Oh my gosh, I’m in Colombia! was the thought that literally woke me up this morning. It’s always exciting to travel to a new country, but it keeps blowing my mind that I’ll be living here for a year. There’s so much to learn and take in that it’s overwhelming, but I’ve got quite a bit of time to experience my new city.
The 30 hours I’ve been here have been pretty packed. Here’s a bit about my experience so far.
-Barranquilla: To be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed by this city. It’s hard to explain, but it’s different from any other city I’ve been in. Compared to Bucharest, Santiago, or even monstrous Mexico City, Barranquilla is hard to grasp. Instead of neat grids or major avenues, it’s a crazy network of streets. The public buses intimidate me: they all have colorful airbrush paint jobs which I guess are their distinguishing feature. They’re in questionable condition and I saw one yesterday that, I kid you not, had strobe lights inside.
-My home: I had the easiest arrival I could ask for. I was met at the airport by the family of my Colombian professor (Alexander). They dropped me off at the apartment of my host family, Gina and Omar, where Alexander and two guys from Lee (both named Michael) were there to greet me. Gina and Omar have really made me feel at home here. They have a nice little apartment with air conditioning (just in the bedrooms at night) and cold showers to relieve the Barranquilla heat.
-The food: Let me just say I’ll need to find a gym here…Colombian food is tasty but dangerous: everything is fried and carbohydrates make up 99.99999999% of the diet. They also have some delicious fruit. So far I’ve tried the lulo (which grows only in Colombia) and the granadilla (SO good!).
-The people: The Caribbean coast of Colombia is renowned for its friendly people. I experienced their hospitality before I even landed: on my flight to Barranquilla I sat next to a couple from here who gave me their number and told me to call if I needed anything while I’m here. Even the airport personnel were patient and helpful, and that’s a phenomenon in itself. As the new girl in town, I’m thankful to be in a place full of friendly, welcoming people!
The language: I had fair warning that “costeño” (coastal) Spanish is harder to understand. So far I’ve had to ask people to repeat themselves more often than not. The intonation is different, and they drop (if you want to get technical, aspirate) the “s” in many words [nosotros becomes nohotros], etc. I’m thankful I speak enough Spanish to get along fine, but I’m also humbled by how far I have to go. I agreed to speak for a few minutes in a chapel service today (yeah, someone talked me into this about an hour after I landed…I must have been too tired to protest). Anyway the first group of middle schoolers giggled and smirked through my spiel…I found out later that “um” and other fillers (“muletillas” as they’re called here) are not a linguistic universal I guess my nervous “ums” struck the middle schoolers as hilarious.
It’s been a busy, but great, first day. I spent the morning at the school where the Michaels are volunteering this summer (the school is a partnership of Alexander’s church. Gina, my host mom, is an administrator there). Afterwards the two of them, Alexander and I ate lunch at a local restaurant, went to the bank to change money, visited Universidad del Atlántico (where I’ll be teaching)*, killed time at Juan Valdez (the Colombian version of Starbucks), walked and had dinner at the mall. I’m looking forward to my head and pillow meeting in a few minutes so that I can be rested for another full day tomorrow!
*Visiting UA was an interesting experience. I wanted to meet the faculty I’ll be working with and find out some details about my role as an English Teaching Assistant. Tracking down the contact person I’ve been corresponding with was not so straightforward. After a scavenger hunt all over campus, we finally found the right office only to be told that I should just show up on August 9 (after I return from orientation in Bogotá) and we’ll sit down with the other professors and figure it out. Alexander had warned me that Latin American universities have a very different definition of, um, organization. BUT I’m really glad I was able to visit the school, so that I’ll be able to find my way there on my own after Alexander leaves next week.
