STARE! So last weekend when I went to the pool and it was empty except for the workers, it was awkward. They stare also because they are trying to wait on you hand and foot. I get it, but come on. The security guard in my building at work stares all the time as well. He'll always try to open the door for me, but every time, he proceeds to watch me walk all the way down the hallway until I enter my training room. Awkward!!
This week has been tough work wise, so hence, I am venting. This getaway is really for WORK, and not for much play. Playing in Manila is not so fun, as it's a very busy and crazy city that is not the most comfortable of places to walk around in alone. The hotel shuttle guys tell me not to take cabs because they are dangerous. Awesome.
Needless to say, I can't wait to see the volcano this weekend, but I am also looking forward to going home and enjoying my life there. Traveling is not so much fun when you are alone and not surrounded by a place you long to be (if I were in a small town in the Philippines, I bet I would like this better, but this is a dirty city, so eh, not my favorite place). Next trip is going to be to Italy. Hands down. I can't wait to be there one day. :)
Vent over. Time for bed. I'm sure this trip will get better! It's not bad - I'm just ready to be done.
This week has been tough work wise, so hence, I am venting. This getaway is really for WORK, and not for much play. Playing in Manila is not so fun, as it's a very busy and crazy city that is not the most comfortable of places to walk around in alone. The hotel shuttle guys tell me not to take cabs because they are dangerous. Awesome.
Needless to say, I can't wait to see the volcano this weekend, but I am also looking forward to going home and enjoying my life there. Traveling is not so much fun when you are alone and not surrounded by a place you long to be (if I were in a small town in the Philippines, I bet I would like this better, but this is a dirty city, so eh, not my favorite place). Next trip is going to be to Italy. Hands down. I can't wait to be there one day. :)
Vent over. Time for bed. I'm sure this trip will get better! It's not bad - I'm just ready to be done.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Week 1 DONE!
Week one in Manila is done! It's been an interesting week - not too eventful this first week, as all I wanted to do was rest. I have a great class to train, and consider myself lucky as I'm only training 5 guys compared to other classes that are around 20 people. The guys in my class are very outgoing and welcoming. Every day we all go out to eat (or at least eat together), and they are very helpful in describing things to me. Training was a bit of a mess this week, so hopefully the next three weeks will go well.
I've enjoyed (and tolerated) some interesting food throughout the week. I've had dim sum (YUM), chicken adobo, lumpia (egg rolls), steamed buns, filipino fried chicken, RICE, spare ribs (yuck), and a pretty decent burger and fries at my hotel. I had pizza last night as I'm trying to be "safe" with my choices, and BLAH! Worst pizza ever. At least I had wine. All I really want is a salad, which according to others from Reno staying here, the salad is safe to eat. Thank God, I hope that's true. My hotels breakfast buffet is wonderful for the most part. Great coffee, croissants, rice and miso soup every morning - so far that is my staple breakfast. I LOVE miso soup and am so happy I have it available every day.
I actually need to take more pictures of everything in Manila! So far I'm only taking pictures of food. Haha. But I will get better, I promise. See my flickr account for photos! https://www.flickr.com/photos/gabelly/sets/
So for my first weekend, it won't be too exciting. I'm headed over to the Bellevue Manila (I am currently in the B Hotel, which is the sister hotel of the Bellevue). Therefore I am allowed to use the amazing amenities in the Bellevue, and I get a free shuttle back and forth. So today I'll be enjoying the pool and gym, and then hopefully going to the mall for some clothes and grocery shopping. My office is freezing (we call it Siberia), so I need to buy a couple of nice work sweaters, as I did not bring any with me forgetting that places will be blasting with AC. Now that I'm here I actually hate half of the clothes I brought. I hate that. :P
Well thank you all for reading my blog! I'm basically repeating everything I'm saying on Facebook, but I'm treating this blog as more of my travel diary.
