Greetings from the East

On Monday (2 days ago) I woke up at 5 am in order to catch the train to the airport (ouch!), my 2 train buddies (Babette and Evy) and mum accompanied me to the airport (my dad drove me to the station, he couldn't come with because he had several meetings that day... preparing for summer recess and all). My friends brought a bottle of champaign with them... really fun! I was a bit tipsy by the time I arrived in Brussels, definitely not a good idea when you have to carry a suitcase of 30 K, haha! My colleagues from WS came to say goodbye, for which I was really greatful, they are really nice!

My plane took off at 10.45 am, first to Amsterdam (only 22 minutes by plane) and from there to Manila. On the plane I met up with Citas and Bert and their 3 children, they work in the same office as me but for a different NGO. I flew with KLM, the Dutch airline company, and the service was really good. I wasn't too jetlagged when I arrived in Manila but I started sweating instantly: it was already 29° celcius (at 8.30 in the morning!).

Once in Manila, we drove to the house of Citas and Bert first, so that we could have lunch and relax a bit before going to the office (where I live for the moment). They live in the suburbs of Manila and built their own house, really fabulous. They have a big living room and on the roof top they have a large terras with hammock, ideal for relaxing and reading gossip magazines, haha!

My first impression of Manila: big, crowded, dusty and hot! There are people everywhere, it's smoggy, the traffic is hell but I quite like it. You can compare it to Beijing in summer but it's more spread out than Beijing. I think I'll find out soon enough how hughe this city is! After lunch I went with Citas to the office, it's located in Quezon City (another part of Metro Manilla), and it's a really nice one, it doesn't feel like an office at all! There is a big garden around the house, and it has 2 floors: on the ground floor, there's a conference room, a kitchen with a large table, Bert's office, a bathroom and Ophel's bedroom, on the first floor there's an open plan sitting room, 3 offices (two of 11.11.11, one of Trias) and a terras. I currently work on the terras and sleep in the conference room. The house keeper, Ophel (short for Ophelia), is really nice, she cooks for everyone at lunch, cleans the house and garden and takes care of the 2 dogs (Jeda and Chacha).

Come to think of it: Manila is infested by dogs!!! Citas has 3 dogs, Hanneke has 1 (that was here yesterday as well), and I'm going to look at a house this afternoon where they also have 2 dogs. The ones I met were nice, they lick your toes and don't bark often ... totally not like the ones that live on the streets (everyone has several here, that run around loose... not much fun). Thank god I have good friends, who gave me a dazer Monday, it's a small device that scares dogs away (it produces a really high sound that people can't hear, but dogs can and they hate it). I haven't used it yet... so far so good...

Yesterday I met several people who work in the office (Hanneke from 11.11.11 and Jozef from Trias), today more people will be in. They are really nice, and we'll have a party later on this week so I can get to know everyone a little better.

There are a lot of mosquitos and ants and other bugs, I'm itchy a lot, hopefully not for long. For the rest no other inconveniences, I still haven't quite grasped the fact that I now live in Manila, it feels quite surreal. I think it will kick in as soon as I am settled in at my own place, I don't know. I'll go and buy a camera this weekend probably, so that I can send you some pictures!

Love,
fee xx