Christmas Presents

If anyone is desperately searching for Christmas present ideas for me (which I know you all must be) may I suggest a tie? I only have two right now and one of them is from 1998. Trust me, you've all seen me wear that one about 400 times.

Remember, the cuter or more humorous the better.

Got My Basketball Fix

Well I've finally been able to get a full basketball fix here in Colombia. It only took me four months but I figure that I'll have my fix for a few days before I start craving hitting the court again.

We (myself and a bunch of the other bolivar staff) play everyday friday after school and we usually go hang out at Rob's house (my principal) afterwards to have a beer, play darts and play with his two daughters and horde of puppies. After the darts game we realized that there was an NBA game playing (Rob has cable) and it was in ENGLISH!!!!! I was in heaven. I even got to spend some time booing Vince Carter which is one of my favourite basketball passtimes.

Anyway, I'm hoping to hit the hardwood (there are no hardwood courts here) when I get home.

Exams and my awesome nose

Well, today is the immaculate conception holiday for all those Catholics out there (as well as all of us non-catholics who live in latin america) so I'm spending the day off writing my end of semester exam. Nothing like mandating exams for grade 6-8 students! It's actually surprisingly fun to write exams though..... I don't really know why.

So in Colombia they celebrate the holiday by nearly lighting the city on fire the night before. Last night, every person in Cali goes outside and lights candles (many of them in paper bags) and places them along the sidewalks and streets. The whole city is filled up with lights. My neighborhood (El Ingenio) is also known for its gaudy and rediculously over the top Christmas lights so it was an especially bright night in Ingenio. I told that if Jordan and I don't get some Christmas lights our neighbors will start to come and harass us as December gets on.

Anyway, last night I went up north to the neighborhood of San Antonio for a tradition called the Vaca Loca. Basically it involves some guy dressing up in a cow costume, strapping fireworks to his body and running through the streets. It's super hilly in that neighborhood and the streets were just PACKED with people. There was a stage and performers and everone singing and dancing. Lots of fun and really wacky. It was mostly the funky, university student crowd so it was a big change from the Unicentro plastic surgeried, super tight pants wearing crowd that I'm more used to seeing in the south.

Speaking of plastic surgery: One of my students asked me yesterday if I'd had a nosejob. I kind of laughed if off but she said to me, "Meester, you didn't answer my question." At this point I realized that she was actually serious so I explained that my nose was completely natural and I got only from my mom's genetic influence (thanks mom:). Anyway, she and her friend proceeded to tell me that I have a really nice nose. Not your everyday conversation but I flattered nonetheless I suppose.

We also had our middle school party last night and we had a little secret santa revealing. I was also having one of my "ok" Spanish days so I did the whole little description of my secret santa person in spanish .... a daring feat considering I'm, by far, the worst spanish speaker in middle school. I guess that's what happens when there are only two new middle school staff and the other one speaks pretty good spanish. Most of my colleagues are just happy if I give it a try even if they can't figure out what the heck I'm trying to say. I also gave my salsa dancing another go. I figured everyone there is used to gringos failing horribly at salsa dancing so I wouldn't be as much of a spectacle as when I go out to the club (Trust me (and Jordan, and Scott, and Tim, and all the other gringo dudes) when you go out and try and salsa, EVERY person in the building turns to looks with this sick fascination).

Ok, back to exam writing.

I'm listening to Canoe Songs Vol I right now. If anyone knows about a VOL II please let me know.

Love Matt

Sorry about the lack of updates

Ok, I had planned to put a big blurb up this weekend to go along with the San Andres pics to update everyone as to what I'm up to these days but I got really sick and spent almost the whole weekend in bed. It's monday and I'm back at school but not really feeling like I should be here.

I had a ripping sore throat (which my friend Regan also got) and I got the cough and runny nose and achyness from my roomate Jordan (he was sick with that during the week) and added to all that some 'lower intestinal trouble'. So anyway, I've been recovering and looking to report cards while trying to finish my marking.... I'll just have to do some of the updating in person when I'm home or when I find some uninfermed free time.

Well, another week of school starts. Wish me luck:)

San Andres Pics

There is a little tiny island off the North Coast of San Andres called Jonny Cay (pronounced "Key") which was an awesome 1/2 day trip. The main side of the island was fairly packed with people but the far side (where we are in this picture) had almost noone on it. I spent a bunch of time back here just sitting in the waves. In the pic above we are on the very back of the island that was just a little rocky.
Ok, here I am with my two best friends. On the left is a fresh pina colada made in a coconut. On the right is my bottle of 48 spf sunscreen. I was the only one of our little gang that didn't get burnt and that's because I spent about 30 minutes, twice a day putting the stuff on. Let's just say if I hadn't I probably would have had 3rd degree burns and 10 kinds of skin cancer the way my skin works.
Here are the five of us again (four people and one sunscreen bottle) looking far less sober than we actually were. This is on the front side of Jonny Cay where we had roasted fish lunch... mmmmm....
On the west side of the island there were no beaches but instead this spiky eroding rock. I thought it just looked weird and pretty until I got a closer look and discovered that it contained the exact same patterns that we had seen in live coral earlier that day during snorkeling!!!!! So basically, big sections of the island rock are just slowly eroding fosilized coral beds! I thought this was awesome so I wandered around on it taking pictures and muttering to myself "this is so AWESOME!". My companions didn't seem to think it was awesome at all but they put up with me needind to do some scientific investigation.
Taken from a little restaurant on the South side of the island during our Scooter Trip. Sand, waves, rock, wind blowing in..... as the Colombian slang goes.... WHOOOOSH!!!!Above is a better pic of the fosilized coral. IT'S AWESOME!!!



The first two pics here are of the main public beach on the North Side of San Andres. We went during a non-touristy time and basically had the run of the place. The picture to the left is water rushing up the fosilized banks on the west side of the island.