Jazz al Parque

This weekend I finally got out of my house! :)

I went to Jazz al Parque with some friends from school to see John Scofield . The weather gods were in our favor - finally - and it stopped raining long enough for us to enjoy a picnic and listen to John play for about an hour and a half. I'm not sure I was supposed to bring in food or wine but my friends assured me if I just acted like I didn't know what the security people were saying when they checked my bags, they'd let me in.  I didn't really have to act.  They security guard asked me something about comida.  In English I responded, "I'm not allowed to have this?!"...and then he let me pass.  They then explained that it is considered very Latin to try and find a way to trick the system or get what you want out of a situation, and that can be bad...but in this situation for wine, cheese, crackers and fruit with our jazz, playing the clueless American was worth it. ;-)

(In the picture from left to right: Sandra and David.  They are married. David is a history teacher at my school.  Sandra teaches at another school.  They both speak English, Spanish and Chinese (Crazy!).  After living in China for a few years, they both understand the desire to learn a new language and so they are very helpful.  Next is another David.  David de musica.  He is a music instructor at the school. Next is Anita.  We actually ran into her at the concert.  She is a primary school teacher and rides on my bus with me.  She is very sweet.)


Afterward, we went to a low-key bar nearby a friends house and spent the night talking. It was very nice. Everyone speaks Spanish and English - and they are all very encouraging about my Spanish. We spoke Spanish for a large portion of the night but I think when they noticed me zoning out (because my brain was exhausted) we switched to English.

I feel very lucky to be at my school, because it is full of such kind people. We talked about taking some weekend and/or weekend trips to explore some different parts of the country (very exciting!). So hopefully will have some photos to share...sorry I haven't been better about taking photos. Eventually I will post photos of my school and students.

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.

La gripa or Soroche?!?!

I just completed by second week of teaching and I am totally wiped out. Yesterday, I was nauseous with a fever, a headache, and a sort throat. Most of these symptoms are symptoms of both the flu (la gripa) AND altitude sickness (Soroche). Not sure what it is but I slept from 4:30 pm on Friday until 11:30am on Saturday. Still have a sore throat and feel terribly weak – but have been able to get around – do laundry, get some school work done, etc.

Despite feeling sick – two weeks into this adventure I’m still confident it was the right decision.

My Spanish improves a little bit more each day and getting familiar with the Bogota slang: querida = very nice, friendly, good, wonderful (usually about a person)
chicharron = a situation that’s a total pain in the ass
chevere = cool
…there’s a few others as well but they are less appropriate for this space. ;-)

Teaching 6th and 7th graders is a challenge – but I’m glad I’m doing it because it’s making me a better teacher. I’m learning so much about how children learn, it’s awesome – AND exhausting. Even more so when I feel like crap.

Hoping to get my energy back soon so that I can explore that city and work on building friendships here in this new city.

Mi Nueva Casa

I know I already wrote about my new home - but I made the move on Thursday. Olgita Lucia- my host mom- cleaned up the room and added a desk next to the windows for me. So nice! She also bought new sheets and comforter and there are about 3 other wool blankets under the comforter as well - nights get pretty chilly in Bogota but not with the bed that Olgita has set up for me. I've included a pic of the room.

Olgita goes away every weekend to her second home on a farm (la finca) in the mountains. Will try and get some pics of her, Camila (her daughter) and maybe even Andres (another teacher who lives on the third floor - but is rarely home). I will definitely get pics of the dogs as well because they are SO cute.

To get to school now I take a bus. It's a minibus owned by one of the teachers. Several teachers and I pay her to take us to and from school. The school agreed to pay my first month of transportation - so I could figure things out. I haven't decided if I will stick to this route or try and make friends to carpool with. The route is pretty convenient but a bit pricey. I do wonder if she is charging me more than the others...but there's really no way of knowing without being rude.