By request of my mother, i will be writing one more blog. this blog will recount briefly what i have been doin in my last weeks of colombia. as i told you all last blog i went to the coffee triangle to a town called armenia to stay with my friend who lives there. i went with the three girls of my city and we stayed the week there. we all had a great time travelling around there, drinking cheap good coffee- 50 cents. one day we went to this little town up to the north of armenia called salento and there we walked around enjoying the veiw and shopping. i didnt do too much shopping but i did buy a pretty sick poncho. we also went on a horseback ride through a valley and that was great. ive always loved horseback riding because i always felt like a cowboy and then we did something that absolutely blew my mind: we crossed a river horseback. oh yes. it was so cool, it wasnt like the horse was swimming his way across or anything but i got wet up to my shins and i felt super proud after we did it. we also went a city called manizales where we saw some awesome cathedrals and my second host sister. it was great because we dedicated the entire day to this city but we literally went to two big churches said we were cold and hungry so we bought bread and went into a cafe and drank their coffee and ate our bread for hours. we played go fish which was a blast from the past. what was super funny was none of them knew the correct pronunciation of ace and in spanish it kinda of sounds like ass so i was laughing so hard when they would ask if someone had an ass or give me your ass. so yes we spent an entire day in a cafe drinking coffee and playing card games, and to be honest i wouldnt have wanted it any other way. we had such a great time. we also went to a coffee farm where they taught us the process of making the coffee and the old culture of the coffee pickers which was fun. we picked coffee, learned about how to plant it, how its all done basically and then they taught us the correct way of drinking coffee. this day was amazing for me cuz im really interested in coffee and it was awesome to see how its all done. we did some other fun stuff but those were the highlights. we then went to a district wide rotary meeting which sounds really fun doesnt it? well it wasnt. we were basically being shown off like a county fair prize, but the good part was that all the exchange students were together so afterwards we just hung out and laughed and spoke in english. i have a good story about what happened at the farm that we were staying at so ask me when i come home. and we all said goodbye there and headed home a little sad to say goodbye to our friends. fortunately i still had mine with me. and we spent literally everyday after that trip together. i did not return to my host parents after that but my host sister since my host parents are changing apartments so everything is a disaster over there so im hanging with my host sister and her fiance. they work a lot. and i mean a lot, so i pretty much have free time every single day, and i took advantage of that to spend it with my friends. it started off great but as my date grew closer and closer we all became sadder and sadder. the thing is we became a family here, none of our host families had one exchange student but 4. we spent hours upon hours with each other at each others houses, at their fincas, and just together, so this will prove to be the hardest part of my exchange: saying goodbye to my best friends. we spent all last night together first at jennys house then to an ice cream shop, back to jennys, then to the jankiest bowling alley ive ever seen, back to jennys where we sat till one thirty in the morning. we were all super tired but whenever i opted to go home they refused. goodbyes are hard dont you think. the worst part of it is is that i have no idea when im gonna see them again. when i left home i just told myself over and over again its 10 months i can do this for ten months. what do i tell myself now? year? 2 years? shoot. its hard. i envy the europeans. dont get me wrong i am as excited as can be to go home and see you all again but unfortunately that excitement is marred by this weight of uncertainty of when ill see my friends again. eh ya that about sums up my thoughts and feelings for the past two weeks. sadness and happiness. got to hate paradoxes right?
well my friends, ive survived. colombia did not kill me. im not addicted to cocaine. and i have learned spanish. good year wouldnt you say. i came here with zero expectations and i was pleasantly surprised all the way. we´ll see each other soon. y para mis amigos de colombia que estan leyendo este blog, gracias por todo su amor y jamas olividare mi tiempo aqui gracias a ustedes. hasta luego.
cody martin alias alias ¨codito¨
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Long time no write wouldnt you say
Yes it has been quite a long time, about 2 months i guess and let me tell you, a lot has happened in these past two months. im gonna try not to write a novel in this one but it inevitabley always happens. well see. so i last left you with my visit to popayan with some friends of mine which once again was awesome, and that week i got back i changed host families. this will be my final host fam which is kinda weird to think about but they are really nice. i love this new house were livin in, its actually an apartment but were on the southern outskirts of the city called ciudad jardin, or garden city. this place is spectacular. before i was living in the middle of the city where i would fall asleep to the sounds of cars and dogs barking but here im falling asleep every night to the peaceful sounds of crickets and other bugs. the only small miniscule downside in comparison is that i wake up to these birds that sound like the raptor call from Jurassic park three. but even that is somewhat rare. i live on the eighth floor looking over a small rainforest reserve which is just great. I have 3 host sisters and a brother. the brother went to argentina to study, the two older sisters are twins and one of them just moved out to live with her fiance and the other one moved in for a week or two and will be bouncin out soon. the younger daughter was on an exchange to brasil and she just came back last week. the only thing i can say is ¨i miss you ryan¨ sisters are a bit much for me. there is always at least 1 thong in the bathroom everytime i walk in. WHY? i dont know. i once saw 3 pink one hanging all over on the shower on the towels on the mirror. it was crazy. and i just miss having a dude here with me. they are all very nice people though my host dad is hilarious and my host mom is just super sweet.
speaking about my host mom she actually got me out of the high school and into the college to take classes. and this has been one of the coolest things ever. ive only really been taking philosophy classes because shes a philosophy teacher and knows all the philo teachers at the university but its great cuz i really like philosophy. my favorite class so far has been my intro to ethics class. its just super fun to listen to all the different theories of how to live ethically. but the best thing about all of this is that my host mom also convinced my friends host mom to let her come with me. so now its just hangin out whenever walkin around campus eatin icecream and watchin movies late at night cuz we dont have classes till 2. its so nice. and school gets out this friday so then were just going to goin to free seminars in the libraries and all those kinds of things. bottom line im very thankful. i did not like my school. i got a lot of reading done but it was wastin my time really.
