A day with Anne
Media
Part of The Carolinian
- Title
- A day with Anne
- Creator
- Seville, Joy
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1966
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- “I WANT TO PROMOTE understanding between the Philippines and the United States, and I want to learn more about this beautiful country.” It’s wonderful to hear such remarks from Anne Lilia Varney, a 16-year old student of Westchester High School, Los Angeles, California, who is presently in Cebu City as an exchange American Field Service scholar. Those who have had the pleasant experience of talking with her have noticed her conservative views of life which are quite different from our concept of an American teenager. Anne Lilia Varney, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Justin Varney, is Cebu’s first American Field Service student who is taking AB in this University. She is amazed to find herself having eight subjects in comparison to her five subjects at Westchester High. Her knowledge of Spanish and Italian languages is a help to her, since AFS Bureau requires all applicants to learn at least one foreign language. AFS puts this as a must, so to lessen the student’s language problem in a place where she is assigned. However, Anne needed a few weeks in order to adjust herself to our way of speaking her language. We do have the grammar but our accent is undeniably different. Actually, her fondest desire is to learn our Cebuano dialect. This talented and charming person loves to cook, read history books, and sing folk songs. Surprisingly, she doesn’t go for the Beatles. She rather listen to Ian and Sylvia. Anne’s talent for music is shown everytime she plays her autoharp, a unique instrument which she takes along wherever she goes. It has become a part of her. Anne is staying with the Pelaez family, (Atty. & Mrs. Fulvio Pelaez) for the duration of her one year stay. The host family is fascinated at her varied impressions on things which we take for granted. Anne marvels at our ever green sceneries. It is a sign of rich natural resources, she observes. She had the thrilling experience at seeing tartanilla and jeepney drivers recklessly driving, unmindful of the safety of the pedestrians. She wonders everytime she sees our boys holding hands while walking in the street. In her country, holding hands is natural with a boy and a girl. Our food is all right with her except one preparation she called "blood pudding”, which is actually our native dinugo-an. In the beginning, Anne couldn’t understand why there was so much rice in a Filipino meal. But she is learning fast. Anne is looking forward to a visit in our slum area. She believes that this is one of the ways by which she can understand the problems of this country. We hope that when Anne ends her onevear stay here, she will appreciate Cebu City and will bring home varied enjoyable experiences. FOG (UP IN BUSAY) Fog felled from stars' feet Intrude when the sun is dead. Motionless as a lover. Finally creeping loose Elope with the same impatient wind nevermore to be seen. —Margie Ong AB-IV Page Eighteen THE CAROLINIAN Aug.-Sept., 1966