Ummm......Remember Me?

So yeah, I'm still alive and I've been doing great, it's just that 6 weeks in a foreign country where you work graves, you kind of hit the wall after awhile.....that's what's happened to me. Basically, for the past few weeks my routine for the most part has been eat, sleep, work, repeat. Which normally you wouldn't want to waste an opportunity like being in a foreign country but when you are somewhere for 6 weeks you aren't really wasting anything. Had I left a week ago I feel I would have seen enough of the Philippines to know the country and the people....so there it is.

Anyway, last night a few of us went and had dinner and this great Japanese restaurant called Kai. One thing they offer on the menu is stone cooking and that is what most of us did. You order your beef and they bring out thinly cut meat and they bring you out a little burner with a stone cover and you sit there and cook your own food. It's pretty wild. We all went with the angus beef which was really good but we are thinking of going back again and if we do, I will splurge and get the Kobe.

Work has been going well. As I've said before the Filipino people are very smart and very quick and eager to do a good job. Many of them show up hours before their shift simply to study and get better. Phone calls have been slow for the past few weeks but they are now starting to pick up and most people are handling them well. In Fraud, everyone is also working the seller and buyer defrauded queues and they are all doing well with the emails. It's been a great experience and I've connected with a lot of the reps so I'm sad about leaving later this week but I'm excited to come back and see all my friends and get back to my life.

I'll probably write one more post Friday morning before I leave with hopefully some pictures of my last night. My plan, which of course never goes off without a hitch, is to work Thursday night and get off at 6am. Then stay up until my flight leave at 5pm. If I can do that then hopefully I can immediately fall asleep and wake up again in Vancouver.....that's my hope but I'm not counting on it.

I laughed, I cried, I climbed a goddamn volcano!

So today we finally did something of substance. Cheyenne, Adam, Chris and I grabbed a van from ePerformax and went 2 hours south to Tagaytay, Lake Taal and The People's Park. Lake Taal was the main attraction and that's because it's the smallest and most active volcano in the world. From Tagaytay you take a half hour boat ride across the lake to the volcano. Then you take a horse up the volcano to the top. Our driver said we were going to the resort and he would negotiate a price. The resort turned out to be something that would barely qualify for a shack in the states. So we ended up paying 800 pesos a piece for the ride over and the horse ride to the top and back down from the volcano. So anyone keeping score, that's about $16 US. I still can't get over the absurdity of the prices. That first picture is the boat we took across the lake.

Anyway, here is where my life got a little more complicated. I was able to channel an old Jeff, a Jeff that nobody in SLC....outside of Dave has ever seen. The Jeff who used to be in great shape and hike 50 miles in a week. In the US, at my size they would never let me ride a horse, maybe a Clydesdale but that's about it. Here, their main drive is money so there was no question they would let me ride. So I gave it a shot and I rode the horse about halfway up the volcano. It made me sick to be riding that horse....mentally sick so I got off and walked the rest of the way up and walked all the way down. It was between 2 and 3 miles. It would have been easier had I not sprained my ankle 3 or 4 days before but ya do what ya gotta do. The second picture is the last stretch I had to walk up and the 3rd picture is the horse who's life I saved. If you look in the middle of the second picture, you can see some people about halfway up and see how far I actually had to walk....it kinda sucked. Once I got to the top it was gorgeous. Looking down into the crater was a large lake which you can sort of see over my shoulder and you could see steam rising from various parts of the mountainside due to the lava below. I've seen beautiful sights before but what I liked the most was the quiet. It was serene and silent. I could have sat up there all day. We settled for about an hour. On the way down they kept telling me I could ride the horse but I wouldn't. They were just worried about getting a tip. I was worried about getting arrested for killing a horse.

After we made our way back to Tagaytay we stopped to have lunch and while sitting there I noticed that close by there was a guy with a stand of about 30 bonsai trees. I stopped and looked and he had some amazing stuff and I was just curious about how much he wanted for this 5 tree forest knowing that in Utah, you'd be lucky to get it for under $200. He said 1500 pesos which is about $30. I about flipped my lid. I know I can't take it back but I offered him 1000 pesos and brought it back. I leave a week before Cheyenne so I will leave it with her when I go and then when she leaves she is going to take it to ePerformax and leave it there for them. I'm sure I still overpaid but I couldn't believe it.

