Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Philippines	Bringing Mother-in-law to USA for long visit?	To you it might be "pretty clear" but to the Consular Officer providing child care is work. I am not looking for "an excuse for terrorizing a grandmother for visiting her grandchild." She can visit. She cannot provide care as a nanny. There is a big difference between visiting my family and coming to the US with the intention to provide child care. Don't you think the OP should know how difficult it is to bring a nanny to the US? Should he not also know that family member have been denied visitor visas for saying they intend to provide child care when they get to the US? Or perhaps, I should just give them the rosy scenario because the Consular Officers always see things from the family's point of view??? That article you used to bolster your threats to the OP was fear-mongering, self-contradictory trash. She pretended that when grandma enters the country she tells the border patrol officer she has just accepted employment as a daycare provider. Nobody in their right minds would say that. It would be lying. She is the grandmother. Did you notice that the article you cited stated that the "solution" (Duh!!!) was to tell the truth about what she will be doing? Edited by rlogan, 01 November 2011 - 03:01 PM.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-11-01 14:59:00
Philippines	Bringing Mother-in-law to USA for long visit?	There is absolutely no way for you to bring a foreign citizen to the US to be your nanny. First, a visitor visa holder cannot work in the US. Being a nanny is work. It doesn't matter if the nanny is working for free. Second, a US employer who wishes to bring a foreign person over for a job must file a Dept. of Labor certification that no US resident is available or qualify for the job. This will be impossible for you to do as there are lots of people here who qualify to do the job. Third, US employment laws would apply. You cannot pay the nanny based on the prevailing rate in the Philippines. You would need to pay US wages. Lots of people who have brought "help" with them from outside the US to work in the US have run afoul of paying less than minimum wage. Good thing you don't work at the border. You sound like the nightmare customs and border patrol agent looking for an excuse for terrorizing a grandmother for visiting her grandchild. This is pretty clearly not an employment contract, but family visitation.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-11-01 14:28:00
Philippines	Here's a little humor for everyone...	Might I suggest further north if one is short on winter? -42F at mid-day yesterday. Plenty of snow. Dark. It's a little more special if its only for a month or three. Seven here. Chicago offers winter enough I reckon.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-02 18:33:00
Philippines	questions about philippine postal serivce	for anyone from the Philippines I am currently trying to figure out how my wife will get her medical and interview packet if she doesn't receive mail at her current address. all the address's we used she doesn't receive mail there. any idea how i could get it so i know she will get the mail items that she needs.. Thanks for you the help. My wife didn't have what the US considers a mailing address either. There is no street or house number. She lists her name and the voter precinct. The immigration people know the Philippines mail can't be trusted so they use a courier, and these couriers are actually intelligent enough to ask around the neighborhood for where the house is. This was the first question I asked on Visajourney and nobody answered me. Yet this is a very common problem and the stress it creates is enormous. We did experiments with the Philippines mail, sending letters and postcards from my address and my brother's. One post-card out of four items made it. (Two letters and two post-cards). I also e-mailed the post office with a question and they didn't answer. One out of five.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-10 18:52:00
Philippines	How to Extend your Stay in Philippines?	Thats Good to know! So you just bring Marriage Certificate or copy of it! We didn't, but it might be a good idea. As we entered the woman at immigration control just asked if we were married. She stamped it for a year, and we didn't even realize that until much later when I thought I was going to need an extension - and there was the stamp for a whole year!	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-18 01:35:00
Philippines	met once & got married	Hi VJers!! January of 2011, I met my husband online fell for each other. After talking for 6months my husband decided to come here & we both decided to get married. After 21 days of visit he got home. and now we are on the process of filing a visa. I'm a bit worried, cause the length of our relationship is not long enough. Will t be questioned by the consular? We met in person while I was traveling, and spent five days together before engagement. Then we had to wait all that time for immigration and marriage so we could have that first kiss.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-18 17:26:00
