Podcast- Audrey Salcido

Audrey Salcedo shares her experience of traveling to the Philippines for the first time. She talks about the cultural differences she noticed, such as the warm welcome at the arrival gates and surprising her grandparents who she hadn't seen in six years. Audrey also mentions visiting her family's hometown, trying traditional foods, and going island hopping in Palawan. She describes witnessing a traditional dance called dinikling and trying it herself with bamboo sticks. Audrey discusses the compact city of Subic Bay and the sense of community she observed among the locals. She mentions the early morning sounds of vendors and tricycles, which she had heard about growing up. Audrey concludes by interviewing her cousin Ethan, who shares his favorite memory of trying street foods at the market. Overall, Audrey's trip to the Philippines was a meaningful and enriching experience that connected her to her roots and culture. Hello, my name is Audrey Salcedo and today we're talking about my experience traveling outside the U.S. for the first time ever. At the age of 18, I was able to go on a trip to my family's home country of the Philippines and it was one of the most culturally indulging and eye-opening experiences I got to partake in so far. Growing up, my family has always talked about what it was like in the Philippines and the difference of what life was like between the U.S. and the Philippines. It being a third world country, it's vastly different. I expected it to be different but it was way more different than I expected. So after landing in the Philippines after a whopping 23-hour flight, I immediately felt the cultural shift. When we got to the arrival gates, families were piled up standing shoulder-to-shoulder holding banners waiting for their loved ones to come through those doors. This trip actually was a surprise to my grandparents as they haven't seen my family in over six years. Here's a short clip of what it was like surprising my grandparents and a little bit of their reaction once they saw us. After surprising my grandparents, we were able to go and see the places where my family grew up. For example, where they went to school, their house, and we also got to try a lot of the foods they loved. As a part of this trip, me and my family went island hopping to the popular destination of Koron Palawan. At this island, we decided to go to a floating restaurant and before you go into the floating restaurant, they have a docking station and there's a lot of locals doing traditional dances and one of them, as we call, dinikling. It was really cool to see that dance in person as I've only ever seen it in videos and the dance is done by using long bamboo sticks that clap together as a person dances with them and it creates a beat. I'll insert a clip of what that beat kind of sounds like as the people are dancing. The locals really encouraged people who are visiting the floating restaurant to give the dance a try with the help of one of the professionals. Although I always knew the dance, I did it sometimes with smaller sticks here in the U.S. but it's much harder than it looks with the real bamboo sticks. Another part of this trip that I thought was really cool was I was able to stay in my family's home city of Subic Bay and this is where I really got to see the difference in the way of living from the Philippines as opposed to here in the States. When you go through the city and you see all those neighborhoods, it's really compact. The streets are bustling with a bunch of traditional jipneys and tricycles. A lot of the lanes are meant to be two-way streets but there's so many tricycles and people walking everywhere that it's almost like it's not even meant for cars which was really crazy to see like how people drive over there. I don't think I could ever do it but that was really cool and I got to experience riding the jipneys and the tricycles and not only that but there's a lot of vendors selling on the street. A lot of the traditional items like bolote which is like a duck egg and taho which is tofu and like boba and it was really cool to see the taho specifically because basically what they're doing is they're holding a big stick and on each side there's two pails and it's filled with the product and it's really cool how they just carry that around and then they yell in and people are bringing their cups out and they're getting the taho. So these vendors are really lined up along the street and they're selling their products but it's not just vendors there, it's also the locals. So they're sitting and they're chatting with one another and this is really where you get to see the sense of community and how everyone's not just neighbors but more like family. They really spend a lot of their time outside like chatting and it's really different from what you see here in the States because you don't really see people outside with their neighbors like talking as often and this is like a formal get-together so it was really cool to see that. So one of the stories I commonly heard growing up about living in the Philippines is that you're always going to be woken up bright and early and the reason for that is because you always hear the people selling items and the Japanese driving by super early in the morning and when I was staying in Civic Bay with my family I really got to understand what they meant by that and really live like their memory of it because I remember at like 4 a.m. you hear the Japanese driving by and people selling their taho and the balut and getting ready for the day super early so that was pretty cool to kind of partake in even though it interrupted my sleep but it was really cool. I have a special guest joining us for the conclusion of this podcast and it's going to be my cousin and he joined us on this trip and I'm just going to ask him a few questions about what it was like for him to experience going back to the Philippines as it was his first time as well. So welcome our special guest Ethan and I'm just going to ask you a couple of questions about what it was like in the Philippines. So how was it visiting the Philippines for the first time? It was different from how we live in California. Everyone seems to know everyone. It was funny when we met new people and our Lola and Lola said that they knew us but I never met them in my life. It was cool to be finally immersed with my culture for the very first time. Being able to see how my family's lives were in the Philippines was an amazing experience. What was your favorite memory from our trip? My favorite memory was definitely when we went to go try street foods at the market. It was my first time trying some of those foods but a lot of them were interesting but it was a fun experience to try. Thank you for joining me on this episode. This concludes my episode on my trip on the Philippines and this experience was something I will never forget helping me get more connected to my roots and indulging more in my culture. My name is Audrey Salcido and this is my experience on traveling outside of the US for the first time. Thank you.