Next we went to the People's Park and that is where Ferdinand Marcos had one of his homes. Our driver said he would spend weekends there and entertain dignitaries. It was stunning. We were so high up the mountain that we were actually in the clouds. We parked at the bottom and took a Jeepney to the top and we hung out there for another hour or so. There were some shops and souvenir stands and stuff around the house and it turns out there there was a karaoke machine. Cheyenne told me 2 weeks ago that she would get me to do it and I gave in. I sang All The Small Things and American Pie. It was fun but it was also the first and last time.....I ain't no singer! The amazing thing was that to sing a song was 5 pesos.....two and a half cents.

It was a fantastic day, even if I hadn't lost about 20 lbs. I took about 100 pictures.....I know a couple of you complained about my lack of picture taking. When I get back I will put all them on the net and pass around the link. Again, I'm sorry about my lack of posts but eat sleep work seems to be about the norm. I would like to talk more about what's going on at work so I hope to post again soon.

I hope everyone is doing well.

The Beauty of Six Weeks

The beauty of six weeks is that there isn't as much urgency as if you were away for only a week. Jeepney hopping was put on hold because we couldn't find one of the group who wanted to join us so. Instead, we ended up walking through one of the million malls in this town. As usual, this one was over sized like the rest. We went to Greenbelt which is right across the street from our hotel and it goes from Greenbelt 1 to Greenbelt 5....it's nuts.

Where we ended up was at The Spa. I'm not just being general it's actually called The Spa. I've never been much of a spa person or massage person for that matter but Chris and Cheyenne wanted to do it so I said what the hell. I settled on the volcanic rock massage where they use basalt stones which are black volcanic rocks to loosen muscles and blah blah blah. It was pretty awesome. First it was a full Swedish massage then they put these hot stones in different spots on your body and use the rocks to massage you. They even put rocks between your toes. You get 75 minutes and I searched for what that would cost in the states and I saw a place outside of SF for 90 minutes at $155. I paid $30. I may find my way back there.

That night we decided to stay in instead of going out for dinner and on the second floor of the hotel is this bar.....something or other. They have a happy hour from 5:00 to 8:30 where there is a set menu of drinks to choose from and once you choose, that is your drink. You can have unlimited drinks during that time for 500 pesos.....just a little over $10. Adam, Cheyenne and I had settled on the zombie while Chris had a Mai Tai. His error was getting a Mai Tai first and not knowing he could change because the Zombie was umm umm good.

I'm talking about this because this is where the pictures came from but also because if any of the kids from SJ is reading this, they love when I get drunk because it's such a rare occasion. One thing they also know is my tolerance level is super hero like and last night was no different. We got there about 6:00 and I had 9 Zombies in those 2 1/2 hours and was only able to achieve a slight buzz. Actually, the way I knew I was ok was on the ride up to my room afterwards, I was wondering about how many damn calories I had just consumed in the past 3 hours. DAMNIT!!

So phones are going ho hum. I finally witnessed my first call in Fraud and it's been slow going. Currently we only opened the phone line to 15% of the targeted community but tonight we are going to increase that to 30% and then the next day we are going to increase it to 45%. So the fun should be increasing.

With working grave shifts, I've decided it will be too difficult to travel outside the country so I will be staying close. The drivers who take us to work have been contracted to take us anywhere we want to go with a little notice so next weekend we are going to travel 2 hours north to Tagati. It's an island where the entire island is just a big volcano. After the 2 hour drive you take a boat ride to the island then a donkey down the volcano.....I just hope they don't have to put my donkey down after it's over. I'm sure I'll post between now and then but next weekend I promise more pictures.

Everything is bigger in Manila

Alright, first some housekeeping. In my previous blog I gave a hard time about the name Rylen. I thought I would post my sisters email to me from yesterday.....

