Lovin' the Reggaetone
Well, Jordan and I were a step slow this morning. Last night we were dancing up a storm and didn't get in until 3am..... but I'll start at the beginning. Where was I... oh yes, I didn't write about yesterday at all.
Early yesterday morning we drove out to the school (I'm still shocked every time I go there that I get to work at this place) and had a meeting with Tom about health insurance. I won't bore you with the details.... just be assured that I'll be well taken care of. They even have this ambulance addition to the plan where you call the ambulance when you're sick and they show up with a doctor to check you out. It's not like an emergency transport vehicle like home, it's more like a tiny mobile hospital if you don't feel like taking a cab to the hospital.
Tim (the seventh grade math teacher) and I had an hour long meeting with Rob, our principal,(who I might add is a graduate of Queen's Con-Ed) where we talked about Middle School philosphy and all that Jazz. Apparently Sandra, the woman who I am replacing, was very well loved around Bolivar so I may be refered to as "not Sandra" for a bit. No worries. I'm sure I'll be dazzling them soon enough.
Next was a shopping trip to a Monstromart type of store (Think superstore but bigger). If there wasn't so much spanish being spoken you would never have known you were in Colombia. Also in many of the ailes there are people from companies that try to convince you to buy their product and do everything but put it in the cart for you (picture Jordan and I nodding politely while a woman quickly rattles off in spanish the value of her particular brand of toilet paper). Basically you could get anything there and we loaded up the cart but in the end it's really not any cheaper than in Canada. If you want to buy cheap things you have to get more traditional Colombian things. If you buy pretty modern westerny stuff it's pretty expensive.
Ok, I gotta go to lunch.... I'll finish this thought later. Remind me to talk about breast implants......
Ok, I'm back... so where was I... oh yeah, breast implants.
So aparently in Colombia breast implants are about 100 times as common as back in Canada. We started making a game of it after a while in the mall (count the number of women who cleary have had 'surgical enhancements'). Aparently it's not unheard of for grade eight girls to have implants already.... let's hope not though.... I'm teaching grade eights and that would just be horribly upsetting. I'd feel compelled to give out (unwelcome I'm sure) lectures about health.
So back to where my story started... going out to dance! A bunch of the second year teachers took us new teachers out to a place called the Cukarabakara. It cost 7,500 pesos to get in (about $3.50) and for that low entry price I got the 'friendliest' frisking by the bouncer that I have ever had. The Stu-Cons at Queen's Football games had nothing on this guy. I couldn't have been hiding ANYTHING. There was a live band and lots of music and people dancing all over the place. For some songs that everyone in the entire building was dancing. I was really bad at it but some Colombian friends and the second year teachers tried to show me how. Jordan was dancing on the table and (as I found out the next day) fell off at one point. There was Salsa and merenge (sp?) and a new craze called Reggaetone which is like latin hip hop. After lots of dancing, a few beers and a little aguariente (like weak sambucca) we headed out and the second year girls treated Jordan and I to some gigantic burgers on the way home. When we stumbled in at about 3am Marty was up to greet us and let us in.... what a guy.
Well as I write this another day has passed. We've had dinner at the Directors house and are prepping to move into the apartment tommorow. It may be a little while till I can post again so you're welcome to rediscover my witty banter up till this point. Jordan and Marty are both asleep now so I had best stop typing and sleep.
CheeryBye,
-Matt
Early yesterday morning we drove out to the school (I'm still shocked every time I go there that I get to work at this place) and had a meeting with Tom about health insurance. I won't bore you with the details.... just be assured that I'll be well taken care of. They even have this ambulance addition to the plan where you call the ambulance when you're sick and they show up with a doctor to check you out. It's not like an emergency transport vehicle like home, it's more like a tiny mobile hospital if you don't feel like taking a cab to the hospital.
Tim (the seventh grade math teacher) and I had an hour long meeting with Rob, our principal,(who I might add is a graduate of Queen's Con-Ed) where we talked about Middle School philosphy and all that Jazz. Apparently Sandra, the woman who I am replacing, was very well loved around Bolivar so I may be refered to as "not Sandra" for a bit. No worries. I'm sure I'll be dazzling them soon enough.
Next was a shopping trip to a Monstromart type of store (Think superstore but bigger). If there wasn't so much spanish being spoken you would never have known you were in Colombia. Also in many of the ailes there are people from companies that try to convince you to buy their product and do everything but put it in the cart for you (picture Jordan and I nodding politely while a woman quickly rattles off in spanish the value of her particular brand of toilet paper). Basically you could get anything there and we loaded up the cart but in the end it's really not any cheaper than in Canada. If you want to buy cheap things you have to get more traditional Colombian things. If you buy pretty modern westerny stuff it's pretty expensive.
Ok, I gotta go to lunch.... I'll finish this thought later. Remind me to talk about breast implants......
Ok, I'm back... so where was I... oh yeah, breast implants.
So aparently in Colombia breast implants are about 100 times as common as back in Canada. We started making a game of it after a while in the mall (count the number of women who cleary have had 'surgical enhancements'). Aparently it's not unheard of for grade eight girls to have implants already.... let's hope not though.... I'm teaching grade eights and that would just be horribly upsetting. I'd feel compelled to give out (unwelcome I'm sure) lectures about health.
So back to where my story started... going out to dance! A bunch of the second year teachers took us new teachers out to a place called the Cukarabakara. It cost 7,500 pesos to get in (about $3.50) and for that low entry price I got the 'friendliest' frisking by the bouncer that I have ever had. The Stu-Cons at Queen's Football games had nothing on this guy. I couldn't have been hiding ANYTHING. There was a live band and lots of music and people dancing all over the place. For some songs that everyone in the entire building was dancing. I was really bad at it but some Colombian friends and the second year teachers tried to show me how. Jordan was dancing on the table and (as I found out the next day) fell off at one point. There was Salsa and merenge (sp?) and a new craze called Reggaetone which is like latin hip hop. After lots of dancing, a few beers and a little aguariente (like weak sambucca) we headed out and the second year girls treated Jordan and I to some gigantic burgers on the way home. When we stumbled in at about 3am Marty was up to greet us and let us in.... what a guy.
Well as I write this another day has passed. We've had dinner at the Directors house and are prepping to move into the apartment tommorow. It may be a little while till I can post again so you're welcome to rediscover my witty banter up till this point. Jordan and Marty are both asleep now so I had best stop typing and sleep.
CheeryBye,
-Matt
posted by Matt and Emily at 10:26 AM
2 Comments:
Hey Matt, great to hear and see you living it up in Colombia, and breast implants! Sorry I missed your going away party, but heard it was a blast. Too bad we didn't get to go over Pride and Prejudice again this summer, but oh well.
Blow them away.:P
oooo salsa & merenge! that makes me even MORE excited to come visit you. Unfortunatly Wolfville doesnt give me many opportunities to use my latin dance skills
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