Any filipinas in WA state, US?

[TMBear 1]

One month in the US, my newlywed wife is homesick and bored

Meetup is useless, Seattle Filipino Community center looks to have only yoga classes, filipino Facebook groups are just selling stuff and posting videos.

Tried to push her to some activities too hard and got a tampo.

How did your filipina survived the first few months in a completely new environment?

 

PS. They recently opened a Jollibee in Seattle!

[smilingstone 200]

Why can't she join groups that aren't specific to Filipinos? There'll be many more options if you don't restrict based on nationality...

[top_secret 2,447]

5 hours ago, TMBear said:

One month in the US, my newlywed wife is homesick and bored

Meetup is useless, Seattle Filipino Community center looks to have only yoga classes, filipino Facebook groups are just selling stuff and posting videos.

Tried to push her to some activities too hard and got a tampo.

How did your filipina survived the first few months in a completely new environment?

 

PS. They recently opened a Jollibee in Seattle!

 

Tukwila seems to be ground zero for Filipinos in Washington State.   Take her grocery shopping at Seafood City. https://www.seafoodcity.com/store-locations/tukwila-wa/  .

[EatBulaga 316]

4 hours ago, TMBear said:

One month in the US, my newlywed wife is homesick and bored

Meetup is useless, Seattle Filipino Community center looks to have only yoga classes, filipino Facebook groups are just selling stuff and posting videos.

Tried to push her to some activities too hard and got a tampo.

How did your filipina survived the first few months in a completely new environment?

 

PS. They recently opened a Jollibee in Seattle!

Tukwila also has a Jollibee AND a Seafood City Supermarket (Filipino supermarket)!

Many other Filipino restaurants and bakeries in the Seattle area as well and Filipino events like the recent Philippines Independence festivals.

 

Also, several Filipino churches around Seattle.

 

While waiting for the EAD/AOS, my Filipina spouse made new Filipina friends at church and was learning to drive. Recommendation: prepare to pay about 1000 or more on driving lessons instead of trying to teach yourself. For one, the driving lesson cars have passenger side brakes. And two, each of you will end up losing patience with each other which is not good for your marriage.

 

Also, I showed her how to grocery shop by herself. 

She was able to go to a nearby Goodwill store to shop.

I added her to my credit card so eventually she was able to do all the necessary household or grocery shopping by herself. The credit card statements can be used as co-mingling evidences for the AOS interview and for the I-752 ROC.

Eventually, she was able to buy whatever ingredients to cook the Filipino foods she craved.

 

I also had her go thru the Khan Academy Financial Literacy and Personal Finance courses because she had no clue about US taxes, tipping culture, health care costs, 401K, etc.

I then enrolled her in other online courses like small business ghost kitchens, English course, 100 US civics questions for naturalization, etc.

 

Of course she kept in touch with her family and friends overseas. She also met a few other K1-AOS Filipina brides online who were going thru the similar stages in their process. So she had emotionally support from others who can relate.

They ended up sharing some coupon apps with each other like Ibotta, Fetch, etc. where they were able to save on items or get some cash back. But they had to keep the total under 600 or the apps would asked for their SSN, which is then considered work income.

 

As a general rule, the more familiarity she has of her new surroundings, then the less homesick she will be. She also needs to be self-sufficient so she can feel secure and confident about her new surroundings.

[TMBear 1]

Thanks guys for your input!

 

Me and my wife are both kind of stay-home / introvert personalities, not many interest that require communication, neither we're religious to go to a church, plus she's more of a province girl - all contribute to kind of social isolation, so I thought meeting someone with similar background or situation would help her.  But I remember my first migration, I felt the same - homesick, depressed and bored. It did go away in a few months, but it was quite a difficult time to survive.

 

She does have a dream of going to college, we'll definitely explore this path, but even language courses are closed till September in our community college. But thanks for the Khan's academy hint - it can play very well with her wish to study.

 

We are practicing driving, all good if I'm not pushing. It's ok if it will take a lot of time, or sign her up to private lessons if she feel it's easier.

 

8 hours ago, EatBulaga said:

She also met a few other K1-AOS Filipina brides online who were going thru the similar stages in their process

How did you find them? My wife tried to contact one from tiktok, but got a cold shoulder.

 

And thanks for Tukwilla suggestion. Sorry, Seattle Jollibee next weekend, it's going to be Tukwila.

 

 

[EatBulaga 316]

30 minutes ago, TMBear said:

How did you find them? My wife tried to contact one from tiktok, but got a cold shoulder.

 

And thanks for Tukwilla suggestion. Sorry, Seattle Jollibee next weekend, it's going to be Tukwila.

I also recommend stopping by Seafood City Supermarket.

If it is anything like the one in Las Vegas or LA, she will want to stock up on Filipino goods there.

 

As for contacting other Filipinas, it started when she was still overseas and I saw a few YouTube and Facebook Filipinas talking about their K1 journey. 

I just asked her to contact them for help or support since we had just started then.

Some responded to her, but many did not. That's okay--nothing gained, nothing lost.

 

After she got to the US and we married, she would reach out to a few others from YouTube or Facebook just to connect or network.

She even had other Filipinas overseas reaching out to her.

Some continued chatting. Some did not. That's okay--nothing lost, nothing gained.

 

Through it all, she has chatted with maybe 20-30 Filipinas who were going through the K1 or CR1/IR1.

Now, she has a core group of 3-4 who she's been corresponding with weekly if not daily.

And it seems that everyone now in her group is getting to the point where they are working and getting settled with their daily lives, so they are not chatting with each other as much unlike before when they could be videocalling for hours.

 

She also developed a couple of close friends at church who are going through her green card process in another pathway, but they bonded nevertheless.

 

Anyways, consider yourselves lucky to live in Seattle which has a high Filipino population.

It should not be that difficult to connect or network with other Filipinas.