We KNEW we'd get some smart remark from you about Parker's middle name. Turns out it IS a real name, even though we thought we invented it. There are lots of people on google with Rylen for a first name! Anyway, the story. We combined the middle names of Parker's two uncles. RY(an) for Matthew and (Al)LEN for you!

Now I'm the older uncle so the names should be reversed. It could be AL(len) and (ry)AN. For a middle name of Alan.....and that's the bad spelling so they could have just gone with Allen....Parker Allen has a nice ring. It would still be both our names and my middle name.....win/win.....anyway.

Mike asked me if I'm getting to watch football and threw in a little rabbit punch about how bad JaMarcus Russel looks....thanks Mike. Actually, football is not that big here in the Philippines. Basketball and Baseball are big. Oddly enough, they are big Jazz fans out here....so that kinda sucks. ESPN has been grabbing the feeds of all the MLB playoff games so I've seen a lot of those and they usually play the Sunday night football game Monday night and the Monday night game Tuesday night and a random game here and there from the weekend, but not on ESPN. Then, just as I came back to my room from breakfast I started flipping channels to see what is on while I write this post and I found the Monday night game live.....I had no idea. I literally jumped up and down a little. Oddly though, in the US the game is on ESPN and here it's on a channel called Balls. Seriously, the channel is called Balls. I don't know.

So what I am really writing about today is where we went yesterday. When I say everything is bigger here, 3 of the 10 biggest malls in the world are here and we actually went to the 3rd largest, the Mall of Asia.....it was very impressive and of course, I said I'm not much of a picture taker and I forgot my camera altogether. I plan on going back because of that reason. I think it's a little unfair because if anybody has been to the Mall of America in Minnesota, which used to be the #2, it is one big 5 story building and the Mall of Asia actually crosses a couple streets with different theme parts of the mall in different buildings. So it's kind of like different malls but it's all one.

The Mall of Asia was the first mall to have an Olympic sized ice rink.....it's not in a private part that you have to go into, it's in the center of the mall and has a some sunken stands around it. They play hockey games there and have ice skating competitions, it was pretty neat. We went to the IMAX while there and saw Dinasours 3D and it's one of the biggest IMAX screens in the world. I only bring up the IMAX because of something interesting that happened. Before the movie started somebody came in and said something then everybody stood up. They played this video before the movie and it was the Philippine National Anthem. We felt like we were at a sporting event....it was kind of neat though.

There was a bowling alley in the mall so of course we went and bowled a game...it was totally posh for a bowling alley, not like any in the US with all the molded plastic seats and crappy lighting and such. Each set of lanes had 3 wicker couches surrounding the lane with nice cushions and had really nice Asian type lighting. Again Mike, this would have been your one chance to beat me as I had to use a house ball. I still shot a 137 which is on the outside of your range....but you would have had a chance.

Right across from the bowling alley was a big bingo hall so we went in there and played some bingo. Bingo here is like it is in the rest of the country outside SLC where you play for money. When I was 18 I used to meet my Aunt Dorthy to play bingo all the time so I was giving Adam and Cheyenne the lowdown on what to expect. They play bingo in 3 game sets where you buy 3 games for 80 pesos.....so about $1.80 and one of those games paid 20,000 pesos which is about $2K. They also play special games in between for 50 pesos so we did that too. One of the things I schooled them on was calling bingo when you don't have it and to not do that. The first game we played was a special game which was blackout and the caller started speaking in Tagalog and we were like WTF? and I missed an important part of the rules. The first batch of numbers, let's say he calls 14, then every number ending in 4 could be marked. After that they stopped for a minute and we thought it was to let everyone catch up but it was also because it was no longer every ending number. They started calling individual numbers.....yeah, I didn't catch that. So I called out Bingo and everybody started yelling at me and I apologized. We were the only white people in the room and a little later the caller was speaking tagalog again and people started looking over at us.....I think they were making fun of us.....maybe. We had a really good time though.

