MSG Feast

I went to work for the first time last night.  Since they're 16 hours ahead here, the bulk of the people at our call center work nights so that their schedules correspond with daylight hours in the US.  While I am here, I'm working 11pm-8am which translates into 7am-4pm Pacific time.  One would assume the transition wouldn't be that difficult considering the hours are not that different.  Well, I'm here to tell you another story.

My transition to Manila time has not been easy.  I haven't slept more than four hours at a time and that was just last night (er day actually) that I got that much in a row.  Despite the fact that I'm technically on a similar schedule to what I work back home, I cannot sleep during the day.  I feel completely exhausted yet am unable to sleep.  The hotel has "black-out" curtains, but there's always still a small seam of light that creeps through.  It's amazing how distracting that little seam can be.  Or the sound of air coming through the vent or faint voices in the hallway...  Normal sounds that if they happened during the night, you wouldn't be bothered by them, but when it's during the day you notice every little annoying thing.

So last night was my first time at the call center office and I got to meet everyone that I've only normally spoken to by phone.  It's interesting to find out what people look like after only hearing their voice.  I've created mental pictures of what I thought they looked like and I was way off for just about everyone.

About 10 of us went out to lunch at a place called "Next Door" in the red light district in Manila.  Keep in mind that "lunch" is the middle of the night, so it was a pretty interesting experience.  A lot of women looking for a good time were in and out of the restaurant and of course a loud drunk guy shouting "I know you!  And I know you!  I don't know you or you.  Yeeeeeaaaaaaah!"  I'm guessing this is the usual for a restaurant open at this time of the night in that location.

"Do you like MSG?"  I've never been asked this question in my life.  Of course, most of us know that MSG is really bad for you.  This is the question I was asked by my call center counterparts when deciding where we were going to eat.  Evidently "Next Door" cooks with a lot of MSG.  I was told we were going out for an "MSG Feast."

At home, I try to avoid MSG whenever possible.  Last night however, this MSG was pretty damn yummy.  I followed up with "Mango Sagu" (Sorry forgot to take a picture of it) which is a blended dessert with mangos, milk, ice, tapioca, and sugar.  Very tasty.