Well we have been here about 50 days now, and our broadband is finally hooked up. Ahhh. Finally saw an episode of The Office. Kind of a letdown after that much wait, but still pretty fun.
Top 10 things about living in Manila so far:
10. Early Christmas Season. It starts early here with no Thanksgiving to kick it off. Christmas trees and decorations have been up for weeks now and I sang my first Christmas hymn at church on Sunday. Nice.
9. Lack of Sports. This is kind of a mixed blessing, because I love watching sports and I miss it a lot during college football season. But not having any sports to watch has really freed up my time. I am reading more and working out regularly.
8. The Malls. In my opinion, malls in the US are overrun by wild teenagers. I never want to go there and if I do, I try to time it so that the teenagers are in school. In the Philippines, all the major shopping is done in the malls: Ace Hardware, bookstores, Drug Stores, etc. It's a one stop shop and everyone is there, not just teenagers. And they are numerous - you can't drive 20 minutes without passing six different huge malls. One of our favorites has five floors and a huge children's playground outside it. It's awesome. It does get a bit crowded though.
7. I'm Huge! Okay, I am still the same size, but compared to everyone else, I am one of the big guys now. I don't tower over the crowd like some Americans, but I am consistently in the top 10% of size. Sheralie says it is hard to get used to being a "big" person.
6. Everything is so cheap! My pay-as-you-go cell phone plan costs about $3-5 a month, depending on how much you use it.
5. Work. Though exhausting and sometimes stressful, interviewing people all day is pretty fun. I also get to associate with all kinds of different people, from US AID workers, the Ambassador, Filipino government officials, etc. It's very interesting.
4. Help. Having a driver is pretty great. You never look for parking and traffic isn't very much of a headache. And our helper is terrific at cleaning, cooking, watching the kids and teaching Sheralie Tagalog.
3. McDonald's delivers. In fact, all fast food places deliver. How awesome is that?
2. Time. What a joy to have a job that has regular hours. I know it won't last forever, but it is so nice after the totally unpredictable law firm. I really don't miss my blackberry.
1. Everything's different but everything is the same. We're in a foreign country and learning and appreciating the many parts of the US that we took for granted and the many things that make the Philippines special. We love the people and we love being here.
Fast food delivery? Awesome! I would love it, but probably take advantage of it way too often.
ReplyDelete