Where's all the Toilet Paper?

In many bathrooms in Colombia, including many at La Javeriana, instead of having a toilet paper dispenser in every stall, there is just one dispenser on the wall by the sinks, and you have to grab enough toilet paper you will need before you go into the stall, otherwise you will be caught empty-handed with your pants down (literally). It's a good idea to figure out the location of the toilet paper dispenser(s) before you go do your business.

I learned this the hard way.

Earthquake!!

So we just had an earthquake here in Bogota. It was quite small, so when I felt it I didn't recognize it as an earthquake, but rather as a quick rumble. This is actually the 4th earthquake I've experienced (others in Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica). Pretty neat!!

Aaaahhhh!!

7am class is inhumane!!!

On a side note, just got my ticket to URUGUAY fo Easter!! Woohoo!

A day without cars

Last thursday was "a day without cars" in Bogota. Once a year the government enforces a ban on driving for one day. The only transportation available on this day is that of buses, the Transmilenio public transit, and taxis. This is the 8th year the Bogota has had a car-free day, which is celebrated under the name "Clean Air Day".

Bogota is ranked in the top 4 cities with dirtiest air in Latin America, right after Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, and Sao Paulo. But one day without all the smog can really make a difference. On this day the air was much cleaner and easier to breathe, as more than 1 million personal cars were kept off the road from 6:30am to 7:30pm. The downside was that it was nearly impossible to catch a cab, and the buses were packed even more than they usually are (and they're usually PACKED!)

Another way that Colombia tries to fight air pollution and heavy traffic is with a system they call "pico y placa". In the pico y placa system, cars with license plates that start with certain numbers are banned from the streets on certain days. For example, on Monday, any car with a license plate that starts with 1, 2, 3, or 4 is not allowed to drive, otherwise they will receive a large fine. On Tuesday it's 5, 6, 7, 8. Wednesday 9, 0, 1, 2. Thursday 3, 4, 5, 6. And so on. This means that every car, bus and taxi is not allowed to drive 2 days a week. This really helps to lessen traffic, as traffic through the very narrow Colombian streets is the worst enemy of any driving Bogotano.

A weekend on the coast

Carnaval

On Saturday we went to the Carnaval parade in Barranquilla. Carnaval is an old tradition that is celebrated right before Lent. The most famous celebration is in Rio in Brazil, but the Barranquilla celebration is the second most famous. People say that "technically" the festivities go from Saturday to Tuesday right before Ash Wednesday, but when talking to more Colombians, they say that the party actually started about a month ago (crazy colombians).

The parade lasted 6 hours, and it was one big party. It was supposed to start at 1, so like everything else Colombian, it started right on time at 2:30. Everwhere people were dancing and drinking, starting in the morning and going on until the wee hours of the next morning.

Carnaval Barranquilla 2008

Common sight during the parade

Even Chavez made an appearance! (ok, not really...)

Shakira

Barranquilla is the hometown of Latina pop-singing goddess Shakira, so Cally and I were pretty excited to be walking the streets that she grew up on. What a cool feeling it is to be in a nightclub dancing a Shakira song in the city where Shakira grew up! Here is a picture of a statue that we found of her.

After seeing the Carnaval parades, the line "en Barranquilla se baila asi" (in Barranquilla it's danced like this) in her song "Hips don't lie", when dancers are parading around with black oil all over their bodies, now makes much more sense.

Yovanis

Yovanis is a 30 year old Barranquillero who works as a waiter. He was very kind to us, not trying to hit on us or ask us to marry him (like many latino men like to do to the gringas that walk down the street), but just genuinely nice. From what we could see, he worked his tail off at that restaurant. But since tipping isn't a common practice in Colombia, it doesn't matter how busy or slow business is; he makes the same no matter what. After talking with him a little he told us how much he works and how much he makes. It turns out that Yovanis, and most other restaurant workers in Colombia, works 16 hours a day, and gets 1 day off every 15 days. At the end of the month, he gets paid $160. After doing the math, we figured out that he makes less than $7/day, which turns out to be less than $0.50/hr. I really wasn't sure how to process that information. I mean, last summer I also worked at a restaurant, and I would make $160 in one day, which means that I made 30 times more money than he does. How is a person supposed to get ahead when he makes less than $7/day??? It's not like he can save as much as possible to go to college someday and study, because it would take him decades to raise enough to pay for just 1 semester, let alone 4 years. Those who say that latin americans are lazy have to take a trip down south and meet somebody like Yovanis. I now understand illegal immigration to the US a little bit more...

Cally, Yovanis, and me

El Totumo Mud Volcano and a whole lot of Italians

On our last day on the coast, we took a tour bus from Cartagena up to El totumo, a small volcano filled with mud. We arrived at about the same time as a group of 100 middle aged Italians, and HOLY COW ITALIANS ARE CRAZY. They were all pushing and shoving to get into the volcano, yelling really loudly at everyone, throwing mud at each other, and chasing everyone around.

