Next week two new programmers are starting and another one next month. Also, we will be moving to “The House” on Tuesday. Probably this weekend we will shop for furniture. The driver and his family are staying there with us on a trial basis. So we still have to see how things evolve there.
MrC and I are both looking forward to relaxing weekends in the porch and doing some gardening. Finally we will be able to start our very own vegetable garden.

On the office front, the airconditioner’s compressor was broken today and had to be fixed by our own technician. The owner of the office we are renting will be sending his technician tomorrow. It has been very unreliable the past few months. Hopefully, this would be resolved soon. On the other hand, the programmers are also getting a memory and video card upgrade on their PC’s plus an extra large monitor!

Earlier, I was planning on a trip to the US and Europe but it looks like we have to postpone this as September to October is a very busy month — also to my family abroad. We are submitting MrC’s Philippine permanent residency application this week.

We are now in the middle of a big househunt.  We are still looking for a new place to rent.  We are not yet in that stage that we can buy a house but we are also not satisfied with living in a condo apartment right next to the big old EDSA.

Last week, we almost signed up on a lease.  We found a nice and spacious house with a nice view of Eastwood and Antipolo and is on a high elevation, about 15 minutes by car from our office.  It is located inside a well-secured and  relatively posh subdivision.   We thought we were getting a good deal but one day before signing up, the deal went off.  We kind of chickened out! Here’s why:

• we didn’t like the landlady, she was extremely arrogant and sometimes way too defensive to say the least and we felt kind of pressured to sign the lease quickly because she claimed that there was another family willing to pay 10,000 more than what she’s offering us.  Of course, she says she likes us because we were just a couple compared to the other one which is a big family complete with elderly inlaws.
• we showed the contract to a friend and we felt that 3 months deposit is just too much.  The normal was only 2 months advance / 2 months deposit.  To say the least, we were not comfortable with the whole agreement.
• my cousin made us realize we are a bit crazy to consider the idea of living in a 6 bedroom house with just the two of us.  it’s just not that simple! reality hit us and we saw the light.  And she said, there are a lot of choices around the area and it is not a good idea to do this hastily.  Also, on a lighter note, she warned us to check if someone recently died in that house or is known to be haunted.. hehe you’ll never know if the house comes with someone from the “other side” watching  it day and night. Brrr!
• we became a bit suspicious that she’s hiding something from us that’s why she’s in a hurry

We already saw a lot of houses.  We are quite surprised at the variety of ugly, old, dingy houses at the price range we are in.  Some houses did not even look livable but they said that someone just left it a week ago and it was even a Doctor.   Maybe it was Dr. Frankenstein that lived there who knows.  It’s really really sad what tenants do to houses they don’t own and is equally sad how the owners don’t even care to clean up the mess, and touch it up before showing it to prospective renters.  There was even a townhouse where dead bugs were scattered all over the place!  One of the landlords wanted someone to signup and put up a deposit before they fix the house. I say, forget it!

Not all houses were bad.  However, only about 2 out of 10 seems to be in acceptable condition.  There were brand new ones where we would be the first renters.  The monthly rent, of course was on the higher end of our budget.

This afternoon, it’s househunting time again.  I have a big list of houses to visit and hopefully I won’t mess up the appointments

In order avail of this, I had to submit the following:

We submitted all of the above at the 8th Floor of the Department of Finance building located at the Central Bank Compound next to Harrison Plaza. When you arrive, mention that your destination is the “Mabuhay Lane”. And before I forget, have at least 3 copies of all the documents I mentioned and bring all the originals if possible, especially your passport and birth certificate.

Initially, we hired the services of a Customs Broker but it turned out that they were incompetent in handling this part of the process so I took the initiative to process it myself. When we first visited DOF, we found out that we were missing so much of the requirements that the officer even scolded our broker. The broker did not properly do their homework and our visit was then wasted! Well, looking back at it now I am glad I accompanied the broker. The letters and affidavit they prepared for me had many important missing information, typographical and stupid mistakes putting in the wrong country of origin! However, for the customs part, I am leaving this to them and I hope they wouldn’t make the same sloppy job as they did for the DOF Exemption. They did mention to me that this wasn’t in their regular service offering so I guess I can overlook this for now. However, I am utterly frustrated for their attitude in handling it in general. I had to follow them up daily otherwise they would not really call me up and inform me of what documents were missing or needed. That’s one thing I am warning all of you to make sure when you hire your broker that they are reliable or maybe have some good references.
So in the end, I was lucky to be able to get my letter of approval on the same day. I submitted it at around 10AM and was able to pick it up around 1:30PM. But I had to watch them like a hawk and be present most of the time. Otherwise, you’ll never know. I had to do this because I didn’t want to leave both my passports there. The next step would be to submit this to the Customs officers at the Port. I left the documents today and they said they will work on it on Monday. Our goods arrived five days ago and she said that they have not yet stripped the goods yet. We only start paying for warehouse storage after the goods are stripped. So anyway, I’m crossing my fingers that everything will work out well. Stay tuned for the next part of the story!

