Sunday, April 29, 2007
Doing things that you love
Wouldn’t it be great to actually find work that you love to do and not just have to do??? So if you're a Singaporean student, feel free to contact me if you want to know more about how you can be part of this network. :)
On my side, I started to work on going back to the things that I love, so that in the process I may find the work I love to do.
"2 weddings in 2 cities"
My passion for travel is more of the obvious, thus I’ve decided to do a couple of that by attending upcoming weddings. Early May will be a wedding of an ex- Indonesian trainee in the Philippines, Ika, with a Swiss AIESECer. I will be witnessing an Indonesian ritual and will be the first of the series of weddings I’m attending. The second one is happening end of May, where a college friend of mine, Tinii, is getting married too. She has ensured that I will be there by making me part of the entourage and assigning me as the emcee for the reception. A great opportunity for me to go back home and bring my friends: who are based here in Singapore for a nice time in the island of Anilao.
"Standby, Oars up! Row!"
Now, comes my passion for dragon boat rowing, the only sport I managed to be competitive enough to join international regattas. My body still aches with all the muscles suddenly waking up from its long rest. It’s been about 5 years since my last row and in time I’ll get used to it again.
"Network, reconnect & reunite"
It almost feels like home with most of my international friends being based here in Singapore. From AIESEC network to Real Acad network, it even grows with the amount of new networks that I get to be part of. It's great to be with such amazing individuals once again, sharing perspectives and challenging each other's ideas.
All these are a work in progress. It keeps me going with a new discovery and new learning each day in Singapore.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Finding my place in this world - Part II
MY FAMILY VISITING SINGAPORE
The following day my mom, sister and niece were arriving from the Philippines. They figured out that I wasn’t going home to the Philippines yet, so they came to meet me here instead. Sweet!
I picked them up at the airport with my niece having a strange look at me. Yeah, I was the face behind the photos and the voice behind the phone. We haven’t seen each other for more than a year and she’s grown up!
It was great because I get to be a tourist again in Singapore and realized that there were places I have never been to either. We went to Sentosa and saw the Underwater World. It’s an indoor aquarium where you see nice fishes, sharks and jelly fishes. For a non-diver like me, this was worth the treat. We also watched this show “Songs of the Sea” where it was a mix of water fountain, lights & fire show. It’s just new so I suggest the other Singaporean residents to go and check it out as well.
FILIPINO DINNER IN SINGAPORE
My friends in Paris would know my utmost love for cooking Filipino food. This time I hosted another Filipino dinner but with the assistance of the experts: my mom and my aunt. I had my ex-AI family to join me this time, where they adore my mom’s cooking very much. They still cannot believe that I did some part in the cooking, but they came home with a heavy stomach anyway.
My niece was probably astonished with the number of guys that she was introduced that night. She was suddenly so friendly and entertaining, showing them her latest tricks which took me few days to see.
AI0405 REUNION
Just on my first week in Singapore, we had our AI 0405 reunion in the island of Sibu, Malaysia. There were 9 out of 18 in our team so it was great to catch up with each of them. The island was peaceful and not so crowded, so it was a perfect place to just chill out. This is the life! Walking by the beach, spinning through the waves, rolling over the sand, drinking fresh fruit juice, lying on a hammock. 4 days was more than enough to revitalize myself from the challenging times ahead.
GETTING INTO OFW's LIVES
There is a lot of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) everywhere. Majority of those who come to Singapore are domestic helpers where they survive with 200USD/month. With the recently passed legislation it was increased to 400USD/month. It seems to me such a small amount for the big sacrifice they have to make of leaving their families behind. Sometimes they even give up their family’s savings or properties for them to afford the agency fees. Only to be fooled by a few agencies who take advantage of the innocence and desperate need of these people.
My aunt has been sharing a lot of these stories with me as she deals with these cases on a daily basis. A lot of the people run to the embassy for support especially when they are said to have been abused by their employers or are not treated properly (eg. Not enough food, beating, no day-off). I met a few of them as I was just hanging around at the embassy on a Saturday afternoon. They are called the runaways. One was running away, almost speechless and wailing by the way she was being treated. Another was a fighter, saying she cannot stand the way her employer behaves toward her and that she must fight for her right. All these are common stories that a lot of people already hear about but apparently they want to experience it themselves until they get a taste of their own medicine.
