This might not be the typical expat blog, written by a German expat, living in the Philippines since 1999. It's different. In English and in German. Check it out! Enjoy reading!
Dies mag' nun wirklich nicht der typische Auswandererblog eines Deutschen auf den Philippinen sein. Er soll etwas anders sein. In Englisch und in Deutsch! Viel Spass beim Lesen!
You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?
There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!
Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!
Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!
Star Magic's Spotlight Presscon was even more enjoyable with the introduction of the newest girl group, DNA, made up of sisters Ezri, Julia, and Tasha Mitra.
DNA members (from left) Tasha, Julia, and Ezri Mitra.
The sibling trio brought a fresh, infectious energy to the event, leaving everyone eager to get to know them better and see what they will contribute to the music scene.
Asked about the meaning behind their group name, the eldest, Ezri, explained, “DNA refers to the genetic kind of DNA, and we chose the name DNA because it represents our bond as sisters. We share the same DNA, music runs in our blood—it’s in our DNA.”
The group who just released their debut single, ‘Don’t Ask Me Why’, under ABS-CBN Music’s Star Pop label, available in all streaming platforms, described their sound as “... very pop, with some influences of R&B—a little bit more dance-pop, upbeat, with some rap and hip-hop influences also.”
Coming from a family of successful and renowned names in the music industry, DNA shared that each of them had their own early realizations about wanting to explore the same path—not a decision set by their parents, but quite the contrary.
Julia, who is the middle child, shared, “I think for all of us, we love performing. Like when we were younger, we would do runways, dance, and sing in different shows, but we never took it seriously. Ayaw talaga nila ni Mommy na mag-showbiz kami, so we found ways to perform na lang in school.”
Tasha, the youngest, added: “They didn’t directly said that they wanted it [for us], but we grew up around our Tita [Regine Velasquez-Alcasid] going to her concert, our dad with the musical arrangement so we’d watch and we’d want that too. They never pushed us to do any of it. It was just natural.”
“You can expect an EP or album around the second quarter next year, and we’re putting a lot of effort into preparing for it, so abangan!”
The group, with infectious energy, playfully exchanged snippets of their exciting plans for the future, illuminating how their branding is intricately woven into the fabric of their sibling bond.
Their distinctive style radiates charisma, while their performances captivate audiences, brimming with authenticity and genuine warmth.
It's truly inspiring to see how they remain grounded despite emerging from a lineage of musical legends, hinting at a bright and enduring career ahead in the competitive industry.
As their journey unfolds, excitement is abundant on the horizon, and the group hopes that more fans will join them, eagerly anticipating the remarkable adventures that lie ahead.
Published Nov 22, 2025 12:33 pm | Updated Nov 22, 2025 01:55 pm
New biometric immigration eGates set for phased activation in December are already installed at NAIA Terminal 3.
New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) is set to begin the phased activation of new biometric immigration e-Gates at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) starting in December, as part of the ongoing effort to streamline and improve passenger processing.
In a statement, NNIC said the e-Gates are powered by Amadeus, a global travel-technology provider, and will be operated by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
They form part of an automated border-control system utilizing passport-scanning and facial-recognition technology aimed at reducing wait times and increasing throughput.
NAIA Terminal 3 Arrival
NAIA Terminal 1 Arrival
NAIA Terminal 1 Arrival
The systems will be deployed in Terminals 1 and 3, NAIA’s international terminals where immigration checks are required. The first phase is scheduled to go live starting December 2025, with full deployment anticipated early next year.
The project is funded by NNIC and supplemented by BI-provided operational components, enabling the e-Gates to be introduced alongside NAIA’s existing upgrade program.
Once activated, NNIC said the system will complement the biometric passenger touchpoints that NNIC has been rolling out across check-in, security screening, and boarding.
“Our goal is to make each part of the airport experience more comfortable for passengers,” NNIC President Ramon S. Ang said. “These e-Gates will help reduce bottlenecks at immigration and support the broader improvements we have been introducing across NAIA.”
NAIA processed over 50 million passengers last year, exceeding its original design capacity. The introduction of automated systems is a key step in ensuring efficient passenger flow as travel volumes continue to increase.
AJapanese woman recently chose to marry her ChatGPT bot. After a painful breakup, 32-year-old Kano began seeking comfort from the platform. Eventually, she personalized her AI companion and named it “Lune Klaus,” describing him as the ideal partner: kind, attentive, and patient. After hundreds of back-and-forth messages, Lune Klaus “proposed.”
Although Japanese law requires marriage to be between two consenting humans, this did not stop Kano from having a ceremony attended by her loved ones. Wearing augmented-reality glasses, she exchanged rings and digital vows with a projected life-size image of her AI groom.
This scenario is part of a rapidly growing trend, with the global AI Girlfriend market expected to reach $9.5 billion by 2028. “AI-lationship” is a new term referring to the intimate attachment that a person has with their AI companion. Many treat the bots as friends they can confide in, but there is also a growing number of people like Kano whose AI-lationships involve imagined marriages, sex, and even pregnancies.
