Sweet Satisfaction

Today I had a very proud moment...

I arrived to work to find my desk covered in water. It had been pouring for a good 12 hours straight, where the water was coming from, I didn't really know.  I cleaned up the water with scrap paper - we don't seem to have paper towels anywhere on campus and then I sat down to work as a drop of water splattered onto my desk and into my face.  Awesome.  So I got a mug to put under the leak to catch the water.   4 minutes later the drop landed in the mug but also splashed out of the mug onto my desk, my laptop and again, my face.  Yes, I am convinced Colombian raindrops are larger than the average raindrop.  Next step? I filled the mug with yarn that I had from a circumference investigation project so that the water wouldn't splash.  Result = pure perfection. For the rest of the morning I happily worked as I watched drop after drop of water landing in my perfectly positioned mug, without any further spillage onto my things.   Hooray.

I did report the leak as well, although the director of the middle school and I agreed that perhaps it would cheaper to just buy me some more yarn...or a sheep...but perhaps the noise (bah bah) would distract others from their work.  I guess I'll just have to wait for them to repair the whole in the roof.  But until then, I've tackled my problems so that nothing can get in the way of my grading and planning.

Que chicharrón!

Today I was finally planning to get out of the house for the night and meet an acquaintance (from when I was here in March) for dinner. It was going to be a restaurant called Local that serves typical Colombian food (yum!).

Was is the key word because today it also rained. Public transportation in Bogota as far as I can tell is pretty terrible. Additionally, there are a LOT of people living in this city and too many cars on the road...and when it is rainy - everyone decides to drive.

This evening my host my called 3 taxi companies for me trying to get me a ride to the restaurant. None had cabs available. Her daughter's boyfriend agreed to drive me. This restaurant is 60 blocks from my house - blocks are pretty small though. After driving for an hour I was 20 minutes late. I don't have a phone yet (getting one tomorrow after I pick up my Colombia ID card which should be ready) so Jose (the driver) called my friend for me. He was still at his office standing outside trying to get a cab - and had been for an hour. Augh.

So, Jose and I returned back to the house - after another 45 minutes in the car of course. It turned out to be a good Spanish lesson because Jose speaks no English and so we did our best to make conversation in Spanish - wish I had it on video!

Still, while there are many wonderful things in Bogota - traffic is not one of them. Today was the perfect situation to use my current favorite word: chicharrón (loosely translated: pain in the ass, complicated/unsolvable situation).

Will have to try being social another night. And I need to figure out the buses - although they also looked like a nightmare to be on today - people were packed like sardines.