Sawat-dee from Thailand!

(Hello from Thailand!)

I'm in Thailand right now for the support and maintenance(read: babysitting) of one of our platforms on one of the Telcos here.

I've been here since Wednesday, and plan to leave by the 4th of Feb. Since I'll be staying for quite a long time, we got a serviced apartment instead of a hotel room. The unit is nice. It's got a kitchen, a washing machine, a fridge, a dining area, a sofa, 2 TVs - one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. For a homebody, it's a great place to stay, but it's kind of sad to be alone in such a big place. Maybe if I had someone with me, it would be perfect. *ahem* girlfriend *ahem* hehehe...

As for the country itself, so far, so good. The prices of stuff are cheaper than in Singapore, especially the food and clothes. The streets kind of remind me of the Philippines, including the traffic jam! :) The people are polite and friendly. My only problem is the communication. Most of the people I encounter are not very fluent in English, which could be very frustrating. (especially when you're hungry!)

I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Sawat-dee!
(goodbye!)

*yes, "Sawat-dee" both means hello and goodbye! Great, right?! That's one less greeting to memorize! :)

Now that's odd!

The other day, I made a call to our MIS team to activate one of the network ports we'll be using for one of our test machines. I gave my name, which I pronounced as "nina" (no enye).

I have been using "nina", instead of "ninya", in the office because explaining spelling, pronunciation, and Philippine-Spanish history is just a pain in the ass most of the time.

Anyway, going back to my story...

A few minutes later, a tall Indian guy came by my cubicle to check if the port was working. I gave him access to our test machine and he did his routine check.

In the middle of his work, he engages in some small talk.

MIS guy: "you have quite an ODD name"(referring to "nina")
The bitch inside my head: WTF??? Odd??? Seriously now?!

I wasn't so sure how to react to that. Especially when I found out that his name was about 4 mouthful syllables consisting of a several consonants without vowels in between them. (ok, this might have been an exaggeration, but hell, his name is really "complicated"!)

But seriously, how odd is n-i-n-a? Even someone with dyslexia can spell it without difficulty!

I've never heard anyone complain about "Mr. Snuffleupagus", (and it's about time someone did!) and here comes some guy telling me a 4-letter word with letters harmoniously sitting next to each other is odd?!

Where's the justice in this world?! Where's the love?! And more importantly, where is Mr. Snuffleupagus?!

who you callin' odd 'ya bitch!

Cultural diversity is killing my humor-mojo

Not to toot my own horn, but I've been called "funny" quite a number of times (but maybe not as much as "crazy") by a number of people.

I just can't stand serious conversations. There will always be a voice or image in my head taunting me to say something self-deprecating or at least make me burst out in mad laughter with no apparent reason. (Much to the horror of anyone near me)

But living on this island has kept me from being my usual unhinged self.

If there is one thing I find difficult about living in a different country with so many different kinds of people, it is definitely not the weird food, nor the homesickness, nor the language, nor the weather. It's this constant need to explain the point of my joke! Jeez! Now I know what it feels like to be in Jas' big shoes (peace!)

Seriously... I have great punchline delivery (with matching props and other audio-visual effects!?!) and awesome comedic timing, and not to mention proper diction and grammar(well, maybe not that "proper", but definitely better than most of them here)... But alas! Everyone seems to be left with this gigantic question mark on their forehead each time I say something “funny” (or “offensive” depending on who you ask… :) )

Oh well, it could be worse. At least there isn't a full repertoire of duck jokes made in my honor! (peace uli! :) )

I'll be leaving you with this image, because apparently, ducks are f&^*-ing funnier than me!!! What's happening to the world?!?!

image stolen from courtesy of duckjokes.blogspot.com

what i've learned after a few days...

after almost 2 weeks here in SG, I've learned a couple of things. Some of them were knowledge passed on to me by my brother and his gf, who have been here for more than 5 years, and some I have learned (both fortunately and unfortunately) first-hand.

1. Ang lakas ng sipa, men!
kala ko nung una, joke lang nung sinabi nila na masusuka ako 'pag naamoy ko sila. Then I got to experience the "aroma" myself... wow p're! di mo na kelangan ng kape... magigising ka sa amoy nila... Most pinoys call them "anaps". Naawa tuloy ako sa isang kong ex-officemate na dun pupunta sa motherland nila... Grabe talaga, di kompleto ang MRT ride pag di mo sila naamoy... Ang bad ko no? pro promise, kung ikaw ang nasa kinalalagyan ko, you'd understand.

2. Kaya nga food store eh, kase "food" lang...
Hiwalay sa kanila ang bilihan ng food, at bilihan ng drinks. I find this really weird. Nung 2nd day ko dito, kumain kame sa isang hawker malapit sa robinson road. nung 4th day ko, nag-lunch ako sa kopitiam sa may mall malapit sa amin. in both of those places (actually, all hawkers, koptiams, etc...) hiwalay ang bilihan ng food at bilihan ng inumin. may separate stall na drinks lang talga ang binibenta, so pupunta ka dun after mo bumili ng food, hiwalay din ang bilihan ng dessert... medyo hassle di ba?

