The part where you get off the plane

You get off the plane, and you wind through 3 hallways. You look around and notice that the floor is a bit dirty. You notice that it smells just a little bit. But maybe that's because you're in a "developing country" for the first time. You wonder if it's OK to judge the smell, since it's not really the airport's fault if the country smells bad.

Step. Step. Step.  There's the custom's agent. The passport inspection. Even though you know it's your passport and you're legit, you still wonder if you somehow imagined to be on the interpol list or no-fly list. Maybe the bad guys are going to take you off into the corner, without a phone, who will you call?

Oh. Wait. You've been waived through. There's the luggage, and you look around for other people, to be sure that this is YOUR luggage carrier. Because they might put it in another terminal. You are in another country, after all, things might not be the same here. A woman from 2 rows ahead of you stands at the same place, so you, too, must be in the right place.

Then there's the long, long luggage ramp. It's outside and a little bit dingy. You don't know what comes next. Ahh, there. The signs with the letter of your last name. You wait under them.

These are the things that I imagine Dan will experience, as I did. And then I'll find him there, under the H line.  ahhh, that moment is only 6 hours away.

It's sleeping time

To prepare for this, I ran 6.5 miles
Ok, really, I walked. I walked 4 and ran 2.5. Or maybe I ran 1.5 and walked 5. I can't remember.   The running plan is really to just run and walk while I watch a movei on the treadmill screen.  Of course, working out is much lamer now that we don't have our gym friends to keep us going, but that's a post for another time.

I got done with running and had a sweet conversation with my husband. 1 week until we're together here.

I took a nice and relaxing shower.
I snuggled in my plush bathrobe, which was a little too warm

I closed all the curtains
I put on pajamas, only because Keith and Ashley might be coming later.

I fluffed the pillows. I snuggled in bed. I turned all the lights off.
And waited. And waited.
And I watched Game of Thrones.

So I decided maybe eating warm food would put me to sleep, and thus will wait for room service to arrive with a bowl of hot soup and a glass of wine. I enarly ordered from the children's menu again!

Oh, hey, that one quote thingy.

Apologizing doesn't mean that you were wrong, or the other person was right.
It means you value the relationship more than your ego.

5 miles

I went to the gym for my longest run yet on this trip.

5 miles.
3.6 miles of walking, 1.4 of running.  I am starving myself right now for the hope of being skinny when Dan arrives. Smart, right?

Email versions, for the record

I just wanted to post these emails and see who *you* (gentle reader) believe sent them. I've read them twice, and I think it's Bonnie. Each one will be it's own entry.

Email 1: I send my dad 6 photos of the Philippines. Here's what he writes back:

Rikki,

 

Do not contact me. Until you apologize to my wife for your public abuse of her, and the subsequent physical threats she received, you are dead to me.

I believe I made that clear once before.

-Dad

Boracay

I'm in Boracay right now. Fall in love with it with me. Heaven is here on earth, even though your husband can't be here to enjoy it with you...

Cebu and back again

I went to Cebu City this weekend and met our other vendor group there. After a whirlwind of no sleep, I am resting all day today. I haven't even left my hotel room, though I'm sure I'll venture out soon. Sadly, I just like to enjoy some time to myself watching Al-Jazeera TV and Glee Season 2 on TV.

But you don't care about what I did while in my hotel room, eating, sleeping, and lounging. Youwant to know what I did in Cebu, right?

Well, we finished our shift on Saturday morning and went to Cebu right away on the plane. First I got to meet the Beta team in Manila, which was great, but there really wasn't enough time to enjoy it because we only had an hour together.  We planned to do something else with all of the Beta groups soon, though.

Then we were off to Cebu, on Cebu Pacific Air. They have a drawing on every flight for a prize. I slept through this, though, and our hour long flight felt like it was lasting forever. Mostly because we were so damned tired.  We landed and our vendor's van was waiting for us on the other side. Eric picked us up and took us to our hotel. We checked in right away and gained 3 hours of nap. I am pretty sure I showered, too,  after our shift.  NAP!

Everyone says that the Cebu Marriott is better than our current hotel. I tried to gauge them empirically and unbiased way to see what was true. The Cebu Marriott pool is better because of the walk-up bar and the very comfortable lounge chairs.  The channels in Cebu are better as are the room service menus. We have about 7 English channels, but 6 of them are news here.  All the Channels in Cebu are in English. I watched a quick show about vacationing in Indonesia and Jakarta. It's slightly tempting...Dan and I could go there.

