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!

Orientation Update

We finished the second week of orientation and the free time this morning has been well deserved! We have been immersed in TEFL teaching training and orientation into Colombian life at a non-stop pace. Thursday of this week was pretty exciting because we visited the US Embassy and the Colombian Ministry of Education. When we got to the Ministerio, we entered a surprise press conference with the minister herself! We were then featured on multiple news outlets yesterday including national TV, online articles, and the front page of “El Tiempo” (The New York Times of Colombia). This was all unexpected but exciting attention.  Heres a link to the article.

This is the picture that was featured on the cover of El Tiempo. The journalists asked us to jump as a joke… guess we can never trust the press : )

Anyways, life is going well. We’ve driven by my school a few times which is very exciting. It looks huge but this makes it very easy to find. Hopefully in the next few days I will find out more about school and my host family. 

Hope all is well in the states! Will update again soon!

First post from Colombia!

Hola! I have safely made it to Cota, Colombia for the first step of my journey- orientation! This the first of only a few times I will have internet, but I have a few updates to share with you. 


1. The weather has been unusually gorgeous which means unusually sunny and warm. This means us gringos have had to lather on the sunblock especially since we are now 8,000 feet above sea level. 


2. We had our first spanish lesson last night and it went well. I am in the beginner group but I feel it will be a perfect balance of challenging and what I already understand. 


3. My fellow volunteers are great. We are a diverse group but mesh really well and I already love them all. 


4. The retreat house has multiple puppies. My favorite is an old yellow lad named Lucas. We snuggled. 


5. We drove by my school placement. It looks huge (2,800 students!) but pretty nice and easy to get to. 


6. There are so many bike paths in Bogota that I cant wait to get a bike and take on the town. 


7. We watched The Two Escobars last night, an ESPN documentary and it was amazing. Highly recommended for everyone. 


8. We also got our first of many salsa lessons last night. I rocked it. 


9. I survived the blood test. Im A positive for all those curious.


10. Miss you all, but I am doing well and really enjoying my first few days embracing life in Colombia!


xoxo

The Ultimate New Year's Revolution- Colombia New Things!

Happy Birthday 2012! I'm sending out my final post state-side, and it's going to be an important one. Usually I don't pay too much time to New Year's resolutions, but this is a special year, and I think I ought to have some goals set for my new South American life.

Many of you readers may already know my dear friend and mentor Trish has a fabulous blog about New Things both at home and while teaching in Jordan for the year. Taking my inspiration from her, I present to you my thoughtful yet still incomplete list of New Things a.k.a challenges a.k.a "resolutions" for my wild ride through 2012. All feedback is welcome and encouraged!

So here it goes...

Learn Spanish: This may sound like a simple one but it may possibly be one of the hardest goals to accomplish. Yes, I'll be immersing myself in the language, but I've failed miserably at all prior attempts to roll my tongue and I certainly hope my American accent is as sexy to the Colombians as Sofia Vergara's is to us

Figure out how to add Spanish accents to words on my keyboard: Ok, this one really should be an easy one. Who knows the secret and can help me out here?

 

Learn to dance the salsa:(Among other dances.) I am in the land of the "hips don't lie" and I intend to come back able to teach all my fellow New Englanders how to get their groove on and "move like you come from Colombia." I promise that's the last  Shakira reference for awhile. 

Stay vegetarian: This one may take some work but should be mostly doable. I'll have to make some exceptions when I don't want to be rude or go hungry. But I think it's important to take some of the values that are most important to you with you to a new place. This will be one of mine. 

Cook a traditional Colombian dish: Speaking of food. I love learning new recipes and I certainly hope to dive into some yummy authentic cuisine. Also to this point I should include avoiding a Bogotano hotspot known as Crepes & Waffles and to branch out from Juan Valdez (aka starbucks) and find a favorite local coffee shop. 

Read 100 years of Solitude: I tried it once and found the book to be very hard to get through. But Gabriel Garcia Marquez is Colombian and I am bringing this with me to try at it again. 

Now for the adventure New Things...

Bogota bike tour! (http://www.bogotabiketours.com/) So this is a cool way to tour Bogota and I'd like to check it out. I covered the basic Bogota attractions last summer when I visited, but I am always game for getting a new perspective of the same place. The main goal for Bogota adventure is finding a groove that feels like normal life and searching for that niche of great culture and community that makes a place home.

Travel to Barranquilla for Carnaval (supposedly the biggest Mardi Gras outside of Brazil!)

Travel to Manizales and the coffee roasting region (The "student labor action movement" girl in me is dying to check out this region and meet the people behind the beans we are so addicted to. 

Travel to Cartegena for some R&R It's beautiful. It's warm. It's historical. 'nuff said.

Travel to Medellin, the city of eternal spring. Recent news says the world's longest escalator was just built there. Dubai's love for everything "world's greatest..." has given me the thirst for all things record-breaking.

Travel to Machu Pichu. Meredith, Eliza and I already have this in the works. Considering Peru will be my neighbor and this is a huge must see/ bucket list kind of place-- now seems as good a time as any. 

