Back in the classroom during break?!

 So for these past two weeks we have all technically been on break.  However, we were presented with the opportunity to teach twice a week at an English 'training camp' for people who want to work at call centers or who are just genuinely interested in learning English.  The classes were originally supposed to be at Pies Discalzos (Shakira's school) in La playa, a more rural small town outside of Barranquilla, but on the first day, to our surprise, we were locked out of the school and had to relocate.  Luckily the new location was within walking distance.     

The dynamics of the classrooms were very interesting as the ages of the Colombians ranged from around 13 to mid 30s (my classroom at least).  So keeping the attention and motivation levels high for both the teens and older community members was something new for me and thus my co-teacher and I had to be a bit creative.  One lesson even involved yoga, thanks to my co-teacher.  Although challenging at times the overall experience was very rewarding.  We even received a traditionally Colombian 'thank you' party....  Meaning it started 30 minutes last and had tons of food!  I also personally was given a really cute poster by a few of the students in my class (picture below).  

One interesting thing that we got to do this week was go to a professional baseball game In Barranquilla!  The team here are the Caimanes (Alligators).  The professional league consists of four teams in cities all dotted along the coast.  The league is named after Edgar Renteria, a professional baseball player and the pride and joy of Barranquilla.  The stadium was surprisingly nice and the competition was pretty good.  Needless to say it felt good to be back in my element.

So if I had to describe Colombian professional baseball in 10 words or less I would say, East Bound and Down season two You're F****** Out!  However, if you are not a fan of the amazing series that is East Bound and Down just imagine a pretty empty stadium with an American on one team and over advertising on both the jerseys and everywhere you look around the park due to the lack of funding.  However, there was a reporter there and I even got my first Spanish interview (name, where I am from, what I think about baseball in Colombia, and how I heard of the league).  Unfortunately, when the footage aired I was teaching.  I will continue to search for it, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

So these past two weeks have been nice and relaxing and to see the break come to an end a few other volunteers and I will be spending NYE in Cartagena.  Happy New Years faithful readers!!!!!!!!! 

Yoga

School

Students who made the poster

Baseball game interview

Group shot

Happy Birthday MOM

This post is dedicated to my wonderful and supportive mom!
Happy birthday MOM I hope you have a great day and I miss you tons.

A Picture Says A Thousand Words so create 9,000....Swearing in Ceremony/Typical PC

Colombian Folkloric Band that played both National Anthems

Power Circle Left to Right: Country Director, Chief of Staff (From DC), US Ambassador to Colombia, Some dude, Mayor of B/Quilla, Governor of the Department 

Some of the reporters that were at the ceremony.  We made both the nightly news and the newspaper.

Cake that we ate.  Thanks tax payers it was delicious!

Members of my family that could make it to the event

Men of the group 

Facial Hair of the group

Mustache club 

Entire C-III group

So Typical:  So think of what an average Peace Corps volunteer loves to do in their free time............If you thought hacky sack you would be absolutely correct.  So I average about three hacky sack sessions a day, at both breaks in training and after lunch.  However, we don't only play we come up with names for different 'moves' as well.  For example:

Hacky Chan:  When you attempt a high kick so keep the hacky sack in the air.

Michael HACKson:  When no other gringos want to play so you end up playing with younge Colombian students.

Hack Cousteau:  When you kick the hacky sack in one of the many puddles after it rains and you have to go get it.

Hack to the Future:  When you are able to kick the hacky sack 88 times without it touching the ground (We haven't done this one yet).

-The list could go one for ever, so these were just a few of the good ones.  If you have any ideas I would love to hear them! 

-Hanukkah starts tomorrow so eat some potato latkes for me!

   

Quick Update: The Entire City is Watching

So I ended last post by stating in order for Junior to advance to the finals a miracle needed to occur.....Well it did and on Wednesday Junior won the most amazing game I have ever watched.  The game was right after our swearing in ceremony so I went to a bar close by the hotel with the majority of my fellow NEW volunteers.  Junior won 3-0 and then the game went to a penalty kicks, because of the aggregate system, Junior took it 5-4!  What followed at the bar was incredible.  There was tons of beer getting tossed in the air and showering everyone (So my nice shirt, tie, and pants were all soaked...I hope they are still ok to wear), tons of people belting the Junior songs for at least 30 minutes after the game, and all of the busses and cars honking as they passed.  WHAT A GAME!    

