Settling in

Finally I have moved into my new home in the Minuto De Dios neighborhood of Bogota. The last few days have been a little hectic, and there’s been many surprises. I moved in with my host mom, Luz Maria Sunday morning and was followed a few hours later by Emile (the other volunteer at my school). Her host family backed out and lucky for her Luz Maria had an extra room. It’s been great having another American roomie to explore and get adjusted with. Luz Maria is awesome but speaks very fast so I will hopefully pick up Spanish quickly. 

I’ll give a whole tour of our abode in the future, right now I’ll give you a taste with a picture of my bedroom (yes, the walls do give a small shout out to my college days) and the view of our street. 

Please note fleece on bed and pics on wall-- some things never change.

Quaint view from my window. Pics of the front of my house coming soon!

The neighborhood is really nice and I feel comfortable walking around by myself and even at night. Its literally three streets away from school which officially makes this my favorite commute ever. (It’s about the walk of Lyons to Jean Marie my SMC friends). Also speaking of SMC, there’s a strange man that blows whistles while bike riding all day long. We can’t figure out why yet. But it sure does remind me of Orientation whistles. The neighborhood is also right off the Transmilenio which is a bus-metro system that I have yet to try but am sure I will be talking advantage of often. The neighborhood is also not far from the “Zona Rosa” and “Zona T” districts where there is lots going on day and night. 

I have training at the school this week which hasn’t exactly been the most informative yet. The training is for all 100+ teachers and of course it is in Spanish.  I have met some great English teachers that I hope to be working with.  I should have my full schedule tomorrow. I have to get it soon because classes start Monday. 

So internet at Luz Maria’s house is a little funky- only one computer can be signed on at a time so we have to ask permission to unplug Luz Maria’s laptop. The school has wi-fi but I’m pretty sure things like Facebook and blogger are blocked.  We’ll have to see how that works out. 

As you can see, many things  are still up in the air. I know that this first week is one of the hardests because I haven't quite gotten into a routine yet. I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead, and you can look forward to more and more updates in the next few days about the house, school, friends, and my updated New Things list.

Chao!