- Gio starting his first college classes (Sept 2013)
- Me considering myself fluent in Portuguese (Sept 2013)
- Gio's first job (official US taxpaying resident!) (Jan 2014)
- Feeling at home with Gio's family and son in Medellin (Nov 2013)
- Me completing a half marathon (Jan 2013 - and ready for my second one this weekend!)
- Gio's first snowblowing experience (Dec 2013)
- Discovering why the hell there's a Salvador Dali museum in St Petersburg, Florida (July 2013)
- Spending Sunday at home cooking and eating beef stew or sudado de pollo and baking these awesome cookie bars (recent Sunday tradition!)
- Also spending Sunday (mornings) rollerblading down Miami Beach with our fannypacks and wrist guards (ok, only wore the fannypack once and they were wrist, knee, and elbow guards!)
Showing posts with label colombia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colombia. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Enjoying the little things
The other day (actually last year), I found this nice idea on Pinterest to remember the good things that happened throughout the year by writing the memories down and putting them in a jar to take out at the end of the year and reminisce over. Gio and I very much liked the idea and started this jar. Except that given our faulty memories, throughout 2013 we pretty much forgot to write the good things down. Alas a new year brings new beginnings. So yesterday we wrote down a few experiences to fill up our empty jar. Those good times included:
Monday, September 7, 2009
What's So Special About Medellín Anyways?
This is not your average Latin American city. Let's forget your tight fitting muffin-top jeans combined with the low cut plastic breasts revealing tops that are typical outfits of any "stylish" Latina, or your run of the mill fruit-selling men old enough to be your grandfather looking you up and down, taking in your blonde hair and light eyes a little too presumptuously. No, this is a list of some of the things that make Medellín stand out, amongst the others, like an Australian trying to speak Spanish, or Tom Cruise in a crowd of heterosexuals.
1. Cultural Activities
Tango: Medellín has a wide range of performances, events, gatherings, and spectaculars that make it quite a cultural city. While attending a free tango show at a local theater, I was delighted that there was a live band on stage, consisting of a keyboardist, accordionist, and bassist. The band was not used to much to accompany the dancing, instead it played fine melodies for a robust female singer with an explosive, deep (can I say man-ish) voice. While the singer was offstage and the audience enjoyed some real entertainment from the tango dancers, the band got to rest. This is when the sunglasses-clad keyboardist took the opportunity to pull out his cell phone and jabber away for a good portion of the dance. Though he wasn't upstage front and center, the lights were still shining on him while he sat chatting in the background. It was until the end when my friend and I realized he was pulling a Ray Charles with the shades when it occurred us that perhaps he didn't even realize that this was an actual performance. Maybe he thought it was just a rehearsal. Not his fault he couldn't see!
Later, I noticed some people in the audience were just as bored as the sly keyboardist. I watched as the couple sitting in front of us sneaked shots of aguardiente, a typical Colombian liquor with the revolting taste (in my personal opinion) of black licorice. I wasn't exactly sure because they had it stealthily hidden in the woman's purse, but when I saw them passing a bottle of Gatorade between the two of them to chase it, there was no question.
hard to see, but that's "La Dany" in a foil dress with a crowd of onlookers
Drag Shows: When my Dutch roommate told me "Come on, we're going to a drag show in the park," I of course obliged. Adriaan explained "La Dany" to me as not your conventional tranny. She put on this show in the park every week and used the money she raised to help feed homeless glue-sniffing kids on the street. They made a documentary on her even. She was legit. We get to the plaza early where La Dany is setting up for her show, strewing stuffed animals, broken electronics, wigs, costumes, toys, suitcases, bags, toy cars, and an assortment of other random crap around her in a circle on the ground. Her outfit did not scream transvestite either. Instead she wore a Shirley Temple like red collared dress, with her hair pulled out in two long and wild pigtails. She wore a pair of ballet flats and thick black plastic glasses to top it off. She was cute, sort of. She entertained everyone from children and families to gay couples to foreigners like me and my friends. Her show consisted of various comical skits with bursts of profanity and rage thrown in there. Halfway through the show, her wig fell off and she lost her teeth (after she had taken them out to do a bit about a person with no teeth), screaming like a girl and running around as if she were naked. She eventually composed herself, got herself a new wig, found her set of teeth, and proceeded. Unfortunately, we couldn't hear her all the time because she kept turning her back to us to address the rest of her 75-plus person audience. She used to have a mic, but people from the church where she does her weekly show in front of came out a while ago and took it away, denouncing her as a noise complaint and nuisance.
