SSU Travels the World

My shoddy math skills tell me I’ve been away from home for twenty days. My fears of the past blog entry, if you care to know, only simmer in the back of my mind whenever I’m not too hot or tired to simmer anything. I don’t remember how long ago that actually was. The time here seems to be blurring together and remaining in my memory are only moments of life lived.

…I went to a Catholic church. And not just any Catholic church, but the kind that took literally centuries to build, finished meticulously through the strength of faith and persevering slavework (a point which I was somewhat disappointed to learn as not only does it seem incongruent with a church’s values but it also quite effectively squashes my bent for romanticism–and yet I forge ahead!); it’s the kind of church that was Robin Hood’s protection, Guinevere’s punishment, Quasimodo’s sanctuary and dungeon! Yes, that’s a little dramatic but I have never before entered a cathedral–a real one!–and I feel I’m justified in calling up legends of such epic proportions. Only their memory echoes the kind of awe I felt inside the cavernous Paoay Church of St. Augustine, viewing the saints lining the walls and the still-fluttering and collapsing candles beneath them, evidence of a surviving and vital faith. It was an immense feeling–or, rather a feeling of immensity. I have never before experienced immensity.

…I swam a path of liquid gold! It was 7am, the South China Sea was calm and cool. The sun was rising, a golden, burning sphere of perfect light, first silhouetting the leaning palm trees, then the squat bamboo shelters lining the beach and then! I was swimming in a path of liquid gold. The sky is a canvas of spilled ocean and oranges; behind me the water and sky met in indistinct grays and blues. Only there, from me to the shore, did the extraordinary mat roll out, as if the sun rose for me alone, to grace the lapping ripples of the water and kiss me good-morning!

I guess what I’m trying to say with these snapshots is that this experience–the Asia travel abroad term–has been amazing so far. Along with being sick three separate times in the past 20 days, I’ve also raced with the clouds in the mountainous regions of Sabah, Malaysia, bathed with a cockroach, tramped through the jungle just to see how pineapples and ginger are grown, been told what the cold parts of North America are like from a Filipino’s perspective and eaten rice for breakfast for over a week straight! So as much as I absolutely detest rice at this point, I’m no longer asking myself why on earth I’m on this trip. I even have the great pleasure of tellling all those who, like myself, were unaware that pineapples do NOT grow on trees!