We think that with just the two of us and our lifestyle we do not really see ourselves having a full time stay-in household help at this time.  Our needs may change but not in the short term.  We like our privacy and having our dishwasher still with us is a big plus.  Probably a few days a week we might have someone do stuff for us but not so much if we are just living in a 2 bedroom furnished apartment (which we still are looking for).  I was getting a bit anxious about that anyways but  MrC commented, “the apartment will find us”.

I surely hope so.

Several prospective renters have looked at the apartment lately.  One couple who came in last Wednesday liked the apartment so much and also wanted to buy some of our furniture and appliances, including the floor.   Here in the Netherlands, most apartments come bare because tenants have to leave it bare whenever they vacate their apartment — and that includes floors and carpets.  And the walls has to be left painted white.  So if you had painted it red, make sure you paint it back white.  We had paid a bit of money on labor to get this apartment painted, bedrooms carpeted and the rest with laminated wood tiles.  MrC and I had put in a lot of time to also install and assemble shelves and furniture!  It’s a bit sad to see everything must go.

MrC’s sister is buying the dining table and a friend of hers is also buying the washing machine.   She is picking those up this weekend.  That means no dining table and no washing machine from then on!  A friend of MrC also is buying our bed.  He is taking it also this weekend (sigh).  So after this weekend, we still have two more weeks of sleeping on the sofa and sofabed .

We have a total of 12 boxes to be shipped to the Philippines through the help of my old employer’s shipping department.   I just sent the necessary information to get the paperwork started today.    While writing this, I received a confirmation e-mail from the manager of our shipping department.

I would say that this is the most organized of all my moves.  Our inventory is maintained in a Google spreadsheet of which both of us can edit at the same time.  All boxes are labeled with a unique identifier and the contents are in the spreadsheet so we know where exactly things are.   Of course, with clothes, I decided not to register every single blouse and pants we own.  That would be too much!

My mom, on the other hand, who is now in the Philippines has volunteered to help me out in apartment hunting.  We are looking for a place with a minimum of 70 sqm in Metro Manila, preferably Mandaluyong, Ortigas, Taguig, Pasig, Makati or  Eastwood area.  We are also open to areas like Alabang, Las Pinas, Paranaque (Merville/Nichols area)  and Quezon City for more spacious but less expensive houses.  The place must be  at least 2 bedrooms and fully furnished and with possibility of having broadband internet connected quickly.  Also, we prefer areas with good security and no water or flooding problems. Our budget is not more than 35,000 and we prefer 6 months lease at the beginning.  Any good referrals is greatly appreciated.

I had my farewell dinner in a Wok Buffet with colleagues a few weeks ago as well.    My manager definitely wants to have another farewell dinner before I leave.  I’ve definitely moved on and glad about my decision.

Last week, I visited my sister’s family and Mom in Canada and had a nice time bonding with my niece and nephews.    It also snowed while I was there!

Last Saturday, we signed up for a mini storage space nearby.   This is for MrC’s motorbike and stuff that we can’t bring or sell yet.

We’ve started putting stuff in boxes and this time, we registered them in a spreadsheet one by one!  So far we have now 6 boxes (3 for storage and 3 for shipping) and more to come.   I got in contact with my old company’s shipping department and they gave me a nicely priced shipping offer.   We’re definitely using them.

The house cooling is definitely set to the end of November.

We’ve been looking at places also: Pioneer (Mandaluyong), Ortigas, Makati, we still have to visit Fort Bonifacio, Alabang, Quezon City and our house. We are meeting people tonight. I am excited about this because they were my former officemates in my last project before I left for the US. This week was extremely busy indeed! We’ve had several lunch meetings with people such as Rob, a guy; I’ve met through this blog. He moved recently from the US and is very happy with his decision. We enjoyed exchanging our observations of life here and abroad. I also net another friend of mine from the US who came back here.

We rented a car and tried to drive to Rockwell by ourselves, and guess what, we entered a one-way street at Makati Avenue and ended up being caught by traffic enforcers (locals told us they are called bwaya or crocodiles here – go figure). I won’t go into details, but to make it short, it was quite an unpleasant memory for me. One thing I noticed about people here is that they try not to take things to seriously here and always have a silly sense of humor to make it through the day and maybe I should become like this (again) someday especially towards things that are out of my control. Nevertheless, my mood was bad for a couple of days. Today, I believe I have recovered from that bad experience.
Yesterday, we were looking at condo apartments in Makati with the help of a relative of mine and a broker she knows. Today, I just told my relative that we don’t need the help of that broker. Both of us didn’t like the fact that she was the one who caused them to be late by 2 hours. She also made tactless comment about me having a nice looking white guy, like I didn’t deserve to have one just because I don’t exactly look like a model. Anyway, I was not surprised of her reaction; I was expecting to have this reaction from locals anyways.
Our Dutch friend has warned us of this and I’ve also read some stories about this in the internet of how badly locals seem to look down on the Filipina spouse like as if she was someone below the league of the foreign guy or something. Anyways, these are one of the things I am trying to adjust with now. Things I did not hear or experience when I lived here decades ago as a single woman. Anyways so what!

