CRAZY WEEK!!!

Hello, all! I made it safe and sound to Bogota Monday night. After going through a ridiculously long curvy customs & immigration line (I got my Colombian passport stamped!) and trying to find a guy with the caretillas (carts) to help me with my three suitcases, I managed to successfully pass through everything and find Don Rafael, one of the guardians from the school who was scheduled to pick me up. Apparently there were two other Americans on my flight—Cora and Marshall—who are also going to be teaching at the Montessori school so we had to wait for them too. One of the recruitment directors, Claudia Mateus and one of the school bus drivers, Juanito, were also there to greet us and get us safely to our temporary living spot which is a hotel called the Centro Social para los Oficiales de la Policia Nacional—or in other words, a social events center/hotel for the National Police! We all were given our own cute little rooms and a snack since we arrived late (a sandwich, apple and Diet Coke jaja). And then it was off to bed because we were being picked up by Juanito, Rafael and Claudia the next morning at 7:30am to get to the school for the start of teacher orientation!

Tuesday we were up early and off to the school! Apparently the school is only a 5-10 minute drive down Avenida Boyaca (one of the major roads in Bogota) from the police hotel so it’s a quick trip. Once we got there we got a quick tour of the most important areas of the school and some of the main classrooms. OMG! The rooms are AMAZING! Every classroom is named after a famous person and have different things in them depending on the theme of the room (for instance the “Newton” room has math and logic activities in it). In the Preschool and Kinder rooms there are toys EVERYWHERE and all kinds of fun things to look at and play with. There is even a classroom with like twenty mini pianos, another room is a mini theater, one is a gym for toddlers and pre-K kids, and yet others have crazy aquariums and kid-size stoves (but real) and on and on. It’s like walking through Candyland or something because everything is so brightly colored and you just want to touch everything! After walking around a bit we waited around for the rest of the teachers to arrive. I think in total we’re at least 100, with fifty-fifty Colombian vs. foreigners. Once everyone arrived we all went to the humongous cafeteria to eat breakfast: scrambled eggs with salchica (kinda like a hot dog) mixed in them, bread, choice of papaya or cantaloupe, and fruit juice.

After breakfast we went into a HUGE theater with a stage and giant projector screen system (it was about the size of a decent size movie theater in the States). There the director of the school introduced the mission and vision of the school, some of the main rules and norms, and then each of the important administrative and academic coordinators introduced themselves. Also, each subject section leader introduced him or herself as well. There are three languages taught at the school-English, French, Spanish-and this year starting in September they are adding Mandarin Chinese and the school is hiring Chinese people straight from China! Pretty awesome except there are some teachers who only speak Spanish, only speak English, only speak French (and soon, only Chinese) so it is quite a challenge to make sure everyone understands everything all the time.

After the first session in the theater it was lunch time: rice, some grilled chicken, vegetables, juice, and a cookie. After lunch, we went back to the theater for a presentation on discipline norms and other things. We also did a couple ice-breaker activities out on one of the basketball courts. I feel like I met a billion people in the icebreaker and, thus, can barely recall any names!

After school Tuesday, I walked with two new friends/fellow teachers—Romix and Jordan—down the street to the Centro Comerico Bolivar where I tried (but failed) to change my traveler’s checks. Apparently no place in this area of Bogota can change them; one has to go into the Centro (downtown) but I have not had time to go yet because of the school day being so long (from 7:30-4:30 and the banks close at 5) and it’s probably at least a 30 minute ride on the Transmilenio (the major bus system). I was only able to change the $30 in cash that I have, which won’t get me too far in Colombia in terms of the big purchases I have to make like my two school uniforms and things for my apartment. Well, after leaving the mall Jordan and I hopped in a cab to get back to our hotel, which as previously mentioned is not very far from the school. WELL….she had been given the direction by another one of our colleagues who obviously had the wrong address so we went pretty much all over the North of Bogota chasing some imaginary place until the taxista took us to the other Centro Social de Policia which was further away than what we remembered. However, he got out and helped us explain to the receptionists at this hotel that we were looking for the other one (apparently there are 3 Clubes de Policia in Bogota). The receptionist luckily knew of the other one and called to make sure we were guests there and the taxi guy was nice enough to take us all the way back to Boyaca (which is where we started, jajaja!). However we hit rush hour traffic so it took us quite a while to get back but the cab driver was sooooooo nice—he and I ended up talking about the education and health systems in the US and other stuff just to pass the time. I feel very fortunate that we had a nice driver who was so patient with us. And best of all, he only charged us the equivalent of $17 when we were in his cab for at least 2 hours driving all over hell and back! Needless to say, Jordan and I made it back to our hotel safe and sound and now I have the card of an amazing taxi driver who I will more than happily give more business to!

