hey YouTube Alex here and in today's video I want to talk about my blessings here in the Philippines for many of us foreigners living here in the Philippines we feel like we get to enjoy many blessings these are
just five of the blessings that I have noticed since I came here 5 months ago number one is my health I am grateful for my health and not just my mental health but also my physical health is decent
here too I'll never say it's perfect I do struggle with some ongoing autoimmune issues but overall I'm doing pretty good here it's such a beautiful day definitely on the sunnier weather days I'm probably more upbeat than some of
the Cloudy weather we get here in the rainy season admittedly I am more cheerful on beautiful sunny days like today it's such a beautiful day it's been a really nice break from some of the overcast weather we've been
having here in the rainy season it's hard not to feel gratitude when the sun is shining the way that it does here here in the Philippines it's really a calming and yet energizing effect I admit that I do
have a preference for the sunnier weather and fortunately we get a lot of that here in the Philippines and that definitely contributes to the overall greater sense of well-being that I have here it's always intriguing to me to
see these I don't know if these are Crab Trap let me know if you know down in the comments if these are crab traps they're very intriguing to look at where we're currently in an area called esano beach
in close proximity to the Phil invest Mall ahead one of the things I try to remain grateful for is being able to walk around and do meete not everybody is in such good health that they get to enjoy
this privilege and to get to see things up close and personal I happen to think it's a really cool City and part of the reason I think it's cool is that I feel like I've gotten to see every
inch of this town and it's artsy and interesting and could be a little rough around the edges but it's got so much character and charm hello hello and interacting with lots of different people is part of how I
built out my Social Circle I had to sort through and sift through a lot of different people to find the people with whom I get along best out of the 5,000 that are here in town I met at
least five okay more than that whose company I enjoy Joy like look at that blue and look at that green just stunning I'm blessed to be able to afford to eat at most of the restaurants in town not
all but most of the restaurants there's so much good variety here of different kinds of foods that I really like I'm a fan of the Korean food here in Dumaguete I'm a fan of the Japanese food here of
course I'm a fan of the Filipino food and there's just so many different kinds of places to eat here at a modest this price point I reflect back on my time in the US where that's something that I
really like because I haven't always been able to just eat at whatever restaurant I wanted to eat at and so to be able to do that here that is a blessing that is good fortune I can choose many
different kinds of Entre or items that I like I happen to like seafood but there's a lot of great chicken here too and pork and beef so that's something that I try not to take for granted while I
am here in dagate is the amount of variety of food options that you have I think that there's something for everybody here in terms of food options and and it's hard not to find something that you will enjoy
as well I also like the produce here the mangoes are particularly good the bananas are good I think I about to actually pick up some bananas here in a few minutes at the fruit market I'm here in queson
park in dagate not too far from the fruit market and then I'll head to Robinson's but you know you go to Robinson's you've got five or six really good restaurants in there maybe more than that and that's just
one mall right you've also got Phil invest here in town you've got the boulevard that has a lot of great restaurants dag Getti has a great restaurant scene especially for a city of its size it's not the biggest
city in the world but you've got a lot to choose from and I've enjoyed a lot of the food I've had here in dagate it's not necessarily the cheapest place in the world to have good food I will
admit if you are looking for a major street food scene I don't think you'll find that as much here as far as like sit down restaurants but as far as sitd down restaurants I think there are tons of
great options if you're not sure how I found good rest hello sir sir if you're not if you're not sure if you're not sure how to find a good place to eat then I suggest pulling up Google Maps
and typing in good food near me or delicious food near me and you'll probably find something that looks good I also recommend meeting up with people and making friends and your friends will often be telling you hey this
is a good place to eat ah you know what that other place was just so so and that's one of the things that I appreciate here in dagate is that I've got so much variety to choose from finally
I happen to really like eating rice so I really like the rice dishes here and the prevalence of rice Rice's life the third way in which I'm blessed here in the Philippines is that I have a great sense
of community I built up a solid circle of friends here that is unmatched by anywhere else I've been in the world up here on the right you can see fiber McGee is a popular place for expats to hang
out and grab drinks let me know if you prefer this walk and talk style Vlog to my talking head style it's not always easy easy to find that sense of community when you're living abroad when you're away from
your home country you feel like maybe you're out of your element you don't really know anybody you don't know you don't know what to expect you don't know what you've some days you wonder what you've gotten yourself into
I found that having Foreigner friends can really help to make or break your experience cuz some people they just end up super isolated over here that hasn't been my experience at all if anything I've had too many opportunities
