Trip Memories Part II

Ok so I'm back on the whole blogging track!

Where was I...oh yes we are still in Manila aren't we?
Those first few days we met everyone in the Manila Center and it was fun. Everyone there had a smile for you and were so polite. I couldn't walk anywhere without someone saying Hello or moving out of my way. It was REALLY weird to have everyone be so polite and accomidating.

What is unique there is once the girls (my counterparts) got to know me better they were so loving to me. And that bonding for them took oh about a day! Filippinos really love their family and friends. When you see them walking down the street they will hold hands or link arms. Its really sweet and makes you long to have that sort of relationship with your family and friend's. Eventually my arm was being held onto by the girls there as we walked along.
It makes me tear up to think of them...
I was just so blown away by how eager they were to learn and so open to ideas.
That first week there was a whirlwind while working. The nights flew by so quick. Did I mention I was working nights? 10pm-6am. It was rough, but the nights went by fast.
If the eagerness from the agents was somehow transferred to our agents it would change our center. But its really the culture....just so different.

So the highlight of our week in Manila was visiting the mall known as Greenhills. Wow, Greenhills....where do I start?
Well Greenhills is a mall that sells black market, knock off products like purses, wallets, shoes, luggage, you name it they got it. Its UNREAL.
Its not really a true mall like you think, its more like a swapmeet. There are vendors just packed up next to each other and it is SO hot in there. Its hot in the entire country, but this place had zero air conditioning in parts of it so it was a bit unbearable.
Now, I have never been in a place that has fake-name brand products so this was interesting. First we looked at pearls, true pearls not fakey ones. WE went to a dealer that the locals use. We also went with 2 locals so as not to get ripped off.
I did buy pearls. Not pretty white ones, but seed pearls and imperfect pearls which were still pretty and real. I bought black, pink and green pearls. Unique yes, cheap YES! I think I spent about $36 for 4 necklaces. And these were actually pearls not fake ones. Yeah baby!

After we all labored over our pearl choices we were off to the purses. And WOW I have never in my life seen so many purses. The place was PACKED and it was so overwhelming. So much too choose from, actually to much to choose from. I was shopping with my partners, Romina & Deb and then 2 other sales agents and 2 trainers. Basically it was all girls except for our escorts and one other agent who was shopping for his wife.

The purse thing I didn't know what to do about. The labels were so loud and the purses were SO fake. But some weren't so fake looking. The wallets were pretty fake looking so I passed on those. I did buy my mom one Coach purse that cost me about $8 US and if I had bought it new I heard it could run over $100 US. So I'm thinking if my mom lost my fake Coach purse worth about $8, I wouldn't be so heart broken.

Yes there was everything there, Gucci, Prada, Dooney & Burke, Coach, Louie Vatan, you name it it was there. You always did the "zip, zip" test when you buy a fakey purse. Zip it and un-zip it to be sure the zipper doesn't break. Yes, that is how cheap they can be....

I mainly bought Pokemom cards for Noah. Yeah, I know, but Noah loves them and they are like 3 for $2 in the Philippines and here they are like $2 for a 5-pack. Easily a steal and they were real! :)

The fun thing about GreenHills is they have men who walk around going, "DVD Ma'am?" over and over and over you hear it. It gets really old really fast. Basically its some guy selling bootlegged copies of movies in the theatres'. They sell them cheap, but buying those won't allow you to come back home to the US usually. So you say no no no over and over again.
Oh and BTW, if you decide to go to the Philippines and visit Greenhills, DON'T Touch ANYTHING. Because if you touch some purse, you'll have the vendor all over you, "You like that, you buy?" or "I have other purse. You like this one??" There is NO browsing in a place like this. Plus, be sure to wear your purse and be aware of your surroundings if you know what I mean. I wore my backpack purse on my front; I called it my pregnancy belly purse. I was so sexy that day!

I hung out mainly with my master trainer Shana (whom you may have seen in some of my pictures) the whole time in Greenhills. We almost lost her there. It wasn't funny. I wished I could have gone back (yes, Jess they had BIG sunglasses there) again because there was so much more I would have bought after I got over the shock of the whole experience. Maybe if I get to go back to the Philippines....
Anyway, so that was a BLAST. It was the longest day ever because we went after work one morning. And then went back to work that night.

I had never been so tired in my entire life. I could literally fall asleep standing up during this trip. Fatigue was redefined for me! I normally can tolerate little sleep, but this trip knocked me out badly! Knocked all of us out. But it was so worth it.

Makati is where we stayed in Manila which was beautiful. Very very clean. While outside of the city garbage is everywhere, not in Makati. People sweep the streets constantly. You'd even see little old ladies on the freeways sweeping away. They have very tight control on that city. Which explains why most of the business is done in that city. Lots of construction going on everywhere too. What is weird is seeing half built buildings that they stopped doing work on because funding ran out so there it sits empty and creepy looking. I had one picture on my slideshow showing that one building, but it wasn't in Makati it was further towards the airport.

I was sad to leave makati because it took all week for me to "get" how to spend money and understand the conversion rate. We did go shopping at one place we all managed to go crazy on. It was a tourist dream that had 4 floors of handicrafts. Loved it! I wish I could totally go back there again. It was all new too! Nothing fake there. Me & Deb spent about 3 hours in there. They kept giving us discounts so you know, you have to spend more to make up for the newly discounted prices! Justifies your purchase!

When you do go shopping in a mall or a dept store what is weird is everything is wrapped. Shoes are wrapped in plastic and shrink wrapped. Books are all shrink wrapped. T-shirts are wrapped in plastic. Its different, however lots of people touch them and its very dusty and dirty in some places so I can see why. Also, in a store there are SO many sales associates. Typically there would be one girl in charge of one little section maybe one shelf of shoes for example, and then another girl for another shelf. SO many associates. You can't touch anything there without the girls asking if you need help. And yes, most of them are girls in the retail stores. And they wear skirts and heels. I can only imagine how sore their feet must have been....

One thing that was new to me and I probably mentioned this before, but how stared at I was. In Greenhills they all stared at my feet (I was wearing my Doc Martins) but basically I was stared at where ever I went. I even had one guy stop me and ask me if he could take my picture. Now my face is probably plastered on some other naked ladies body floating around the internet! JUST KIDDING!
But truly I have never been noticed so much in my entire life. It made me realize how white I was....I'm really white right now, tanning probably is recommended before you go!
It was rare to see a white person and when you did they usually were middle aged american men with a young Filippino gal on his arm. So yeah, a white girl was probably rare. And usually I went everywhere with Deb who is over 6 ft tall and black, so yeah, we STOOD out like crazy. Makes me realize what a melting pot Seattle is. We have so many races and cultures here that it doesn't faze us.

Quick story before I wrap up my Manila week!
At the airport in Manila when we were supposed to be going to Cebu we were taken to the wrong airport and nearly missed our flight! There are 3 airports in Manila and we were taken to the wrong one and then had to race to the other airport to check in for our flight. It was like the Amazing Race! We got into these little taxi's (just like on the Amazing Race) because there 4 of us and a lot of luggage we had to take 2 taxi's racing each other to the next airport! Then racing thru security and checking in. NOT something I would recommend and I guess the Amazing Race gang gets used to that adrenaline rush after awhile! I wouldn't do it with a lot of luggage! No wonder they carry backpacks they bring on the plane.
We made it with 15 min to spare.

And off to Cebu we went. Which I couldnt' sleep on the plane due to being to excited to seeing some of the 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines. Its truly incredible and made me say over and over, "This is why I get up every morning......"