Abridged

1. Bought milk at the supermarket yesterday. It's usually served here either mixed with chocolate or this bizarre oatmeal combo, so I wanted it just plain. Doesn't nearly compare to the bounty produced by those fine Wisconsin cows. In my mind, I knew this, but it was rather disappointing to actually confirm.

2. There are two considerably sized spiders on my wall right now and I am not remotely concerned about them.

3. Two people told me I look like Britney Spears the other day. WTF.

4. Glo has surgery tomorrow. I'm going to try to suck up as much as I can while she's recouping, so obviously her love for me will grow.

5. I've started going on runs in our neighborhood when I wake up. Gets pretty dull without my ipod and running only in about 5 square block area (nothing like US city blocks either, small blocks) but it feels great to get out and be moving. Can tell most of the people in the neighborhood are wondering what the crazy white girl is doing with her tomato red face.

6. Should go start preparing my first class for Saturday, which I've meant to be doing for the past 3 hours. Whoops.

Fotos!

A selection of pictures from Bucaramanga so far!!

My welcome sign

Pei, Me and MakiOur house!
My bed (don't question the Heineken beadspread)

Classrooms in Colombo!
Our house is right by the army base in Bucaramanga, and apparently the Battalion marching band likes to practice by waking up everyone in a 5 block radius and infuriating anyone trying to drive down the street.Juanes :)

Progress

Today, not only did Glo (Molly and I have decided it's the most appropriate nickname) allow me to put Juanes down for his nap (I snatched him away from Carlos and he fell asleep in my arms) she also handed him over when I returned from being out, asking him if he wanted to come see me, which obvi he did.

AND when I told her I wasn't feeling well (I think my tummy has become confused by the food here) she made me this tea that is supposed to calm a stomachache.

We are totes going to be BFF by the time I leave here.

My first lesson

Today I got to teach a bit in the Level 4 class I've been observing! We were talking about preferences and how to express them, like 'I'd rather' and 'I'd prefer.' We went through several different exercises and they were all paying attention well and mostly getting the right answers. They're at the point where they can ask questions to clarify and can follow even if they don't catch every word.

Several students ended the lesson by using their new vocabulary to say 'I prefer Teresa to Teacher' (they all call the teachers Teacher). We'll see if my age (I'm only a few years older than them) and American-ness stay a hot commodity or if it wears off fast.

As of now though, I'm quite popular!

Edward Cullen, I may want to marry you

Today was my first really good day here. Pei and I successfully took the bus not once, not twice, but THREE times (to work, back home for lunch/siesta, back to work) without getting lost. We have realized the trick is to check if they go by Parque Bolivar, which is the park our school is on. Sometimes they say yes and we're not quite sure if they mean it (the city has a lot of parks so maybe they get confused and just pretend to know what they're talking about) but every one of them today did, in fact, mean it. No more sketch rides up the mountain for us.

We got home efficiently after observing our morning class. I was sitting in on level one, which is what I'm (supposedly) teaching on Saturday. To small children. Level 1 students may have some previous English experience, or none at all. It should be interesting. The teacher I was watching today had a weird British-esque accent but thought he was speaking like an American. I wasn't sure if I should tell him or not.....He was also convinced my hair was blonde even though I assured him several times it is, in fact, brown, like most other people's here.

Lunch was delicious as usual, followed by a delightful siesta where I actually fell asleep. Then we went back to school to observe our second class. After that, Pei and I went to get a snack with another teacher (JP speaks legit British English cuz he lived in England for several years) where we practiced our Spanish. I know he was saying easy things and talking slow, but I could understand most of what he said! We need to make people do that for us more often. We met up with Maki (she always speaks to us in English) and I found myself starting to think of how to respond in Spanish when she asked me a question, although she was talking in English. Maki, Pei and I then went to see Twlight, which I'm not gonna lie, I quite enjoyed. The books are a guilty pleasure but I thought the movie would be just atrocious. I was pleased to find that was not so.

I'm glad we've been so busy lately, it makes me happy to feel like I'm doing something useful. And makes me look forward to the weekend!!

Colombo

So yesterday was our first encounter with Colombo. The school seems very nice. Extremely clean, lots of classrooms, a cafeteria, library, computer lab, auditorium, tv room. The woman we met with yesterday, Marissa, is actually called the Academic Coordinator and she does not seem too great at coordinating to me. Maki told us she´s new to the job and has never worked with interns placed by AIESEC before, which could explain some of the confusion. She sat us down like we were being interviewed and asked us for copy of our resume and what our teaching experience was. Pei has actually done some teaching before, but I haven´t. I told her I have plenty of experience with kids, but generally just of the playing varriety rather than the teaching/learning variety. She looked midly shocked at this revelation, which I can´t quite understand. She was the one who interviewed and accepted me (does this not mean you´ve already seen my resume???), so my qualifications should be no surprise whatsoever.

