Ok, so it's been a while...
Sorry all.... It's been a while since I've written but everything is still going well. I'm no longer living at the Stein (the hotel we were staying at) and Jordan and I are moved in nicely. There have been some adventures though...
On Saturday night Jodan and I met our neighbor next door, Elaina. She didn't speak any English and we don't speak any Spanish so it was a lot of looking confused and laughing. We also met her son Andreas and her mother. At the end of the conversation the main thing that we'd gotten out of it was that tommorow (menyana) she was going to come knock on our door (make motion of knocking with hand) and we were going to go somewhere. We had no idea where but it was somewhere. So Sunday morning at 10am she knocks on our door and we get into the car with Elaina, her mother and her son and drive out past the Rio Pance (Pance River) which is where all of Cali goes to swim and cool down on Sundays. We drove up into the hills past a security station (private security for the houses up there) and into the Colombian equivalent of cottage country. Andreas took us on this 40 minute hike basically upwards into the mountain range to a private waterfall that was about 200 feet high. So we got to swim in the waterfall and met a bunch of other family members there, two of whom live in the states and spoke english. After that we walked back to the house, had a long leisurely lunch with the family and hung out. They also kept trying to feed us Aguariente which is the Colombian equivalent of sambuca (tastes like black liqorish) and is about 60 proof (that's 30%). I still had memories of the night out at the bar so I mainly stuck to water and beer. Next we walked to a neighbors property, Jorge and Debbie. Jorge is the brother of a girl that I know who works at the school and Debbie is his British bride who has been in Colombia for about 20 years. They had a stone lined natural pool that filled up from the same stream that formed the waterfall we'd visited earlier. Jorge took us down behind his property (no house yet... they are just starting to build) to another stream with a gorgeous waterfall that reminded me of cedar falls a lot. After that we went back to Elaina's place and hung out with the family till about 9pm when they decided to go back to the city. So basically, what we expected to be a short afternoon jaunt turned into a whole day of meeting wonderfully welcoming people, and swimming in tropical waterfalls. All things considered it was quite an adventure... Trying to cope with all the spanish was certainly a little tiring and overwhelming though. It's nice knowing the neighbors too. Yesterday their dogs wandered into our apartment for a little visit:) I wish I'd had my camera to take some waterfall pictures but both Joran and I forgot.... oh well.... use your imagination. Or pic up a travel book with a beautiful waterfall and that's pretty close.
So what else has happened.... Jordan and I discovered that when we turned on a certain element in the stove it electrified out whole stainless steel kitchen counter along with the dishwater. Not a dangerous enough charge to really hurt you but enough to be sure that there was some current running through there. So if anybody needs some free physiotherapy I can give you some good electrotherapy.
Yesterday there was a storm passing through the mountains and I watched it drench parts of Cali as it went by. This is such a beautiful country.... The pictures just don't do it justice. Storms are very common here and there is lightning usually every night although we rarely get rain along with it. Storms seem more frequent but confined to smaller spaces.
I've started school as well. No kids yet but lots of meetings and classroom prep. This school is very bilingual and almost all meetings are conducted in both english and spanish. It always sounds like people are not paying attention and are chatting with their neighbors while someone is speaking but it's just because there is constant translation going on. I've been making sure that I sit near someone who is very bilingual. Martha Munoz who has a classroom next to mine (grade 7 science) is probably the most amazing because she is completely bilingual. It's like she has two first languages.
I'll try to keep you posted on how this week of prep goes, but the main interest I'm sure is who things go once the kids arrive..... we'll see. Only six more days!!!!
Love Matt
On Saturday night Jodan and I met our neighbor next door, Elaina. She didn't speak any English and we don't speak any Spanish so it was a lot of looking confused and laughing. We also met her son Andreas and her mother. At the end of the conversation the main thing that we'd gotten out of it was that tommorow (menyana) she was going to come knock on our door (make motion of knocking with hand) and we were going to go somewhere. We had no idea where but it was somewhere. So Sunday morning at 10am she knocks on our door and we get into the car with Elaina, her mother and her son and drive out past the Rio Pance (Pance River) which is where all of Cali goes to swim and cool down on Sundays. We drove up into the hills past a security station (private security for the houses up there) and into the Colombian equivalent of cottage country. Andreas took us on this 40 minute hike basically upwards into the mountain range to a private waterfall that was about 200 feet high. So we got to swim in the waterfall and met a bunch of other family members there, two of whom live in the states and spoke english. After that we walked back to the house, had a long leisurely lunch with the family and hung out. They also kept trying to feed us Aguariente which is the Colombian equivalent of sambuca (tastes like black liqorish) and is about 60 proof (that's 30%). I still had memories of the night out at the bar so I mainly stuck to water and beer. Next we walked to a neighbors property, Jorge and Debbie. Jorge is the brother of a girl that I know who works at the school and Debbie is his British bride who has been in Colombia for about 20 years. They had a stone lined natural pool that filled up from the same stream that formed the waterfall we'd visited earlier. Jorge took us down behind his property (no house yet... they are just starting to build) to another stream with a gorgeous waterfall that reminded me of cedar falls a lot. After that we went back to Elaina's place and hung out with the family till about 9pm when they decided to go back to the city. So basically, what we expected to be a short afternoon jaunt turned into a whole day of meeting wonderfully welcoming people, and swimming in tropical waterfalls. All things considered it was quite an adventure... Trying to cope with all the spanish was certainly a little tiring and overwhelming though. It's nice knowing the neighbors too. Yesterday their dogs wandered into our apartment for a little visit:) I wish I'd had my camera to take some waterfall pictures but both Joran and I forgot.... oh well.... use your imagination. Or pic up a travel book with a beautiful waterfall and that's pretty close.
So what else has happened.... Jordan and I discovered that when we turned on a certain element in the stove it electrified out whole stainless steel kitchen counter along with the dishwater. Not a dangerous enough charge to really hurt you but enough to be sure that there was some current running through there. So if anybody needs some free physiotherapy I can give you some good electrotherapy.
Yesterday there was a storm passing through the mountains and I watched it drench parts of Cali as it went by. This is such a beautiful country.... The pictures just don't do it justice. Storms are very common here and there is lightning usually every night although we rarely get rain along with it. Storms seem more frequent but confined to smaller spaces.
I've started school as well. No kids yet but lots of meetings and classroom prep. This school is very bilingual and almost all meetings are conducted in both english and spanish. It always sounds like people are not paying attention and are chatting with their neighbors while someone is speaking but it's just because there is constant translation going on. I've been making sure that I sit near someone who is very bilingual. Martha Munoz who has a classroom next to mine (grade 7 science) is probably the most amazing because she is completely bilingual. It's like she has two first languages.
I'll try to keep you posted on how this week of prep goes, but the main interest I'm sure is who things go once the kids arrive..... we'll see. Only six more days!!!!
Love Matt
posted by Matt and Emily at 11:13 AM
2 Comments:
1) Beaver Ball. Oh my. Muchos escandalos.
2) It's manana (with a twirlly bit above the first 'n') not menyana . . . which was a good try.
3) I enjoy your faux-stone flooring. Very posh.
Matt
Glad to know that things are well :)
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