3. Tissue na lang, pahirapan pa...
kung sa Japan, parang umuulan ng tissue dahil sa dami ng mga "giveaways", dito naman, taghirap sa tissue. hindi sya binibigay by default. kung meron mang bibigay syo, say for example, sa isang resto, for sure daw may charge yun. sa kainan lang yan ah, pro sa mga public toilets, meron namang tissue.

4. gentleman? ano yun?
kung ikaw daw ay isang binatang pilipino na nakaupos sa mrt/lrt/bus, wag na wag kang mag-o-offer ng seat sa isang babae, dahil ma-o-offend lang sya. Yung gesture daw kse na yun ay ginagawa lang para sa mga matatanda at disabled. so parang sinasabi mo na din na matanda na sya... (ei, auntie, want to seat?)

5. sungit!
pansin ko lang, karamihan ng mga locals medyo may pagkamasungit by philippine standards. kse tyong mga pinoy, pag may makabangga sa paglalakad accidentally, normal sa atin na mag-sorry or something like that. dito, di yun uso. di rin uso dito ang pag-ngiti, unlike sa atin na nagkatabi lang sa jeep, nagchi-chikahan na bago bumaba. dito... deadma!

6. biglang dadami ang mga kamag-anak mo dito
dito daw, ang usual na tawag sa mga nakatatanda ay "uncle" at "auntie". parang version nila ng "manong" at "manang" natin sa pinas. so pag kelangan mong kausapin si manong taxi driver, call him uncle.

7. ambilis ng escalator!
ibang level ang bilis ng escalators nila sa mga mrt/lrt stations... promise, minsan nakakatakot! unlike sa pinas na minsan may "humps" pa (refer to mrt ayala station, leftside, going down), dito OA sa bilis. ginawa daw ganun kse lagi daw nagmamadali ang mga tao. sa mrt/lrt stations lang naman. yung sa mga malls, so far, wala naman akong nakitang "express escalators"

8. pedestrian lanes do work!!!
i love it! motorists here respect the pedestrian late. ang galing talaga. sa pinas kse sanay tyo na yung tatawid pa yung magbibigay sa motorista. dito sobrang opposite. kahit malayo ka pa sa pedestrian lane, at yung kotse malapit na, hihinto talaga sya at hihintayin ka. kaka-pressure tuloy minsan na tumawid agad... hehehe... consistent ito ah, mapa-bus or kotse, hihinto talaga... so nice!

9. what money? don't you have a card?
for a country that has a lot of money, they sure don't like to touch it. you can use an ez-link card if you want to ride the lrt/mrt/bus. the fare is higher if you're gonna pay in cash. pwede rin ang ez-link sa mcdo. meron ding cards ang mga food courts dito. may 10% discount pag card ang gamit. kung taxi naman, pwede kang gumamit ng credit card or debit card. (wala atang discount) for every thing else, believe it or not, even small and cheap-looking stalls also accept credit / debit cards. Bills, concert tickets, mail stamps, and fund transfers can be done in several kiosks, charging it to you bank account. syempre meron pa ding old fashioned hand-the-cash-over-to-the-lady-in-the-counter, but the government is really making an effort to make transactions cashless.

10. Reload == top-up
Top-up ang term na gamit nila sa "reload". Top-up your ez-link, kopitiam card, and of course, you prepaid phone, via counters, kiosks or atms.

11. Library == video rental shop
di lang books ang pwedeng hiramin sa library, pwede ding audio/movie cds, dvds, pati mga comics at magazine. pro di lahat ng library ay mapalad. the one here in sengkang only has books, magazines and comics... booooo...

12. di ka rin galit sa plastic eh noh?
grabe talga ang mga grocery baggers dito. kulang na lang i-plastic bawat item na binili mo. dapat mag-seminar sila sa pilipinas. galing mga mga baggers natin e, daming items napagkakasya efficiently sa isang bag.

13. di uso ang libre dito...
bumili ako ng sushi nung isang araw, hihingi dapat ako ng wasabi, aba! may bayad?!!! teka, di ba yun included na dapat since bumili naman ako ng sushi??? at itong malupit... may "sushi sauce allocation table" sila. so kung 1-5 sushi ang binili mo, meron ang 1 sachet ng sushi sause, pag 6-10, 2 sachet and so on... huuuuwaaat??? sa pinas hinihingi lang ito sa yoshinoya ah?!!!

14. sale kung sale!
mataas ang bilihin dito... and singaporeans are known to be quite stingy. tipid kung tipid talga, since mahal nga ang bilihin. pro wag ka, pag sinabing sale, aba! bagsak presyo talga. branded sneakers that usually costs around 20SGD, would sell at 10SGD, 42 inch plasma tv, priced regularly at around 5,000SGD would cost around half during a sale. insane diba???