Spanish lessons - seem to be getting better. I can now have conversations with the teachers, but trying to get understood in a shop or anywhere is still impossible. They just look at you blankly and then eventually when they understand they just repeat exactly what you said to them to start with!! Very frustrating.
On Wednesday Chris and Alice decided they wanted to buy a laptop at lunch so we went to this mall which only sold computer equipment. Its crazy how many shops can sell the same thing. And nowhere advertises their prices so it is quite interesting trying to work out what they are saying when they ask and run the risk of them adding quite a bit on once they realise you don't speak Spanish. Eventually they chose one and we went for lunch at this very nice little cafe where they had home made pizza and pasta. They love Italian food here.
The sleep talking German who had been staying in our room had left when we got back. He was hilarious. He'd have very random conversations in his sleep, but never in German - they would be half in English and half in Spanish. He wanted us to record it but we never had chance.
On Thursday I successfully managed to book another week of Spanish in Spanish. Or at least I think I did! They don't let you speak English at the school which makes things like that quite awkward.
Had lunch at the restaurant where we teach for the first time on Thursday as well - no lunches for once! The food is really good, but spaghetti, rice and chips all in one meal is a bit much!! They do great fruit juices as well. Hardly anyone came to the class today so we just played word games and finished early.
Thursday night we went out with three English girls from the hostel. They are finishing their 9 month round the world tour and had some amazing stories. We went to a cafe bar just down the road which had lots of locals in it. Theres loads of little rooms and you sit on cushions on the floor which is really good - until someone spills their drink!! We tried explaining to the waitress but she didn;t understand so we ended up taking the toilet roll out of the toilets to mop it up. But then had to steal the toilet roll out of the male toilets when we needed the toilet!! Its quite lucky there was toiloet roll though because most places don't seem to have it.
On the way home we walked past another restaurant where some people from the hostel were having dinner - there is something strange about them. But they invited us in and bought us all a cocktail so we weren't complaining. But the time spent with them only made us more speculative of their story . . .
On Friday I had a very good Spanish class and may actually be getting somewhere now! The transmilenio (the transport system in Bogota) was ridiculously busy all day and it took us forever to get anywhere.
We met Magda, one of our students, for lunch and she insisted on paying. Then we went to the class which was a leaving party for Alice and Chris. Magda's son is a dj and was in charge of the music - he set up a full sound system. Then the organiser of the classes came, and everyone said thank you and people bought us presents. It was really nice. Then each of us had to give a speech in Spanish!! Not easy. I want to make one of the kids my personal Spanish teacher - he taught me loads! We then got cakes, and local grape and apple wine, and they attempted to teach is salsa and samba and rumba - I was useless. Laura (who organises all our accomodation and everything) gave us a lift home because the transmilenio was being so busy - its probably a good job otherwie we would still be there now! I don't know how I'm going to escape next week.
We had planned on going out on Friday night because it was Alice and Chris's last weekend in Bogota, but we got home and sat down and then next thing I woke up and it was 2am!
Me and Chris had decided we would go to the Salt Cathedral on Saturday which is in a town outside of Bogota - Alice wasnt bothered about going. It is the number one attractionin South America, and they considered making it the 8th wonder of the world. You can catch a steam train to get there which goes through Colombian villages, but we didn't realise until too late that it only leavs once a day and we wouldn't get there in time. Instead we caught a mini coach - a very interesting experience. You can get on and off them anywhere and they don't really stop. Luckily we caught it from where it first departs and got a seat, but they literally cram as many people in them as possible and never shut the doors. There is a conductor who stands in teh doorway and leans out to shout where it is going.
We weren't sure where we needed to get off, but the people sat in front of us looked like tourists and luckily they spoke English. They had been told to get off at the bus terminal. Fromt there we followed signs for the cathedral and ended up in the square, where the signs stopped. For the biggest attraction in South America it was very poorly advertised!! We asked two policewomen where it was, and they gave us directions which I kind of understood and we found it. At the top of a very steep hill!!
The first thing we went in was the history of how the salt had formed - and it was a 10 minute video, with no words. We were dreading the rest being just as bad, but luckily it wasn't. We then went to go into the actual Cathedral, at the time when there was supposed to be an English tour. They told us it wasn't at the advertised time and to go back at another time. It was raining quite heavily so we got some food whilst we waited, then went back. At the time we'd asked to have written down in case we had misunderstood them. Still no English guide, and we were given another time. A few other people there had had the same thing happen, and no one was happy. It was another hour bfore the next supposed English guide, so we decided to just go on the Spanish one. Once inside we decided we'd actually just do our own thing because we couldn't understand the guide, and all he seemed to be doing was explaining the religious significance of it all.
The cathdral was originally a salt mine and the size when you are inside is incredibe! Although it was a cathedral it didn't feel particularly religious. Everything was very simple, with crosses all cut differently into the rock. There were hardly any statues. You could go wherever you wanted and because it is so big it feels empty, even though there were tons of people there. If you had gone round with the guide you would have needed to go round again to see it all.
You could also gone on a mining tour. You got a hard hat and flash light and went through passageways. They make you turn the torch of for one section and all hold onto the person in front of you and you are in complete darkness.
They then explain how the mining process advanced through the ages, and you got to have a go with the pick axe to try and get some rock - i managed to get a piece but I think its disintegrated already!
