Monday, July 16, 2007 Baumgart: On foreign turf By Elisabeth Baumgart inkblots
TWO weeks ago, I woke up around 2 a.m. only to fi nd myself in an unfamiliar room with lights dimmed and air-conditioning going on full blast.
With that, I concluded that I was abducted by Stephen Spielberg’s aliens and became the lucky human specimen to be dissected and dumped into a jug fi lled with formalin.
Remnants of sleep slowly disappeared when I heard a familiar voice prattle into her cell phone at 100 words per minute speed, in a language foreign to my ears.
Her hushed voice resonated throughout the otherwise silent room, and the only words I actually understood were Kuala Lumpur and the rest was total gibberish.
And with that, everything registered.
I wasn’t on a lab table, seconds away from being cut open and having my spinal column removed by some lanky alien. I woke up fi nding myself in Kuala Lumpur attending a conference.
Ah yes, that made perfect sense. (But then again, the alien theory wasn’t too bad either, was it?)
I was actually gone for two weeks, one week spent in Malaysia and another week in Singapore, attending the Asean Campus Journalists/Leaders Exchange Program.
Since I passed three columns in advance, this little space continued on with its senseless ramblings while I was off in some foreign country consuming dangerous amounts of unbelievably spicy food.
We were 20 students, two representatives from each Asean country, attending media classes and leadership workshops in both host countries, Malaysia and Singapore.
While the lectures were truly enriching, it was the site visits to media outlets in Malaysia and Singapore and the city excursion the group had that made the whole trip more fun than it already was.
And did I ever mention the food?
In a day, were were eating six meals. We were all worried that instead of our luggage exceeding the allowed weight limit, it was us who would gain all those kilos within two weeks. If that were the case, all of us could then have just rolled ourselves home rather than fl y.
The cultural experience was mind-blowing. Just because we were only in Malaysia and Singapore did not mean that we did not experience the culture of other Asean countries. By spending two weeks with our friends from 10 Asean countries, one got a taste of their respective culture and traditions.
And by experiencing that, I now appreciate my own culture more than I did. It’s by experiencing cultures different from yours that you begin to appreciate your own.
The things I took for granted, the things I experience day by day now hold a deeper meaning. I value them more because they are part of my culture, and that makes me even prouder to be who I am today.
And the song by a famed singer named after a grass comes to mind: “Hoy, Pinoy ako!” Yep, that’s me.
