Cebu - The first day

*** I know I'm not done with the Thai blog yet, but I just had to post this. Bangkok to follow later.

Cebu! Cebu? Cebu…

Honestly my Cebu Trip began the night before. After returning home from watching the disastrous “Alexander” – complete with middle agend ladies in the background, “Ay, si Alexander bakla!” – I set out with the mountainous task of packing. Then my mother came home. At this point I had done nothing so far. She then said, come here I want to talk. At which point she asked where I was staying, which I really, honestly did not know, I said, tired of the whole thing since she’d been bugging me about it forever, You know what, I don’t really know, I’ll tell you when I get there tomorrow. And then she asked me to give her the names of my team mates, and she was really demanding about it. So, feeling like I was stuck in a conversation that should have been done when I was about, oh, seventeen, I said I’m not going to tell you. In fairness, as per usual I would have given her at least a name and a number anyway just to pacify her but when she asked I was just like, are we doing this again? Like a repeat performance of my trip to La Luz, here we went again with the old argument that made me feel like I wasn’t old enough to do anything, wasn’t capable of doing anything. I know she just cares but it’s really hard to grow up if your mother won’t let you.

After that argument I began packing. It took me three rounds to get the right weight/amount of clothes I thought would be best. In between that, I chatted with John and entertained Falxie, who came over. Paul was supposed to come over too, but his timing was really bad and I had to ask him not to come around bec at that time mum was still screaming at me. The next morning, in a slight panic – bec Nene said my suitcase was 42 kilos, exag! – I took out some stuff, which I later realized I didn’t need to, like a miniskirt and a blouse, like 2 items will make a difference! I did not sleep well and I slept late (like around 1) so my morning wasn’t so good either.

I left a bit later than the boys – JR & Lance from my team - to get to the airport, they were already there by the time I got there. Mum came along, per usual and I had to wait for her before I could go as well. We checked in with TL Edric – to make sure the baggage wasn’t overweight, with me transferring some stuff into JR’s maleta - but unfortunately not early enough to get first class seats. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at the Nescafe Café, where everything was really priced outrageously, including JR’s mini-stopesque Iced coffee something or the other. Then we hung around waiting for friends of Lance’s from the time he used to work in Terminal 2. We got some mabuhay magazines and checked out Lance’s old office. He wanted us to meet his old boss but he wasn’t coming in till our boarding time, so we had to leave, else we might have gotten to hang out at the mabuhay lounge or maybe even an upgrade. :)

While we were boarding I ran into Edsel, a good friend of mine from college, now a lawyer who was going to stay at Waterfront hotel. We made arrangements to meet up. True to form, we took a lot of pictures using JR’s digicam. Later on I discovered it was JR’s first plane ride ever, which I sort of surmised as it explained why he kept taking pictures of everything. It was cute, actually.

When we got to the airport, we fought for our luggage and made our way out to meet with the HR peeps – Mommy Heather, Malou, Rolly, Tessa and some other people I didn’t know – and we got divided into girls and boys. Girls went to Bus #1 and Boys went to Bus #2. We all pretty much resolved to work out a way to get us to share together, since we’re team mates and it will be easier to turnover once JP & Grae get over here but it turned out to be harder than expected. In the meantime, we said we’d stick it out and then see what we could do once we were settled.

Our bus went to Ayala Center first, then Keppel, then our hotel, Metro Park. By the time we were moving from Keppel to Metro Park the boys had already called twice and were texting frantically. Apparently their hotel was actually a “dorm room” straight out of a disastrous sitcom. As they told me later, they drove through the industrial park and were initially very impressed. Then they came to a squatters area, which they thought they were just going to pass by, but they ended up stopping somewhere there. When they got down, the first thing that my boss Alvs apparently said was, “Lars will never live here.” And if its anything like what they’ve described, I never will.

They rolled their suticases down some bumpy muddly walkway and in consequence had to carry them so as not to tack mud in. Lance & JR ended up in a triple sharing room where the beds were all next to each other and the shower was right on top of the toilet so that you could “take a crap and a shower at the same time”, as JR said. JR also took the bed next to the wall because the other 2 beds faced each other, meaning that Lance and Pong (arriving on Sunday) would stare at each other in their sleep, causing lance to remark: “Paano ba yan, sasabihin ni Pong, Ang guwapo ni Lance pag natutulog siya. Ako naman, sasabihin ko, Ang guwapo ni Pong pag natutulog siya! Hello!” They also had nothing but the beds and the shower-toilet.