In about 3 hours we are going to go Jeepney hoping and see how lost we can get. I plan to remember my camera this time. Jeepney rides are 8 pesos....so like $.10. It should be fun. Hopefully I'll find time to write about that tomorrow. Hey Lindsay.....Aries says hi. I told him, "Lindsay says hi" and he said, "oh, Miss Lindsay Hunt?"......so he still remembers you.

Take care everyone.

Reeaaddy.....Seeeet......WAIT!

First some housekeeping. For those of you who pay attention to this regularly, thank you. I have heard from a few of you that you check this regularly and it really means a lot to me....it really does. I'm sorry for being so long between posts but these grave shifts have been kicking my butt. This first week it's been work, eat, sleep....repeat. Then still by midnight I'm freakin' out and am a little dizzy. I think I've bridged the gap though and today I am a lot better. The other thing I wanted to mention was in my last post I wrote a plea to my Mom to let me know what's up and it turns out they were still checking it and my sister emailed me to let me know she was late and would be induced Saturday, if she hadn't given birth by then. Then on 10/9 she gave birth to Parker Rylen who is 10 lbs. If my sister or Mom are still checking this....Rylen? Is that even a name? I need a back story....seriously.

Anyway, so the phone launch was supossed to be 10/5, then it got moved to 10/8 then 10/9 at 10pm and it finally went live at 2am. On top of that, phones is only being offered to a select group and they only find out through the help pages and even then they have to see it and want to call in....so it will be a few weeks at least before calls start coming in with any frequency. So the first call came in to buying/selling at about 3:30am. After the call I went over and asked what the call was about and I was told it was somebody asking how to change their password. I immediately went over to where I was and told everybody it was a fake call. There's no way the first call is a stupid password question.....about an hour later we found out that it was Pete's boss who called.....nailed it! Pete is the OS manager from SLC. In fraud, we've received one call in the first 2 days. Everyone is just in the queues answering buyer and seller defrauded. So we'll see what happens.

That was going to be all I talked about in this post but something happened last night that moved me. I mean, as it is, I'm too emotional for a man but it almost got to me. 4 of the VBC folks are flying home in about 2 hours and they all came in for a few hours last night. It was amazing watching the evening play out. Many reps brought gifts for the trainers and there were tons of pictures and hugs and some crying....from the trainers mostly and it was amazing. Especially to think that the people out here don't make a lot of money and they still go out and buy gifts for these people that were only in their lives for 6 weeks. I was simply floored. I'm excited and scared to experience that for myself because I'm not sure how well I will handle it....and I hate looking like a goof.

When people go on vacation for a week or sometimes two, to a foreign country, they get just a little taste of the local people. They are off sightseeing and whatever but to spend 6 weeks immersed in a foreign culture is an unbelievable experience and I've said this before but the Filipino people are some of the nicest people I've ever encountered. This trip is effecting me in many profound ways....some I may never understand but I'm grateful for this opportunity. Like I said, I'm humbled by all of you that check this on a regular basis and I'd give anything for you all to be here to share in this experience. I hope you are all doing well......until next time

General Musings and Thoughts Unimportant

Well tomorrow is the big day. Phones will go live around 10pm PHL which is 8am MST. Everyone is freaking out both reps and trainers and of course the trainers have had the added distraction of all the layoffs. It's been a hard thing to deal with 8000 miles away. I hope everyone is doing fine.

I plan a big post after the launch tomorrow but I thought I would just give a few observations ahead of that. I'm working my first grave shift right now and I'm struggling a little. I'm on my lunch and I have a few hours left. Hopefully after this first day I will get on a regular sleep schedule and go from there and everything will be fine. So like I said, just some observerations. We have HBO Asia in our rooms and HBO out here is pretty much the equivolent of TBS or USA. The movies are heavily edited which is weird for a pay cable channel. I was watching Knocked Up yesterday and it's not even the same movie. TV shows out here are a year or more behind. I saw a commercial for the season finale of Friends this week.....and I believe it was for season 8. I've also seen commercials for the "new series" October Road and Bionic Woman which both only lasted like 8 episodes last year.

At least around the hotel and outsourcers, there is security everywhere. Every mall has security at every entrance and checks bags coming in and some entrances have metal detectors. Our hotel has tons of security and lots of them have attack dogs with them and every car that comes up has to go through a security check where they run a mirror under the car and have a dog sniff the trunk for drugs.

