A Long-Overdue Update

I realize I've been terrible at keeping the blog, so here are some of the brief highlights of the past two months. Everything has been wonderful, and I can never thank my host family enough for everything they've done for me. I come home on May 26th so I still have a little time left to wrap up loose ends, and as much as I miss home I don't want to leave! I'll be posting lots of pictures here, since my Flickr account is giving me problems. And here's my life for the past couple months:

• I took eight weeks of Spanish classes at the Universidad de la Sabana, which is currently under about six feet of water. There are some pictures here. There's been really terrible flooding and landslides all over Colombia, and I've been helping out with some relief efforts my host family is involved in. My classes ended before the flooding, but some Colombian friends who go there were worried they wouldn't be able to finish the semester. Fortunately, classes re-started today at alternate sites.

• I went to Medellín, Colombia's second largest city, for a weekend with a Swiss friend from my Spanish classes. While I was there I got to meet the lovely cousins of my friend Maya, who graciously showed us around. Medellín is a pretty city, my favorite parts were the plaza full of Botero sculptures (right) and the Metrocable, which is part of the public transport system that takes you up the side of the mountains (left, not my picture). We rode it just to see the view of the city.

• I went to Peru! I'll probably have to do a whole post on this, but I went with my extended host family for nine days, and we visited Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu. Lima is a really nice city, with a gorgeous historic center that I don't have any pictures of because my camera died. Fortunately I have more pictures from Cusco and Machu Picchu than I know what to do with. I loved Cusco, it's a really pretty town with Colonial architecture built on top of Incan ruins. The whole area around Cusco is filled with ruins, as it was the center of the Incan world, or "the bellybutton of the universe." Machu Picchu was obviously incredible. I never expected it to be so huge! We spent 6 hours exploring and I felt like there was still a lot to see.  

 • I turned 21! The day after we got back from Peru, in fact. I should probably come to Colombia for every birthday, because it was the most attention I've ever received. First there was a birthday lunch in Cusco the Friday before my birthday, just to say we celebrated in Peru. Then there was a surprise party the day of my birthday, including a delicious cake baked by my host aunt, and a birthday gift from my host-grandma. A couple days later I got a birthday package in the mail from my parents, who definitely spoil me, and the following Friday we went out dancing. And I mean real dancing, so far I'm decent at merengue, salsa (depending on my dance partner, each boy dances differently) and almost vallenato, which is extremely Colombian and involves accordions (click the name of each dance for a typical song- fancy, right?).

• I got in touch with a friend of one of my Grinnell professors, who is an anthropologist at the Colombian National Institute of Anthropology and History, and she's been absolutely amazing. Besides showing me around the beautiful historic part of downtown Bogotá where her office is and inviting me to her house for lunch, she also found a way to let me into her work life, and I'm currently working on translating an article she co-wrote into English for publication in an American journal. I was so excited that she asked, and I've really enjoyed working with her and her co-author. It's a great experience, and definitely a testament to how much better my Spanish is. Which leads me to...

• My Spanish got way better. When I finished my classes at La Sabana I was in the highest level, and people can't place my accent anymore, which is definitely an achievement. The American accent is pretty distinctive. My Spanish is far from perfect, but I don't have any problem getting by, making jokes with friends, talking to people on the bus or discussing word choice with the anthropologists. The only person I ever speak English with is my friend from New Jersey, who I don't see very often, so it's definitely been an immersion experience.

The view from just inside Monserrate, with friends from
 Tunisia and New Jersey.

Some salt angels in the salt cathedral

• I visited the essential tourist sites around Bogotá, including the salt cathedral at Zipaquirá, built inside an enormous salt mine, and Monserrate, the famous church up on one of the mountains surrounding Bogotá. Monserrate was gorgeous and Zipaquirá was impressive, and I have the pictures to prove it (well not as many from Zipaquirá; it turns out there's not a whole lot of light in a salt mine cathedral).

• And last but not least, I mastered the public transportation systems! Or at least, I've always ended up reaching my destination, although it may be two hours and four buses later. Being able to get where I need to go in Bogotá is probably my crowning study abroad

achievement, since you have to give taxi drivers specific directions to your destination, regular buses have no set stops, and the fancier Transmilenio buses have the single most confusing set of maps I have ever seen. Not to mention I still haven't seen a paper map of Bogotá (I don't think they exist). Knowing all the major streets by sight is a must. But as I learned today, fellow bus passengers can be extremely friendly and helpful, although they may almost give you a heart attack when they confuse "Osama" and "Obama" and ask you how you feel about Obama's recent assassination.


