hey guys it's me again jen and welcome to the second part of the two-part video that
i created from last week where i gave you guys 11 great reasons why you should be working here
in ireland if you haven't seen it i'm gonna put the link up there but if you already did
you probably already know that i love working here in ireland obviously but i just think that
i need to tell you guys some of the things or five of the things that i wished i knew
before i moved here number one is the weather when i first got here a lot of people told me
at first i really didn't care about what they're saying too much but then days, weeks,
months passed by and then that's when i realized that for an Asian like me who's used to a hot
but stable weather in the Philippines the weather here in Ireland is one of the biggest change that
i ever had to face like i said in one of my videos one of the things that Ireland is known for is its
fickle weather you can experience the four seasons in one day and sometimes even in five minutes
it can be nice and dry at some point and then it's just gonna start raining out of the blue i also
learned not to base my outdoor activities based on the weather because if i do then i'd definitely be
staying on the couch for the whole week i haven't experienced extreme cold weather here i think the
coldest that i have experienced was -2 but that's truly bearable if you are wearing the right
clothes and sometimes i want it to be colder, to be snowing because that's one of the things that
a typical Asian would dream of, like you know, playing with the snow, creating some snow angels
because we don't have that in the Philippines but let's have a look at the bright side did
you know that Ireland is the quietest place for seismic activity here in Europe. Earthquakes and
tsunamis rarely happen here. There's only around 200 registered earthquakes in the last 40 years
whereas in the Philippines, we experience 100 to 150 earthquakes in a year because we have a
1200 kilometer long fault line i think it's just a reminder that you can really have the best of both
worlds at all times number two is the tax but where in the world is the tax not even a problem
anyway i still want to talk about this because when i first saw my employment contract
back in 2018 i was like but of course i know that i'm only gonna take home a portion of that money
and then the rest of it is gonna go to the government that's just like everywhere else
so that is fine if i am in the Philippines with my current salary i will only be taxed around 28%
but now i am being taxed at around 34% that's still a big difference but
again looking at the bright side i have a lot of social welfare benefits here just
by paying that tax that i wouldn't have if i am in the Philippines the most promising ones
are the job seekers allowance that the government is going to give you if you are in between jobs,
the subsidized dental services and the child benefit which is a 140 euro
allowance for each of your child under 16 years old. Okay, that last one is not yet applicable
to me because i don't have a baby yet but you know it's just going to be handy in the future.
Also, did you know that Ireland is one of the best places to start a business The corporate
tax here is only 12.5% compared to the 30% back in the Philippines and the highest record of 34%
in Brazil and Venezuela and that is a huge, massive, humongous difference.
number three it is not part of the schengen area you might think that if you're a non-european
person who's already permanently residing in a European country, you can already travel
anywhere in Europe well no first of all what is the Schengen area and why i wished Ireland is a
part of it it is a group of 26 countries covering nearly all of the mainland Europe i'm going to put
the list of the 26 countries in there if you have a Schengen visa then you will be able to
travel across all of those 26 countries also if you are permanently residing in one of those 26
countries then you are free to travel into the other 25 more and that's just super handy since
Ireland is not part of that i need to apply for this visa every time i want to travel to Europe
it costs around 80 euros which is not too bad at all especially if you get multiple entries
for a long period of time like one year or three years my only issue is that all
of the application centers are in Dublin so i need to travel eight hours via train
back and forth just for the application and that means i need to take a day off from work. well,
luckily i have a lot if you've seen my other video i'm gonna put the link there and thank god that i
can have my visa delivered right at my doorsteps because otherwise i'll need to spend two leave
credits just for the application itself instead of spending it to the actual holiday but again
looking at the bright side did you know that there are other countries outside of the Schengen area
that you can actually travel to with just the Schengen visa and that includes Colombia,
Mexico, North Macedonia and many more and also it's only gonna take five years for you to be able
to apply for an Irish passport and then this is gonna totally be out of your worries. number four,
limited public transportation. Ireland is a car country. every family and sometimes every member
of the family have their own cars and probably that is the reason why the government isn't
spending too much in transportation anymore but i am actually not sure which is the chicken and
which is the egg like you know it can also be that the government is not
spending a lot in the transportation so people just ought to have their own cars
i am not sure if you know then just drop it on the comment below only the big cities like Dublin,
Cork, Limerick would have buses that's running around the city here in my small town if i want
to go places i need to go cycling or get a cab or i can rent a car and drive it myself
and i kind of miss the jeepneys and the buses in the Philippines where they can
bring me anywhere i want. what's also sad is that my Philippine driving license
isn't recognized here so i need to pass an Irish driving exam which i heard is very tough
looking at the bright side if you have an Irish friend and definitely they would have a car
you can definitely ask them for a little favor like a lift every now and again and sometimes
they're even gonna offer it to you without you asking them. and last but not the least
number five shops close really early back in the Philippines i am so used to having 24/7
malls and restaurants where after work i would meet some of my friends for a cup of coffee
or i would just go strolling window shopping or actual shopping but here it is quite impossible
to do because most of the shops close at 6 p.m. and in some days like Thursdays and Fridays, they
will close an hour later but then again that's not enough. at first i thought it's just because
i'm living in a small town but actually that is also the case in Dublin which is the capital but
the good thing is it brings out your creative juices to think of different things to do every
day so that's it guys i've given you all of the information now it is the time for you to decide!
ciao