Travel to Central America (Panama, Costa Rica?) Companions welcome. Options wide open!

AMAZON! This may be the hardest challenge to accomplish because of the very much still ongoing conflict in Colombia. There are parts that are safe and tourist-friendly. The hard part is getting there. But again, The Amazon is a must see (preferably before all the species are extinct). 

e   That's where I will leave you tonight-- Just 25 hours away from landing at El Dorado airport. This list will grow much more once I find more places to explore. So far I think I have much to look forward to! 

12 Days of... The USA

12 days and counting until I depart for Colombia. In the midst of wrapping, visiting friends, and snuggling with my puppies I've been getting more information about what to expect with my upcoming adventure. 

Today, I found out my school placement! In Bogota, I will be teaching English to grade 6th - 11th at Colegio El Minuto de Dios. This roughly translates as "God's minute" or "Minute of God" school. If you want to test your Spanish skills, you can check out the website. All the information I have received has been in Spanish, so it's been fun to get used to that. What I've learned so far is that (perhaps you could guess) it is a Catholic school run by priests for a diverse group of students from around Bogota. Also, since I can translate numbers pretty well ;) I see that my hours of teaching will be from 6:16am- 1:30pm. woof. That will take some getting used to, but I suppose I am a morning person. 


More is still to come about my host family and other details important to my new everyday life. Here in NH, I've been spending lots of time with my adult ESL students after class. These guys love to dance and eat (hence why we are friends) so I was invited to two lunches at a local yummy Mexican restaurant. We had a yankee swap yesterday and next week we are moving the party to Amelia's house so we have more space to dance. Quite a few of my new friends are Colombian, so it's been great to practice my Spanish with them and learn some Colombian idioms. First priority is learning my favorite snack food in espanol- which is apparently very popular in Bogota- Maiz pira which means POPCORN! I can probably survive without the peanut butter and goldfish if I get a steady diet of popcorn regularly.

My new friends at "La Carreta"

Yankee Swapping- Carlos (from Bogota) snagging the vase from Jing.

Now I'm off to finish up the traditional Bailey red velvet cake and make stuffed mushrooms for dinner tonight. Feliz Navidad!

Two Weeks Notice

Big things are happening with just two weeks left in the USA. My passport just came back with a shiny new Colombian visa inside. Yesterday I visited with my dear friend Matt and caught up with my fellow WorldTeach volunteer Natalie. I've also been running errands and making sure everything is squared away for the year. Packing is a pain because A) I am very bad at it and B) airlines have obnoxious limitations that make no sense. I was pretty excited to put to good use my massive bright-red-Hawaiian-flower-print LLBean duffle bag circa 2001. But alas, due to about 3 inches, I'll have to bring my boring, boxy suitcase instead. 

I've almost reached my fundraising goal. My last total was $1,745 out of $2,000. This is a huge help, and I really appreciate all those that donated big and small. 

The big news from this week has been the conclusion of my volunteer teaching in two ESL classrooms. After my last day in middle school tomorrow, I will post about all that I have learned through this experience. All I can say now is that I hope my students in Colombia will be even half as cool and inspiring as my students here (which no doubt they will be)! Hopefully in the next few days I will find out more about the school and grade I will be at in Bogota. 

In two weeks I'll be kissing goodbye to icy New England and saying hola to my new life in the Andes!

Viva Bogota!

Less than three weeks to go and I am so relieved to know I will be living in the capital city of Bogota! There are a handful of options for placements and my only request was to be in the interior of the country (as opposed to the hot, tropical coast). This is how WorldTeach describes Bogota for us:

Bogotá is located near the center of Colombia in the Andes mountains. It is the capital and largest city in Colombia with a diverse mix of people and a population of  nearly 8 million – the size of New York City.  Colombians from Bogotá are known to be very lively, friendly, and on-the-go. The economic disparity of Colombia is easily viewed in Bogotá, a city that has wealthy neighborhoods with upscale shopping malls and eateries to extremely impoverished areas and everything in between. The weather in Bogotá varies a lot, from cold jacket weather to t-shirt and jeans weather. It can be compared to the spring or fall in the northern U.S. with cooler rainy days or warmer sunny days depending on the season. 

The big city between the mountains.

 This isn't completely unfamiliar to me since I visited Bogota for ten days during the summer of 2010. My strongest memory was probably of how COLD it was in August. So I won't be shy about packing my sweaters and other typical Vermont styles I rock so well. This also means that I get a head start on the whole adjustment thing since I have fabulous Mayis and Natalia (friends from my Washington Semester Program) so close by!

Maria and me with Bogota in the background. It's cold and foggy- Just like VT!

I still don't know what school or grade I will be with yet and will hopefully find this out next week. I'm loving my volunteer classrooms so much that it will be hard to say goodbye to my students here next week. 

It's finally starting to set in now that my city in confirmed and I've started to chat with my fellow volunteers. Also dear friends,  start planning your vacation now! Jet Blue even flies there! : )