  So today is the first leg of the championship, in Barranquilla, and the city has been full of energy since the amazing semifinal win.  On Thursday I gave my host brother money to get a ticket and even pitched in on his for an early christmas gift.  He was so excited and told me they went on sale Friday.  However, after some reconnoissance work of my own, after training on Friday, I was told they go on sale Saturday.  So my host brother woke up at the crack of dawn Saturday to get the tickets as I went to class and a nice Peace Corps holiday lunch, complete with Middle Eastern food (Colombian style).  I got back at around 5:00 and my host brother was nowhere to be found.....At around 5:30 he appeared at the front door with a frustrated look on his face and explained that he had NO luck finding any tickets and he had been running around the city for the entire day!  I later talked to people that had camped out at the ticket stands Friday to get tickets the next day....so it is no wonder my brother had no luck.  So today I will stay in with my family and watch the game on TV with the rest of the city.

Now that I am on a two week break and have some time, I will write another post tomorrow about the swearing in ceremony and have some pictures up.

GO JUNIOR!           

Am I in Philly or Barranquilla?

I finally went to my first Colombian soccer game last Thursday (Playoffs) and it was well worth waiting for.  The team in Barranquilla, Junior, finished the season at the top of the table so hopes were high during the quarterfinal match.  The whole city got in on the action as everyone was wearing red and white, Juniors colors, and the busses to the stadium were more crowded than usual.  Once at the stadium we joined the pilgrimage, to the entrance, which consisted of thousands of sweaty bodies shoving and getting shoved to the front of the line.  There we were told  that we could not bring inside cameras or belts for safety reasons  (luckily one of my host brothers told me this so I brought neither).  So after being part of a mob that was relentlessly shoving, being asked to hand over any camera or belt, and passing through two separate pat down stations, I began to realized how crazy the Junior fans are and it brought back great memories of times spent at Philly sporting events.

Once in your section, the seating was general admissions so my host brothers and I met some gringo friends and sat down.  From that moment there was not any end to the cheering/yelling fans until we got back on the bus to go home.  Sounds included tons of cheering for Junior and even booing when players made mistakes (wow! how Philly esque), air horns (the man behind me had one and it was literally going off in my ear), two bands (they attend every home game never stop playing and lead the Junior songs), and vendors hissing (like trying to get the attention of a cat...psssss....pssss....pssss) to try and sell whatever it was they had.  

Half time was definitely the most entertaining part of the game as there was a huge fight in the crowd and suddenly around 1,000 fans rushed up the bleachers to avoid the conflict.  Minutes later, the police arrived and attempted to rip a group of men apart.  One man stood out from the rest, as he was still throwing punches with his torn shirt, when the police were man-handling him.  Another deja vu back to Philadelphia.  After half time the announcer said something I didn't quite catch and when asking for clarification it turns out that the Junior goalie and a player on the other team started to fight on the way to the locker room and were both given red cards.  The game ended in a 2-2 tie, but Juniors moved on because aggregate and are now in the semis.  However, yesterday they played the first leg and lost 3-0 so the dream season may be over this Wednesday unless they pull of a miracle.     

Side note:  Counterfeit tickets are such a problem that Junior have gone away from the paper tickets and now hand out stitched tickets, that appear like really itchy over sized tags in a shirt.  I guess they skipped out on the whole barcode phenomena......  

Ticket

Until Next Time!  

Arrested Development Moment and Site Visit Pictures

If you are a fan of the show Arrested Development you will enjoy this post, but if not some of the references may be a bit over your head.  So as I wrote in my last post I was going to visit the site where I will be placed for the next two years, La Boquilla, 20 minutes outside of Cartagena.  Although it is a short bus ride to the city center I assure you that La Boquilla is a different world (See pictures below).  For example, they have one main road and the rest are dirt (now mud because it is rainy season) and some strategically (some not so strategically) placed stones so when it rains you will not get stuck in the mud.  However, unlike the locals I did not have the proper attire for walking during a heavy downpour, knee high boots..... So I nearly destroyed a pair of my shoes in the deep mud.

