SCUBA

Well, last weekend I spent 4 days in Anilao to get my SCUBA Open Water Diver certification. It was GREAT. SCUBA is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but was too chicken to try. Seriously, I was paranoid that I wouldn't be able to use all the gear properly and drown underwater, or get the bends or something. I toyed with the idea of getting certified back when I was in Belize my junior year, but again, chickened out. The snorkeling was pretty good there anyways :) But then every time I heard of someone I knew going diving, or I saw pictures of divers, I got really jealous.

So I finally put my metaphorical foot down. This was my one goal for this trip (other than getting to know my family/relatives) - do SCUBA. It was kind of frustrating the first month or so I was here, because the entire country was caught up in holiday activities (including me) and I wasn't able to find any instructors/arrange any lessons. But we finally got a hold of someone.

The weekend before last, the instructor came by our house to deliver some snorkeling equipment and discuss what to expect. First off - this is one thing that has surpised me about the Philippines. People are EXTREMELY accomodating. And we were trying to arrange a pool session before we went to Aniloa for the open water check out dive (the way certification works is that you learn from a book, practice in a confined water area - like a pool - and then do a checkout dive) and I wasn't sure I would have a way to get there, and he also offered to pick me up.

Anyways, while the instructor was here giving me the down-low, my Dad randomly decided he wanted to get certified as well. So the Tuesday before we left, we went to a pool in Makati (one of the districts of metro Manila) and learned how to breathe underwater. It was MUCH easier than I expected it to be. Its all fairly intuitive.

We drove to Anilao on Thursday morning, and got a dive in that afternoon. Again, I was nervous about going deeper (since the pool was about 12 ft deep, and our dives were 40-60 ft), mostly because I don't find equalizing the pressure in my ears the easiest thing to do, but (not surprisingly) practice makes, if not perfection, than improvement. Another thing that was a little difficult was figuring out how to swim while neutrally boyant. That surprised me, that swimming underwater is harder than swimming on the surface, but you have to get used to the physics of weightlessness.

As for the sights themselves, I can't even begin to describe what I saw! I've seen pictures of reefs, I've been snorkeling, but...it was better than I could have imagined. You could stare at one little outcrop and see 15 different species of fish and coral all interacting. It was like watching this microcosm of a city, people (fish) hustling and bustling everywhere. I saw mating behaviors, territorial behaviors...coral of SO many shapes and colors. The only thing I didn't like was that you had to get out of the water after 40-45 minutes because you start to get low on air.

My dive instructor had an underwater camera, and took some pretty cool shots of my dad and I, but he hasn't emailed them to me yet. The camera I have can be submerged to 10 ft, so I have some pictures I took snorkeling. I'll have to post the dive pictures when I get them.

In about 10 minutes I'm off on a plane to a southern province. There is a festival there this weekend, and my dad got invited by the mayor. Looking at that website, I think its going to be quite a sight to see, but also hot. Outside in the street, lots of people. Woohoo for sweating.

 

 

 

Ilocos Norte

Sorry for double-posting, but these were long enough as is without being all together.

For New Years, my dad and I flew up to Ilocos Norte, a northern province. One of my uncles is friends with a guy who owns a resort up there, so we spent two nights up there on the beach. 

All the fare was traditional Ilocano food, which apparently involves a lot of salt, overly boiled vegetables, and fatty meats. On the upside, I found a beachfront with some ancient coral formations towering above the water. The rocks themselves were really cool, because they had been built from all kinds of different coral (think variety of formations), plus they made some really good tidepools. I wasn't prepared for swimming, but I couldn't help but throw off my flip flops and hike up my skirt to go tromping around looking at little marine beasties.

I had to get torn away from the water by my family, because the day's agenda was really to go siteseeing. We saw a bunch of old buildings, and rode a rickety little calesa (buggy). 

Happily (for me, anyways), after we returned, I convinced my dad to go back with me to the coral formations. This time, I was prepared for full submersion tromping. And I definitely saw some neat things.

