We arrived exactly one week ago and now we are renting a condominium somewhere between Ortigas and Makati. We chose this location for convenience in commuting within Metro Manila. With the help of my mother, we have rented a 2 bedroom and 2 bath apartment with a large utility room with its own toilet and bath. We find it quite suitable for our needs. The building implements tight security measures using RFID badges in elevators, security camera and 24 hour security guards. Also, no one can access our floor without proper badges.
The apartment is fully furnished. Fortunately we only a few minor problems with the shower and our bed which was dealt with promptly by our broker and the building maintenance. We were within walking distance to a medium-sized mall where almost all stores we need and several good restaurants can be found.
The air quality is quite bad though. But that was expected since we were near a major road. We foresee that this will probably be the one of the main reasons that we would not renew our lease. However, overall we are quite satisfied with our current apartment. Downstairs there is laundry service, water delivery and a mini-stop. We were also able to get our phone line and broadband internet (Globe) installed within 4 days! We also tried the Globe visibility (USB) broadband but it was useless most of the time. We could not browse a single page or remote desktop.
Last weekend I went with my mom to Megamall to shop for our working desks and chairs. It was an exhausting experience but nevertheless we were able to buy 2 good desks and 2 chairs for 16K PHP. Not bad I would say. I tried to shop around the 4th floor only to find out that only 2 stores had what I needed and they were on both ends! Whew! Today, we expect them to be delivered.

Yesterday, MrC and I went to the Makati Extension Office of the Bureau of Immigration, located at the Board of Investments Building to submit our paperwork. There we applied for his ACR Card, and for the implementation of his probationary permanent visa. They fingerprinted him there both electronically and manually and also took his picture. Everything was done quite well and we are very satisfied with the experience. But note that we paid 500 pesos extra per service for express lane. I think it is well worth it. We didn’t really line up at all! However, I had to make several trips upstairs to make photocopies. We also made a separate trip to the Glorietta for MrC’s 2×2 ID photos. We used taxis all the time. We waited a bit for a taxi to come by on several occasions. Overall, we find using a taxi very convenient and less stressful for us since we don’t have to worry about driving. We always made sure we had enough small bills on hand.

I find our first week much less troublesome than the first trip since we were more or less in a settled situation. Having an apartment helps a lot! And there are also less surprises now since we learned a lot from our first visit. For some reason my feelings about living in the Philippines are a lot positive than the first visit. Sometimes I even ask and wonder again why Filipinos leave the country — especially those that live comfortable lives, then again, I remember why. However this time, I see a lot of nice things we Filipinos miss abroad and locals take for granted here: nice, friendly, smiling and less rigid people, more choices in supermarkets and a lot more dining options. I am comparing this with US and Europe. Oh, I almost forgot to mention we were able to open bank accounts easily at HSBC. BPI was closer but they absolutely did not want our business. They asked to many things from us and things didn’t seem possible so we’d rather go to a bank that wanted us.

Til next time! I’ve got to work!