Inefficiency

Efficiency doesn't really seem to exist in Colombia. Either Colombians are worse at making decisions than I am or I just have yet to figure out their system. Somehow my days end up being 9, 10, or 13 hour days which I have found to be really draining and by the time I get back to my apartment all I want to do is go straight to bed.

Yesterday after sleeping in a little bit, I met Angela's mom and her younger cousin. The four of us went out to lunch and then went shopping in search of navy blue shoes and some things to help me organize my room. Over four hours later we finally finished the shopping trip. We went to two malls and two other stores. It was awful buying shoes that I know I will never enjoy wearing, especially when there were really, really cute ones in every store. At least now I know where to go when I need some retail therapy. Last night I was able to finish unpacking everything and with a couple more additions my room is starting to feel like my own.

Today Sael picked me up and then we went to go meet the other new trainee, Scott, at his apartment. He's actually not that new because he did a 5 month traineeship in Cartagena before coming here, but he started working in Bogotá over a month ago so he is new enough. Scott lives with a bunch of other trainees, and their apartment is always full of people so I got to meet other trainees and other @ers from Andes and Javeriana. It feels good to start expanding my network here and add some more phone numbers to my cell phone.

Sael, Scott, and I went to Sael's house for lunch and met his parents and two sisters. His mom made us this traditional Colombian soup (I am not sure what it is called... something with chicken, potatoes, cream, and then you add rice and avocados) and wore a chef's jacket while cooking and would always serve me first. After lunch we had to cancel our plans to go to a nearby park because it was raining. I have been told that it rains at least once a day here and so I carry my umbrella everywhere I go now. Instead we met up with some other people from the trainee apartment to get coffee and hang out in El Centro.

I feel like I can use the transmilenio by myself now, but I am still uneasy about the regular buses. And although the transmilenio is the fastest way to get around, it still took me over 45 minutes to get home tonight. I feel like I have so much more to write about, but since so much is going on each day I am having a hard time putting my thoughts into words. Or maybe it is the switching back from English to Spanish that is throwing me off.

Tomorrow morning I will meet with the director of the English department to go over my curriculum, get my books and find out more of what is in store for me this year.

Adjusting to the Colombian Way

I'm sitting in my new apartment right now while my roommate, Ángela, and my TN manager, Sael, are discovering the Spanish magnetic poetry I brought. I hate to say that I'm wearing my lame pants on my first Friday night in Bogotá, but I have only gotten 14 hours of sleep the past three nights... I need to unpack because my room is becoming borderline uninhabitable and I desperately need a good night's sleep.

Where to begin...

As of Tuesday afternoon I was planning on changing my flight because I still did not have my visa. I was asking the lady from the consulate in Chicago a ton of questions about when I could pick it up, and caused her to call the office in Colombia. When she finally returned my call she told me that I didn't even have to go to Chicago, but instead could just travel on my passport and go to the Office of Immigration once I arrived. Go figure.

I flew out of Chicago to Houston, then Houston to Bogotá. I wasn't able to sleep, but I was momentarily starstruck when I got to sit next to a real, live Olympic athlete on his way home from Beijing. His name is Tyamba and he is from Angola, competes for Angola, but has lived in Bogotá for the past ten years. He's a marathon runner and this was his sixth Olympics. We chatted for a lot of the flight... he showed me pictures from China and all his sweet souvenirs. He told me about how he learned five different languages and how much he loves traveling. He also gave me his phone number and email address and told me to call him if I ever needed anything while I was living here.

My flight arrived Wednesday night around 9, and I was picked up at the airport by Sael, Ángela, and two other AIESECers holding a big "Welcome Liz" sign. We went to the closest mall to get coffee and chat for a bit and then to my apartment. My apartment belongs to Ángela's mom, but her mom doesn't live here. It is a small three bedroom and is still very new... still plastic on the front door and no furniture in the living room. I even get my own bathroom. My roommate is also in AIESEC and very nice but she's pretty shy.

