Question for Filipinas living on the East Coast

[JoBri 552]

How long did it take for you to adjust to the new time schedule and settle in to your new home?

Any hints/tips to facilitate my future Filipina wife's transition would be greatly appreciated!

My wife adjusted rather quickly. She never like very hot weather. She was a little pleasantly surprised that it really didnt feel so cold after all when all bundled up.

I bought her a nice winter coat in the middle of summer when things like that were discounted. But she seems to like coats because she arrived with 2 or 3 already that she had bought in the PI. Then she asked for another one last Christmas.

It took her a couple weeks to adjust to the change in time. At first she slept until past noon, like maybe as late as 2PM, and was more awake at night. But she adjusted in less than 2 weeks.

When she first got here I think she was really homesick. She compared everything to the Philippines, saying how much better it was there. She didnt feel real happy living here at first. She missed people and she missed her way of life there. But now, after being here more than 2 years already, she feels like this is home. She went back to the Philippines once after being here 4 or 5 months and almost got knocked over in a crowd of people. She said she already wasnt used to all the people anymore.

She likes it here so much now. She says this is home to her.

[JoBri 552]

She did better here when she had a job of her own here. She did even better when she was able to drive here. When she first got here she could only sit around home with our cat (before our baby was ever here) while I was at work, and that is when the depression and home sickness got to her the most I think. She went from being so busy all the time because she was a principal of an elementary school, to being at a complete stop with nothing going on much at all. She had worked from the age of 16, and gone to different schools of higher education, so she had been hard working and busy in a large city (Manila) for so much of her life. At the time when she came ehre we lived in a very small town. It was hard for her.

Having family close by, my parents, helps a lot too, now that we moved to the same city as them.

Brian in Tennessee

Edited July 15, 2011 by Brijo

[∞♥ 17]

Thanks for the info brijo! I was wondering how long it would take to adapt to the time change...I thought it might take longer. Chay will have plenty to do to keep her mind busy...so I'm hoping that will help reduce her stress/homesickness.