Near the end you could look out from one level down into the main part of the cathedral and its that high a women fainted! Afterwards you watch a 3D film that explains how the salt formed in more detail, and how it is mined. Its scary that it doesn't just all collapse. Though this is the second cathedral to be built - the first did collapse!
And to add to Colombia's obsession with football - they had an area with a giant TV screen in that shows whatever football match is on!
You can easily spend several hours looking at the cathedral. This is another reason why it was good we missed the train because you only got an hour there.
When we left we caught the end of a thunderstorm, then made our way back to the bus terminal in a massive downpour. We just managed to catch the Bogota bus at it was leaving! Luckily we got a seat again. The trip back was horrible because of the rain - it was so busy and everyone was soaking wet. The walk back up the hill to our hostel also wasn't fun in the rain, but at least I didn't have flip flops on!
We all went to the Italian for dinner last night and thought we would treat ourselves and have starters - bad idea! We only managd the started and half the main course. Couldn't even fit in a cocktail! Ended up going back to the hostel and falling asleep again.
Today I discovered my Spanish hasn't improved as much as I thought. Last night I thought I had successfully told the hostl owner that I would be there for another week, and arranged to have dinner there at night. Then this morning he seemed very surprised when I said I was there for another week! But I think its all sorted now.
Today we went to the gold museum, but forgot that because it is free on a Sunday everyone goes. You couldn't see a thing so we left and I will try and go next Saturday. There was lots of things going on in the squares today, and some amazing jewellery stores. The weather was also very warm and sunny so we just meandered round for the afternoon. When the sun does come out here it is very strong, and you feel like you are burning.
We had late lunch (at the Italian again!). The waiter is adorable (he's tiny), and we have some funny conversations with him in our attempt at Spanish. After lunch Alice and I went to stock up on toiletries. And discovered that they don't seem to use shower gel here. We got given shampoo, soap, body cream, hand cream, nail varnish remover - they didn't have a clue what we were on about. Eventually, in some tiny dodgy looking store we managed to buy the only two bottles of shower gel they had. And it cost a fortune!
We are going to go to the cinema later, and I have to think what I am going to teach for 3 hours a day on my own for the next week!
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Busy busy busy!!
Almost a week since I last blogged. Been so busy!!
Wednesday was independence day and there was a huge festival going on aroound La Candelaria which I went to with Chris, Alice and the 2 Americans we had met the night before at the hostel (Josh and Isaac). To get in you had to be searched and there were labrador sniffer dogs everywhere (very cute and seemed to be enjoying the festival as much ass everyone else!)The parade was fun, but went on quite a while. I think every military person and vehicle in Colombia must have been there. We tried quite a few authentic Colombian snacks whilst we there - most are cheesy and/or deep fried. We have also been seeing lots of dogs dressed up in ridiculous outfits, and they were all out in their best clothes for the parade! They must feel the cold as much as the people - they wear ridiculously big coats and scalves, whilst we all walk round in t-shirts. They also wear face masks if they have a cold which is quite considerate, but weird!
Afterwards we went to the Colombian version of Starbucks, except it is a fraction of the price and uses very good local coffee.
We then went back to the hostel to wait for our life for luch, which we though asnt coming because they were so late. The lady we were going to sent her husband (who we have never met) and son (who we teach) and an attempt at a note explaining that we need to go with her husband to the parking, and that she had also sent her son so as we knew it was safe to go with him. Her husband does not speak English so it was quite interesting.
We were talking about the night before's attempt to find a tejo court, and the husband stopped on the way to show us one. The lady whose house we had gone to makes crafts so she spent ages showing us those. Then, very bizarrely, the husband put the car away - which is basically in the dining room!! All there is separating th garage from teh rest of the downstairs living area is a step. I tried to get a picture but couldn't do it discretely and thought it would be a bit rude to make it obvious.
We finally got the lunch at 5pm! And it was quite good - meatballs, rice, deep fried banana, salad and a onion and tomato relish type thing. Lunch took so long because she insisted in talking in English, and had to stop cooking every time she spoke. They also offered to take us to play tejo that night and we assked if Josh and Isaac could come. We rang the hostel and gave them the address of the house and they were going to get a taxi and meet us, but they thuoght they were meeting us at the tejo court so when the taxi tried to leave them in a residencial area they refused to get out and made teh taxi take them back. Which was quite an adventure by all accounts! When they didn't turn up we started to get quite worried and so did the family we were with, but then they rang once they were back at the hostel. They din't want to come out again (which was fair enough as it was quite a long way) so we went to play tejo without them.
Tejo was fun. Its basically ten pin bowling, but instead of skittles you have packets of gun powder and throw a 2kg weight at them. You get different amounts of points depending on where the weight (or tejo) lands:
1 point - lands inside metal ring
2 points - gunpowder explodes
3 points - gun powder explodes and lands inside the ring
1 point if you get the closest throw three times in a row
The winning team is the first to get 21 points.
Alice and I were on one team with the husband, and Chris was with the lady and her mum (who must have been in her 60s at least and absolutely crazy!)
We had 2 games and my team lost both times - but only just!! And I scored quite a few points!
It was really funny because if you almost hit a pouch they shout "oooweeee" at the tops of their voices!
At the end we had a mini salsa lesson on the court before they drove us home.