We befriended one Italian named Eugenio. Eugenio didn't speak English or Spanish, and we didn't speak Italian, so it was a very interesting conversation. But after a while I realized that I actually do understand Italian, because it's so similar to Spanish. It was pretty cool to know that I understand a language I have never studied, and to know that Eugenio and I could communicate without sharing a common language.

After our mud bath, we were directed to a nearby lagoon to wash up. There were women there who cleaned us, and after pouring buckets of water over my head to the point where I felt like I was drowning, my cleaning woman grabbed at my swimsuit top without any warning and just took it right off and started cleaning it. This took me by surprise because all of a sudden I was topless. My immediate reaction was to be embarrassed, but then I was like "I'm surrounded by 100 Italians...this is probably normal to them." Sure enough, nobody looked at me funny.

...and now it's back to the grindstone...

Carnaval!!!

Greetings from Barranquilla!!! Cally and I arrived in Cartagena Thursday, and yesterday we took a bus ride up the coast to Barranquilla. At the moment we are in an Internet cafe on our way to the Carnaval parade!! Ready for la rrrrrrrrrrrumba!!!! (rumba=party)

The South, the East, and First days of class

The South

Last week I went to visit Cally (the other Rotary scholar here) in the southern part of Bogotá. For all of you Bogotanos, she lives south of el Portal de las Americas. When I tell all of my Colombian friends where she lives, they're all like, "she's living where???!!!" You see, the south is supposed to be the "dangerous" part of town. Everybody warns me about the south, but after going there, I didn't see any reason to fear. Of course, along the way there were many places that looked pretty sketchy, but the neighborhood where Cally lives is amazing. I mean, it's definitely not New York, but rather a very simple, quiet neighborhood. There aren't many cars, the buildings are much smaller than they are in the north, and there are children of all ages playing in the streets.

I didn't feel that my life was in danger while I was in the south. I'm not saying it's not dangerous; the Colombians know better than I do in regard to safe places and dangerous places. But there's a part of me that feels like there is a certain fear between the different social classes in this country. Maybe not a fear, but more like a mutual understanding that they each have their "places" in society, and that it is not common for them to mix amongst each other, unless one side is working for the other. But I guess this can be found in all societies. However, when I was in the south, I felt really comfortable, and I felt like this little neighborhood reflected how most Latin Americans live.

The East

On Saturday I went with Cally, Vane, my professor, and another gringa on a short roadtrip to the east of Bogota, to a small city called Choachi. To get to Choachi, we had to drive the winding streets that go through the eastern portion of the Andes Mountains. The night before, we had gone out dancing and drinking, and that, along with the horrendous road conditions, did not make for a very pleasant drive. The sites we saw along the way were amazing, but my stomach was not too happy to be thrown from side to side for the hour and a half it took to get there.

Upon arrival, we walked around a bit and eventually went to have lunch at a Swiss restaurant. I had no idea what Swiss food was like (except for maybe cheesy), so when I saw "conejo en salsa de vino" I thought to myself, "Bugs Bunny! What are the Swiss thinking?!" You see, "conejo en salsa de vino" means "rabbit in wine sauce". I mean, kudos to the Swiss for being all passive and neutral with pretty much everything, but come on...rabbits?! But, since eating rabbit is evidently a Swiss custom (I'll need my european friends to verify that), I figured that I would order it. Would you believe it tastes like chicken?

On the way back, it was no longer the aguardiente sloshing around in my stomach that bothered me while we made the twists and turns of the road, but rather it was little Peter Cottontail that I was trying to keep down. And then when we were halfway home my professor decided that now would be a good time to tell us that this particular area of Colombia used to have a heavy FARC influence. And when I say "used to", I mean like 3 years ago. At this point only two things went through my mind, "please don't vomit, please don't vomit, please don't vomit," and "my parents would freak if they knew where I was right now."

First days of class

I have now finished my first two days of class. Surprisingly, I was able to drag myself out of bed at 5am both days in order to arrive on time at 7. Even more surprising, I wasn't tired during class, and I was able to pay attention the whole time. However, after these two classes I'm beginning to see just how much of a rough road it will be to keep up with everything, given my strictly-conversational Spanish language abilities. But this is exactly what I signed up for. I knew it would be hard, and that it would take me 3 times longer than the other students to finish my homework, and I'm totally up for this challenge.

Welcome to La Javeriana!

Front of Campus

On Campus

My classmates are very nice and helpful. There are supposed to be 11 or 12 of us, but so far only 8 have shown up. There are 3 foreigners: me, a girl from Russia, and a guy from Spain. Fernando, the Spaniard, has an interesting accent which I find hard to understand. When he speaks, all I hear is, "yo th th th th th th th está th th th th en la televith th th th bien" (for you spanish speakers, you know exactly what i'm talking about). There is also a major in the Colombian army in my class, and it is very interesting to hear him talk about the conflict in Colombia, because he's been in the middle of it all for the past 15 years or so. But enough for today, I dragged my derrière out of bed today at 5am, so it's time for my SIESTA!