One of the security guards at the mall that keeps bothering me looks just like Derek Jeter. Until he opens up his mouth. But he is quite attractive and has those obviously fake, electric blue contacts which I have noticed on a couple men here. I guess they wouldn’t have blue eyes, so it’s a hot commodity.
Walking around barefoot is very popular here. Gives it a very earthy feel. It almost looks like everyone is walking around barefoot but most of them actually have on sandals that are just really hard to see.
Someone from the hotel came to pick me up at a meeting that I had today. When backing up, they crashed into the back wall. I got in and there was a young guy driving, and he had the typical uniform on, and there was another young guy in the car next to him. He did not have a uniform on, and the car reeked like sweaty men. Yum. He swirved and turned and breaked real hard back to the hotel, took a couple of turns down wrong ways and dirt roads. It was quite a ride. It annoyed me a bit, this didn’t seem like a professional car company to me, and I was coming from the hotel. I heard them talking about me in their language actually, they were trying to figure out where I was from, and I heard the United States and Canada being thrown out there. When they finally ask, I heard a “Yessss!” come out of one of them, whom had obviously bet correctly. I went back to the hotel because I really didn’t want these guys driving me around anymore, to be honest. But when I went back down an hour later to go do some research at restaurants, guess who were ready and rearing once again.
I had a realtor meeting today and a couple of young guys showed up to it. I saw their faces light up when they saw a young blonde girl walking towards them calling one of them by name. Then I noticed how they looked at each other in a “really?” sort of way. Geez, I really didn’t think that white people were all that abnormal here, but I guess it’s not a lot different from being in Latin America!
All the woman have the same haircut and the same build. Everyone is larger, and the women all have short fro’s. So they all look nearly exactly the same.
I had a terrible meeting today with a client. Walked in all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, friendly, tried to make small talk. I was shot down. For being a Pacific manager of a large organization, this guy was pretty dumb. He asked me if Fiji was getting to be as expensive as Australia. Seriously? I just did a quick online search and found that Australia currently boasts 3 of the top 20 most expensive cities in the world. Suva? Around 176 or something along those lines. He asked me why colleagues in Shanghai receive a higher allowance than Suva. Seriously again? Because it’s a lot more expensive maybe? Then, he went on to say that the housing allowances all of his employees should receive should be a number that is WAY off of our charts. Umm, no. We are here to make sure you live comfortably, not like kings. Please people. Then, I tried to ask him some questions about places that we should visit for our survey and he didn’t want to answer me! Really dude, how can I help you at all if you don’t help me help you. He said in a very condescending manor that I can ask Losana (his secretary) or someone else if I want the answers, in a “I don’t have time for you” sort of way. I left very frustrated, and was happy that Losana was (a typical local) and so nice to fill in the missing links, though I wanted to rip up the questionnaire and just state: “dick wouldn’t answer me”.
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