On Thursday we had lunch with another student called Lucy (she is quite old) and her son, Oscar. He speaks very good English and works for the Chambers of Commerce. I had a very interesting conversation with him about meat production and the importexport markets! We had spaghetti bolognese today, which would have probably been quite nice if it was warm, though it was chicken mince which isn't great! Lucy is an artist and her work was all over the house. It was very good.
On Friday I was put with another group for my Spanish conversation class - I think you probably learn more in a bigger group. We didn;t have any lunches planned today so we stayed for the salsa class at the Spanish school. I was useless!! Though when you dance with the teacher you become quite a good dancer, so my theory is just to find a very good dance partner and you don't really need to be that good! He told me I was a natural but pretty sure he just felt sorry for me!
Alice and I went for a manicure and pedicure after the English class - even more surreal experience than the hairdressers! We had to sit in these massive armchairs on this platform to have our feet done. And after several attempts of making conversation in Spanish, one of the women asked if I was German, and when I said no but I could speak a little they announced that the women doing my feet was German, and I then got her life history. In German. They then convinced us that we needed to but a pair of flip flops to go home in (They were only £1 so can't really complain) but the only problem was that we had nearly an hours journey on buses to get home. In rush hour. And it was raining pretty heavy. Plus the flip flops were the cheapest, slippiest things you have ever seen. We were sliding everywhere, and seeing as I already stand out from being blonde and quite a bit taller than everyone (which has its uses when it busy because I can just stand there and Chiris and Alice come and find me!) we were getting lots of stares. We were in hysterics, and had great fun hopping on and off the buses, and sliding on the metal parts of the walkways. Then when we got back to the area where the hostel is it was even more interesting! The streets are almost vertical and the cobbles are slippy in sensible shoes, and have huge puddles of water everywhere that you have to dodge. It was more like skating home!!
We played darts with a couple from Holland later that night. They don't speak a word of Spanish and had successfully made it around Colombia, so there is some hope for me!
On Saturday I had a lie in - we have to leave at 7:45am every day and don't get in until around 8pm. We spend about 4 hours a day either on buses or watiting for buses!
On Saturday morning we went to the military museum, which is just around the corner from the hostel. It was quite good but not amazing. They had a lot of guns! And some quite interesting planes and machinery outside. We then went to the Museo de Botero. This had some amazing art. Botero was famous for painting fat people - some of his stuff was a bit creepy but other pieces were really good. There were quite few other good artists and sculptors there as well.
Then we went to Central Meyor - the enormous shopping centre near to where we teach. I didn't reallyfancy going, but also didn't fancy spending all day in the hostel. We found a very good waffle and coffee shop though, so it wasn't all bad. Saturday night we went to see Harry Potter - pretty pointless for me seeing as I haven't read the last few books or seen the films so didn't have a clue what was going on! Didn't get back and in bed until 1am and we had arranged to go with Laura (the volunteering organiser) to the reserve she works at in teh mountains. We had to be at the most Northern transmilenio station by 8am, which meant leaving the hostel at 6:30am!! Alice decided not to come but Chris and I went.
Laura picked us up from the bus station with her friend ho works on a reserve in the south. We then met the director of the project, who took us all the rest of the way in his 4x4. We stopped on the way to get breakfast - which was very good. The roads got narrower and narrower, and ruttier and ruttier until we were just driving down a dirt track. Then this slowly disappeared and you could barely see a track. We climbed up the mountains and actually went through the clouds. I joked that it would be pretty scary to break down up there because the farms ahad even disappeared. Then the car stalled. And wouldn't start. We were all laughing to start with, then staqrted nervosly looking at each other. After what seemed like ages (but probably wasn't actually tht long) the car started again. Thank goodness!
We were flying all over the car, driving through bog, over boulders. It was crazy. Far better than the land rover experience at teh Game Fair!. Then we had to cross a stream, and go up an almost vertical slope and eventaully made it to a derelict house. We were more than 3000m above sea level at this point, which is apparently about 3 times higher than Ben Nevis (the highest point in th UK). Talking and walking was very difficult!
The plan is to renevate the house we had got to in order for students to staty there and do research in teh reserve. The reserve has a spring located in it and the plan is to build an aqueduct to supply the local area with water. We could drink the water from one of the ponds that have formed because it was so pure.
The local area has lots of potato farms, but they have to use lots of chemicals which is bad if they want to use the water for drinking. The land is all on very steep inclines so with the amount of rain they get there is lots of run off into the stream. So the organisation is trying to get the local farmers to diversify, one idea being with raspberry and blackberry plants which are already growing naturally in the area. On the way up we had also passed quite a few dairy farms. The cows looked surprisingly healthy. The locals we had passed all wear ponchos, and quite a few were on their horses, which also looked healthy. Several farms had tejo courts in their gardens!
The director of th organisation also said he would be happy for me to go and do some work with them if I ever wanted to in the future.
We left around lunch time and made it back to the hostel around tea time. We were starving, so picked Alice up and went to the Italian (again). Their salads are really good, and Alice and I also had a strawberry daiquiri. We were in bed by 8:30!!
I had some new people in my Spanish class yesterday. It is better with a few more, but there are still only 4 of us so it isn't too many.
We had lunch with the fashion designer we teach and her sister. They are originally form the coast near Cartagena, so cooked us traditional cuisine. It was fish. I like fish. But this was a whole fish. On my plate. Eyes, lips, tail, fins, everything! But it was very tasty! And luckily the bones were really big so easy to pick out.
