Tourguide Stint #3

For the third time this year, I played tourguide to former co-workers from the Philippines. Kuya Orly, Bespren Bernard, Lillian, and two new employees (Kuya Dennis and Doreen) arrived on Wednesday night. Thankfully, they were able to stay throughout the weekend and spend time with me.

Friday
After work, I hauled butt to Federal Way (which isn't the easiest thing to do in this traffic-infested metropolis). The first thing Doreen said when she saw me was, "Ang ganda pala ni Mina." *Ahem. I feel like I should end this post with that line. HaHa!

Since Lil had a shopping list to finish, we just went to the mall where the women did some damage at Bath and B0dy Works. I know there's The B0dy Sh0p at Shang, but I swear I never saw BBW in Manila. It turns out that Watson's sells the products, P650/bottle to be exact. I think I would rather spend that money on food than lotion any day in Manila, but that's just me. ;P

After finishing off the rest of the pasalubong agenda at Target, we headed off to Applebee's for dinner. Ahh, girl talk on a Friday evening. Loved it! I also got the lowdown on the latest drama in the office...and there was a lot. This is when I found out that Russel is indeed leaving WV! I thought he was kidding when I talked to him on Skype the week before, but it turned out that he really resigned. I guess the resignation wave is still going strong (For the record, I didn't start the said wave, I was merely number 2. HeHe.)



With wallets thinner, stomachs fatter, and loads heavier, we headed back to the hotel where I got all my requested pasalubongs (not pictured are Bernard's stash of banana chips and peanut brittle for me):



Merry Christmas to me most definitely! I couldn't sleep that night from being all giddy. Gotta love dependable friends. :)

Saturday
I had expected that by the time I got out of my Dreamweaver Level 2 class and made my way to the hotel at 6PM, the gang would've seen Downtown Seattle already. Well, I should've known better: they weren't with me or Russel so they ended up just spending the whole day at the mall. Tsk! We packed my car (Doreen became the martyr and opted to be the person who got left behind) and headed to Downtown. The boys decided to be a choir while all sitting in the back and decided to give me a live concert of Christmas songs - Kulit style. Ang iingay! Grabe!

We ended up eating at Old Spaghetti Factory (no relationship to the one in Robinson's Galleria) where I spearheaded embarrassing Bespren: since Doreen, the birthday girl, got left behind, I felt like we should still celebrate her birthday...so I made Bernard the proxy birthday celebrant. The waiters all sang and gave him a spumoni with a birthday candle. Eh April pa kaya birthday ni Bernard! HaHa! What a riot!



Afterwards, I brought them to Pike Place Market to see the first Starbucks store, Space Needle and Seattle Center, pointed out Safeco Field and Qwest Stadium, and made a pitstop at Starbucks headquarters. We were all freezing our butts off, but it was good times indeed.

Sunday
I had intended to bring them to Microsoft, but the girls decided to sleep in. We only had enough time to eat breakfast at the hotel before my dropping them off at the airport. Oo, special VIP treatment at hinatid ko pa sila! Kinareer ang pagiging driver. HaHa!

As I also told them, life is quiet again now that they're gone. I'm glad that they came at this time of the year, so they could see what Christmas is like here and at the same time, sure gave me good cheer (yeah, that rhymed). Hopefully, they'll be back...or I'll be back in Manila for a visit. Visit lang ha; hindi maging alipin, este, officemate ulit. ;P