Haha! Oh my body was aching from swimming for almost two hours during the event. Whew! I learned the most proper (or scientific?) way of swimming, big thanks to the local CouchSurfing activity I went to.
I do know how to swim a bit since college but I am still no expert so I decided to join the event because... *drumroll* it's free! Oh God bless the people who give happily and freely.
♦ What is CouchSurfing? ♦
Jean-beltran blogged about this website and wrote about the free accommodation we can take advantage of anywhere in the world. I signed up upon reading about it because I was thinking of traveling abroad at the time and seeing it was the perfect timing. Who wouldn't want to save money and make new friends right?
If you search online, you will see that this website was started by Casey Fenton. In 1999 he was able to book a trip to Iceland but had no place to stay so he spam emailed 1,500 local people and got a response from about 50-100 of them. This gave him the idea to start CouchSurfing.com.
Sounds interesting, right? On their website, this is what you'll see:
(Mobile Screencaptures of CouchSurfing.com: ArtGirl via Bitlanders 1, 2)
So not only will you be able to stay with friendly people at a place you've never been to, you will also be able to join local events and make new friends!
♦ The FREE CouchSurfing Event Post ♦
Because I like freebies, I signed up to the site after reading her blog. I've been a CouchSurfing member since January of this year but I've never been to any event and never tried to stay at a CouchSurfer's place yet. Yes I've occasionally checked the site and read some of the event emails they send but nothing ever made me want to socialize at all. Last week however, I saw a FREE event post. I excitedly joined it upon seeing the events notification email after reading the event details. I mean, who wouldn't want to join a free swimming survival class right? Look at the image below, it's so inviting! (^_^)
(Photo credit: ArtGirl via Bitlanders)
21 people confirmed to go, including me, but on the day itself someone backed out. The number of actual people who did go I think was less than 20. We were also told to wear the proper swim attire and to bring goggles and kickboards if we had any.
The venue was at the Marikina Sports Center which I've never been to or ever seen before. I checked Google Maps plus some online reviews and it looked like it's a good place for sports enthusiasts. The facilities seem to be okay based on the reviews and comments, all the more reason to go and swim in the pool!
I'm not a sporty person at all but maybe it's time to change that eh? Haha.
♦ The CouchSurfing Venue and Event Experience ♦
Okay so I got to the place much later than I expected because I didn't think it would take me more than 30 minutes to get to Marikina from Quezon City. Yeah I'm such an optimist that way. Hahaha. It was a Saturday and yet there were still some areas of traffic past 1pm.
• All About the Marikina Sports Center
I rode the jeepney going to Marikina from Anonas/Aurora Blvd., Quezon City. My destination was near the major roads so it's very accessible to everyone.
To know if you've arrived at the right place, this is your landmark: the Marikina Clock Tower at the Cityhood Park.
(Photo credit: ArtGirl via Bitlanders)
Once you see that, behind it will be the venue itself. The entrance though is further from this landmark.
Upon arriving near the fountain and not being able to see any entrance from this striking structure, I asked a street vendor and was told the entrance is some meters away. It looked like it was a bit far from where I was. If I wanted to get in there I had to walk to the entrance, so walk I went towards where they told me to go. Fair enough, at least I was able to see the surrounding area.
Here's a relief sculpture on the side of the complex, along the sidewalk from the clock tower.
(Photo credit: ArtGirl via Bitlanders)
As you can see there are a lot of sport outfitted people walking around. I've never been to a place where I saw a lot of sporty people everywhere I looked. See, it's nice to walk from time to time especially in a new place we've never been to. On Google Maps it looks like I walked around 320 meters from the jeepney drop off point going to the front of the sports complex.
I did some warm up exercises at home in the morning before going there but of course it's still nice to have additional warm up thanks to my walkathon to the front gate. When you're late, you'll just have to make do with what you can. I didn't expect to be late but it's a good thing I did those morning exercises + extra walking to the venue.
(Photo credit via Pixabay)
Anyway, when I got to the entrance I immediately saw an admin area where the cashier and information center is. I paid P50 for the pool entrance and that's it. Fifty pesos! Imagine, just around $1. Haha. I think I love Marikina public/government places now. Yes of course the entire place is paid for by the people's taxes but still the entrance fee is only P50 and you can swim for 3 and half hours! Who would swim for more than 2 hours anyway? I can only last for two hours max even at water spas.
There are locker areas but I didn't avail of it because the lady guard at the information told me there's a small fee so I asked if I could bring my bag inside the pool place instead. She said it's okay so off I went to where the pool is.
Watch this video to know more about the venue.
