Que onda...

I’m such a sporadic blogger. The novelty has worn off for me, and possibly for my readers. I don’t know who my readers are, nor what they’re interested in. I try to avoid recounting the minutiae of my daily life, but maybe my posts about toilets and buses are lame, too. Regardless, it’s been a while since I’ve written an update about life in Barranquilla, so I’ll attempt to catch you all up.

Classes have been rolling along quite well. I feel like I’m teaching a lot more smoothly than last semester. Planning and administering lessons is noticeably easier—and more enjoyable—not that I’ve had a bit of experience



This afternoon we had our fifth meeting of the NLG (New Life Group) that I’m leading through VPU (Vida Para la Universidad, Colombia’s branch of Campus Crusade for Christ). I’m so thankful to God for the great leadership team he’s given me and for the students who have attended the group. Today our topic was loving others—especially the seemingly “unlovable” people (EGRs—Extra Grace Required people—in the words of Rick Warren). The other VPU leaders have gotten their groups underway as well, and this semester we’ve opened groups on two other campuses in Barranquilla. Now we’re looking ahead to Campus Mission 2011, the national conference in Cali in July!



In February I finally visited Parque Tayrona, a gorgeous national park near Santa Marta, a couple hours west of us on the coast. Honestly, it has the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to. On the 90-minute hike to the beach, palm trees of all heights and shapes usher you along the path. Arriving at the beach of El Cabo, your eyes are almost overstimulated by the rich blues of the water and greens of the mountains.







A now for the highlight of the semester thus far: Miriam came to visit me! I can’t even describe how refreshing that week was. Though in many ways I feel in my element (in my “salsa” as they say in Spanish) here in Barranquilla, what I miss the most is connecting at a deeper level, not inhibited by language and cultural differences. Spending a week with my best friend was exactly what I needed!



On March 5-8th Barranquilla’s biggest event of the year took place: Carnaval! Second in size and fame only to the one in Rio de Janeiro, Barranquilla’s Carnaval is four days of recocha (partying, disorder, crazyness). Though it has historical and cultural significance, it’s also an excuse to party, drink, take time off work, and in general live it up. Actually, among Christians, Carnaval is a really controversial subject, because of the “vices” associated with it. After hearing Barranquilleros proudly talking about this celebration all year, I definitely wanted to check it out. Knowing that there are unsavory aspects, I see Carnaval as an important part of the culture I’m living in and worth experiencing. So Miriam and I attended the parade of the opening day, called Batalla de Flores (Battle of Flowers). Elaborate floats, traditional costumed characters, and just plain weirdos walked, ran, rolled, and danced down Via 40. And from all sides we got sprayed with foam and cold water—that’s just part of the deal. I’m not sure I agree with Celia Cruz—that “la vida es un carnaval”—but Barranquilla’s Carnaval is certainly an experience like no other!

Taboo

-"Have you gained weight?" "You look fatter."
-"How much do you get paid?"
-"Are you on your period? Because your face is breaking out more than usual."

Obviously to American ears, these questions and comments are more than likely to surprise,bother, or offend us. But I'm beginning to understand that these are all perfectly normal things to say, with no intention to offend, so now I'm less taken aback.

It makes me wonder, conversely, what topics are normal for Americans but "taboo" in Colombia. Even after so much time here, I haven't put my finger on many. Still doing my research :)

¿Dónde está el baño?

Reason #1 why I don't use the bathrooms at Universidad del Atlantico, and hold it all day if by any means possible:



This is taken from the outside of the door looking in, in case you can't tell. Nice.

Face Lift

No, I'm not thinking about taking advantage of Colombia's world-renowned plastic surgery.

I just thought my blog needed some sprucing-up. Actually, the idea was to change to a template that allows people to comment, but unfortunately none that I tried allow it.

So if you're blog-savvy and can help me out, feel free to leave a comment with instructions. Oops, you can't ;)

A Second Wind

Maybe it’s that I sense my time here is running short—the finish line effect—but during these last two weeks I’ve had a renewed energy and excitement about living here in Colombia.

