Banana Pancakes

My brother is the one singing and playing guitar.

Gracias para... I mean POR! Gracias POR!

I still mix up por and para. My Spanish profes would be triste.

A lot has happened in the past three days. I've been trying to find a new apartment as soon as possible, but so far no luck. The first place I saw had holes in the floor and the bathroom was completely torn up. The owner claimed they were redoing it, but my guess is it probably won't be finished for months. The second place I found out I would be sharing a room. The third place had a room the size of a closet. Not even wide enough to fit a twin bed and a nightstand. Plus it was way too far up the mountain. So I'm still looking. The goal is to be in a new place by the time the birthday girl gets here.

Yesterday I took a tour of the high school and shadowed two classes. The school is in a great location and I actually really liked it. The other English teachers are great, and the girls that I would be teaching already have a really high level of English. And NO UNIFORM. Except a lab coat. It's a little weird, but teachers just have to wear a white lab coat over whatever clothes they already have on while in class. I figured I can deal with looking like a doctor for one hour of my day. I decided to take it and will be shadowing classes for the rest of the week.

The past two afternoons I've had training for the corporate classes that I will be teaching. The executive director gave a presentation about Colombia's economy, which was super interesting. We also learned about the company's methodology and did some class planning sessions. So far the training has gone really well and I feel a lot better about working here and think it will be a good fit.

The craziest part of my last couple days was this afternoon when for about two hours I thought my wallet was stolen. I was early to work so I stopped to buy some juice and then it wasn't in my purse. I thought maybe I could have left it at home and then once I got to work I was telling my coworker about it and realized that I had used it earlier to take a bus. I was just about to go into class and I was trying really hard not to lose it, but somehow I was able to keep my composure even though I now had no cash or cards whatsoever. I get out of class and find 7 missed calls and a text message from my dad's coworker's brother Felipe. Apparently, the woman that found my wallet found his number inside and called it, so he called me right after and I was go able to pick it up before training started. Nothing was missing from my wallet, so I guess that made it clear that no one tried to steal it, and I gave the woman who found it all the cash that I had in there. Ohhhh that would have been such a nightmare.

I've been keeping really busy and haven't had to wake up insanely early, which is good. I'm hoping that by next week everything will really fall into place.

Also, random interesting fact that I learned this weekend: Starting while I was back home, Bogotá now has a smoking ban in all public buildings!

Warmth

Electric blanket... yesss.

Unsettled

Day 1: Fine.

Day 2: Fine, and then I came back to the apartment.

My apartment is so far away from everyone and everything that I like about the city that living here isn't comfortable. I had gotten used to it before coming back to Wisconsin, but now that I'm back I feel like I have to get used to it all over again. I was not ready to come back to the hour-plus time it takes me to get anywhere, the hissing construction workers, and getting the up-down while walking past every single person in my neighborhood. And the worst part is that when I'm here, I feel particularly trapped and alone. And it really should be impossible to feel that way in a city of over 8 million people with five LCs and over a dozen trainees. I don't blame my living situation on why I am already feeling a touch of homesickness after two days, but it certainly lets my mind wander into kind of a dreary place and then I don't feel like putting the effort into going and actually hanging out with people. The rain certainly doesn't help either.

I hate blogging about this. Or thinking that maybe I shouldn't have come back. Soon, however, I will hopefully blogging on my great new apartment and roommates (my original plans for the apartment switch fell through but Sael's been trying to find me a new one ASAP) or how awesome my new job is. Soon. I hope.

My "fine" part of the day was earlier when I ventured downtown to meet with my new boss and then have breakfast with Scott at this bomb fruit salad restaurant. I never really wrote about what my new job would be like... it's an English institute but they call themselves English Consultants. They are hired by companies around Bogotá and give corporate classes to employees of said companies. So I would be teaching business professionals in a non-classroom setting and probably leading more conversational classes to smaller groups of people. I get paid the same and have much better hours where the classes would be split throughout the day. It seems like a pretty good gig.

I got to the office today to turn in copies of all my documents and my boss told me that over break they found a new option for me. Apparently, the Consultants not only contract with companies, but also have three contracts with nearby high schools. Which led to the option of instead of teaching three corporate classes, I would teach one corporate class in the morning and the high school class around lunch time with two conversation workshops each week.

Immediately the red flag went up. How could they even think about offering me that position knowing I had just come from GB? As it turns out they were aware of this when telling me about it, and I found out it would be a lot, lot different. It's an all-girls' school and I would be teaching the highest level of English to 11th graders. I wouldn't be a homeroom teacher and would be answering to my bosses instead of the school directors. I was also assured that the school's administration is pretty great. It started to sound a little fun, but just to make sure I'm taking a tour of the school on Monday and sitting in on a class before making my decision. If a uniform is involved... you're looking at a definite no.

Back in acción

I got in last night and wow, does my Spanish suck. Shoot.

Hogar

I never really considered myself a homebody, but this past month I've come to the realization that I may fall into that category. When I first got here, I didn't have any reverse culture shock and I didn't miss Colombia at all. I didn't even miss the weather. I was so happy to finally be back after four weirdly emotional and stressful months. Being back in Madison was wonderful and my time in Minneapolis was great and I've had quite a few mixed feelings about going back. But I finally got my return date (Wednesday) and I'm feeling good. Maybe it's because Teresa's already there or I have some amazing people coming to visit, but I also have a new job and a new apartment to look forward to, maybe among a few other things. The past few weeks I continually find myself talking about Colombia like I would talk about Madison while I was in Bogotá. Something always seems to come up in conversation that reminds me of Colombia... domicilio, Wok, michelada, Usaquen, Crepes, coffee, limonada, the list goes on. I guess maybe I'm missing it?