Days 5 and 6: I've survived the first week

It doesn't get much more exciting than breaking in a birthday all alone in a hotel room, naked, eating chocolate icecream and watching back-to-back episodes of glee. At least, that's what I'll be doing if I can actually stay awake until midnight. I've had my fair share of pretty terrible birthdays, and I can safely say that this isn't anywhere near as bad. However, it would be nice to be out in Sydney with my friends right now, making a fool of myself on a dancefloor somewhere.

Thinking about the date does spark the realisation that I've survived my first week here in Manila! I'm surprised that I've made it through without flipping out after all the disasters and setbacks. But enough about those for now...I've got more important things to blog about.

Throughout the week, on several occasions, I glanced towards the back of the training room and saw Crissy whispering to the Manila trainer and team leader. They saw me looking, and quickly stopped. I didn't think too much of it the first time, but after about the third time I started to get a little paranoid. I tried to focus on the task at hand and put my worries out of my mind. I managed to convince myself that no, they weren't whispering about me, why would they? Turns out they were, and I was to find out why on Friday.

After getting off a rather stressful conference call at lunchtime, in which I discovered that we wouldn't have systems access until next Wednesday at the earliest (yup...details to come on that one), I wandered into the cafeteria to get some lunch. Before I was able to turn towards the food lineup, Crissy grabbed my arm and led me towards one of the meeting rooms off the cafeteria. As I entered, my training group burst into a chorus of "Happy Birthday". They'd prepared a surprise party for me!I may have cried...just a little. It was so touching that these people that I've only known a week had put in such a mammoth effort to make my birthday so special. They'd put together a great feast of authentic Filipino food:
One guy had even gone wandering around Metro Manila at 4am searching for Balut for me to try! He wasn't able to find it, but has promised to bring some on Monday. Also, they all dressed up for the occasion, and brought a HUGE cake!
The generosity and kindness shown to me totally made my day, my week AND my birthday. It helped me realise that, despite the stress from the neverending stream of crises, I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to meet and learn from these people.

Friday night the celebrations continued in a rather drunken manner...Crissy, the Manila team leader and another employee from Melbourne sampled the hotel's rather dangerous cocktails until the wee hours of the morning. We had a prime party spot - the hotel terrace, 6 floors above the street, decorated with multi coloured party lights and overlooking pedestrians and cars bustling past below. For the first night this week, the wet season took a break and we had a clear night to enjoy the outdoors.

$8 cocktails all night led to a rather sore head this morning for all of us, and we commiserated over a yummy buffet breakfast. Then, as this was our first free day, we ventured out shopping. The Melbourne rep, who has been here 5 weeks already, played tour guide and price haggler for the afternoon. The place we visited was Greenhills, a giant flea-market, packed to the brim with top-quality knockoffs. I managed to get myself a new handbag (good timing as mine had disintegrated earlier in the day) and two pairs of shoes for just over $30. Magic. Plans have been made to return.

Since then I've been lurking around my hotel room, enjoying all the extra opportunities for naked time. And now that I've finished this post, its 2 minutes to midnight and I'm almost 26.