Ironically, how the malls in the US have dried up, the malls in the Philippines are vibrant. They are packed with people and sometimes it's hard to get around. It's clearly the hangout for everyone and on the flip side after 10pm the streets dry up and everything shuts down. It appears nobody wants to be out after dark. Anyway, I guess that's about it. The picture I posted is the view I see from the treadmill I use. I love just staring out at the buildings but I've been lucky to be there during 2 major rainstorms....when it rains here, it really rains. It's awesome to watch.

Before I leave, I just want to post a pleading note. My sister was supossed to have a baby yesterday and of course I have no news. I'm sure she's not checking the blog from Sac but.....Yo Sandra! why don't you shoot your son an email and let him know what's up?....that is all.

CIT's Nightmare

Today we took a cab out to the Green Hills Mall and then Ocean Park which is the aquarium out here. Green Hills is the counterfeit mall and that place is crazy. The mall actually has 3 different parts. The first part is actual stores and legitimate vendors. The second part is permanent little store fronts that are sorta skechy but I'm sure they're ok and the third part....well the third part is like an indoor flea market. The picture here is of the third part from one level above. Every stand is full of counterfeit items. Everything you can imagine.....there was even a stand of counterfeit Nike clothes. I bought a Breitling watch for 1100 pesos which is about $23. He wanted 1200, I said I would give him 1000 and he said 11. That's the first time I've ever haggled. It's a gorgeous watch and I thought if after 4 weeks it is still working I would go back and get 2 more. The watch I bought was white and I would get a black one and a blue one. Well I woke up this morning and it had stopped. I set the time again and the second hand started moving again. I'm going to put a new battery in it and hopefully it'll be ok. I also bought 4 movies at $100 pesos a piece....a little over $2. I bought Tropic Thunder, Righteous Kill, Iron Man and Eagle Eye. I haven't checked the quality yet but everyone here who has bought them said they are good.

We took 3 cab rides, one to the mall, one to the aquarium and one back to the hotel and we got 3 different types of drivers. The first was awesome. Took us right to the mall no problems. Cabs are really cheap here and it was about a twenty five minute ride and it cost us 95 pesos. The second ride, the driver drove us in circles a little and either he didn't understand english very well or he was just ignoring us. He drove us through some very lower class areas of Manila and it was really sad. I couldn't imagine living in some of these little huts and outhouse type buildings. When you would stop at a light there are people that walk through the cars either selling meaningless crap or it will be a woman who is leading a blind man and they are begging for money. It's really sad. They walk right up the window of a car and stand there for a ten or twenty seconds staring at you and then move on to the other car. The guys I were with were staring back at this little boy selling flowers and when they make eye contact they won't leave until you look away. We were at the light for about another minute and the kid wouldn't leave because they wouldn't stop staring at him. I kind of wish they wouldn't have done that but oh well.

Now one thing they tell you about cab rides is to make sure they turn on the meter. A lot of cabs don't turn on their meters and then when you get to your destination they tell you how much you owe. So we got in this last cab and there were 5 of us, as usually I'm the biggest so I sat in the front and the other 4 took the back. This guy refused to turn on his meter. I said, "dude, turn on your meter." He said something like, car overful I'm not turning it on and Tyson said, fine pull over and we'll get out. He got mad and said, there's too many, you pay me 300 pesos for the ride....I said, absolutely not, you can let us out. He said, fine and slammed on his meter and said, then you pay me an extra 50 pesos.....I said, alright 50.....which of course is 3 pesos more than $1 US....All and all it was a pretty good day. There's not much to say about the aquarium, I posted a picture from there too. It was fun but wasn't very big and there really wasn't anything exotic there, just the normal fare.

It's almost 10am Monday morning as I write this. I'm heading to the gym then I'm going to go hang out at the pool for a little bit where Jeff Schwartz is swimming laps. Then we're going to go Jeepney hoping for a few hours and hopefully I'll have some good stories from there.....until then....