We tried to teach directions in the lesson. Though it would be easy - we were wrong! Can't believe how difficult it can be to learn left, right and straight on.
Today I felt like I was getting nowhere with my Spanish lessons. Then we had lunch with Daisy. The starter was amazing - a soup, with broad beans and chicken and things. Then we had mince, rice, chorizo, avacado, tomatoes and their equivalent of lardens. This was also good. Then for desert it was a bowl of melted cheese and jam! very bizarre! A mouthful was quite nice, but a whole bowl full was far too much! Then ahd to attempt to teach for 3 hours, travel an hour on buses and still recovering from it now! Don't think I will be eating for another year!
I'm going to go to bed now. Hopefully it won't be quite so long before my next post!
And I still need to figure out how to upload some pictures . . .
Wednesday was independence day and there was a huge festival going on aroound La Candelaria which I went to with Chris, Alice and the 2 Americans we had met the night before at the hostel (Josh and Isaac). To get in you had to be searched and there were labrador sniffer dogs everywhere (very cute and seemed to be enjoying the festival as much ass everyone else!)The parade was fun, but went on quite a while. I think every military person and vehicle in Colombia must have been there. We tried quite a few authentic Colombian snacks whilst we there - most are cheesy and/or deep fried. We have also been seeing lots of dogs dressed up in ridiculous outfits, and they were all out in their best clothes for the parade! They must feel the cold as much as the people - they wear ridiculously big coats and scalves, whilst we all walk round in t-shirts. They also wear face masks if they have a cold which is quite considerate, but weird!
Afterwards we went to the Colombian version of Starbucks, except it is a fraction of the price and uses very good local coffee.
We then went back to the hostel to wait for our life for luch, which we though asnt coming because they were so late. The lady we were going to sent her husband (who we have never met) and son (who we teach) and an attempt at a note explaining that we need to go with her husband to the parking, and that she had also sent her son so as we knew it was safe to go with him. Her husband does not speak English so it was quite interesting.
We were talking about the night before's attempt to find a tejo court, and the husband stopped on the way to show us one. The lady whose house we had gone to makes crafts so she spent ages showing us those. Then, very bizarrely, the husband put the car away - which is basically in the dining room!! All there is separating th garage from teh rest of the downstairs living area is a step. I tried to get a picture but couldn't do it discretely and thought it would be a bit rude to make it obvious.
We finally got the lunch at 5pm! And it was quite good - meatballs, rice, deep fried banana, salad and a onion and tomato relish type thing. Lunch took so long because she insisted in talking in English, and had to stop cooking every time she spoke. They also offered to take us to play tejo that night and we assked if Josh and Isaac could come. We rang the hostel and gave them the address of the house and they were going to get a taxi and meet us, but they thuoght they were meeting us at the tejo court so when the taxi tried to leave them in a residencial area they refused to get out and made teh taxi take them back. Which was quite an adventure by all accounts! When they didn't turn up we started to get quite worried and so did the family we were with, but then they rang once they were back at the hostel. They din't want to come out again (which was fair enough as it was quite a long way) so we went to play tejo without them.
Tejo was fun. Its basically ten pin bowling, but instead of skittles you have packets of gun powder and throw a 2kg weight at them. You get different amounts of points depending on where the weight (or tejo) lands:
1 point - lands inside metal ring
2 points - gunpowder explodes
3 points - gun powder explodes and lands inside the ring
1 point if you get the closest throw three times in a row
The winning team is the first to get 21 points.
Alice and I were on one team with the husband, and Chris was with the lady and her mum (who must have been in her 60s at least and absolutely crazy!)
We had 2 games and my team lost both times - but only just!! And I scored quite a few points!
It was really funny because if you almost hit a pouch they shout "oooweeee" at the tops of their voices!
At the end we had a mini salsa lesson on the court before they drove us home.
On Thursday we had lunch with another student called Lucy (she is quite old) and her son, Oscar. He speaks very good English and works for the Chambers of Commerce. I had a very interesting conversation with him about meat production and the importexport markets! We had spaghetti bolognese today, which would have probably been quite nice if it was warm, though it was chicken mince which isn't great! Lucy is an artist and her work was all over the house. It was very good.
On Friday I was put with another group for my Spanish conversation class - I think you probably learn more in a bigger group. We didn;t have any lunches planned today so we stayed for the salsa class at the Spanish school. I was useless!! Though when you dance with the teacher you become quite a good dancer, so my theory is just to find a very good dance partner and you don't really need to be that good! He told me I was a natural but pretty sure he just felt sorry for me!
Alice and I went for a manicure and pedicure after the English class - even more surreal experience than the hairdressers! We had to sit in these massive armchairs on this platform to have our feet done. And after several attempts of making conversation in Spanish, one of the women asked if I was German, and when I said no but I could speak a little they announced that the women doing my feet was German, and I then got her life history. In German. They then convinced us that we needed to but a pair of flip flops to go home in (They were only £1 so can't really complain) but the only problem was that we had nearly an hours journey on buses to get home. In rush hour. And it was raining pretty heavy. Plus the flip flops were the cheapest, slippiest things you have ever seen. We were sliding everywhere, and seeing as I already stand out from being blonde and quite a bit taller than everyone (which has its uses when it busy because I can just stand there and Chiris and Alice come and find me!) we were getting lots of stares. We were in hysterics, and had great fun hopping on and off the buses, and sliding on the metal parts of the walkways. Then when we got back to the area where the hostel is it was even more interesting! The streets are almost vertical and the cobbles are slippy in sensible shoes, and have huge puddles of water everywhere that you have to dodge. It was more like skating home!!