Philippines	K1 visa soon to be 18	Good luck to you and congratulations hoy123. Just ignore envy and spite. Using the search function, this has come up before and it does look like the solution is the consent to marry from the parents. In before the lock!	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-20 22:01:00
Philippines	What is the Best Area in Metro Manila?	Is she from Manila? There are some interesting places to stay all over the Philippines, depending on whether you like Scuba, seeing indigenous peoples, or dodging bullets from MILF, Abu-Sayyef, or NPA guerillas. I liked the Mountain and Kalinga provinces, if you are into trekking in the ancient rice terraces. Scuba is good in Northern Palawan and Cebu. Mindanao is hot for guerilla war action.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-18 17:56:00
Philippines	TATTOOS during Medical at St Lukes Manila	I'll need to see those with matching panties before I render a final opinion. Looks pretty good so far though.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-02 15:40:00
Philippines	Things you found strange about the Philippines	6. That one guy saying no means no. I learn to say "umalis ka!" to the little boys when their hands out. I found it strange that they don't understand Tagalog from an american tongue . The ones that really annoyed me would poke you incessantly in the back or sides while you were waiting at a pharmacy or something. I couldn't figure out what to do about them. So one day, I poked one back. You should have seen his reaction. He was shocked. So I poked him again. He ran away. Works every time now.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-03 18:27:00
Philippines	Things you found strange about the Philippines	Hot slim babes! Getting drugs from the pharmacy directly instead of paying extortion money to rich doctors first! Real terrorists blowing things up instead of Government agents provocateur creating them for propaganda! Fearing criminals instead of fearing the government! (At least with criminals you can fight back.) Being the tallest person in the room! People living in garbage & excrement but with spotless clothes and shoes. (I have to hide my shoes so they don't wash them)	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-27 20:53:00
Philippines	Things you found strange about the Philippines	Balut and fish paste that has an odor powerful enough to suppress life everywhere it drifts.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-07-23 18:38:00
Philippines	Filipina Fiancee Freaking Out	When she comes here I am giving her .. her own room to sleep in so that she can transition. She is telling me that this is going to be hard for her. Being that we are not married yet, she still feels that its important not to sleep with your fiance. She's 28? This is a defective unit. Return for unit that can be test driven under rigorous conditions. There's no greater change then moving from full-time employment in Manila to living on the edge of the wilderness in Alaska in a log cabin. We haven't left the cabin for almost six weeks. Fifty below zero last week - seventy below zero wind chill. Heating with a wood stove. Moose in the yard. Occasionally bears or wolves. Not one iota of drama about moving. Excitement instead. Both of us could have complained about giving up independence, and with me the international playboy life, and blowing fifteen thousand on a new airplane engine without a thought. Wheeeeee!!! The point of this is supposed to be the happiness about being together and all the new things to encounter. If she's going to get all dramatic about leaving that perfect life in the Philippines, then fine - stay there and another half-million girls will be glad to take her place.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-08 02:39:00
Philippines	Filipina Fiancee Freaking Out	and YES! I absolutely will not pay a waitress if she doesn't do her job. If she does it average then the 15%, but if she does an outstanding job, i'll even boost it to 20-30 percent. That was evasion and diversion. You said you wouldn't pay for the FOOD if the waitress "bothered" you, right here: I just tell them to go away and leave me alone or they don't get tip, but even worse I won't pay for the food for the interruptions. The reason I thought this important is that besides all the drama that is everyone else's fault, this is a pretty drastic threat to be making to a waitress. One of the things we are taught to do in evaluating people for long-run relationships is how they treat waitresses, doormen, the grease-monkey at K-mart, etc. - because abusive people are very careful about kissing butt with the people they think have power over them, but are nasty to people that they view as beneath them. So you have this Filipina that you met in Philippines, had a correspondence, then broke it off when the sister of the ex-wife sent some "helpful" tips to her, (the imprisonment for spousal abuse?) along with the German Psycho-Girl and then out of the blue she is in love with you, but she doesn't know you are living with your mom and dad or the full extent of your dependency upon them so that news is freaking her out... There are some red flags on story consistency here. You were married before. Then had a "Fiance", except either one or the other was being processed on a K-3 which is a spousal visa, so this is all pretty confusing. But one thing seems pretty clear to me: if you tell people the truth from the beginning, not even little white lies as you said, then bombshells like imprisonment for spousal abuse or living with your mom and dad; making her a dependent on your Dad's tax return - those aren't going to be bombshells at all. Someone said it sounds like rushing in without knowing each other. Yeah.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-07 00:47:00
