What did you do last weekend?

I went paragliding, whitewater rafting, caving, and rappelling in the amazing Colombian wilderness with three fabulous friends from home. Jealous?

Erin and Amanda arrived in Bucaramanga last Tuesday and Liz followed from Bogota on Wednesday. Seeing familiar faces was unbelievably fabulous. I love my friends here, but there is something about being with people that really, truly KNOW you that was exactly what I needed.

Last Thursday, we went for a semi-failed hike in the morning (we couldn't exactly find the right path) and then headed up the mountain to the paragliding place. We were early, but they let us in to relax until the guide got there. There was an Alaskan dude who moved to B/manga to learn how to paraglide that was also around, and not gonna lie having an English speaker explain what was going to happen was certainly comforting (my Spanish vocabulary doesn't really extend to paragliding.)


The actual feeling of paragliding is hard to describe....Once I was in the air I actually wasn't nervous at all about being suspended nearly 1000 feet in the air by several canvas buckles and a large parachute. Since the guide does everything to steer, all you really have to do is sit there. Looking down at the ground totally messed with your mind, because it didn't look like it was that far below, until you remember that what you were seeing was actually the tops of the trees and the ground was considerably further below that. All in all, one of the sweetest 15 minutes I've spent in my life, and it cost less than $25!!!

Friday Liz, Erin, Amanda and I traveled to San Gil, which is a town about 2 hours outside B/manga that is considered 'the adventure capital of Colombia.' It's a pretty touristy place and has tons of extreme activities. We found our way easily from the bus terminal to our hotel, where we settled into our larger than necessary room while our duena set up rafting and caving excursions for us for the day. It was so easy to do everything because all we had to do was tell her what we wanted and she made the reservations for us, which included transportation from the hotel to all the sites.

Whitewater rafting was fun, but definitely not one of the rowdiest rivers I've been on. The rapids were pretty tame cuz it's off season, so the most thrilling part was probably when we jumped off the raft on purpose and floated at a brisk pace down the river for awhile. It was also the only time I've rafted where there was essentially no safety talk given before we took off. Good thing I've done it plenty before, and that Amanda is a rafting guide in Montana during the summers.

We returned to the hotel to change out of wet clothes and grab a quick lunch before heading out to the caves. Probably the most unsuccessful meal I've had here as of yet, seeing as it involved some suuuuper sketch soup, mushy spaghetti, yuca (which I usually like, except not when there is an ant crawling on it), and an ENTIRE fish presented on my plate. After washing down all those unappealing tastes with some ice cream, we were ready for our caving adventure.


Out of all the things we did I think caving might have been my favorite. We had to drive up the mountain and then hike down to where the entrance of the cave was. Everything was natural, none of it man made at all, which is unbelievable. Our guia Leonardo didn't speak any English and I'm pretty sure he thought we were absolutely ridiculous, but we had quite a good time with him. Caving involved crawling around in the pitch black with only a flashlight to guide us, sometimes having to slid on our stomachs to get through the low parts, and wading through thigh-deep clay water for about 100 meters. After emerging from the cave, we jumped off a cliff outside into a pool of the same dirty clay water below. I did it twice.


After all this excitement our nasty lunch was forgotten and we were eager to get back to the hotel to clean up and get some real food (and beer.) I took my first hot shower in TWO MONTHS and it was probably the most glorious thing ever. Once we were all clean, we headed out on the town (if one can actually do that in San Gil) to find pizza and beer. We had a leisurely dinner followed by a drink in the main plaza of the city. Since we had to be up again the next day for more extreme activities, we went to bed at about 10pm.

The next morning, after a breakfast of the most obscene fruit salad I've ever had (came served in a banana split dish with gobs of whipped cream and some unknown jelly-ish frosting thing) we headed on our rappelling adventure. We had to stop at the office of the place in the next town over, then were dropped at the top of the mountain we had to hike down a bit to get to the rappelling site.

Out of all the things I did last weekend, I think this one was actually the most terrifying thing I've ever done in my life. Rappelling instructions given by teenagers in Spanish were only mildly comforting assurances that I would not in fact be dropped to my death off the precipice below. We had to go one at a time, and each of us almost cried before it was our turn. The guide at the bottom had the other end of the rope, in case you lost control while lowering yourself down (you had to feed the rope through the carebeaner yourself, to move.)

There were several different faces we went down, separated by huge holes and small platforms. When you got to the small holes, we were semi-upsidedown and the guides thought it was immensely funny to yank the ropes so we swung into the cave and then out over the waterfall. At the bottom one, they also enjoyed holding our ropes so we couldn't move ourselves out of the torrents of water they stuck us under.

At the end I was ready to do it again, so I could actually enjoy it instead of borderline peeing my pants the entire time. After a long wait for our transport back to town, we made it back to the hotel to quickly clean up and pack so Amanda and Erin could catch a bus back to Bogota for their flight back to the US on Sunday. Liz and I then took a bus back to B/manga, where she stayed with me until early Monday morning. Glo was totally nonchalant about her staying with me, which was completely shocking to me.

