so, several things about the philippines really struck me. first, was the food. there was so much of it, and it was so good and cheap, too! sushi and sashimi at every turn. dim sum at every other restaurant. i thought that i would eat light while i was there, since i was going to be away from home, but i ended up eating even more! the other thing are the spas. you can get a massage at a jillion places. you can go to a fancy chain, appropriately named "the spa", where for $15 you can get an hour long massage in zen like surroundings. my hotel even did massages 24 hours a day, and you could even have it in your room. and as you know, each mcdonald's has it regional flavor and the filipino mcdonald's was no different: the mcrice burger. perhaps you think it's just a burger with a rice/veggie patty. no no, it's much more creative than that. the mcrice burger consists of cabbage, sauce and a meat patty sandwiched between two "buns" of rice.
the other thing is the names. i know that asians have a tendency towards odd anglicized names, but the filipinos take it one step further with nicknames. everyone here has a nickname. at work, we have "dimples", "bubbles" and "kisses". robert is obet, margaret is mags, vanessa is vans. on the hr team, there was someone named telly. i asked him if that was a nickname or his full name, and he said "it's my full name, i was named after a tv actor". i said "yeah, telly savalas." and they all collectively went ohhhh, because it turns out they didn't know his full name. i told him about kojak and the lollipop and the bald head, and emailed him a picture i got off imdb. filipino telly looked at kojak telly and said "ohhh, i look pretty different." filipino telly is 5'5'', maybe 120 pounds and has a gelled mohawak, ala maddox jolie-pitt.
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