Philippines	Filipina Fiancee Freaking Out	Isn't this the fellow who tells restaurants he is not going to pay for the food if the waitress "bothers" him? I thought it was a pinay in that thread. A couple of arguments away from a shovel and a long night? I would think that a relationship is going horribly wrong if there was "no" fighting or bickering. Geez, I guess mine is going horribly wrong. I really do not know how to explain to someone from a third world country that Americans are not always rich as the TV makes us look It is extremely simple: you tell them. A decent person only needs to be told once. A bad person has no empathy, so it doesn't matter how many times you tell them, they don't care and continue to use the myth as an excuse to manipulate you for money. Like a bank robber who says they aren't really stealing because the bank didn't do anything to earn the money.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-06 17:57:00
Philippines	Smiles and Excitement Tonight!!	[size="4"]So tell us again, why can't she fly to US POE alone, and you save big $$ from your airfare for the AOS? Just sayin? Pfffft. Silly man. So she can't escape.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-08 20:04:00
Philippines	Culture Shock	She also noticed that in the USA all the armed guards are at the government buildings vs Philippines where the armed guards are at banks and other places with money. The enemy being criminals in one place, and the enemy being the citizens in another.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-03 15:42:00
Philippines	Culture Shock	The myth about America being such a free country.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-02 21:47:00
Philippines	reputation	I think a lot of us go thru the thing, when people hear we are marrying " A foreigner" . I had some comments made to me and some got back to me. " Oh he just wants a maid, or he is getting one of those asian submissive wives, or "he could not get a woman here. All of these things are so not true. They know they aren't true, but the magic of nasty manipulative comments like that is to put you on the defensive. The best one is insinuating you are a pedophile if your wife is a lot younger than you. Once they have you on the defensive, it will never end. There is no defense you can make to a nasty person that will get them to stop being nasty. No matter what you offer in your defense, it will be twisted into another nasty attack. These comments do not come from your friends. The fact they've made them prove they are your enemies. They are trying to make you angry and hurt. Don't take the bait. Because once you show any kind of anger or hurt - then they attack your anger and hurt, and use that against you. Once you have set your mind right - that this is my enemy and he wants me to react with anger and hurt - that alone is going to make you smile and laugh at him instead. Watch their heads explode when you laugh at them instead of showing anger or hurt. He better make up his mind real quick what is more important his wife or what some judgmental jerk thinks. Right. and it is important what the OP learned: Thanks Bro should have done it a long time ago Exactly so, brandonbeth. When we show our wife that she needs to be hidden away - she doesn't feel very good about that. When people have family that are judgemental jerks we just don't interact with them. But we need to be open with our wife about that: tell her who the judgemental jerks are and don't interact with them. Sounds like you underestimated your family.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-11 18:48:00
Philippines	reputation	Must be from the Spratley Islands. So they alternately live in Philippines, Vietnam, China, or Malaysia etc. depending on which Navy is there at the moment. Edited by rlogan, 09 January 2012 - 08:25 PM.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-09 20:23:00
Philippines	reputation	thanks all. So amazing to know that many are concern and i appreciate everyone who comment. i understand how they feel about this post. i know if God joined two hearts for a great purpose no man can separate. God bless you all Must be beth. Who is not explaining much about ambushing the husband on visajourney for hurting her feelings about who he reports the marriage to. So this is the "Thank you, good-bye now" post I guess. It is all about clear communication, and someone isn't doing that. Hard to tell how much the language issue is clouding things up, but it does seem to be a factor here. But hey, with Darren closed down for now this is the best show in town.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-01-03 18:57:00