another big thing was that i went to the amazons. i really should have written a blog on this alone and it would have been huge... but i didnt. why? i dont really have a good answer to it but i assure you all if you want to here some stories, when i get back we´ll sit down and look at some pictures and i will tell you all i can remember. it was definitely the best trip that we went on, solely because the amazons is a completely different world. technically i was in 3 countries on this trip peru brasil and colombia but im gonna say that amazons is just one country in itself. we visited indian tribes, spent hours in the boat goin up and down the river, looked for crocodiles, saved a womans life, went to museums, paddled by ourselves up the river without adult help, climbed trees, and other cool things. im sorry im saying much more but i assure you it will be better in person.
the week after amazons kinda sucked cuz i missed the other students, i was still in the high school at the time, and i just wanted to get to know more about the regions of colombia, but thankfully i had a light that kept me pushing through. My Mom. she came and visited me during easter break and it was legit. we did so many things i dont know how she survived, i barely did. well im gonna give you guys a rough outline of what we did but i highly suggest that you talk to her personally cuz everything has become kinda normal for me and so what i think is like an everyday thing is something worth a story for her. for example we walked to a mall one day just to buy some stuff and she sees this big guard with this huge shot gun and she stops and asks me what this guy is doing, i calmly reply that hes a security gaurd and i continue walking. ive gotten acustomed to seeing people with rifles shotguns and ak47s just walking around on the street, but it was quite a shock to her. anyway we did a lot with my host families here. we went to a finca in a city called jamundi with my first and third fam and spent the night there, we met two of my exchange friends and went out with them. we went to linas (exchange student in my house) family finca and we chilled there danced and told jokes, my mom picked up salsa quite easily actually and i was very surprised. i kinda became a translator which was very cool and kinda hard. met my second host fam and ate pandebono and coffee with them. if you dont know what pandebono is ask lina its just a typical bread from cali and its so good when its warm. But my favorite part was when my mom and i went to this city called Medellin and it was so much fun, we stayed in a hostal walked around in national park, met with two exchange friend and they showed us around the city we walked over 5 miles a day, and we ate bandeja paisa. Bandeja paisa is one of the most delicious, scrumptious, fatty, unheathy meals you could ever eat. Beans, rice, egg, chicharron, ground beef, plantain. all dripping with greasey goodness. on our way back to cali in the bus we popped a tire at 3 in the morning which was great as you might imagine. and when we got back after walking aimlessly till we found the bus to my house, we planned to sleep for 45 min and it was pushed to 2 hours. i was so tired after this and my host dad was wondering how she could keep up with me. i also have pictures of our adventure on my facebook so look it up we had a great time.
so i went out dancing again for the first time in a while with my friend monika and her friends and then the next day with our salsa teacher. I had a great time with all of them dancing, the gay man who danced with me the last time was there. he didnt dance with me again but he still kissed my cheeks and he pulled my hair... which was odd. about my hair, i think im gonna need to cut it soon, not because its gotten long but because my host fam wants me to cut it. my second day in this house my host dad asked if i liked long hair, and then just stared at my head, and then two nights ago everyone at the dinner table asked me to cut my hair, my host sister even invited to pay for it. i dont know though. i might just keep it long till i get back home.
i think you guys are caught up on my major adventures for these past two months. im going to be heading to the coffee triangle on the 30th which is the last major region of colombia that i can go to safely and easily and after that im only a couple weeks from being on US soil. im excited to be back home soon but sad to leave my friends and families. My time of running around and exploring a foreign country has come to an end, but now the time to apply this experience and start my college carreer is about to begin. i dont know if im ready but i felt the same way right before i came to colombia and look at me now. i think im ready for a new adventure, i have a feeling its gonna be harder though. this will probably be my last blog till i get back home, so if youre wanting to find out what im doin find me on facebook or skype and we´ll talk it up. Pues hasta luego y espero que ustedes estén bien y nos vemos pronto no? Hasta pronto amigos o si quieren hablar como un colombiano hablamos parceros.
speaking about my host mom she actually got me out of the high school and into the college to take classes. and this has been one of the coolest things ever. ive only really been taking philosophy classes because shes a philosophy teacher and knows all the philo teachers at the university but its great cuz i really like philosophy. my favorite class so far has been my intro to ethics class. its just super fun to listen to all the different theories of how to live ethically. but the best thing about all of this is that my host mom also convinced my friends host mom to let her come with me. so now its just hangin out whenever walkin around campus eatin icecream and watchin movies late at night cuz we dont have classes till 2. its so nice. and school gets out this friday so then were just going to goin to free seminars in the libraries and all those kinds of things. bottom line im very thankful. i did not like my school. i got a lot of reading done but it was wastin my time really.
another big thing was that i went to the amazons. i really should have written a blog on this alone and it would have been huge... but i didnt. why? i dont really have a good answer to it but i assure you all if you want to here some stories, when i get back we´ll sit down and look at some pictures and i will tell you all i can remember. it was definitely the best trip that we went on, solely because the amazons is a completely different world. technically i was in 3 countries on this trip peru brasil and colombia but im gonna say that amazons is just one country in itself. we visited indian tribes, spent hours in the boat goin up and down the river, looked for crocodiles, saved a womans life, went to museums, paddled by ourselves up the river without adult help, climbed trees, and other cool things. im sorry im saying much more but i assure you it will be better in person.
