First Day at Work

Day 3 - Mon, Jun 16

Up at 6 am for my first day at work! Anxious to start? Nope, try jet-lag still waking me up much earlier than needed. Since I had ample amount of time before heading into work, I decided to catch breakfast at the hotel. The Chinese restaurant I ate dim sum at the previous day is used by the hotel for breakfast. So again, table for one. I ordered their sausage, sunny-side up eggs and toast.  The eggs came out still a bit runny, toast was over toasted to the point where it was just crunchy, and the sausage was some cheap hotdog.  But again, I ate it anyways since I'll pretty much eat anything. So the waiter asked me if I was traveling alone. I said I had a colleague at a different hotel. Then he asked if I was married.  First mistake was being too honest with this guy. So I said no I'm not married. Then he was like oh you left your bf at home? I gave him a half awkward smile and just laughed. Then he told me he thought I was very pretty and asked for my number.  He told me he saw me here the day before eating alone as well. I told him, oh I don't have a number/phone here. Then he points to my iPhone that was clearly on the table next to me this whole time and goes, yes you do. Oops. I was like, oh this is wifi only, no phone (which was actually the truth).  So I was able to escape that one, but was hesitant to return for breakfast the next day to have to deal with the same guy again.

So on the way to work, we stop by Starbucks, which is becoming the daily routine now. And I know the water is safe here because I've been getting iced latte's each day, and my stomach hasn't given me any issues yet. The drive to work is basically the same as the drive to the Camayan Beach resort, but one turn closer. The work facility is sort of in the jungle, but not as bad as I had thought and the roads are paved.  We did see a monkey this time on the drive into work on the side of the road.  So the work site has a couple of dogs that help guard the facility from the monkeys. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.  They're friendly dogs, but if you're a monkey, beware!

I got introduced to the entire team consisting of all Filipinos ranging between the ages of 22-40 it seems. They all thought I was Filipina (again). Everyone was super friendly. Some of them come from Manila and other parts of the country so they stay out in the quarters here. There's a mini gym and tv where the guys were catching Game 5 of the NBA finals.  After boxing, basketball is the main sport that is followed here. The Filipinos are very up-to-date on American pop culture and sports and luckily, everyone knows how to speak English here. There's an alarm that goes off every few minutes in here to warm the operators to perform a certain task.  But don't be alarmed, it's really nothing. So that's something I'll have to get used to here. I got to meet Mike, the operations director at ABS here, who is also an Expat living out here. He's my boss while I'm out here and actually knows some of the same SSL people I work with.  He's super chill and has introduced us to the shortcomings of living out here. So after a couple hours of getting settled in at work, we took a 1.5 hour lunch at the Camayan Beach Resort, sipping on mango shakes and eating like kings.  Yup, tough like I have here. And as I arrived at the resort, I saw Jeff and Yuan (the dive instructors) again and waved hello to them again as if we went way back (1 day to be exact).

Before the end of work day, which is around 5 PM, I was chatting to Dustin about Game of Thrones and how I had to watch the finale but had no way of accessing it.  And low and behold, one of the ops guys overheard me and told me he would be downloading it and would have it for me by COB. Score! That totally made my day!

So since jet-lag was still making it hard to stay up late that night, I ordered room service from the Chinese restaurant and watched the GOT finale, then crashed.  Not such a bad first day of work.  Came in around 9 am, 1.5 hour lunch and out by 5 pm and GOT to finish the night off.  The finale was very satisfying, but now I'll have to wait another year for the next season to come out. =(