Well, and Wednesday we finally received our teaching assignments. I’ll be teaching KINDERGARTEN!!!!!! Woooooooohoooooooo! I’m so happy! I have 17 kids in my class and they’re all roughly 5 years old. I apparently will be teaching all subjects and all in English (except for music, art, Spanish, and Chinese). It’s exciting because I get to be in all the cool little classrooms filled with cool toys and stuff and I get to be outside with them at recess on their cute little playground (jajaja, I’m such a kid!). I really like all my fellow teachers in the section: Ines, Mari, Maria Lorena, Claudia, Blanquita, Cora, Alejandra, Johanna, Anita y Catalina. Cora and I are the only Americans! I’m slowly learning all the new Colombian vocabulary for words I know in Central American Spanish from these fellow teachers. For example: here they say “caneca” for “trashcan” where in Guatemala they said “basurero”; “tinto” here is black coffee where in Guate it was “café negro”; escarapela is “nametag” here vs. “gafete” en Guatemala; “esfero” is pen vs. “lapicero” (but they say both); “aventon” for “a ride” vs. “jalon”; “cuadrar” is “to park” vs. “estacionar/parquear”; and Mari taught me how to say “cheesy” (as in “that’s cheesy/lame”)— “corroncho” Jajajaja, I love learning a whole new Spanish!

Thursday and Friday afternoons Cora, Marshall, Jordan and I went apartment hunting with the three musketeers (Rafael, Juanito and Claudia). Jordan and I decided to live together and we found a BEAUTIFUL place near the school in a wonderful neighborhood. It’s safe (the apartment complex, like most I’ve seen here, is gated with a security guard at the entrance) and is near a shopping center, internet cafe, major drug stores, Exito (my new favorite store--it's like a big Target), and the major streets to get to school and back. The apartment is new, has two bathrooms, two bedrooms (WITH CLOSETS!!! POR FIN!!!!!!!) a pretty big living room, long patio with a spectacular view, and a cute lil kitchen with a tiny lil wash area next to it (pretty typical here). It’s not furnished so we’ll have to slowly buy stuff like beds, table & chairs, lamps, washing machine, and other stuff. But it’s seriously the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived in and it costs the equivalent of US $735 more or less, which includes all administration (so like the landlord would take care of all problems), utilities, and access to the complex’s gym (yessssss!), sauna, and other services!!!! But even better, the $735 is the price for the entire place so divided by two people, Jordan and I are each paying only $367 (roughly) per month! QUE GANGA!!!! I don’t think I’ve ever paid that little for something so beautiful (pics to come!). Well, in Guatemala I paid the equivalent of $60 a month for an entire house but lets be honest, it was made of concrete, had a tin roof, bats and all kinds of bugs came in there, had little running water, flooded non-stop during the rainy season, and was located in what was a small (relatively) town (but don’t get me wrong, I still loved that little hell-hole!). I’m living in the CITY now!!!! This place could be at least a million in NYC. We moved in yesterday afternoon but we had nothing to sleep on so we had to sleep on the floor and Rafael brought us some blankets. Jordan and I went shopping at the Carulla (a supermarket chain) and Exito to buy the necessities like toilet paper, hangers, silverware, soap, etc. And today we went shopping for mattresses (which will be delivered sometime tomorrow), sheets, and blankets.

Today the preschool and kindergarten teachers had one-on-one parent-teacher meetings so I got to meet most of my students and their parents. They were all super nice (the parents) and the children are soooo cute. Most of the kids already understand and speak some English but only two sets of parents really could communicate in English so I had to carry out the conferences in Spanish. Most parents were really interested in my story—how I was born here but grew up in the states so a bunch of them gave me a warm “welcome back.” So nice! I’m excited to get this school year started even though I will be super busy!

Afterwards, Claudia and Juanito took us to buy matresses and bedding stuff at a place called Alkosto which is a lot like a Costco, Home Depot and Office Depot rolled into one. I bought a mattress size called "semi-doble" which is between a twin and a full (it can fit two people relatively comfortably) for about $139. Later on I think I'll try to buy a bedframe somewhere cheaper. So little by little I'll be making my place liveable!

Well, sorry for such a long blog entry folks but there is already much to talk about! Thanks for following and will post again soon. Hope everyone is healthy and happy! Ciaoooo!