Photos: Festivus and some catching up!

Mar 19: Happy Festivus! 1) Dominique (the girl from Chile), Bridget, Carlee, Guillo, and Chris inspect something inappropriate on the Internet. 2) We celebrate theFestivus miracle birth of Seven Costanza. 3) So, it turns out that pine cone candle that a student gave me for the holidays holds a lot of melted wax... which Dominique discovered by trying to move it, and seeing the wax end up all over her arm, the table, and a glass. It's another Festivus miracle! Not pictured: our nice friend Mario.

Jan. 15: We actually found good Mexican food! The restaurant was called something cheesy like "El Taco" though I cannot remember the exact name. It's in La Candelaria, the Old Town here in Bogota. Here are Kenna (California), Louis (Vietnam), and William (New York).

Jan. 22: I hosted Bunco night. We've been playing once a night and rotating apartments. Shown below are Aaron and Katie Kaio, and two of my favorite local Canadians, Heather and Peter. 

Feb 17: David (Sweden) and Sarah (Denmark), who I met in Cartagena, visited Bogota. He was adopted at an early age and came to look into his family history out here. We left a standing invitation for visits in any of our countries!

Feb 24: This insect was on the wall outside my classroom, which is better than spider I saw above the white board during instruction this past week!

Normalcy

Saturday I went for dinner and drinks with friends. I just submitted a proposal to teach a series of three courses through Northwestern's gifted program. I've been to the gym six days in a row. It's taking me a little longer to grade projects than I'd expected. There are meatballs cooking in a red pepper sauce on the stove. I'm reading about 15 minutes most days. There is a small backup of laundry and cleaning for the next couple of days. I'm alternating between Facebook, CNN, Jim Bohanan, ESPN, NBC Nightly News, Gmail, and episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Two-and-a-half loaves of chocolate chip banana bread, and a package of Reese's peanut butter cups, and a package of Butterfinger mini's, are gone. Can you say, "Normal?" I guess that's more than you can say for the people of Shichigahama, Japan, which used to have 20 homes... or the 17,000 person fishing village leveled to debris. Soldiers are searching for people by smell. Beware, the Ides of March are upon us! P.S. PERSPECTIVE.

Los Colores de la Montaña

The Colors of the Mountain was playing last night at the cinema. Click the green text to see the trailer, which thoroughly summarizes the film. For anyone with a limited understanding of Colombia that is based on news reports primarily from the 1990's, this Indie film would validate the mistaken assumption that this country is engulfed in guerrilla warfare. Although that assumption would be incorrect, this movie is a sad if humorous look at how the paramilitary continues to victimize rural areas.

This showing featured Spanish without subtitles. Since that makes for an inherently tiring experience, gladly the film was just over 90 minutes. It helped that my friend Paola was there to help translate a few times for me, but overall the film was clear-cut enough that I understood the plot and subplot from nonverbal cues. 


After the film we went to dinner and enjoyed one of the brighter sides of Bogota: the great restaurants. I had strawberry juice, veal with cheese and mushrooms, and fusilli with Spanish olives and freshly grated parmesan. Dessert was a nice lime mousse!

As a side note, since Daylight Savings Time begins tomorrow in Chicago, the time of day will once again match Bogota.

A Quick Trip

Coming back to Chicago for a very fast weekend was so worth it. Shawn ran to me at the airport, Bubbe and Aunt Chike hosted me on Saturday morning, M & D really helped me out, friends met me for Mexican food at Salsa 17, and Rachel and Dan hosted dessert Saturday night. At the Chicagoland Showcase, I got to enjoy a huge hello and walks across the room to give me hugs. A few parents were amazed I came all that way, but the question wasn't should I go -- the question quickly became how could I not go? It's funny how no kids expressed the same thing. A delightful surprise was Darlene having put a thank you to me in the program, which then gets announced before the show, unnecessarily giving me credit for setting up the organization to run smoothly in my absence and for designing this year's fun show. Awwww. After watching the show -- which was really very good -- I enjoyed spending time with primarily the eighth graders. They're a special group who I've come to adore over the past couple of years. 


