Tuesday, April 5, 2011

You Can't Get This in America

Yes I know it's been forever since my last post, but I believe that if you were really all that interested in what I've been up to then you'd already know. So there!

I'm not going to give ya'll a play by play of what has been going on here because frankly that would take too long and be pretty impossible.

The bottom line: I'm fine, Peace Corps volunteers are dropping like flys, and school is almost over for the year. In fact, graduation is tomorrow. So my days are mostly filled with two protein shakes from GNC and a lunch meal, broken up by endless hours of watching TV shows on Sidereel.com and some form of exercise.

I was on my jog tonight and almost came to tears. I walked through my neighborhood to the city plaza where they have music playing for anyone who is there, mainly exercising people, and answered all of the "Good Evenings" and "Hello, Ma'am's" that I received ( Filipinos are very polite this way, everyone you pass gets a greeting, whether you know them or not) and proceeded to begin jogging.
The music that plays at the plaza is a very eclectic mixture, sometimes all Beiber all the time, sometimes AC/DC, tonight it was Big Band Era; fine by me. I jogged past the soccer field and said hello to 10-12 of my males students, and kept on going..then I reacted the basketball courts. From this standing position you can see the basketball courts and beyond to a fountain and small playground for the children. And all at once it hit me. It might of been Bing Crosby crooning in my ear, it might of been the sight of all the city coming together to play sports, or it might have been the simple elegance of the fountain...but I was instantly thrown back into 1950's American culture. I mean, you can't find this in America anymore, the simple act of being a community and enjoying company outdoors without the constant drone of cell phones or Xbox...and it's so nice to just..be.

You can't get this in America, at least, not where I'm from.

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