Well, hello from Makati City. (OMG I'm in the freakin' Philippines!)

So, the plane ride was fine. Squishy to Vancouver (raise your hand if you agree that aircanada jazz was the dumbest invention ever?) and then delayed at the airport there--get this: the flight crew apparently locked themselves out of the cockpit. Now if it was me, that's not something I'd be likely to announce over the PA. But what do I know, right? Finally we get on the plane. Very conveniently, the attendants quickly realized that Michele's ass+one seat=bad math, so they took the girl from the middle seat and put her somewhere else, thus leaving space between me in the aisle and some ol' gal in the window seat. Bonus! I was naturally unconscious for most of the journey, and in fact, when I saw Whit's drunky guy in the seat next to her, I thought I might be dreaming. Her tale of drunken woe can be found on LJ or Facebook. I finally explained to the window seat that she didn't have to pee her pants, she could just poke me and I would wake up enough to stand and let her visit the loo. I slept through one meal, but had the second one--was tasty. (Chicken or beef?) I tried to watch Hellboy 3 but fell asleep. Did watch the Time Machine ep of Big Bang Theory, tho. ("I'm on fire tonight") And then we finally were in Japan.
Uh oh. What sweethearts these attendants are--all smiles and bows and minimal English. Luckily, we had the worst ATT customer on the planet on our flight ("Let me talk to a supervisor!") and although his methods were mostly maddening and embarrassing, I get it. He's with his wife and his child is in a wheelchair. If we think it sucks, well, it's no picnic for him, that's for sure. Finally, long after our plane has left for the Philippines without us, we find out that since we were delayed, they sold our seats to others and now we're stuck here. Gee, that's great. More heated debate, more smiling and bowing, and now we are off to the Hilton for the night, with free supper and breakfast (both pretty tasty) and a small but clean room. Bought some snacks and water from the guest shop and didn't sleep a wink--big surprise there. We got to the airport and got our tickets and found out that some of our crew were not given a hotel room and wound up staying at the airport. Yeesh. Again, he was a bastard, but kudos to the loudmouth for helping us out. Also, met some Filipinos who were totally nice.
Slept through Hellboy 3 again, had a lovely dinner and then we're in the Philippines! Faster than you can say "no balut for me!", we're through immigration, through customs (Calgary should take a lesson from these people) and sweating it out at the luggage corral. Two very nice attendants helped retrieve our luggage and then we turned around, and presto, a man's standing there with our names on a sign. He wisks away my luggage trolley and I panic for a moment, but then we follow him out into crazy humidity to a nice car. He and another man load up the car with our luggage and open the doors for us. Inside, blessed AC, cool cloths for our sweaty brows and chilled bottles of water. Wow.
Driving is mad here and I'm glad I don't do it. Depending on the moment, roads have between three and five lanes, and everyone honks their horns, all the time, just as a warning, not cos they're pissed. Jason, your head would explode, I swear. The tricycles and jeepnies are funny looking.
The hotel is brilliant. They sat us down at guest services, explained where everything is and gave us our free breakfast vouchers. They made sure the luggage came to the rooms and provided snacks and comp water. The AC works brilliantly, there are two tvs and a dvd player, and the kitchen is adorable. Got the internet up and running, and here we are, only a day and some late.
Breakfast the next day with the Star Tek bunch. Some other folks got delayed as well and had just gotten in. Breakfast here is brilliant. (You knew that was coming!) All sorts of food, from standard breakfast (cereal, toast, eggs, bacon, sausage) to delicious fish, ribs, chicken, rice of course, different pastas, curries and fruit. Sadly, only americanos, no real coffee. I have some instant in my room and a kettle, but I suspect it'll be alot of tea for me. S'okay, too much coffee is bad for you. (Where's my coffee boy when I need him?*L*)
Discovered the Greenbelt mall(s) (Five three story malls of shops, hi and higher end, restaurants and coffee shops and a movie theater) and they are only a couple blocks away. It's very humid here. The Greenbelt is built in and around beautiful trees and bridges and fountains. There's a place to watch concerts, and a beautiful chapel which I'd like to attend Christmas mass at. We had drinks at Starbuck's (even though there are two other coffee shops right there, I deferred to Jaymie and Krista, who had been here a couple days already--not again, though) and then we went for supper at an Italian restaurant on the company dime. Slow but tasty and all the crew were there, from all the sites. From there we went to the site.
Brilliant, and still being put together. Feels disorganized, but maybe that's how it always works. At any rate, found a desk and my star tek stuff works, but not the ATT stuff. Jaymie's going to work on that. Then we set up abay and went to meet the first two classes. We won't have actual classes until the new year, I guess, so will be assisting the coaches and doing side by sides and stuff. I hope to audit some classes as well, so I know what to expect. They claim to be paper free, but you better believe I'll have my binders! The site director is nice and funny and has a great accent. The trainers are very cool. I think Matt might be family. Also, everyone is super helpful and friendly and you can't help but smile alot, cos everyone else does. Very cool.
The mall is brilliant and I intend to go back on payday to actually buy some stuff. Christmas presents in February, everyone!
I'm homesick, but my stomach is fine. I'm being very careful of ice, of course, and the water, and so far so good. I expect to level out once work actually starts up proper. I also expect to take more pictures, and probably write less, but you never know. At any rate, it's been brilliant so far, and only having all my friends here could make it better!
Cheers!