Since moving to Melbourne I've been to Manila 4 times - January, February, May and now September. The first was a three day stint, the others were for a week. We stay at the same hotel each time - The New World Makati. They have approximately 1,000 local Filipinos working at the hotel doing things like opening doors, escorting us to a table at breakfast, saying "hello ma'am", pushing buttons in the elevator, saying "hello ma'am", checking us in, getting us umbrellas, saying "hello ma'am"... you get the idea. They are super friendly and helpful, and without fail their English is better than my Filipino.
This is also true when out shopping - 15 people working in a 25 sq foot store straightening shelves and asking if you need help, 5 people behind the counter - one to run the register, one to take your money, one to give you your receipt, one to put your purchase in a bag, and another to staple it shut. No such thing as bag your own groceries. While writing this, I just realized that when I'm here I tend to shop at the places where they are not overly friendly and there's only 1-2 people behind the counter... subliminal seeking of my normal, I suppose.
Since we've been to this hotel several times, some of the staff's faces are starting to look familiar to me, despite the fact that there are so many of them. But apparently not as familiar as mine is to some of them. When we checked in last night, the woman who helped us in the elevator said to me, "Your foot is all better now, ma'am?" Because when we were here in February I was wearing the moon boot. I'm still a bit in shock about being that memorable.
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