My Move to the Philippines

As many of you know I was born and raised in a place in the U.S. that has the claim of being “Almost Heaven” and that is West Virginia. The nickname I believe comes from the beautiful scenery in the mountains and forests of the state as well as the friendly people.

Growing up in the city in West Virginia I didn’t wake up in the mountains every day where they say you can feel closer to God just by taking in the beautiful picture that is painted with the sunrise and sunset. I only got to experince such things when my family was camping or traveling.

Loyal readers also know that we have two homes in the Philippines one in the city and one in I guess what you could call the equivalent of the mountains and backwoods of West Virginia and that would be in Macaleeng Pangasinan.

What this is all leading up to is a recent video I took of the view from our front yard (beach) in Pangasinan. I can tell you that waking up in the mountains of West Virginia makes you feel closer to God and waking up and experiencing a sunset like the one in the video gives me the same feeling. So I hope you enjoy this short video of a view from our front yard.

As you know from my previous posts that my wife is a dual citizen of the Philippines/US. Recently we received in the mail a ballot for the upcoming Presidential election. My wife was pleased that she could get the chance to vote because she didn’t expect it. I’m not sure if she voted prior to moving to the states but once again she is glad to be included in the voting process.

She pretty much knew who she wanted to vote for because of our recent trip to the Philippines where you couldn’t avoid the billboards, posters, and TV commercials for all the leading candidates. Even the kids got into it by shouting a certain candidate’s name all the time, probably taught to them by their parents.

I think since we finally got our house built over there and have lived in it for a little while she is getting more comfortable with getting involved in Filipino politics and current events. I’m sure since I’m a political junkie and news junkie I have helped her with that.

If you are a dual citizen or filipino citizen living in the states, did you get an absentee ballot in the mail? If not ,maybe you have moved and didn’t inform the Embassy of your current address. You may want to do that so you can get important information and papers such as the ballot.

Was just reading the headline article of Yahoo sports and it was concerning Manny Pacquiao and his run for Congress of the Philippines. The article talks about Pacman’s life before boxing and some of his earlier fights and what he is doing right now which is campaigning in the Philippines. There are some good quotes from him in this article including one where he talks about why he would be qualified for a political office. 

“I could just sit back and relax and not have anything to do with politics. I could just travel around and enjoy my life with my family,” Pacquiao told the crowd in San Miguel, a remote corn-farming village in Sarangani province in the southern Philippines. “But I came from a very poor family, and I cannot turn my back on the poor.”

This article is very well written and has some interesting points such as in the above quote where he says he could just sit back and relax and travel with his family. I might be mistaken but as a world class athlete aren’t you constantly in training so you can’t lose your edge. Does this mean he is retiring? I think Mayweather Jr would like that so he wouldn’t have any competition for the title.

Without revealing too much of what is in the article I want to leave you with a link so you can read the entire story. Just click on the following link: Boxer Pacquiao runs for office in Philippines

Recently while staying at our home in Macaleeng Anda in the province of Pangasinan we were honored to be invited by Governor Espino of Pangasinan  to visit for a day at the Provincial Capital of Lingayen. Lingayen was one of the great historical points during World War II and the birth place of President Fidel V. Ramos. And I learned that Lingayen is also considered as the “most romantic place in the Philippines”.

Our first stop was at the Sison Auditorium which was under construction at that time. The Sison Auditorium formerly known as the “Grand Provincial Auditorium” was built in 1927. It was later renamed in honor of the late Pangasinan Governor Teofilo Sison, the first Pangasinense to become secretary of National Defense. It is very beautiful there and I loved the chandelier that was imported from Italy.

I’ve included a video I took while we were inside below:

Next we visited the capital building. We got to visit many of the offices and meet some of the people working inside. Everyone was so nice and welcomed us and they represented the Philippines and Lingayen very well. I’ve included another short video of our time on the outside of the capital building due to a problem with my video inside. We also had lunch at the Capital Resort Hotel and ate very well while being entertained by our tour guide. She was a very good tour guide as well as singer. Sorry forgot her name but if someone knows her I would like to mention her on this site and in the video.

