phapaya Category

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I used to go to a fitness club at least twice a week when I was working in Bangkok.
There were a lot gym facilities in the club but I didn’t use any of them. And certainly not the track running machine. When I see people running on a track inside a room they just remind me of a ‘Lab Rat’.
If I felt like running I went to the park “Benja Siri Park”, right beside the Emporium (BTS Phromphong Station). Running in the park with the trees around me and pure Bangkok oxygen filling your lungs. Great!
No, I went to the gym for a yoga class. Every single time I did yoga I felt much better after the class. It always was worth it’s money. In fact, I was kind of addicted to it. Not that I was very good at it, but I did well on my own level. 
Now, living and working in Dubai, I think sometimes that when I go back to Thailand I will teach some easy postures to the old people back home. I never see the elderly in Thailand do any exercise apart from farming. Farming is quite an exercise but certainly not very healthy. Rice farmers spent half the day bent over and I can tell you from my own experience it’s...

Normally I am not a person who will feel lonely easily. Before when I heard my friends say ‘ummm I feel so lonely’, I would never understand. There’s a lot people around you, at work, at the apartment, how can you feel lonely… that’s impossible… and I always laughed at friends who said so.
Today I suddenly feel so so lonely, unreasonable. It’s weird… or am I being alone too much? Or am I getting old? I keep asking all these question but I don’t really want an answer for myself. I just don’t want to feel this way. I hate it. Maybe I feel like this because I didn’t go to work today. It’s a free day. So, get up late… lazy… washing, cleaning, watch movie, and shop for my own food.
Anyway I have better things to do. I shouldn’t feel upset about being lonely. I should write about it and so try to entertain myself and the reader.
But that will come later…

Phapaya

 
phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai

When my sister was nine years old, one day she came home with a bruise on her leg. 
The teacher had hit her. My dad was furious and went to school next day to ask why. The teacher said my sister couldn’t read the words he had written on the black board.
My father couldn’t believe it, because my sister is a very bright girl. My dad returned home and asked his eldest daugther. She then told dad that she could read every word in Thai language for years already but that she actually couldn’t see what the teacher had written on the black board, whilst the teacher thought she couldn’t read the words. But she was to shy to say so…
I can only imagine how hard it was for my parents at the time to realise that their daughter was getting blind. I think that at that point mom and dad planned to have me. My dad and my sister spent two years in Bangkok trying to get my sister well, while I was growing quietly. Unfortunately luck was not on our side. When they came back home, my sister was totally blind.
Since then every day has been a beautiful day for my sister, she just can’t see it!...

phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai

When you have read the story from last week, about me working twelve hours a day many days a week, you might think I have a pretty tough life here in Dubai. But really I’m doing fine! I believe that I won’t be leading this kind of life forever. I’m just working for a better future and all this will help me to achieve this better future. Well, I’m still trying to look at the bright side again, being an extremely positive person! Seriously, I am glad that I am who I am. And I’m quite happy where I am right now.
Every time I look back on my life and see how far I’ve come, I always smile. I was born in the countryside in a poor family in a small province in Thailand, not far from the border with Cambodia. My mom and dad are farmers and they had planned to have two kids. They had my older sister and my older brother. Things seemed to be perfect.
But then when my sister was nearly ten years old, she came home one day with a bruise on her legs, because the teacher had hit her. My dad was furious and went to school next day to ask why. The teacher said my sister couldn’t read the...

phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai As far as the lifestyle here in Dubai concerned, the rich are extremely rich and the poor are extremely poor. You can see the most expensive cars drive past Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or African people sitting in the street waiting for someone to hire them to carry heavy stuff just for a small amount of money. My boss is a HR Manager and the other, even bigger, boss is Senior HR manager. None of them is from Dubai. Both of them told me not to expect any luxury lifestyle here, because we are all here to work for the money. He advised me to save as much money as I can, so as to continue my studies or to do whatever I want to do back home, not here. So here goes a description of my life here in Dubai: My accommodation is shared with another seven Thai and Philippine girls. I walk to work and bring my own lunch every working day. I never did this in Thailand but here ninety percent of the people who work in my office do. That is to say, all the staff apart from the managers. I have one day off a week, which is Friday. But then most Fridays I work overtime. Working till late at...

phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai Most of the office workers here in Dubai are Philippine.
Most of the people working in restaurants are Philippines. Dubai rules are that local people come first no matter what, then come the rich, then come the ordinary people like you and me. But they are pretty respectful to ladies. I was surprised to see that when I was in a queue at immigration on entering Dubai, ladies would be helped first no matter how long the queue was. On my second day, I wanted to take a bus and I was the last one in the queue but all those men opened the way for me. That's nice, it makes me feel like princess and I love it. Even though I can’t imagine a real princess ever taking a public bus, it’s fine for me! Another time, when I was on the last one of the queue in the bank, the bank clerk asked me to get to the front to take care of my transfer bill. I felt good, yet a little embarrassed because all those people had been waiting a lot longer than me, but me being a woman, I got to go first. Hopefully I will not get too used to this, I will have to go back to Thailand once. However, it’s not all...

phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai You might say I am a Thai woman on my way to building my very own career. Not just because of the job but also because I get to travel a lot and meet so many different people. I don't expect to be a rich woman once I finish this one year working in Dubai. All I hope to get out of this experience is exactly that: ‘experience’. Of course I do need the money as well; I’d love to have more for my old mom, my old dad and my blind sister and for paying off my own debt, but I have only just started.  So far there is nothing much to complain about. I always try to look at the bright side of it all, because working on an international assignment means that I am away from home and that’s something that I’m not happy about. Some friends said that it’s sad to have to be so far away from home, just to get a little bit more money, but I don't feel sad; in fact I feel smart. Let’s talk about Dubai. I always imagined that Dubai was a quiet, peaceful place, where most of the people came only for business. A Muslim country, so everyone, especially women, always had to cover themselves, etc. When I...

phapaya from thailand got a job in dubai I’ve been in Dubai for one and a half month now and time’s passed in a wink.
As the saying goes: time flies when you’re having fun! In my case, it’s not a matter of fun, merely of pieces falling into place. The fact that I left my country Thailand is not the main issue here; I have travelled a lot and studied abroad. This time the reason for leaving was a job, which is an entirely different ballgame. The first thing my boss told me is that my job is complicated. I found out quite soon that the job isn’t that hard to do, but great care is required because I’m dealing with the company’s money. At the moment, I’m also doing a senior’s job, she’s on holiday, but I will have to continue doing her job even after she returns. Big Bosses love to look at reports because they don't really have to do any of the work themselves; they just make decisions and demand reports, more reports and then some more reports. I hope that the reports are OK for now, because I’m exhausted. Then again my boss asked me how fluent my Chinese is; he wants me to act as an interpreter for the Chinese...