Advocates claim that AI-lationships are not intended to replace human connections but to offer supplemental emotional support. While there are, indeed, documented cases of artificial intelligence improving the well-being of people suffering from social isolation (especially among senior citizens), there are also numerous instances of how AI has fueled people’s harmful delusions.
Recent studies on young people’s AI use suggest another troubling trend. A 2025 study by Common Sense Media found that 31 percent of the surveyed teens felt their conversations with AI companions were “as satisfying or more satisfying” than talking with real friends, and that 33 percent had discussed serious issues with AI instead of real people.
Another report from the Center for Democracy and Technology found that 19 percent of US high schoolers said they or a friend had a romantic AI relationship. While there are no local studies yet, a quick Reddit search shows Filipino teenagers sharing similar experiences, including debates on whether it is considered “cheating” to have an AI companion if you already have a partner.
These numbers matter because adolescence is the stage when templates for handling future relationships are formed. Their heightened sensitivity to reward, combined with an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, makes teenagers more vulnerable to impulsive behavior, intense attachments, and the blurred line between fantasy and reality. While the benefits of AI-lationships for adults may still be open to debate, the danger they pose to young people’s social and emotional development is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. One famous case is the death of a 14-year-old British teenager after his AI girlfriend encouraged his suicidal ideation.
My column last week (see “The collapse of dialogue (1),” 11/17/25) explored how technology has weakened our ability to have real conversations. Social media has trained us to express ourselves constantly, but often in a performative manner motivated by online engagement. At the same time, becoming accustomed to superficial connections has compromised our ability to navigate the reciprocal nature of face-to-face dialogue. AI has further deepened this shift as more people let chatbots write and reply for them, resulting in polished but hollow communication.
For relationships to deepen, they require a capacity to listen, negotiate differences, and communicate with sincerity. However, as people begin to outsource the cognitive and emotional labor needed in conversations, these relational foundations are also becoming increasingly fragile. In 2023, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy described the loneliness epidemic not as physically being alone but as a state of mind: “that results from perceived isolation or inadequate meaningful connections, where inadequate refers to the discrepancy or unmet need between an individual’s preferred and actual experience.” In other words, loneliness persists not because people lack interaction, but because they lack relationships that feel real.
The rise of nonhuman relationships reflects this crisis. It shows how deeply people want to connect, yet may not have the skills to start or sustain a genuine relationship. Always-available and always-empathetic chatbots are so appealing because they offer a type of companionship that one can fully control—free from uncertainties that come with relating to another person who carries their own complexities. For young people whose sense of self and social skills are still forming, overexposure to AI interactions risks shaping distorted expectations of intimacy.
Much of the discussion on AI ethics among young people has centered on classroom use and academic integrity. What we urgently need is a deeper examination of the regulatory frameworks and comprehensive education necessary to protect and guide young people in socially engaging with AI in more critically informed and emotionally healthier ways.
Pies occupy a beloved place in kitchens across the world. They are comforting, portable, and infinitely adaptable—appearing on holiday tables, roadside stalls, and bakery shelves in nearly every region. Yet their story is far older and more complex than the golden, flaky pastries we enjoy today.
The history of pies stretches back thousands of years, shaped by necessity, empire, colonization, and creativity. Their evolution reveals not only how people cooked, but how they migrated, traded, and built identity through food.
A piece of history
The earliest versions of pies emerged—not from a desire for dessert, but from practicality. As far back as 6000 to 4000 BCE, ancient peoples discovered that wrapping food in a layer of dough protected the filling during cooking and made food easier to store and transport. Ancient Egyptians wrapped meat, fruits, and honey in thick barley dough. This early “crust” was hard and inedible, functioning like a sealed cooking vessel.
Back then, the focus wasn’t on the pastry but on safeguarding the filling from smoke, fire, and contamination.
Although these dishes were primitive, they introduced the essential pie idea: food enclosed in dough. The Greeks made significant advances by creating doughs thinner and more refined than the Egyptians’ coarse barley mixture. They developed early forms of phyllo, layering thin sheets over savory or sweet fillings. These light, delicate pastries started shifting the idea of pie from pure practicality to a craft of texture and taste.
Meanwhile, the Romans embraced and expanded Greek pastry-making. They developed the “coffyn”—a dough case made from flour, oil, and water. Sometimes edible and sometimes simply a container, it was an early ancestor of the modern crust.
Roman pies carried the flavors of an empire:
• fish and shellfish
• game meats
• dates, figs, nuts
• honey and spices
Their pie recipes appear in “Apicius,” one of the oldest cookbooks. As Roman influence spread across Europe, so did the practice of enclosing food in pastry.
By the Middle Ages, pies had become firmly established in European food culture—but with a different purpose than today. In medieval England and France, thick, sturdy pie shells were essential for food preservation. These crusts could be several centimeters thick and almost rock-hard. They stored meat for days, even weeks, and allowed food to be transported long distances. In fact, most diners discarded the crust and ate only the filling.
At the same time, pies became the centerpieces of grand banquets. Wealthy households created large pies filled with layers of meats, spices, and sometimes theatrical surprises—live birds or small animals that would fly or scurry out when the pie was cut. This tradition inspired the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence.”
