Saturday, June 28, 2008
WE'RE GOING TO PERU IN A BUS
In about an hour Cally and I will be heading out on the roadtrip of our lives. We are making our way down to southern Peru in buses. Our first leg is from Bogotá to Ipiales, a city located on the Colombian/Ecuadorian border. There isn't anything to do in this small town, except see what is supposed to be a super cool cathedral. Our bus leaves at 10:30pm from Bogotá and arrives in Ipiales at 8:30pm tomorrow night....that's right....22 hours. More to follow when we arrive!!!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tonsillitis?!
Once again I am sick, but this time I have TONSILLITIS! (amigdalitis) Once again bedridden, once again medicated.....
This is like the 6th time I have gotten sick in Bogotá....I hope I can make it through the year without dying!!!
This is like the 6th time I have gotten sick in Bogotá....I hope I can make it through the year without dying!!!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
June and 7am don't mix...
OH MY GOODNESS IT'S JUNE AND I STILL HAVE TO GET UP FOR 7AM CLASSES!!!
WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO??
WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TO??
Friday, May 30, 2008
LLAMA'AS, LLAMA'AS, LLAMA'AS!
Buying minutes on the street
In Colombia you can have 2 different types of phone plans: pre-paid or post-paid. Post-paid is like having a plan, paying for one month and getting a certain amount of minutes and text messages. But most people my age have a pre-paid plan, where they just buy cards on the street or in stores to recharge their minutes whenever they run out (this is what I have).
However, if you don't have enough money to recharge your card, you can "buy minutes" on the street. Anywhere in Bogotá you can find vendors with cellphones selling minutes to make phone calls. They usually cost between 200-300 pesos per minute (about 12-16 cents).
In front of La Javeriana you can hear the yells every morning..."LLAMADAS LLAMADAS LLAMADAS!" (calls calls calls!) They do this all day every day. I can't imagine having a job like this, but I appreciate the accessibility of this service.
In Colombia you can have 2 different types of phone plans: pre-paid or post-paid. Post-paid is like having a plan, paying for one month and getting a certain amount of minutes and text messages. But most people my age have a pre-paid plan, where they just buy cards on the street or in stores to recharge their minutes whenever they run out (this is what I have).
However, if you don't have enough money to recharge your card, you can "buy minutes" on the street. Anywhere in Bogotá you can find vendors with cellphones selling minutes to make phone calls. They usually cost between 200-300 pesos per minute (about 12-16 cents).
In front of La Javeriana you can hear the yells every morning..."LLAMADAS LLAMADAS LLAMADAS!" (calls calls calls!) They do this all day every day. I can't imagine having a job like this, but I appreciate the accessibility of this service.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Earth is shaking.....
First the quakes in China, then here in Colombia, now in Iceland....goes to show how connected we all really are.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
LARGE EARTHQUAKE HITS CENTER OF COLOMBIA
EARTHQUAKE AND SHAKY BUILDING STRUCTURES
It was 2:20pm, I was in my pajamas and preparing my lunch. Being a Saturday, I had slept until noon, had no intention of doing anything productive until at least the late afternoon, and wasn't expecting any type of excitement. As I was scooping my pasta-sausage-cheese-corn concoction into my bowl, I started to feel some movement below my feet. "No worries," I thought to myself; our building has a faulty foundation and always moves a little bit when a lot of traffic passes by.
But the trembling of the floor didn't stop. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the door to the kitchen was swinging back and forth, hitting the wall every few seconds. The glasses on the counter were rattling. I could hear voices outside. I looked out the window and saw everything moving back and forth. The ground gave off a deep rumbling noise...."This isn't traffic," I realized, "this is an EARTHQUAKE!"
Now, I've experienced various earthquakes in my life before, including one here in Bogotá, but nothing was like this one. The others lasted just a few seconds, and were over before I realized what was going on. This time, the ground below us shook for nearly a minute, and everyone was racing out of their homes and into the streets. My first reaction was to get below a door frame (thanks Hollywood for the great earthquake emergency lessons), but then I decided that because of the poor structure of our building, it might be a good idea to go outside. After the earthquake was over, our building continued to rock back and forth like a swing.
Shortly afterwards, the news stations announced that the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was in the northern part of the state of Meta, which is located south of Bogotá. The closest city to the epicenter was Villavicencio, yet tremors were felt all the way in Medellin and Bucaramanga. The earthquake was felt in all parts of Bogotá, from Bosa in the south to Chia in the north. So far 15 deaths have been reported, and various injuries.