We got directions on how to take the bus home and then what bus to catch to take back here this morning. We asked our roommate Lorena where we can catch it by our house, and she told us. We had to walk several blocks down the hill in our neighborhood, then catch it going around the roundabout at the bottom. Seemed fairly self explanitory.

I spent the rest of the evening watching the Colombian news (didn´t understand much--although I did catch the story about the parasailer who got caught on a power line and had to be rescued, but that may have been solely due to the visuals....) I was going to skype with Carly before bed and was signing on when the internet signal disappeared. It stopped working and our network no longer came up. I went out into the living room, where the rest of my roommates had been trying to make the internet work on Oscar´s computer (he wasn´t here when the internet men came to set it up.) It didn´t work for him, so they decided this was because something was wrong with the network. Carlos had called the company and gotten them to give us a new one. They gave me the new password, and it would say I was connected, but it wouldn´t load any pages.

Carlos and I messed around on it for about a half an hour, turning it off and on several times, with no results. He then got BACK on the phone with the internet company for another round of obscure configuration changes and turning off/on. The woman helping us kept coming to the conclusion that it was something wrong with my computer causing the problem, and Carlos kept having to tell her that it had worked perfectly just before, on the other network. She had us change the password twice, and then it finally worked. I was fairly nervous for awhile that they were just going to be like oh well sorry it doesn´t work, but Carlos was very persistent.

So this morning we got up at 7:30 (got to start getting on a schedule!!) to eat breakfast and then get to work. We walked down to the roundabout and our bus came almost right away. We were pros at paying the right fare and were quite proud of ourselves for figuring it out.....that is until we started leaving downtown and started driving up the mountain. At first we thought we were maybe only going up a little ways, and then back down, until the driver didn´t stop. We passed where we had gone the other night to look out over the city, and kept going. It was clear that this was NOT in fact, the right bus. The ride was supposed to take 15 mintues, and it was probably a half an hour before we started coming back down. We ended up back where we started, but the driver insisted he went down Carrera 22, where Colombo is. We finally realized this was not in fact the case, got off and bus, and hopped a taxi. Tomorrow I think we´re going to need Lorena to show us how to do it.

I´ve got to go observe class now, but I´ll finish writing about the day tonight!

Is this normal??

I was up late last night Skyping and Facebook/Gchatting with many of you, so I slept in quite late today. There hasn't been much for us to do around here and the AIESECers started class today. Pei and I were pretty much just hanging around our house waiting for lunch (I missed breakfast since I slept in so late.) I have enjoyed the food so far. Both our housekeeper and Gloria seem to be good cooks. Lunch is the largest meal of the day (dinner is quite small), so we had rice, meatballs, potatoes, plantains and fruit.

After lunch we were watching TV (50 First Dates in Spanish, I've never seen it so I wasn't quite following) when Gloria called me downstairs. What insued was a series of interactions where I only understood approximately 25% of what she said to me. I believe the first point was that I need to make my bed so the housekeeper can sweep and mop my floor. This did not make much sense to me, because regardless of whether or not my bed is formally made, the bedspread still touches the floor and she still has to move it to clean. Nevertheless, I complied and pulled my sheets up in an orderly fashion. Then she proceeded to tell me not to put my kleenex box on the floor by my bed (I think because bugs could crawl in it? we have lots of little ants around our house) and that I needed to move my towel hooks from the wall to the back of my door and had I bought those here or brought them from the US?

I am sitting on my bed on my computer while she is hovering around and the housekeeper is on her hands and knees moving my suitcases from under my bed so she can clean under it. I am NOT used to having someone clean my room like this and it was quite awkward. I really would just prefer to do it myself, but I don't know if it would be rude to ask if I can. I asked the housekeeper if I should put my bags somewhere else to make it easier for her, so Gloria decided I should put one inside the other and now it's standing in the corner of my room. How this is any better, I do not know, but I'm certainly not going to move it again.

Then Gloria proceeded to open every drawer in my oversized desk, looking for what I'm not sure. One of the bottom drawers contained plastic shopping bags from the supermarket, that I was saving for the garbage can. She took them all out, folded them into tiny triangles, and put them all back. She FOLDED them into TRIANGLES. Apparently the triangles are common, but why did she feel the need to go through my drawers in the first place?!?! THEN she took my makeup bag that had been sitting innocently on the desktop and told me I had to put it in a drawer so things looked neat. Like, seriously?! Woman, I know you own this house but this is MY room. I am paying you money for it!! If my makeup case bothers you DON'T COME IN HERE.