(Video credit: Jeancheldawnren via YouTube)
When I got to the pool area, I immediately saw how spacious the place is. I mean, so that's how an Olympic size pool really is. I think I've seen an outdoor pool of the same size in a sports club but I didn't really get to look much then so I'm not sure.
The Marikina Sports Center swimming pool area is not outdoors but is inside an enclosed space. It has a skylight, which is good because you also get to see the sky while swimming the backstroke or floating. We were under the roof though so all I could see was the roof structure.
• The Swimming Experience!
Because the swimming area is big, I couldn't clearly see the people at the other end even with my eyeglasses on. Whew. I had to be near the middle or half of the length of the pool before I could make out anyone's face. Once I got near the end I saw a tall Caucasian man giving instructions to those in the pool and so I asked if he was the CouchSurfing instructor. He said yes. Bingo! He gave me a few instructions, I took a shower and went swimming!
Coach Ivan taught us the basics of swimming but his lessons are way different than what my college swimming teacher taught us. I enjoyed the crash course more than I did my college PE swimming classes that I almost failed some years ago. I would probably not have passed the subject back then if not for a classmate I didn't really like, who suddenly came by the pool area during our finals, eventually prompting me to finally get in the water and get it over with. Hahaha.
Anyway here you'll see our coach of the day giving me some instructions.
(Photo credit: Irene/#CSEastManila via Bitlanders)
Eventually I learned that we were not going to do some of the survival swimming lessons because only one person had a kickboard. So what did I learn? Basically most of what's in this video below, plus and minus some swimming practices.
(Video credit: SwimLifePro via YouTube)
I actually learned to do flutter kicks the right way plus the back float with flutter kicks. Oh I love it. I know how to do the front crawl but now I can also do the back float swimming even better. Pretty soon I will be an expert swimmer! Hahahaha.
It was the first time I've ever seen and used a kickboard too! Everybody got to use that one kickboard I think. What a handy tool to learn how to swim.
(Photo credit via Pixabay)
Even if I was late to the event and didn't learn everything, I still learned new things! And because we can learn a lot on YouTube these days, I'm going to continue learning online and go swimming every now and then. :)
By the way, Coach Ivan is a Russian CouchSurfer staying with Irene, the CouchSurfing event organizer. She has another event on June 9 to celebrate the International CouchSurfing Day anniversary which is every June 12th. Since the latter date is a weekday, and it's the Philippine Independence Day too, I think June 9 is indeed a better date to celebrate it. Am not going to that one though.
• The Aftermath
I've never really been tired while swimming until that day. That's the only day I realized that spending more than an hour of real and continuous swimming is tiring! Of course we could rest for a bit every now and then but it was lesson after lesson on what to do next. Wow. Hahaha. Irene eventually told me it was a crash course. Okay. Haha. How else would we learn anyway if we didn't keep swimming?
(Photo credit via Pixabay)
Other people in the group were being taught other lessons too and looked like they were able to swim well already without any assistance from anything or anyone. Eventually our coach told us that the class had ended and we did good and that we can go take a shower and have some pictures taken.
After we all got dressed and dried we had some group pictures taken with the CouchSurfing banner in front of us. Oh yeah. Won't post it here though. Haha.
(Photo credit via Pixabay)
Before going home we ate at a Pares house first for a bit of socializing and of course to replenish our energies. Everybody was friendly and we each got to know a bit about some of our companions. Afterwards we went on home in separate groups. Four of us went and rode a jeepney together since we were all going the same direction.
Even after all the exertion on that free swimming class day I didn't feel any pain in my body yet so I went and did some errands before going home. I slept early too. Waking up the next morning though is a different story, suddenly all my muscles were aching. Ouch. It was painful to move or exert some effort to do anything. Irene did tell me I'd feel the pain the next day. I think I should practice some more swimming this week because I am so out of shape.
On the following day I wasn't feeling much of the pain anymore. Hmmm... looks like the aches and pain was only good for one day. I can swim again in a few days I think. Hurray!
* * * * * * * * * *
How about you? Have you ever tried joining any CouchSurfing event or stayed at a CouchSurfer's place? What do you think about it? Feel free to share in the comments. :)
For more of my other travel and related blogs, click below:
- 5 Things To Do in Five Fingers / Laque (Laki) Beach, Mariveles, Bataan
- 6 Steps to Travel on a Budget like a Local in the Philippines
- 3 Ways to Have Great Photos of You Taken by Other People
- My Seollal (Korean New Year) Experience!
- A Day Well Spent at Incendiary: 8th Philippine International Literary Festival
- A Summer Day at Camayan Beach Resort
- A Quick Look at the Philippine Army Golf Course
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