The start of this semester has been completely different from the last one. In August, I arrived in Barranquilla on a Friday, was given my teaching assignment on Monday, and began work on Tuesday—without knowing anything about the class, the students, or the text! This time around, I was ready before UniAtlántico was; classes didn’t really start till a week after they were scheduled to begin.

The first day of class felt like going back to high school after summer break—reunions in the hallways and cafeteria! It’s been such a joy to see my students from last semester and to be able to maintain friendships with them through eating lunch together or them participating in my English club or VPU group.

And my new students are adorable. As a means to evaluate their progress at the end of the semester, I had them take a written diagnostic test as well as record themselves speaking for two minutes. My favorite comments:

“I like the teacher, because she is a native speaker. I…um…I..heard her and I want to speak like her! I know that I…that I…that I can speak English very well, like her.”

“Well, I’m here because I’m studying foreign languages, I want to speak more than four languages. Well, I’m going to talk about the class. I’m a little bit scared of you, well, because you’re a native speaker and sometimes I don’t understand you…but I’m going to do my best.”

“I like English, I hate French. Maybe you tell me, ‘Why are you study foreign languages if you hate French?’ I don’t know…I just hate it and that’s it. Um, let’s see…let me look at the time [picks up the stopwatch, laughs]. Oh $#%@, I don’t believe it, this is amazing! [Holds clock up to video camera; it shows 0:00] Do you see this? I forgot to start the time].” [This was at the 1:30 mark…then he proceeds to start over!]

So I seem to have my work cut out for me: the beginner student who wants to speak like a native, the advanced student who is afraid of me, and the class clown. This is what I love about teaching college students, though. They’re unique, they’re motivated and they’re honest.

La Teacher de Inglés*

Though I was in the vast minority of professors, I started class today. My enrollment list for each class is over 20, but I only had 5 students in each class. My 3rd semester class met first, and I was happy to see a couple of students who came to my English club last semester. We did introductions and went over the syllabus, and spent some time getting to know each other. With the handful of 8th semester students who showed up (by the way, all 5 I met today have excellent English), we chatted for about 20 minutes but then decided to call it quits and begin for real at the next class meeting next week.

Here are a few reflections on my first day of the semester:

•Though I might have looked spiffy in a pencil skirt and high heels, today was probably the only time this semester I’ll don that outfit. I was reminded of my dear Spanish professor from Lee, Dr. Ortega, who looked like a million bucks every single day in her dresses and stiletto heels. I don’t know how she made it through even 10 minutes on her feet.

•The semester’s off to a good start when one of your students gives you an apple on the first day of class :)

•I’m going to love the room my English 8 class meets in. It’s a little too big for comfort, but it’s on the corner of the second floor; large windows panel two sides of the room, and an enormous palm tree is right outside one of them.

•White boards that are actually white, and erasable, make me very happy.

•I LOVE TEACHING ESL. Yesterday I spent some time looking through ESL resources at a bilingual library, and seeing all that’s out there in the field confirmed my interest and made me want to learn, practice, and grow more in teaching English. But even more fulfilling is stepping into the classroom and connecting with real live students. Each one of them has his or her unique background, interests, personality and goals, and I truly look forward to getting to know them.

*The blog title comes from a new telenovela (soap opera) airing here in Colombia. It’s seriously called that, and people have been kidding me about it for the last few weeks. I watched one episode, and it’s the same old same old of soap operas to me. Mildly entertaining, but predictable and overly dramatic.

Ready or Not...

The suitcase is unpacked, the laundry is done, the school supplies are bought, and the first lesson is planned. Vacation is over, and classes are about to begin!

…or so I thought.

But…this is Colombia…Barranquilla…Universidad del Atlántico. And things don’t move at the same pace that I’m used to. And it’s the night before classes are supposedly supposed to start, yet class registration hasn’t opened for students. So maybe we’ll start the following day, or maybe it will be next week, as some students were telling me today.

Believe it or not, I'm itching to go back to work! Oh well. I’ll go with the flow, because there’s really no other choice, and enjoy the unexpected day(s) off.

As I sign off, here are a few pictures from my trip to Argentina.