Money and happiness

Money can't buy happiness:

Low earners top job happiness poll

But it can buy a lot of things that can make you happy, for example:


Wala lang, just my stupid thought for the day. :)

Last Yosi

I brought 4 reams of Winston Lights to Warsaw when I came. Below is a picture of my last (partially devastated) pack:


In pesos, a pack of cigs here costs p120 - expensive considering they just cost p19.50/pack in the grocery store (Pioneer Center - for those of you who are wondering) near my apartment in Manila.

And the bad thing is that they don't sell Winston Lights!

If you think the prices and the selection is bad, in Western Europe, a pack of "cancer sticks" costs 4 euros each (about p250).

Wow! Talk about discrimination!

When I look back and think, I realized that I just finished 800 sticks of cigarettes in the past 2 1/2 months. That's a lot!

I should quit, I know. :)

How NOT to get lost

I get lost all the time. I've lived in Manila for 9 years, I still get lost a lot. In my hometown, Angeles City, I only stay on the major roads - for fear of ending up somewhere unfamiliar. I have a poor sense of direction - I frequently make wrong turns, and cannot tell North from South on any given day without a compass.

Now that I am halfway around the world, how do I survive? Mr. self-proclaimed "lost boy" uses a bunch of tools - here are my favorite ones:

1. Lonely Planet - these books are simply amazing! If you're planning to go somewhere unfamiliar, make sure you have one of these in your pocket. They are truly worth their weight in Gold. Need a cheap place to stay? Look it up! Can't decide where to eat? Look it up! It is just a gold mine of information. When I was in Tokyo, I frequently followed their restaurant recommendations. When I told my Japanese officemates where I have been eating, they were very surprised - these places were local favorites. I actually even have the Philippine version - it was written by an Australian who explored our islands extensively. It still lists "Embassy" as the hottest place in town. As they commonly say, it usually takes a foreigner to show people how pretty their own country is.



2. Metro - if you have a palm, ipaq, or any other type smart phone, download this program and install it now. This piece of software has subway, bus, tram, and train maps of almost every city in the world. All you have to do is input the station names in the "To" and "From" fields, and it automatically calculates the shortest route (or the route with the least connections - depending on how your preferences are set) using available public transportation links. I've used this in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Warsaw, Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Berlin and a bunch of other cities I can't remember now - this is the single most useful travel tool I've ever used. When I get lost, I just look for the closest bus/tram/subway stop - I can then continue my journey from there. It is so good, I base my cellphone purchasing decisions on whether or not it is compatible with this software.

3. GPS - we've all heard how useful these devices are. Enter the address, and it automatically calculates the shortest route for you. If you make a wrong turn somewhere, it will automatically recalculate the route and set you on your way again. It knows all of the one-way streets, you can ask it to bring you to the nearest parking lot, restroom, gas station, or pub. Some versions even know which streets are clogged with traffic, or which roads are closed. It can even pick your route based on toll fees - showing the cheapest options first. These things are amazing - really, really amazing. Too bad they cost 600 Euros each.



Some people I meet on the road tell me that getting lost is part of the fun. I think its simple a waste of time and energy - why get lost when you can have fun?

Happy travelling!

Work

I've never been so tired in my life.

Between work, living in a foreign country, and other personal issues - it really is very stressful. Never have I been so tired in my life.

"He who does not work, let him not eat." I forgot where that quote originally came from, but considering the amount of work that I have to do, sometimes I don't feel like eating anymore. Actually, it isn't the amount of work, it is more of the nature of the work.

Don't get me wrong - I love my job. I just moved into a new role, that's why I'm here (partly) - and it is absolutely great. I get to control and influence a lot of things, and for the first time in my professional career, I actually feel like I'm in charge. Almost. At least until this week.

The problem with my job (I am a project manager, by the way) is that you are ultimately responsible for whatever happens to your project. Never mind if resource managers suddenly pull out your most experienced resources and replace them with new people (who were hired 2 weeks ago), it doesn't matter if your customers give you all of the requirements at the very last minute (despite months of constant, almost daily follow-up), nor does it matter if your manager doesn't support you at all - and tries to poke holes and see problems into everything that you do. YOU are responsible, YOU are the "one neck to choke" if everything falls apart.

Sometimes, I wonder if all this is worth it. Should I transfer somewhere else? Will it be better?

"It happens in all bloodsucking corporations," my friend said. Touche!

Oh well, at least I get to travel. :)

Small, silly, irritating things

Living abroad is an amazing experience, but soon you get to realize that everything is not as "hunky dory" as you first thought. You soon realize that some small, silly, unexpected things can and do lead to big irritations. Nothing that'll kill you, but irritating nonetheless:

1. TV - if you can't understand Polish, TV choices become very limited. You are basically stuck with two English channels: CNN and BBC. I accepted this as a fact of life abroad - for several months, I tried to stay entertained with looping news stories about the weather, Iraq, football, and whatever the hell some crazy dictator was doing halfway around the world in Africa. And then I discovered the special "+" button on my remote - it was the language option! From there, I figured out that "Angnielski" meant "English." As soon as I selected that option - voila - the language changed from unintelligible Polish to understandable English! I could now watch the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and a bunch of other sports and movie channels. You cannot imagine how happy I became because of this.

2. Toenails - a manicurista goes to the house every 2 weeks to cut the nails on my hands and feet. I obviously have to cut them myself here. This normally isn't such a big deal - I mean how hard can it be. The problem, however, is that my toenails like to grow in a strange way. In fact, I even went to the hospital emergency room once for an ingrown toenail. It isn't that easy either - with a belly like mine, its a struggle to bend down and reach for those toes. I compensate by prevention - before I left, I had them cut so short that they were sore. For maintenance, and to ensure I don't forget, I set my cellphone calendar to remind me every Saturday morning (at 10am) to cut those damn nails down. It has worked so far, I did see some blood a couple of times though hehehe.

