Sitting in the business lounge of Hong Kong International Airport, I can't help but reflect on the time I've spent abroad. My stay in Manila was fun, exciting, challenging, at times frustrating, but also quite productive. I've had a number of experiences and have written a lot during the past three months. Most of my experiences have been good ones (people I've met and befriended; places I've seen) and some not so good (my run-ins with corrupt cab drivers; having my iPhone stolen). Still, I don't regret making the journey, though I'd really like my phone back.

Living in a third world country for a period of time will make you aware of certain things you wouldn't normally hear of or be exposed to. It probably sounds trite, but I have a new-found appreciation for the conveniences of living in New York, though I still intend to move out of the city at some point. Having access to a large variety of good quality food almost 24 hours a day, for example. That's a big one. Being single, I buy a lot of frozen vegetables because otherwise I would throw out a lot of food due to spoilage. When I was in Manila, I was only able to find frozen broccoli once when I went to the supermarket. Frozen. I would think frozen vegetables would be a staple in a place where so much produce need to be shipped from other countries. Some of the frozen foods were rife with frost and had obviously been thawed and refrozen. Needless to say, this was only one of numerous challenges I faced in adjusting to my new environment.

Another adjustment I had to make was in how things were done. There was a lack of urgency almost everywhere I went. This was something to which I, as a native New Yorker--albeit a very laid-back one--was unaccustomed. The one exception seemed to be the guy at the 7-Eleven downstairs from my apartment. That guy hustled.

Then there was my first haircut. I had no complaints with the haircut itself, but I was startled and almost shocked to the point of feeling violated when at the end the barber pushed me forward and started massaging my shoulders and upper back. Apparently, that's customary. That's nice. I think I'll pass. Now, if it was a pretty girl giving me the haircut...

Now for a more detailed experience. This took place early in September:

I stepped into the elevator with this guy I've seen in the gym downstairs on occasion. He's a muscular, bald guy with a goatee. Anyway, we ended up getting off on the same floor and walking down the same hall. We started talking. His name is Alex. He's 45 and living here with his wife, a Filipino woman named Wilma. He met her here 25 years ago. We didn't talk much and then returned to our respective apartments.

Then, a few days later, I ran into him in the gym, and we started talking again. He's Serbian and runs a private bodyguard business in Europe and is trying to extend his business down here. Most of his employees are ex-Israeli soldiers. His wife showed up. I met her, and we all talked for a few minutes, then they had to leave. Up until this point, I hadn't seen anyone in my section of this floor. It was actually a little eerie, and I've already got ideas for some kind of ghost story.

One evening, as I was locking the door of my apartment and getting ready to go to work, I looked up and this security guard dressed in a white uniform stood about twelve feet away from me. I'm usually fairly aware of my surroundings here, but I did just wake up and was running a little late. As far as I knew, the hall had been vacant.

"Good evening, sir," he said in his thick accent.

"Good evening," I replied. It may have been apparent that I was a little startled, but I don't know. 

"Can I help you with anything?" I asked. My apartment is at the very end of the hall near the fire exit, and I could see no justifiable reason he should be here at this time.

"No, sir," he said. Then he walked past me, opened the fire exit door, and entered the stairwell.

The incident struck me as beyond odd. It seemed just surreal.

The hallway was hot and humid as usual, and I wore my glasses. I proceeded to the elevator bank and hit the button.  Insects buzzed around the light fixtures, but they looked like little stars bouncing around.  At first, I didn't realize they were insects at all. At first, I thought someone was playing with a laser pointer.

When the elevator doors opened, I stepped inside, and it was literally frosty. The mirrors in the elevator were fogged up. When I reached the ground floor and left the elevator, of course my glasses fogged up as well.

As they say, it's in the details.

Labels: Hong Kong, Manila

The photo you're looking at is from day 1 when the Manila call center went live. That was three weeks ago. We started taking twenty percent of the total call volume that week. This week, we were at fifty percent and seemed to handle it. Earlier in the week we certainly noticed the bump. The shuttle van got me into work a half hour early, and the CSEs bombarded me with questions as usual before I had a chance to boot up my laptop. We had an outage one night after 5 a.m. when I was the only mentor available, and five or six CSEs came up to me asking me questions all at once. Bry, one of the analysts we're training, laughed and said, "Wow. You're queuing, man."

"Yeah," I said. "I am."

I was tired, but the humor wasn't lost on me, and these guys have it in abundance.

Working down here hasn't been without its challenges. Readers of my blog are well aware of my sleeping and commuting issues. The shuttle service we use changed van drivers this week as well as the schedule, which I'd thought we'd had squared away. Edgar, the previous driver, picked me up at Rockwell at 10:30 p.m. and Three World Square at 8:00 a.m. I was getting the service I expected, and I was happy. Then Zek, Edgar's brother, who also happened to be taking over his shift, informed me the other night that there was also an impending schedule change. They were to start picking people up at Rockwell at 8:15 a.m. because of heavy traffic, meaning they wouldn't pick me up until 8:30 or 8:40. I wasn't happy at all. I have to work an extra hour a day more than I did in New York, so being inconvenienced with my commute is not something I'm going to accept in silence. When I got into work that night, I was somewhat irritated, but I kept my cool and approached Mike Peterson, the Global Technical Support Manager for the Manila office. He was sympathetic to my dilemma, which I appreciated because he's a guy who knows how to get things done. He spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone straightening things out, and once again the van is picking me up at 8:00 a.m. Thanks again, Mike!