We played darts with a couple from Holland later that night. They don't speak a word of Spanish and had successfully made it around Colombia, so there is some hope for me!
On Saturday I had a lie in - we have to leave at 7:45am every day and don't get in until around 8pm. We spend about 4 hours a day either on buses or watiting for buses!
On Saturday morning we went to the military museum, which is just around the corner from the hostel. It was quite good but not amazing. They had a lot of guns! And some quite interesting planes and machinery outside. We then went to the Museo de Botero. This had some amazing art. Botero was famous for painting fat people - some of his stuff was a bit creepy but other pieces were really good. There were quite few other good artists and sculptors there as well.
Then we went to Central Meyor - the enormous shopping centre near to where we teach. I didn't reallyfancy going, but also didn't fancy spending all day in the hostel. We found a very good waffle and coffee shop though, so it wasn't all bad. Saturday night we went to see Harry Potter - pretty pointless for me seeing as I haven't read the last few books or seen the films so didn't have a clue what was going on! Didn't get back and in bed until 1am and we had arranged to go with Laura (the volunteering organiser) to the reserve she works at in teh mountains. We had to be at the most Northern transmilenio station by 8am, which meant leaving the hostel at 6:30am!! Alice decided not to come but Chris and I went.
Laura picked us up from the bus station with her friend ho works on a reserve in the south. We then met the director of the project, who took us all the rest of the way in his 4x4. We stopped on the way to get breakfast - which was very good. The roads got narrower and narrower, and ruttier and ruttier until we were just driving down a dirt track. Then this slowly disappeared and you could barely see a track. We climbed up the mountains and actually went through the clouds. I joked that it would be pretty scary to break down up there because the farms ahad even disappeared. Then the car stalled. And wouldn't start. We were all laughing to start with, then staqrted nervosly looking at each other. After what seemed like ages (but probably wasn't actually tht long) the car started again. Thank goodness!
We were flying all over the car, driving through bog, over boulders. It was crazy. Far better than the land rover experience at teh Game Fair!. Then we had to cross a stream, and go up an almost vertical slope and eventaully made it to a derelict house. We were more than 3000m above sea level at this point, which is apparently about 3 times higher than Ben Nevis (the highest point in th UK). Talking and walking was very difficult!
The plan is to renevate the house we had got to in order for students to staty there and do research in teh reserve. The reserve has a spring located in it and the plan is to build an aqueduct to supply the local area with water. We could drink the water from one of the ponds that have formed because it was so pure.
The local area has lots of potato farms, but they have to use lots of chemicals which is bad if they want to use the water for drinking. The land is all on very steep inclines so with the amount of rain they get there is lots of run off into the stream. So the organisation is trying to get the local farmers to diversify, one idea being with raspberry and blackberry plants which are already growing naturally in the area. On the way up we had also passed quite a few dairy farms. The cows looked surprisingly healthy. The locals we had passed all wear ponchos, and quite a few were on their horses, which also looked healthy. Several farms had tejo courts in their gardens!
The director of th organisation also said he would be happy for me to go and do some work with them if I ever wanted to in the future.
We left around lunch time and made it back to the hostel around tea time. We were starving, so picked Alice up and went to the Italian (again). Their salads are really good, and Alice and I also had a strawberry daiquiri. We were in bed by 8:30!!
I had some new people in my Spanish class yesterday. It is better with a few more, but there are still only 4 of us so it isn't too many.
We had lunch with the fashion designer we teach and her sister. They are originally form the coast near Cartagena, so cooked us traditional cuisine. It was fish. I like fish. But this was a whole fish. On my plate. Eyes, lips, tail, fins, everything! But it was very tasty! And luckily the bones were really big so easy to pick out.
We tried to teach directions in the lesson. Though it would be easy - we were wrong! Can't believe how difficult it can be to learn left, right and straight on.
Today I felt like I was getting nowhere with my Spanish lessons. Then we had lunch with Daisy. The starter was amazing - a soup, with broad beans and chicken and things. Then we had mince, rice, chorizo, avacado, tomatoes and their equivalent of lardens. This was also good. Then for desert it was a bowl of melted cheese and jam! very bizarre! A mouthful was quite nice, but a whole bowl full was far too much! Then ahd to attempt to teach for 3 hours, travel an hour on buses and still recovering from it now! Don't think I will be eating for another year!
I'm going to go to bed now. Hopefully it won't be quite so long before my next post!
And I still need to figure out how to upload some pictures . . .
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Aguardiente
Spanish class was quite good yesterday - found out I'm actually doing the same things as Alice and Chris, just I'm having almost private lessons.
We had lunch with a another family tht we teach yesterday. It was very awkard as they speak very basic english - there was a very awkard silence when we were eating and both me and Alice nearly started hysterical laughter. Luckily they put some music on which made it a bit easier!
The lesson went well - we taught them how to say the time and played the shopping game again. At the end of the lesson quite a few of them stayed to chat and one of them has asked if we can record her a list of words in english for the pronunciation and then she is going to record them in Spanish for us.
