Why so Negative?

Yep, Victor Harbor is a great spot, spent many great times there. Even during Winter, not so crowded then either. Although, having lived now in Phil, when I am back in Australia, I no longer complain about crowds or traffic, . LOL :D

Paul.

 

Thank you, SteveB, for putting your "two cents" in. I'm sure that many of us have felt the same way at some point.

I am by no means a defender of the Filipinos & their way of life but fair is fair. The last thing I want is to get up on my high horse & get all judgmental. It is just too easy to fall into that trap. I have to admit that from time to time I have had a major complaint or two and I always begin by “In America…”, but then I stop myself for this IS a foreign country after all and as such will have a FOREIGN culture and different values and standards. And I also remind myself that these differences that we can expect to encounter are exactly what make traveling abroad worthwhile. If all the cultures & standards were the same all over the world, why even bother to leave town. We might as well all stay home and never budge from our comfort zone.

To be fair to the complainers, they must have fallen in love with the place once upon a time or they would not have taken that fateful step of moving here. But then, once the rose-colored glasses came off the “morning after”, harsh realities became more focused and now the honeymoon is over. If problems persist, a divorce might be in order.

It IS human nature to whine & complain. It is a way of bonding, I guess; gives one a sense of belonging. Anglophone expats in Paris (Americans & Brits, esp.) would sit around French-bashing every other day. Whenever you put a group of Anglophones together, this would be a favorite topic of conversation. We’d moan & grumble about everything French – from the way they flirt to their social etiquettes to their administrative system & laws. (Food, wine & cheese were untouchable subjects, however). And yet you couldn’t drag these same expats from the place with wild horses. In fact, many of them would go to great lengths to extend their visas and whatnot.

I’m sure you have expats in Japan belly-aching at this very moment about those crazy Japs & how obsessed they are with politeness & cleanliness, & just how respectful they are of law & order that it just gets under your skin, etc. etc.

They don’t call it “culture SHOCK” for nothing.

Just thought I’d also add in my two cents’ worth….

 

How much you complain tends to vary with how long you have been here-and where you are coming from. If you have never seen oceans and mountains etc before, the light and space of the Philippine can be captivating-as they should be.

New people here for short trip(s) are all starry-eyed and its paradise.

Then you move here and some of the novelities can eventually become irritations.

Start driving here, buy land, deal with the schools or otherwise start getting involved more deeply, and the real differences between here and where you came from become apparent.

People who come and go every 6 mos can tolerate the shock(s) more easily. If an expat is more or less unable to go back to his home country, there may be a period of vocalizing frustrations ablut living here-until one surrenders to their fate and just learn to take what's good.


Moving to any rural village in the world could find you less than happy after awhile..


The general spoken rule is to come and spend about a year before committing yourself to living here.