to socialize popular phrase used to be it's more fun in the Philippines but I think that phrase still Rings true today and I think part of what makes it fun is having your Foreigner friends here and I think
part of what makes it fun is having your Foreigner friends here to guide you along the way and share difficult and and to share difficult experiences having friends here really elevates the experience and I found that the Philippines
has a lot of English-speaking foreigners and so oh sorry and oh it really help to elevate The Experience where you feel like you're hanging out with people that have shared experiences with yourself and that you're not alone in
the process of making this video I've ran into several friends and it kind of just gives you that added sense of community to be fair I've been to plenty of places that don't have such a strong sense of
commun community and connectivity and it's something that I love about the Philippines and dumag Getti in particular Edgar is a great guy to buy bananas from everyone from dumag from dumag so nice to meet you thank you sir
see you next time few days funny enough I ran into my buddy chat out here as well [Music] having this sense of a Social Circle and lots of friends not everybody is so blessed I found the Philippines and
dumag Getti in particular to offer many great opportunities for socializing I never expected when I watched my first Vlog about the city to be living here 5 years later to be able to connect with people people that I
really I admire their craft and I admire their skill set and the hard work they put in and their creativity and all these great colleagues I mean the friends that I've made here the Sens of community I built
here is incredible and hard to really fully put into words but I owe a great deal of thanks and gratitude to the people that have helped me to succeed and to sharpen my skill set to build this channel
into what it is today and what it will be tomorrow I've gotten so much feedback from people I really admire in a lot of ways without them I don't think this channel would be where it's at look at
that beautiful ocean the clouds have headed home I think for many normal guys that come here to do meete they will also experience many blessings in terms of friendships not all but I think most people that come here
they give it a chance meet different people don't just oh I at one jerk time for me to leave no actually get out there and meet different people you'll probably find people that you get along with and slowly
start to build up a friend group that's one of the things I've been most grateful for here the fourth thing that I'm grateful for is a nice apartment and a safe neighborhood within my budget I found that I've
had to make a lot of sacrifices and living conditions in the US that haven't really applied as much here in the Philippines I found a great option for me through word of mouth and I'm thrilled every time I
come home and I've got considerate neighbors and and my building manager is a sweet lady and it's just all around a nice place to live I think about the times where I didn't really like where I lived which
has been much of my adult life and that doesn't apply to my current home I really enjoy having a nice place to live live it's really a calming place to know I'm not going to get woken up in
the middle of the night I'm not going to get uh disrupted by inconsiderate neighbors it's all around a good place to live I feel very blessed also to be in a safe neighborhood I haven't always lived in safe
area so to live in a area where I feel comfortable walking around at any hour is lovely I mean I've walked around my neighborhood 1 2 a.m. never felt threatened never felt like I was any danger never had
anybody uh accost me you know where some other places I've lived are not particularly safe late at night it definitely makes me feel very blessed to have such a chill place to live and also to be in a
fairly safe City like doag I feel pretty safe here I haven't had any issues here and I can't say the same for every city that I've lived in in the world uh daget is a calm and chill place
and it's it's just such a blessing to live here and to be able to enjoy these beautiful views of sikor and the boulevard there's just something special about this place and I have immense gratitude for being able to
live here I did have access to these amenities from day one but having an actual apartment as opposed to short-term accommodation like Hotel style or Airbnb style takes it to the next level knowing that I'm going from month
to month I'm more in a what you could call normal building and I have more long-term neighbors really adds to that sense of gratitude ude that I have knowing that all my neighbors are living here for a while
and it really builds up that sense of community when you like where you live when you actually enjoy being at home as much as you enjoy being out and about in public I'm still surprised I found the place
that I found but I'm I'm very grateful for it and considered a real blessing to be living where I'm living and I thank everyone who's helped to make that possible for those who have always lived somewhere they like
I commend you for having the Good Fortune the hard work uh for that to be the case in your life I haven't always had that in my life so I have an extra level of appreciation for having a
nice place to live got my own bathroom have my own desk to work at technically I have two desks my own shower I don't have a kitchen space but it's fine because as a single guy I find it
kind of a pain to cook and do dishes one of the other is whatever but to do both I'd rather just go out to restaurants or get takeout which is what I typically do when traveling and even back
home a lot of the time just to save time to be more time efficient um that's just what I found works better for me the fifth and final point is that I'm blessed to have found a break from
the US an alternative to the US for some time I need a break from the US the pace can be exhausting and and to go to other places that are more laidback more chilled out more enjoyable in many
ways for myself is a blessing of course we have the US dollar As Americans and so that clearly will contribute to our comfort level now I'm sure some of you want to lecture me about how awesome it is