Salamat! (Thank you in Tagalog)
I've enjoyed (and tolerated) some interesting food throughout the week. I've had dim sum (YUM), chicken adobo, lumpia (egg rolls), steamed buns, filipino fried chicken, RICE, spare ribs (yuck), and a pretty decent burger and fries at my hotel. I had pizza last night as I'm trying to be "safe" with my choices, and BLAH! Worst pizza ever. At least I had wine. All I really want is a salad, which according to others from Reno staying here, the salad is safe to eat. Thank God, I hope that's true. My hotels breakfast buffet is wonderful for the most part. Great coffee, croissants, rice and miso soup every morning - so far that is my staple breakfast. I LOVE miso soup and am so happy I have it available every day.
I actually need to take more pictures of everything in Manila! So far I'm only taking pictures of food. Haha. But I will get better, I promise. See my flickr account for photos! https://www.flickr.com/photos/gabelly/sets/
So for my first weekend, it won't be too exciting. I'm headed over to the Bellevue Manila (I am currently in the B Hotel, which is the sister hotel of the Bellevue). Therefore I am allowed to use the amazing amenities in the Bellevue, and I get a free shuttle back and forth. So today I'll be enjoying the pool and gym, and then hopefully going to the mall for some clothes and grocery shopping. My office is freezing (we call it Siberia), so I need to buy a couple of nice work sweaters, as I did not bring any with me forgetting that places will be blasting with AC. Now that I'm here I actually hate half of the clothes I brought. I hate that. :P
Well thank you all for reading my blog! I'm basically repeating everything I'm saying on Facebook, but I'm treating this blog as more of my travel diary.
Salamat! (Thank you in Tagalog)
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
First day at work in Manila!
Today was a decently good day. Despite I am still feeling jet lag (tired, sore muscles, lightheaded, etc), I had a nice day meeting my trainees (and other trainees for other departments).
First of all, yesterday was a relaxing day of unpacking and settling in to my hotel room. Then my co-worker from Dublin and I wen to the Alabang mall. The mall here is huge and very active. You'd walk by and see people singing with the piano, a group dancing zumba, and of course there was a movie theater and a million shops/restaurants. My friend and I at dim sum...oh yum!
Today I enjoyed the breakfast buffet. They have amazing coffee in my hotel...a nice dark roast that is perfect. I'd like to bring the coffee home with me at the end of the month. Upon arriving at work, we weren't allowed to bring anything into training except our actual laptop. Everything else needed to be stored in a locker. Today we just met everyone who is in training (I have 5 people and my coworker has 22)! So I think I have it a bit easier than she does. Everyone is incredibly friendly and loves to smile ~ I think I'm in the right place after all! LOL. A few of the guys took us out to lunch across the street to Fast Bytes - a compilation of different restaurants (Filipino and American - such as McDonalds). We went to a Filipino place where I ordered pork spare ribs, garlic rice and egg rolls. Little did I know that Filipinos love FAT! Therefore my pork ribs were ALL FAT! Blah. But the rice and egg rolls were good. Then I was served a green jello flavored by this green grass only found in the tropics and mixed with coconut cream. It was interesting and a few bites were enough. :) That was enough experimenting for the day, so therefore my friend and I had burgers back at the hotel. Anyways, that's enough for today!
First of all, yesterday was a relaxing day of unpacking and settling in to my hotel room. Then my co-worker from Dublin and I wen to the Alabang mall. The mall here is huge and very active. You'd walk by and see people singing with the piano, a group dancing zumba, and of course there was a movie theater and a million shops/restaurants. My friend and I at dim sum...oh yum!
