Have any of you got some stories of how you or your other half made blunders due to the culture shock of life in Britain?? A culture burp if you will.. Joy has had a couple. One I can think of cracks me up every time I think about it. In a Chinese buffet, I had finished with the mains and decided to get some ice cream as a dessert. Joy followed shortly after and the dessert section was just next to the salad section. And so, she picked up what she thought was a Chinese version of Buko salad and found out it was coleslaw... Her face was a classic site
Buko. Thats coconut? I recall eating Buko Pie. Culture Burp. No real big howlers but many minor ones. Green tea served with milk .
Here's mine : First time I went over to see my G/F Margie (wife now ) we drove 4 hours from the city to the province. On arriving at her parents house I was quite pleased to see they had a really nice house that was comfortable and had aircon. As I was feeling the heat and obviously had sweat marks on my t-shirt, her mum suggested I take a bath and freshen up. Margie showed me to the bathroom, brought some towels and left me to it. In the corner was this 3ft square concrete bath sitting, filled to the top with pretty cold water in it. Wow, I thought, how the hell does a 6ft guy sink into THAT ! I never knew about the scoop method, did I?,.. so I very slowly lowered myself down onto my knees and crouched down as far as I could. Had a good soap-up,..rinsed and got towelled off. Casually walked back through to the living room and asked them ,.."where's the plug to let the water away ?" Should of seen the look on their faces when Margie appeared back from the bathroom to tell them that I'd used 5 days worth of water !!! Still laugh about it with the family ...
I have a much worse but similar story however I just cannot bring myself to publish it on any forum like this, too embarrassing and like you it dates to very early on in my first experience of the Phils, maybe one day I might open up on that one.
Jim, it can't be as bad as the one in the early days of oil exploration for me - 1977. Someone I knew was slow to get down to the bar and later told us he had never seen a bidet before and thought it was the toilet. Need I "say" more? Sorry for the digression.
We had my wife`s 14 year old sister over on a visit many years ago and she wanted to help around the house. She had never used a vacuum cleaner before and was keen to have a go, so we let her loose.She was cleaning the ground floor and was onto the kitchen, we had a big rottie that had a habit of eating his food then going straight for his water bowl and normally leaving bits of food in it. We heard a bang from the plug fuse and rushed in to find her looking very pale, she had decided to clean the water bowl with the cleaner, water and all. She would only clean with the broom after that.
Well, with those new to the Philippines in mind, let's deal with some of the tactless and tasteless stuff: I think most of us have found that the "pail and dipper" (known more grandly in China as a Soochow tub) method of having a cold shower is pretty effective. Try not to splash the water everywhere, cultural points will be deducted if you do. I recommend taking your own roll of toilet paper if staying in a Filipino household...don't ask me how I know that. Filipinos are very clean people - there is an expression, "smelly foreigner" - do try not to be one! It is hot; you will sweat. Take at least three showers a day and take plenty of deodorant with you. A recent poll in which people were asked to list ten products that were essential for life put "soap" above "food". Filipino boys are circumcised at puberty, not as infants, and without anaesthetic. "Uncircumcised" is in fact a term of abuse. Don't expect to find condoms on open sale away from red light districts and don't assume the local ones will fit. Filipinos drink - quite enthusiastically. Local brandy and an iced tea chaser is a common way to drink socially - there are just two glasses and they are passed round a bit like passing the port... Oh and to finish on a tasteful note be aware of "mano po" - a younger person takes the right hand of an elder and touches it to their forehead. (This is a very good thing to do when meeting her grandparents). Children will do it to you - don't try to stop them. You may well find that you like bagoong (sauce made from rotten shrimps) but balut (boiled duck egg - containing about-to-hatch duckling) is definitely an acquired taste - one which most of us have NOT acquired!
Ah it was horrible, work it out guys I can't bring myself to put it into actual explicit words, they had a toilet but no one told me they had no water, it was there but it wasn't actually used, someone explained something in English but the explanation was not that clear and I completely misunderstood.
Oss,..I heard of some guy actually falling into the 'pit' when using the CR. Had to shout on his G/F and her father to pull him out as he had gotten into a position where he had nothing to hang onto to raise his ass out. Wasn't you by chance ???????? ! LOL