Despite such extreme circumstances, it’s interesting to see that there are also organizations trying to help them increase their skills/capabilities. That is also one of the reasons why the Philippine embassy has fought for the increase in their salaries even if relative to other nationalities this is a higher demand. I hope a lot of the domestic helpers here are fighters like the one I met, where they should be willing to fight for their rights. It’s not surprising to hear that Filipino domestic helpers themselves complain about the increase in their salaries since their employers might not renew their contracts anymore. They should actually see it more as an opportunity to let their employers know what they’re worth and what differentiates them from the rest. It’s usually with such attitude that they will not just be maltreated or abused.
With those things happening, I suppose now you know why I am in Singapore. I would be sharing more of my thoughts in the coming week so watch out.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Finding my place in this world
Soar high like an eagle.
That’s how I feel whenever I’m up in the air, exploring a new country or destination that’s all foreign to me. This time I was going to the U-S-A.
I grew up with a clear image of the Big Apple, followed the US system of education and was familiar with American brands all over the country. A lot of times I have even been asked if I grew up in the US since I can speak perfect English. Every Filipino family would have a relative working in the US from nurses, doctors, dentists to caregivers where they can achieve their American Dream. Despite all this exposure, I didn’t have this American Dream. I didn’t think it would be any different from the urban life in the Philippines.
Until recently that I realized how can I judge a country without having been there myself? How can I say I really don’t want to live and work in the US when I have never been there? How can I hate one thing without seeing it?
So with all this questions left unanswered, I decided I might as well explore it and give a sound judgement.
Land of Opportunities
Exploring the country from east coast to west coast wasn’t that tough. I just had to organize a schedule where I can visit most of my relatives and friends with the 5 weeks I have allotted for my visit. I was surprised to even realize that there’s more people that I know who have already migrated there that my time was not even enough to see all of them. They all decided to leave the comfortable lifestyle in the Philippines and I could only ask why??? It seems that they saw a great opportunity for career growth and be compensated for their hard labor.
Majority of them are in the medical field, which is very much in demand with the increasing aging population in the US. Such opportunities had been acquired by some people who were not initially medical specialists but studied later on to become therapists, dentists or developing nursing homes.
Land of choices
One thing that’s clearly an American way is to be given many choices as a consumer. Hypermarts, shopping malls, even Broadway musicals, I was overwhelmed with the variety of choices I can have.
I had this interesting conversation in a restaurant for a simple steak menu. A simple option of the side dishes became complicated whether I wanted salad with French, ranch or thousand island dressing; grilled or fried vegetables; French fries, mashed or baked potatoes.
I really enjoyed the most to be given a lot of choices for food- the American Buffet. The problem with me is I don't have any limitations as to food but I can say that my seaffod favorites include sushi, crabs and shrimps.
Tourism
I enjoyed my time as a tourist, especially for most cities where I can just go with public transportation. I spent 2 weeks in New York where I can just get lost on my own, and still find my way home as I take the MRT to Bronx. 10-block walk and that would still be walking distance while walking along Broadway, 5th Ave or 42nd St.
It was a totally different scenario when I reached California where most of the places are only accessible by car. I was in LA for 2 weeks, first with my cousin Edong touring me around for most of the time. Living about an hour from the city, we utilized our day by going to Disney or California Adventure during the day and then going for some drinks at night to meet my high school and college friends. It was a good 3.5 hr drive to Vegas from his place so we were also able to explore that and visited my sister’s high school friends. Compared to New York, LA has the vast space and wide road rather than just narrow streets and high rise buildings. Almost every individual would have their cars such that they have implemented this diamond lane- an express lane for cars with 2 or more passengers. It was a surprise for me to still see a huge flow of traffic with 3 lanes of cars with just one person in the car, the driver! No wonder this is one of the big markets for the auto industry.
Reunions and family gatherings
One of the main reasons for my visit was really to visit relatives and friends. Some of you may have known how I’ve managed to find connections of “relatives to the nth degree” in Europe. In the US I don’t have to go through long connections but just from my immediate relatives and friends, US seems to have been an extension of the Philippines. My father’s brothers and sisters all migrated to the US in the late 80s. While a lot of my high school and college friends have decided to migrate in the US either immediately after graduation or just after gaining a few years of work experience back home. Since I was wandering around the world myself and haven’t been home for more than a year, it was great that we managed to reunite again.
It was a great place to visit and a different perspective came to mind about the US. I am still not a big fan of the American Dream, but I’m not closing my doors either for any opportunities that await me. If there will be a prospect of going back to New York or San Francisco, then why not?
Here’s a link to my online photo album of my visit to the US. (Other cities coming soon)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liv_flores/