the week after amazons kinda sucked cuz i missed the other students, i was still in the high school at the time, and i just wanted to get to know more about the regions of colombia, but thankfully i had a light that kept me pushing through. My Mom. she came and visited me during easter break and it was legit. we did so many things i dont know how she survived, i barely did. well im gonna give you guys a rough outline of what we did but i highly suggest that you talk to her personally cuz everything has become kinda normal for me and so what i think is like an everyday thing is something worth a story for her. for example we walked to a mall one day just to buy some stuff and she sees this big guard with this huge shot gun and she stops and asks me what this guy is doing, i calmly reply that hes a security gaurd and i continue walking. ive gotten acustomed to seeing people with rifles shotguns and ak47s just walking around on the street, but it was quite a shock to her. anyway we did a lot with my host families here. we went to a finca in a city called jamundi with my first and third fam and spent the night there, we met two of my exchange friends and went out with them. we went to linas (exchange student in my house) family finca and we chilled there danced and told jokes, my mom picked up salsa quite easily actually and i was very surprised. i kinda became a translator which was very cool and kinda hard. met my second host fam and ate pandebono and coffee with them. if you dont know what pandebono is ask lina its just a typical bread from cali and its so good when its warm. But my favorite part was when my mom and i went to this city called Medellin and it was so much fun, we stayed in a hostal walked around in national park, met with two exchange friend and they showed us around the city we walked over 5 miles a day, and we ate bandeja paisa. Bandeja paisa is one of the most delicious, scrumptious, fatty, unheathy meals you could ever eat. Beans, rice, egg, chicharron, ground beef, plantain. all dripping with greasey goodness. on our way back to cali in the bus we popped a tire at 3 in the morning which was great as you might imagine. and when we got back after walking aimlessly till we found the bus to my house, we planned to sleep for 45 min and it was pushed to 2 hours. i was so tired after this and my host dad was wondering how she could keep up with me. i also have pictures of our adventure on my facebook so look it up we had a great time.
so i went out dancing again for the first time in a while with my friend monika and her friends and then the next day with our salsa teacher. I had a great time with all of them dancing, the gay man who danced with me the last time was there. he didnt dance with me again but he still kissed my cheeks and he pulled my hair... which was odd. about my hair, i think im gonna need to cut it soon, not because its gotten long but because my host fam wants me to cut it. my second day in this house my host dad asked if i liked long hair, and then just stared at my head, and then two nights ago everyone at the dinner table asked me to cut my hair, my host sister even invited to pay for it. i dont know though. i might just keep it long till i get back home.
i think you guys are caught up on my major adventures for these past two months. im going to be heading to the coffee triangle on the 30th which is the last major region of colombia that i can go to safely and easily and after that im only a couple weeks from being on US soil. im excited to be back home soon but sad to leave my friends and families. My time of running around and exploring a foreign country has come to an end, but now the time to apply this experience and start my college carreer is about to begin. i dont know if im ready but i felt the same way right before i came to colombia and look at me now. i think im ready for a new adventure, i have a feeling its gonna be harder though. this will probably be my last blog till i get back home, so if youre wanting to find out what im doin find me on facebook or skype and we´ll talk it up. Pues hasta luego y espero que ustedes estén bien y nos vemos pronto no? Hasta pronto amigos o si quieren hablar como un colombiano hablamos parceros.
Monday, March 21, 2011
quick update, and by quick i mean long
so as you all can see i have changed the background of my blog. why? you ask, well i have received quite a few requests to have it done so, i guess white on black after reading a novel of a blog is hard on the eyes. anyway lets get on with it shall we, so i am now goin into the home stretch of my trip ill be changing families on saturday and then i will have roughly 3 months left. its really kind of odd to think that ive passed almost 7 months outside of the US its now starting to hit all of us exchange students that were gonna need to jump back into reality soon and not gonna lie were not really looking forward to it. think about it, if you were chillin in a foreign country just to chill, no obligations (except highschool over again,) no job but still being paid 70 a month, able to travel the country, learn a language and a culture stress free, would you want to return. we do want to return to families and friends, but to the universities, jobs, and chores (for those of us still living at home) heck no. but hey, youre not truly adventurous until you can apply exciting adventures to the mundane everyday life, so thats gonna be my next challenge.
i should now talk about all the stuff ive been up to for the past month. well ive gotten involved in some salsa and bachata dance classes with the other foreign exchange students in my city and i absolutely love it, dancing is super fun and its really pushing me to have confidence in myself. cuz when youre dancing you need to lead (if youre the dude) and if you cant trust yourself to execute the turn or to move across the dance floor youre goin to look foolish and sloppy and lost. and ive been thinking about this a lot actually, that ive never had that kind of confidence in myself in my everyday actions i love to follow people im good at following directions, not the best at giving them, ive always been timid in the chance that i might be doin something that another wouldnt appreciate, so i would do nothing. But since ive been in this class the teacher, who is super cool, has been teaching me how to handle the girl, how to hold her tight and lead her through the turns, the turns that i want to do and have to initiate. so i cant pause and think if my partner wants to do this turn or not, no, shes going to do this turn and its up to me to guide her though it. it has been a super cool experience learning all of that and this last thursday i had a great day in the class because it was just me and my friend monika that night so we were just dancing and dancing and dancing, and i finally started to let go of this idea of what she would want and just started ¨to do¨ and in a dance the girl wants to be lead she wants to be shown where to go by someone who has confidence in their actions, and im gonna guess that thats how it is in a relationship as well. no girl wants man who cant choose, and doesnt have confidence in himself and where the relationship is going. of course a relationship isnt a man tyranting over the woman but neither is the dance, a nod of the head, a lock of the eyes, a push or pull of the hand, a whisper in the ear are the communications between the two, so the girl isnt lost and being swung out of control. so ya thats what ive learned from dance class. and just a funny story now, my dance teacher took monika and me to a dance club/bar where there were just a bunch of old people dancing these fantastic dances, i was just mesmerized (thats not how you spell it is it) by the fluidity and grace of these viejitos. and every once in a while monika and i would dance and it was fun and all the old people sitting would be staring at us cuz we were the youngest ones in there at least by 25 years, and some other people danced with me, one of the people how worked at this place, my teacher of course and my teachers friend, and were gonna focus on my dance with my teachers friend. first off hes gay... yes. we were all just sitting at the table i had my ginger ale and some trail mix just snacking away when this man, really tall, kinda old, wearing a very tight red shirt and very tight pants grabs my hand and takes me to the dance floor. i had no idea what to do, so i went along with it. i was always used to leading so i held my right hand up, but he just shook his head and grabbed my left hand and pulled me close. at this point i think i had a face of panic because my teacher was shouting at him through her laughs to stop dancing with me, but he continued on for a bit longer putting his head close to mine as we swayed back and forth but then he finally let me go and i just kinda looked at him with a nervous laugh and then he let out a belly laugh and we went to the table, everybody was laughing and then i realized that he was just a funny gay man. he did wink at me a couple times through the night though.
