So, as anyone who has seen (or, more correctly, heard me) in the last couple of weeks knows that I have had some kind of freakish death cough that would send me into uncontrollable spasms of coughing. I was fine otherwise, just really annoyed and, frankly, a little embarassed by this damn thing. Well, it has not gone away, and I was desperate to NOT have it when school starts. So yesterday I took advantage of my special travelers health insurance to see if I could see a doctor to check it out again. The lady was very helpful and told me that we could arrange something etc. etc. I thought my Spanish was failing me when she said she would call me back to confirm the time that the doctor would come to my house. Yes, people, yesterday I had a house call from Dr. Jorge Ortíz. I learned some new Spanish medical vocabulary words, and he did all the usual doctor check-up stuff -- just in my living room. It was pretty crazy.
Today Catalina, logistics lady extraordinaire of Colegio Los Nogales, took me and the other new foreign teachers to see the salt cathedral at Zipaquirá. It's a maze of tunnels blasted out of a giant salt mine and fashioned into a church. You make your way in through the stations of the cross, before ending up at the "dome" (a chamber with a big curved ceiling), the narthex, and the sanctuary where the altar is. It's a little bit eerie but cool. You shake off the eerie-ness pretty quickly at the end though, when you watch a 15-minute 3D movie about the history of salt in Colombia and of the cathedral. The narrator? A robot named NaCl, of course. Technical difficulties prohibit me from sharing this Kodak moment with you, but stay tuned for it as well as pictures of me licking the walls of salt. I know that's kind of gross, but we all cracked ourselves up doing it.
It was really great to meet the other new teachers, to at least know that there will be a few familiar faces when we hit the all-staff orientation next week. Speaking of the orientation, my lazy (or a little hectic) days of settling in are over. I didn't think I had to work until Saturday, but the principal wants me to come in for the whole day tomorrow. So I guess it officially begins!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The orientation continues
Just briefly (since I realized that yesterday's post was kind of epic), there are a few more things that I am seeing and getting used to. One thing that I LOVE is the fact that Guillermo the security guard calls me "profe" or "profesora." It's even better than my usual name in Latin America, which, as soon as I meet someone becomes Sarita.
Big accomplishment of the day yesterday: navigating Colombian bureaucracy all myself. That included writing a letter to the Dept. of Taxes & Customs (in an attempt to get my boxes released) and rushing to a notary public to get copies of my passport authenticated. Fingers crossed that the documents will convince customs to liberate my stuff.
Finally, something I am struggling to get used to: boiling water at 8500 feet on a hot plate takes about 30 or 40 minutes -- no exaggeration. For a girl who loves her pasta, this is going to be tough.
Tomorrow I head off on a field trip with the other new teachers to Zipaquira Salt Cathedral -- a church carved completely out of salt. Photos to follow.
Big accomplishment of the day yesterday: navigating Colombian bureaucracy all myself. That included writing a letter to the Dept. of Taxes & Customs (in an attempt to get my boxes released) and rushing to a notary public to get copies of my passport authenticated. Fingers crossed that the documents will convince customs to liberate my stuff.
Finally, something I am struggling to get used to: boiling water at 8500 feet on a hot plate takes about 30 or 40 minutes -- no exaggeration. For a girl who loves her pasta, this is going to be tough.
Tomorrow I head off on a field trip with the other new teachers to Zipaquira Salt Cathedral -- a church carved completely out of salt. Photos to follow.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
First impressions
[This was actually written on my second day here, but it is only being published today because the power in the internet cafe went out yesterday].
Whenever I arrive some place new, I am always kind of overwhelmed as I take in all the things that are different/random/cool/weird about it. Yesterday in Bogotá was no exception.
First of all, there's my apartment & the building. It's in a neighborhood called La Carolina. There's a 24-hour security guard station out at the front gate, which is always locked. I have seen that before but hadn't really expected it. Then again, I live in what I think is a relatively swanky neighborhood. Its proximity to a giant American-style mall (both convenient and dismaying) is a dead giveaway. The apartment itself is tiny but really nice by any measure. The kitchen is microscopic, which I know will take me some getting used to, devoted cook that I am. I think of it as my Barbie-sized kitchen. It's just one of the many quirks that I will get used to. The same goes for the fact that it is inexplicably loud outside my apartment at night. I have no idea what the hell is going on in this otherwise really quiet neighborhood.
So then there are some of the different, kind of wacky goings on around me. To get into the mall I had to get my purse swiped by a metal detector wand. Also, I learned yesterday that a supermarket in an upscale Bogotá neighborhood is a total free for all. After about 15 minuted there I figured out that you have to go into outdoor street market mode to get where you need to go. That includes elbowing old ladies out of your way. Another interesting thing about the supermarket(where, by the way, you can buy hard liquor, cigarettes, tamales in the deli section, and Campbell's canned soup for about $7) is that there are people promoting different products all over the place. For example, there were two ladies in green jumpsuits hawking different yogurt brand in the dairy aisle. There was also a guy with a flat-screen TV mounted on his back pitching some other thing; I believe it was light bulbs.
