Hello Everyone:
I joined the board last year and finally realized that I should introduce myself.
My introduction to the Philippines happened back in the early '80s while in the Navy at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California listening to the "old salts" tell tales beyond imagination of a wondrous and, to my mind, surely mythical place called "the PI" whose delights were beyond any mentioned by Scheherazade.
As our class neared graduation at DLI, one of the thing we had to do was fill out a form listing our three preferred choices of duty stations.
While my shipmates were listing choices such as "Hawaii" or "Guam" or "Fort Meade" I, having been blessed with the ability to listen to good advice when given (except for getting married), put down "Philippines" "Philippines" "Philippines".
And the Philippines is what I got, in spades!
I arrived in Manila in June '82 and was met by a Chief Petty Officer at the airport who made sure I didn't get lost and escorted me to the Naval Security Group Activity Clark Air Base.
The evening of my arrival at Clark, I was in the common room of the Navy barracks and some of my new shipmates came in and asked if I wanted to go "downtown" with them. Not knowing that I was supposed to go through a mandatory official orientation regarding the "evils" of "downtown" before going "downtown" and not even knowing what "downtown" was, I, of course, said "sure, let's go". My new shipmates didn't tell me about the "official" orientation and decided to make sure I was properly "orientated" in the "ways of the PI" themselves.
First stop was the "Butterfly" bar on Fields Ave. and what an "orientation" it was!
I had the best time of my life until January '84 when my enlistment was up and I went back home and got responsibility, got married, got a college degree, got a job, got kids, got a dog, got divorced, paid my child support, paid my mortgage, paid my pension, etc. ad nauseum.
In February 2012, in the depth of the awful mid-western USA winter, the "PI Fever" came back with a vengeance and I made the decision that, having BEEN the embodiment of Jacob Blivens (Mark Twain's "Good Little Boy"), having "got" and "paid" a bellyfull, I was in the enviable position of having no wife, parents having passed on, the kids on their own, and having earned a modest pension that I would complete my commitment to my boss and begin the process of selling-up, tailoring my life to living in SE Asia, and try to BECOME Jim (Mark Twain's "Bad Little Boy") and hope for a "...streak of luck as this sinful Jim with the charmed life".
So, if all goes well, I'll be in "the PI", Thailand, or maybe Cambodia as early as the spring of 2016 or the spring 2017.