My Move to the Philippines

Just wanted to say we are back in the Philippines and had a very enjoyable trip over. We just missed the snow on the East Coast of the United States and the weather here is delightful. I have never experienced such cool breezy weather this time of year in the Philippines. I guess global warming forgot to make a stop here.

We are currently preparing to shop for kitchen appliances to finish our Laguna home and I can’t wait to visit Pavillion Mall and SM Sta Rosa. Keep up to date on our photo albums of our life here by checking Facebook. Our info is located on the sidebar to the right of this post.

As we are finishing our kitchen we would like some educated or even non-educated suggestions. Pertaining to a kitchen range, should we go electric or gas? I’m looking for comments concerning all aspects of the difference between the two including price, safety, and any other concerns.

Also, we would be interested in your favorite brands of kitchen ranges/ovens sold in the Philippines as well places to buy. As for places to buy we have already had some good input from our family and friends in the Philippines but welcome more. So guys here is your chance to persuade us and help us furnish our kitchen. maybe my wife will make you a cake or something.

Well 2011 is finally here, actually it’s been here for a week now, but it seems like when I post on this column I’m on Filipino time. And yes, with this New Year there still are Americans living in the Philippines I’m sure of that. I have been getting numerous comments and emails from Filipinos and Americans assuring me that they are either in the Philippines or will be moving to the Philippines soon.

I missed celebrating Christmas and New Years in the Philippines this year because I’m here in the states but I will be there by the end of this month. I am so excited and even though I missed two of the most important holidays I will be returning in time to celebrate Fiesta in Pangasinan. I really love the way Filipinos celebrate important holidays. There are so many good times and time to be with friends and relatives, unlike the commercialism in many other parts of the world.

As I start this year on the blog I’d like to throw a question out there especially for Americans living/moving to the Philippines: Why have you chosen the Philippines to live/move? I’m asking because many people have began asking me this lately and if possible I try to refer them to my very first post when I started this blog/website: “I Shall Return” Although the timing has changed a little bit since I first wrote that, everything else is the same and I believe it is very informative. If you get a chance and haven’t done so, please read this post and the others after it, you will get the reasons. Maybe you can use this post and the blog to answer your own friends/relatives questions.

Just got back from celebrating Christmas with the family. My family in the United States and in the Philippines are both big families so Christmas is always a festive holiday no matter where we celebrate. The only difference usually is that one place there is snow and the other there is sand.

Anyway I just want to thank all the loyal readers of My Move to the Philippines blog for all of your support and comments throughout the year. I don’t do this website for commercial reasons and to tell you the truth if I didn’t get as many visitors and comments I might have given up on this blog completely. I promise you that many more things will be happening in the next month and in the near future as our permanent move to the Philippines is completed. Stay tuned and enjoy the trip as I will. Please keep the comments coming and once again Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Although it’s a small part of our house construction in the Philippines, a subject that comes up often is our kitchen cabinets. I’ve written posts on what type of material we should use and sizes of our cabinets also. What I’d ask you as readers of this blog is to look at the picture in this post or on my Facebook album and tell me what you think about what we did with the cabinet underneath the sink.

Many of the readers on here are Filipino and more familiar with Philippine home construction and I respect your opinions on things we are doing. Do you think the dish rack type underneath the sink is a good idea and have you seen this in other homes? If you don’t think it is a good idea please tell me why, and I’ll say I will welcome constructive criticism but not destructive criticism.  So the comments are open on this subject and we are probably not going to change what we’ve done but would love to know what problems with this type of cabinet we can expect.

To my friends and family in the Philippines see you real soon

I have been a fan of social media sites for awhile. I started off with MySpace and then got into Twitter, Friendster, and over the last year or more, Facebook. I have met many new friends and connected with old friends that I had lost touch with long ago. These friends are scattered all over the world and many I probably wouldn’t have got in touch with had it not been for social media sites.

Not all of the contacts I have made have been just a real person but groups of people and sites about things I am interested in. As I am planning my move to the Philippines I have come across some interesting businesses and informational pages as well, including one that I visit with everyday. It’s a Facebook page for a site called Definitely Filipino. This site describes itself as “The Blog for Online Filipinos“.

Not being Filipino, but interested in many things Filipino, I visit this site to see what is happening in the Philippines and topics involving the Philippines. It covers such things as Philippine culture, economy, living, and news, among other things. It is basically a non biased view of what is happening to Filipinos with a chance for them to interact through their Facebook page.

