this has been something on my mind since i got here. you see here, when you go to the mall or a restaurant, you are greeted, "hello mam sir." this is even if you are by yourself.
so after much deliberation i have come up with 3 reasons why:
1) filipinos aren't that great at pronouns. i know my mom calls guys "her" and girls "him" all the time. this whole mam sir thing eliminates that issue.
2) sometimes its hard to tell. there are alot of umm...people in drag here. so yeah, this way, they won't make a mistake when trying to identify gender.
3) their employee manual probably states, "Make sure to friendly greet guests by saying, 'hello mam/sir.'". so they probably just take this literally and say the whole thing.
anyone have any further insight on this mamsir phenomenon here in the philippines?
everyone is suddenly an expert in the olympics. i admit, i too, geek it for the summer games. i love stuff like womens gymnastics, track and field, and swimming because...well when do you ever watch that stuff besides the summer games? i guess that is one good thing about the jetlag since my sleep schedule is totally aligned with the olympic viewing schedule.
got my baggage. jetlag getting better. leg healing up. all is good, just trying to get back into the swing of things. this weekend i just want to relax but i don't know if thats in the cards for me.
tonight is my last night of class for the summer. I'll get a 2 week reprieve from school until the fall semester begins.
a few more weeks until football!
the taj - this was impressive. it reminded me of how they used little figurines in the first star wars to depict very massive objects (like star destroyers, etc). thats how the taj seemed to me: so immense, that it was almost unreal.
running - one thing when i travel is i have to try to get workouts in. whether its the gym or some runs, i'm very stubborn and have to get these workouts in. that being said, when i'm travelling, i look out for people running, etc to see what routes they take, what people are wearing based on climate etc. noone runs in india (at least not the places i went to). and the places we stayed at had no gyms so i was forced to get up early one morning and try for a jog.
it was about 5am and still pitch black outdoors. even at this time, its hot (high 70's/low 80's) and humid. at first i contemplated maybe taking a walk to sort of scout the area first but i thought, nah whats the worst thing that could have happened. about 5 steps into my run (seriously 5 frickin steps), 3 guard dogs come out of nowhere and start chasing me. so here's me doing a quick turn back for the door of where i'm staying with a million thoughts running through my head... "what if i get rabies", "crap is my health insurance covered over here", "hmm if they are mutant dogs maybe i can get some super powers out of this?" ok maybe not the 3rd one but yeah as i'm running back, yelling and cussing out loud (which must have been pretty crazy for the indians who heard it at 5am), i trip on the ground and go down. hard. now just doing a quick scan i see these 3, hungry looking, angry dogs wondering what the fuck i was doing (again, since nobody jogs, this must have really freaked them out) i figure..."hmm i think i could take out one dog, MAYBE 2 dogs, but fuck 3 dogs? ok i'm screwed". as i gulp and am ready to get mauled, the security guard yells out something in indian and the dogs go back to their posts. i stand up, a bloody, freaked out mess and head back to my room. needless to say, i got no workouts in in india.
food -the food was good. i can see why they have alot of vegetarians there. they make vegetarian food taste decent. i mean, they don't even use lettuce there! but yeah, meatwise there is alot of chicken, some mutton (or lamb) but almost no beef. pork, yeah right. anyways, i want me a steak.
another thing about food though was that everyone is very nice/courteous when offering food. during meetings we would get offered food many times and i just had a problem saying no. it reminded me of indiana jones and the temple of doom when he says, "you're insulting them and embarassing me. That's more food than these people eat in a week. They're starving"
travel - we tried to calculate it and figured we spent approximately 72 hours travelling. i'm just talking about actual time in a plane, train, or automobile. this doesn't even count all the hours spent at airports and train stations. and drivers in india are crazy good. the roads are worse than the philippines and i'm surprised there are not more accidents. seriously. i don't think i could drive 5 minutes out there without getting into an accident.
i'll write more just wanted to put something up. i'm glad to be back but now i'm dealing with a huge headache and i'm not looking forward to going back into work tomorrow (along with all the jetlag). oh and did i mention my luggage didn't arrive here in the us with me?
Greetings from Burgs!
Burgs says hi from India. It's hot and humid right now. He's travelling a lot and his last stop is the Taj Mahal. Classes are going great but keeping him busy. We'll receive a complete update once he's back in the US.
On another note, anyone watch NFL today? Who won - Cardinals or Saints?
i'm in hong kong. i caught 3.5 movies on the flight:
the bank job, definitely maybe, dan in real life, and most of cloverfield.
i like cathay pacific, foods pretty good. just wasnt able to sleep much.
hope all are doing well, i'll try to update my blog while on this trip and take some cool photos.
going to india, i was thinking of what i'll miss:
sports-i don't think anyone in india cares about brett favre, ryan grant, or steve smith. maybe some cricket if i'm lucky.
working out-dont think i'll have the chance to run or hit the weights at india. probably don't think i'll have a gym to go to and i don't want to take my chances running over there.
meat-the hotels where we are staying are all vegetarian. this actually might not be such a bad thing b/c i actually dig indian cuisine.
hot chicks-seriously
the weather-i like la weather. its hot but its dry. for india, its hot but i have to bring my umbrella. u have got to be kidding me.
but what i'll miss most is my friends and family. i know, i'm very sentimental. but its true.
back in atlanta. crunch time for school as well with a final the day i come back to la. my last final is next thursday.
then i get to relax for a few days!
happy belateds to jogahs and miss.
go lakers!
i'm not much of a travel guy. my brother pointed out that this is the first time i've been east of the mississipi (did i even spell that right?)
don't get me wrong. i love exploring new places. i love taking pictures. eating new food. meeting new people.
its just the actual point a to point b. the airports, airplanes, cabs, subways, trams, shuttles....thats what i don't like.
i never had to travel at all at my previous jobs. this ones a bit different. i'm flying out to atlanta twice in the next month. good thing is the braves are at home and turner field is only about 15 miles from my hotel. hopefully i can find another clinical analyst who is into baseball to roll with.
ugh, i have a half marathon this weekend. between my new job and school, i've barely found any time to run (although i have found time to frequent jack in the box and mcdonalds). this is gonna hurt. bad.
happy bday tiago!
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