Thursday was a whirlwind of emotions... probably aka culture shock. We left the apartment at 7am to go to the Universidad de los Andes where everyone in my LC goes to school. Getting there took over an hour and a half. We have to take a bus from the apartment to the stop for the Transmilenio, which is their main public transport system. It's basically a gridded bus route, that only the Transmilenio buses are allowed to take. While on the bus, I got to take a good look around and I am having a hard time pointing out what looks safe and what doesn't. My apartment for example is very new and has 24 hour security guards at the front gate. The neighborhood that we are right next too however seems very run down, old, and fairly poor, but the people seem much less sketchy then the neighborhood. I think I need to wait until I feel like I know the area.

The Universidad de los Andes is located in downtown Bogotá and has about 10,000 students. It's a private school and the most expensive in Bogotá. I waited in a common room fairly similar to Lakefront on Langdon, but without the lake, while Sael was in class. I got to meet a couple more AIESECers and then Sael and I took the long trek back to the north of the city to go see the school where I will be working at.

GB is very different compared to any school that I know. It's a strict private academy from preschool to high school and located in Chía, a wealthier suburb just north of Bogotá. It is actually only about 20 minutes away from where I live. The school has a huge fence around it so you can't even look inside, and to get in you have to go through a gate with a guard. GB is trilingual... Spanish, French, and English. However, the students are only allowed to speak English except when in French class. Spanish is for outside of school only. I met my boss Catalina and she gave me a brief orientation and a tour of the school. I found out that I will be teaching English to 4th and 5th graders.

Yesterday I decided that my job has many ups and downs, and the downs are things that will take a long time to get used to.

Ups: I get my own classroom to decorate and do whatever I want with. There is a special bus that comes to pick up and drop off all the teachers so I don't have to pay for transportation. I get free coffee, breakfast, and lunch.

Downs: Goodbye sweet teacher clothes that I just bought... I have to wear a uniform. And it is probably the FUGLIEST uniform EVER. I was actually pretty upset when I was getting it because it is sooo different from me and I don't feel comfortable wearing it at all. I have to wear long plaid skirts, shirts with shoulder pads, TIGHTS, and navy blue shoes. (I don't know where one would even go to buy navy blue shoes.) Downfall #2 is that the free lunch comes with rules. Rule 1 being you have to clear your tray. (No big deal... I've been doing that since the first grade.) Rule 2 being you have to eat EVERYTHING on your tray. Apparently leaving uneaten food sets a bad example for the kids. This makes me super uncomfortable and I am worried that I won't even be able to take advantage of my free lunch because I will be eating so little so to make sure that I don't take too much. When I was younger my parents never would make me finish all the food on my plate. If I wasn't hungry anymore, then I would stop eating and that would be that. I would dread going to my friend's houses whose moms would make me eat my whole plate... I feel awful when I am forced to eat more when I am already full. Maybe if they took Nutri Sci with Panders then they would know it is actually very unhealthy to eat just to eat after you are already full.

I think that the thing that I am most nervous about is that I am feeling very overwhelmed with my job and not at all qualified. I'm not teaching conversational English night classes... I am a real teacher in a real school. This in itself is really scary and it worries me a lot that I have no experience whatsoever and have only two more days to prepare everything until the students come.

My nerves calmed down a little bit after today though. Today was my first official day as Ms. Elisabet. I met a lot of the other teachers and everyone is super nice and super generous which already makes me feel a lot more comfortable. When I arrived, people already knew who I was because most teachers started over a week ago and I was only one of the few missing. I always received nice welcomes from these people. Just like at home, no one can pronounce my last name. A lot of the teachers thought I was German and some others thought I was British. And for some reason, I cannot get anyone to call me Liz. I tried, and it's a lost cause. Ms. Liz has such a nice ring to it, but oh well.

