Buhay Bangkok

A firedrill in November last year found me joining Jay, Toy, Pik and Min in going down 46 flights of stairs! By the time we got halfway down, my knees were already shaking!

There! We made it! I was feeling dizzy by that time. One of the secretaries was kind enough to lend me her (ehem) personal inhaler.

This photo was taken December 2006 on the last day of work of Fai and O. Also in the photo are Bell, Sawn, Pooh, Fang, Tang, Pik, Nat and Nu. Where are Jay and Em?

After a year and eight months, I finally left my old company, CB Richard Ellis. For almost a year, I had been on the lookout for a job that would offer me more challenges, and now that I have found one, I had turned in my papers.

I always said I had conflicting emotions about my impending departure during my last month in the company. I’m excited with the new job yet at the same time I had nagging questions at the back of my mind: Why am I leaving my comfort zone? Which is more important, the coziness of one’s old job or the giddiness offered by a new opportunity? Would everything turn out fine in my new job? Would I be able to get along well with my new colleagues?

I’m leaving the corporate world: Wireless Road, office at the top floor, cubicles and neckties and all, for NGO work: an old office building in Samsen, casual dress and fewer than a half-dozen colleagues doing multi-tasks.

I’m leaving my anonymity and isolation as the only Filipino in a predominantly Thai workplace and exchanging them for a more multi-cultural setting.

I’m also leaving behind a lot of people whom for the past 18 months have become my friends. I’ll miss our chats during lunch breaks, the EFL classes and the lazy Saturday mornings in the office.

Well, we have to move on. That’s the consolation I always tell myself. And to my friends and colleagues, I really enjoyed working with you. See you around.