Naturally, after their frantic phone calls we were somewhat apprehensive about where we were ending up. I got a 2 bedroom condotel with Maui, Kay from QA and a TL from Bulldog who wasn’t arriving until later. Our room had a tv, fridge, dining room table, bathroom with shower and bathroom with a tub, plus a terrace where we had a view of… goats… but a view just the same. We decided we got the better end of the deal. The boys came over right away and regaled us with their horror stories of their “dormotel”. I then went off to lunch while Maui went to get a foot spa. We walked down the road and ended up in this restaurant that served us crispy pata that was stringy and chewy. I asked Lance, “why does the crispy pata taste like that?” and he replied, “It’s because the pigs are different here.” When I asked why again he explained that, “It’s because they’re older.” At which point I stopped eating. JR described the experience as eating “microwaved crispy pata.”

After our truly olats meal we made our way to a mini mall further down the road where we found our salvation - Mc Donald’s. Why, I ask, is it always fast food that saves the day? It isn’t healthy or particularly nutritious, but it’s filling and when you’ve had a truly bad day which has left you tired and hungry, it can make you happy. I got a double cheeseburger & a mc spaghetti, JR got twister fries & Lance got a sundae. (Having eaten the least amount of crispy pata, I naturally got the biggest meal). We also wandered around Watson’s where I got toiletries, including bath milk bec I refused to use soap as in meant having to put it down on the bathroom sink without a dish. I didn’t trust the cleanliness.

When we got home, I decided to take a nap only to discover that the sheets in 3 of the 4 beds in the suite were dirty and/or had holes and that the tv wasn’t working. After repeated attempts to fix the tv the guy finally disappeared. There was apparently, some sort of code to the tv that wasn’t working and it couldn’t be manually used because the channel button wasn’t working. I called to request for an extra pillow and for housekeeping to change the sheets. About 20-30 minutes later they hadn’t shown up. I was about to make a follow up call when I heard a voice outside, belonging to what appeared to be an Italian guest, who was asking the recepitonist, who is, I believe the sole person who can speak English in the mornings, why the furniture, with cracked upholstery wasn’t changed yet. She replied they had no budget. Wonderful. I noticed that housekeeping was also making its rounds so I walked right up to them and said I was having the sheets changed. I have no idea why it took five of them to change each bed, one at a time, with smiles on their faces. The whole process – including the part where the guy finally showed up and changed the tv – took about 2 and a half hours.

As I lay down and contemplated my existence, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell it was that I had gotten myself into. Granted, we were the pioneer team again and yes, we shouldn’t expect everything to be ironed out, but God, all I wanted it was for it to be clean. Is that too much to expect? A clean room? I have not stopped sneezing due to my allergies. As I write this, the day after, I still haven’t stopped and there’s a huge pile of tissues to go with it. I ended up on the phone describing my experience to both Jason & John who alternatively laughed and commiserated with me. Seriously I never thought I would say it but at that point I just wanted to get home, if nothing else just so that I could lie down on my own, lovely, clean bed.

After relaxing (but not sleeping) for a bit, Lance & JR came by so that we could go have dinner. Only JR was able to take a little nap. We ended up going to SM where I bought a towel – 80 pesos on sale – and found the poncho that was completely out of stock in Manila in Bayo. I got it. In Fuschia. We had dinner at Rai Rai Ken, and then I headed off home while the boys went out to gimmick. Maui was home when I got there and we sat up a bit watching tv and chatting before we knocked out.

This morning I found out that the night life was dead, JR went to work and Lance is currently filling up some sort of feedback form on their place. Maui and I are about to go have breakfast, and all I have to say is Thank God for friends, tissue, my laptop (despite the lack of internet) and the fact that food is freaking cheap here.

I am not sure if USB keys are allowed in this internet cafe but what the hell, here I am. They don't have a picture uploader so pics will follow... soon!