Today was the second day that the parents and kids come with all of their materials and the teachers have to check them off to make sure they have everything that they need. I happen to be the homeroom teacher for 5D, which means I am in charge of 23 kids and dealing with their parents. Since I was not here yesterday, one of the French teachers did my work for me. Today he helped me the entire time which was super nice and made things so much easier. I know that this job is going to be very difficult for me, but I feel really good about how today went which definitely reassures me for what lies ahead. I still hate the uniforms.

I've learned so much about Colombia in the past two days and I can already feel my Spanish improving. But I am so relieved that tomorrow I finally get to sleep in.

Hopefully 5 days and counting

My flight to Colombia is in five days but I still don't have my visa. I won't find out until Monday morning which day I will actually be able to go to the Consulate in Chicago to pick it up. So I'm crossing my fingers that they get it Monday. Or Tuesday. I am surprisingly unstressed by the close call situation; my dad however, is not. But there is nothing I can do about it except wait and see.

Despite the fact that I may be forced to stay in Cedarburg a few extra days, my weekend of festivities has already started on a good note.

After an unsuccessful shopping trip last night with my mom, I ventured to a different mall and came out with a great assortment of what I've deemed to be teacher clothes. And as I was exiting through Macy's I found that the Fossil wallet which I've had my eye on all summer was finally marked down 40%! Score. Then, the woman behind the counter who had helped me check out told me how great my hair color was. AND, she didn't even know that I had just gotten it colored. I told her that she made my day.

Shopping basically consumed my entire day, because once my parents got home from work we went grocery shopping to get food for my grad party. Party food is probably my favorite kind of food. I can't help but binge on the glorious assortment. Not only do I love eating it, but I also love putting it all together... picking out which types of cheese I want, arranging dessert trays and veggie trays, and so on.

Tonight I Skyped with my TN manager so we could figure out my visa stuff, but we only chatted about that for five minutes. Talking with him has made me so excited to go. He spoke in English while I spoke in Spanish... which was very good practice for me. He thought that I had lived in a Spanish-speaking country before, but I am almost positive that he was just trying to make me feel better about my poor grammar skills. I also found out my living situation today which was very exciting! I will be living in an apartment with one other girl, also in AIESEC, with my own bedroom and bathroom, internet access, all for less than half of what I paid in Madison. (Although 438 was the Promised Land...) I think living in a trainee apartment would have been a lot of fun, but I am looking forward to living with an AIESECer who is from Colombia. (This goes back to those visualize your ideal traineeship coach sessions, and I would always do pros/cons of living with a host family vs. other trainees vs. local @ers, but decided that local @ers would be best for me. So I am happy that this is how it is working out so far.)

I still have a good amount of things to get done before I leave, but probably my biggest obstacle is packing. I'm not worried about packing too much (I learned my lesson last summer), but I'm struggling with the fact that it's not just a vacation, it's that I'm actually moving. I suppose if I can't get my visa on time, I will just have a few extra days to carefully think about what I can and can't live without.

Life is better blonde... err, brunette

Although it is inevitable, in my efforts to stand out as little as possible in Colombia, today I said goodbye to my natural blonde locks and dyed my hair.

One more thing checked off my enormous list of things to do before next Wednesday.

I could really use a sling for my left arm

This morning I had my appointment at the travel clinic to get my vaccines and malaria pills. I arrived at 9:30am and predicted I would be out by 10. A quickly depleted checking account and an hour and a half later, I finally was able to escape.

I spent a solid 45 minutes just talking to the nurse about my trip and any sort of medical problems that may arise while I'm there. They had compiled an extremely lengthy packet of Colombian travel info, every vaccine ever made, which countries are at risk for which diseases, and how to be a smart and safe traveler. After going over all of this information, the nurse then explained to me that I would need vaccines for yellow fever, hepatitis A, and typhoid. It was almost excruciating to then watch her describe to me the different types of malaria pills I could take and comparing them by price. My mental math was better than her with her calculator as she tried to convince me that I would need 93 one-week doses costing over $1000. I so badly wanted to take her calendar and mark which days I would be in Colombia and then do all the multiplying myself. However, I didn't want to interrupt her figuring and just went with the cheapest option with enough pills to last me until December.