Ok so I have no other numbered items at the moment (I need to get some more interesting stories from the homeless man on the steps of my building) but enjoy these photos for now.
nope, that's not an IV drip bag, that's 350 cm3 (??) bag of water!
I went to an anti-Chavez rally and got stopped and photographed for standing up for affluent Venezuelans everywhere!
1. Cultural Activities
Tango: Medellín has a wide range of performances, events, gatherings, and spectaculars that make it quite a cultural city. While attending a free tango show at a local theater, I was delighted that there was a live band on stage, consisting of a keyboardist, accordionist, and bassist. The band was not used to much to accompany the dancing, instead it played fine melodies for a robust female singer with an explosive, deep (can I say man-ish) voice. While the singer was offstage and the audience enjoyed some real entertainment from the tango dancers, the band got to rest. This is when the sunglasses-clad keyboardist took the opportunity to pull out his cell phone and jabber away for a good portion of the dance. Though he wasn't upstage front and center, the lights were still shining on him while he sat chatting in the background. It was until the end when my friend and I realized he was pulling a Ray Charles with the shades when it occurred us that perhaps he didn't even realize that this was an actual performance. Maybe he thought it was just a rehearsal. Not his fault he couldn't see!
Later, I noticed some people in the audience were just as bored as the sly keyboardist. I watched as the couple sitting in front of us sneaked shots of aguardiente, a typical Colombian liquor with the revolting taste (in my personal opinion) of black licorice. I wasn't exactly sure because they had it stealthily hidden in the woman's purse, but when I saw them passing a bottle of Gatorade between the two of them to chase it, there was no question.
hard to see, but that's "La Dany" in a foil dress with a crowd of onlookersOk so I have no other numbered items at the moment (I need to get some more interesting stories from the homeless man on the steps of my building) but enjoy these photos for now.
nope, that's not an IV drip bag, that's 350 cm3 (??) bag of water!
I went to an anti-Chavez rally and got stopped and photographed for standing up for affluent Venezuelans everywhere! Sunday, April 5, 2009
Not Quite the Typical Colombian Household
Ok so before this blog goes any farther, I need to give a brief overview of the five guys who I am living with here in Medellin, so my stories that follow won't seem quite so strange:
First we've got Jimmy, who is in his mid 20s, stays in his room all day (he currently has sequestered his younger sister who is visiting for a...week? and I've seen her for all of five minutes when she makes brief trips to the kitchen to help her brother cook), and after I left in December had been pestering me via MSN messenger with requests of bringing another gringa with me when I came back to Medellin. Sorry Jimmy. Since he never really leaves his room, he's become pretty good at maintaining relationships with women via the telephone. He currently is unemployed and lives off the little money his mother supplies him with and the 200,000 pesos he charges 2 other roommates a month to be their personal chef.
That leads me to the other 2 foreigners living here, a Dutch guy named Adrian illegally residing here for over a year who I have never seen go without a cigarette for more than 20 minutes, and Patrick, an English guy in his 40s who was living in Spain but wanted a change in scenery so picked Medellin, Colombia as his destination with no knowledge of any other place in Latin America. Not bad if you ask me, but if that doesn't seem a bit strange well how about these other clues: fluttering about the room when we play any kind of music, demonstrating his ballet poses that just weren't good enough for a real ballet company as he sadly found out as a teenager after years of classes; apart from the one meal a day Jimmy cooks him, only eats arepas (these tortilla-like Colombian staple) that he heats up on the stove and then forgets about, so he only ever gets to eat half of the pack after burning the other half; never leaves the apartment, working from his laptop in his room for the Spanish company and when he does leave, it is only go to pick up his ahem, 18 year-old Colombian girlfriend (!!) who got whisked away to Bogota by her mother, but who Patrick tries to whisk right back to Medellin every weekend, until she gets her passport so they can whisk off together to the Canary Islands.
The other two Colombians are pretty normal compared to these other characters. Giovanni is in his late 20s, has a 6 year old (the norm here) and works with Adrian on Colombia Reports, an English language Colombia news web site for expats living in or out of Colombia. And then there's Checho, who wears a different pair of tinted prescription lenses every day, goes to his job at a bank in a corduroy blazer and t-shirt underneath, and is very tranquilo with lots of "amiguitas" instead of having any one serious relationship after getting his heart broken by his wife when they went to the US on vacation to repair their relationship and she ended up staying there, marrying an American, and moving to Norwalk, CT.
Three Colombians, a Dutch guy, an English guy, add a loca gringa to the mix, yep, sounds about right.
