Hi cheryl!
i understand how you felt. just say it's a culture shock for you. but it's really like that here. you have to arrange dinner with them when you called and inform that you're coming to visit so they have enough time to prepare and cook. dinner here is always planned ahead unlike in Phil. In Philippines, you can just go to your next door neighboor who has a sari-sari store to buy ingredients or anything you need for dinner. here, they don't have sari-sari store so they have to go to the supermarket which is usually quite far. I and my husband usually shop for 1 week food. In my case, i already know about this so I wasn't shocked. I still appreciate our philippine culture of offering food. it's a warm & hospitable attitude but i understand also that they have different culture.