I hope that satisfies some curiosities. Obviously there's a lot more I couldn't fit in here, but the major points are covered and I'll just have to fill in the gaps when I see you all stateside! Saludos a todo y un abrazo desde Colombia! (Karin, si has leido todo eso, primero te felicito y tambien quiero darte las gracias por todo lo que tu y tu familia espectacular han hecho para mi, sin tu ayuda y bella generosidad no estaría acá, ni sería la persona que ahora soy. Te lo agradezco muchísimo. Un abrazo especial!).

Odds & Ends

      Tomorrow I start my first of day Spanish classes at Universidad de la Sabana. It's a different program than I was looking at last time I wrote, but I think the change is for the best. La Sabana is just north of Bogotá, in Chía, and I'll be taking classes there Monday through Friday mornings for the next eight weeks. I'm a little nervous now, but also excited to meet the other students. I'll let you know how that goes.

A picture of Susana and me, finally. We're in an Irish pub
called Irish Pub (what else?).  It was pretty bizarre.

      In the past week or so since I last posted a lot has happened, but the most important thing is that I feel a lot more comfortable here. I've been getting closer to my host-mom Totó and my host-sister Susana, who are both really wonderful people and easy to get along with. I've also met a lot of my extended host-family, some of whom live within a block of the apartment. They've all been so warm and welcoming, and it's really nice to feel like part of a big family. On Thursday I baked cakes with an aunt who lives down the street, and yesterday I met the grandparents, who call me Sarita and asked me if I was German (they told me that Germans always speak good Spanish, so it was probably my favorite compliment I've received so far).
      Some of the highlights of the past week have been visiting the school founded by Totó, Colegio San Diego (which is very close to la Sabana), getting to know some of Susana's friends, and lunch with the grandparents yesterday (which ended with the best coffee ice cream I've ever had). I also visited a couple museums, and you can see some pictures on the Flickr account I made today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarakittleson/
      One of the things that immediately struck me about Bogotá was the driving (when not stuck in a traffic jam it feels a lot like riding a rollercoaster), but lately I've been surprised by the creative ways the city controls the traffic.  Bogotá is a huge city with a lot of cars and just a few major streets, so there is a lot of traffic and a lot of pollution. Enter the pico y placa system, where each day of the work week cars with license plates ending in certain numbers are not allowed on the roads, encouraging (or really forcing) people to carpool. Beyond pico y placa, Thursday was a día sin carro, meaning no private vehicles were allowed on the roads between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.  For a country that has had trouble enforcing rule by law in the recent past, I think these are pretty amazing programs. And they work. On Thursday the streets were empty of everything except buses and taxis (who must have had a field day). I know a couple American cities that could really benefit from these kinds of controls.

Part of a mural with circles cut out of coca leaves,
the raw material for the cocaine that funds
guerrilla groups like the FARC.

       I've also been having lots of good dinner conversations. One day Susana and her mom gave me their opinions on politics and the guerrilla groups who are responsible for a lot of Colombia's bad reputation. While the general opinion is that things have been getting radically better for a long time, there are still some parts of Colombia that are seriously dangerous, and everyone knows someone who's been affected by the violence (for instance, two close friends of my host parents were kidnapped by the guerrillas). A friend of mine who will be in Chile soon was telling me how Chileans seem to identify strongly with the socialist politics of the '70s, whereas my host family referred to the guerrilla occupation of Bogotá in 1985 as a very long time ago. Seems like Latin American politics are rarely boring, although people might wish they were. But not all our dinner conversations are that heavy. One night we spent a long time comparing the names of characters from The Simpsons in English and Spanish. I tried really hard to explain Mayor Quimby's accent, but it turns out "he sounds like a Kennedy" doesn't mean a lot to Colombians and I'm not that great at explaining Irish-American politician stereotypes in Spanish. Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.
  

Back to School

      It's getting close to the end of the first week here, but it feels a lot longer than that. In the past couple days I think I've been bonding more with my host family, and yesterday I was able to make a joke that they actually laughed at. Success! So far I haven't had any health problems, although I'm not quite adjusted to the sleep schedule yet. The food is still wonderful, today with lunch (a delicious green mystery soup and then rice and the best carne asada of my life) there was fresh pineapple juice that was maybe the best thing I've had here so far. There have been lots of fruit juices (mango, orange, strawberry, and something green and slightly sour), but the I think the pineapple juice is truly the one for me.

A plaza near Universidad de los Andes. It's hard to see,
but Monserrate is the white bump on top of the mountain

    In the past couple days as I struggle mightily against the bureaucracy of the Colombian Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores trying to get a student visa, I've been thinking a lot about Colombian and American university systems. I'm told that Colombia has a reputation for very good schools, probably better than the United States, and I believe it. Because the schools are so good, most people who grow up in Bogota go to one of the universities here and live with their family. It also seems like small schools are looked down upon. From what I can gather the best schools in Colombia are universities, which usually have between 25,000-35,000 students. Universidad de los Andes (Uniandes), where my host-sister Susana goes to school and where I'm trying to register for a Spanish class, is on the upper end of that scale. I was also surprised to hear that the public universities are the best in the nation, although there isn't a big difference in the quality between public and private universities (unlike public and private high schools). (Keep in mind that everything I say here should probably taken with a grain of salt, because it was all discussed in Spanish so there's a good chance that I have no idea what I'm talking about).