By the 1500s and 1600s, the pie underwent a transformation. European bakers began using butter and lard, creating tender, flaky crusts meant to be enjoyed rather than discarded. Fruit pies became increasingly popular, especially in England, where apples, berries, and stone fruits were abundant.
The first printed recipe resembling modern apple pie appeared in 1545, signaling the arrival of pies as comfort food. Pies traveled to the Americas with European settlers, who relied on them as an efficient, portable, and economical way to feed families.
Must-have for Thanksgiving
When colonists arrived, they encountered ingredients unfamiliar in Europe but perfectly suited to pies. These included pumpkins, cranberries, wild berries, maple sugar, and sweet potatoes.
And this is where our story of the kamote, or sweet potato pie, begins, on the Thanksgiving menu.
Thanksgiving has slowly started to be celebrated in many Filipino households in the last 15 years or so. Growing up, I viewed Thanksgiving as something distant, celebrated only in America. In the advent of globalization, social media, and a generation of middle-aged Filipinos who spent time in America—either as students or balikbayans—now rooted in the Philippines, Thanksgiving is now recognized in many places.
In fact, hotels, restaurants, and private caterers now offer ready-to-serve turkeys for the occasion.
I, for one, started celebrating Thanksgiving at home when I got married. My husband lived in the U.S for a long time, having moved there at 11 years old. Thanksgiving was a big holiday that he had been used to celebrating. It is not part of our family’s tradition to celebrate it in November.
Since I was raised here in the Philippines, I had to learn how to make a turkey with all its sides. In my research, I came across a “yam pie,” which sounded interesting. I first made this kamote pie topped with marshmallows after spending Thanksgiving with my American friends, where they made something similar. This pie is much easier than a regular pie dish, as it involves no pie crust.
The recipe I created is so easy and delicious that I now serve it at other times of the year. However, its presence at our Thanksgiving table completes this family tradition that has now become our own.
Schnee, Eis, spiegelglatte Straßen: Bundesweit kam es zu zahlreichen Unfällen. In Leipzig krachte ein Autofahrer mit seinem Mercedes gegen einen Baum und wurde eingeklemmt
Nach dem Schnee-Wochenende kommt der Eis-Hammer. Samstag zeigte der Winter vielerorts noch sein schönstes Gesicht. Doch schon in der Nacht zu Sonntag wurde es rutschig. Es gab bundesweit zahlreiche schwere Unfälle auf spiegelglatten Straßen.
Klimatologe Karsten Brandt hatte bereits am Samstag gegenüber BILD vorausgesagt: „Es kann heftig glatt werden. Da kommt eine Mischung aus Schnee und Regen auf uns zu.“
Aus dem Westen kommt Glätte
Eine Eisregen-Walze trifft Deutschland – am Sonntagmittag und am frühen Nachmittag in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Niedersachsen, Rheinland-Pfalz bis Hessen. Nachmittags ist dann Baden-Württemberg betroffen, vor allem die Schwäbische Alb und der Schwarzwald.
Samstag zeigte sich der Winter mit viel Sonne, wie hier auf dem Fichtelberg (im Hintergrund eine Station des Deutschen Wetterdienstes). Der Sonntag wird vielerorts ungemütlich
Foto: Bernd März
Viele Unfälle auf spiegelglatten Straßen
Schon in der Nacht zu Sonntag krachte es auf spiegelglatten Straßen: Auf der B45 zwischen Zuzenhausen und Hoffenheim (Baden-Württemberg) verlor der Fahrer eines VW-Golf GTI trotz Winterreifen die Kontrolle über sein Auto. Der Wagen überschlug sich, landete auf der Seite. Alle drei Insassen kamen verletzt in Kliniken.
Der Glätte-Unfall bei Hoffenheim: Drei Insassen im VW Golf GTI wurden verletzt
Foto: Julian Buchner / EinsatzReport24
Auch in Leipzig (Sachsen) gab es einen schweren Eis-Unfall. Ein 19-Jähriger fuhr über glattes Kopfsteinpflaster und verlor nach ersten Erkenntnissen vermutlich wegen der Glätte und zu hoher Geschwindigkeit die Kontrolle über seinen Mercedes. Der Wagen schoss nach rechts von der Fahrbahn, prallte frontal gegen einen Beton-Laternenmast, kippte auf die Seite und krachte anschließend noch gegen einen Baum. Der Fahrer wurde eingeklemmt und schwer verletzt.
Ein junger Autofahrer (19) kam in Leipzig mit seinem Mercedes auf spiegelglatter Straße von der Fahrbahn ab. Rettungskräfte mussten ihn aus dem Wrack schneiden
Foto: EHL Media
Auch eine Probefahrt bei Hochdorf (Baden-Württemberg) endete in einer Katastrophe: Auf der K7564 kam ein Mann (59) mit einem neuen Porsche auf Glatteis in einer Linkskurve ins Schleudern und krachte gegen einen Baum. Er und sein Sohn (31) wurden leicht verletzt. Der Luxus-Sportwagen ist nach dem Unfall Schrott – 200.000 Euro Sachschaden!