But really the scenery was the best part, especially as we watched the sun go down.

Holidays on the other side of the world

Yep. That's a pig head. Sorry to be so graphic without warning, but I feel like its a pretty good representation of how unfamiliar it felt spending the holidays here. 

On Christmas Eve, our entire extended family decended upon the "Woodward Resort." That's like 5 families plus an assorted number of unattached cousins (well I guess they can be included in familes). Normally, Christmas is just me, my parents and my brother. Sometimes my grandparents from my Dad's side of the family.

We had a caterer come and lay out a buffet of food (largely unfamiliar to me). Lechon, which is the suckling pig, is a traditional holiday dish.  And yes, I was kind of weirded out by a pig head hanging out in this tray of food, but I have to admit, it was pretty tasty. Well, not the head. I didn't touch that. But the meat in the tray.

Most everyone got all dressed up. My cousin convinced me to let her curl my hair. After dinner everyone exchanged presents, which was probably most fun for the youngest family members (a two year old and four year old girl). 

  

 

Tala in Taal

I finally got out of the house this weekend. On Saturday, we went into Makati - the business center of the city and thus hub of expat activity. I'm continually surprised by how many expats you seen in the Philippines. Apparently a lot of multinational corporations are stationed here (because English is much more prevalent than in Hong Kong or Bejing, and because labor is cheaper). Anyways, we went to a museum there, and saw a market. Friday night I had been to a different market with my dad, and it was amusingly obvious that this was the expat area. On Friday, the market stalls were filled with a plethora of unrecognizable vegetables, and an array of fish, shrimp, lobsters and squid on ice. There were colorful fake flowers and an assortment of plastic housewares clearly imported from China. My dad was the only white person there (apparently I don't pass, because EVERYONE here assumes I speak Tagalog. There have been two cases where even when I asked them to speak english, they didn't seem to realize I didn't understand them, and continued babbling on incoherently), and I am approximately 1 foot taller than maybe 85% of the population, so we were certainly turning heads.  At the market in Makati, I'd say a third of the customers were expats. And what was for sale...it reminded me of farmer's markets in the states, in how they've become gentrified. The majority of stalls were selling food - but as meals, and yuppie meals no less - lamb shwarma, bakalava, chicken tandoori, fruit smoothies, crepes...Also for sale were bags of brown and wild rice, woven baskets and hand carved bowls. 

I'm suprised at how much I perk up when I see a fellow American. Or not even necessarily American, but white person. Partly its just nice to not be the only person over 5 feet in the area. I kind of feel like a giantess here. (To be fair, I'm exaggerating a little. Not everyone is under 5 feet - most men are probably averaging about 5'5", while women are probably 4'11" to 5'3")

On Sunday we drove south to Lake Taal, an lake within an old volcanic crater. Even more cool is the fact that there is a little baby volcano inside this big volcano. It was extremely nice to get out of the city and have some outdoor time. I went sailing with my dad in an FJ. Those were the boats I sailed on my short stint as part of my college's sailing team, and it was surprisingly familiar to be back in one of them, albeit one that is a bit of a work in progress with a lot of improvised rigging.  The boat apparently was left there long ago by someone who disappeared. When the owner of the sailing club where we rented the boat learned I had sailed FJs, he was so excited that someone was going to use the boat. Its a nice little boat, but until they fix the broken pullies, I'd rather learn to sail their many Hobie Cats.

Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous

The life of a diplomat's daughter is vastly different from the life of a post-college grad.  This picture, for instance: No, this is not our house. This is the pool cabana next to the house. The Christmas-colored stars (here, parols) hanging from the deck? Decorations for the Christmas party we are hosting at the house tonight for my Dad's staff. A stylist is coming to my house to do my hair before the party. The meal is being catered. 