We also got two more invites for lunch!
We were going to go the fundraiser for the organisation we are working for in Colombia last night but when we got home a few others at the hostel wanted us to go and play a game of tejo - its basically like bowling, but instead of skittles you have bags of gunpowder and if you buy a crate of beer you get to play for free!! It was in someone's travel guide and we though it would be fun, so made our way there. There are police and soldiers on every street corner so we asked them where it was, and they gave us directions but when we got there we couldn't find it and no one had a clue where it was. There was a billiards hall though so we thought e would just play that instead, but because it is a festival today (Independence day) nowhere was allowed to stay open. So we resorted to buying a crate of beer (which came to just over £10 between 6 of us) and a bottle of Aguardiente - a Colombian spirit which is basically their version of Sambuca, but doesn't taste as good!
So there was me, Alice, Chris, three Americans, an Argentinian and someone from Malasia. It was a really good night and both me and Alice found a step that we never knew existed in our room - I went flying up it and she went flying down it! The American's were hilarious, especially watching them trying to drink the Aguardiente!
We got up this morning and the hostel had gone from being empty to overflowing! We have lunch later with one of the Mums that we teach. Because of the festival the transmilenia (their transport system) is not running so she is coming to pick us up which is very nice of her! She speaks more English than a lot of the people we teach so it should be a lot less awkward. Except for the fact that we cannot remember her name - we keep calling her Daniel's mum! She is also the one who is going to record the Spanish words for us. Its quite fun becaue we speak to her in Spanish and she speaks to us in English.
Anyway, we are going to go and see the parade this morning before we go for lunch.
We had lunch with a another family tht we teach yesterday. It was very awkard as they speak very basic english - there was a very awkard silence when we were eating and both me and Alice nearly started hysterical laughter. Luckily they put some music on which made it a bit easier!
The lesson went well - we taught them how to say the time and played the shopping game again. At the end of the lesson quite a few of them stayed to chat and one of them has asked if we can record her a list of words in english for the pronunciation and then she is going to record them in Spanish for us.
We also got two more invites for lunch!
We were going to go the fundraiser for the organisation we are working for in Colombia last night but when we got home a few others at the hostel wanted us to go and play a game of tejo - its basically like bowling, but instead of skittles you have bags of gunpowder and if you buy a crate of beer you get to play for free!! It was in someone's travel guide and we though it would be fun, so made our way there. There are police and soldiers on every street corner so we asked them where it was, and they gave us directions but when we got there we couldn't find it and no one had a clue where it was. There was a billiards hall though so we thought e would just play that instead, but because it is a festival today (Independence day) nowhere was allowed to stay open. So we resorted to buying a crate of beer (which came to just over £10 between 6 of us) and a bottle of Aguardiente - a Colombian spirit which is basically their version of Sambuca, but doesn't taste as good!
So there was me, Alice, Chris, three Americans, an Argentinian and someone from Malasia. It was a really good night and both me and Alice found a step that we never knew existed in our room - I went flying up it and she went flying down it! The American's were hilarious, especially watching them trying to drink the Aguardiente!
We got up this morning and the hostel had gone from being empty to overflowing! We have lunch later with one of the Mums that we teach. Because of the festival the transmilenia (their transport system) is not running so she is coming to pick us up which is very nice of her! She speaks more English than a lot of the people we teach so it should be a lot less awkward. Except for the fact that we cannot remember her name - we keep calling her Daniel's mum! She is also the one who is going to record the Spanish words for us. Its quite fun becaue we speak to her in Spanish and she speaks to us in English.
Anyway, we are going to go and see the parade this morning before we go for lunch.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Hairdressers, Spanish lessons and lunch . . .
Not much was happening on Sunday then we decided to go to the hairdressers (but I was definitely not having anything done to my hair!) We eventually found one, after some very interesting directions from a man in a clothes shop. I thought I'd get my nails done (for £2) whilst the others had their hair done so I didn't have quite as long to wait around. 4 hours later we made it out! Trying to explain what haircut and colour (!) you want when none of us spoke much Spanish and they spoke no English was very interesting. Anyway, it all worked out OK. And my nails actually look half decent for once!
We had a "Colombian tradition" wafer snack thing on the way home - they are very nice. A wafer sandwhich with butterscotch and jam in the middle. Then we went to an Italian that had been recommended by some other people at the hostel. The food was delicious, and it was quite a smart place but for 3 courses and 2 beers it came to £10! Then had an early night ready for our very early morning today!
I had to be at the Spanish school for 8am which involved leaving just before 7am to get there. Alice and Chris offered to go early with me so as I didn't get lost. I had my written exam when I got there, which was pretty much impossible to do. Think I've been put in the very basic class, but its actually quite good because there is only me and one other girl. Some of the stuff I know really well, but other stuff I haven't got a clue with. We have 3 hours of lessons but it goes pretty quick. I think the other students there get more out of it because they all go off for lunch together and do activities in the afternoon but we have to leave straight away to go to the teaching placement.
It takes about an hour to get to the teaching placement from the Spanish classes. Today we had lunch with one of the women that we teach. She is an artist and her house is full of her work. She made is a traditional Colombian meal - chicken soup, chicken on the bone, rice, potatoes and very nice home made guacamale. It was different, but quite nice. She takes her two grand daughters who are twins to the classes with her.
