Sun Umbrella

My parents-in-law are now home in Michigan. They left yesterday early morning. Tomorrow, my work schedule and my husband's school schedule conflicts (again), and that means he can't take me to work. Should I say that the day has finally come that I have to ride shuttle bus to take me to my work place? I don't know. We will see what will happen tomorrow. We can ask my husband's cousin, Annette, to take me to work though, but deep inside of me is that I really want to try to ride the shuttle bus going to work. I want to be independent. However, I have worries. What if I can't make it on time to my work place? How long do I have to wait on the road (under the sun) before the shuttle bus will pass by? Thinking about the burnt skin I will have made me say "Never mind the shuttle bus. I will ride with Annette." I don't have sun umbrella; and even if I had, I will not feel comfortable using it because nobody does here in Florida. They would think that you are silly for using umbrella against the nice sun rays.
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This is something that my husband (and most of the Americans) can't understand. Asians like me don't want to be under the sun. We avoided it as much as possible. Our skin easily get burn and wrinkled from sun exposure. Unlike the fair-skinned Americans, it takes time before we regain our true skin color. That is why, if you go to the Asian country, particularly Philippines and Japan, all women, even men, used sun umbrellas when we go out during the hot day.
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Another thing is that American women who have sun-tanned skin symbolizes their social activities in life, while Asians who have fair skin symbolizes higher status in life. The funny thing is that, Americans are trying to fake their skin by going to tanning parlor, while Asians are manipulating their skin by using whitening lotion. Crazy, huh?