Malaysian, British, Singaporean

I survived my first week as an official OFW. Whew!

On my first day at work, our manager, who is British, treated the whole team out for my welcome lunch. He kinda looks like Pierce Brosnan but with blond hair, and instead of a gun, has a phone in his hand, and definitely has no fire blazing behind him. So I'll call him James Blond on this blog.

We have a very diverse team – Malay, British, Singaporean, Indian, and Filipino. Talk about melting pot of cultures! Apparently this is normal here. Definitely a far cry from the Philippines, where the work force is 99.9% Filipinos (no, not household germs).

We went to an Indian restaurant because one of my teammates, the Indian one, is a vegetarian. They had meat for the rest of us, but at least he had vegetarian options. This teammate kinda looks like Rajesh Koothrappali from The Big Bang Theory, but taller, thinner, and has a bigger forehead, kinda like Raj and Sheldon Cooper combined. So I'll call him Raj Cooper on this blog.


As for the Malaysian and Singaporean, I cannot think of anyone they resemble right now, but when I think of someone, I will mention it in the future. They're both women, like me.

I was afraid to eat the food because I don’t really like curries, but I was surprised when they turned out to be delicious.


Our boss said that this was one of the most expensive Indian restaurants in the area and that one of his Indian friends had even seen a famous Indian politician in there once, so it must be really special!

Then when I got back to the office, they presented me with my work phone – an iphone 6!!! *dies* I never thought I could ever get my hands on one of these things ever! THANK YOU, Merlion Bank Singapore!!!


I discovered a new phrase that they keep using in emails here - "noted with thanks." I find it to be a bit unusual. I mean, what else can you note something with? Can you note it with regret? With sadness? With deep introspection?

Another thing I discovered is that on normal days, my teammates don’t really do lunch the way we Filipinos do, that is, treat it as a social event. Some of them seemed so busy that they didn’t eat lunch or just ate sandwiches in front of their PCs.

I wasn’t that busy (yet) and besides, I wanted some fresh air, so I left the office to find something to eat. Our office is inside a mall, so there were lots of options.


I discovered that there were some benches under some pretty trees outside our building, so I bought a burger, sat on a bench, and tried to chat with my friends on viber.

But they were all busy, no doubt talking to actual real people over lunch, laughing their heads off at something Ella had said.

Even Sam was busy talking to his lunch buddies about something important, but he promised we would Skype that night.

My brother Ben was on a date with his girlfriend.

Mama was busy cooking lunch for Papa and our dogs.

I refuse to feel sad for myself. If I think about it, I'm actually lucky that I don't have to eat lunch with other people, because the food in restaurants here is so expensive! I haven't gotten my first salary yet, so I need to watch what I spend. At least without other people to dictate where to eat, I can just buy food court or fast food. #sourgraping

Also, I have an iPhone 6, free hotel stay in Marina Bay Sands hotel for a month, a job that pays 4x more than my old one, and I live in a first world country.

Now I finally get those first world problem memes. This is one.






Theme song of this episode:

Lonely, I'm Miss Lonely
I have nobody, I lunch alone
I am so lonely, I'm Miss Lonely
Wish I had someone to chat on the phone

Now I'm an OFW, a lonely OFW
Away from home through a wish of my own
That's why I'm lonely, I'm Miss Lonely
I wish that I could go back home