Owner: Life in the Philippines URL:http://americanlifeinthephilippines.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:54:14 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: An American who sells all his things to move to the Philippines for a girl he meets on the internet... Site statistics:Click here
Pets in the Philippines 2008-11-15 22:02:00 They say you can tell alot about a country based on how it treats its animals. Something I have noticed here is that people who own pets don't put the care into them like we do in America. The dogs in my area that are owned are kept on very short leashes and have no room to do much of anything except breathe. When I'm driving through town at night dogs usually run wild and take over the streets. Y Read more:Philippines
Restrooms in the Philippines 2008-11-14 06:59:00 One of the biggest things to get used to here are the bathrooms and learning to use them. Bathrooms here are often referred to as the c.r. which stands for comfort room. Not all bathrooms are the same but when I first arrived here I was very surprised to see that I would actually be taking my showers from a large bucket of water. Water was only available from about 10pm to 3am and in that time fra Read more:Philippines
Philippines - Style Tidbits 2008-11-13 03:13:00 I know many people think I'm crazy when I tell them this but it seems as though my hair and my nails grow much faster living here. I have no idea why that is but even my beard grows faster and thicker. Depending on where you go a hair cut here costs anywhere from 30 pesos to 150. 150 pesos is a little over $3. I have tried both..The majority of barber's here are transvestites. In Tagalog they are Read more:Philippines
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Beggars 2008-11-12 18:27:00
If your visiting the Philippines for the first time you should prepare yourself for the young and the elderly to be begging. As soon as they spot you they consider you an easy target and usually they have no education and cannot speak English. Sometimes they develop just enough English to say things like "hungry" or "give me money". These people may indeed be hungry or in desperate need of money. Read more:Beggars
Trouble with Food 2008-11-11 15:48:00 I arrived here in August and its hard to believe its November already. Seems like I've only been here a month. Christmas songs are playing in all the stores but you wouldn't know it was Christmas time by looking at the weather. It does seem difficult to tell what time of year it is here. Its always hot and I never wear pants. As much as I love being here I seem to have trouble with the food here. Read more:Trouble
Getting around the Philippines 2008-11-10 15:25:00 Getting around here on the island is easily achievable but the Jeepney's are a bit more cramped and the tricycle drivers are always trying to swindle the white guy out of his cash. I remember asking a tricycle driver how much he'd charge me to give me a ride home from the mall here and he said 200 pesos but to anyone else its only about 20 pesos. I was pretty annoyed by his attempt to rip me off a Read more:Philippines
Come so far.. 2008-11-09 16:02:00 Finally after a long night of interrogation I was exhausted and ready to finish the trip. I'm really very sick of the way you get treated in an airport or anywhere for that matter all in the name of the war on terror. Seems as if all law enforcement had a new motto.. Guilty until proven otherwise. Anyways, I finally arrived in Manila and reunited with my wife. She met me at the airport and brought
My Return.. 2008-11-08 16:10:00 So now that I was finally out of New Mexico I was eager to find out what kind of work my buddy was going to set me up with. He turned me on to the world of affiliate marketing. I was a bit skeptical at first and thought perhaps this would be yet another adventure which led to a dead end road. We talked about it for awhile and I tried to wrap my head around exactly how it worked. After he showed me Read more:Return
Saying Goodbye 2008-11-07 16:49:00 I did my best to make life in my new place with the store the best life I could make it. Over time people started getting used to the idea of me running a store in the neighborhood. I began having regular customers and we certainly did much better in sales in our new location. It was difficult operating the crazy hours and my wife and I often just took turns sleeping in the store on a small fold o Read more:Goodbye
The Sari Store 2008-11-06 16:43:00 So I arrived in the Philippines in the middle of January and found myself married to my filipina on the first of February. We had a small wedding with her friends and the whole neighborhood celebrated with us and we all drank and sang karaoke. Karaoke or Videoke is very popular here.It was very sudden and I was still trying to decide if I should stay. Not because I wanted to leave but the plane t Read more:Store
Language barriers 2008-11-05 20:42:00 So by now you might be wondering how I was supporting myself living here..Well when I came up with this crazy idea to come here I tried to be somewhat informed on what it was like here but its hard to really understand the dollar to peso ratio unless your living it. In my mind I started thinking that statistically people were living off of about $2 a day. After selling everything I had I managed t
Transportation in the Philippines 2008-11-05 07:09:00 Another neat form of transportation here is what they call the jeepney. Its like a hybrid of a jeep and a bus. People just hail the driver to stop and they pile in the back of this thing passing there money up to the driver. Its probably one of the cheapest and most efficient ways to get around town if you don't own your own vehicle, plus its cheap. The downside of it is its often very crowded and Read more:Philippines
, Transportation
part 2 2008-11-04 12:10:00 I was living in Metro Manila. Valenzuela to be precise.. It was big enough to have its own mall but small enough for white people to be uncommon. I remember waking up and trying to take in my surroundings from the balcony on the second floor of my apartment. Always seeing the neighbors whispering to one another about me. That's one of the things you have to get used to here is to be starred at. Tr
