Serena's Swim in Subic

Post date: 22-Jan-2010 22:57:00

Colin and I travelled a few hours outside of Manila with Liam and Carol to Pampanga. We slept over at Liam's Grandma's house and then we got up at 5 AM to go to Subic for the day with Liam's brother, his wife and their two kids. Carol and I spent the morning swimming with Liam's niece and nephew. I enjoyed answering questions about Canada for them. However, I felt a bit self-conscious in the water since I was the only Caucasian person in the water and also the center of attention. As we swam by other kids, most of them starred at me out of curiosity and because they don't see a lot of foreigners. A few brave kids even talked to me in English and asked my name.

It was an odd site for me at the beach too because many Filipinos swim in one piece swimsuits or with their clothes on. This is partially due to avoiding the sun's damaging rays and growing up in a conservative culture too. It's interesting that Colin and I were out in the sun as much as possible to work on our tan, while some locals use umbrellas to keep the sun off them and avoid swimming in direct sunlight. Carol showed me her special make up that she uses. It's called "whitening powder" and makes her face look lighter in colour. She also said to me that she wished she could have legs as white as mine. It's funny how we always want what we can't have. We're trying to get our skin darker like Filipinos and Carol's trying to turn her skin whiter like ours. Oh the irony.

The drive to and from the beach was beautiful. I finally got to see my rice paddy fields. There were many farmers working the fields too. Most people were preparing the fields for the next growing season.