As some of you may know, some may not. I am a twice over cancer survivor. During my treatment my body attacked itself doing major damage to cartilage ares throughout my body, knees, hips disk in back my etc. This made it to where I was no longer able to work in my career field. So I ended up on Social Security Disability. Been on it near 20 years. For a while I could keep up with the cost of living, but as of late not so much.
So I started investigating living abroad and still being able to keep my disability. After months of my own investigating I come to the conclusion that it would be far better for me to move to the Philippines than to stay in the states.
It's been a month now that I have been here, and I am now settled into an apartment here. The one drawback is no pets of any kind here. So in a year I'll move to a place that allows pets and I can set up a tank, get a parrot again.
The cultural differences are quite shocking at times. Seems Philippines people are absolutely afraid of the rain. Like one drip will cause them to melt. While me being from the NW, it rains frequently, but it's cold rain. At least here it's warm. Us westerners change from the norm, even mundane in the states to now being the exotic. And they will state at you like it's the first time they have ever seen a white person. Especially the woman, even women walking with their man will stare at you like your a triple chocolate cake. There is no dating here, it's instant girlfriend living with you, taking care of you in ways a western woman never would. Feeding you more than you can eat in one sitting, won't let you do any household chores.
The cost here are shocking. Everything is about one third to one fifth the cost of the same thing in the states. As an example my apartment in the states was 1100 a month for a 440 square foot studio in Portland, Oregon. While my apartment here in the Philippines a tad bit bigger only cost me 247 USD. A quarter pound meal at McDonald's is 5usd, in the states 10 or more. A pack of cigarettes here is 3 USD and some change, in the states around 12 or so.
The plane trip over was long and arduous. Portland to San Francisco, to Taipei, to Cebu philippines. The first leg was fine. Was supposed to be a 6 hour layover in San Francisco, but the flight was canceled and ended up there a day and a half. San Francisco to Taipei was the long leg. 23 hours in the air. A 4 hour layover there and the last leg was just another two and half hours into Cebu.
At San Francisco
On the flight to Taipei
The heat here is so very different. It's so very intense, a lot higher UV index. So just five minutes in it feels like an hour in the same temperature in the states.
My long hair and beard didn't last a week here, just too hot.
So I started investigating living abroad and still being able to keep my disability. After months of my own investigating I come to the conclusion that it would be far better for me to move to the Philippines than to stay in the states.
It's been a month now that I have been here, and I am now settled into an apartment here. The one drawback is no pets of any kind here. So in a year I'll move to a place that allows pets and I can set up a tank, get a parrot again.
The cultural differences are quite shocking at times. Seems Philippines people are absolutely afraid of the rain. Like one drip will cause them to melt. While me being from the NW, it rains frequently, but it's cold rain. At least here it's warm. Us westerners change from the norm, even mundane in the states to now being the exotic. And they will state at you like it's the first time they have ever seen a white person. Especially the woman, even women walking with their man will stare at you like your a triple chocolate cake. There is no dating here, it's instant girlfriend living with you, taking care of you in ways a western woman never would. Feeding you more than you can eat in one sitting, won't let you do any household chores.
The cost here are shocking. Everything is about one third to one fifth the cost of the same thing in the states. As an example my apartment in the states was 1100 a month for a 440 square foot studio in Portland, Oregon. While my apartment here in the Philippines a tad bit bigger only cost me 247 USD. A quarter pound meal at McDonald's is 5usd, in the states 10 or more. A pack of cigarettes here is 3 USD and some change, in the states around 12 or so.
The plane trip over was long and arduous. Portland to San Francisco, to Taipei, to Cebu philippines. The first leg was fine. Was supposed to be a 6 hour layover in San Francisco, but the flight was canceled and ended up there a day and a half. San Francisco to Taipei was the long leg. 23 hours in the air. A 4 hour layover there and the last leg was just another two and half hours into Cebu.
At San Francisco
On the flight to Taipei
The heat here is so very different. It's so very intense, a lot higher UV index. So just five minutes in it feels like an hour in the same temperature in the states.
My long hair and beard didn't last a week here, just too hot.