The Beginning 2008-11-04 00:01:00 Where to begin?It all started with a simple little message on myspace that said "Hello, from the Philippines!". Thats where I first met the lovely little Filipina I am married to now. We have been married since February of 2007 and I have seen so many things here that you just don't see in America. So this is where I will start and try to give you the window I didn't have to look into before you d
Law Enforcement in the Philippines 2008-12-11 06:13:00 Something you might want to consider when visiting the Philippines
is just how corrupt the police can be. As a foreigner you may just be thought of as an easy target. Usually there will be no problems for you as long as you are not the owner of a vehicle. If you ever decide to buy yourself some transportation you might want to avoid the police if you can help it. I have dealt with them on a few oc
Will a Filipina really be happy in America? 2008-12-07 12:16:00 I see all these people in the Philippines who dream about going to America
and I can understand that because they think they are going to have some kind of better life that they couldn't possibly have here in the Philippines. I'd be curious to hear from the Filipina living abroad of their opinion's on whether or not they feel like they have a better quality of life in America? I imagine that many
Mobile blogging test 2008-12-06 11:23:00 This is my first posting from my cell phone. I can now blog anywhere from the philippines without actually being at a computer. For those of you who aren't familiar with mobile blogging, My Sony Ericsson has a built in blogging function which will upload posts to blogger.com directly. It took me awhile to figure out how to set it up but it actually works. Wow! Being relatively new to the blogging Read more:Mobile
Pest Control in the Philippines 2008-12-05 08:18:00 I know I have already recently posted about the treatment of pets here in the Philippines
but I feel compelled to write about the horrible things I witnessed last night. It must have been about midnight when I started hearing some strange noises outside my window. My mind began to wander about what they could possibly be. I thought perhaps there was a wild animal in the yard digging through garbag Read more:Control
What do Filipino's think of me? 2008-12-01 11:18:00 I've been receiving a lot of comments and messages about how great it is that I talk about the Philippines as if it's a wonderful place to be. Well, I talk like this because it is wonderful to me and I have no intention of leaving this place. I see things this way because I choose to see them. What I mean is that anyone can easily see negative things in their lives and choose to focus on those neg Read more:Filipino
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No Divorce in the Philippines !! 2008-11-29 04:15:00 After my first encounter online with my now wife. I became curious about the Philippines
and what the country was like in comparison with my own. One of the first things that perked my interest was the fact that there is no divorce in this country. I was quite surprised by this, being that where I come from it seems as if divorce is more common than marriage. I can distinctly remember talking to a
Keeping in touch from the Philippines 2008-11-27 07:23:00 The one thing I really love about the Philippines
is the way that cell phones here work. Much like a prepaid phone in America. Filling your phone with talk time is referred to as "load" here. You simply buy phone cards and enter the pin code on the back and you're all set with reloaded talk time. There are about 4 different services that I know of. Smart, Globe, Sun, and Touch Mobile. If you're t Read more:touch
Kareoke in the Philippines 2008-11-25 08:11:00 When visiting the Philippines
, you should prepare yourself to be a singing super star. Kareoke or Videoke is a phenomenon which has taken this country over. You will see these wonderful singing machines on wheels just about everywhere you go. When the average American is put in the position where he is asked to sing in front of a strange crowd, a normal reaction is to feel a bit shy and insecure
Security in the Philippines 2008-11-24 00:24:00 If you are considering traveling to the Philippines
then one of the first things that you'll probably want to know about is how safe you will be. As a foreigner you are most likely going to stand out and be seen as someone with money. I have heard about jeepney's being robbed. I have even heard about kidnappings on certain islands here but have not actually witnessed any real crime except fist fig
Public Prayer in the Philippines 2008-11-21 20:59:00 The first time I had actually witnessed public prayer I was caught off guard. I think my first time was actually at a grocery store where I was staring at the meat when I noticed the people working behind the glass were down on their knees and at first glance I thought they were hiding from somebody. When I turned around I noticed that everyone in the store was motionless. It was as if I had enter Read more:Philippines
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Panglao Beach - Paradise! 2008-11-20 22:36:00 I'm not quite sure if my pictures can even come close to showing just how incredible this place really is? It was as if we had the whole place to our selves and it is truly amazing. It almost seems like its some kind of secret paradise. Its not overcrowded and its also very clean. This is about a 20 minute drive from my home and well worth the trip. If you haven't already you should check out my p Read more:Beach
, Paradise
Chocolate Hills 2008-11-20 05:26:00 I took a trip to see the famous chocolate hills here. I wasn't exactly sure how to get there but I knew where to find the bus that takes you and rather than ride in that crowded bus I decided to just follow it on my motorcycle. It didn't make too many stops and I was just happy enjoying the day. Before I went I decided to do a little research on just what they are and why they exist. I found out t Read more:Chocolate
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Tarsier Monkey's 2008-11-18 04:42:00 I have been living here too long to not go and see the worlds smallest monkey. I kept putting it off. So today I took the bike and drove to see just what they look like and learn something new. I took my wife and my friend Carlos and we all rode on my motorcycle. I was under the impression the drive would be about 45 minutes and after about 90 minutes we had arrived. When we reached our destinatio
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