Philippines	APPROVED!! :-) What is seminar? Do you have to do it?	It is an extortion racket run by the Philippines, operating on the assumption that the little immigrant children need big daddy government to wipe their poopie butts for them. They're going to inform her of things like VAWA, which is available here for free and is also far more accurate and up-to-date. Be sure and show the proper attitude to the bureaucrats empowered by this law: Thank you daddy dear, I would be lost without you. I am on my knees now for your precious sticker.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-03 21:45:00
Philippines	Problems calling the Philippines?	Has anyone else had trouble connecting with the Philippines since the earthquake? Some nights I only get a message saying: "Your call cannot be completed as dialed." for several attempts then it will finally connect. Some nights I never do get through. I called the phone company and they said everything checks out OK, I wonder if the increased traffic with people trying to connect with friends/family in Japan is just overloading the system. Anybody else having troubles as well? I used to call a couple of years ago quite often. Many times I got a message like that. Or even a busy signal. My wife would say she was not on the phone when there was a busy signal after I tried again. I thought it was system overload back then too but never checked into it. I just kept trying until it went through, and sometimes it took many attempts. Like five or six. We rarely call now but she did call once after the earthquake to tell them to go onto chat, and it didn't happen.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-03-26 23:53:00
Philippines	Meeting Fiancee's Parents	I didn't bring gifts, and when I did buy one she asked me for, it turned out to be blackmail: If you buy one - you buy them all or else it is unfair. So that was the last gift. The most serious issue we had to deal with was how to help the family without hurting them instead. And your wife - what kind of position people can put her in out of jealousy, envy, or spite. Money or gifts can do more harm than good. If you come in there with the party, party, fiesta, attitude with presents for everyone and puttin on the ritz act then it does all the wrong things. Be careful who you put in control of events too. Be open and above board, riveting your attention on clear communications nobody can twist to their own ends. Be on guard for people trying to scam money. Here's an example: Manny Pacqiao is fighting. I make plans with the father to go see it at a bar with a bunch of screaming drunk locals. Really simple too - hop on the Jeepney for seven pesos and they take you right to the bar. But someone else shows up with a van to "help", by taking us there. He's a boyfriend of an aunt. We're late getting started and it's already stressful enough, but more people are getting into the van, not just us - and I don't know I am being set up to take everyone to watch the fight on a scammer "closed circuit" showing. This guy driving is stopping here and there, just asking people where we might be able to catch the fight on closed circuit and I am starting to get angry, demanding to be told ####### is going on. Her Father doesn't speak English and this driver is not about to tell the truth, that the plan is to get me there after the fight has already started, and say I have to pay for this whole van full of people to watch the fight. He's telling me "Oh, you don't want to sit in a bar with all those other people, you want private showing." I start yelling, I mean really yelling to take me home. Immediately. I could see what was afoot and I was really angry. No way were they pulling this on me. He tried to shame me in front of all the other people - what? Watch it on TV with commercials? Yeah, that's right, if you don't take me home this instant I am getting out of this van and walking home. So this guy is etched into my mind - never trust this man, this "helpful" driver. People will put you in a position where you feel obligated; try to engineer a debt over your head, and have no scruples about it. You might hear about the family tradition of roast pig and cake for the whole barangay. That tradition got started the moment you set foot there, if you let it. The way an extended family based culture works is that everyone helps everyone else: two way street. When it is corrupted by the Americano coming in with money and becomes a one-way street then it can have some ugly results. Namely, a lot of wasted money, dealing with manipulation, and them bickering over it instead of good things happening. Look with your own eyes at their situation and see what is best to work out in that model of extended family reciprocity. I built a house together with her father over there, and I saw someone here blow as much money on his visit as I spent building a house. We have one brother we're putting through Merchant Marine college, and he's taking care of the parents after the father retires. Good kid, working hard. Twenty thousand pesos tuition a year, less than five hundred dollars, but its about that much with books and stuff, so it's a great investment. Three years tuition. So be careful about money or your time. If you send the wrong message, people are going to "get it" quick and there will be no end to the scamming. But if you are careful, you can do a lot of good without a huge expense by putting it in the right place.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-02 15:51:00
