2,562 Mile Romance

17 de octubre 2016

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

This past week was October Recess - a full 10 days sans students (with 2 professional development days interrupting the middle of the week) - and my fantastic boyfriend Noah came to visit!  He was supposed to arrive late Friday night (7 de octubre), so I stayed up past my bedtime (I've been going to bed recently around 9 or 10 pm...one of the fine benefits of having to be at school at 6:30 am) to wait for the taxi to pick him up from the airport.  I was sleepy yet excited!

However, it turns out he missed his connection in Bogotá (not an uncommon experience) and the next flight wasn't until 6 am the following morning.  So, after chatting with him (until his phone died... Bogotá has got to get some outlets!) and making sure he had a safe place to sleep and a ticket for the morning flight, I re-ordered the taxi and went to sleep for a few hours.

Thankfully, he and the luggage all made it safely the next morning (8 de octubre)!  The taxi drove me there, waited for us, and drove us back, all for $50,000 pesos (let me know if you want his number, he's very reliable)!

Made it safe and sound! We're both more than a little bit sleep-deprived, but so happy!

So we went back to my place, and after meeting Lulo La Gatita and giving her a good pet, we went to go have some Santanderean breakfast at Tony's Desayuno.  After some arepas, jugo for me/granizado for Noah, and huevos, we were ready... to nap.

Later in the afternoon, after a day of napping and otherwise chilling, we headed out to find Jesus.  Or is that Jesús?  In any case, we took a taxi out to El Santísimo, the tallest statue of Jesus in Colombia, and depending on whether or not you count the height of the base, possibly the tallest statue of Jesus in the world (yes, taller than Christ the Redeemer).  El Santísimo is 33 m tall, 37 if you count the base.  Christ the Redeemer is 30 m tall, 38 if you count the base.  (Noah doesn't think the base should count.)

We took the teleférico up the mountain  - Noah felt like we were entering Jurassic Park.

 Once we got there, we took our obligatory selfies and walked up the steps to see Giant Jesus up close and in the flesh - err...stone.  He's quite a sight to behold, I gotta say.  Though the sun was out when got there, night quickly fell like a bad powerpoint presentation.  There was no sunset.  Only darkness.

This guy?

I hope I'm not acting holier-than-thou.

So it turns out you can go up and see the world from Jesus's point of view, so we paid another $5,000 to take the Jesus-vators up 40 meters to get a better look at Bucaramanga (because being on the top of a mountain wasn't high enough).

Not the way to heaven.

Hey everybody!

We spent some time up there admiring the view and wondering what the antennae on Jesus's middle finger and head are for (I think they control different messages for different people), and watched as some teens tried to break their way onto the roof of the observation deck (seriously, aren't you high up enough already?!) before we made our way back down.

After our descent, we caught a light show projected onto a fountain, which was actually pretty cool!  They synced up the music with the movements of the water and the colors and the images and it was just fantastic!

Not my video, but the only videos I took were less than 10 second Snapchats.  

You'll just have to come see it for yourself!

We ate dinner at a restaurant with a clear view of the Holy Armpit, and got to watch the light show a second time while we ate.  We then made our way back down the teleférico and back home to get a good night's sleep.

9 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

The next day, we decided to walk around Floridablanca, in an area I'd been meaning to explore but hadn't yet had the chance.  We stumbled into a dimly-lit small-aisled market, with people selling everything from candles to fruit to meat to tools.  One vendor had an entire pig skin hanging out to dry.  After holding our noses for a while (all that raw meat doesn't smell great), we walked back out and continued our explorations.  We eventually ended up finding the Botanical Gardens (Jardin Botánico Eloy Valenzuela).  I had heard great things, so we went in!

There were of course many beautiful plants, but perhaps the most exciting thing (to me) was the wildlife!  They had an aviary FULL of beautiful parrots, a pond full of ducks, and of course TURTLES wandering everywhere free-range.

WHAAAT. Check out this dude.

After the botanical gardens, we went in search of Obleas, a traditional Santandarean snack that is essentially a wafer sandwich.  Traditionally, obleas are just filled with arequipe, a caramelly-dulce-de-leche sort of thing.  I ordered the Amor a Mil, which is filled with arequipe, cheese, guanabana, and strawberries.  It was tasty but didn't stay together well, so I ended up eating most of the fillings with a spoon.  Noah got the Amor de Tres, which is filled with arequipe, cream, and pear.  He really enjoyed it.  We then stumbled upon a town square with a market going on, where many people tried to get us to buy more obleas, ice cream, bracelets, or photos.  We declined and headed on home, quite pooped from our adventures.

10 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Unfortuantely I had to go to work on Monday, but afterwards Noah and I had a bunch of people over for dinner (homemade tacos!) and board games (thanks for sending me stuff Mom and Dad!).  Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the tacos.  We finally got some spicy in our system!  (Spice is not very common here.)  After eating and chatting and vying for the cat's affection, we played a couple rounds of Sushi Go Party and Cards Against Humanity, and (to my knowledge anyway) everyone had a grand ol' time.

