Monday in Manila

First, I’ll start out with some pictures from my hotel room. Larry Stone (I think, maybe Divish) does this all of the time and so I’m going to continue the tradition. The pictures below are from Sunday morning; this morning (Monday) was a lot smoggier.

And in the evening.

Night time.

Other than that, sorry - haven’t been taking pictures outside. Not confined to my room though. More to come. Also, the camera I got for this trip died after taking 2 pictures…so, yeah.

Every morning, l get a complimentary copy of The Philippine Star (“Truth Shall Prevail”) and my favorite headline of the day is “Hostages given a horse, ask for Jollibee.” Jollibee is a local fast-food chain and I’m now on a mission to try them out. Apparently, these men had been held hostage for eight months and Jollibee was their first request. I’m not sure if they made it from their hospital beds or before they even got there. But still, I’m imagining someone being held hostage and then asking for McDonalds or something like that. I'm Lovin' it.

Also, they were given a horse.

One thing that I have to comment on is the security around here. It is everywhere—it didn’t end at the airport. Every building has a metal detector. Every building I enter means my bag gets searched. I’m not complaining, but it’s definitely something to remark at.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Philippines, there have been active Islamic insurgencies for years, and there have been acts of terror. The above the fold headline was four beheadings, but that is to the south in the Sulu province. I feel safe.

The informational booklet in my hotel room addresses four types of emergencies: Earthquake, Fire, Typhoon and Bomb Threat.

In other news, a mock election was held to prep for upcoming elections. J-Lo won by a landslide. Neil Armstrong had a strong showing, which is awesome.

For those of you wondering about sports, we have a dedicated basketball channel here at the hotel and there are other networks that frequently play basketball games. Soccer is popular, too. I was able to watch the Giants finish their World Series sweep against the Tigers the first night I was here. Seeing the great sport of Baseball on TV made me think of the episode of the Simpsons where the family goes to Australia and Homer salutes the toilet as a machine kicks in to make sure the toilet flushes the correct way. I think he sings America the Beautiful. Even in replay, I was disappointed in Detroit’s performance. Maybe more so.

The story of the day was that I wore shorts, and shorts are frowned upon in the building where we are doing our training sessions. In the morning I had to plead ignorance and was watched all of the way to the elevator, where I got in line for floors 1-20 and was then informed via shout and gesticulation that I needed to be in another line, so I got in another line which, again, was the wrong one. Third time was a charm.

I wasn’t sure if I would be let back in after lunch, and probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for some of the local Vocus employees having a lengthy discussion with a very grim looking man and managing to get me through. The entire Vocus team here has been incredibly welcoming and supportive, so they have my thanks.

Thank God I brought pants.