camante
Charishe Amante Joined: November 8th 2005
Logged in: December 13th 2006
Logged in: December 13th 2006
I will be going to Yemen for a short work visit, but in between spend short amounts of time in London, Dubai, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Paris.
That's me eating prime rib at a Flames game. Mmm... free tickets. Go Flames Go!
Travel Blog Posts
Happy New year everyone!!! Sorry still no pictures. It has been the hardest thing trying to find an internet connection that doesn’t cost and arm and a leg and has USB connection. The dialup that I use here at my uncle’s is pretty slow. I just copy and paste from a word document. I have given up on the pictures, and will just show you all or email some when I get home… New years was pretty fun as in the Philippines they have “laws” about personal use of fireworks, but it does get pretty sketchy when we sit on a roof, and people are setting off “globalfest level fireworks” off their house. Sounds like we’re at war, with gunshots and loud firework blasts in every direction, but you look in the sky and it’s beautiful, ... read more
Well, finally here’s the first entry of my Philippine travels. Sorry that it took so long to start, as it was a long 2 day flight and I spent a couple days getting used to my surroundings. But I will do my best to update my goings on over the last few days. I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. The laptop dial up conection here at my uncle's house is very slow, doesn't work so good with pictures. I'll go to an internet cafe later, and post my next entry with pictures. First, the flight. I don’t know it’s a cultural thing, but whenever Filipinos fly home to family, they carry HUGE boxes, which we call “Balikbayan Boxes” in addition to our regular luggage. These boxes have chocolates, coffee, presents and other things ... read more
I will miss the food
Aren't I unpleasantly surprised to see the weather has turned for the worst, and it's -20°C out here. I guess considering the weather that I have seen in Spain, France and Germany, it's not too much of a shock. Let's see, I wandered around Frankfurt for a couple hours getting on trains with directions Hauptewachte and that type of thing... It was kind of freaky walking around and not knowing hardly any German except for Gudentag and Danke but I managed to buy some chocolates and weird euro shoes and I was on my way home. I never made it to the christmas village as my wandering time in Germany lasted all of an hour and a half, add to the fact that it was freaking cold out there, and I essentially visited the indoor, and ... read more
My Love Hate Relationship with Paris !!! Sorry about the shortness of the last entry, as the keyboards are one of the many things I did not like and also went wrong while here!!! This place is probably one of the 10 places in your life you should go to, but I understand how some people could have a love hate relationship with this place. It changed for me like every minute!!! Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the trip. Item 1. Freaking Cold Weather We were unpleasantly surprised to see the some of the coldest weather I have seen anywhere this year; colder than at home! I could see my breath, my gloves were NOT warm enough and the cold just went straight through my pants…Love Paris: 0, Hate Paris 1. Item ... read more
Yes I am....
Well, everything in Paris is different, from the keyboards to the language to the absolute beauty of the city!!! I have to say that I have never been to a place like this before. Our flight to Paris started with a 45 min bus to Barcelona Girona Airport, at 3am, ouch, followed by the CRAZIEST Ryan Air flight ever. Everyone was crazy rowdy, it was a definite party plane and the stewardess had to yell at some crazy spaniards. Ryanairs motto is the "On time airline..." Were they ever!!! We were into Paris 20 mins early.. When does that happen? Tired, we also had to ride another bus from Paris Beauvais to Paris Metro... The things you do for cheap flights!!! Anyways, we get into Paris, and its -5°C out here... Nice... The first stop was ... read more
Cold and Windy!!
I arrived in Barcelona 2 days ago, after an absolutely exhausting trip from Yemen to here. I left Dubai at about 3am, got to Frankfurt at 7am and sat around the airport for hours until it was time for my 1:30pm flight to Barcelona. To fly only about 10 hours, there was over 48 hours of no sleep, waiting around and messed up time differences. But I am in Barcelona!!! Yesterday, I went to a place called the Sagrada Familia, a HUGE church that is continually being built, which they say will be finished in 2026, but have been repairing and restoring and building since the last century. It was designed by an architect named Gaudi, who is a big wig over here, and has a few modern buildings around here that are very different than ... read more
Dubai, the City of Gold
Wow, talk about blowing a whole budget in 2 hours. Well, after a week of not spending a penny at the CPF, as EVERYTHING from food to laundry detergent was paid for, I finally made my way back to Dubai and to the gold souk. I must have been in shopping withdrawl. We got on the sketchy twin otter plane to land in the Yemen airport at 4am. I don't know why so early, but we ended up waiting and waiting to get on the 8am flight to Dubai. Yemenia airlines out of Riyan is cattle call: no seat assignments, every man, woman, child and goat for themselves. I didn't actually see any goats on the plane, but I have heard stories about people bringing them on board as carry-on. Anyways, didn't like the idea of ... read more
Hustle and Flow
Sigh, I'm leaving the CPF tomorrow early in the AM (3:45am...yawn) and today really all I want to do is sit around the office and relax. But on to the next part of my trip, back to Dubai, then on to Frankfurt and Barcelona... Finally! Working out here on slow computers, and early, early mornings really makes me appreciate the nice things and relaxing atmosphere the Calgary office has. For sure I will not miss the 12 hour days.... So, as timing would have it, I was supposed to pull out the big guns at breakfast, then it was moved to lunchtime, then dinner time, and then early morning again. I don't think I'm gonna make it out to set off the explosives. Too bad. We made it out to the wellsite in the late afternoon ... read more
Wadis and a Drilling Rig
Pretty uneventful day today, later on after work I will be at the Wadi Club for a good time BBQ, again celebrating the retirement of the same man as a few days ago (remember?? goat?). I will be avoiding the beer this time. One major event happened today however, and I officially un-retired from the pro tennis circuit. Today at lunch, I played tennis with 3 engineers here and one of them kindly offered to lend me his raquet. Game on. I didn't have proper shorts or shoes or other attire, but made due with what I had. I thought I was gonna have a tough time with the weather, as around 11:30am, the temperature around here gets to be about 33 °C, but it was breezy and nice. Sometimes I wish I was a guy ... read more
Me versus the Goat
The interesting thing about being a girl out here at the CPF is the stares you get as you walk around the camp. Very rarely do I ever see any women out here. When I first arrived on Tuesday there were 6 (SIX!) women here at the camp. Turns out 3 of them are my co-workers from the Calgary office, one of them was a visitor from the capital city of Sana'a, and one was me. That left ONE woman who worked here regularly. Two of them left on Thursday to go back to Calgary, so that leaves me and Wendy, and the last lady, who I think had plastic surgery or botox. Can't tell. She doesn't have very many expressions. I can't tell if she's mad or not. Kind of like Nicole Kidman. Add the ... read more
