1. Pandesal places at almost every street corner, because life without pandesal is depressing.

2.This:

And the thousand other shores that surround this actually gorgeous country if you just know how to look.

3. For goto and tokwa’t baboy in all shapes and forms, comfort food that doubles as pulutan and ulam.

4. Divisoria, the craziest shopping for the weirdest things, and at rock bottom prices.

5. Dampa at Paranaque, where the seafood is so fresh, it’s still swimming.

6. For temperatures that never need a heater.

7. For food markets at every turn, where you can buy the most artisan food, to the most normal lutong bahay.

8. For UP Diliman and it’s bike/jogging lanes, and picnics in the grass at the oval, and peeping at people making out at the lagoon and giggling like a 12 year old.

9. For a culture so adaptive, we can all call ourselves citizens of the world. Our food is Chinese, our names Spanish, the language American, but our personalities can only be called Pinoy.

10. For a history so marred with so much strife, but to come out stronger, and smiling.

What do you love about living in the Philippines?