Now I just gotta make it through the next week and a half of this session and I'm headed to the coast (with the rest of the country) for Semana Santa!!!

Spreading my Irish Heritage

St. Patty's night out, where I forced all my friends to wear green. We went for drinks at our favorite restaurant (they do whatever we want because we're foreigners) where of course they dyed our beer green upon request. It was excellent.

Yesterday I ate an ant

I haven't been blogging lately cuz I've actually been feeling pretty annoyed/frustrated/upset and I didn't really feel like venting out into the blogosphere. It probably would have helped, but oh well. I am feeling better now but to be brief, I'll say the frustration was caused by a (still) lack of seeing any of my salary, generally unhelpfullness/insensitivity of the AIESECers and the theft of my camera (you know how much I love taking pictures.)

My mood has much improved over the past few days though, as a result of two events. Firstly, the approaching visit of LIZ and ERIN in Bucaramanga!!! Erin is on Wisco spring break and has headed back to the motherland (Colombia, obvi) for a visit. She spent last summer in Cartagena. Liz, who lives in Bogota, is also journeying here to experience the adventure activities in the area. Erin and her friend get in tonight and Liz is coming tomorrow. I could not be more excited to see familiar faces.

I am also in better spirits after a visit to Parque Nacional de Chicamocha, one of the largest tourist attractions in the area. It's about an hour away by bus and is basically this national park on the top of a mountain over looking a large canyon. The biggest attraction is the brand new Teleferico (gondola) that goes across the canyon. Pei and I went with another coworker and had quite a fabulous time. The park is beautiful, surrounded by mountains, and going across the canyon was amazing too. My coworker is afraid of heights but there was no puking, so we considered it a successful visit.

We spent the whole day there, and in the afternoon the other trainee met up with us on her way back to Bucaramanga from San Gil (adventure capital). She came bearing hormigas culonas, which literally means big-assed ants. They’re a delicacy in Santander so of course it was mandatory that we try it. A lot of people say they taste like burnt popcorn, but I didn’t think it really tasted like anything. I just really wanted to brush my teeth afterwards.

It was really great to get out of the city and start experiencing some of the things in the area, after being pretty stationary due to budget restraints. It's also hard to get much distance traveling in since I work 6 days a week, so I need to satisfy myself with things closer to Bucaramanga.

I also haven't mentioned that I've started new classes, since the last session ended. Everyone in my Conversation II passed and all but one in both my Level 9 and Level 1 (Saturday class) passed. I feel this is a pretty solid first session. I'm now teaching Level 12 and Conversation II (with the same students I had in Level 9, which is actually turning out to be quite fun) during the week and Conversation I on Saturdays.

I've gotta run to school, but I'll write about the Adventures of Wisco Girls in Bucaramanga soon!!!

A Colombian 21st

So my 21st was probably not what a typical American underager would have imagined, but I would have to say it was a pretty solid day. It started out not so great (I could barely open my right eye when I woke up because I'd gotten a bug bite on my eyelid and the water kept turning off while I was in the shower) but greatly improved.

I had a nice birthday run around the barrio and then hung out at home until lunch. I didn't tell anyone in my house it was my birthday (I don't know why, clearly I'm not shy about the topic) so I had a low-key lunch (ate by myself, actually.) I then went to the salon at the end of the block to treat myself to a manicure and pedicure. I've only ever had one of each in my life before because it's so expensive in the US, but together it was less than $7 here. Prooooobably going to become a monthly occurrence. Not quite as pampering as in the US (no massaging whirlpool footbaths) but it was nice just the same. Did take almost 2 hours though and I had a to take a cab to school so I wouldn't be late.

As I was rushing out of the house, Glo, who was on the phone, told her caller to wait just one moment and said (in Spanish) "Teresa...is it your birthday? Or was it recently?" Realizing that the arrival of multiple cards in the mail for me had tipped her off, I was like yup it's today actually...She continued to make her caller wait, got up and gave me besitos and a hug, and wished me a happy birthday. Adorable.

I had baked cookies at Pei's house (I can't use the kitchen here) to bring to share with everyone. It's the end of courses today, so yesterday and today were exams. There is no final for conversation but I didn't have anything planned for them, which turned out to be a good thing.


Only like a third of the class was in the room and a few others were like floating in and out. This is fairly typical since it usually takes at least half and hour to have everyone in the room and seated (timeliness is not a cultural value here). Then one of my students said "Teacher we have a surprise for you, close your eyes!" He then put his hand over my eyes and led me out of the room into another classroom, where the rest of my class was waiting with a cake! They sang to me, made me wish and then I blew out the candles.



The cake, genovesa, is apparently typical of Santander and was quite good. I realized it's been years since I've had a birthday cake, since I always opt for the pie option. My students had also brought candy and pop and we had a nice little party. They gave me this huge card they'd made and had all signed and I promptly started to cry. One of them (one of the ones I want to date one of the other ones) asked me if it was hard being away from my family on my birthday. I told her that I was sad I couldn't talk to my parents and all of my friends but that I am learning to be a big girl. She said "It's ok Teacher, sometimes you have to be away from the people you love but maybe next year you will get to celebrate with them all." Wise words from a 15 year old.

