Lower, Shorter, Closer To The Ground And Other Things That Make It Difficult On Westerners

[Mr Lee]

Lower, shorter, closer to the ground and other things that make it difficult on westernersI am not sure if this is really about culture per say, as much as just the fact of how we are built different. One thing that I find very difficult here is that many things are lower to the ground. This includes most furniture, kitchen counters, sinks, toilets, and a world of other things that we use during our daily lives. The fact is that most Filipinos are shorter than westerners, so therefore many things that are made or designed here, are set up for them and getting used to that can often take some doing.It is hard to find furniture to buy here that is taller except in some of the higher end stores, no pun intended, many higher priced furniture will be a little taller and thus make life easier for us while living here. If you are anything like I am, I find it hard at my age to get up from a couch or chair that is way too low, but what I find much harder is bending over and brushing my teeth at the bathroom sink or washing the dishes at the kitchen sink, or ever trying to vacuum, all of which kill my back. They do sell American Standard items here but that would require buying those and having them installed during construction of your new home of condo, or throwing out perfectly good items that you do not find fit your need but are already there.Another item that might be worth looking into to make life easier for those of us who come from the US, would be an American style thermostat because I find that I am either too warm or my wife is freezing here because we cannot set the temp in between. 26 here is 78.9 US and 25 is 77 and while 77 is fine for me, my poor wife freezes at night because in order to get 77, it seems the air runs to 76 or lower before clicking off.So IMO plan ahead if you can and life can be a lot easier here for you.

[Mik]

Watch out for low awnings at the sari-sari.I bought a Robertshaw thermostat from the US. I keep it set to 80 deg F. When the temp drops to 79 the aircon shuts off. Reaching 81 it instantly comes back on. Much better than the old one which displayed only in Celsius. The temperature differential was several degrees C which was like a 5 deg F spread. I was always manually turning it off and on.Robertshaw 9600 programmable thermostat:http://www.amazon.com/ROBERTSHAW-9600-PROG...0491&sr=8-1

[Hoz]

I've experienced the "low down" here in the US also. When my wife used to help weed the garden she would squat down with a trowel and creep and crawl through the rows, while I stand up with a long handled hoe. Of course She would point out her rows were always cleaner than mine...