Sorry I haven't written

To those people so dear to me who actually read the, mostly boring, stuff that I post here..... Sorry for taking three weeks off.

Yup, I think it has been about that long since I've written. In that time I've had some fun times with my students, wanted to kill them other times (only a very few); I've been to Bogota, thoroughly enjoyed the cool temperatures, seen some amazing sights (Monserate and the Gold Museum to name a few), got my camera stolen (a story for another time) and many other things.

Because of no camera, I won't be posting pictures till I get some from Scott and Sonia (who were with me in Bogota), and because of school work I won't be writing any more today (sorry... soon I promise).

For those few whom I haven't told yet, I'll be coming home for most of the summer so watch out for me.

Love Ya:)

-Matt

Fun Day

Well today is a fun day for several reasons. I'm going to Bogota tonight and I'm all revvvved up to get out of Cali and enjoy a cooler climate, AND I get to read a story to some grade 2's today. One of my fellow teachers has invited me in to her grade 2 class to read any book that I wanted so I chose "The Lorax" by Dr. Seus. There's a good takehome message there for anyone who hasn't read it.

This morning the teacher bus never showed up (that one's for you Higgy), so we grabbed a cab instead. Beacause of construction and some other weird things going on that I don't fully understand, traffic was absolutely INSANE and I only got to school with about 2 minutes to spare. This included spending about 15 minutes at one intersection where about 5 cars were all pulled in to the middle facing each other. The line of cars about 1/2 kilometer back from the school was so long that we decided to just get out and walk. They are building a huge rank of townhouse complexes right near the school but they aren't improving the super-narrow potholed road that runs in front so it looks like it is only going to get harder to get to school from here on in.

I'll try to take lots of pictures in Bogota:) If I have anything to say about it I will be making an appearance at the science center!!! SO FUN!!!

Hot Weekend

It was wretchedly hot this weekend and I actually ended up going shopping just to cool down. Those gigantic supermarkets sure are a lovely kind of cool, especially in the freezer isle. Above is a picture of Jordan (my roomate) and I at lunch in the Colegio Bolivar cafeteria. ALLL SWEATY after a long day of teaching.

I watched this show on Fox called "Prison Break" last night and I think that I have my new favourite show. It's a super-suspency kinda show.....

Happy Valentines Day everyone. If you actually read my blog I probably think you're fantastic, so feel free to bask in my love. Only today though. There is to be no loving by anyone, to anyone on any other day of the year.

Did I mention that I'm going to Bogota this weekend? We get a long weekend randomly thrown in this friday (believe it or not this one is actually not a Catholic holiday) and I'm going to the capital city of Colombia with three other teachers (Regan, Scott, and Sonia for anyone who is any good at keeping track of names). We're planning on hitting up the gold museum, the science centre (of course), and the crowning glory, a giant cathedral built from a salt mine.

Actually I'm starting to feel like I wrote this already.... well, if I did just take it as a sign that I'm excited to go. Two more days of school and then I'm off. On a slightly sad note I'll be missing out on the NBA all star weekend, which showcases games with zero defence and 10 times the amount of dunking. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to play a few games on the primary school nets to get my fill of dunking.

Team Canada Pride

Although Olympic coverage here is almost non-existent (ARG!!!!) I'm trying to show my team Canada pride as best I can. I've actually painted my right big toe as the Canadian flag! My student think it's kina weird but I know I'm awesome!

Chinese new year

Ok, I found a picture that shows everyone in a bad light (except for Jodi, far left, she's actually smiling which is out of place for her). Second from left with the dark hair and in mid blink is Patricia, my roomate's girlfriend. Middle, and in full blink mode is Caroline and then there's me showing why you can never take me out of the house. Fortunately this picture was taken in my house so I have no worries.

This was during Chinese New Year and clearly you can see the strong Chinese influence in the people pictured. Actually my friend Julie, who is Canadian, but who's family is Chinese wanted to put on a New Years celebration but her place wasn't really big enough so Jordan and I volunteered ours. Julie made up all kinds of amazing food (mostly involving beef) and we ate, talked, and played Sappo (a colombian ring toss game).

More rainy days at the Bolivar

Well, my last update was about a rainstorm and we just had another huge one the night before last AND today. Two days ago it happened in the early evening, accompanied by crazier lightning than I’ve seen in years and the power went off. That meant that instead of making chicken parmesan in the oven (Jordan, my roommate was cooking for me, himself, his girlfriend Patricia and our other friend Regan) we had chicken sandwiches done over the gas burner. It’s funny, I could still have a hot shower when the power is off, I just couldn’t see while I was doing it.

So I started the today soaked as I ran through the rainstorm from the teacher bus to my classroom. On the plus side I just love rainy days and the kids are a lot more mellow when it’s raining outside. Right now at school we are starting our major group projects for the simple machines unit. The kids will be building Rube Goldberg Machines (anyone familiar with the Rube Goldberg Cartoons??) where the make a machine that accomplishes a simple task (swatting a fly, turning off an alarm clock) in as many complicated steps as possible using pulleys and levers, mousetraps, hoses, springs etc. Think ‘Mousetrap’ game, if you’ve ever seen it. Should be fun. I’m still so amazed what a distinct personality each of the different classes of kids has. You’d think that by the time you put 20 different kids in a room the differing personalities start averaging out but that really doesn’t happen at all. Some of them focus easily on some things, others won’t….. some understand certain concepts while others will struggle. They very distinct.
There’s traveling in the air! Mom and Dad will be leaving for their month and a half long adventure in a couple of days and Emily (if you haven’t heard the good news) is coming down to visit me for three weeks at the end of March!