On the way back home we stopped in Manaoag and visited a beautiful church and did a little shopping. We got some very good deals. We took one more side trip to a resort in Bolinao which I plan on visiting the next time we are in Pangasinan. I’m sure to have more pictures of it to share with you all. In the next couple of days I’ll be setting up a photo sharing album of our day trip to Lingayen and will include the link to it. Until next time Thanks for reading my blog!

While checking my daily read of a very good blog from John Chow I discovered an article about Applegirl002. What this girl does is uses iphones to make music and then she sings to the popular tunes she creates. Just a little bit of interesting video that may inspire some of the karaoke fans out there to take this and run. Once again thanks to John Chow and his online money making blog for turning me on to Applegirl002 and her interesting videos. Watch and enjoy as she performs Poker Face by Lady Gaga.

Let me start this post off by saying I am not an expert on Philippines internet so if you have any corrections or suggestions I am willing to listen. A couple of years ago when I visited the Philippines I noticed a change in internet in the Philippines. Many people were moving away from the internet cafes and getting more personal computers in their homes and businesses. At that time I wasn’t fully involved with an internet business as I am now so I had little to judge about the chances of working a business on the internet in that country. I was more concerned with being able to check my email daily and I accomplished that by going to the internet cafe.

These days I am self employed and work online at least 8 hours a day so it was important that the last trip provided me with the knowledge I needed to set up my operations there. I did as much research as I could before I went, soI had a little idea on what to expect by talking with my niece who lives next store to me in Laguna. She assured me that she had wireless service and I could connect on to her network from my home. After I arrived in January it took me a couple  days or so to connect because of nothing more than not having the right password for her router. Before I figured the correct password I decided to purchase my own connection so I wouldn’t lose too much business time.

Smart Communications had a booth in the local mall and I inquired about their services and options and found I had three options. Option 1 Pre-Paid Wireless where I could purchase a flash drive type device for P1,000 ($20 US). This device is similar to the go anywhere internet many wireless companies offer. It used 3G technology and could be used anywhere that a signal could be reached. You had to prepay by buying a load much like the cell phones in the Philippines. You get about one hour for P20 with automatically a P300 credit. After that you can buy time just like on the cell phones but don’t let it run out of time completely or you will have to pay the thousand pesos again. This was the option I chose simply for the reason that the other two involved a wait for approval and a contract for a year. Since I wasn’t going to be there for a year straight it seemed the best. One of the other options was unlimited minutes and I think it cost P1,000 per month with a contract involved.

The speed of the prepaid wireless left something to be desired as I think the maximum I achived was 54Mbps compared to 130Mbps -140Mbps I curently am running  here in the states. But all in all not too bad unless you wanted to watch a video or look at a picture. I took this internet device as far back as you can go in the Philippines while staying in Pangasinan and it was patchy at best, but so wasn’t cell phone service.

When I move to the Philippines for good I will have a cable wireless connection like I have here. I connected to my neighbors wireless when possible and found that connection to be very close to the speed I experience in the U.S. Feel free to comment on your experiences with your Philippines internet connection because as I’ve stated I am not an expert and I really only dealt with one company.

 Ok, so I’m back in the states now and I’m having withdrawl symptoms. Withdrawl from a very special pilipino food and one of the staples of my diet while in the Philippines: pandesal or pan de sal especially from Pan De Manila. I would have it with coffee in the morning, as marienda in the afternoon and a pre bedtime snack.

Pic from wikpedia

For all of you who don’t know what pandesal is I’ll let you know that it is a round bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt and eaten by most Filipinos and Americans living in the Philippines. I checked up a little on the history of pandesal and found that it was introduced to the Philippines in 16th century and came from Portugal. It started out as just a plain roll eaten for breakfast but has transformed into a sweeter and richer type of bread.

There are arguments over where you can find the best recipe for pandesal and who makes the best. My personal favorite is as mentioned prior from Pan De Manila a franchise that is popping up all around the Metro Manila area especially in shopping malls. What I heard is unique about Pan De Manila is they bake their pan de sal in the traditional brick oven. All I know is if I’m in Pavilion Mall I stop and get some pandesal there along with their peanut butter. It beats any mall food you can get.