lets see what else.... i had a bad experience with a river. two other guys and i got in an intertube to float down this river so i was pretty excited. our adventure started in us trying to situate our weight evenly on this tube which was difficult and we fell more than a couple times but we got on finally and embarked down the river. we realize that we were vearing to the left a bit to much so we tried to paddle to the right, but of course it didnt work and then my friend yelled out HIJUE PUTA which is kinda like son of a b&%$# (i censor myself in english but not in spanish) and then he bailed i had no idea what was goin on so i stayed on the tube... bad idea. we were heading for this bamboo branch thing, but it wasnt bamboo as i found out a couple seconds later. it was something like bamboo but it has 3 inch thorns on it so i was pretty scratched up after that, but the tube was fine. so we all mount up again and we had a choice to see what was further down the river or we could walk back up and do it again, so we continued on... another bad idea. we were goin down no bamboo thorns this time but we did hit some small rapids which were fun and when we finally stopped ourselves we realized that we were kinda far away and we needed to walk against the current with this giant tube... barefoot. one might ask why didnt we just walk on land? there was about a 7 ft cliff on both sides. another one might ask whats wrong with being barefoot? rocks. lots of rocks. big rocks small rocks smooth rocks pointy rocks ( i want to read dr seuss now) but the majority of the rocks was the big pointy ones. not very feet friendly. so we go despite the feet pain trying to find the best way to lugg this giboondous tube with us. after much pain and about 10 meters we finally find sand which was like fresh rain on wilted lettuce ( stole that from jrr tolkein) it was great, what was great too was that there was a trail heading up the cliff, so after a couple minutes rest i told the other dudes that i would check it out so i start up the trail and about my third step in i let out a scream. i lift up my foot and i find a thorn about a centimeter long lodged in it. crap. ok so i went on i yell again. thorn again. and then another, and then another. crap. so i stopped walking the trail went on a bit more and then it turned so i lost sight of it. i then turn around to tell the others that this might work and when i lift my arm there are 3 gigantic mosquitos lined up on my forearm so i kill them one hit since there were so close but then i see 2 more on my other arm and then i feel them on my back and then on my legs. crap. so i run back down the trail of course finding some more thorny friends along the way and i jump into the river. i told the other guys that there was a trail but a lot of thorns and mosquitos they said well try it, because we were so exhausted from those ten meters and now the water was even faster, so we all head up the trail of doom and were goin along making plenty of friends with the thorns and mosquitos when the trail stops. crap. so one friend says that he´ll go into the water and we´ll roll the tube over the edge and he can catch it. so he went and me and the other dude stayed but with each passing second the other dude is getting more and more ansy and then he finally lets out a scream saying damn mosquitos and takes off running, i too then realize that i was being eaten so i start to walk back when sudennly ¨PSSSSSSSSSSS¨ oh yes the tube popped. now the bugs are all over me so i throw the tube over the edge and run to the water. after soaking in the water and a couple good scratches we think of a new strategy, daniel (other dude) and i will float down and hopefully find another way out while cristian (other dude) stays and yells for help. so we start to float down and then we come to a fork in the river one to the left and the other to the right more towards where the cars are, so i stop myself but daniel keeps goin on unable to stand, when he finally gets his footing hes about 20 feet away from me and unable to move. he gives all he has arms and everything and he gained like 5 feet, so i start to look for a way to help when i find a bamboo pole (thornless) pretty well attached to some underwater roots and debris so i grab it and start walk out holding on to it to help fight the current when i felt it break lose and then i go into survival mode and start to swim as hard as a could and then daniel grabbed my hand so i got my footing but then he lost his so he fell back and as soon as he got his footing i fell back. but then we stand up and were up to our upper thighs in this stream. i feel like this story is getting very long so im sorry im gonna speed it up. so after many tiring attempts i finally arrived at another bamboo tree this time it was actually living above ground so it was strong i grabbed daniel and we swung ourselves to the shore where we were able to climb out just in time to see the sun decending behind some giant puffy clouds and behind the mountains, we called to cristian and then we hiked through farmland over and under electric and barbed wire fences all the while being eaten by mosquitos. when we finally got to the car i was pissed, swelling up and itchy. no good. but it was an adventure.
so i just got back from a trip to a colonial city where all was white plaster and wooden windows it was super cool to see and it was also my first experience in a hostal which was cool. we went to this little town about 45 min out where there is still an indiginous population but the funny part is that this isnt like the leather loin cloth animal skin hats or anything like that stereotypical northern american indian, these indians live in the mountains in a rainy climate, so heres their attire: leather sneakers, long socks, purple skirt with pink trimming (for dudes too), shirt, dark pancho, and a small fidora looking hat held down with an elastic band, and most importantly and funniest part they all ride motorcycles. i guess there was a time they rode horses but they exchanged it for an iron one. it was a super cool little trip just the weekend but it was fun.
im sure some cooler things have happened during this past month but i cant recall them at the moment, but im positive that a story will pop up sometime when im back home. well yup until later.
