Our First Week - Living in the Philippines

I confess to arriving in the Philippines with my heart remaining in South Korea (plus 4 very large chunks in Australia….).  Not ideal, but I had at least begun the process of letting go in the weeks before leaving.  Imagine my surprise to actually find many things that I like about the Philippines.  There is no denying just how pretty the countryside is here - it is always green, and the gardens that are manicured (all the IRRI gardens, and others that have yards around the houses) are magnificent!  It is very pleasant walking around the streets, particularly around the university grounds near where we live.

The people here have made us feel very welcome.  Already I have met people from the Philippines, Australia, Great Britain, Sudan, India, China, Korea, Germany, the US, and Finland. Just in the first week!! I feel extra privileged (and in awe) that these people all speak English at a fluent level (since they work in English!!), making it relatively easy to understand them.

For the first time, I flew into Terminal 3 at Manila airport, and it is worlds away from Terminal 1, the older terminal.  This felt amazing - new, clean, spacious, uncrowded…. somewhere I might be happy to fly into when we return from visiting other places. It all depends on the airline you are flying with, so we will have a mixed experience with this.  Terminal 3 also has much easier access to the expressway we take to get to Los Banos, cutting the travelling time by around 40 minutes…….

It started me wondering if I am too much of a ‘princess’ - expecting things to be just right, and to suit me all the time…… have I been so spoilt that I can’t ‘rough it’?  I’m not sure of the answer yet...will let you know.

Not that we are exactly ‘roughing it’ AT ALL - when I look around me, we are already (in our temporary apartment) living a LONG way above the average in Los Banos.  I will do well to remember that, and be grateful.

Living in an apartment in the Philippines is a LOT different to apartment living in South Korea - well…..the apartments we have had in each country, anyway.  Of course, we lived in a city in Korea and we are in a town here, so it’s difficult to make a direct comparison.  Here, we are on the first (ground) floor, in a building that just has 2 apartments, one upstairs and one downstairs.  The sound insulation is a little different here….although most noise is just chairs scraping,etc.  We hear a lot more of the local noise from the streets around us.  

Internet speed is not quite the same here as in Korea….. I knew that before we came, especially since NOWHERE in the world has internet like Korea!!! Our apartment has NO internet, nor phone line…..yet….. my impression is that we shouldn’t hold our breath, and that we will learn patience (if nothing else) whilst living here.

So….we’ve arrived at the end of the ‘wet’ season, and certainly not the hottest time of year.  Good!  That way, we’ll have the chance to acclimatise….right??!!!  Actually, so far it has been quite pleasant - always on the warm side of our comfort zone, but not bad.  The evenings cool down a little, so it’s been nice out walking after dark.

The staff and families at IRRI (The International Rice Research Institute - Russell’s employer) have been wonderful - we have 2 host families, and they are spoiling us!  Thank you to Chitra and Bert, and to Sue and Leigh - meals, driving us around, teaching us the ropes…… I’ve already had coffee ( a MUST in my calendar!!), been to the supermarket, had a day trip into Manila to look at shops, as well as all the orientation things Russ and I have both had to do at IRRI.

We have had a driving test with IRRI, necessary to be allowed to drive IRRI vehicles, and so next week we will have our Philippine licence, IRRI licence, and a car!!!!  Driving around for my test, I found the traffic wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, BUT the test didn’t require me to drive on any of the roads in town….just around IRRI and the university (and the taxi motorbikes aren’t allowed there...hehe, I know it’s a different matter once I get on the public roads. At least it’s a start, and made me feel like I can manage to drive around locally.

My first trip into Manila was on Friday.  IRRI organises a bus every couple of weeks to take spouses of IRRI employees (that’s me!!) to one of the shopping centres in up-market Manila (well….. we covered 2 shopping centres which were side by side, and apparently there’s more connected to these two….).  It was fun, and felt like I was in Korea or Australia, just for a while. I wandered around with one of the other ‘spouses’ and we were both surprised that we had no trouble filling in 6 hours!!  Didn’t even buy very much, but it was interesting.

On our first Saturday evening in Los Banos, Russ and I walked from our apartment, right on the edge of the University of the Philippines, about 200m to the top end of Lopez Avenue, the main shopping street in Los Banos.  We wandered part way down the Ave, enjoying the new sights, smells and sounds of our new home town.  It’s amazing how much more you see when walking than driving down a road.  Some great convenience stores, stationery, mobile phone cards, toys, gifts, fruit, restaurants, bakers, cafes, etc, etc….. Most are tiny stores selling either a specific 3 or 4 things, or selling a bit of absolutely everything. Because Los Banos is a university town, and we live right at the university, there are many students around, and lots of cheap eat places. Dinner at Bonitos cost us $10.

On Sunday we wandered up to the guest house at the IRRI housing to Skype our family - no internet at our temporary apartment, so the 20 minute walk is needed each time we want to be online….. I’m also going to spend some time this week working out which coffee shops provide free wifi (...that works…) and may spend some time there.  After we spoke to a few people in the family, we managed to invite ourselves to Chitra and Bert’s place for lunch….. and board games with their boys, Seby and Fredy!  After a rain storm, the walk home was much more pleasant than the walk this morning.

Russell often compliments me on the way I get out and do things when we arrive in a new place….while I’m not always sure that I do this well, I do find a great sense of satisfaction in finding new places and then showing him some of them. The reality is that Russ doesn’t have the same amount of time as me to look around our new home, and so it’s great to explore beforehand and then re-explore with him - I always find new places, and he loves discovering new aspects to our environment.

At the end of our first week in the Philippines, we have not internet, dodgy reception for our phones, no car (it’s been promised), BUT we do have:

• many new friends and friends-to-be
• a beautiful environment to walk around - the grounds of the university are really lovely.
• MANY interesting sights, sounds and tastes.
• Accommodation that is comfortable.
• a country full of people who are endlessly friendly, helpful and well-mannered.

Just a small section of Lopez Ave, the main shopping street
of Los Banos.

A new, cute little mall of restaurants/cafes - could be in Korea,
right?? You may notice that one of the shops is called
Hanbok (the traditional Korean dress) and says
that they sell Korean noodles and icecream....hmmmmm

This is the entrance to our gated community -
we will be here until sometime in February.

Our temporary home in .....yes.....Dolores Circle.  We occupy
the bottom floor of this building.