Sorry for the radio silence guys (all three of you who read my blog on a regular basis). The last few days I’ve just been busy and writing dropped in priority as I was working on my tech writing class in the evenings and just felt ‘meh’. Today I’m feeling a lot more ‘with it’ and I’ll tell you why.
Six Sundays ago I left Oregon and said goodbye to everyone. My dad, step mom, and sister dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way. Six weeks by yourself is a long time to go without your family when you’re somewhere new. I made plenty of friends at work and on the weekends we went out and adventured, but at work we worked and chilled during lunch and breaks so it wasn’t social hour, unlike college where just about everything makes way for socializing. Here I spend most of my time outside of work working on my online class or writing for my blog, and if neither of those are happening, there’s a good chance I’m sleeping. Being a nineteen year old American college student hardwired in for “June through August means summer” I’ve been sleeping a lot. Today I slept in until 11:15. If I don’t, I’m a walking zombie, especially with this humidity; it’s still a lot to adjust to. Average water consumption is 2-3 liters or more a day since you sweat so much so being awake takes a little more out of you here than it does at home. So that has been my day to day.
However, today has been the day I’ve been looking forward to for the better part of the last two or so weeks. The day my dad and stepmom arrived in Cebu. I love it here. It’s a great place to be and this is an amazing way to spend a summer. But in some ways, you miss the old, especially when you can’t just decide at 10am on a Friday you want to go home for the weekend and within an hour after being done with class you’re already home. It was great seeing the city through the eyes of my dad who’s been coming to the Philippines for the better part of ten years and my step mom who has spent all but three of the last years of her life in this country. It’s like when you’re running and you’re ready to be done but you know you need to finish the hour and you’re miserable but then Eye of the Tiger comes on and suddenly every fiber in your being finds new motivation and you power through. I have eleven more days in the Philippines and while not all of it is lounging on a white sand beach with a do-nothing attitude, everything coming will be different than spending my whole day at a desk working. Life has shifted from down a gear from fifth and I’m excited for a change of pace even though I will miss my new work family.
Being here for six weeks is long enough to say I ‘lived’ somewhere other than Oregon and has helped me find that I may not want to spend a term abroad in Hong Kong or Thailand or Singapore. At ten to eleven weeks, I think it just wouldn’t be the right fit even though all three places are on my “to see before I die list”. With the program I will be working with I have a couple options and I think I may be looking into Austria or elsewhere in Europe (Germany, Denmark or Norway seems a little more my speed).
Just observing people here I notice how much I stand out from people, even fellow Westerners, than how little you blend in. I’m inches taller than a lot of people, I have blue eyes and curly blond hair, I’m white, and I speak American English. When people stare, I usually make sure I’m wearing my sunglasses and try not to stare back, the ‘Glancing away and quick check back to see if they’re still looking at you and keep looking away’ game. To a degree, you feel somewhat violated because in America we believe staring is rude. I believe in the idea that it is very important to be a stranger in a strange land and be as alienated as possible several times throughout life, but I think if this was the caliber of my travels related to school, I would be a little too uncomfortable for too long. I could do it and endure, but like picking the college you attend for undergrad, I feel like being as ‘at home’ as possible is worth considering. There is only so many times you can endure, “For you- white girl price” when you’re trying to buy something off a vendor on the street before you are ready to up and quit and keep walking.
It’s very possible I change my mind between now and then and I know having experienced this kind of environment for two weeks in 2009 when I spent two weeks in China with my dad (For perspective, I was in the 8th grade and was 14). Now, six years later, I’m a lot more aware of the world and some of the finer workings and I think it takes several trips where you’re this far out of your comfort zone to actually not mind things as much. Bottom line is I don’t know what is happening between now and my term abroad and some things could change.
On two fronts, the end is near and everything is set to coast. It’s August and the month named after Augustus is fairly jammed pack and busy and now it is here, and that my family is here I feel a little better about everything and I can just power through, even if Eye of the Tiger is only playing in my head.
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