Ok so I mentioned an Arrested Development moment I experienced well if you are a fan of the show it was a true Michel Bluth moment.  During one episode he was trying to figure out who Gobs girlfriend liked, "who is this hermano guy?"  So as I arrived in La Boquilla and my host family, Single mom who teaches a class about how to raise and catch fish, started talking about some 'hermana (sister)' of hers and asking if I had met her.  I told her no and she said she was a fantastic woman and that I would have to meet her.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but the next morning when I arrived at the school I was literally asked by five different teachers if I had met their 'hermana (sister).'  I soon started to think why does everyone want me to met their sisters and why is this one of the first questions I am getting asked?  I was later told to follow my counter part to a different part of the school and did so accordingly.  We soon arrived outside of the school headmasters room and was then introduced to HERMANA Elizabeth!!!! Wow it turns out that is wasn't any of their sisters, but rather a NUN (See Picture below) that runs the school.  I felt really stupid to say the least.  Upon meeting the HERMANA she told me my beard was cute and offered my gummy candies, wow does she know the way to my heart!

 School Information:  The school is quite special because it actually consists of five different locations creating a mega school of 3,000 students!  I will primarily be working in three of them with primary schoolers (grades 3-5).  This is a change for me because I have never taught primary before and to make things a bit more difficult there is no English program so I will not only be co-teaching with the teachers, but teaching them English as well and hopefully creating a sustainable English department in the process.

The site visit was very exciting and some highlights include: Realizing that I will be living/teaching two blocks from the beach, having amazing meals for $2.50, going to bed to the sound of the waves or an amazing drum circle each night (La Boquilla is famous for its music and even has a drum festival), seeing that both soccer and baseball were regularly played on the beach, going into Cartagena and getting to see the walled city, meeting all of the nice people I am going to be working with, and swimming in the ocean EVERYDAY!  

The Beach

Me and the HERMANA

A really good road in La Boquilla

In the distance are some hotels in a bordering city

The view from the amazing seafood restaurant

One of the schools I will be teaching at

Water in Cartagena 

Clock Tower in Cartagena 

The walled city of Cartagena

My host cousin, Maria de Los Angeles

So when I got back from La Boquilla I met my little cousin!  Also my next post will be as an official Peace Corps volunteer as I have my swear in next Wednesday.  Also tonight is a huge celebration for the immaculate conception of Jesus so this will be a first for me.  I hear there is a lot of drinking and candles are light and put in pretty boxes in front of each house at 2:00am.....I will let you all know how it goes!  

Much love from Colombia!   

Girl Power and Site Assignment

The adventure continues here in Colombia and I thought I would start this blog entry by describing two situations that a pair of girls encountered here in Barranquilla.  During the first six weeks here in Colombia we have had tons of security training and in the multi-hour sessions it is often easy to doze off and day dream about more pleasant things (Going to the beach, eating American food, and what it would be like to be able to dance like a Colombian).  However, the sessions have helped at least two girls already as there have been two attempted drive-by theft attempts (not the kind with a gun).  So the drive-by attempt is quite popular I hear and is executed by men on motorcycles and occasionally accomplices.  The first attempt happened one early morning as my friend was out for an early stroll (if you want to exercise it better be in the morning because exercising in the heat of the afternoon or the darkness of night is just asking for trouble), she suddenly felt someone grab at her purse and she quickly pulled it back before the men on the motorcycle could snatch it.....Peace Corps women 1 Colombian thieves 0.  

The next attempt consisted of another female volunteer and two thieves.  We had just got back from the beach and almost all of us went directly home.  However, one girl decided to do some vegetable shopping in the market.  After she had purchased some fresh eggplant a man approached her and asked her the time (this man was the accomplice).  As she was distracted by this question another man on a motorcycle came by and tried to grab her purse.  However she had other ideas and swung her bag of eggplant at the man, much like deranged elderly woman are portrayed on television these days, hitting him repeatedly until the bag broke and the eggplant flew to the dirty sidewalk.  The two men fled and the volunteer was able to pick up her eggplant and later use them to make, from what I hear, an amazing eggplant parm later that weekend......Peace Corps women 2 Colombian thieves 0.  Thus, so far half of the attempted thefts against women have been fended off by vegetables..... Moral of the story: those thieves better reconsider next time they see a gringa with a bag of produce! 