Ben Totanes, the creator of Definitely Filipino, says on the about page for this blog that the philisophy behind this Page is that “It’s the place to come, learn, interact and belong….” My favorite feature of Definitely Filipino is the identification of many famous people that I didn’t know were of Filipino descent. Did you know that Tim Lincecum who pitched a winning game in this years World Series is the son of Filipina Rebecca Asis? I didn’t until I read it on Definitely Filipino. They cover many other movie stars, athletes, and famous people who share Filipino heritage.

I suggest you go to their Facebook page and add them plus check out their blog for daily updates and keep up with what is going on with Filipinos worldwide. You may learn things you didn’t know or just get updated on current events or maybe interact with some interesting people.

I have added some of the most updated pics of our house in the Philippines particularly the kitchen cabinets. These cabinets were chosen by my wife and in these pictures all but the final finishing touches have been made. By this time I’m sure that they are completely done but I haven’t got those pictures yet. To see the latest pics plus others just click on the following link Our House in the Philippines Pics.

Just wanted to let the people of the Philippines know that Me and my family as well as people worldwide have been keeping an eye on Hurricane Juan and praying for the safety of the Filipino people. I know firsthand how terrible these Typhoons are because I have experienced a few while living in the Philippines and I’m sure I will experience more when I’m there. It looks like the worst of it has been done but the days after will probably be quite hard for cleanup and such. Once again, we are all praying for everyone there to be safe.

The latest pictures of our house construction in the Philippines will show you what is going on inside our house. As you can see we have picked the cabinets and they are almost done. The counter and sink are in and we are almost ready for appliances. That is something I really look forward to as I actually have some ideas that my wife will agree with. Visit our Facebook album of the house construction by clicking on the following link: Our House Construction in the Philippines

On another note there is a video making the rounds of the internet, news stations, and social websites. It is the video of Flight Attendants for Cebu Pacific Airlines performing a choreographed routine aboard a Cebu Pacific flight to demonstrate safety procedures. The video received more than 7.3 million hits in less than a week. Cebu Pacific based out of Manila decided to use this way to “draw more passenger attention to its in-flight safety reminders”. If you haven’t seen it yet I’ve provided the video on this website. It is very good and shows how Filipinos have found a way of mixing their love of music and dancing with something many of us travelers ignore.

Some resources in planning your next flight to the Philippines or anywhere else


Travelocity SAVES You 20% or MORE on Air Fares

$10 off cheap flights to Asia! International travel air ticket coupon ASIAFLY10

Top Travel Deals at Expedia.com

The WORLD is on Sale fr $133 only. Book the real deal today.

Being involved in the past in project management, I can tell you as a project is coming to an end there is an excitement going through the project team. It is pretty much the same here in our household as the outside work on our house construction in the Philippines is wrapping up. There is still some painting to be done before it will be complete but we have moved most of the work to an inside project.

The most recent pictures in the album are pictures of the sliding door and windows that we have added going to the outside terrace. This will be a place where we will spend much time entertaining and celebrating with our friends and family in the Philippines. It looks like we may have to have another house blessing done. If you’d like to see the whole album including the latest updates please click on Our House Construction in the Philippines.

Also I have had a few questions about the size of our home in the Philippines and I have been responding with measurements of the original size as I haven’t been able to do another measurement. I am just providing the basic measurements from the home package we purchased when we originally had the home built.

I’ll start off by saying our house construction in the Philippines is getting recognizable as what we envisioned when this all began. if you are interested in how it looked before and what the home has progressed to, feel free to visit the photo album I have been keeping. Just click on the following link: Our House Construction in the Philippines

I just wanted to pass along a blog I have been following which I may have mentioned before but I’m not sure. You see when my wife moved to the United States she moved from Israel, although she is a filipina.
She was working there when we met and had worked various places around the world as an OFW. Generally she lived in areas of big cities so when we moved to Virginia Beach it wasn’t that big of an adjustment. When I retired we moved to West Virginia into a smaller city but still a city with not all the comforts of other places we had both been over the years. It took us a little while adjusting to the advantages and disadvantages of being close to everybody and basically being in a place where you were no longer just a face in a crowd. With this new arena we were exposed to other things such as becoming the topic of people’s Sunday dinner conversations, and everyone knowing our every move. Now that may appeal to some people but for me it’s too Mayberryish (made up that word). I appreciate the closeness to family and such, but I am more of a face in the crowd person and enjoy my anonymity.

What this is leading to is the author of the blog I was referring to and his wife, a filipina, seem to live in even a smaller town than we do with all the advantages and disadvantages. Ben and MaryAnn seem to enjoy it where they live and that is fine but as I read I can recognize some of the things that are driving me to get back to the larger cities where I feel I belong. Anyway, the name of Ben’s blog is My2Pesos and you should read this blog to see how an American and Filipina have made their marriage work in small town USA. That’s all I have until next time Salamat Po!