Throwing off the bowlines

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

This quote from Mark Twain sums up my life somehow. For I have indeed thrown off the bowlines and sailed away from the safe harbor to discover what lies beyond the horizon. Perhaps I was born under a star called Wanderlust...

I always knew I would leave the country of my birth one day and live elsewhere. Let's go back to how it all began.

I was born in Manila, Philippines to parents who were both lawyers. English was spoken at home and reading was encouraged. So my siblings and I read fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen ... and many more books. On Greek mythology. Aesop's Fables. Revelled in the ghosts who visited old Mr. Scrooge in Charles Dickens' " A Christmas Carol". I re-read "Heidi" and how she loved living in the Alps with her grandfather, the Alm-Uncle, and befriending Peter, the goatherd. I enjoyed the swashbuckling Three Musketeers and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Books made me discover other lands. Something in me stirred --- a sense of adventure if you will --- and I could hear these foreign lands call to me.

Did I want to be a lawyer like my parents? I mulled that over for a while. But the world of media beckoned and I joined a private network in Manila after earning my B.A. (English) from an all-women's university.

I worked as an announcer/writer/producer in a private network in Manila. As I started on this career path, I studied French at the Alliance Française de Manille. I wanted to learn the language of diplomacy. I had a goal: to work for the United Nations.

I discovered that learning French and trying to speak it in a non-French speaking environment wasn't helping to improve my grasp of the language. I had to go to Paris!

I'd like to confess something here. This fascination for things French was influenced by my admiration for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. She went to the Sorbonne and living in France changed her life. She was the most francophile of American First Ladies. Her style, beauty, elegance and class brought a new dimension to the once-dreary Maison Blanche.

Being the go-getter that I am and in spite of the fact that my French wouldn't pass muster (just yet), I pursued a scholarship grant on TV production from the French Government. I was then working as a producer/writer in the government-owned broadcast network. My persistence and passion for things French were noticed by Henri Lachèze (who became a mentor and good friend), then-cultural attaché at the French Embassy in Manila.

I was awarded the grant and off I went to Paris. I boarded the huge, gleaming Air France jet for my first transcontinental flight. Exhausted and jet lagged I landed at Charles de Gaulle airport and managed to find my way to the student hostel mentioned in the instruction sheet from the French Embassy. It was a chilly late fall with the hint of winter in the air. The blast of cold air was a shock to someone born in the tropics.

Part of the grant was being sent to a language school for French immersion courses. I attended the Centre Audio Visuel de Langues Modernes (CAVILAM) in Vichy. The town is known for its thermal springs and comes alive in the summer. I found it empty and depressing in the winter. I had to speak French morning, noon and night. Besides Maman Madelaine --- the landlady in my pension spoke no English. And getting used to the long dark nights of winter added to my initial culture shock.

I returned to Paris in the spring to begin my life as a stagiaire --- meaning trainee or apprentice. I worked in production in all three of the French TV networks. We'd film in a big studio in the outskirts of Paris or I'd be part of a TV crew doing a shoot in a restaurant. Did I enjoy it? I was in Paris! All that beauty, history and romance around me --- how could I not? Paris est une ville fascinante. Très belle. I just soaked up the splendours of this magnificent city. I was living a dream.

Since I depended on the not-so adequate stipend from the French Government, I knew I had to find a summer job to be able to travel around Europe. I worked as a vendeuse --- a salesgirl --- at a boutique within waving distance of the Paris Opera. The proprietaire needed someone who could speak English to les touristes Americains. So there I was behind the counter of a souvenir shop at the height of a Parisian summer earning my keep.

After the summer job ended, my European discovery started. My first stop was merrie olde England. I crossed the English Channel by ferry (the Eurostar had yet to be conceived) and saw the White Cliffs of Dover.

There are many stories and many journeys. Please join me as I tell you more.