New News:  On Thanksgiving day we were told where we will be working for the next two years.  I was pretty sure I was going to be staying in Barranquilla as I had my site visit here, but in true Peace Corps style I was tossed a curve ball.  I was told I will be in a small town outside of Cartagena called La Boquilla.  This little fishing village is surrounded by an ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other.  I don't really know much more about the area than that, but I am going to visit La Boquilla on Tuesday for the week and am very excited.  My next post will contain pictures of the site visit!

-A famous musical group from Colombia, Bomba Esterio, taped a music video in La Boquilla so I hope this link provides you all with some more insight into where I will be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-vDLf7cmf0

      

Barranquilla: the City of 1.5 Million Dancers

So I have been here for a little over a month now and have come to the conclusion that there is not a single person in Barranquilla, besides us gringos, who can't dance.  Dancing is such a huge part of the culture here that children basically start dancing as soon as they are able to walk.  I have literally witnessed a class of 10 year olds take a break from their everyday studies (math, reading, writing, etc.) to have a second instructor walk into the room and DANCE with the students for 45 minutes..... you don't know a bruised ego until you get out-danced by a bunch of 10 year olds.  The kicker here is that everyone is not only dancing to Salsa music, but there is Cumbia, Vallenato, Merengue, Champeta, and Reggaeton.  Lucky for me it appears as my host family's personal mission is to teach me how to dance to every type of music listed above.  So at every function where music is present, which is EVERY function, there is also a gringo trying his best to figure out first what type of music is playing (some are pretty similar) and how to dance to the given rhythms.  Sometimes my family even goes out of their way to get me dancing.

So it was my birthday on Tuesday and when I finished Skyping my mom and dad my host family had a surprise birthday party for me set up with food, cake, and decorations (pictures below).  So back to the dancing....so after the great party we all sat out on the front patio and talked for a while.  We suddenly heard music blaring from a house down the street (blaring music at all hours of the day/night is very common here).  Before I knew it my host sister was introducing me to three cousins and demanding that I learn to dance Cumbia.  So there is the example of going out of their way to get me dancing.  Next thing I realize is that this is not just some dance, but there is choreography and my sister is asking if I can participate in the dance preformance the following day.  So my cousins say yes and I begin to learn the choreography with seven other colombians.  On the day of the dance I went over to their house to practice some more, but to my surprise there were only four other people there.....What happened to the rest?  This we will never know, but this did not make my cousins happy and they were actually so displeased that they called the performance off (Plans falling through.....THEME?).  All in all I still learned Cumbia and actually am really digging all of the dancing that plays such a huge part in the lives of EVERYONE in Barranquilla.

Exciting news:  This Thursday we will be told where we will be for the next two years!  I will keep everyone posted.  

Pictures:  Birthday/Cumbia Crew/Random 

The host family at my surprise birthday party

The Dance Crew

A Raspa'o (flavored crushed ice with condensed milk on top) Vendor 

There a a few of these Kiss themed Mona Lisa pictures around town

The road near my house a few hours after an arroyo

Boat at the beach.  The beach is about 45 minutes from Barranquilla and is not known to be really nice, but the water  is perfect!

Living ON the grid and a Very Colombian List

Many people who are about to join the Peace Corps talk about living off the grid, but my experience couldn't be any further from that.  The city of Barranquilla is literally set up as a grid.  Opposed to the normal layout of many cities with winding Avenues, Streets, Drives, Roads, and Lanes, Barranquilla is a bit different.  There are only Calles and Carreras in this city of nearly 1.5 million.  The Calles run from east to the west and the Carreras south to north.  So you think it would be pretty hard to get lost right.....Well if you know my less than stellar sense of direction it is no surprise that I have already gotten lost a few times.  The most notable time was trying to walk to the Peace Corps office with another volunteer, who has very little Spanish experience.  The 'adventure' lasted about two hours and needless to say by the time we arrived we were both drenched in sweat and dying of thirst. 

Learned in Colombia

1.  Plans fall through:  I know I was going to write about the soccer game I mentioned in my last post, but (^) the plans fell through.  It was ok because I had some work to do anyway, but I hope they don't fall through again next Wednesday as we are scheduled to go to another game.

