Two months and change

Hello fam and friends! Hope everyone is well. So I know I haven't posted in a while but honestly nothing really exciting has happened since the last entry. September was a looooong month with several good days at the school but also some pretty stresseful days trying to figure out the complicated grading system that they finally told us about 1 1/2 months AFTER the school year began and for which we only had a week to finishing imputting all the grades and writing up all the individual student observations. After that was all done, we had two Saturdays back-to-back where we had to be at the school. One was an "aula abierta" or open classroom day for parents to come by and learn about the different classes their kids take. We each were in charge of one subject material and had to do a real 30-minute class for the parents. But actually we had to do five, 30 minute classes since we had to do 3 nursery/toddler classes plus 2 kinder classes.

The following Saturday (October 1) we had to be there for "entrega de notas" or report card day with the parents. That was also a lot of fun...15 minute slots for each parent to talk about their kid's academic and social performance. Great fun, oh yeah.

Well, and this last week was break week for the kids but for us, we had to come in at 7am Monday through Wednesday and do a lot of other crazy paperwork and stuff, like summarizing each of our student's household statistics (the number of parents married vs. divorced, the person who is at home when the child arrives after school, the parent who most frequently answers when we make parent calls, if there is a routine in the household, etc). Lots of it was stuff I had to guess because how am I supposed to know if a certain child in my class has a routine at home? Anywho, we had to do that plus another set of student observations and copy and modify the "logros" (student achievements or competencies). But I got some great news, my area coordinator was able to get me to switch out of Kinder and teach instead 1st-3rd grade computers and Nursery through Kinder "learning and sensorial skills" class (really just a variety of games and activities to improve gross motor skills and cognition). So now I won't have to spend 24/7 with these crazy kids nor will I have to put up with the ridiculousness of being a group director. I am very happy with the change but since we went on break Thursday, I still haven't been explained how to actually carry out the computer classes nor have I been given a password or anything for logging onto the system in the lab where I'll be teaching. Thus, I'm going to show up on Tuesday not having a clue what to do! Oh well, not my fault since the school can't get their s#$% together!

So we'll see how this new schedule will work out. I'm still not convinced that just switching departments will actually make a huge difference since it's the overall system of the school that I'm not in favor of, but at least this is a second opportunity to try and make things better. I am hoping I will feel more comfortable!

Aside from school, Jordan and I have been having several issues with our apartment. First, back in September our water was shot off unexpectedly because our bill had arrived but the guard at the entrance to the apartment who is in charge of giving us our bills did not inform us that it had, even though he had given us the rest of our mail leading up to that moment and the bill had to have been there for a while (it was postmarked 2 weeks before the actual date they were to shut it off). So we had to make a frantic trip the next day after school to the inmobiliaria (real estate agency) to ask how to get things back on since the bill was from the previous tenant so we supposedly didn't really owe anything. However, since they had already shut everything off we had to pay the full amount. So we did and the agent took the money for us (since the place was closed at that time and we couldn't make it during working hours) and she called to have them turn it back on for us by the end of the week (they shut it off on a Wednesday or Thursday). However, the water people said they had to see the money in the bank for at least 48 hours so that meant we wouldn't get our water back on until the following Monday. So 4 days without water (had to take a shower at school or at my aparment's gym--with COLD water!). Monday came and went and no water. Finally back on on Tuesday.