Whether you get your favorite from the local bakery or from places like Pan de Manila, hot pandesal is one of the jewels of Pilipino food and something you must try if you are visiting.

As many of you know from reading this blog that I am a fan of Filipino music whether it be stars like Charice singing Celine Dion songs or her own to Arnel Pineda singing with Journey but my favorites are  Original Pinoy Music (OPM) aka original pilipino music.

Recently, I became aware of a show called Pinoy’s Got Talent or Philippines Got Talent or something of the sort so I sit down to watch it. From watching many good singers in my years in the Philippines I have to admit the show’s talent did not live up to what I expected. It seemed that 90% of the talent on there was just out to show themselves on TV and were more comedy than serious artists. In all fairness I see the same thing when I watch Americas Got Talent but at least in Americas Got talent there are a few like Fil-Am Thia Megia who really belong on the big stage. Also in fairness I’m not a regular viewer of the Filipino Show so I might have caught it on a bad night. I’ll try to watch some later shows and give it a fair chance but I hope it doesn’t end like my first experience.

And speaking of Arnel Pineda it seems some people including the Philippine’s National Historic Institute have a problem with Arnel’s version of “Lupang Hinirang” prior to the start of the Pacquiao-Clottey bout in Texas last weekend. Seems he didn’t sing it as written and I guess there is a law saying you must sing it exactly as written. To read more about this subject go to the Manila Bulletin’s article: NHI to make formal objection against Pineda; prosecutors ready to act

And finally since we are on the subject of Filipino Talent. I’d like to share a video I made while in Macaleeng Pangasinan during the recent town’s Fiesta. These guys are the true OPM talent!

One of my favorite songs in church when I was growing up was a song called Jesus Loves the Little Children. The song starts out as Jesus Loves the Little Children All the Children of the World. When singing that song as a child I really didn’t comprehend what the line “All the Children of the World’ really meant. But when I visited the Philippines many years ago and saw children actually searching through the garbage at the Subic Naval Base that song came to my mind and at that time I developed a love and caring attitude for the children of the Philippines.

As a young sailor I had many favorite street kids that I would make sure had something to eat everyday. I didn’t give them much money straight out because I wasn’t sure that the money would be used for their benefit so instead I tried to make their day a little better and was always rewarded with a smile. It seems to me that no matter how hard the kids had it they were a happy and fun bunch to be around.

These days I have more than enough children in the Philippines to occupy my time as I have tons of nieces and nephews in the province and in Manila where I stay. Although my nieces and nephews to who I am affectionately known as Lolo Dan are not in as bad shape as the street kids I once helped I still spend lots of time with them just having fun.

 I do have a few children in the province that aren’t related to me that I treat as my own family and I try to take care of some of the simple needs that their parents cannot provide. One is a little girl who passes my house every morning on the way to school and waves and says hi to me. Her name is Mary Grace and I found out she was the youngest of 6 born to a mother and father who have no jobs and feed their kids by getting fish from the sea. I bought Grace some school supplies and I make sure she has a small snack to take with her to school every day. She says thank you and gives me that toothless smile that many 5 and six years worldwide have. That alone is enough to make my day.

I’m not telling this story to brag about helping the kids or to bring any glory to myself but to stress if you are planning as an American on moving to the Philippines, find a way to become part of the community and the lives of Filipino people rather than hide away somewhere doing nothing all day. For me, it’s done by spending time with the children and learning from them. Yea I do learn from them!

It seems like not long ago a young girl named Charice Pempengco from the Philippines shot on to the International stage first on starting on Little Big Star then Korean TV and appearances on Oprah and Madison Square Garden with Celine. I have just watched the latest video Pyramid featuring singer Iyaz and really enjoyed it thanks to my friend Thia Megia, another great Filipino singer.

Anyway I’ve added the YouTube video below for your enjoyment and links to other songs you can get on Amazon.com. As we have from the beginning we will follow whats going on with Charice and try to keep it updated here