So anyway, after our 3 hours of sleep for the night, we went on a twisty and fast ride to TOPS. It's the TOP of the city, with some touristy views that I gobbled up with photos. (see me on Google + or facebook.)

After that ended, we had Lechon, which was lovely! Pork Roast! I have a photo of the pig's head and we ate it with rice and sauce. And Mango shake. Thank you, vendor, for paying for our dinner. I am in love.

We then went to the Famed MO2, They said it stands for "more oxygen" but I am not sure I believe that yet. It was nonstop karaoke and drinking. More singing than drinking, of course. Twas a lovely day.  I made it until midnight, which is pretty good with only 3 hours of sleep. It's been a long, long time since I sang, and thus I realized that keeping your voice in shape is important.


All of these events so far took place with the other team, so I didn't know any of those reps.  I'll start a new entry for events with the Beta team.

Per Diem

I've done a great job on my per diem these past 5 days. I've had Starbucks 3x, been out to eat 3x, drank about 3 bottles of water per day and spent hardly anything.

My hotel breakfast is free, and we usually all eat big meals. Mostly to help us sleep and also to prevent hunger pangs from sinking in on the next few hours.  All of our dinners out have been paid for from other people, vendors that want to show us a good time and make us happy to keep the contract. Last night, dinner was on our own, and I ate a milkshake only, for about 2 dollars. So that's a good thing.

Our hotel's lunch buffet offers all we can eat sushi, and it's incredible--all the sashimi you can imagine. Hello, lovely.

I just got done walking on the treadmill for an hour at a really fast pace. At the very end, that thing you don't want to have happen at the gym happened: A really hot, really skinny, really European babe got on the treadmill right next to me and started running faster than me. Of course, she doesn't know I'm on my last 2 minutes of my hour-long run. She only knows that Damn, she looks good. Hello, self loathing!

Also went swimming today and realized with 6 kids in the pool, my chances of swimming in their urine while in non-chlorinated water was pretty high, so I bailed before I contracted Cholera or something.

Yesterday we went to Greenhills and I bought a bunch of pearls and a fake Chanel necklace. It's a sad time for those women that love designer purses. All of the purses there were fake and I realized that if I ever want one that looks real, I'll have to fork the money over myself. I give up. I hate Coach bags, but could be talked into a nice Burberry bag at some point in my life. (Yes, I really am this shallow, it seems)

Greenhills is just a giant shopping mall with tons of stand-vendors. They said you can get lost in there, but I see now that this was an extreme exaggeration. You can wander around for an infinite amount of time, but can always exit the building. And when you do, there's a taxi you can take to get back home.

Today is the celebration of the end of Ramadan, so many people will not work today. But we will work, work, work and so will the people we're training.  It's potluck day at the office, so we are bringing some Shakey's entrees. Oh, Shakey's. It's been 100 years since I've been there, but I can't wait to see it and take photos.

101

If you go looking for cracks in the foundation, you won't find them here at the hotel. The biggest evidence that the building is new is the dead mouse we found on the sidewalk, recently dislocated from whatever building used to be here 10 months ago.

Today I walked into the elevator and kept seeing women with big fancy hats. Perhaps it was the Kentucky Derby, but everyone here had giant bouquets of flowers and fancy plaques declaring their win. The sign on floor 3 said "Sundance FX". I looked around a little bit and realized that I should have bought more at the Simply Hats store before I left Kansas City.

Feeling a little left out, I went up to my hotel. It is my daytime and I have the "day" off. So I did what any girl in Manila would do at 11 PM without a clue for where to go ALONE. I went shopping. Then I took a bubble bath and painted my nails and watched Veronica Mars. Potentially, I might drown in disgusting, but first, I'll write on my Hello Kitty journal. It's pink, btw.

Eastwood

Here we are on the Eastwood hotel, 34 floors up. On my right, I have a window to a river and earlier I saw a stick raft rowing past. There are literal shacks on the banks and I've seen a few little kids playing in it. Literally, right across the little river is a lot of poverty.

On my left is the hotel, which connects via second floor to Eastwood Shopping mall. I'd say that you just compare it to a giant version of Legends, Zona Rosa and Plaza in Kansas City, except it's all private property. 

I'm in serious trouble, guys. It's "morning" (read as nighttime but my version of morning) and I feel like sleeping. I sincerely hope that's OK, but really, I'm just hurting myself by passing out right now.  Will try to push through. I'm hesitant to unpack because we are probably switching to an apartment soon. I'm looking forward to an apartment because I won't have to dress up to eat breakfast and because it will feel like I really live here, instead of feeling guilty for having a luxury apartment right across from people who live in shacks.

At least that's what I'll tell myself....