Philippines	American Carry protection in Philippines	Yes good advice, I am aware of the rule of engaging with a filipino, If you start something there is another guy with a knife coming at you. I like to wander off, I purchased a motorbike last trip so I can get around much easier. I roam the Philippines and so far have never had a issue, I just heard right now that Davao has a rash or holdup and murders, and Duerte has issued a extra bounty for dealing with these criminals..... I did the same thing. An Enduro-type 250 with great big knobbies for off-road work. I went through the Mountain Province and then the Kalinga Province on one trip - and within this last year saw where I went back then on a TV show called "World's Most Dangerous Roads". Pretty funny. That was it alright. It's why I used that mountain bike. I just stayed with people I met. Really primitive people, in the Rice Terraces and on this volcano there was a pygme group I stayed with - whoever looked interesting. Saw them harvesting sugar cane by hand, using ancient presses and makin' stuff out of it with molases and rum and brown sugar. One time I had trekked across the Rice Terrace villages where there were just footpaths only and met people so primitive the girls would get down on their knees and bow their heads in silence until you passed. The next year I went there the UN was putting in some kind of road and electricity. But if you mention Davao because you are biking on Mindanao, I'd be pretty careful about the itinerary. I have a house on Mindanao and know the place well enough. Are you actually going there? There is an ongoing war with the MILF, and some Abu-Sayyef are there, along with communist NPA goons and kidnap-for-ransom gangsters in some places,so it would be worth studying up on if you are going to Mindanao.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-05 19:18:00
Philippines	Not sure if this is the correct place..	Have your fiance go to a pharmacy an see what they have. I could send my nine year old sister in law to get antibiotics and pain killers. No prescription, no note - nothing. I'm sure they have insulin too, but send your fiance down to see what's there.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-29 20:28:00
Philippines	Not sure if this is the correct place..	We bought a boatload of birth control pills in the Philippines with no prescription. Just go to the pharmacy. You can buy just about anything you want without a doctor's prescription, unlike the USA where the medical industry extortionists have gotten the government to require a doctor's prescription to buy anything worth having.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-29 18:12:00
Philippines	First Trip to Fiancee's Province	I'm a believer in meeting the family, that's for sure. There's lots of transportation options. I commission cabs sometimes out of the regional airports. If you walk outside there will often be a group of cabs and you can announce where you are going and take the best offer. You can't quite do that at the International airport, but if you are brave enough you can go a little off-airport and make a deal with one of them for a charter. I've rented or hired cars, multicabs, off-duty jeepneys, motorcycles - and done buses too, but its my last choice! Top choice is a room on one of the ferries if that's an option. A state room has the highest nookie time coefficient. Plus you get to walk around on the deck. There will be a restaurant. Remember not to toss coins to the boys swimming out and diving for them at the side of the ship.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-26 21:30:00
Philippines	Visiting Fiance after visa, before entry	I stayed three months doing the same thing. Great idea! It was cheaper to buy a round-trip with the ability to change the date for a small fee. There's exchangeable tickets you can get too that you pay more for, and flight insurance too, which does the same thing. Geez, you can extend the visa and extend again, and extend again - I went to Cebu and it was very quick, done in no more than an hour there. We built a small house. Another guy on Visajourney did that too. Talk about cheap and a great experience with the extended family coming in to work on it together. Can I ask where they live?	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-28 22:22:00
Philippines	After she came to USA.	Hello everyone, My now wife came from the Philippines last summer. Before she came to USA, I was a bit nervous about her getting home sick. I leave home to work early in the morning and come back early in the evening. I read so many stories here in VJ about HS and that really got me worried. In my area, I didn't know any one from the Philippines before she came here that was worrying me a bit more. Good thing these days we have FB, EBAY, Yahoo-messenger, skype, and so on. It makes it easier for her to keep in touch with her family and friends back in the Philippines. (Ebay ?? continue reading and you will understand) She is young but she likes to work. She likes to feel useful and busy like many of the ladies here. She is a strong believers that people need to find opportunities no matter what the situation is (That is a beautiful positive way to look at things). She also knows there is only one income in the house. I don't own my business. I am a 9 to 5 employee. She has about 8 months in USA. About a month