Today I enjoyed the breakfast buffet. They have amazing coffee in my hotel...a nice dark roast that is perfect. I'd like to bring the coffee home with me at the end of the month. Upon arriving at work, we weren't allowed to bring anything into training except our actual laptop. Everything else needed to be stored in a locker. Today we just met everyone who is in training (I have 5 people and my coworker has 22)! So I think I have it a bit easier than she does. Everyone is incredibly friendly and loves to smile ~ I think I'm in the right place after all! LOL. A few of the guys took us out to lunch across the street to Fast Bytes - a compilation of different restaurants (Filipino and American - such as McDonalds). We went to a Filipino place where I ordered pork spare ribs, garlic rice and egg rolls. Little did I know that Filipinos love FAT! Therefore my pork ribs were ALL FAT! Blah. But the rice and egg rolls were good. Then I was served a green jello flavored by this green grass only found in the tropics and mixed with coconut cream. It was interesting and a few bites were enough. :) That was enough experimenting for the day, so therefore my friend and I had burgers back at the hotel. Anyways, that's enough for today!
Monday, October 6, 2014
I'm Here!!
I'm finally in Manila and settled into my hotel room. My 30 hour trip was interesting! I made it to LA only to find that my flight to Tokyo was 2 hours delayed, which meant I would miss my connection. Therefore, I had to change flights, retrieve my bag in baggage claim, re check in, and go through security again. I was not taking this as a good sign, until I ran into Sean Astin at baggage claim. For those of you who don't know, he is Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings (and also in Goonies, Rudy, etc). He was such a nice (and sleepy) guy, and I'm so happy I said hello to him. He was very polite and asked how I was....he didn't have to keep talking to me, but he did, so that was nice of him. So yay! Good sign! :D I got my new flight which meant I only had an hour layover in Tokyo...that's cutting it close! Especially since there was a Typhoon in Japan, which congested traffic and made my flight about 45 min late. Once I got off that plane, through security again, and to the check in counter, I had to SPRINT to my flight because they were holding it for a couple of us. Thank God! I made it! (Though I may need to work out more...that was a tough sprint...lol). My flight landed in Manila, my bag was there (I was quite afraid it wouldn't be), and my ride to my hotel went smooth. Oh, and another good sign was that I sat in row #23 - my family's lucky number and a deep down sign that my grandparents are watching over me as a travel. On all my trips, I secretly hope to see the #23. And Boom, I sat in it. Good sign. :)
The hotel room is pretty good, and I'm trying to figure out my AC for the perfect Celsius temperature. The hotel staff is incredibly friendly. The breakfast buffet this morning (it's free every morning, yay) was very good...I'm actually excited I get to drink miso soup every morning. :) So far my biggest complaint is that my waterfall shower doesn't have hot water. I was looking forward to a hot shower so much last night when I finally made it to the hotel after a 30 hour trip. But, alas, no hot water. First world problems, I know.
Right now I'm ready to just go back to sleep! So tired. I didn't sleep in too late because I really want to be able to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is my first work day and I'm so nervous!! I really have no idea what everything is going to be like. I also do not have access to my training materials today, so that really sucks! Apparently since my wi-fi is an open network, my microsoft access does not work. So that really sucks again! So I'm feeling a little lost right now, but hopefully once everything gets started it will feel much better. Fingers crossed!!!
The hotel room is pretty good, and I'm trying to figure out my AC for the perfect Celsius temperature. The hotel staff is incredibly friendly. The breakfast buffet this morning (it's free every morning, yay) was very good...I'm actually excited I get to drink miso soup every morning. :) So far my biggest complaint is that my waterfall shower doesn't have hot water. I was looking forward to a hot shower so much last night when I finally made it to the hotel after a 30 hour trip. But, alas, no hot water. First world problems, I know.
Right now I'm ready to just go back to sleep! So tired. I didn't sleep in too late because I really want to be able to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is my first work day and I'm so nervous!! I really have no idea what everything is going to be like. I also do not have access to my training materials today, so that really sucks! Apparently since my wi-fi is an open network, my microsoft access does not work. So that really sucks again! So I'm feeling a little lost right now, but hopefully once everything gets started it will feel much better. Fingers crossed!!!
Hotel Room View:
Sean Astin - he's so cute...
Hotel Room:
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