I half-watched the video on safe travel tips as she went to prepare my shots. The half of me that wasn't watching the video was starting to get a little nervous and I could already feel pain in my left arm. I've never been good with shots. When I had to get my pre-kindergarten boosters I darted across the doctor's office when the nurse came at me with the needle. In 8th grade I cried in the car all the way home after I got my tetanus. (Note: I was not crying because my arm hurt, but because my mom denied my plea to get the shot a different day so I could have time to think about it.) I even put off my meningitis shot for a year because I was too much of a pansy. And it doesn't stop with shots... it's pretty much all needles. I still use the "I'm under the weight limit" excuse when asked to donate blood, which only was legit when I was still in high school.

Nurse Gayle came back with three syringes and I proudly took the first two with only a small wince. But it was as she was dabbing my arm with antiseptic and asking me if the typhoid or hep A hurt more, that the room started spinning and I felt like I was going to throw up. I stopped her mid-dab and asked for some water. She escorted me to this magic chair which resembles a reclining lawn chair crossed with one that you find in a dentist's office. I'm pretty positive that the magic chair kept me from fainting because after 10 seconds of laying in it I felt completely fine. I got to lay in the chair for my last shot and made it through sans dizziness. (Yellow fever however was by far the worst of the three... it totally felt like she was threading the needle through my tricep.) I was all done, but was informed that I wasn't allowed to leave the magic chair until the color came back into my face.

And now my poor left arm is limply hanging at my side... it became apparent how sore it was when I cringed while turning the steering wheel and shutting the car door. I am afraid to do much more with it other than typing on my laptop so hopefully tomorrow I will stop being such a baby.

Wake-up Call

I very rarely answer unknown numbers but today when I recognized the 414 area code I thought maybe it might be one of the many appointments I have scheduled these next two weeks calling to confirm.

Me: Hello?
Unknown caller: Elisabet?
Me (confused): Um, this is Liz.
Unknown caller: Elisabet? Soy Catalina del GB... and then a whole lot of stuff I can't understand.

Definitely not a confirmation, but rather my future boss in Colombia wondering how my visa process is going. I fumbled through the entire conversation with my extremely awkward Spanish trying to explain that one of the forms was outdated and had to be filled out again, thus prolonging the process. I think she is worried that I will arrive after most other teachers and wants me to email her as soon as I go to the Consulate and get my visa. I immediately sent a follow-up email after to make sure I understood everything correctly. I can't wait for the day when I can just rattle off Spanish without sounding like a fool.

I'll add a few more details on my traineeship since my last post seems to be lacking just a bit. I fly into Bogotá on Aug. 27th and begin my 10-month traineeship on Sept. 1st. I'll be teaching English at a private academy just north of the city for either elementary school kids or high schoolers. The living situation is not exactly figured out, but I'm counting on the AIESECers to figure that out for me. Bogotá has 5 LCs, and the one that raised my traineeship is AIESEC Andes which has about 80 total members and 50 active members. I gchat my TN manager almost every day which has definitely calmed any sort of nerves I have about moving to a foreign city with a population of 7.5 million.

So until I leave I will be hanging out in Cedarburg trying to keep myself busy with unpacking, repacking, dogsitting, and obsessing over the Olympics. Yesterday was my last day in Madison and leaving was somewhat bittersweet. You don't realize how big a five-bedroom apartment is until you spend four days cleaning and throwing away over 20 bags of garbage/things we have no idea what to do with since there is no more room in the car. I hadn't eaten a thing all day and left 4 hours later than I had originally planned. But as I drove out of the 438 driveway tears started rolling down my cheeks when I realized that I was leaving a city that I have grown to know and love and a life that has made up the last four years has come to an end. It's so weird to not be going back to school in the fall, but I am ready for what the next year has in store for me (even with my rusty Spanish skills).