i should now talk about all the stuff ive been up to for the past month. well ive gotten involved in some salsa and bachata dance classes with the other foreign exchange students in my city and i absolutely love it, dancing is super fun and its really pushing me to have confidence in myself. cuz when youre dancing you need to lead (if youre the dude) and if you cant trust yourself to execute the turn or to move across the dance floor youre goin to look foolish and sloppy and lost. and ive been thinking about this a lot actually, that ive never had that kind of confidence in myself in my everyday actions i love to follow people im good at following directions, not the best at giving them, ive always been timid in the chance that i might be doin something that another wouldnt appreciate, so i would do nothing. But since ive been in this class the teacher, who is super cool, has been teaching me how to handle the girl, how to hold her tight and lead her through the turns, the turns that i want to do and have to initiate. so i cant pause and think if my partner wants to do this turn or not, no, shes going to do this turn and its up to me to guide her though it. it has been a super cool experience learning all of that and this last thursday i had a great day in the class because it was just me and my friend monika that night so we were just dancing and dancing and dancing, and i finally started to let go of this idea of what she would want and just started ¨to do¨ and in a dance the girl wants to be lead she wants to be shown where to go by someone who has confidence in their actions, and im gonna guess that thats how it is in a relationship as well. no girl wants man who cant choose, and doesnt have confidence in himself and where the relationship is going. of course a relationship isnt a man tyranting over the woman but neither is the dance, a nod of the head, a lock of the eyes, a push or pull of the hand, a whisper in the ear are the communications between the two, so the girl isnt lost and being swung out of control. so ya thats what ive learned from dance class. and just a funny story now, my dance teacher took monika and me to a dance club/bar where there were just a bunch of old people dancing these fantastic dances, i was just mesmerized (thats not how you spell it is it) by the fluidity and grace of these viejitos. and every once in a while monika and i would dance and it was fun and all the old people sitting would be staring at us cuz we were the youngest ones in there at least by 25 years, and some other people danced with me, one of the people how worked at this place, my teacher of course and my teachers friend, and were gonna focus on my dance with my teachers friend. first off hes gay... yes. we were all just sitting at the table i had my ginger ale and some trail mix just snacking away when this man, really tall, kinda old, wearing a very tight red shirt and very tight pants grabs my hand and takes me to the dance floor. i had no idea what to do, so i went along with it. i was always used to leading so i held my right hand up, but he just shook his head and grabbed my left hand and pulled me close. at this point i think i had a face of panic because my teacher was shouting at him through her laughs to stop dancing with me, but he continued on for a bit longer putting his head close to mine as we swayed back and forth but then he finally let me go and i just kinda looked at him with a nervous laugh and then he let out a belly laugh and we went to the table, everybody was laughing and then i realized that he was just a funny gay man. he did wink at me a couple times through the night though.
lets see what else.... i had a bad experience with a river. two other guys and i got in an intertube to float down this river so i was pretty excited. our adventure started in us trying to situate our weight evenly on this tube which was difficult and we fell more than a couple times but we got on finally and embarked down the river. we realize that we were vearing to the left a bit to much so we tried to paddle to the right, but of course it didnt work and then my friend yelled out HIJUE PUTA which is kinda like son of a b&%$# (i censor myself in english but not in spanish) and then he bailed i had no idea what was goin on so i stayed on the tube... bad idea. we were heading for this bamboo branch thing, but it wasnt bamboo as i found out a couple seconds later. it was something like bamboo but it has 3 inch thorns on it so i was pretty scratched up after that, but the tube was fine. so we all mount up again and we had a choice to see what was further down the river or we could walk back up and do it again, so we continued on... another bad idea. we were goin down no bamboo thorns this time but we did hit some small rapids which were fun and when we finally stopped ourselves we realized that we were kinda far away and we needed to walk against the current with this giant tube... barefoot. one might ask why didnt we just walk on land? there was about a 7 ft cliff on both sides. another one might ask whats wrong with being barefoot? rocks. lots of rocks. big rocks small rocks smooth rocks pointy rocks ( i want to read dr seuss now) but the majority of the rocks was the big pointy ones. not very feet friendly. so we go despite the feet pain trying to find the best way to lugg this giboondous tube with us. after much pain and about 10 meters we finally find sand which was like fresh rain on wilted lettuce ( stole that from jrr tolkein) it was great, what was great too was that there was a trail heading up the cliff, so after a couple minutes rest i told the other dudes that i would check it out so i start up the trail and about my third step in i let out a scream. i lift up my foot and i find a thorn about a centimeter long lodged in it. crap. ok so i went on i yell again. thorn again. and then another, and then another. crap. so i stopped walking the trail went on a bit more and then it turned so i lost sight of it. i then turn around to tell the others that this might work and when i lift my arm there are 3 gigantic mosquitos lined up on my forearm so i kill them one hit since there were so close but then i see 2 more on my other arm and then i feel them on my back and then on my legs. crap. so i run back down the trail of course finding some more thorny friends along the way and i jump into the river. i told the other guys that there was a trail but a lot of thorns and mosquitos they said well try it, because we were so exhausted from those ten meters and now the water was even faster, so we all head up the trail of doom and were goin along making plenty of friends with the thorns and mosquitos when the trail stops. crap. so one friend says that he´ll go into the water and we´ll roll the tube over the edge and he can catch it. so he went and me and the other dude stayed but with each passing second the other dude is getting more and more ansy and then he finally lets out a scream saying damn mosquitos and takes off running, i too then realize that i was being eaten so i start to walk back when sudennly ¨PSSSSSSSSSSS¨ oh yes the tube popped. now the bugs are all over me so i throw the tube over the edge and run to the water. after soaking in the water and a couple good scratches we think of a new strategy, daniel (other dude) and i will float down and hopefully find another way out while cristian (other dude) stays and yells for help. so we start to float down and then we come to a fork in the river one to the left and the other to the right more towards where the cars are, so i stop myself but daniel keeps goin on unable to stand, when he finally gets his footing hes about 20 feet away from me and unable to move. he gives all he has arms and everything and he gained like 5 feet, so i start to look for a way to help when i find a bamboo pole (thornless) pretty well attached to some underwater roots and debris so i grab it and start walk out holding on to it to help fight the current when i felt it break lose and then i go into survival mode and start to swim as hard as a could and then daniel grabbed my hand so i got my footing but then he lost his so he fell back and as soon as he got his footing i fell back. but then we stand up and were up to our upper thighs in this stream. i feel like this story is getting very long so im sorry im gonna speed it up. so after many tiring attempts i finally arrived at another bamboo tree this time it was actually living above ground so it was strong i grabbed daniel and we swung ourselves to the shore where we were able to climb out just in time to see the sun decending behind some giant puffy clouds and behind the mountains, we called to cristian and then we hiked through farmland over and under electric and barbed wire fences all the while being eaten by mosquitos. when we finally got to the car i was pissed, swelling up and itchy. no good. but it was an adventure.