11 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

I had to go to work again on Tuesday, so Noah was left alone for much of the day once more.  Luckily, he became fast friends with Lulo and she enjoyed napping on him.  After work, Colombia was playing Uruguay, so Noah and I joined a few of the other teachers at a bar to watch the game.  We were told to meet at Saxo Pub (an Irish pub, I think), but it turns out Saxo was gone and Das Leben (a German pub) had taken its place.  So we were quite the worldly group I suppose.  It was a pretty exciting game, and the two teams ended up tying (empate).

12 de octubre

Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia

On Wednesday, we decided to adventure to downtown Bucaramanga and see what there is to see.  We walked around El Centro and bought some fruit from the market, and dodged all the people that were jumping out to try to get us to buy whatever they were hawking.  We saw a guy blowing glass on the street and watched him make a swan, which was pretty cool (and only $5,000!).  

You don't see that every day.

We checked out the painted hormigas, and Noah had his first Colombian hotdog!  ...He wasn't impressed and it may have also been his last Colombian hotdog.  Luckily, we also found a place with empanadas and big ol' fried potato balls full of stuff (Papas Rellenas), so the night ended on a good note.

13 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Thursday was Noah's last full day in Colombia, so we spent it mostly eating empanadas and doing other very Colombian experiences - drinking fresh juice, buying coffee and aguardiente, and drinking water out of a bag.

Not as easy as I make it seem.

Many things here are served in bags - water, milk, ketchup, jelly, mayonnaise...you name it.  More environmentally friendly!  We also tried the Colombian soda Pony Malta, which it turns out is disgusting (to my students who may be reading this, Noah says Dr Pepper is WAY better.  I don't even like Dr Pepper and it's way better than Pony Malta).

We had gotten word that a chiva trip was in the works, so we headed back down to Bucaramanga with a bag full of beer to make Noah's last night a great one.  There were only 11 of us, but we still had a BLAST!

We're adorable.

Our chiva tour took us up to a discoteca near the top of a mountain with a great view of the city below us.  It being a Thursday night, we were essentially the only people there, short of one elderly couple quietly sipping their beers.  We lit up the empty dance floor and had a great time before re-embarking and partying 'til the cows came home.


14 de octubre
Palonegro International Airport, Lebrija, Santander, Colombia

We woke up before the sun to catch the taxi to the airport for Noah's early-morning flight.  He was able to get in one last empanada at the airport, though, being airport food, it wasn't the greatest.  We had a mild freak-out when the departures board turned from en sala (turns out that means it's boarding time!) to cerrado while we were eating, but luckily all was okay at Bucaramanga's tiny airport and Noah made it on the plane and safely through all his connections.

Recap of Week 1

31 de Julio 2016

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Hello!  I've been here nearly a week but haven't been able to write much with limited WiFi.  It could be a few days or over a month until I get WiFi in my apartment; but if it is the latter, the school will give me a little USB drive that gives basic Internet (emails, etc, but no TV streaming).  Right now I'm sitting in Juan Valdez, kind of like the Starbucks of Colombia, in one of the malls nearby.

A few miscellaneous observations from this week:

• I need to learn more Spanish.  ASAP.  Basically no one outside the school speaks English, and many of the secretaries, clerks, janitors, etc speak only Spanish.
• Bathrooms are interesting.  Many don't have seats (gonna really up my quad strength), many don't have toilet paper in the stalls, only one dispenser near the sink (so you gotta know how much you need beforehand), and most cannot handle toilet paper flushed (so you throw it away).  
• You can't walk around with your phone out (it will get stolen), so I have NO IDEA how all these people are controlling these Pokemon gyms (I've played a few times when we were in our coach bus during orientation week).
• People dress nicer here.  Short shorts are considered slutty, plastic flip flops are only for cleaning the house, and people dress up to go to the grocery store.  Usually nice jeans and a cute tank top or blouse.  No guys are wearing pants that are falling off and showing their underwear.
• Living up a steep hill from the grocery store is terrible but I guess a good strength and endurance workout.
• There are not as many bugs as I thought there would be.  Wayyyy less than the swarms of mosquitos in Chicago.  I think I've seen like 3 the whole time I've been here.  I'm probably not going to hang the mosquito net I brought.
• The sun is BRUTAL and MERCILESS.  Very hot sun.  In general, the temperature is ok (upper 70s right now) and there's usually a nice breeze so it's comfortable.  That sun though.  So sweaty.  I keep sweating off the sunscreen I put on, so my face is a little burnt.
• There's a lot more motorcycles and mopeds here, and neither they nor the cars stop or even slow down for pedestrians.  Beware crossing the street.
• You can walk down the street drinking a beer at any time of day.  You cannot order mixed drinks; you get a full bottle of liquor to share and a few little bottles of mixer (I.e. A handle of rum and 4 one-liter bottles of Coca-Cola.  Pour your drink with only a splash of coke, because otherwise you will run out of coke.)

Alright...I promised a recap of this week, so here goes!  We flew in on Monday, and you already heard that whole story.