After class, I shared my cookies with the rest of the teachers and got serenaded with Happy Birthday on the violin by my friend Juan Pablo. I also got a call from my roommate Sandra and a text from my roommate Lorena, so apparently Glo was making quick business of spreading the word.

My second class had to take their final exam so thankfully I didn't have to actually do any teaching (wouldn't wanna strain myself too hard on my birthday.) After class was over, my friend Jose (he's taking a class a Colombo) walked to our other friend's house and then went out to dinner. We went to this Arabic place I'd been wanting to try where I got to eat HUMMUS. It was a little citrusy but still pretty glorious because I really miss ethnic food here.

I had my first legal (not sure if it even really counts since I've been legal to drink here since I arrived) drink as a 21-year-old and it was pretty delicious. There were actually 2 other birthday parties at the restaurant and these two little boys from the street who were trying to sell us toys had taken a paper crown from one of them and my friend Maki bought it off him so I could wear it. I looked super cute.

Then we went to a bar-ish place for another drink. We sat on the patio and had a really good time just talking and listening to music. We weren't out late since most everyone had to work/go to class in the morning, but it was still pretty fun. 21 here is definitely not like 21 at home, since I only had 2 drinks the entire night. It was fine by me though and just chilling was an excellent way to celebrate!

Alto de Los Padres

Clarification to a previous post: Those students I was talking about that I want to date....I want them to date EACH OTHER, I do not want to date them. Thanks Mol, for thinking I'm actually creepier than I am. Ruv you, mean it.

So minus my breakdown on Saturday, I had a really good weekend. After sulking/napping for most of the afternoon, I went downtown for this Jazz and Blues Festival that was at this sort of cultural center near all the government buildings. I was a little confused about what the place was but as far as I gathered, the place had several exhibition halls that were each sponsored by banks. Each bank had a branch in the building as well, so while you're waiting to do your banking you can explore the galleries. Kind of a weird idea, but sort of cool too.

The festival itself was fabulous. I love going to see live music and it cheered me up instantly. I felt as if I could have been sitting back in Minnesota or Wisconsin, watching a blues concert with my dad. Most of the songs were in English but were being totally rocked by all these Colombian dudes. I have no idea if they knew what they were saying or not, but most of the bands were excellent. The crowd it drew also provided excellent people watching.

After the festival, Pei and I met up with another friend and went to this pizza place recommended to us by another teacher at Colombo, the only other American. She told us it's the only pizza place in town that puts tomato sauce on the pizza AND has real pepperoni. Pizza here comes in a lot of different varieties, but none seem to be quite like it is at home. I always ask if the pizza has tomato sauce, they always look at me like I'm an idiot and say of course it does, and then without fail my pizza arrives, tomato sauce-less. This place did have tomato sauce though, and it was glorious.

I didn't stay out too late, because Sunday morning I had to get up at 6am to get ready for our hiking excursion. I went with 3 other teachers from Colombo, plus the husband and friend of one of them. Getting up that early 2 days in a row was harsh, but getting up for hiking was much easier than getting up to teach...We all met at one of the teacher's houses and then took taxis as far up the mountain as cars can get. We then had to walk up the rest of the road to reach the path.

Along the way we saw an interesting mix of poor and wealthy homes. It was clear that some people lived up there because they had to and it was all they could afford, but that others lived on the mountain purely to take advantage of the view. Our walk wrapped around the mountain, but most of the time we had a view of the city spread out below us. It took probably about an hour and a half for us to reach the top, stopping briefly along the way for a little snack of this sweet cake wrapped in corn husk. Yum.

At the top of the mountain was a small church where the teacher and her husband had gotten married, and where we'd made it up just in time for Mass (after a glass of fresh peach juice.) I will never cease to appreciate the fact that I can follow the Catholic Mass regardless of language because everything happens in the same order no matter where you are. It was quite lovely to be sitting in the last row of pews near the open entrance with a cool breeze blowing through.

After Mass, we went to a little restaurant-y thing for an empanada and some impromptu dancing on their patio. We sat there for quite awhile, enjoying the view, the breeze and the yummy food (about every 10 minutes someone went to go buy another thing to eat.) Finally it started looking like rain so we decided we'd better start to head back down. To entertain ourselves, we started belting out some hits from the great musical geniuses of Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Elvis. I think I scarred a small Colombian child for life with my version of "I will always love you." It was preeeeetty fabulous.

By the time I made it home, I was quite ready for a nice shower and a good long siesta.

PS Is anyone else frustrated by the lack of availability of the verb 'siestar'? Should that not be a legit verb? Oh, ahora voy a siestar. In English you can totally say I'm going to nap now....why can't you Spanish with as sweet of verb as siestar?!