The Architecture Library,
Universidad de los Andes
(not my picture)

      With all the differences I wasn't expecting Uniandes to feel as familiar as it did. On Monday I sat in on two of Susana's classes (an Anthropology class on Aztecs, Incas and Mayas and an Art History course on Latin American art). There were probably over 50 students in each class, but they were both great and it felt a lot like being back at Grinnell. I really loved being on campus, it was relaxing to be in a familiar environment, and around people my own age, even if I can't communicate with them that well. Moreover, parts of the campus are gorgeous. First there's the view of the mountains and Monserrate (a famous old church), and then there's the buildings. Yesterday I spent some time in the architecture library in a portion of campus that looks like a converted colonial pueblo. I'm not sure if the library actually was an old church or was just built to look like one, but either way I loved it. I'm nervous that my visa won't get approved in time to register for classes, because besides getting formal Spanish instruction and meeting other people who might be in my same situation, I'd really like to be able to spend more time on campus. As a visitor, it's a big hassle getting into any of the buildings or certain portions of campus. We're going to try to work it all out tomorrow, so wish me luck!

Saludos de Bogotá!

The view from my window in Bogotá

     I've been in Bogotá since yesterday morning, and so far everything is wonderful! I have my own room, with a view of the Andes outside my window. There's also an adorable puppy named Cuzco, who I someday hope to remember to take a picture of. I slept all morning yesterday after getting back from the airport and woke up for lunch, which was a soup called ajiaco, made with chicken, potatoes and avocado. All the fruit here is fantastic, but the avocados are my favorite. I was surprised to find out that my host family has maids who cook and serve lunch and clean up, but I shouldn't have been because it's pretty common in South America. After lunch I ran some errands with my host-sister Susana, and got to see a little bit of the city. All I can tell so far is that it's huge and I would never be able to drive here, the roads are so confusing. After dinner, Susana showed me some pictures she had taken around Colombia, and I brought out a book on Oregon that I had brought, which was a big hit. Colombia is amazing, there are the Andes, the coast, the Amazon, the grasslands, and all kinds of plants and animals.

The church in Tabio and the blue blue sky

     This morning we drove out to my host family's farm, which is about a half an hour outside of Bogota. On the farm there's a beautiful old farmhouse, four dogs, a couple sheep, and some award-winning black Angus cattle that my host-brother is very proud of. We had breakfast outside on the lawn, and then Susana and my host-brother's wife and I went into Tabio, a little town nearby, and had our birthdays read in the Mayan calendar by a man who describes himself as a guerrero galáctico (galactic warrior), which my host-brothers thought was hilarious. My Mayan sign is something like the red planetary earth, but what I really learned is that I'm not great at understanding astrological readings in Spanish. Tabio itself was pretty and old-fashioned, with a big pink church facing the plaza and all the buildings painted bright colors.
     So far my Spanish has held up pretty well. I can understand what people are saying to me most of the time, and I haven't had a lot of trouble getting my ideas across, although it's definitely not pretty. My host family tells me I'm doing really well, but I'm completely lost when my host-brothers start speaking really fast. I'd love to be able to take a Spanish class for foreigners while I'm here, so we're going to look into it tomorrow.
    That's it for now. Hopefully soon I'll get a better look at the city and be able to write something more interesting than a list of things I saw or ate. Now that the weekend is over things should calm down a little bit when everyone goes back to school or work. I'll try to update soon!
  

Things You Might Not Know About Bogotá

1) It's in the Andes. The elevation is about 8600 feet, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that does to me. Apparently the options include vomiting, nosebleeds, and nightmares. On the bright side, there are no mosquitos at that altitude so I only have to worry about malaria if I leave the city.
2) It has a population of 7.5 million, which is about twice the population of Oregon. Comparatively, about 9,000 people live in Grinnell.
3) Dad fact: Bogotá is about 5˚ above the equator.
4) I will be living there for four months, starting in about a week. I'll be staying with a host family and teaching English to kids (no word yet on what ages), and probably going on some weekend trips with Operación Sonrisa, a group of doctors who operate on children with cleft palates. I won't officially be taking any classes, but I might sneak into the Universidad de los Andes with my host sister, who will be taking two anthropology courses: one on Aztecs, Incas and Mayas and one on indigenous and afrocolombian thought (exciting!!). There are some other things in the works, but we'll see about that once I get there.