2.  Arroyos:  There is no drainage system in Barranquilla thus when it storms (which occurs often as it is currently the rainy season) the streets turn into class 5 white water rapids.  I mean you literally can't cross so your best option is finding shelter and grabbing a Snickers because it could be a while.  I will try and get pictures of the next arroyo so you can see what I am talking about. 

3.  Punctuality:  or should I say lack there of... People on the coast do NOT show up to anything on time.  I am told it is part of the culture so I should not be offended when someone (student, teacher, friend) strolls in 30-45 minutes late.

4.  Watch out for bagged drinks:  So a lot of drinks come in bags here (cheaper than cans or bottles).  However, you have to be very careful because once you bite off one of the corners you can't put the drink down or else you will wear it.  Unfortunately I made this mistake, only once, and ended up wearing mango juice on my pants for the rest of the day.  

5.  Costal Spanish is hard to understand:  The Spanish spoken here is very difficult to understand as they don't pronounce the S's and drop the D's completely.  So this often ends up in chunks of words missing.  I am 'efinitely 'tarting to get the hang of it though.  

6.  It is easy to find cheap beer:  The local favorite Aguila (definite monopoly on the beer game in Barranquilla)  is often sold for less than $1.

Gio my next post will include some of the "nitty gritty Colombia" pictures you requested.  Thou who asks shall receive! 

Hope all is well Back in the States!   

  

Peace Corps Office/Bilingualism Week/Host Brother's Birthday Party/Site Visit

Pictures from the PC office:

View from atop the Peace Corps office (I have heard that it is the best/only view you can get of Barranquilla)

 Some of the 23 members of the group on the Peace Corps office roof

Bilingualism Week:

 These Pictures were taken at the Javier Sanchez school during their Bilingualism week.  As some of you may know Colombia as a country has a goal of being bilingual by 2019 in all of its schools.  Thus promoting bilingualism is ever present in the school system (so much so that there is a week dedicated to it).  In the picture to the right a few members of our group, Peace Corps employees, and school staff are posing by a sign that was made for the week.  The picture on the left was taken during the presentation the school put on for us (The 5 trainees, including myself, that were at this specific school).  The presentation included a music and dance portion where the girl pictured above took turns grabbing each guy one at a time and dance salsa with them.....so pretty much embarrassing ourselves in front of a room full of laughing students.  

Birthday Bash:

 Some of the fam sitting outside on the front patio hanging out for my host brother's birthday.  Observation: People in Barranquilla are really good at sitting out on their front patios for hours at a time and relaxing (must be some kinda past time).  Below is a picture of my host brother cutting the cake with a RUSTY machete.......Still tasted good though!  

Site Visits:
This week was SITE VISIT WEEK!!!! What that means it that us volunteers got to travel to Santa Marta, Cartagena, or if you were really lucky go absolutely no where at all and stay in Barranquilla to shadow current volunteers and see what an 'average' day in the life is life....Well I was one of the lucky few.  However, I did not really care that I was not getting to travel as I love my host family and the city.  The two days actually turned our really fun as a few of us trainees started by chatted with two current volunteers over some beers.  I then went to an amazing school on Tuesday (see pictures).  The site visits finish tomorrow and I will be headed straight to my first Colombia soccer game tomorrow.  The club team from Barranquilla currently sit in 1st place in the primer Colombian soccer league.  I can't wait to write about it in my next post. 

Living on $4 a day had Never Been so Easy

Week 1 of Training:  A Day in the Life 

I will attempt to take you through a day in the life, which will be pretty hard as I usually am not fully awake until around 9 and my day start with a 6:30am wake up.  So I am pretty sure I sit down for a HEARDY breakfast first (I told my family I don't eat a lot the first day and am still unable to finish the majority of my meals...I wonder what my plate would look like if I had told them otherwise?).  This meal usually consists of some sort of plantains, some form of carbs and fresh juice.  The juice is by far my favorite part because I have never heard of many of the fruits so it is somewhat of a mystery.  I then head outside and attempt to hail an overcrowded bus (more on public transportation to come later).  I take this 45 minute to 1 hour bus ride and arrive at the school (Colombo Americano) at around 7:50, already sweating an unhealthy amount.  Classes start at 8 and for the first half of the day we are split into small groups according to our level of Spanish.  At 12 we are given a 1 hour break to eat our CATERED lunch in an open aired cafeteria.  This meal consists of a given meat (chicken, pork, beef, or fish), rice, an attempt at salad and a form of potatoes or yucca.  All 23 of us then reconvene and work on technical training until 5.  These afternoons can consist of anything from security training to learning how to teach english to nonnative speakers.  I then return home around 6 absolutely exhausted and obviously still sweating.  I am so exhausted at this point I can't really do much but eat and hang out with the family.  Dinner is usually some sort of meat (chicken, pork, beef, or fish), rice, an attempt at salad and a form of potatoes or yucca and more fresh juice (look familiar minus the fresh juice?).  I truly don't mind that I have the same thing for lunch and dinner often as those of you that know me know I ate the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday at witt.  I end up going to sleep around 10-11 every night.    