so i just got back from a trip to a colonial city where all was white plaster and wooden windows it was super cool to see and it was also my first experience in a hostal which was cool. we went to this little town about 45 min out where there is still an indiginous population but the funny part is that this isnt like the leather loin cloth animal skin hats or anything like that stereotypical northern american indian, these indians live in the mountains in a rainy climate, so heres their attire: leather sneakers, long socks, purple skirt with pink trimming (for dudes too), shirt, dark pancho, and a small fidora looking hat held down with an elastic band, and most importantly and funniest part they all ride motorcycles. i guess there was a time they rode horses but they exchanged it for an iron one. it was a super cool little trip just the weekend but it was fun.
im sure some cooler things have happened during this past month but i cant recall them at the moment, but im positive that a story will pop up sometime when im back home. well yup until later.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
parte dos
well i hope you had a nice break for your eyes i assure you i did as well, if you cant remember the post that you read just before you started this one you should go to a doctor to check your memory, if you didnt read the one before, learn spanish and know that when someone says part two it implies that there usually is a part one previous to it and you should read that one before this one if you so please (really its not necessary cuz this one has nothing to do with the first part but if you like reading in chronological order it would be preferable).
well the month of january.... where to begin... i was still in vacaciones (did that on purpose), i pretty much just hung out with the other foreign exchange students and my fam as much as i could. oh so i finally had my thanksgiving dinner which put the world back on track. you may think that im joking about this but its for real my holiday internal clock was way out of wack because i didnt have a thanksgiving dinner, christmas didnt feel like christmas and therefore there shouldnt have been a new years oh i should probably tell you of new years after this, but ya all this because there was no turkey dinner. in the end there still was no turkey cause its super expensive but we had chicken with turkey gravy so it was fine. thanks again aunt lisa for the food it really made the world catch up to its real time. unfortunately our green bean cassarole didnt turn out well, its that our cream of mushroom soup was literally a soup and no so much cream so we couldnt bake it but we just had soup and green beans that we could dip in it. we didnt eat all those delicious little french´s fried onions thing so it became my snack when i was watching bones. if you dont believe me that theyre a good snack talk to ryan. all in all it was a delicious dinner that all of us foreign exchange students loved.
Now back to new years i cant believe i forgot, maybe because in the shadow of thanksgiving it disappeared ( i like thanksgiving if you couldnt tell). well new years was another different experience for me. United states-party with friends and family watch the countdown in new york time wait three hours watch it in our time eat and drink and go home. Colombia-eat, drink, drink some more, maybe a bit more, dance, using a cell phone scream the countdown, 3 2 1... stand on your chair to get a girlfriend or wife, put lentels in your pocket for prosperity, eat 12 grapes a wish for each one, wear yellow underwear, grab a suitcase and passport and run around the neighborhood, light a scarecrow on fire symbolizing all the bad that will happen in the next year, and then eat drink and dance once again. it was different. but fun.
to be honest i kind of forgot what happened in between vacation and when school started back up so im just gonna go to when school started up. so school was to start up on jan 11 a wednesday and so i was very lazy with the entire thing but nevertheless i woke up at my usual 5 15 to get ready my host mom was kind of lazy about it too, but we left at 6 05 for our schools (shes a teacher) and were goin to my school and were passing the gate for all the buses and all the buses were still inside which was kinda weird because it was 6 30 and usually they would be going to pick students up. at this my mother turns to me and asks me if i was sure that i had school today i said i was positive and we continued on to the front gate and only the guard guy was there so that was a bad sign so i asked the guard when all the students come back and he told me tomorrow. shoot. but by this time my mom couldnt drive me all the way back home so she dropped me off at the bus station and asked if i knew how to get home. sure i said and i did kind of know but this was first time doin it alone so she left me and went on to her school so i was standing there fat backpack, uniform, and a lost look on my face. unluckly for me the window where you buy the ticket didnt have a hole in it so i could hardly hear the women asking what i wanted it was just a lot of que´s and como´s on my part. but eventually i got back home and i a good quiet reading time and then i slept until like 11 it was nice. but wait it gets better (gameshow voice) my sister wanted to take me to the finca with her friends on thursday, the next day, so i would be able to miss school. so we asked my mom she said claro que si and it was on. but wait it gets better i was all ready to go on thursday but when i woke up my sister told me that it would have to be on fri, so i unnecessarily missed a day of school. good. and now i could invite the other foreign exchange students with me because honestly i didnt want to chillin with a bunch of people i could have only a half conversation with, so i got two out of three others to come the other one had to go to school, but we still had a lot of fun. something that i learned from that weekend was that colombian marshmallows suck and are even worse over a fire. i missed jet puffed marshmallows for sure. and then school started the next week which was fine, boring but fine, and then i bounced to go on a trip with the exchangers for a week in the capital and the tiny little pueblos in the surrounding mountains.