The teaching was much better than I thought it would be, though there were only about half the amount of people there to normal. The kids are really cute, and they have better spelling of English words than most English children their own age. A lot of them are young children who go with their parents or grandparents.
Tomorrow we are having lunch with a father and son from the lessons and then going to a party with the Bogota branch of the organisation we will be working for in Cartagena. Then Wednesday is a fiesta so there are no Spanish lessons and no Spanish class but we have lunch with the mother of two boys we teach.
Today has been a very long day so not doing much tonight - need some sleep.
Night night
We had a "Colombian tradition" wafer snack thing on the way home - they are very nice. A wafer sandwhich with butterscotch and jam in the middle. Then we went to an Italian that had been recommended by some other people at the hostel. The food was delicious, and it was quite a smart place but for 3 courses and 2 beers it came to £10! Then had an early night ready for our very early morning today!
I had to be at the Spanish school for 8am which involved leaving just before 7am to get there. Alice and Chris offered to go early with me so as I didn't get lost. I had my written exam when I got there, which was pretty much impossible to do. Think I've been put in the very basic class, but its actually quite good because there is only me and one other girl. Some of the stuff I know really well, but other stuff I haven't got a clue with. We have 3 hours of lessons but it goes pretty quick. I think the other students there get more out of it because they all go off for lunch together and do activities in the afternoon but we have to leave straight away to go to the teaching placement.
It takes about an hour to get to the teaching placement from the Spanish classes. Today we had lunch with one of the women that we teach. She is an artist and her house is full of her work. She made is a traditional Colombian meal - chicken soup, chicken on the bone, rice, potatoes and very nice home made guacamale. It was different, but quite nice. She takes her two grand daughters who are twins to the classes with her.
The teaching was much better than I thought it would be, though there were only about half the amount of people there to normal. The kids are really cute, and they have better spelling of English words than most English children their own age. A lot of them are young children who go with their parents or grandparents.
Tomorrow we are having lunch with a father and son from the lessons and then going to a party with the Bogota branch of the organisation we will be working for in Cartagena. Then Wednesday is a fiesta so there are no Spanish lessons and no Spanish class but we have lunch with the mother of two boys we teach.
Today has been a very long day so not doing much tonight - need some sleep.
Night night
Sunday, 17 July 2011
I'm here!
So, I've made it! I'm in Bogota, and it was almost completely stress and disaster free!
Graduation went well, lovely sunny day but very tiring - lots of smiling and photograph taking which everyone knows I'm not good at! And almost made the entire day without being called Oliver! Will see if there any pics to put up - Dave took lots.
At the airport Mum started to get slightly stressed - luckily Lisa and Dave were there to stop us falling out completely. Then disaster No. 1 - my padlock didn't fit my bag and no shops were open at the airport to get a new one! So had to hang around for a bit and Dave managed to get one to open 4 minutes early!
Once that was sorted everything went smoothly until I got through passport control and went to text Mum to tell her I was through OK and realised I'd not got my phone!! So had to find a payphone and ring and explain (they were surprisingly calm about it . . . .)
Managed to sleep on the flight to Madrid so it went really quick. And I didn't have anyone sat at the side of me. Then a bus took is straight from the plane to the new terminal for the flight to Bogota. Sat waiting, and went to email home on my ipod to say I'd made it to the new terminal, and my bag started vibrating . . . I'd had my phone all along!! So disaster one no longer a disaster.
The flight to Bogota was delayed by nearly an hour but because there was no wind ee made up the time and landed on time. The flight was pretty long, and full of school kids! Didn't manage to get that much sleep, but they fed you well. Three meals all together! And I spoke some Spanish - even if it was only to ask them to tell me in English!
Had a bit of a problem getting through passport control as they said I could not stay for 70 days, but I told them that the embassy had said I could stay for 90, but may have to have a 60 day visa and then extend it. But the person got their boss and they said I could have a visa for 70 days. So hopefully I should be OK (though all they did was stap my passport!). Might go to the embassy when I get to Cartagena and double check I've not got to extend it.
Got a taxi to the hostel no problem - they have a very good system at the airport. You go to this office and thell them where you want to go, then they give you a ticket with a price on and the taxi driver can only charge you that much. My driver wasn't happy because it was rush hour and it took us forever to get there.
Checking in at the hostel was intreresting as they speak no English and the booking wasn't in my name - it was in the name of whoever organises it. Luckily someone was able to translate for me and it was all fine.
The organiser in Colombia (Laura) met me later at the hostel and explained things to me. Then Chris and Alex, the other volunteers, came back and showed me around and things. Was very tired that night so went to bed pretty early (it was the equivalent of 4am in the UK and I'd been up since 1am the day before!)
Chris and Alice are really friendly. They're brother and sister and were actually born in Bogota but have lived in England all their lives and speak no Spanish! It's quite funny when we go places because everyone expects them to be fluent in Spanish and find it hilarious when they say they don't speak it!
On Saturday the three of us went into the South of the city with another girl from the hostel called Janet. She's from New Zealand. We went to the shopping centre, because I needed to buy a watch (mine fell apart when I was trying to change the time) and the others needed bits and bobs. The transport system is really good. Its 1700 pesos (less than 60p) for a single ticket which takes you as far as you need to go. You use these coaches, but they are on rqaised roads and have their own lanes in the traffic so you do not get stuck in all the queues.
