After Chris met me at the airport, we went back to his office to collect his belongings and tie up some loose ends. All of his work friends had said that they wanted to meet me and I was interested to see where Chris was working, so I had planned on making a trip to his office eventually. As we drove through Manila, I was struck at how much it conjured up memories of Mexico City.
Indeed, there are many similarities between the cities. Each was the capital of a Spanish colony; each city is a cosmopolitan, urban jungle in the midst of what are essentially third-world countries; each suffers under terrible pollution that would choke a Californian; and each has traffic that would fray the nerves of even a Parisian driver. Their respective countries have much in common, too. Each country was christianized by the Spanish and now has a Catholic majority; each is now closely allied (politically, culturally, and economically to varying degrees) with the United States; there are great economic disparities and extremes of rich and poor; each is doing a respectable job of maintaining a democracy and is working hard to modernize infrastructure, as well as economic and political institutions.
While driving along, I saw the naked superstructures of huge billboards that are sprinkled throughout the city. During typhoon Milenyo that passed through Metro Manila just a couple of weeks ago, one such billboard fell onto a bus and killed 40 people, causing an outcry against these billboards that clutter the skyline, so the billboards themselves were removed, leaving the bare superstructures.
Traffic here is quite something to experience. There are cars, buses, jeepneys, motorcycles, bicycles, and people streaming everywhere and all mixed together. There's clearly a system to it and it works; I've not seen an accident and Chris has only been in one light fender-bender. The key seems to be that people drive slowly and make liberal use of the horn to communicate their presence and intentions.
We arrived at Chris' office and checked through security (as we will do for every office building or shop that we enter). We arrived just as Chris' shift of trainees was leaving (which felt like class change in a small high school) and as we walked through the hallway, literally every second person chimed, "Hi, Chris!" He is clearly quite popular and well-respected. We encountered a crowd of Chris' work friends and he made the rounds of introductions. They all knew exactly who I was and exactly what I was doing here and were very excited to meet me. Chris had just a few loose ends to tie up in his day, so the crowd (Diane, Lara, John, Karen, and Jane) took me to breakfast in the office cafeteria and we had a fun and lively conversation. Karen bought me a flan to sample, which tasted different and somehow better than the Mexican and Spanish flan that I've had, and I had a surprisingly tasty instant coffee from a machine. We talked about their experiences at work (They are a contract call center for several American companies, though this bunch works exclusively on the United Health account.), American culture, Philippine culture, my work, and their interactions with Chris.
Chris can be very quiet at times and some here thought that he was a snob until he came to work one day and related to them something that had happened to him at his hotel. He returned home one morning (after his over-night shift) to find missing the stuffed turtle, Ruga, that I'd sent with him. He was very upset and chatted me up, starting out with "I have some distressing news!" After learning that neither his office hadn't been bombed and he hadn't been mugged, I encouraged him to ask the front desk about Ruga. He marched down and did so, then went out for errands for a couple of hours and when he returned, Ruga was back in place! Yay! Karen explained how this story finally revealed a big part of Chris' personality that they'd not yet seen and endeared him to them, "That's when Chris became Chris to us!"
The next day, we went out to the SM Mega Mall for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and to do a bit of grocery shopping. Lunch at the Mexican restaurant was tasty and interesting. Vegetarian items were mostly absent from the menu, but cooks are accommodating if asked. Pinto beans aren't available here, so there are no refried beans as we know them in North America; they put whole kidney beans in my taco, instead. I had a side order of guacamole which was unlike any guacamole that I've had in North America; it tasted like it was made with a mayonnaise base and perhaps had an avocado passed near it. Chris mentioned not having notice avocadoes in the grocery store. Mind you, the meal was tasty and filling. The salsa was good and the margarita was strong! I felt the need to clarify that by commenting on the differences that I see, I'm just making observations on how others interpret things (cuisine, in this instance) differently from how we, ourselves, have interpreted them in the United States. It's not a pale imitation of the authentic, just a different perspective.
We browsed through several shops in the mall and were invariably greeted with a "Hello, Sir!" from every sales clerk within earshot (and some beyond, I'm sure). As we browsed through the mall's flagship SM department store, sales staff greeted us and then hovered next to us as we looked at clothes, rice cookers, dishes, toys, and other merchandise. I realize that they're just being helpful by making themselves available, but I found it very annoying and impossible to shop.
The grocery store operated much like any grocery store in the United States. The mix of merchandise was quite similar, though there were many tell-tale signs that we're in Asia. There are an abundance of fruits that I just don't see in the US -- big, spiky melons that look dangerous to touch; limes the size of kumquats or pearl onions; something called dragon fruit that looks like a pink puffer fish. A lot of it wasn't pretty -- it was scraped and scuffed with black marks and some of it was wilted. Hey, it's still edible! Maybe chemical pesticides and fertilizers aren't as common here as in the United States, so it might be even more edible! There was a whole aisle of ramen-type noodles and another whole aisle of instant sauces and gravies, yet only one small section of breakfast cereals. Cranberry sauce nestled among the spaghetti sauces, sold in bags. I purchased a bag of something called "banana catsup" that is made without tomatoes, yet is somehow red. Fish and shrimp-flavored items abound and I bought a few shrimp-flavored chips and crackers and something called "Yummy Flakes", as well as some pumpkin seeds roasted black (quite good) which seem quite popular, some fried peas, and a can of fish soup. Whenever I've travelled abroad, I've always found grocery stores to be quite entertaining places.
In the days ahead, I'm looking forward to a game night with Chris' friends from work; a trip to Tagaytay to explore the Taal volcano and its crater lake; and a trip to Palawan, a large and mostly undeveloped island in the western Philippines. This trip is shaping up to be the adventure of a lifetime and I'm so glad to be here! :J
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