It's been a long time, I know

Hello followers!  I know I owe like a billions posts for the last few months.  I'm sorry I've been slacking, I just guess I just haven't had much inspiration to write anything in a while.  I've had a fantastic last 5 months and can't believe it's already mid-May and the school year is almost over (3 weeks to go!).  

So I'm not sure if I mentioned in my last post that my roomate Jordan left to go back to the States in January to take care of her family since while she had been in England during the holiday, her stepfather had triple bypass surgery.  So my friend, colleague and travel buddy, Jeni, moved in with me mid-January and now we've been inseparable!  Anyways, so we went January, February and March without a puente (holiday weekend) so we didn't have really much opportunity to travel during those months. My birthday was pretty low-key since it fell on a Tuesday, but my closest friends here -Jeni, Mike, Adri, Aleja, and a few others came out to have some drinks in my favorite neighborhood, Usaquen.  And that weekend we went out again to one of my favorite spots called "Full 80s" where they play all 80s and 90s music in English and Spanish.  I also joined a gym in February...the Club Colsubsidio near the school.  My friend and colleague Mark and I started swimming two days a week which was nice, but the pool was more often than not crowded. Apparently Colombians don't know about lap swimming or blocking off a few lanes of the pool for more advanced and/or serious swimmers.  The lanes marked off for "practica libre" will often have everyone and their mother in them--couples making out, kids on noodles,  people who can't swim in a straight line, etc--so I've stopped swimming recently because I just can't handle crashing into others who are there just for social time.  So now I only use the gym. 

School has been going well for the most part.  I think I'm finally starting to get to know my students, especially the preescolar, first and second graders.  I still don't know my transition or third graders though.  It's super hard because in total I have class with 33 groups, each with anywhere between 9 and 27 students (so in primary alone I teach about 300 kids).  My third grade classes are the biggest-each with over 23 students.  I don't even have enough computers for the biggest group-Hiparco-which has 27 students.  And my computers are always dying or having issues so it's frustrating.  But this bimester I've been teaching my second and third graders how to use Microsoft Word and to type up simple documents to get them prepared for their computer classes in the 4th grade.  I think out of all my typing classes I enjoy the first graders.  Out of my games and learning & sensorial skills classes I really enjoy the Nursery kids (they are 2 and 3 years old) and in Transition I like Mill and Cousteu groups.  This week we've been playing Uno and it's so much fun to teach them new games like that!  

Me with my brand new cédula!

Well, so March was kinda unmemorable other than just trying to get through the school week and enjoying my weekends with Jeni at home watching movies, listening to music, and hanging out with a few of our other friends. The first week of April was Semana Santa and Jeni's sister Kim came to visit for the week.  That was a great week...we took Kim to Monserrate, the Museo del Oro, to the marketplaces and just kicked it enjoying one of the first sunny weeks in Bogota we had in a while.  Our friends Mike and Adri hosted a dinner for us at Adri's house, which unfortunately Kim couldn't attend because she got ill that day for some reason.  And I managed to get out of Bogota for a day with Juliana who was back in town.  She and her family took me to Guatavita, this famous lake known for it's "El Dorado" tale of their being gold in the lake.  It was a nice hour-long hike around the lake and up some foliaged-covered hills.  We then ate lunch in Chia and came back to Bogota.  It was nice to see Juliana again for the first time since October when she left for her job in the Virigin Islands.  The highlight of this week was when I went to the Registraduría office in Usaquen to pick up my BRAND NEW CEDULA DE CIUDADANIA!!!!  YESSSSSSS!  I could finally get rid of the ridiculous contraseña ID which didn't fit in any purse/wallet and would get wet or torn all the time because you can't laminate it.  So I'm officially a card carrying Colombian!!!  It only took 29 years, jajaja!  Kim and Jeni made fun of me relentlessly because every time I'd open my wallet to get out money I would go "Oh! And here's my CEDULA!!!!"

Me, Jeni and Kim in Usaquén during Semana Santa

The rest of April went pretty fast.  Jeni celebrated her 43rd birthday on the 24th so the weekend before we got a group of friends from the school together to go on a famous Colombian Chiva party bus.  It was sooooooooooooooooo much fun!  The bus came to our apartment complex to pick us up around 9pm and it took us around Bogota for the next hour or so, during which time we proceeded to drink and dance up a storm. Then it took us up the hill to Calera, a town outside of Bogota high up on a neighboring mountain. There weren't many people at the club in Calera because apparently it's a spot exclusively for Chiva tours.  But all 18 or 19 of us had a great time and the birthday girl had the time of her life too!  

Lili, Me, Jeni and John in Calera during the Chiva party

And the last weekend of April, crossing over into May was a four-day puente--Colombia's Labor Day-so Adri, Mike, Jeni and I drove off to Villavicencio, a pretty popular getaway spot for Rolos (Bogotanos) since it's not too far away (about 3 hours).  A bunch of Adri's friends came too so we got to make a bunch of new friends.  They were all non-English speaking Colombians so it was great to be speaking Spanish a majority of the time, where as at school we're always speaking English.  We had a fun two days there, soaking up sun and playing tejo, the sport I would describe as a cross between horseshoes and bowling.   The tejo court is simple--there's two clay pits at opposite ends where there's a metal ring in the middle of the clay and you place 4 little triangles of gunpowder on top.  Then you stand at the opposite end and throw a heavy metal disk at the clay pit, trying to explode the gunpowder envelopes.  This was my second time playing (Juliana and her fam took me back in September).  We split into two teams, Colombians versus gringos, but since there were only 3 gringos and 5 Colombians, Adri played on our team.  Jeni and I were the only two to explode the gunpowder so the gringos won!  Yessss!!!  I wish we had longer to stay in Villavicencio but Adri had to work on the Monday so we spent the last two days of our puente at home relaxing.

In the marketplace in Facatativa

Last weekend, another Colombian friend from school, Connie, invited us out to her finca in Facatativa "Faca", about an hour outside of Bogota.  It was Mother's Day weekend so Connie's parents were there and our other friends from school Paula and Cesar had their moms there too.  The finca was sooooo cute!  The climate out there was cold and rainy but so lush and green and the air was much easier to breathe than Bogota's!  I swear this damn pollution is killing me.  I am always sneezing, losing my voice, and blowing out black snot out my nose.  Anywho, Connie had horses at her finca so a bunch of us rode on the horses (I didn't but Mark and Jeni did) and it was hilarious when Mark got on one of the wilder ones and was trying to control it but couldn't (the commands they use here are different than in the US) so he was running off in all directions with Mark frantically trying to reign him in.  It was a riot!  I could not stop laughing. We didn't make it back to Bogota until about 11pm or so.  But it was great being out in the campo again with some great people, awesome carne asada and guacamole, and beautiful nature!

Me and my new friend at the finca in Faca

And now it's the weekend again and another puente.  I was going to go to Medellín this weekend with Mark but both of us decided to save some money and also get caught up on our grading since the end of the bimester is almost upon us and the next few weeks are going to be crazy. But we have another puente at the beginning of June so hopefully we can go then.  I still want to see my birthplace as well, and Jeni and I were talking about going to Buga & Cartagena at some point.  So much to see!

Well, I've decided I'm probably going to stay here for a bit longer until I can find a job in the US.  I'm actively looking but I figured since I already have a source of income, it makes more sense to stay here and make money while I look for something else than to go home and not be making any money and looking.  But I probably will be back in the States sooner rather than later.  

Well, thanks for tuning in again.  I will try to be better at writing.  Hope everyone is well!