Wednesday, January 20, 2010

As I may have mentioned, we are privileged to have a small lap pool in the basement of our apartment building. About 1.5 meters deep and 22 m long, our pool lacks the glitz of Victoria Park’s outdoor 50 m long one, but it suffices for intermediate swimmers like myself. Today I went down with a quick 30-minute swim in mind, and stumbled on one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had yet.

I walked in on a young woman essentially thrashing around in the water. I smiled and said hello, and she smiled, embarrassed, and told me to go ahead and swim; she would stay out of my way. I proceeded to start my laps, and about 5 minutes in I realized she was standing still at one end of the pool, staring at me openmouthed.

Now, I’m not one to enjoy being gawked at. Sure, I’ve danced onstage about a thousand times, but that’s voluntary self-display. I awkwardly nodded at her and hoped she would get the hint. She did not, so I decided to strike up a conversation. After establishing that she was from India and working on her masters in marketing here, she blurted, “You swim like a fish.” Given we were in the middle of a chat about the recession, I was completely taken aback.

I asked her what she meant, and she repeated, “You swim like a fish. I splash around noisily and you swim like a fish.” A few more minutes of conversation yielded the following details about her:

The young woman, whose name I can’t currently remember, grew up in a middle class family in India. She went through college there, and then decided to move to California for a year to take a stab at independence and a master’s degree. Due to the recession, she was unable to find work and struggled to make ends meet. On a whim, she decided Sydney looked promising, and more importantly, sunny. She never learned to swim properly, especially having grown up in a part of India with barely any water to drink, let alone swim in. She said she likes to swim, but she’s easily embarrassed by her lack of technique.

I wouldn’t classify myself as an especially good swimmer, but I would say that I’m a graceful swimmer, like my Mom. Evidently, she hadn’t been exposed to swimming like this many times before. After our conversation faded a little, she asked if she could keep watching me. She was truly impressed by my meager finesse in the water.

As I resumed my laps, it dawned on me that not everyone in the world learns to swim at summer camp, has high school sports, and owns a TV to watch Michael Phelps on. This thought may seem juvenile, but it was a big wake-up call for me to recognize that people from all over the world live their lives so differently. Yes, my anthropological studies have highlighted this, but it was especially interesting to me that people of similar socioeconomic statuses can have such different lifestyles. I would be devastated if I could never float in the ocean again. This woman probably wouldn’t notice.

Fortunately, she lives in the building, so I’ll likely run into her again. My friend Daniel has offered to teach one of our other friends how to swim, so I told the young woman she was welcome to join us. She seemed excited about this idea.

With that said, I’m off to continue this thought in Anthropology class. I expected to go about my day undisturbed, as usual, but like always, the most interesting experiences we have are the ones we stumble upon blindly. Can’t wait to see what I’ll learn tomorrow!