On my second day in the Philippines, I traveled 45 minutes w to the metropolis of Malate to run into up with my friend Katrina. Katrina and I lived together in the aforementioned højskole when I studied away in Denmark. She was leaving to render to Denmark the following twenty-four hours and I got to spend time with her before she left. Our destination: Mall of Asia.

Manila Bay (far left) and Boardwalk

Mall of Asia is non as big as information technology sounds…it's bigger. We casually strolled past the food court, brand name stories, concert stage, and Olympic sized water ice skating rink. Yep, ice skating rink. Hundreds of Asian families surged past us and I sat in awe as we ate our dim sum from a rolling vendor's cart. From the top floor of the mall, you can walk forth an overpass and down the stairs to the boardwalk adjacent to the h2o of Manila Bay. I could odour the common salt every bit the brown waves crashed onto the rocky shore. Information technology was unlike any mall I had ever been to before.

Katrina told me about her dwelling hamlet in the southward of the Philippines, the traditional food and her didactics. I loved hearing nigh her life every bit a Filipino my age,  in love with the native food and national hospitality but frustrated with the state's Catholic emphasis and conservative way of thinking. We switched to a discussion of beauty and the ideal adult female as viewed by Filipino women. "White," Katrina said, "is the best. It reflects Western beauty." In the Philippines and southeast Asia, white skin represents beauty and power. Your skin tones tells society whether your family unit works outside in the sun or is wealthy plenty to stay indoors. We past pharmacies, beauty stores and signs advert skin whitening engineering science. Products included deodorants, dietary pills, creams, and body washes. I was shocked past its normalcy, the customers' arable desire to modify their peel tone. The models' skin in the pictures seemed almost iridescent  in an unnatural manner, life-size portraits strung upwards in store windows. What is that about wanting what you tin can't take?

Varieties of Whitening Cream

How many jokes have I made to my friends in the States about how tan I would go this summer? The popularity of bronzers, spray-on tans, and tanning salons in America is not going away whatever time soon. After all, no one wants to put on her prom dress looking like a ghost. The paradigm of dazzler, of wealth, of success is relative beyond cultures and fourth dimension zones.

Now I'grand not going to outset preaching but make certain you lot love the mode you look. Love your skin in its natural color, exist it: white, brownish, black, or somewhere in between. If nada else, you'll save a lot of coin on beauty products that you could be spending on a new pair of heels.

Katrina and I
Katrina and I

"Piddling America," Heaven said every bit nosotros sped through the streets, the driver effortlessly navigating the large black van through heavy Manila traffic. I passed  large condominiums, seven-11'south, and good ol' McDonald's on my way from the drome back to my new home. In many ways the Philippines appears to look like the country which occupied its soil following Spanish rule. Major brands for wearable and shoes are the same as in America and the newest generation of Filipino children speak English language every bit their first language.

But at that place seems to be many ways in which this isle nation is also quite different.. On my showtime day, a sudden downpour erupted from the skies and the rain came in torrents, beating against the metal roof. I was amazed with the sudden weather shift and ran outside. The children connected to play inside, largely unfazed by the current of air and the noise. Heaven'south wife, Eileen, and I went downtown to Marikina City in the afternoon and on our way downtown we past the slums, colorful windows glued next to one another in makeshift apartments. Children played in the recently created puddles and splashed the cars driving forth the road. They jeered at each other and ran together as a mass of colorful shorts and brown bodies. "When there are many days of heavy rain, the water escapes the river and floods the slums," Eileen said and told me of five days of heavy rain that occurred 2 years ago in Manila. Information technology seems that those in poverty suffer the near in more ways than one. The gap in wealth was in that location, right beyond my window and I wondered how long it would have for the shock of witnessing such poverty to become an accepted occurrence.

I spent the remainder of my day at the gym, Fitness Offset, working out with Eileen and her personal trainer Alvin. Equally the fit 21-year-old I imagined myself to be, I have never sweat so much in my life. I was overweight past 15 pounds and had also much body fatty, co-ordinate to the scale in the training room. My host mom divisional upward and downwardly effortlessly as I trudged through the exercises, panting and wiping my face in-between squats, arm exercises and stomach curls. Alvin and I joked about my weak arm strength and I created my new Filipino proper noun, Katrina Torres. Thankful I did not throw-upward or otherwise pass out in forepart of other jogging stretching Filipinos, we took a shower and Eileen signed me upwards for a ane month pass to Fitness Showtime. We ate a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant and when we returned home, I went upstairs for a quick nap at 8pm…and woke up four hours afterward dazed and confused. I had brushed off jet-lagged and it returned with a vengeance. Bed fourth dimension, part two.

My host brother Jolly (right) and friends

I skyped with my Filipino family for the first fourth dimension. In the Philippines, nicknames are huge. My Filipino female parent is Eileen, my begetter is Heaven, and my younger brothers are Happy (historic period ten) and Jolly (age seven).

Aye, I going to live with Heaven. Life is good.

From my computer I could see all their smiling faces jammed together in the Skype box. Jolly, the youngest, saturday in the centre and giggled the whole time. He and his brother similar Lego's and video games. And they take an iPad. I told the family that I was trying to learn the national linguistic communication (Tagolog) but information technology was difficult for me.

Jolly: Sometimes it's difficult. Google translate works all the time.

I beloved my new family unit.

9 days and counting.

Then in example all of you were wondering, I did make it dorsum to the United States. On my To-Practice list of life, Study Abroad was checked off with a big cerise mark. Travel accomplished.

I'll admit the first calendar week dorsum at school was tough. The intricate city of Copenhagen, attraction of travel every other weekend, and long conversations with international friends had been replaced with sorority events and trip the light fantastic toe visitor rehearsals. It wasn't bad merely it was very much unlike, returning to a place that did non seem to find I had been gone. I was a 2d semester inferior with my head dorsum in sophomore twelvemonth and my heart back in Denmark. I worked my way dorsum into school manner and waited patiently until the time I would be able to travel once more. That time has come.

On May 23rd, I volition leave the U.s.a. over again and fly 22 hours to Manila, Philippines. It is the abode of my male parent'south close friend and the location of my internship with the Law of Nature Foundation. I volition spend six weeks in the capital letter working in the chief part earlier relocating to the field piece of work station on the Bantayan Island off the northern coast of Cebu. Information technology'due south definitely the farthest I've ever been from America merely I tin't wait to feel the humidity and say Hi Kamusta? for the kickoff time. (The national language is Tagalog). Hence the reason that the web log is back and better than ever. More pictures, more friends and more than memories of how awkward I am in a new culture, or my ain for that matter. Follow me thousands of miles away to an isle nation full of beaches, rice, and friendly faces.

Wish me luck.