In the homeroom after the show I spoke with the ensemble. Little Red Riding Hood went through the forest to Grandmother's house, but that wasn't intended to be the end of the story. Life is a journey, not a destination, and you're here with some of the people who you care about the most. But she encounters the Big Bad Wolf-- that guy who can kick you when you're down, those people who only criticize you for being onstage, or even yourself if you focus on that one mistake you made. But there's also a basket of goodies-- a retirement home performance, competitions...


The Colombian flag has three stripes: blue, red, and gold. The blue is for the Carribean Sea on the Atlantic side and the Pacific Ocean to the west. For you, it's the sweat put in at rehearsals. The red is blood from the war for independence from Spain two hundred years ago, but it can also symbolize blood relationships -- family, a.k.a. your show choir family. The gold is actually for gold, but are you in show choir for the money? ("I wish!" someone called out from the back.) Not only are you not getting money, your parents are thinking, "We had to PAY money!" So why are you here? What are you in it for? "Performing," a girl answered. Exactly. So it's the sweat, the family, and the performing... and with that I handed them each yarn bracelets to wear (manillas).


It was even better in person than in words. P.S. The judges placed them in 5th, 4th, and 2nd. It was only one-half point away from a trophy. When I shared that with the parent president she replied, "But our favorite judge YOU YOU YOU were there.  And we were so so so so happy about that."

Comprendes or no comprendes? Eso es la pregunta.

This whole understanding a foreign language thing, er, not understanding it...? I met a substitute teacher on the bus ride home Tuesday. She commented that my accent is pretty good -- only subtly U.S. Twenty minutes later I stopped at a little tienda for some Sprite Zero, Doritos, and Hershey's chocolate. (You know, the basics!) After hearing the price, I could not decipher even one measly word of the cashier's conversation. So, she smiled and laughed a little. -- translation: Aww, what a cute little gringo! 


I next picked up my dry cleaning next door. Pants + sweater + 3 shirts = $8.50 US. Now, there is always a placard outside that place. It says that if you drop off your clothes by 10 AM, then you'll get them back the same day without an extra charge. Nice, right? Well, last Wednesday the cashier explained a reason that my order didn't apply. It wasn't the time, because I looked over my right should and saw 9:57 AM on the clock. What was it, you ask? No clue. I understood my clothes would be ready Friday... and that's it. Maybe it's because I had dry cleaning instead of regular laundry... but that's just a circumstantial guess. Good times!

Sugar Packet

Aside from Winter Vacation, I've been here for six months. Aside from Spring Break, there are three-and-a-half more to go. Carlee recently reminded me of a time we'd gone to Rausch for dinner (and especially their hot chocolate), and though I'd thought it was a couple of months ago it was actually in September. 


I also found a sugar packet from August. That sounds normal, right? Think of those tea boxes from Jewel that have sayings on them. Well, this time they were individually wrapped, cane sugar packets. I'd enjoyed seeing them at a hotel during our orientation weekend at Villa de Leyva, and even hung onto the one that I liked the most. 

Te quiero por lo que eres, y lo que soy cuando estoy contigo. 

I love you for who you are and what I am when I am with you.

I remember being glad that high school level Spanish was enough for that one! Anyway, I kept if for the romantic message, of course. However I've recently realized it applies more casually to friendship as well.


This weekend was a lot of fun. After a Friday afternoon nap, Guillo and I hung out with our friend Chris (who I'd met during my visit last June.) We watched the NHL network and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Simple. Fun. Good. As a side note, the Blackhawks now have 74 points and are suddenly back in the playoff hunt as the fifth seed in the Western Conference.


Guillo took us to a friend's party on Saturday, where I actually ended up talking with a beautiful Chilean girl who'd only been in town for a month and started her own import/export business here. Even with music in the background, we were able to get by in maybe 95% Spanish. I only understood about a third of what she said, but it was rewarding to look at my watch and see four hours had passed by!