dubai is cold...

... and the friends i live with are colder.

lately i find it hard to stay under the same roof with them. it all started the day before we had to exit for oman. T was in need of money, A was in need too. I, on the other hand, was extremely grateful to have friends around who were willing to lend me the amount necessary for ticket and visa.

not that i didn't have money. i had. a month's toil in distant abu dhabi rendered me more than enough for what i needed. but the the concern was that, i had to get the money from abu dhabi which was 2 hours away, desert to desert. and the person to give me my labor's fruits was only available at 8.30 in the evening, or so he said. so i had to contend with the icy cold night if i had to go get the money.

since T needed to borrow from me i asked for her company to go to abu dhabi. not only did she refuse me her society, she also raised her voice at me and doubted me. what more, she even dared doubt that i already had the money a long time ago and that i only did not tell them, intentionally. so what was she suggesting, that i was that selfish? that all those times when we didn't have much food in the fridge i had money in my pocket all along?

if one says that to you, would you still want to give her the money she loaned?

i went to abu dhabi on my own. it was freezing. and it was dark when i reached there. i had to stay in al whada mall to wait for the money. and the man reached at 11.30! so what was i doing there at that time when i could have simply slept at home and wait for my friends' money for my own exit? you would think i was crazy to be out there to get the money for T's use.

tell me if i am selfish, but i called E on the morrow of that fateful day to tell T i could only loan her half of what she needed. I could not give her the whole amount. she was sleeping all along the night before, so lucky for her, while i was out there, in the cold mall, with no dinner and fearful as the stalls were closing one by one.

tell me if i were not a true friend to her. i just think it was her who have gone over the bounds of friendship. true friends would not shout at the other, especially if she is the one who needs the favor.

certified, recruitment consultant, that's me!

this week proves to be so blessed for me. imagine 3 placements in a week, isn't that so blessed?!

i must admit that early of this week i had been feeling so low. i was working on a dampening spirit, holding on to what little self-esteem i had left in me as i was torn between going on with my work or quitting, when suddenly i placed one and then 2 days after i placed 2. so that makes it 3 in week! talk about luck...

fishing my heart out

there were so plenty of fish around me last night! fish of different kinds, different sizes, different colors. i thought of how wonderful it is to be eating fried tilapia, or paksiw na dilis. i have always loved eating these sea creatures. and the shrimps! goodness, there were so plenty of them. i thought of the sumptuous meal that was coming, of all the glorious feeling one gets when the stomach is stuffed. i thought of the refrigerator that would be full, of the plastic containers that had to be prepared, of the crammed small table that we have.

there were so many good thoughts to have as i struggled cleaning them all.

(one would think that the dubai shopping festival has changed to dubai fish festival for the 6 of us. last night verlyn and anne went to the fish market. with a AED 70 budget, they came back with two bags-ful of fish and shrimps, all so fresh and so overly cheap! so how was the labor divided? jeal and i had to clean the reward of their labor while tina had to wash the night's dishes. ethel was excused from the household chores, she's a zombie afterall and would not need more chores.)

oh yeah, the pricks still hurt up to today...

workaholic? no, workish!

everyone of us have our own story to tell. it has not been easy going away from our usual comfort zones, to walk down the streets of D and find our way as we go from one interview to another, and the bus was a real ordeal! one would have to wait for an hour or more to get to destination. taxi drivers here are rude and the pay is worth a cadbury bar, so it's not always an option.

ethel and i are the lucky ones to have easily gotten a job. a few days after i came to this unfamiliar city, i got a call for a month-long relieving post. the offer was way too good for one who is used to getting only a 4-digit pay and so it was not an offer to turn down. a week after i started the job, i had interview schedules coming my way. one job offered was to be a recruitment consultant for one of the emirates' recruitment agencies. i was asked how much is the salary i would like to get. and crazy me, i asked for something low.

the story of ethel is not something so different. she started working 3 weeks from arrival. she is receiving the same pay as i get, but she works from dawn til dust. not that it's the working hours of the company she is in, but the workload just seems to pull her down to her last professional element that now she is a walking zombie! she is thinking of leaving her work and find something else but the idea of taking the bus heading to Terminal 1 of the airport is not something to look forward to. so much for the thought of being deported!

tina, on the other hand, is the very lucky one. in a few month's time she will be a millionaire, hahaha! we are so happy for her especially that she was the most cry-baby of us all. she would be engrossed in her own emotional struggles that she would not hear a word that we told her. thankfully, she has the most lucrative job among us all. and her company's the biggest in the emirates. it's like working in san miguel!

anne has just received her pay last weekend. we had taza! hmmmm, so yummy. chicken from taza is always something we have to thank for. for one, it tastes really heaven. another reason is its price, it is really affordable! (just do not convert it to peso, hahaha). going to and from work she has to wait for the bus for 2-3 hours a day. sometimes, she walks. but i don't think she would have much energy to walk the road as she does not take lunch during her break. why? because no one else in their office does.

there's so much more to tell, got not much time. got to run for breakfast...i think the tilapia is now fried.

duh!

i have so much to talk, but that was a little while ago. now, with the internet so slow, i have nothing to write down but complaints i'd rather not tell, duh! down with this net connection.