So basically I am terrified of Gloria. She talks to Pei and I as if we should understand every word she utters, which is clearly not the case. I was overjoyed to get out of the house when we went to go see Centro Colombo Americano, where we'll be working. We met Maki (our TN manager, and for all of you who don't know what a TN manager is it's the local girl from AIESEC who got us our jobs here and has helped us with everything; for all of you who don't know what AIESEC is, I will explain it another day) there and we met with the director lady of Colombo. We found out that my visa process is far enough along that I can start work on Saturday, but neither of us will start full time until February. This is rather unfortunate since we don't have much else to be doing besides spending money at this point.

I have two more rants from today that I must share, but I think that was enough for one post and I must get to bed. We're going to observe a class at Colombo tomorrow (then hopefully watch the inaguration!!!) so I've got to get up early.

Besos!!!

The internet has arrived.

Addendum to previous post: I forgot to write that one of the AIESECers was asking me about the election and upcoming inauguration. He told me that I looked like I voted for George W. Bush (nevermind that I wasn't even old enough to vote in the last election, when Bush actually was a candidate.) I said excuuuuuuuuse me?!?! He eventually caught on that I was extremely offended by his assumption and told me he'd cook me and the other trainee dinner to make up for it.

We just got wireless installed in our house this morning!!! It is remarkably fast (much faster than that of the computers at internet cafes) and will hopefully turn out to be more reliable than the internet at Pi Phi. Don't know if there's chicken wire in the walls here to screw over the signal....

The other people that live with us are slowly returning from vacation so it is getting busier around here. They all seem friendly and most don't speak English, so hopefully that will be good practice for me. The downside to the increased activity is my room is on the first floor, right next to the living room/dining room/kitchen. I can pretty much hear everything people say out there (not that I understand much) and any loud noises (vacuuming, etc.) We also have several ridiculously obnoxious birds that love to make their presence known in the early hours. And, since you all know how much I love animals, you can imagine my joy at discovering we also have 2 dogs. They are generally disgusting but one is blind and the other seems pretty indifferent to most things that go on here, so they don't really do much. It seems we already have a mutal understanding to stay away from one another.

Besides the noise, my room is fairly comfortable. Plenty of room for all my clothes (told you Mama) and a HUGE desk that I will probably not have much use for. I'm wishing I had brought more pictures and homey things to decorate with though. I'll have to see how expensive getting pictures printed here is, so I can paste some familiar faces on my walls. My bed is quite hard (maybe even too hard for you, Daddy), since the mattress is so thin you can feel the wood bed frame through it. I'm going to see if I can get a cheap foam pad for it or something, because I think I will walk like an 80 year old if I sleep like this for 6 months.

I think it will take a bit of time before I feel like I really LIVE in this house. Gloria is not overwhelmingly friendly. I'm not sure if that's because she thinks I'm a dumb American or if she's just not too motherly. Usually when she talks to me it's to tell me not to do something (like put my water in the fridge or rinse my plate in the sink, since she wants leftovers to feed the dogs). I need to figure out how to get on her good side, which is strange for me because adults generally find me enjoyable. We'll see how that goes. There are a lot of things I have to adjust to here, it seems.

Today I think I'm going to go with the AIESECers to get a cell phone (there are two different carriers and you have to pay more to call between them. Some people have 2 phones, one on each. It's odd.) They'll have to advise me which one to get.

Now that I have internet at home, it will be lots easier to stay in touch with you all. I'd like to hear familiar voices so Skype dates soon are mandatory!!

Mas

I´m still working on getting settled here but I think I´m going to like it in my house. I wasn´t sure how I felt about living with Gloria, but I think it´s a good scenario because she only speaks Spanish. Same with our maid, and the only other boarder there right now (many are still on vacation since classes haven´t started up again) only speaks a tiny bit of English. All of the AIESECers are pretty fluent, so last night when we hung out with them we basically talked in English the entire time. I think I´m going to need to put my foot down and insist that we speak in Spanish, otherwise I´m never going to learn it properly. I have realized how much vocab I´ve forgotten, though. I can´t seem to find the words for the most basic things!

Last night after eating dinner at home of an empanada, juice and some cookies (dinner here is very small, lunch is the large meal) Pei and I went to meet up with Maki and a few other AIESECers. It was supposed to be Latin night at this place we went called LaLa, but they didn´t really play much salsa or merengue. It was still fun though, to meet everyone, even if they spoke to us only in English. I don´t know if it´s just because we were there or they normally get like this (I´ve heard Colombians don´t really drink much) but quiiiiite a few of them were puking. It was charming.

