First Impressions

We arrived safely and relatively sane. No terrible airport or airplane experiences, a vast improvement over our departure from India which was about the worst day of our entire lives. Detroit and Nagoya airports are surprisingly comfortable – big enough to have good food options and kid play areas (key!), but not so huge and busy like DFW, ORD or NRT.

First day in the office accomplished much, notably applying for cable and internet and our VAT point-of-purchase exemption card. All our American consulate friends from India will truly appreciate the existence of a VAT card! In the interim, the clubhouse on the compound has free wifi for members.

For the rest, we can’t help but compare to Hyderabad, our most recent point of reference.

• Housing is smaller in comparison, but comfortable. Hearing some stories, it sounds like the off-compound situation is similar to Hyderabad: beautiful patina, but questionable functionality. On-compound (where we are), most appliances are imported. I don’t have any complaints except for my shower head (pressure and hot water are sufficient, a bonus over our last house!).

• Driving is slightly crazy – tame in comparison to India, but not quite as orderly as the US. Since we live near the office, we hopefully won’t have to deal with the crazy traffic jams, especially during monsoons when we hear some roads flood. Driving time, though, will be a key factor in evaluating schools for William. If William were old enough to ride a school bus, we’d probably skip the driver.

• Availability of Western goods is high. We thought HYD was doing well, especially with the recent opening of Marks & Spencer and Chili’s. If you crave to continue to live your life with all the same brands as in the U.S., Manila is the place for you. Some come at a premium (e.g., men’s Croc’s for $40 instead of $30), of course. I found it strange walking around the Mall of Asia yesterday and seeing all the normal shopping mall stores of the U.S. interspersed with fast food stores selling fried pork parts. (no, I was not adventuresome enough to try them.)

• The jury is still out on personal safety. Sadly, I was pick pocketed on my first day out and about, something which never happened to me in India. I had a cell phone for all of five minutes, I think. The local SIM card worked in my fancy US phone (which I had had unlocked in India), which I put in a Velcro pocket on the outside of my bag … and then after a brief walk through the mall and through a toy store to pick up a new ball each for Wm and Patch, the phone was gone. Thankfully, all four passports and my wallet in the zipper pocket were safe. We’re going out again to purchase a cell phone, and this time I’m in the market for a boring talk-and-text-only basic handset.

I was a compound skeptic, but my initial impression is positive. Our neighbors report immediate response when repairs are necessary. The dog run and swimming pool are each about 100 yards from our front door, the playground maybe 40 feet. William already knows his way around, and reportedly the kids pretty much roam free between the each other’s houses. My mom is excited that the clubhouse restaurant (and Gloria Jean’s coffee shop!) will be operational from Monday after renovation.
The only negative so far is that the on-compound preschool is reportedly very strict on birthday cut offs. We had been hoping to send Patch there, but he’s two months shy of the cut off date. After three months in the US hearing exclusively English all the time, he’s actually starting to try and talk more! We’d like to encourage this and have him in a small playgroup for 2 – 3 hours each day, but I guess we’re probably going to have to look elsewhere.