Remembering: sailing off into the sunset, feet touching the water. Pancakes topped with mangoes, local beers and dinners on the beach. Live music. Beautiful company and heart-warming resort staff. Dancing on the beach with a bunch of Filipino kids, posing for a million cameras. Snorkeling, riding ATVs up to the highest point of the island, laying out on the beach. Laughs in paradise.
Sun, 2 for 1 margaritas, snorkeling, white beach, palm trees, mangoes… I had a picture perfect image of what my spring break was going to look like. I booked a flight to idyllic Boracay, the Philippines, well in advance, so I was all set, right?
The day before I left, I told my friends “Uhm.. you might want to check the news”. Visions of sun, cocktails and sarongs were replaced by warnings for earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear catastrophes and evacuations of the Philippino east coast. Worried phone calls from parents soon followed. It is interesting how difficult and strange it is to worry about how our week of fun is in jeopardy, when you put it in the global perspective of how many people lost their lives or homes. It is impossible to balance the two.
Another interesting aspect of how everybody looks at these situations differently. Alex’s parents were the most worried and wanted him to stay put because they remembered Chernobyl and its effect on Germany. Carmen got the low-down on when and when not to grab on to something in case a tsunami hits. Kira’s parents thought everybody was overreacting and laughed at the idea of not going. I got some down-to-earth advice: “Watch the news and be careful. Have fun, we’re jealous”.
Fears set aside, we all decided to go to our paradise for the week. But surprise, surprise, upon arrival we had to deal with another depressing fact: rain. All of the above lead me to conclude that Mother Nature is in a funky, funky mood. So what you do on an island that revolves around sun, beach, cocktails and outdoorsy activities? YOU SHOP. Deciding it was too depressing to buy an umbrella in Boracay, we were soaked after fifteen minutes.
Apart from retail therapy, the incredibly friendly staff at the resort provided a lot of comfort as well. They tried their hardest to refer to everybody by their first name and had nothing but smiles for all of their guests. When we said our goodbyes at the end of the week, we were genuinely sad to leave them. They made it incredibly easy to focus on the great things in Boracay:
Despite the initial set-backs, I had little trouble keeping my spirits up. I was convinced the weather would turn around before we left and if not, I would not let rain stand in the way of having fun. I know how to handle a moody Mother Nature. Come on- I was born in Holland.
Keep an eye on my blog for part two of Spring Break, in which I’ll report back to you on how it all turned around for the better – causing me to fall in love with this beautiful country.
I consider shopping one of the things in life I’m quite good at. It really never presents me with many difficulties and, most importantly, it gives me great, great pleasure. Having the reputation of a shopper’s heaven, I thought Singapore to be the last place to throw shopping hurdles at me. Oh- how naive I was.
I came here with a vision of edgy Asian brands, which is why I attempted to pack lightly - in case I would acquire a new wardrobe. However, my vision was rudely destroyed in the form of frilly, cartoon-inspired ‘free-size’ clothing. ‘Free-size’? It’s an Asian term carrying out the philosophy of ‘one size fits all’ and any non-believers just have to deal with it because you cannot try on the clothes. After all, what is the need to try it on if it is guaranteed to fit?
Call me crazy, but I have this hunch that I have a slightly different body-type than the women here. My longer legs make me worry about whether mini-dresses really do ‘fit all’. I’m guessing no. So I decided to abandon the local shops of cheap, lacy, questionable fabric clothes and head down to Orchard Rd. As I set foot in the first shopping mall, my friend commented on the grin on my face. Yes, trouble had arrived.
Besides my successful shopping spree, of which I will casually leave out the details, I have further discovered the other things that Singapore has to offer. A lot of them are food related because I became friends with some locals who love to take me out for dinner. My love for Asian food and my tolerance for spices are greatly appreciated. They also share some crucial inside information: “In Asia, you don’t tip. You bribe.” Very handy for when I go backpacking in the summer.
On the same day as my shopping, I also went to the National Museum of Singapore. You know, to balance it out a little. Finally getting the low down on Singapore’s history, I enjoyed it a lot. In the hopes of discovering a little bit of the less well-known arts scene, I also went to a couple of galleries and attended a poetry slam in the Arab Quarter. Innocently sitting in the audience of the poetry competition, I was asked to be one of the judges. A perfect example of what often happens here – casually rolling into another great experience.
As for this week, I am working on my speech for my ‘speech and argumentation’ class that I have to present this Friday. My chosen topic is the importance for today’s students to keep dreaming – even if your wishes seem wild and crazy. I will share one of the quotes I am using to leave you, my devoted and much appreciated readers, with some food for thought:
“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.” – T. E. Lawrence
“This assignment is not going to be fun. You will have sleepless nights because of it. You will have to interview people that do not want to be interviewed. You will have to ask questions people don’t want to answer. You will have to find a news story.” While I didn’t take the threats of my journalism professor too seriously, every single one of them came true.
When I was pitching the first couple of ideas, it became clear that I had taken this assignment too lightly. I could not just cover a recent event; do a little research on it and bam- write apiece. No, it had to be a story no one else had reported on before. I needed to actually find it myself. How? “Just ask people.”
So, there I was, at the hall office (HO) of my residence trying to find out what was going on at the student residencies by ‘asking’:
Me: “Has anything remarkable happened over the past days”
HO: “Like what?”
Me: “Uhm.. [pause] anything really. Anything out of the ordinary?”
HO: “Like what?”
Me: “Like… unusual things around campus? Around halls?”
HO: “Like what?”
Me: “Like… any rowdiness or bad behavior?” (Great question Emma.)
HO: “No.”
Me: “Alright. Thank you for your time.”
Hella Awkward.
Slightly embarrassed, I decided on a safer approach: e-mail. Contacting big tourist attractions in the neighborhood, I forgot one thing: e-mails are easily ignored. So I was stuck once again.
And so the sleepless nights began: twisting and turning, thinking about possible topics.. I didn’t know how to continue. But the next day I decided to pull my act together and go to the nearest shopping mall. I was going to find my story.
Talking to the Shopping mall’s office, my eye caught a poster for an upcoming event: “Be a fashionista Barbie” for girls aged 6-12. This instantly sparked some feminist feelings and I knew I was on to something. Surely, mothers wouldn’t agree with such a contest? I could smell conflict.
I pitched the idea to the teacher but he thought I was wrong – Singaporean moms would support this. My own shock made me determined to prove him otherwise. The entire Saturday I spent bugging shoppers with questions about the contest. The professor was right; people often did not want to talk to me. Either they were afraid they could not speak English, they simply couldn’t be bothered or maybe they were intimidated by a certain blonde towering over them? But I persisted and managed to collect my data in the end. Guess what? It supported my insights.
With the data to back me up, I continued to interview ‘aware’, a woman’s association in Singapore and, of course, the organizers of the event to ask for their opinion. Pursuing the story against the professors advice but in line with my own gut feeling and being rewarded in the end.. a happy dance was more than appropriate. I got a taste of what it would be like to pursue it as a career. Hmm.. something to think about.
