In our line of work we get to handle the markets of different countries. We have counterparts in those countries, and we call them site reps. Every year we hold a site rep symposium and invite them over here. This year the dates picked were September 6-8. I was picked by one of the team leaders to be in the games committee. Luckily I knew some games because of a teambuilding event I joined in KPMG before, so I had plenty of ideas.
My team leader hasn’t officially announced it yet, but I am moving to a new role come October. Getting to know my future Korean site rep, Seokhyun, is part of the transition steps. I have always thought that Seokhyun was a masculine name, so I was kind of surprised when she turned out to be a girl. When we were introduced, she told me, “I thought you were a man!” I replied, “I thought you were a man too! Now we’re even.” Funny. During the days there were discussions and presentations that I almost slept through, but the nights were very interesting. On the first night (Wednesday), we were supposed to bring them to Greenhills but the tiangges were closed for renovation, so we changed plans and brought them to Tiendesitas instead. That was my first time there, and it’s a great place full of little stores, as the name literally means in Spanish. There are stalls of food and clothes and native items and even antiques. Indeed an ideal place to bring tourists. But I also ended up buying some trinkets. I especially adore the little metal bracelet that looks like a coil of magic spring when at rest, but when worn on the wrist, snaps in place to look like an intricately designed accessory.
On the second night, we went to a restaurant called “Zamboanga” in Malate, Manila. They have cultural shows every 8:30 pm, so it’s also an ideal place for foreigners. Interesting though, that this place is the same name as my hometown, so it felt like I had gone home on my birthday. The food was great and the cultural show very entertaining. They even requested audience participation and got some of our foreigners to come to the front and learn how to dance tinikling. After the show, their in-house guitarists & singers serenaded the tables, including ours. Aside from the happy birthday song, another romantic song was dedicated to me, whereupon the singer asked the guy sitting next to me, who happened to be our boss Joel, to kiss me. It was so funny, and we both wore “Huh?” looks on our faces. I mean come on, the boss? At the end of dinner, we were set to go home until we found out that Leah’s car wouldn’t start. And since Thom’s car, where we were riding, was parked infront of it, we had no choice but to wait until the tow truck came along. When it finally did, Thom decided to take his Egyptian site rep, Ahmed, for a tour in Baywalk, Roxas Boulevard, bringing us along with him. We hung out till 1am before MV and I decided we wanted to go home and sleep.
The next day it was time for the amazing race I had prepared for. Everyone was laughing and yelling and running and singing and dancing. At the end of the game everyone was exhausted, including the game marshalls. All in all, it was a great event with lots of bonding and games and pictorials and laughter and free food. Can’t wait for next year. 😉