So now i can talk about the trip so we went to bogota the capital of colombia and to be honest it was just like a more crowded and little dirtier spanish speaking LA oh wait LA is pretty much spanish speaking so never mind about that part. it was kinda cool though we went to a money printing museum which was ok but we got bored after a while and it turned into just a conversation about why the west of the united states is different than the east. so that was kinda cool. oh and we went to one of the highest mountains in bogota called montesurrate that veiwed the entire city. which was cool but like i said it was like LA so although you could see the city it had this dirty cloud hanging over it. oh and i got food poisoning here with a friend. it was kind of funny because we were on the same schedule of diarrhea for a while which i realize sounds a bit awkward now that i write it down but im gonna keep it in here. we both woke up that night after lunch at around the same time running to the bathroom, unfortunately his stomach was 15 min ahead of mine so i got stuck with the stinky bathroom, but yes the next 2 and a half days sucked... especially the time in the bus. we also had a sort of food fight in an italian resturant earlier that night. my austrian friend was trying to make me eat sugar from a spoon so she was trying to force feed me it so i blew it in her face, kinda mean yes but what follows is worse. so she was upset as well as my other austrian friend next to her who was caught in the overspray so they put a ball of butter in a spoon and prepared to catapult it at me. naturally my hands go up to protect my face and i was trying to talk her down because we were in a nice resturant and we were representing rotary club, and other crap like that. and then my german friend, at least who i thought was friend (this is my diarrhea friend) grabbed my arm to pull it down i fought him off but in that split second while my arm was down my friend took her chance a flung the butter. and it was in slow motion for real but the unfortunate thing about slowmotion is that youre stuck in it as well so you cant move out of the way and soon i found myself with the butter stuck in my mouth which was good aim on her part, but still a little disgusting. in the end i was the ¨bigger man¨and i didnt react. will i react at sometime in the future? probably but for now i will remain quiet. the next day we embarked for the other surrounding towns. im sorry to say i cant remember all the names of the towns but ill tell you the all the cool things we did. well i already told you of montesurrate, and the italian food fight, so we went to la catedral de sal. and its a cathedral in a salt mine basically, and let me tell you this place was crazy cool and the walls tasted like salt. yes we all licked the walls, in secret of course because we didnt want to disrespect the cathedral. but ya it was beautiful. outside of the cathedral in like a courtyard there was an intense climbing rock wall which of course we had to do i was kind of pressured past my inhibition of my finger and knee to do it. so i went up barefoot which was new, wat i forgot was my fear of hieghts so as soon as i got half way up and realized how high i was i kinda freaked out and with this extra burst of adrenaline i raced to the top. the bad part was that i couldnt use my arms for like a half an hour. but it was nice to know that i can do it. we also went to a nice little town where pretty much every building was shop and i bought some cool pants. im sorry ryan i didnt get you some like you got me so everyone can make fun of your wierd foreign pants but i did get you that tunic shirt you wanted. so we went to two sun temples in this trip. one of them was really cool the other was just kinda weird so ill start with the weird one. this one had penis sculptures. yes. it looked liked an immature highschooler who had a knack for rock sculpting had a feild day in this place. what made it more awkward was that our adult rotary leaders were the first to take pictures hugging them. now the second one was really cool it was in our last day and our guide was estatic with it. our guide is in love with native american cultures and he just loves the mythologies and philosophies behind it so he somehow got us the chance to enter into the sacred holy temple of the sun god of a tribe and we were able to go in and sit there and take it all in. we were asked to meditate on all of nature and the magnificence of it all and the connections weve been making with people from around the world so i made it into a time of prayer and worship to my God. it was really kinda cool and afterwards on the bus almost nobody was talking, it was kinda weird but cool at the same time. later that night in our hotel there was a group of english teachers and students at our hotel for an english retreat and it was their last night too and they were having a party and they invited us so we went and talked to these people in english some of us danced with them but what was originally just a group of us going to get water turned into our own little dance party out in front of the hotel. mainly a dance course for the americans because apparently every other country in the world knows at least some kind of dance really well. theres a girl from namibia africa with us and we became friends and we were on the dance floor and we were dancing the chacha but she was in flats and i was in my dusty toms and the floor was super slippery so we were basically just slidding everywhere with style and rhythm it was great. so ya those were my highlights of the trip for me and now were in feb and so ill leave the rest for a later post. hopefully it wont be too late. ok well until later guys.
well the month of january.... where to begin... i was still in vacaciones (did that on purpose), i pretty much just hung out with the other foreign exchange students and my fam as much as i could. oh so i finally had my thanksgiving dinner which put the world back on track. you may think that im joking about this but its for real my holiday internal clock was way out of wack because i didnt have a thanksgiving dinner, christmas didnt feel like christmas and therefore there shouldnt have been a new years oh i should probably tell you of new years after this, but ya all this because there was no turkey dinner. in the end there still was no turkey cause its super expensive but we had chicken with turkey gravy so it was fine. thanks again aunt lisa for the food it really made the world catch up to its real time. unfortunately our green bean cassarole didnt turn out well, its that our cream of mushroom soup was literally a soup and no so much cream so we couldnt bake it but we just had soup and green beans that we could dip in it. we didnt eat all those delicious little french´s fried onions thing so it became my snack when i was watching bones. if you dont believe me that theyre a good snack talk to ryan. all in all it was a delicious dinner that all of us foreign exchange students loved.
Now back to new years i cant believe i forgot, maybe because in the shadow of thanksgiving it disappeared ( i like thanksgiving if you couldnt tell). well new years was another different experience for me. United states-party with friends and family watch the countdown in new york time wait three hours watch it in our time eat and drink and go home. Colombia-eat, drink, drink some more, maybe a bit more, dance, using a cell phone scream the countdown, 3 2 1... stand on your chair to get a girlfriend or wife, put lentels in your pocket for prosperity, eat 12 grapes a wish for each one, wear yellow underwear, grab a suitcase and passport and run around the neighborhood, light a scarecrow on fire symbolizing all the bad that will happen in the next year, and then eat drink and dance once again. it was different. but fun.
