My English-exhausted mind

Oh wow, Friday. It had been so long since I last said, "Thank God it's Friday!" Whew. What a week!

Last Monday marked my first day at my new job at InterGlobe Technologies at McKinley Hill. This week was is the first of the three-week voice and accent training. And I tell you, it's exhausting. It's my first time to undergo such training because the last time that I was in a call center, I was only a part-time employee. Thus, they didn't bother to train us as thorough.

But this week, I--and the rest of the 'wave'--underwent a lot of pronunciation, grammar and thought organization  hardships. It makes you wonder why one had to learn such terrible English from kindergarten to college. All this time, I used to think that I am good in English, but come voice and accent training, I was totally lost.

For example, there was this discussion about prepositions, and some parts of it left me dumbfounded. I was on training from 8am til 4pm, but as soon as I got home, I always had to Google something. William, our trainer, is good at what he does. I thank him for that. I even told him that I'm kind of rethinking about my grammar in all of my previous posts!

Tiring as it was, the perfectionist in me is craving for more information. I want to be good at writing and speaking English. I could not allow myself to write for all the world to read, or speak, in wrong grammar. And to this I say, "bring it on!"

Rudeness at the Moviehouse

After a long Valentines weekend composed of a three-hour treatment (that includes a hot milk bath) at Devarana Spa with our overnight at Dusit, and the Crossover Buffet on V-Day, we decided to go out and see "Valentines Day" at Eastwood. It's a holiday, it's a weekend, it's family day Sunday. People are all over the place.

We always get our movie tickets as soon as we get to a mall so we don't have to worry about that later on... Come movietime, the final seats on our row was:

EMPTY--Couple1--EMPTY--Us--EMPTY--Couple 2

We literally strategically chose our seats so we don't have to rub elbows with anybody considering the jampacked screening times. Right before the opening credits rolled in, here came a middle aged couple with a teenage son walking up to our row, at Couple1's side.

Apparently, she bought the three empty seats and asked us all to move sideways so they can fit and sit together--smack in the middle of the screen. What got to me more was how she asked me. She just said, "Siguro pwede namang yung isa doon diba," sternly, and pointing at the empty seat between us and Couple2. It may be dark but I knew she'd see my expression with the glare of the screen. I rolled my eyes at her.

The son sat beside me and said a quiet "thank you," and he seemed so ashamed of how his mother had behaved. Well he should be! The mother asked Couple1 nicely if they could move to the empty seat to their left, and talked at us like that.

Fuck these people who ask you of things like you owe them.

Be my link?

I checked on my blog right now and I suddenly remembered how long ago it was since I bloghopped, you know given the fact that a lot of people check on their Facebook accounts more than they check their email. So I was looking... and looking. Then it hit me: I don't have my links!

Grr. Okay so people I could add your blog as links if you want to, just leave a comment on this post with your blog url. Thanks!

Stuck with Blogger Comments

My comment hosting site, Haloscan, will shut down tomorrow, therefore I wouldn't be able to maintain my black-and-green pop-up comment box. Guess I'm stuck with the comment section that comes with every Blogger account. Hmm it took me two hours to figure out how to get it back since my old template was still on HTML and given the *new* templates on Blogger... Safe to say I got lost.

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I finally have a parking space for my car! Yesterday we met up with the owner of a parking slot one buildings away and paid for three-month rental of the slot. One building away is still better than street-parking! :)

NBI Clearance - Mandaluyong

As with any pre-employment procedures, I am required to submit an original and valid NBI clearance. Of all possible requirements, I hated this one for the single thought of going to Carriedo and making my way through hundreds of people clamoring to get that sheet of paper. I have lost my personal copy from years back so I had to apply for a new one. I Googled for other areas/satellite offices that accept new applications and found out that Mandaluyong city hall has one (SM Megamall only accepts renewals).

Days and weeks went by gathering enough courage to do so, I finally went there today. I chose to go after lunch since most people would line up early in the morning hoping they'd finish early. From experience I've noticed that proceeding to government offices BEFORE they close would make you one of the few who are yet on the first steps of their procedure. Took a cab and asked around, I found the satellite office--more like a makeshift counter in the city hall grounds--and I can't make out what the first step was. There were none of those big signages telling you where the first steps were. In the middle of the waiting area (seats under a collapsible tent) I saw a table where fingerprinting ink was all over. On it was a small pail, yes a pail, with sheets of application forms. Then came the guy who's in charge of fingerprinting. After I filled out my form I approached him and he said, "limang piso". Despite the fact that I already brought my own pack of wipes I handed him the coin and proceeded with it.

Up in front of the cashier for payment, I was told I needed a cedula (community tax certificate). I had mine with me, but they needed one from Mandaluyong. Hmmm.. As far as i knew all I needed was a valid ID but anyhow I hesitantly paid twenty pesos for it. The cedula guy said "hmp walang kita" when I handed him exactly twenty pesos. Hmp back!

I returned to the cashier and paid P115 for the clearance and had my photo taken. The people at that "office" were rude, shouting at people who didn't know the procedure. I wanted to yell back at them for the sake of other people to tell them that they're so disorganized so how would the people know what exactly was the flow of the process. I was back at the waiting area when I heard someone shout at one of the applicants, "hoy kuya wag ka magsolo dyan dahil may nagpapafingerprint dyan hindi mo alam ginagawa mo". I looked around and saw that the fingerprint guy wasn't there. Finally he's back and he's lecturing newcomers too. He kept saying, "hindi pwedeng kayo kayo lang naggaganyan alam nyo namang may tao dito." A middle-aged woman wasn't able to contain herself and said back, "eh wala namang tao pano namin malalaman?"

And guess what the guy just kept shouting at how stupid the applicants were. Oh cmon! A handwritten instructions would have saved them a lot of trouble. So a note to everyone, yes you'd get it fast but they're rude!