London_Manila

My accent's not actually American, as any American will tell you, but to the British ear, that's how it sounds. I've learned how to do a Filipino accent though, and I'll use it should we ever meet. It's not actually the accent I get teased about, but the pronunciation - (toh-may-toe/toh-mah-toe kind of thing).

The thing with balut is that it's a boiled egg still in its shell.
These eggs don't go uneaten for very long as they're a cheap, nutritious meal in a poor country with not-so-squeamish residents. Comparing it to a contaminated sandwich is like comparing apples to oranges. The only people who would have wanted that sandwich and the coleslaw that came with it are those who may be desperate and starving and out of options. (Warning: graphic content ahead) I was so ill after that meal that I projectile vomited all over our bedroom wall and carpet, the hospital staff and emergency responders were very concerned that I was about to miscarry, and by the end of my ordeal, my body had violently (not an exaggeration) expelled every single thing in my GI tract out of every orifice it could do so. A freshly boiled egg, as squeamish as its fetus may make you, would never cause that much damage. My midwife was so upset after reading the hospital notes that she banned me from eating anything others prepared.

Maybe my husband's cousin acts like a child, but it's the parents' job to teach responsibility. Surely, a 21-year-old should already know how to queue for a signature or to make a payment?

The sofas were worn because of lack of maintenance, but they're okay now.

The main reason I didn't want to sleep in the same bed as my husband was that I already had breathing problems from all the carpeting and a cold would have aggravated my immune system even more. Add to that the fact that my in-laws have no experience with asthma and at the time, no one in the family believed me when I said I could die from it if I wasn't careful. It took my doctor speaking up for me before anyone in the family took my concerns seriously. He actually had to explain to them that although pregnant women should never take any medicine other than paracetamol, if ever, asthma was one thing never to be taken lightly, and that I had to use my inhaler as often as needed because the impact on the baby of a lack of oxygen brought on by asthma would be far worse than the potential impact of the medication. In other words, I really needed to make sure my respiratory system was well-taken care of, and they weren't helping. Honestly, I don't know about other families in the Philippines, but in my family, anyone sick stays away from anyone pregnant.

Yes, I can service a car; I can do woodworking, plumbing, and electrical work; I can do a bit of welding; I know my animal husbandry; and I can slaughter and butcher poultry and quadrupeds if I have to. I don't expect everyone to have these skills, but to be so completely useless that one can't even boil an egg is ridiculous.

SimonH

Thanks for the correction, Simon. I just pulled that factoid off the top of my head when they picked on me because I had had enough of the pestering. I don't mind being wrong, really. I think what bothers me most about the whole English language thing is the fact that they pick on me for pronouncing words differently (toh-may-toe, to-mah-toe), but they can't even form proper sentences. Growing up both as a poor person in the backwoods of Bicol and as a government scholar in Metro Manila, I've always held the belief that if someone's not an English teacher, then he can mispronounce things as much as he wants. Alternatively, if someone's grammar sucks, he shouldn't correct others.

You know, I've tried telling them that we wanted to keep only things we liked, and that we're trying to find the right cultural balance in our home, but so far, it's only gotten me more of the same "Oh, but you should *insert hard sell here*".

I don't mind carpets. Heck, our current bedroom is carpeted. The problem was that whatever dust mites their carpets had gave me constant asthma and I always woke up in the mornings wheezing and gasping for air.