where you are and I'm sure it's great that's wonderful you're having that experience but I'm happy where I am right now I'm living in the moment and enjoying every minute of it I know it's not perfect for everyone
here that's not the point of this video I'm sure some people would love it if I went into every single exception and you know just talked about how difficult things are the element of personal responsibility is missing from
a lot of these discussions I take responsibility for my choice to be here I overall enjoy it really well is everything and every day perfect no that's not true for anywhere in the world that's why I think it's
good for people to pick what's best for them what works well for them and for right now the Philippines is treating me really well and I feel immense gratitude to be enjoying these beautiful views I mean look at
that like something out of a movie I get a lot of people that want to come on the channel and lecture me about how bad it is for them here or how bad their trip was and that's on
you it's not meant to be a perfect solution for everyone and trying to tell everybody me me me this is my experience this is my experience no no that doesn't represent everyone's experience the reality is everybody has a
unique experience and just like how everybody experiences the Philippines differently everybody experiences the United States differently not everybody has a great life in the US trying to pretend that that's the case is deceptive and dishonest apparently it's deceptive
to say nice things about here but if you say nice things about the US that's not being deceptive make up your mind okay make up your mind if you want to be critical or be overly negative you can
make your own Vlog right I mean this equipment is not that expensive it's not that time consuming I like to look at the positive I feel that there's always a positive way to look at things and even when
you don't get what you want sometimes what happens is for the best if things didn't work out for here maybe you found some other destination that's a better fit everybody always has to tell me how many countries they've
been to May maybe you've been to somewhere that's a better fit for you and if so I hope it is treating you well discussing some of the issues that I had in the United States is not hating on
the US as everybody likes to say there's this weird like avoidance culture where bringing up any issues you had in the US is considered hating on the United States that's nonsense that's just facts talking about facts shouldn't offend
other people in the way that it does but anytime you tell an American things didn't work out for me super well over there you know I had some issues it's like you're slandering them or something I know I
lived it I lived the US life for decades I'll probably have to live the US life for at least another decade is it amazing yeah I think it is amazing for some people but if it were amazing for
everybody you wouldn't see forums and videos and channels of tens of thousands of young men trying to figure out a way to leave the United States it's reflective of some issues in society there and you shouldn't take it
personal when people Point these things out it's not personal it's reality I mean I could go into family issues I could go into Financial issues I could go into the cultural mismatch there's many factors at play look at
these hardworking guys very hardworking it's a real blessing to be around such cheerful people I feel grateful every day I have a fun or friendly conversation here anyway I get annoyed when people tell me that I'm not telling
the truth about the Philippines this is my experience I can't speak for your experience if you have a different experience feel free to make a vlog about it that's the beauty of YouTube anybody can start a channel and
talk about their experiences I can't speak for your experience once again I have my own experience I'm having a great time here these are some of the reasons why I'm having a great time here and enjoying my life
here if you're not enjoying your life here I you know it's unfortunate but if you're not Filipino maybe it's it's time to go somewhere else maybe it's time to find some place that's a better fit for you there's
192 countries in the world I think there's something out there for everyone uh I like the Philippines I also like Thailand I also like Peru Malaysia there's a lot of nice places to live and they each kind of
these different flavors and different types of experiences and I think it makes sense to just try to do more Discovery and more figuring out where you might want to go where you might want to live where you can
meet the visa requirements where you can afford to live right these are all things to consider I'm not trying to sell the Philippines I'm simply documenting my experience and my thoughts on it and wanting to show gratitude and
part through my videos and through documenting my life if I didn't like it here if I didn't want to live here I could be gone tomorrow I could go and get an emergency passport my passport is currently at
for Renewal and I could get on a plane I could go somewhere else but I want to do that I actually like it here a lot and it's uh it's an enjoyable place to be in a lot of
different ways do I have plans to go elsewhere eventually certainly right certainly I'm not a permanent resident here there's a lot of places for me still to discover and to explore and to learn about and to try out
Indonesia is on my radar for next year may go back to the US next year I know that wherever I go I'll manage to survive and to make it work let me know what you think down in the
comments below let me know what you think tell us about your experiences what have your experiences been like abroad what are you grateful for what are some ways in which you have been blessed in your xat journey it
always helps to generate interesting discussion next give us a thumbs up helps with the YouTube algorithm and finally subscribe to the channel down below if you want to see more content like this and we'll see you soon