PLATE TECTONICS OF COLOMBIA
Colombia sits on the far northwestern corner of the South American tectonic plate. A small portion of Northern Colombia is cut off by the Caribbean plate, and to the west lies the Nazca plate. Earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, but hardly ever does one of any sufficient magnitude hit Bogotá. Pretty neat for someone who grew up in the middle of the strongest tectonic plate on Earth, (the North American plate), where no earthquakes, volcanoes, or mountain forming ever take place.
However, knowing that the structure of my building is crap, and that I live on the 4th floor, if the quake had been any stronger, I would probably have problems getting out. Oh the joys of living on the edge!
It was 2:20pm, I was in my pajamas and preparing my lunch. Being a Saturday, I had slept until noon, had no intention of doing anything productive until at least the late afternoon, and wasn't expecting any type of excitement. As I was scooping my pasta-sausage-cheese-corn concoction into my bowl, I started to feel some movement below my feet. "No worries," I thought to myself; our building has a faulty foundation and always moves a little bit when a lot of traffic passes by.
But the trembling of the floor didn't stop. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the door to the kitchen was swinging back and forth, hitting the wall every few seconds. The glasses on the counter were rattling. I could hear voices outside. I looked out the window and saw everything moving back and forth. The ground gave off a deep rumbling noise...."This isn't traffic," I realized, "this is an EARTHQUAKE!"
Now, I've experienced various earthquakes in my life before, including one here in Bogotá, but nothing was like this one. The others lasted just a few seconds, and were over before I realized what was going on. This time, the ground below us shook for nearly a minute, and everyone was racing out of their homes and into the streets. My first reaction was to get below a door frame (thanks Hollywood for the great earthquake emergency lessons), but then I decided that because of the poor structure of our building, it might be a good idea to go outside. After the earthquake was over, our building continued to rock back and forth like a swing.
Shortly afterwards, the news stations announced that the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale, and the epicenter was in the northern part of the state of Meta, which is located south of Bogotá. The closest city to the epicenter was Villavicencio, yet tremors were felt all the way in Medellin and Bucaramanga. The earthquake was felt in all parts of Bogotá, from Bosa in the south to Chia in the north. So far 15 deaths have been reported, and various injuries.
PLATE TECTONICS OF COLOMBIA
Colombia sits on the far northwestern corner of the South American tectonic plate. A small portion of Northern Colombia is cut off by the Caribbean plate, and to the west lies the Nazca plate. Earthquakes are not uncommon in Colombia, but hardly ever does one of any sufficient magnitude hit Bogotá. Pretty neat for someone who grew up in the middle of the strongest tectonic plate on Earth, (the North American plate), where no earthquakes, volcanoes, or mountain forming ever take place.
However, knowing that the structure of my building is crap, and that I live on the 4th floor, if the quake had been any stronger, I would probably have problems getting out. Oh the joys of living on the edge!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Involvement in Rotary, a wee bit tardy.....
After more than 4 months of being in Colombia, Cally and I are finally getting involved with our host Rotarian Clubs. After meeting with them 3 times already and seeing that they are really nice and helpful, we began to wonder what the heck we've been doing these past 120-odd days and why we didn't start doing things with them sooner.
We had our first meeting on Tuesday, May 6, where we attended their gathering and gave a little presentation about ourselves. Then we were invited to celebrate Mothers Day with the family of my host, and today we had our 2nd Mothers day celebration with the whole club. They have been very helpful, especially when I was sick this past week. They were worried about me and offered to bring me to the hospital at any hour of the day, even if it was in the middle of the night. Today at the club's Mothers day celebration one of the mothers gave Cally and me little gifts, saying that she was our "adopted mother" since we are lacking family in this country. How sweet!
We had our first meeting on Tuesday, May 6, where we attended their gathering and gave a little presentation about ourselves. Then we were invited to celebrate Mothers Day with the family of my host, and today we had our 2nd Mothers day celebration with the whole club. They have been very helpful, especially when I was sick this past week. They were worried about me and offered to bring me to the hospital at any hour of the day, even if it was in the middle of the night. Today at the club's Mothers day celebration one of the mothers gave Cally and me little gifts, saying that she was our "adopted mother" since we are lacking family in this country. How sweet!
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