"
Iba ka na ngayon sa phone!"
"(whispering, demure)
Hindi naman...tahimik dito...(shift to palengke mode)
'di ako puwedeng mag-palengke queen!"I kind of miss how it's okay to be noisy and rowdy in an ad agency. I need to speak real loud 'cause in the background, there'd be people playing 3 kinds of music, a group playing online games and another group laughing out loud or even singing and playing the guitar.
At TR, people laugh but in a controlled kind of way, not like the guffaws I am used to. So in a way, I've had to change my tone a bit, including the way I answer the phone. I am a lot business-like (cause it seems, that's the way everyone is!):
NOW: "(demure) Thomson Reuters, good morning!"
vs. BEFORE: "(
palengke) Hello.
Hoyyyyyy! Kumusta ka na?"
Sometimes, I miss being able to play music and YouTube videos out loud. Now, I have to use my headphones. But I am happy that I get to go home fairly early, predict my work flow and pretty much do my work in front of the computer and not run around the city too much.
Most of the work interaction is through email and occasional office meetings. I don't know if it's because our counterparts are all in London, but I sometimes miss a lot of face-to-face interaction, brainstorming, presenting to client and attending shoots.
The culture is definitely different, but am glad I get along well with my other Marketing team mates who came in roughly the same time I did, so we have common observations about the office. Mostly, am glad people are not uptight and we get to talk about crazy, funny things. It would have been harder if I was the only one new in the group. Horrifying.
oOo
Sometimes I feel, Hen knows me better than I do myself. I don't know if that's a good or bad sign. He makes me put things in perspective, I don't know how he does it. Maybe because he's Buddhist? Not all things should be a struggle. When you frame it in that way, things just seem harder than they are when really, they're not. I am my father's daughter that way--his voice is always in my head, I want to silence it. But really, things happen for the best. I just want to accept things as they happen and be happy.
oOo
I lent Nancy my 4-Hour Work Week book cause I knew she would totally get it. And she does! Am happy about that. Not many people get it. When someone I''ve just met says she or he gets it, that's a good sign. She finished it in one sitting like I did!
And if she gets it, I am already thinking, it would be nice to travel with her soon. We're pretty much the same in that we go with the flow. It's pretty hard to travel with someone who's OC or uptight when little things go wrong. I like being lost and finding my way after being lost while travelling. She does, too.
I want to Slow Travel soon. I've done 2 weeks. Then 1 month. Then 6 months. After the 5 months, I am long-term planning a 1 year! Not many people understand, but more and more, I meet people who do, especially people who've worked around the world who take sabbaticals seriously. Most Filipinos, and usually older, married people, find it crazy how I just move around jobs and travel. I love it.
I still don't know where, but probably in Latin America, or somewhere I can still do part-time work while I vacation. Of course, since I just started work again, I can't do that. Yet. I will. Maybe after a year, I would have saved enough by then. Of course, while I contemplating this, TED Talks updates on my Facebook and posts Stefan Sagmeister's talk about "The power of time off." Watch it
here.
Before: My view in my previous Ortigas office at night time. Not really much to see.
1. All Soul's weekend early lunch of stir-fried Camaro (Crickets) at Everybody's Cafe, Angeles City, Pampanga (we also had Tidtad, Ensaladang Pako and Kalderetang Kambing, among others).