I am not feeling culture shock as much as socio-economic status shock.  I feel like I have been sucked into someone else's life, or a made-for-tv movie. I can see it now: "The Diplomat's Daughter - the Disney Channel classic about a Filipina-American girl coming home." Actually, they made this movie already. It's called the Princess Diaries. The only thing missing is the cute love interest who is wealthy and handsome AND charming (and are these three qualities really a possible combination?).

I wish I could get out of the house more. I really haven't done any exploring because we only have one car and it has be be available to pick up my brother from school for lunch. Bumper to bumper traffic here is a fact of life (just throw into that image some mopeds whizzing between the lanes and barefooted children standing in the middle of the road peddling newspapers), which means it takes a long time to get anywhere. Which isn't a big deal - a fact of life is a fact of life, but having to be back near the house by midday doesn't live much of a window to do things (I've been to a mall and a grocery store). After the holidays, my relatives are planning to take me to the countryside and to the beach, but that's still a few weeks away. There IS public transportation, but I don't as yet have the confidence to figure out how to use it. The whole language barrier thing is really intimidating me, and worsed by the fact that people assume I DO speak the langage, given how I look (aka, like I'm Filipina)

Maybe here is a good place to discuss terminology. The country: The Philippines. The people: if you're male, Filipino. Female, Filipina. Ok, glad we took care of that. I could see confusion in your eyes, dear readers (Yes, this IS the internet. I AM in fact, that omniscent). No, I do not know the linguistic-historical background for this spelling change.

While it hasn't (YET) been an adventure-filled time, I'm not having a bad time. Hanging around the house all day is a good excuse to work on my grad school applications. And to quote my mom "I've mastered the art of doing nothing." I was worried about the heat, especially coming from Alaska, but it really has been quite pleasant. Its actually cool in the mornings and evenings, and if the sun starts to beat down too hard at midday, there's always the pool.

Plus, I have a really adorable baby cousin. Technically, my cousin's baby. But the details aren't important. I have no clue why this picture isn't clickable for a larger view. Sorry about that.

VIP

I'm in the San Francisco airport, waiting to board a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. 

I would post a picture of my VIP diplomatic visa to the Philippines, but my old camera died. I did buy a new one yesterday (I'm pretty excited about it actually - its waterproof up to 10 feet and shock proof up to 5 feet. So one, it'll be ok if I drop it, and two, I'll be able to take it snorkeling with me), but I haven't installed all the software for it yet. 

So instead, I'm just going to write down what it says: "Household member of Mr. Mark Charles Woodward, Sustainable Development Sector Leader, World Bank Office, Manila."

Man, I'm fancy. 

It feels pretty weird actually.

I'm pretty nervous about this flight. That's a long time to be in a small space. Wish me luck!

Natural hazards

I don't remember if I've mentioned here already - I'm in the process of applying to grad schools. My favorite school is the University of Washington, and I was just in Seattle this past week checking out the program (and hanging out with some friends I have up there). When I got back to my grandparent's house, my grandpa showed me an article with the statement "I know you're keen on Seattle, but you should be aware of the hazards..." What kind of gloom and doom was he insinuating??

The article was about earthquakes. I'll admit that the subject is relatively close to my heart (I almost minored in geology, and actually took a plate tectonics class in college). I think its pretty cool that despite how much fancy techology we have, we still do not know how to predict earthquakes. But, apparently there is such a field as "paleoseismology" - the study of past earthquakes! Imagine meeting a paleoseismologist in a bar: "and what do YOU do?" I think that's up there on the impressment (did I just make up that word?) level of "oh yeah, I'm a quantum physicist" or "oh yeah, I'm a theoretical mathematician." Honestly (and perhaps I'm biased because I've actually taken some geology classes), I think it would be much harder to be a quatum physicist or a theoretical mathematician, but my stock image of a paleoseismologist is rather Indiana Jones-ish.

Apparently Seattle is one of the worst places in the world for an earthquake - the underlying geology would amplify seismic waves and thus their damage potential. But what are you going to do? I could move back to Virginia, but then there's hurricane season and the risk of governmental subterfuge. Pick your poison?