In the afternoon we watched the Colombia vs Peru football match, then went on a cable car to Monserrat. It's 10,000 feet above sea level which is 5 times more than Ben Nevis! You get out of breath very easily. The view was amazing and the weather perfect for it - you could see for miles. Other people that have been said they couldn't see anything because of the mist and the clounds. We also got to see the sunset - kind of. We were one side of the Church, saw the sun was going down so ran round to watch it but by the time we got there we had missed it!
Last night we played cards then went for the biggest pizza you have ever seen! It was between 4 of us and still enormous - cost 40,000 pesos which is just over £10. Food is very cheap here.
Not sure what I am going to do today. I think Alice and Chris are going to meet some relatives later. The weather is pretty nice again so I might try and find some of the museums that re nearby. I'm a bit worried about getting lost though because all the streets look the same to me!
I will put some pictures up of Monserrat later.
Graduation went well, lovely sunny day but very tiring - lots of smiling and photograph taking which everyone knows I'm not good at! And almost made the entire day without being called Oliver! Will see if there any pics to put up - Dave took lots.
At the airport Mum started to get slightly stressed - luckily Lisa and Dave were there to stop us falling out completely. Then disaster No. 1 - my padlock didn't fit my bag and no shops were open at the airport to get a new one! So had to hang around for a bit and Dave managed to get one to open 4 minutes early!
Once that was sorted everything went smoothly until I got through passport control and went to text Mum to tell her I was through OK and realised I'd not got my phone!! So had to find a payphone and ring and explain (they were surprisingly calm about it . . . .)
Managed to sleep on the flight to Madrid so it went really quick. And I didn't have anyone sat at the side of me. Then a bus took is straight from the plane to the new terminal for the flight to Bogota. Sat waiting, and went to email home on my ipod to say I'd made it to the new terminal, and my bag started vibrating . . . I'd had my phone all along!! So disaster one no longer a disaster.
The flight to Bogota was delayed by nearly an hour but because there was no wind ee made up the time and landed on time. The flight was pretty long, and full of school kids! Didn't manage to get that much sleep, but they fed you well. Three meals all together! And I spoke some Spanish - even if it was only to ask them to tell me in English!
Had a bit of a problem getting through passport control as they said I could not stay for 70 days, but I told them that the embassy had said I could stay for 90, but may have to have a 60 day visa and then extend it. But the person got their boss and they said I could have a visa for 70 days. So hopefully I should be OK (though all they did was stap my passport!). Might go to the embassy when I get to Cartagena and double check I've not got to extend it.
Got a taxi to the hostel no problem - they have a very good system at the airport. You go to this office and thell them where you want to go, then they give you a ticket with a price on and the taxi driver can only charge you that much. My driver wasn't happy because it was rush hour and it took us forever to get there.
Checking in at the hostel was intreresting as they speak no English and the booking wasn't in my name - it was in the name of whoever organises it. Luckily someone was able to translate for me and it was all fine.
The organiser in Colombia (Laura) met me later at the hostel and explained things to me. Then Chris and Alex, the other volunteers, came back and showed me around and things. Was very tired that night so went to bed pretty early (it was the equivalent of 4am in the UK and I'd been up since 1am the day before!)
Chris and Alice are really friendly. They're brother and sister and were actually born in Bogota but have lived in England all their lives and speak no Spanish! It's quite funny when we go places because everyone expects them to be fluent in Spanish and find it hilarious when they say they don't speak it!
On Saturday the three of us went into the South of the city with another girl from the hostel called Janet. She's from New Zealand. We went to the shopping centre, because I needed to buy a watch (mine fell apart when I was trying to change the time) and the others needed bits and bobs. The transport system is really good. Its 1700 pesos (less than 60p) for a single ticket which takes you as far as you need to go. You use these coaches, but they are on rqaised roads and have their own lanes in the traffic so you do not get stuck in all the queues.
In the afternoon we watched the Colombia vs Peru football match, then went on a cable car to Monserrat. It's 10,000 feet above sea level which is 5 times more than Ben Nevis! You get out of breath very easily. The view was amazing and the weather perfect for it - you could see for miles. Other people that have been said they couldn't see anything because of the mist and the clounds. We also got to see the sunset - kind of. We were one side of the Church, saw the sun was going down so ran round to watch it but by the time we got there we had missed it!
Last night we played cards then went for the biggest pizza you have ever seen! It was between 4 of us and still enormous - cost 40,000 pesos which is just over £10. Food is very cheap here.
Not sure what I am going to do today. I think Alice and Chris are going to meet some relatives later. The weather is pretty nice again so I might try and find some of the museums that re nearby. I'm a bit worried about getting lost though because all the streets look the same to me!
I will put some pictures up of Monserrat later.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
3 days to go . . .
Finished packing today! Eventually got everything in my bag with Mum's help - resulted to wearing pretty much all my clothes to travel in so as I can pack an enormous supply of bug spray for the jungle.
Last day to make sure I've got everything tomorrow, then off to Notts ready for my graduation on Thursday - might just have time to squeeze in a sneaky cocktail when Auntie Lisa and uncle Dave arrive on Wednesday night. . .
I'm pretty sure I'll wake up in the morning and remeber a million and one things I've forgotten to do! If not then it will be a bit of last minute Spanish learning, get some films for the plane and say goodbye to my girlies Millie and Ska. Oh, and practice walking in my shoes for graduation
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)