The Daly City of the Middle East and other Random Musings

I am waiting for my 7 hour flight to Amsterdam, immediately followed by a 1 hr flight to Paris. When inspired, I plan to write any thoughts I have into this Word document and then paste into the blog when I can. The following thoughts may be pretty random.


7:35am
Besides the crazy Disneyland/Las Vegas feel that Dubai has, the most striking thing about this place is the number of Filipinos working in the service industry here. Every bartender, waitress, hostess, bellhop, mall worker, and concierge is Filipino/a.

For that reason, its pretty convenient since they all speak English, but they tend to use the word “sir” after every other word. It reminds of a time I was playing golf in Cebu when Richie and I were traveling through Southeast Asia in 1999 I think. My cousin Ronnie took us to play 9 holes at his club. We each had caddies. My caddy was this teenage girl. Now that I think about it, they all seemed to be teenage girls.

Since I’m a pretty pathetic golfer (with a sweet swing though), every tee shot, my caddies would say “O.B., sir.” Translated, this means “you just hit another ball down the ravine, I have no chance of finding it, clearly its unplayable, you’re terrible….and you’re not really Filipino…..sir.”

Filipinos seem to comprise about 80-90% of the local service industry. I remember learning that Filipinos working abroad throughout the world remit a significant portion of their salaries back home to their families still in the Philippines. Annually, this amount represents a significant portion of their GNP. Their biggest export continues to be labor.

7:46am
They are now boarding all Elite Club, Gold status, blah blah blah folks on to the plane. In think everyone has boarded besides me…

7:57am
Now seated in 40J on a KLM flight to Amsterdam. KLM is awesome. They have screens at each seat ala Jet Blue except that they have movies, tv shows, games and stuff. I saw Jackass Number Two on the way out to Dubai. It didn’t seem to be censored, at least not the cursing, which I appreciated. love the cursing.

Leg room is good. Nobody else in my row yet, could be ok.

8:00am
Dutch steward just made an announcement that flight is pretty light. Sweet. The Dutch are the best. I remember watching the Portugal-Netherlands game with some Dutch folks in a great beer hall in Cologne this past summer. Easily the most fun Euro group to watch a World Cup soccer game with. Brutal game though, I think there were 3 red cards and of course Cristiano Ronaldo was flopping around the field like a fish out of water….I think he hit the game winning penalty kick too. chump.

8:05am
KLM is still money. Should I get a cocktail? Its 8:05pm on my computer clock but 8am local time….I guess it depends on the movie.

8:10am
7 hours and 5 minute flight. About to take off.

8:29am
Had a great view of the planes lining up to take off. I can’t believe that Stace flies planes for a living. This is the same guy that I first met at the Hedrick dorms because he and Garland used to have Coors Light Party Balls in their dorm rooms….party balls. Hilarious. The first time I saw one of those was when I was in high school and saw an empty party ball wedged into a basketball hoop. Classic.

8:34am
Conceivably, I could watch three tv’s at once since my row is empty…sports book style. That is if I liked cricket.

11:20am
Just read the International Herald Tribune that KLM graciously distributed. The following things stood out in the Sports section:

1) like they’re trying to provoke me, the paper informs me that UCLA lost to Stanford this past Sunday. I already knew this and did not want to be reminded. No worries. Losing to Stanford in Palo Alto in January is no big deal. Ben Howland will coach up the boys and use this loss as a lesson. We’ll be better in March…when it counts.

2) On the Transactions section, I found out Reggie Bush was fined $5K for taunting versus Chicago. I wonder what he did. I’ve seen zero highlights of this game. I think he had an 80 yard TD, right? By the way, I think I like the Bears and the points. Tough to rely on a Manning in a huge spot.

3) Edmonton of the Canadian Football League just signed WR Taco Wallace. I wonder if he’s related to Seattle QB Seneca Wallace. I say probably.

4) Toronto is in first place in the NBA’s Atlantic Division. What??

5) Lakers are in 2nd place in the Pacific. Sweet. Too bad they’re 9 games behind Phoenix. An 82 percent winning percentage is insane.

***4 more flight hours left***
I just watched an episode of The Office:US version. I am a big fan of the UK version, maybe one of my top four all-time sitcoms with Arrested Development, Seinfeld, and Simpsons, and Cheers. I must say the US version is pretty good too.

Also, saw an episode of the Simpsons… the Sherry Bobbins one.

Just finished You, Me, and Dupree. I feel asleep during the middle part (as I am known to do). Pretty crappy. The three main actors have been in other classics though….Dillon in Something About Mary….Kate Hudson as Penny Lane in Almost Famous…Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers.

12:55pm—Amsterdam airport

I may have timed the connecting flight to Paris perfectly. I just got to the terminal with about 40 minutes before the next leg takes off. I just hope my luggage makes the transfer as well. Unfortunately, there is no time to leave the airport and have a “cup of coffee” at a local coffee shop.

This airport is pretty nice. Periodically, they are making announcement like “John Smith, you are delaying the flight. Please board immediately at Gate E19. We will proceed to unload your luggage.” That’s a pretty good warning.

One time, Eric and I were at the airport waiting for a flight back to SF or LA and were watching Monday Night Football at the airport bar to kill time. Just outside of our departure gate, mind you. Unfortunately, we got no warnings and the plane took off without us. Luckily, those flights run hourly but still we didn’t even have a chance.

This next leg is on Air France, a part of the KLM/Northwest conglomerate. Hopefully, they are up to the KLM standard, but I doubt it.

1:05pm

It will be interesting how the language thing goes in Paris. Natalia may know a little, but I know nothing. Hopefully, the Spanish and English will be enough. It’s funny that I was never worried about language issues when I was in Kabul. I knew I would be pretty isolated among English speakers. Unfortunately, this also made me a bit lazy and I didn’t really even try to pick up much Dari. Just like China, I only know Hello and Thank you.

I also have no idea what time zone my body is supposed to be on. I think I am used to Kabul time, but have no idea how that translates to Western Europe. Feeling pretty good now and hopefully I can power through the day. I will have been on a plane or in an airport for about 15 of the last 30 hours.