"
We gonna strike each city from 'Frisco, Tokyo to back to San Luis Obispo." - Black Eyed Peas in BEP Empire
I currently live in
SLO, California where I have been a student for a lifetime. Traveling has been a part of my life for even longer than that. Born in the Philippines, I was only two months old when I took my first plane trip. That was also the my first migration; my nomadic family had decided to follow the herds of jobs and opportunities all the way to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, specifically to the seaside city of Jeddah.
And there I lived for 14 years. If you have any questions about my experiences there, I'd be happy to oblige you with answers. However, my memory fails me often and sometimes I cannot remember all that I've done. And if you have questions about my views on Middle Eastern politics as I grew up in it, I am afraid that I can't really answer those questions. When I was a kid, I was more interested in sports, boys and Sweet Valley High than examining and analyzing the political swirl around me.
What I do remember is that my family traveled often--two or three times a year. As employees of a certain fabulous airline and as parents of two bored daughters on school breaks, Mom and Dad frequently whisked us away to far-off places via too-long-for-a-kid flights. I grew up hating those staticky airplane blankets, but loving Beluga caviar on melba toast with just a drop of lemon from those rare times we were upgraded to first class. My peers just don't appreciate caviar the way I do. "Ew, fish eggs," they say. Let me get back to the subject at hand.
We went to England and France and Japan and Canada and Italy and Germany--plus a bunch of other places that we went to before I developed a long-term memory. Oh, I forgot about Switzerland. And, of course, we went to the Philippines and to the US every year to visit family.
When I was in my early teens, I joined school sports teams and participated in both domestic tournaments (Riyadh, Yanbu and Dahran) and international tournaments (Kuwait City, Cairo and Athens) Oh, man. I joined the cross-country team as soon as I heard the meet would be in Greece and I
despise running. But I didn't care. I could have been the last person, the slowest runner on the team. (I was!) I could have been last place in the international meet itself and I didn't care. (I wasn't!) I just wanted to go see the beautiful city. And so, I put one foot in front of the other and got there. (After a plane ride too, needless to say.) I ended up finishing right in the middle of all the racers, by the way. By the end of the season I could run a mile in less than seven minutes. Woo hoo! And Greece was just as beautiful as I had imagined it to be.
Living immersed in and traveling through different cultures and regions definitely shaped the identity I have and beliefs I hold today. Growing up in a conservative society with "eccentric" rules has actually made me a very liberal person. Every culture and every person has their wonders and issues and problems. As long as it doesn't preach hate or hurt, it is fine with me. I'd love to learn about it. I'd love to learn about it from you, them, there.
I will write more another time.
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