While my commuting problems seem to have been resolved, my insomnia has actually gotten worse. This past week, I haven't been able to get more than two to four hours sleep per night. I can't explain it other than my body is naturally inclined to stay awake during the day. I've been taking melatonin, but I need something stronger. I went to the drug store in the mall and asked if they had any heavy duty sleeping pills, but I couldn't get anything heavier than melatonin and herbal extracts without a prescription. This is a real problem that is self-perpetuating. Because I'm so sleep deprived, I don't have a lot of energy to do much in my free time, and I haven't worked out since Monday. The exercise would do me good and help me regulate my sleep. I finally received my membership card to the Rockwell Club. It only took them a month to get it to me. Now, I consider myself pretty laid back for a native New Yorker, but that is just unacceptable. In New York, I would have had the card the same day. Now that I finally have it, I have access to the workout facilities without having to get a guest pass every few days. There have been days I blew off my workout just because I was tired and didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting the pass again. Now I have no excuse, so hopefully that will help a lot.

I haven't really done any traveling since I arrived other than what I've already mentioned in my previous posts, but I heard of a three-country trip between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. I may go with a couple guys from the company sometime in September. That should be a fun trip. I also want to look into extending my layover in Hong Kong a few days on the way back to New York, but I'm not sure what I'm doing regarding that yet.

Labels: call center, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam

Well, after much anticipation, I'm here. The flight was long and taxing, but it was the most pleasant one I've had yet. Wednesday morning, the car service I booked online picked me up promptly at 7:30 a.m. and took me to JFK. I met up with one of my coworkers, who's also on the same assignment, and we hung out in the first class lounge for British Airways courtesy of Cathay Pacific Airlines.

We boarded about 9:45 and took off on time at 10:10. Pretty Asian flight attendants served a number of Chinese and gourmet meals and snacks. When I wasn't busy stuffing myself, I watched a couple of the latest movies on the pull out 18 inch flat panel monitors with which every seat was equipped. My seat had the ability to recline completely, but I didn't make much use of that feature though I did fall asleep several times. In any case, by the time I arrived in Manila I was very sleep deprived.

We had a layover in Hong Kong for about two and a half hours. After getting the wrong directions to the business lounge a couple times, we passed through another security check. They confiscated the bottled water I received on my first flight for some reason, and of course I was thirsty now. It was a little unsettling to see some people walking around wearing face masks—mostly flight attendants—but I suppose I can't blame them. I'm not too concerned about a virus killing me, but I hate getting sick.

Hong Kong looks very impressive from the air, by the way. I would definitely like to spend some time there while I'm in this region of the world. Who knows when I'll get the opportunity to visit it again?

The second leg of my trip was brief—only about 90 minutes—but I fell asleep for a few minutes during that flight as well. By the time we landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, I was a bit haggard. Immigration was smooth, but there was some confusion with the luggage I had checked. That kept us delayed at the airport longer than we should have been, but one of the porters managed to locate it for me, so it was only a minor snag. Customs was quick, and we were on our way.

We had instructions to proceed to the AVIS counter located just outside the airport exit where we would be transported to the Rockwell Center. The nature of these instructions was a little vague. I naturally assumed we would be driven, but that wasn't explicitly stated, and it's been my experience that assumptions aren't always accurate. But when we approached the counter, the girl behind the Plexiglas looked at me and said, “Mr. Dunn?” Was it that obvious? They were expecting us, of course. That was great because I was way too tired to have to do much thinking.

Our driver's name was Jhun, and he was friendly and courteous. He was apologetic about the fact that it was rush hour and traffic was heavy. Still, we made it to Rockwell in about twenty to twenty-five minutes. Jhun dropped me off at Manansala Tower, and I approached the front desk, which was manned by two security guards. They were absolutely clueless as to the whereabouts of the keys to my apartment even though they had my name and room number clearly written down in a ledger.

“Is there a problem?” I asked, cranky and somewhat annoyed.

“The receptionist is on break, sir,” one of the men said as they both continued rifling through drawers and folders for my keys.

I rolled my eyes and looked around, taking in my surroundings. About ten minutes later, a pretty Filipino girl appeared. She greeted me with a smile, verified my name, and pulled out a bag with my information packet and keys with an ease that made the guards look clueless. I'll cut them some slack, though. It's not their job to check people in, just check people. The bellhop took my bags, showed me up to my room, and left before giving me a chance to tip him.
I settled in, took a shower, and called Randy, who I mentioned in a previous post. He was working and would be off at midnight. He suggested a bunch of us get together for drinks. I was all for it, but when midnight came I was too tired and had to cancel.

I fell asleep around 12:30 then woke just before 4 a.m. That was it. I couldn't get back to sleep. I got online and called my family via Skype. I have a free month of Skype to land-line calls, and it works pretty well.

After awhile of lounging around the apartment and eating the food from the fruit basket that awaited me when I arrived, I decided to venture outside and get a sense of what things were like here. I walked out in shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt. I figured I'd just get some necessities and maybe a bite to eat. Most of the people I encountered wished me a good morning. Native New Yorkers aren't accustomed to strangers bidding them “good morning.”

I walked around a bit and realized I have no idea where I'm going. It was very hot and humid. I found a Starbucks about two blocks away. A security guard or cop—I didn't have the presence of mind to determine which—opened the door for me. I ordered a venti mocha Frappuccino and a bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese. Total cost: 245 pesos or $5.11 US. The drink was as I had expected it, but the bacon on the sandwich was tough and chewy and not what I would consider good.

After breakfast, I started back to the apartment since the sandals were hurting my feet. I stopped off at a gourmet deli on the way and bought a couple bottles of water, totaling 50 pesos or $1.04 US. Not bad. It would seem everything here is roughly half price.

That's it for now. I'm going to get ready to head out with my work buddies in a little while. It should be quite interesting. I'm glad I know a few people here already who can show me around.

Labels: Hong Kong, Makati, Manila, pesos, Rockwell, Starbucks