The Bus System: Are there any maps?  Of course...NOT!

So to sum up the public transportation I would use the following 4 words: cheap, crowded, sweaty, chaotic.  So a one hour trip by bus only costs about 50-60 US cents.  However those 50-60 cents do not by any means guarantee you a seat on the bus as most days I find myself somewhere between the first stair on the bus (hanging out the window with the wind blowing in my face), and the top of the stairs on the entrance.  After about 15 minutes I can usually make it through the turn gate (like at baseball games) and pay the driver, but this is not exactly any better because I am now standing in a mass of people sweating even more and there is no wind blowing in my face.  Eventually I get a seat after many stops in the span of about four blocks.  You may ask yourself why the bus stops so much in such a short period of time.....Well it is because in Barranquilla there are no bus stops and you just have to press a button and the bus will stop.  So pretty much driving here is pure anarchy as buses taxis and motorcycles are constantly cutting across lanes of traffic and there is an ever present sound of horns, but I would have it no other way!

I really want to put up pictures, but every time I am going to go somewhere my host mom tells me not to bring my camera because it COULD get stolen....Well I may have to take a risk one of these days to get some pictures of the bus 'situation', the training school, baseball field down the street, sand soccer fields (which are in every barrio), and my HOST FAMILY!  I hope to have them up soon.      

"People Are Strange When Your a Stranger"

Hotel Days:
So I will start by saying these past few days have been pretty busy, the orientation activities last from 8-5 everyday! The format is for the most part straight lecture and PPTs, but getting to know all of the people better makes up for the lack of interactive activities.  The other day there was a two hour lecture on security where we did learn a lot, but it was in the format of Scared Straight.  The dude the Peace corps hired for head of security is like some ex narco-traffico cop and total baddass so I really don't think there is than much to worry about.  We also had an interview in Spanish to see what group we would be placed into which was pressure packed.  The format consisted of a person asking you questions and recording what you said with an old recorder and another behind you writing stuff that you said down.  On the last day of the orientation we each got papers saying who our host family was, where they lived, any animals they had and a few facts about them.  I read my paper in amazement as I counted that I would be the 10th member in the family (and yes I plan to write a sitcom about 10 Colombians and a Gringo if you were wondering)!
Also we went out one night and I quickly learned that I will have to learn salsa quick here if I plan on doing any dancing bc it seems to be everywhere.      

WELCOME HOMEThe last day of orientation part of my family came to pick me up, Sra. Sixta (mother), Karen (sister), and a niece whose name escapes me at the moment.  We soon hailed a cab and attempted to put all luggage in the trunk which didn't work so we had to use a rope to tie it down.  About 20 minutes later we arrived in Los Pinos a barrio in Barranquilla (look it up for pics now I should be able to post some as soon as I take some).  Once we arrived I could barely put my luggage in my room before my host sister, nice, and one of my brothers (Gonzalo, 13) told me they wanted to show me the town.  And as soon as we stepped outside people began to stare at me, which I could have predicted, because it was quite obvious that Los Pinos is NOT a tourist destination and that I was definitely the first 'live' gringo they have ever seen.  What followed was all a blur that consisted of eating tons of food (rice, beans, chicken, plantains, etc...).  After showing me around the town we came back home and I put all my stuff away and then headed to the mall with my host sister and her boyfriend.  We went in and saw this huge gathering of people and soon approached to see what all the fuss was about.....and what do you know..... just a Break Dance battle on a sunday night (I will try and find it and put it up because there was definitely a camera there).