after she came to USA, she told me she needed some money, I jokingly said, why? do you have a date?. She just smiled at me. She then explained that since she didn't have working paper, had so much free time on her hands, she wanted to make a good use of that free time. Instead of going through depression and things of that nature. She always was thinking of a way to utilize so much free time. Seriously guys? how much cooking and cleaning can some one do in a day? After she explained to me, I told her not to worry that I was going to give the money she wanted. She looked at me with her eyes wide open "REALLY". (The amount was very low. Wait she keeps on thinking of dollars to pesos conversion) Suddenly, everything changed. The empty closet we have in the house is no longer empty. Her desk is no longer occupies with decorative items but with folders and receipts and things like that. The land line phone is no longer collecting dust because lack of usage. She started a very very very small online business. With one customer/person. I meant we are talking about $75 or $100 profit not much but it is something to keep her busy. My friends tell me to keep supporting her and let her continue do what she is doing because she is happy like that. She looks busy which is something pretty good. What happened next? That customer/person told another person, that other person told another person, and the wheel still spinning & turning. (Who will complain about free ads?) I thought she was going to spend her profit on daily things that we really don't need. Instead, she opened a little store in the Philippines and hired those members in her family who don't have a job. She has few more ideas but they are on baby steps now. But knowing her, she likes to walk the talk. I need to admit, I am learning many things from her. She is a lot younger than I am. She is in her mid 20's. I am so happy for her. I know for many of you that is not a big deal. For her, accomplishing what she did in less than a year, is a big deal. I think she found one of the formulas to ease the feeling of staying home alone during week days. On a personal note: I thought she was not going to survive more than 3 months in USA. I was always thinking how could I pull a rabbit under my hat and makes something good out of the first few months. I did not have do anything. She managed to come up with some ideas. Good job my amazona lady I never responded to this OP because a red flag went off with such detail in the fairy-tale drama of the story vs. lack of simple concrete facts like "sells sweaters on ebay". So at least my radar is working.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-04-04 23:01:00
Philippines	Things you find na kakaiba sa US of A	Just because people take their time it doesn't mean they have nothing better to do. It does by definition for rational people. You can't see the difference between "nothing to do" and "nothing better to do". Rational people put their time to the best use, according to their own preferences. A surfer dude hangs out at the beach because that is his best use of time by his own standard. He has nothing better to do. Some people want to loiter at restaurants instead of doing something else. They see nothing better to do, by definition. Travel around the world and you will see the pace of life varies from place to place. Travel to Italy and you'll be overwhelmed on how SLOW they are. LOL So does that mean they have nothing better to do? I don't think so. It's culture. Maybe that's why people who live in these slow-paced places are better natured in general. Been to Italy, France, Philippines, Russia, Canada, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, maybe some I have forgotten - and taught economics or did consulting in a number of those, including the present subject. The Italian Riviera was a disappointment for the amount of excrement and urine along the retaining walls by the sea where I went fishing, and they definitely have more of a culture of covert aggression where you score "points" by making people wait on you - like showing up late to meetings or dallying instead of that high-step service. That covert aggression is written about in books on personality disorders and abusive people, not something that is "better natured". There is a huge difference between a person who is "laid back" vs. a person who "turns his back" to ignore you and make you wait - that is a person showing you disrespect. Some cultures have a lot more of it than others, and the USA has less of it. The customer is always right, be punctual, etc. On the other side, the waitress is "kicking you out" because they want to get out of their shift ASAP because they are tired and want to get off from the floor away from nasty, ill-mannered, condescending, entitled customers who think you owe them even your personal time. LOL. I didn't, and I made way more in tips than I did on wage. The waitstaff with the bad attitudes you seem to champion really resented me because of that. They would sit doing nothing behind the register and glare at me zooming around serving coffee. They would tell me I set a bad example by working too hard. They were the same people that didn't study in school and resented people who did. But the customers loved me, and I stuffed wads of cash in my pocket because of it.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-06 01:19:00
