Chocolate Ice Cream, Kisses And Wind

Well, by a few amazing strokes of luck, networking, and butt-busting, I was offered a job.

The above snaps are two really quickly-shot pictures I just took showing the lower section of the White Chocolate Hills Resort, which is now my newest nest.

I am a booking agent, general manager, overseer Lady, and I think I’m really going to fit in here.
The resort is reservation-only, and just in the last three months they have gone public, where previously, the resort was only open to members of Lyoness.

Anyway, I just wanted to quickly update, I will post a longer update soon.

 

Life Doesn’t Stop For Anybody

The picture above was taken in our front yard the month I arrived, May, 2013.
I decided today to do before and after pictures, and snapped an updated shot of it.

Before I reveal it, I have to say…things here change really fast…I cannot for the life of me remember who said it, or where, but there was a quote about the jungle being the most swiftly changing place on earth, one week you think you have an area mapped in your head, and the next day you’re second-guessing everything around you.

I’ve found that to be true here… new flowers and plants grow and spring up seemingly out of nowhere, and ones that you’ve admired for weeks wilt away and disappear in days.
Not only, I think, is it because of the climate and conditions, but also because growth here among the people happens extremely rapidly… New houses and neighborhoods pop up in a matter of weeks, trees are cut down for construction materials, roads are re-paved constantly…

I enjoy having a constantly changing environment, but sometimes I don’t really notice it…especially when it’s happening right under my own nose.

 

No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming.

Damon made me the most delicious pasta the other night.
It was so beautiful I took a photo of it.

Damon-food

Today we did indeed go for a drive, up to a beautiful waterfall and swimming area… He had made BLT wraps for me…((It was supposed to be a picnic)) And I stupidly forgot to take pictures, forgive me… But this is the kicker that I don’t really understand… He seems to be in a terribly bad mood.

He sped us home at eighty miles an hour on gravel roads, then went to sleep. 
In turn, that’s made me frustrated and confused, since I thought we were having a really nice, calm day filled with beautiful sights, and I have no idea how to make him feel any better, or what even went wrong in the first place, but he gets in moods like this, his mother usually being the main cause with all her nagging and complaining about jobs and money and trivial things… I really don’t know how a human can complain so much while living in paradise, to be honest.

I, for one, have never seen a waterfall like that in real life, I was very excited… I got right down to the edge of it and felt the wind and spritzy water whipping into my face… All the little Filipino kids snuck around behind me and were tagging along, even though I didn’t really say hello due to my shyness with strangers, only smiled and nodded… I think they were surprised a foreigner, let alone a girl was getting so close to the water.
It was colder than I had anticipated, I was expecting warm volcano water or something, but it was about the same temperature as a warm lake in mid-summer in Canada…not terribly cold, but definitely not bath-water-warm, either.

On the property, there were ducks and rabbits and turkey-looking birds with spots, I saw a little lizard running along the rocks, and there was a chili bush like ours, only much, much bigger.

 

Our backyard chili bush

He says we’ll go again sometime, but I don’t really want to speed up there, the roads are scary and bumpy, and on the way up, I watched someone wipe out on their bike.
The idea of crashing a bike going eighty with no helmet, and nothing to protect the knees, arms or anything is a terrifying thought.

Maybe I’ll just think about going alone next time.

Buy my Groceries?

 

Reading is cheap – Writing saves – And ‘rithmetic is for frugal farts

I suppose in this post, I should tell you more about me, and how I ended up living in the Philippines.

Like I mentioned in my first post, I was living in Canada… and I have to say, for a country that boasts a reputation for being free, tolerant, and full of opportunity… my quality of life was terrible.
Job turnover is a nightmare, minimum wage is the standard rate of pay for most work, excruciating rent prices and utility costs are the norm, food is low in quality and high in cost, the people are hypocritical and attracted to drama, and the overall morale of the entire country, while presented to the globe as high, realistically, is lower than I’ve ever seen it before.

I had been from one end of the country to another last summer, in a last-bid attempt to regain control over my reality.
I had always wanted to hitch hike, so I packed my things up, and set out for the west coast of Canada.
While the trip was definitely fun, showing me lots of new things and giving me the sense of adventure and independence I had craved for a long time, it was slow-going, exhausting and sometimes terrifying, as well as downright freezing at night time.

Eventually though, I ended up in Alberta. I worked there for a while, until it became the same old story… a mind full of shambles, and a life full of chaos. I went back on disability, and tried again to pull my life together with the wonderfully generous help and shelter of two awesome chicks I met through mutual friends. 

Throughout all of this, there was a man whom I had met online, also through mutual friends, that I occasionally spoke to, over a period of two years.
His name is Damon Flint, and he was (( and still is )) the damn coolest guy I had ever heard about in my life.
Everyone’s stories about him were outrageous, larger than life, and hilariously genuine. 
Whenever I spoke to him, my life would brighten, and for those moments, I felt like I could take on the world in my own ass-kicking, brassy kind of way. 
While in NS and Alberta, we started speaking much more regularly, and it got to the point where we would Skype every single day… Both of our sleep schedules became so erratic it was silly.

While living with those two awesome Ladies, Damon and I decided we wanted to be together enough to make it a reality, and so I worked on getting a passport. It took about a month, but after it arrived, he and his mother booked the plane ticket immediately, and a day later, I was on my way.

It has been a sensational journey, and I am very lucky to have found a man so caring and loving as he is. 
I appreciate every day that not only are we together, but we get to spend the rest of our days in paradise. 

And now you know a bit more about me!

 

 

Sickness in Paradise – The Foreign Plague

Welcome to my blog!

This may as well be an introduction as well as a critique… I have a lot to say, but know I must keep my posts short-ish and sweet to lock you in as a potential regular.

I am a 26 year old Lady living in the Philippines, originally hailing from Nova Scotia, Canada.
I moved here to be with my husband, who, up until about eight years ago, also used to call Canada home.

This blog came about in the last few days as a protest and response to another blog I found while surfing on the internet… It is a self-proclaimed ‘personal journal’ that a fifty-something year old man from America had started back in 2005, chronicling his move and subsequent retirement in the Philippines.

While reading his posts, I’ve discovered the blatant racism and distastefully vulgar opinions that I’ve been warned about by my husband…He tells me most foreigners that move to or visit the Philippines are here for the ‘Sex Tourism’ and the ability to easily take advantage of the local population.

Seems to be very true for this guy… he jokes around about having sex with women in their early twenties, talks about his rich friends who do the same, he insults the people, calls them ugly, and talks about hanging around in the places my husband has warned me about… Pick-up spots like the Whynot discos and the McDonalds, etc.

It disgusts me that old white men from America and Europe can come to a beautiful paradise such as this and mar it with their revolting, beastly ways.
Every Filipino I’ve ever met or spoken to here is so polite and happy that it is almost unnerving, and the beauty of the people is well-matched by the beauty of the landscape.

So basically, I will be keeping this blog as a record of my own experiences here… not as a rich, spoiled, fat, white foreigner, but as a simple Lady living a simple life with her husband in a beautiful land.

I hope you’ll come along, and enjoy a different take on what I now consider to be our home country.