Welcome to Colombia
So the next day I had my welcome to Colombia moment when I woke up, sweating obviously, to only see my host mom's sister watching some telenovela.  I asked where everyone was and she explained that one of the two dogs (my favorite one) had been run over by a bus and was killed earlier that day.  What was crazy was she had absolutely no emotion at all.  I soon look over out the door and see four members of my host family shoveling dirt into a hole and could not even begin to comprehend how I would have dealt with the same situation.     

Beside that sad bit of news all is great here beside sweating every second of everyday!  I hope all is well in the States and keep me posted on anything important that happens.  Also not quite sure what happened with the background color....         

About

LMFAO says it best.... Im in Miami B****

The day started early as I had a 6:10 flight from BWI.  After landing in Miami and waiting in the humidity for 20 minutes the hotel shuttle finally came and I got some much needed help loading all of my stuff onto the tiny bus (I may have packed a bit over 80 pounds).  After I arrived at the hotel all was well and I took a much needed shower and a power nap.  I awoke to my roommate knocking on the door and the rest of this story is going to sound like it is straight out of a movie.  Firstly, his name is also Mike and he lived in DC for five years, but not only do we share a name and city, but he studied abroad in Chile as well.  So Mike and I grabbed some lunch and headed to what would be a six hour 'staging event'.  The eeriness continues as I soon meet a man older than myself, around my brothers age, named Adam.  It just so happens that he was born and raised in none other than..... Takoma Park!    

I soon meet all of the other members of out group (23 people in total) and realized how diverse our group is in both terms of age and hometowns.  There are three of us who just graduated from collage and the rest range from finishing Collage in '10 to people perusing their PHDs and an older woman who has taught english almost everywhere in the world. Additionally the group has three people who have taught english in Korea.
In regards to Hometowns the group ranges from a graduate of the University of Hawaii to someone who lives 10 minutes from the hotel and drove in today.  Needless to say I am very excited to get to know these people and arrive in Colombia.
On a side note the Peace Corps loves acronyms so today I learned about a dozen: PCT (Peace Corps Trainee), PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer), RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer), STD....well not that one, but you get the point.
Love and Peace from the Miami international Airport

T Minus One Week

So as I leave in less than a week fall is in full swing here in the States and I can't help but remind myself this is the last time for a long time I am going to experience the cool temperatures and my favorite season for some time.  This is because according to my Peace Corps information packet where I will be going in Colombia boasts weather in the mid to high 80s all year round!  Which brings me to my next point....Packing.
     So I was informed that I am allowed to bring 80 pounds of STUFF with me to my site.  Now like myself you are probably wondering how the hell are you going to pack 80 pounds and make it last for two years....Well again I have no idea, but I am sure that I will be forgetting at least a few key items as I pack (per-usual), but Barranquilla is a big city so I am sure I will be able to find anything I forget in country.  So far my list consists of a beach chair, blow up beach ball, twizzlers, and a 9 iron (if only I was kidding).  So if any of you have suggestions on some key items I should bring feel free to tell me via this blog or any other way that suits you.  Also this may be my last post until I am in Colombia depending on the internet situation I have in Miami for the one day orientation type deal.
SIDE NOTE: just googled famous people from Baranquilla, where I will be flying into and training for a few months and the list consists of: Shakira, Sofia Vergara (hispanic woman from Modern Family), and Last years World Series MVP Edgar Renteria so needless to say I will be in good hands.  

Test Post

As this is my first ever blog post things could be a little rough.  I am currently in Chicago sitting at the breakfast table with the Clements reminiscing about Wittenberg and recovering from last nights festivities.  I just wanted to get at least one post in before I begin my adventure in October.  I just got my flight itinerary and will have a one day orientation in Miami on the 12th and then head to Colombia the 13th, but not before a layover in Panama City (unfortunately not the spring break destination).  

I also wanted to let everyone know since I don't really read many blogs (or at all) that your input would be much appreciated.  I will try my best to make this a worthwhile read, but if I am neglecting areas you readers are interested please let me know (nothing is off-limits).  Thus if you want to hear about the my work, host family, food, security, any ongoing drug problems (not personal), or my bound to be many stomach troubles please let me know.  Until next time!