Philippines	Things you find na kakaiba sa US of A	Don't worry.. You are not alone on that. Here in he states. It is not about quality, but quanity. They will give you your check even before you take the first bite of your main entree. I just tell them to go away and leave me alone or they don't get tip, but even worse I won't pay for the food for the interruptions. It is one thing coming by to fill up the drinks. It is another thing trying to kick us out the door and expect a good tip from it. For American customers, time is money. 2,000% more money to be exact, based on per capita incomes. So American customers get really irritated waiting on a waitress for their check. Waitresses know American customers have much more valuable things to do with their time than wait on a modestly paid waitress who can make more in a day than the average Filipino makes in a month if she doesn't waste the customers' time. To someone who has nothing better to do with their time, sure - you view speedy service as being "kicked out", where an American views it as being set free to put their time to better use.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-02-05 21:34:00
Philippines	Marriage is breaking apart	A good Filipina makes a great wife. Filipinas have not had feminazis relentlessly attacking men the last two generations for providing for their family. It is a fallacy that hating men "liberates" women from anything. Our OP took a chance on an American man, and got a bad one. She was more the traditional Filipina for sure - talk about committment. Oh well, one foot in front of the other now RedVelvet. One of the other things we are counseled to do in abusive relationships is to focus on health - eating right and eating regularly, sleeping, a nd exercise. An abusive relationship has the victim drained emotionally, which affects us physically. Tears us down. Makes us confused and depressed with all the symptoms depression brings on - listlessness, lethargy, feeling worthless, etc. The uncertainty about the future just kills you. Makes you feel helpless. Once you have finally taken control and made the decision you can also make yourself into a powerful little dynamo physically and mentally by exercising along with sleeping and eating right. Make out your daily "to do" list, schedule your exercise in there, etc. That gives you the feeling you are now captain of your ship and master of your destiny. Because you are!	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-30 15:41:00
Philippines	Marriage is breaking apart	i am sad hearing or reading post about divorce and people are so worried about their status than their promise to God to live and love each other for better or for worse. I'm not superstitious and made no such promise to a non-existent entity. But it seems to me that if this superstition of yours is run by a God that requires staying with a perpetrator of marriage fraud then it isn't a God worth believing in. Maybe shop around for a God that isn't such a jerk. There's lots to pick from. Gosh RedVelvet, I feel so bad for you. This is way beyond breach of promise (the most grave element being children). You have no obligation to a man who told such an outrageous lie in order to trick you into marriage. You are way, way beyond needing him for anything in your life, including naturalization. There is no emergency here with immigration. The more immediate problem is fixing your life and getting on track for a family with wonderful, bright children in your future. Showing anger at a person who wants to talk about something is a way of manipulating them through terror. What little you told to us is mental/emotional abuse, which heightens the need to leave him beyond the already fatal matter on refusal of children. When there is a problem with potency/fertility we adopt children. That solves one problem but my God, the lack of intimacy you have described - OMG! You poor girl! It's unbelievable you have endured this. There are studies demonstrating that people who don't have intimacy suffer from more bad health, are unhappier, die sooner - and just looking at them you can see if it is lacking in their life. That's one thing that will change when you get a man who can leave you a steaming pile of goo in the bedroom: you will be healthier, have more energy, be happier, and live longer. You have the 10 - year green card so you are authorized to work too, and you would be amazed what you can do with very little money if you are smart about living expenses, using coupons, etc. You are going to need a support network of friends or family, so get busy working on that. Both for emotional support and help getting things done. You need to be kind but firm with him - it's over, let's just make this as stress-free as possible. No fights, no yelling, forget about wasting time and energy arguing who is at fault. Go to the clerk of court in your state district. Ask for the divorce papers to fill out or get them online. They are self-explanatory. Generally the wife is owed 50% of the marital assets acquired while you were married. Maybe if there is some decency in him he will help you get settled on your own, but don't brow-beat him with "you owe me this because you lied..." You will be amazed how much better you are going to feel just having made the decision. Each little step you take is going to make you feel better and better, until finaly one day you are having a baby in the hospital and your husband is right there with you.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-03-28 21:10:00
