The Role of Google Earth in an Interracial Relationship

February 21, 2008 by Reah Guevarra
Filed under: Earth, Maps

I had been in a relationship with an American for almost eight months now. We met last year while he was working here in the Philippines. Our getting-to-know-each-other stage was fun. We talked about a lot of things such as our childhood stories, and school experiences, about our families and friends, and the similarities and differences of our culture. We went to several places: in Bulacan, in lo-ilo, in Guimaras, and in some places in Metro Manila. Well, we really couldn’t go to a lot of places since he went here to work. But I made sure he had tasted the Filipino life and had seen the place where I grew up and schools I went to.

He, however, couldn’t bring me to the places where he grew up or tour me in his schools. He only had a few videos and photos to show me, those that were saved online like in his Facebook account—who had known he would have a Filipina girlfriend and show these to her?

So while he was telling me his experiences in places of such and such, all I did was to imagine. I’ve never been to U.S. too.

But one night, when my DSL connection was newly installed, he just had an idea. He opened Google Earth (which I had installed the night before) and typed his address in the search box. And in an instant we had a detailed map of his neighborhood and he then pointed where his house is located. He also showed me locations of the apartments where he stayed, his schools, and even the place where he had learned to drive. Although his area was just shown through a Satellite view, seeing the places where he had been, as if I was flying above them, was an amusing experience. He showed me the cities, the lakes, the places of his relatives. And more amusing it had been when he would say, “Oh that is our trampoline! That’s my grandpa’s school bus! Wow, that’s the ground of my school that got burned.”

Through the interactive map we also went to see the Grand Canyon. We zoomed in and zoomed out, and saw the detailed terrains captured by the satellite. We also saw some different spots of the Grand Canyon through the photos uploaded in Panoramio. We moved to the lakes, and saw more photos there. If not photos, there were background history of such and such, and I even had additional side stories from him. These all made me feel that I was in a tour, and he was my tour guide. Below is a video made by someone who flew over the Grand Canyon using the new Google Earth flight simulator mod.

A few weeks later after that night, he went back to Utah and we’ve been in a long distance relationship since then. We then chat everyday inside Gmail, or in Gtalk; and did some webcam chats using Skype.

And just last Monday, I found out that the place where he grew up now has a Street View in Google Maps. So I quickly typed his address in the search box. Since the Street View was just an approximate to his address, I clicked the arrows to find his house, and compared the house I think was his, to the house he pointed in the Satellite View Map. (I then emailed the link to him and asked if I was right. And he said yes.) Seeing the house where he grew up, as if I was just walking around the neighborhood, made me feel good. I hope though that I will really be walking on this street someday.