3. Laundry - I talked about laundry in a previous post, however, I would like to add one small thing. Everybody knows that you have to separate white clothes from the colored clothes when stuffing the washing machine. (Well, not everybody - I didn't know about this last year, and that explains why some of my white socks are now bluish-white hehehe). The funny thing is that, apart from my underwear and some socks, I didn't bring too many "whites." As a result, when my supply of clean "brip" is running low, I start to consciously wear my white shirts to the office. This is so that I can wash them later that night, thereby increasing the load of whites I need wash. Dagdagan ang puti, para di sayang ang labada. Hahaha - ang weird ko!

4. Coffee - My apartment came with a crappy coffee maker - a 1 cup percolator. Because I am a bit of a coffee nut, this was a very big problem. This device didn't work so well - it was slow, only made 1 small cup at a time (if you were lucky), and leaked like a Nursing Board Exam. This crappy situation was the reason why I finally decided to buy a French Press - it cost about 60 PLN (about p900) - and it surprisingly makes good coffee! It is also perfect for traveling - all you need is hot water, coffee beans, and a coffee cup (well you can skip the coffee cup if you're really desperate, and drink coffee from the spout). Now I don't have to suffer from coffee deprivation anymore - yehey!

Reading this, I cannot imagine how spoiled I was in the Philippines. All TV shows (at least all the interesting ones) are in English, I don't cut my own toenails, I don't do my own laundry, and I don't make my own coffee (in my hometown, somebody else does it for us - even puts in my preferred amount of sugar hehehe). I guess these conveniences make up for the everyday hassles we as Filipinos have to deal with (i.e. traffic, crappy public transportation, pollution and litter, and corruption). Bawi bawi lang.

Wet Monday

Easter is a special time for Polish people - especially Easter Monday. It is a day when everything is closed (look, the streets are deserted! I took the picture above standing in the middle of the main street - only on Easter I guess), people spend all day at home eating and drinking with family, and boys run around the streets chasing girls - with water.

That's right - groups of boys spend all day standing on street corners, market squares, and upper story windows carrying bottles and baskets full of water - patiently waiting for their "victims." Girls run away and scream - but there is no escape, they should have just stayed at home (to eat and drink hehehe). Apparently, the communists tried to wipe out this tradition (called "Smingus-Dyngus") a long time ago, seems like there were pretty unsuccessful.

Here is a boy waiting for his next victim:


And here is a girl filling up for a counter-attack (this is pretty rare, they usually just run away and scream hehehe):


Of course, men can also be victimized - especially "strange-looking men" (i.e. foreigners). Fortunately, it was raining the whole day, so I was pretty much spared from the wrath of these water-carrying lads.

I was still wet though, but from the rain - not from water bottles.

I am still not used to spending Holy Week in cold weather, away from family. I guess I have to get used to it though - depending on how things turn out, soon I'll spend more and more holidays away from home.

(If you're confused about that last comment, send me a message - I can explain hehehe).

I hope you had a great Easter - Wesołych Świąt Wielkanocnych! (that's "Happy Easter" in Polish - impossible to pronounce, I know).

Luxembourg

When I told people that we would be traveling to Luxembourg, I heard a lot of comments regarding its size. In fact, the only thing one friend recalled about this place was the fact that it was "very small." In one of my work-related meetings, one person even joked that his system had data on almost every country in the world - including Luxembourg.

This small country in Western Europe is only 82 kms long, and 51 kms wide. In size rankings, it is 175th smallest (out of 194) in the world. There are only 450,000 people here, and around 120,000 (about 1/4 of the total) commute to Luxembourg everyday from neighboring countries to work. There are 3 official languages: German, French, and Luxembourgish (which is similar to German, but sounds somewhat like Dutch). English is also widely spoken.

Despite being very small, the capital (Luxembourg City) is also one of the richest cities in the world - per capita income is close to $70,000 USD, one of the highest worldwide. (In case you were wondering, the per capita income in the Philippines is a paltry $4,923 USD).

Due to its small size, you can walk around the city center and see all of its sights in around 2 hours. Because this picturesque city was built on a rock with deep valleys on each side, the sights were absolutely amazing:



Small countries have small armies - Luxembourg only has about 500 soldiers. Many of them become policemen or customs officials after their "tour of duty." Here is a picture of one soldier:


If Sparta could ward off those Persians with 300 soldiers, I guess Luxembourg can pretty much defend itself with 500.

Paris Videos

Sorry everyone, these videos are over a month old. I thought of posting them way back - but work got in the way. Better late than never.

The Eiffel Tower at night - night time is really the best time to view this beautiful structure:



A view of the city, taken from the steps leading up to Sacre Cour. Since this is on top of a small hill, it has become a very popular afternoon weekend hangout for young people. It also helps that the view is spectacular:



This shows the interior of Saint Chapelle church, just behind Notre Dame. The poor quality of the video does not do justice to the amazing interior of this place - the whole wall is covered with spectacular stained glass windows. If you go to Paris, DO NOT miss this place:



We took a boat ride up and down the river Siene, say hello to Mav:



The Tuileries gardens on a windy day - this sits between Champs Elysees and the Louvre museum. My feet were aching from all the walking we did - so we decided to take a short break here:



Ahh the Louvre, with its famous (and controversial) glass pyramid - the "scar" on the face of Paris. They said the same with the Eiffel Tower when it was built, and this pyramid does contrast with the surrounding architecture. I like it:




I shouldn't have posted these videos - now, I want to go back to Paris. It's such a nice city, its almost impossible not to fall in love with it.

Maybe in a few weeks. See you there! :)