With Emphasis on the Word "Foreign"

"It never fails. One minute I'm cruising along thinking everything in the Philippines is "normal." Normal as in, it's just like where I come from; the fancy cars, the cable TV, the modern malls, the English speaking populace, the English language newspapers, the proliferation of American schlock like fast food joints and cheesy Hollywood action movies. I'm lulled into a sense of complacency, of thinking that I'm back home living a life no different than I used to in the boring suburban bedroom community of Allentown, Pennsylvania where I grew up. Then, like a snap of the fingers, something comes up, bites me in the butt and says in a deep authoritative voice, "Yessiree son, you are definitely in a third world country, a very foreign land, with emphasis squarely on the word "foreign!"

- Ted Lerner, Columnist, media personality (an American who has made the Philippines his home since 1994)