Tuesday

We did some paperwork, went to the notary, went to take Visa pictures, got SIM cards for a three-month prepaid plan until we figure everything out...boring important stuff.  Then we had a tour of the school, which is GORGEOUS and so big!  It's so open and has so many views of the mountains.  I'm so excited to work in such a cool place.  For a snack, we got our first of many Colombian empanadas!

What a gorgeous place to work!

Here's the view from the front entranceway (INSIDE the school)!

Wednesday

We had a couple of presentations; HR, Atlas (our unit plan/curriculum map system), etc.  Then we got our classroom keys (you saw that video already) and later went on a brief bus tour of Bucaramanga (due to traffic, wasn't much of a "tour") on our way to an authentic Colombian lunch at Chiflas.

On the way to Bucaramanga, we had Obleas, a traditional food of Santander. 

Obleas are two wafers with arequipe (kind of like caramel or dulce de leche) and other things.  Mine had arequipe, fresas (strawberries), y queso (cheese). 

The Obleas place had some really fun romantic names for the different kinds you could order. 

At Chiflas, we had arepas, potatoes, chorizo, and blood sausage, and that was just what they put on the table while we waited for our order.  I had originally ordered some kind of combination plate, but they only served that on Fridays I guess, so the waiter suggested this BBQ plate and I went with his suggestion.  It was yummy, it was barbecue ribs (HUGE), yuca, and a plantain.

I had the rest for dinner last night.

I also had my first Colombian beer!  Nothing to write home about...standard beer.  Kind of like Miller or Corona.  After lunch we went to HomeCenter, which is like Home Depot meets IKEA meets Bed Bath and Beyond.

Colleen and I got too much stuff...getting it all in the taxi and later up the stairs was a struggle. 

Thursday 

We got our laptops (pretty nice, HP, Windows 10) and had a presentation about our health insurance (you can get transplants covered in your 6th year!) and our Colombian pension (12-15% interest per year!).  We then had a class on Colombian fruits and juices (more on that later).  After some time in our classrooms, we went to Club Campestre (a really fancy country club) to meet our host families.  La Familia Bodeguero-Blanco is super nice.

The dad (Luis) is Spanish, the mom (Luz Elena) is Colombian, and their 3rd-grade daughter (Semara) was born (and lived half her life) in Miami.  

They got me a cute succulent that I am keeping on my desk in my classroom.  After lunch, they took me on a tour of the club, and Kate's host mom signed us up as guests for the club.

Friday
We had breakfast (arepas stuffed with egg) and coffee with our mentors and some other teachers at school.  After mingling, we had some classroom time (I finished decorating! Expect another tour this week).  Later, we went to one of the teacher's houses for a barbecue.

 What an attractive group of teachers.

 Los Newbs

What a neighborhood.

Super fun and super tasty!  He's got such a nice house in such a nice neighborhood.  After passing out for a few hours, we met up at Megan and Andrea's apartment and hung out for a while.

Saturday 
On Saturday a few of us met up with one of our Colombian colleagues, Rafael, who took us to El Centro, a market in downtown Bucaramanga.  It was really cool, but also very overwhelming.  People everywhere yelling at you to buy their wears...I even had a guy walk up to me to try to sell me a (probably stolen) cell phone.  So many people.

I bought some really cheap and yummy fruits!

 We all got some delicious juice.  

Bucaramanga is famous for its "Hormigas Culonas," or large-bottomed ants, which you eat as a snack.  Supposedly they taste like peanuts or granola.  I don't know yet.  However, the city has these painted ants all over, a la Chicago's painted cows.

When we got back from El Centro, I went to the grocery store since the only food I had was what they gave us when we moved in.  Unfortunately, I live up a STEEP hill from the store and bought too many heavy things.  Man am I going to get fit living here.  I fell onto my bed and laid there in front of my fan for a while until we went out that evening.  We went to our first salsa club, Discoteca Calison.  Everyone that was dancing was REALLY good.  And according to Colleen, who tried to dance with a few people, you really only dance with people you know rather than strangers.  Mostly we just sat, drank, and talked.  A few danced (that knew how).  The Colombian husband of one of my colleagues poured me a shot of Aguardiente, the typical Colombian liquor of choice.  It's anise (licorice) flavored, so it's not my favorite.  It's definitely pretty strong though.  After a while of salsa, we started trickling next door where there was more music variety and less experienced dancers.  Lots of early 90s hits there...think "I Like to Move It Move It" and "Pump Up the Jam."

Sunday
After sitting at Juan Valdez and starting this (long, sorry) blog post for an hour or so, all us newbies met up for a "Tour de Homes."  We started at the apartments closest to school (mine's 3rd closest at 6-10 min walk) and walked to each apartment and explored.  The closest is literally right next to school, and the farthest is probably a 20-minute walk.  It was cool to see everyone else's places and compare. It took us nearly 4 hours by the time we were done, since we chilled for a bit at each one before moving on.  I made my best day since getting my fitness tracker thanks to the tour!

 The view from Kelsey's balcony - check out that double rainbow! 

The night-time view from Ryan and Kate's roof.