Second problem with the apartment: the gas people have been trying to stop by since we moved in to do a routine inspection of the water heater and gas lines to the stove and oven. However, since we work full-time during the week we can't be home to let them in. So on two occasions we hired a cleaning person to come do some of our household chores and house-sit for when the gas people arrived. We assumed they would arrive between 8-5 which is customary for most businesses here. But noooo, they came at 6:30pm, an hour and a half after we had told the cleaning person she could go home. So two times we had to reschedule the visit for a Saturday but those days coincided with the days we had Aula Abierta or Entrega de Notas (and because Jordan's in the primary school her Saturdays were not the same as mine). So we had rescheduled for last Saturday the 8th but they ended up showing up unexpectedly the Tuesday before (the 4th) and because we weren't there (obviously) they shut off our gas!! So again, no hot water and no way to cook. Grrrrr! So Claudia, the person at school who helps us handle all matters related to the real estate and stuff, called the Gas Natural company and the inmoviliaria to ask why they hell they had come on a day other than the one planned. She also scheduled for them to come on that Friday, allowing the Real Estate agent to have our key and be there while the gas men were there so we wouldn't have to be. The did their inspection and found there was a gas leak, but after doing some slouthing, Claudia found out that they had already known there was a gas leak for at least a year but the Inmobiliaria hadn't done anything about it (and didn't tell us before we moved in). So yea, way to put our lives in danger, real estate people! So last week Claudia said she'd try to talk to the school's lawyers to see if we could get out of the contract because of this issue of safety and negligence but the verdict was that we cannot get out of it. We could possibly get two other people to sign the lease in our place but the process would be super long and complicated because it would require finding two responsible tenants and going with them to the Inmobiliaria to redo the contract and then to the authorization place to have them notarized and everything. So I guess we're just going to stay here and make the best of it and hope there are no more probs. So the gas guy came on Thursday and fixed our stove and oven gas lines but there's still a hole in the wall where he had to get to the lines so he has to come back and fix all that. Sighhhh...so my nice lil apartment turned out not to be so nice after all!

Anyways, moving on...this weekend I was planning on going out of town with some of the other Preschool teachers to a town called Villavicencio where they're having their rodeo type fair. Well, plans fell through since apparently the girl who was organizing it all couldn't round up enough people to make the cost of renting out the finca worth it. Damn! Thought I was finally gonna get up out of Bogota. Oh well, for SURE in December I will get out of this city. So for the last few days I've just been chilling, hanging out at home, eating lunch and meeting up with friends from school, doing some chores, etc. It's been really chillax but I'm getting kind of stir-crazy! I need to get out of this city!

Last night was my friend Juliana's despedida (going away party) because she's leaving for her new job in the Virgin Islands on Monday. I'm so happy for her but soooooooo sad she's leaving! So we went to the other Andres Carne de Res (in August I went to the original one in Chia with the school) in Zona T. This place had 6 levels with tables and dance floors everywhere and people dressed up in crazy outfits kind like the other Andres. We had some drinks and a bit of food and danced it up for quite a while (first time dancing in at least a month!). We didn't get out of the club until about 2:30am or so but as we were pulling out of the Zona T we got pulled over in one of the random checkpoint areas they have in certain spots of the city (to check to make sure people aren't driving drunk as well as to make sure all their smog control paperwork and registration is up to date). They pick cars to pull over at random so we were one of the ones picked and not so lucky in this case cuz Ruben (the car's owner) didn't have his paperwork up-to-date. Fortunately we had hired a driver since we were all a little tipsy but it didn't help the fact that his registration was expired by two months. Juliana told me he had had an appointment that very morning to go get it all renewed but his alarm didn't go off and he overslept. Thus, he had the car towed and we had to call Juli's sister and her boyfriend to come back and get us. Al final de todo I made it home around 3:30am! I was exhausted but had trouble sleeping because of the remnents of my cold that I had a few weeks back (damn iron lung cough!).

And I was wide awake at 8am this morning! Yay for only 5 quasi hours of sleep!

And today just planning to hang out with some other teacher friends at a cool restaurant/bar we frequent. And tomorrow is my last day of "vacation" before heading back to the grind at the school. Planning to spend it with another fellow teacher who had to get surgery on her right leg because she ruptured her achilles tendon several weeks back.

Well, in general my experience here thus far hasn't been what I expected. I'm completely disillusioned with the school--the curriculum, the organization (or lack thereof), and the administration's attitude (primarily the fact that they don't really care about us and aren't supportive at all). It's also been difficult to really meet new people outside of the school. I don't feel like I have a network of friends like I did back in the States and I'm finding it hard to adjust to big city life without it. I really miss the small-town feel of San Luis where I could just walk down the street and strike up a conversation with anyone and bam! Instant friend. There are moments when I feel truly alone here even though I do have some good friends from the school and I have (well, had) Juliana's support as well. I'm also just dying to get out and explore my country! Tired of being cooped up in this rainy, constantly foggy, smoggy city. I want to breathe fresh air again so bad! Well, last night I met one of Juliana's friends who is also from Santander and he said he'd be more than happy to show me around that region so hopefully I'll have some solid plans for December!

Anywho, miss you all so much! Hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'll try to write again soon. Bye for now!