Philippines	This CENOMAR insanity	...and when will the process complete? 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, nobody can say for sure. We feel your pain. We've been waiting 8 months for them to tell us when her fingerprint appointment is. They already have her fingerprints too. But she has to take them again for Removal of Conditions. We do service requests and the answer is: "we will let you know when an appointment is available". It's all about obedience to authority. Learn this well: once you have proven you are absolutely servile to your government masters then you are fit to be an American Citizen.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-04-13 20:58:00
Philippines	Conspiracy to kill - 48 hours mystery	Yeah we saw the show, and what bothers me is that my wife has been asking me to buy life insurance ever since she saw it.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2012-04-18 12:47:00
Philippines	Filing K1 Shortly After a Divorce	She's telling people her family is selling her for a better life and that I'm only looking for a wife to kiss my feet and more. She couldn't be more wrong about everything. But I'm very afraid of how her comments might affect our case. We had some very malicious internet stalkers call state authorities to claim I bought Lira from her parents against her will, and that we were abusing our child. I don't know if they called immigration officials, but we were invaded simultaneously by child protection services and what one of them said was law enforcement personnel. They came with a paddy wagon and first served us a paper saying we were under investigation and that we had to let them in under threat of taking our child if we did not cooperate. We were separated. Lira was interrogated about whether she was here voluntarily or being held against her will. Whether her immigration documents were being kept from her. Whether she agreed to how we were raising our child. They went to our pediatrician next, who told them they were idiots. We also had been taking daily pictures of our son on the blog and had their been any abuse it would have been self-evident. The case was closed within 24 hours. The child protection guy was a moron and a bully. He tried to make us go see a child development specialist under the theory that our boy was so far advanced relative to his peers that his development might be retarded. We didn't do it. We have a pediatrician and have been corresponding with some very prominent people publishing peer-reviewed literature on early child development. Given the lies these malicious predators were willing to tell to state authorities it would not surprise me that they also called immigration. Possibly the state authorities contacted them. But there was no visit from immigration people, no calls or questions. Immigration people have probably had their fill of this kind of thing from jealous ex-wives and malicious acquaintances. The only reason state authorities even bothered with it is because they have no experience like this and no file on us like USCIS does to show our commonplace history of meeting and marrying. We know the story they've been telling is salted with the claim she is from a village with little education and barely speaks english. The truth is she has two semesters of college (accounting) and speaks three languages fluently. From a city of over 400,000 people. But since calls can be anonymously in this state, you can tell these malicious lies and weave a fantasy about human trafficking without fear of being held to account for it. I don't know if immigration will even take record of anonymous calls. But the accusations were felonies in our case and an extremely stupid bully from child protection services thought he was going to have some real fun terrorizing us. Never be surprised at what malicious predators are capable of doing, and how much hate sick people can have. If we had been doing anything illegal, that home invasion would have uncovered it and those people would have been overjoyed at the trouble they had caused us. But they've shot their wad now and it didn't work. Edited by rlogan, 31 December 2010 - 03:01 PM.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2010-12-31 14:58:00
Philippines	One more step before I become a Gringa	Most native citizens would probably fail the civics test. You have to get 6 out of 10 questions correct. You will find their score is inversely proportional to their conviction that the USA is the Master Race.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-07-12 20:48:00
Philippines	hi everyone	Hi everyone, im here because im hoping to find a new friends.im here in poughkeepsie,new york,so im looking for a friend close by where i lived now..im looking forward to it. thank you.. Welcome anyway, even though I am not from poughkeepsie.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-07-13 19:26:00
Philippines	WHAT IF questions...	I'm from Mindanao too-Iligan. So are we. Tomas Cabili.	rlogan	Male	Philippines	2011-07-13 19:28:00