Last week, I wrote a column here called “Cash is KING.” In the comments, AmericanLola mentioned about how when she first moved here the largest bill available was the P100 bill, and that people would bring boxes to the bank when they were withdrawing money, since they would need a large pile of currency even […]
In America…
I have come to the determination that I have lived here in the Philippines long enough that I have actually shed a lot of my American concepts and such. What do I mean by that? Well, I can remember back in the first few years that I lived here, I often would talk about this […]
I know better than they do!
Because of the fact that I have a fairly large presence on the Internet, I get contacted by a fairly large number of people. Generally, if you are a foreigner who is interested in the Philippines, you are likely to come across at least one or more of my websites. After all, I have literally […]
Don’t burn your bridges
It’s an old saying… Don’t burn your bridges. It’s good advice, though. When I first thought about moving to the Philippines, I had met a guy online who lived here already, and we became friends. His name is Mike. I exchanged e-mail with Mike regularly and got to know him well. As time passed, I […]
Are you stupid? Sometimes I am!
Being stupid can have it’s advantages! Don’t you think? What, you don’t understand what I am talking about? OK, let me explain. Here in the Philippines, like in probably most countries, if a foreigner does something that is odd or different, local people often excuse the behavior because they understand that he just doesn’t know […]
Credit, Communications and keeping your options open
I got an e-mail today from a reader of this blog, and I could tell from his tone that he was bothered by the issue that he wrote about. He was asking about financial issues, credit reporting and other such issues and how he would handle these kinds of things if he decided to move […]