Today, we saw a nice place in Mandaluyong, Pioneer area, and a new business district that is developing. It was near the mall and several big companies have made the place their home. MrC and I are quite impressed of the potential of this new CBD and this is definitely one place we’ll consider. We are already thinking of renting a condo unit there. Today, I sit with him in the office of our Dutch friend.

• Language

Will my husband actually have the patience to live in a land where everyone speaks another language behind his back or in a party, people will speak English to him at the beginning but later revert back to the local dialect? How eager is he to learn it? My husband told me he is very confident that he will learn Tagalog quickly. I guess this actually depends on the personality of your partner if he is cool with it even if he gets surrounded by people who speaking the dialect. Here in the Netherlands, it’s about the same situation. People speak almost perfect English and even sometimes can sound like someone from UK or America but later on amongst themselves they would speak in Dutch again. It is harder to connect on a deeper level to people if they are speaking to you in a second language rather then their own.

• Career or business prospects

I think it is worthwhile to consider how long you intend to stay there. If it is permanently it is worth considering either reacquiring your Filipino citizenship (if you have lost it). If you are a Filipino citizen you can apply for permanent permanent resident visa otherwise known as the 13 (a) visa in his country’s Philippine embassy and then maybe you could take up employment. This I am not sure of. Owning and operating a business though is another thing. In my opinion, being self-employed is the best option for a foreigner especially if he comes out overqualified in many job postings because of age or salary expectations. There is really not enough jobs out there to even consider competing in the local job market. For starters, if you are a native English speaker you can offer to teach English to individuals. Koreans have been coming here in droves to learn English and settle. When I was still in the Philippines, this wasn’t even happening yet. It would be also worth investigating what kind of businesses (Tagalog: raket) the Koreans are doing in our country. We could learn from them. We already know about this fact that a lot of Filipinos leave the country because of lack of good employment prospects. I discussed this in detail in my article Visa Options for Longer Stay in the Philippines

• His Family

Does he or she have elderly parents that he might leave behind? Maybe it’s good to reconsider if it’s really good to leave his parents behind. What about bringing them over to the Philippines as well? Otherwise, understand that if there is a family left behind that would miss him (or her) dearly it would be good to plan and budget for regular visits back to your partner’s family. You know that feeling of being disconnected from family and you know you must support your partner in anyway you can.

• Your Family

There are those that come from respectable families and there is no issue about family asking for money from the foreign partner but I have seen time and time again foreigner/expats who complain that Filipinos always expect them to give and share money. This mentality of sharing is really perverted and it is a twisted way of thinking that if you are poor you deserve to extort money from foreigners and it is your right to do so. Please, if you truly love your partner, shield him from this mess. Try to act normal and modest around your family and no one will probably bother you. Tell them you are not rich and are still trying to settle to a new country. Tell them the truth that the money you have is budgeted towards something else like building a family or a place to live in. Don’t fall into a guilt-trip just because someone stops talking to you or thinks you are kuripot (stingy) because you turned down their request.

On the other hand, if your family is the good and respectable kind. Let them know that they don’t have to act extra nice and be overly hospitable to the extent that their normal lives are disrupted from your move. Tell them they can act normal and it’s fine if they go about with their personal lives as usual even if both of you are there.

• Living Arrangements

We already know for a fact that in many cultures such as in Europe, Canada, Australia or United States privacy is valued highly. This has its own pros and cons. It worked for them culturally and we have to respect it. It is really a good idea to plan for your own place in the long term if it is not possible to do it immediately. Studios and 1-bedroom apartments of varying price range are not hard to find especially if you consult a broker. Also one thing, try to ask yourself how much heat tolerance you have.. Believe me, airconditioning works wonders for comfortability. Consider looking for a place with airconditioning or buy a unit and install it. A well-ventilated place is also another idea if electricity bills become too expensive for your budget. Also, know that some places in the Philippines are prone to flooding. Make sure you ask around first before signing up a lease or buying land.

• Health

Depending on your age and state of health. If you are taking regular medications for some medical condition consider searching for HMO’s or health insurance options in the Philippines. Compare the cost of these local HMO providers with international health insurance providers such as AXA. And even if you know you are young and healthy I think it is still worth planning for. Will you be able to afford the costs of medical treatment in case a catastrophic illness happens? I’ve heard people say that medical costs are really small in the Philippine compared and some just rely on having some savings ready instead of paying monthly for an HMO so decide how much risk you are willing to take with regards to health care. One thing that I know that holds back many people in their retirement age from going back to the Philippines is that their country of nationality offers free health care or benefits but only if they reside there. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and that is actually a good thing to take advantage of. I think some stay a few months in their old country and the rest of the year in the Philippines in order to fulfill residency requirements so try to research your country’s rules on this.

• Prepare for Culture Shock

Culture shock is experienced by people in various ways. It can be described as an experience a newcomer has in a foreign country that is something like a disorientation, disgust, overwhelm and frustration in light of a sudden change of environment or value system. This is quite a topic in itself and I’d like to discuss this in a future article. I am sure most of us living abroad know what this is but I think it is a good idea to explore this further.

In future posts I will also share how these ideas come into reality in our plans to go there in August.