Another cool and extremely convenient thing here (which helped me out majorly yesterday) is that you can go to a little phone stand, use a cell phone, and pay by the minute. How genius is that where not everyone has a cell phone?? Pretty clever, I think.
So that's the news from here. Tonight I will sit vigil in my apartment and pray to the heavens that my FedEx packages of half my earthly possessions arrive. You'll hear about it if they don't. I don't imagine there will be a whole lot else to tell this week. It's going to be a lot of me prepping for school and a couple of outings with the other new foreign teachers.
Whenever I arrive some place new, I am always kind of overwhelmed as I take in all the things that are different/random/cool/weird about it. Yesterday in Bogotá was no exception.
First of all, there's my apartment & the building. It's in a neighborhood called La Carolina. There's a 24-hour security guard station out at the front gate, which is always locked. I have seen that before but hadn't really expected it. Then again, I live in what I think is a relatively swanky neighborhood. Its proximity to a giant American-style mall (both convenient and dismaying) is a dead giveaway. The apartment itself is tiny but really nice by any measure. The kitchen is microscopic, which I know will take me some getting used to, devoted cook that I am. I think of it as my Barbie-sized kitchen. It's just one of the many quirks that I will get used to. The same goes for the fact that it is inexplicably loud outside my apartment at night. I have no idea what the hell is going on in this otherwise really quiet neighborhood.
So then there are some of the different, kind of wacky goings on around me. To get into the mall I had to get my purse swiped by a metal detector wand. Also, I learned yesterday that a supermarket in an upscale Bogotá neighborhood is a total free for all. After about 15 minuted there I figured out that you have to go into outdoor street market mode to get where you need to go. That includes elbowing old ladies out of your way. Another interesting thing about the supermarket(where, by the way, you can buy hard liquor, cigarettes, tamales in the deli section, and Campbell's canned soup for about $7) is that there are people promoting different products all over the place. For example, there were two ladies in green jumpsuits hawking different yogurt brand in the dairy aisle. There was also a guy with a flat-screen TV mounted on his back pitching some other thing; I believe it was light bulbs.
Another cool and extremely convenient thing here (which helped me out majorly yesterday) is that you can go to a little phone stand, use a cell phone, and pay by the minute. How genius is that where not everyone has a cell phone?? Pretty clever, I think.
So that's the news from here. Tonight I will sit vigil in my apartment and pray to the heavens that my FedEx packages of half my earthly possessions arrive. You'll hear about it if they don't. I don't imagine there will be a whole lot else to tell this week. It's going to be a lot of me prepping for school and a couple of outings with the other new foreign teachers.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Counting down
The up-side of stress-induced insomnia? It makes for extra time to fire up the blog you've just told the entire universe about.
This will be brief, because otherwise it will be a long and boring venting session about how difficult it is to wrap up your life in one city in preparation for an international move. One particular low-light in that department that's maybe worth mentioning: yesterday I went to FedEx to get some of the forms I need to ship some of my stuff to Colombia. I explained to the guy at the counter that I had some questions about the customs form, and he said I had to be really careful shipping to South America because those countries are really strict about what comes in. (He also said, "And you know why," which made me want to point out to him that they are a LOT more worried about the "stuff" (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) that goes out, but whatever). He asked to what specific country I was shipping, and I told him Colombia. At which point he just laughed in my face. Seriously. Thanks, dude. It's not like I wasn't already totally freaking out about having a few of my possessions make it to the place I am going to be living for two years. Anyway, he pulled himself together and proceeded to be moderately helpful. I tried to make sense of the insane forms he gave me. Then I met some friends for dinner and had a stiff gin & tonic. That helped a little.
This will be brief, because otherwise it will be a long and boring venting session about how difficult it is to wrap up your life in one city in preparation for an international move. One particular low-light in that department that's maybe worth mentioning: yesterday I went to FedEx to get some of the forms I need to ship some of my stuff to Colombia. I explained to the guy at the counter that I had some questions about the customs form, and he said I had to be really careful shipping to South America because those countries are really strict about what comes in. (He also said, "And you know why," which made me want to point out to him that they are a LOT more worried about the "stuff" (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) that goes out, but whatever). He asked to what specific country I was shipping, and I told him Colombia. At which point he just laughed in my face. Seriously. Thanks, dude. It's not like I wasn't already totally freaking out about having a few of my possessions make it to the place I am going to be living for two years. Anyway, he pulled himself together and proceeded to be moderately helpful. I tried to make sense of the insane forms he gave me. Then I met some friends for dinner and had a stiff gin & tonic. That helped a little.
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