to be honest i kind of forgot what happened in between vacation and when school started back up so im just gonna go to when school started up. so school was to start up on jan 11 a wednesday and so i was very lazy with the entire thing but nevertheless i woke up at my usual 5 15 to get ready my host mom was kind of lazy about it too, but we left at 6 05 for our schools (shes a teacher) and were goin to my school and were passing the gate for all the buses and all the buses were still inside which was kinda weird because it was 6 30 and usually they would be going to pick students up. at this my mother turns to me and asks me if i was sure that i had school today i said i was positive and we continued on to the front gate and only the guard guy was there so that was a bad sign so i asked the guard when all the students come back and he told me tomorrow. shoot. but by this time my mom couldnt drive me all the way back home so she dropped me off at the bus station and asked if i knew how to get home. sure i said and i did kind of know but this was first time doin it alone so she left me and went on to her school so i was standing there fat backpack, uniform, and a lost look on my face. unluckly for me the window where you buy the ticket didnt have a hole in it so i could hardly hear the women asking what i wanted it was just a lot of que´s and como´s on my part. but eventually i got back home and i a good quiet reading time and then i slept until like 11 it was nice. but wait it gets better (gameshow voice) my sister wanted to take me to the finca with her friends on thursday, the next day, so i would be able to miss school. so we asked my mom she said claro que si and it was on. but wait it gets better i was all ready to go on thursday but when i woke up my sister told me that it would have to be on fri, so i unnecessarily missed a day of school. good. and now i could invite the other foreign exchange students with me because honestly i didnt want to chillin with a bunch of people i could have only a half conversation with, so i got two out of three others to come the other one had to go to school, but we still had a lot of fun. something that i learned from that weekend was that colombian marshmallows suck and are even worse over a fire. i missed jet puffed marshmallows for sure. and then school started the next week which was fine, boring but fine, and then i bounced to go on a trip with the exchangers for a week in the capital and the tiny little pueblos in the surrounding mountains.
So now i can talk about the trip so we went to bogota the capital of colombia and to be honest it was just like a more crowded and little dirtier spanish speaking LA oh wait LA is pretty much spanish speaking so never mind about that part. it was kinda cool though we went to a money printing museum which was ok but we got bored after a while and it turned into just a conversation about why the west of the united states is different than the east. so that was kinda cool. oh and we went to one of the highest mountains in bogota called montesurrate that veiwed the entire city. which was cool but like i said it was like LA so although you could see the city it had this dirty cloud hanging over it. oh and i got food poisoning here with a friend. it was kind of funny because we were on the same schedule of diarrhea for a while which i realize sounds a bit awkward now that i write it down but im gonna keep it in here. we both woke up that night after lunch at around the same time running to the bathroom, unfortunately his stomach was 15 min ahead of mine so i got stuck with the stinky bathroom, but yes the next 2 and a half days sucked... especially the time in the bus. we also had a sort of food fight in an italian resturant earlier that night. my austrian friend was trying to make me eat sugar from a spoon so she was trying to force feed me it so i blew it in her face, kinda mean yes but what follows is worse. so she was upset as well as my other austrian friend next to her who was caught in the overspray so they put a ball of butter in a spoon and prepared to catapult it at me. naturally my hands go up to protect my face and i was trying to talk her down because we were in a nice resturant and we were representing rotary club, and other crap like that. and then my german friend, at least who i thought was friend (this is my diarrhea friend) grabbed my arm to pull it down i fought him off but in that split second while my arm was down my friend took her chance a flung the butter. and it was in slow motion for real but the unfortunate thing about slowmotion is that youre stuck in it as well so you cant move out of the way and soon i found myself with the butter stuck in my mouth which was good aim on her part, but still a little disgusting. in the end i was the ¨bigger man¨and i didnt react. will i react at sometime in the future? probably but for now i will remain quiet. the next day we embarked for the other surrounding towns. im sorry to say i cant remember all the names of the towns but ill tell you the all the cool things we did. well i already told you of montesurrate, and the italian food fight, so we went to la catedral de sal. and its a cathedral in a salt mine basically, and let me tell you this place was crazy cool and the walls tasted like salt. yes we all licked the walls, in secret of course because we didnt want to disrespect the cathedral. but ya it was beautiful. outside of the cathedral in like a courtyard there was an intense climbing rock wall which of course we had to do i was kind of pressured past my inhibition of my finger and knee to do it. so i went up barefoot which was new, wat i forgot was my fear of hieghts so as soon as i got half way up and realized how high i was i kinda freaked out and with this extra burst of adrenaline i raced to the top. the bad part was that i couldnt use my arms for like a half an hour. but it was nice to know that i can do it. we also went to a nice little town where pretty much every building was shop and i bought some cool pants. im sorry ryan i didnt get you some like you got me so everyone can make fun of your wierd foreign pants but i did get you that tunic shirt you wanted. so we went to two sun temples in this trip. one of them was really cool the other was just kinda weird so ill start with the weird one. this one had penis sculptures. yes. it looked liked an immature highschooler who had a knack for rock sculpting had a feild day in this place. what made it more awkward was that our adult rotary leaders were the first to take pictures hugging them. now the second one was really cool it was in our last day and our guide was estatic with it. our guide is in love with native american cultures and he just loves the mythologies and philosophies behind it so he somehow got us the chance to enter into the sacred holy temple of the sun god of a tribe and we were able to go in and sit there and take it all in. we were asked to meditate on all of nature and the magnificence of it all and the connections weve been making with people from around the world so i made it into a time of prayer and worship to my God. it was really kinda cool and afterwards on the bus almost nobody was talking, it was kinda weird but cool at the same time. later that night in our hotel there was a group of english teachers and students at our hotel for an english retreat and it was their last night too and they were having a party and they invited us so we went and talked to these people in english some of us danced with them but what was originally just a group of us going to get water turned into our own little dance party out in front of the hotel. mainly a dance course for the americans because apparently every other country in the world knows at least some kind of dance really well. theres a girl from namibia africa with us and we became friends and we were on the dance floor and we were dancing the chacha but she was in flats and i was in my dusty toms and the floor was super slippery so we were basically just slidding everywhere with style and rhythm it was great. so ya those were my highlights of the trip for me and now were in feb and so ill leave the rest for a later post. hopefully it wont be too late. ok well until later guys.
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