Minus all the people getting sick, we had a fun time (note to Mom and Dad: I know it will probably be tough for you to come to terms with the fact that I am legally allowed into bars without one of you present. It will be ok.) We met two gay guys (one used to be an AIESECer) and Pei and I both fell in love. They were both HILARIOUS and fun to dance with. All the girls were worried about us not realizing they were gay, but really it was really not tough to figure out. And that is precisely why we both liked dancing with them so much. Hopefully they will become good friends! Right before the place closed, several cops came in and were IDing people. They didn´t approach us, but I found it funny that that actually happens here.

I have to go to the store now to pick up shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toilet paper (we all have to buy our own in our house) etc, but I will hopefully be on again soon. We´re going to ask when the internet will be arriving when we get home.

Love/miss you all!!

He llegado!!!

Don´t have much time to write, but I´m here safely!!! My flights to Houston and Bogota (I got an entire exit row to myself for the redeye, it was bomb) were uneventful. After arriving in Bogota at 5am, I spent a glorious 7 hours waiting for my connection (the plane-coming domestically-was almost an hour late. I have a feeling this is indicative of many situations I will encounter here.) At least the Bogota airport was very nice, had a Dunkin´Donut for breakfast. Not nearly as high on the sketch factor as the Lima airport was.

Once on the plane, it was a short flight I mostly dozed through due to my basic lack of sleep the night before. I landed in the airport in Bucaramanga, TINY compared to Bogota. We deboarded onto the tarmac and I got my first taste of the WARMTH. It´s safe to say it´s at least 100 degrees warmer here than when I left MN. And it is fabulous. My bags (which Daddy, I could carry just fine by myself, thanks very much) where a few of the first off the plane. My slight feeling of panic that had developed since boarding for Bucaramanga subsided as soon as I saw Diana aka Maki, my TN manager, Pei, the other trainee, and 2 other AIESECers waiting for me with a welcome sign and snack.

We drove around the sourrounding town a bit, took some pictures and stopped for lunch. Then we were dropped off at our house (I will tell more about it later) for my desperately needed nap and shower. My housemom-type lady Gloria (we´ll see if she gives Shirley a run for her money) brought up getting internet in our house at dinner, so hopefully we will do that and I won´t have to spend loads at this internet cafe.

I gotta go, but once final note of utmost importance: Gloria is an abuela. Juanes is 4 months. He fussed when I left him to come here.

JACKPOT.

Bon Vogage

I leave for the airport in about an hour....visa-less (never did make it to Chicago, got a call from the consulate yesterday, first contact I got from them after calling for 2 straight weeks; awesome.) I'm getting it in Bogota, after I settle in Bucaramanga.

Right now I'm finishing up packing, trying to even out the weight in my bags, one of which is a few pounds over weight. And trying not to vomit.

The adventure begins.

T-1 hour til Colombia.

A delicate balance

I'm trying extremely hard to maintain my sanity and prevent my mind from wandering into full-fledged panic mode. At this point I flit occasionally over the line that separates my rational, calm (that knows it will all be fine, eventually) side from my WHAT-THE-HELL-COULD-YOU-POSSIBLY-BE-THINKING side.

The departure of my first second-semester-traveling friend has made it all seem more real (No I did not cry saying bye to Brenna thankyouverymuch, as you all seem to be insinuating that I would lose it.) I AM leaving the country in 10 days. Not only do I have a whole host of things to take care of around home before I depart, I also need to make it to Chicago for my visa, which I'm told by anyone I know who's tried to obtain one that it is one of the most infuriating and impossible processes known to man. I'm told everything is taken care of on AIESEC's end, so it's up to the Colombian Consulate to get their shit together and give me permission to live and work in their country for six months. So, looking forward to THAT.

Every item I cross off my list slows the racing of my heart a bit. This is reassuring for now, until next week when I will undoubtedly think of about 20 additional things I should have been taking care of in this last week. For now though, I suppose this will have to be good enough. On the bright side, I found out today I can teach in jeans and casual tops. This eases a bit of stress on the wardrobe front.....although I'm still struggling with the 'it's hot during the day but cold at night' philosophy for packing. I HATE packing. And shoes. I don't even know where to begin. 'Bring comfortable shoes, since you'll be walking a lot' is not useful advice for someone who owns probably 15 pairs of flats that are generally not overly comfortable nor good for walking long distances. Faaaaaaaack.

T - 10 days to Colombia.