First we've got Jimmy, who is in his mid 20s, stays in his room all day (he currently has sequestered his younger sister who is visiting for a...week? and I've seen her for all of five minutes when she makes brief trips to the kitchen to help her brother cook), and after I left in December had been pestering me via MSN messenger with requests of bringing another gringa with me when I came back to Medellin. Sorry Jimmy. Since he never really leaves his room, he's become pretty good at maintaining relationships with women via the telephone. He currently is unemployed and lives off the little money his mother supplies him with and the 200,000 pesos he charges 2 other roommates a month to be their personal chef.
That leads me to the other 2 foreigners living here, a Dutch guy named Adrian illegally residing here for over a year who I have never seen go without a cigarette for more than 20 minutes, and Patrick, an English guy in his 40s who was living in Spain but wanted a change in scenery so picked Medellin, Colombia as his destination with no knowledge of any other place in Latin America. Not bad if you ask me, but if that doesn't seem a bit strange well how about these other clues: fluttering about the room when we play any kind of music, demonstrating his ballet poses that just weren't good enough for a real ballet company as he sadly found out as a teenager after years of classes; apart from the one meal a day Jimmy cooks him, only eats arepas (these tortilla-like Colombian staple) that he heats up on the stove and then forgets about, so he only ever gets to eat half of the pack after burning the other half; never leaves the apartment, working from his laptop in his room for the Spanish company and when he does leave, it is only go to pick up his ahem, 18 year-old Colombian girlfriend (!!) who got whisked away to Bogota by her mother, but who Patrick tries to whisk right back to Medellin every weekend, until she gets her passport so they can whisk off together to the Canary Islands.
The other two Colombians are pretty normal compared to these other characters. Giovanni is in his late 20s, has a 6 year old (the norm here) and works with Adrian on Colombia Reports, an English language Colombia news web site for expats living in or out of Colombia. And then there's Checho, who wears a different pair of tinted prescription lenses every day, goes to his job at a bank in a corduroy blazer and t-shirt underneath, and is very tranquilo with lots of "amiguitas" instead of having any one serious relationship after getting his heart broken by his wife when they went to the US on vacation to repair their relationship and she ended up staying there, marrying an American, and moving to Norwalk, CT.
Three Colombians, a Dutch guy, an English guy, add a loca gringa to the mix, yep, sounds about right.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Have I been here before...?
*precursor*
After 2 months at home in Chester, CT substitute teaching and interpreting at various medical appointments around the state, after taking weekend getaways to Ithaca, NYC, Boston, and DC, after experiencing the horror that is the US economy and job market, I was left with only one option: get out. fast. My only dilemma was where. I considered returning to my first Latin American love: Mexico, but decided against it as I had already dedicated 6 months of my time (3 years if you count a certain Latin love affair) there and wanted to be fair to the other Latin American countries (and other potential Latin love affairs). So after debating it, going back and forth way too much and having too many restless nights, I made my decision: Medellin. I came here back in December for a week and loved it-perfect climate, pretty clean city, easy to use public transportation, and very friendly people. So I bought my ticket, one-way. What was I going to do in Medellin for who knows how many months? Ni idea. But I had somewhere to stay and some random Colombian friends who I'd met back in December for all of one week so, why not?
I arrived two days ago and not much has changed, which is nice. The same crazies are still there, people are still selling cell phone calls for 8 cents on the street, and rain pours down from clouds that emerged out of nowhere for an hour followed by blissful sunshine, like in December. But apparently I missed some things when I was here last time. My first day while walking around with my friend Giovanni, we kept running into his friends and he would introduce us. I would proceed to do the kiss on the cheek, but after a few of these meet and greets, Giovanni turns to me and states: "oye eso no se hace aqui." Apparently if I do not know the person I am supposed to just shake their hand and ya, no beso. Boy did I feel silly after that. Nonetheless, I was struck with recollections of walking with Miguel into a bar or room in Mexico full of all of his friends who were strangers to me and having to make the rounds and kiss all ten of 2o of them on the cheek. I distincly remember getting tired of it that by the end I would lean my head into theirs and end up slamming my cheek into theirs. Well, glad we cleared that up.
Another thing that has managed to slip my mind which astounds me after having to ingrain it into the brains of 16 year-old teenagers the entire summer in Costa Rica is: Don't put toilet paper in the toilet! AHHHH. Luckily I've managed to realize my mistake now (after 48 hours here!) without any embarassing toilet clogs and having to figure out how to say plunger in Spanish.
After 2 months at home in Chester, CT substitute teaching and interpreting at various medical appointments around the state, after taking weekend getaways to Ithaca, NYC, Boston, and DC, after experiencing the horror that is the US economy and job market, I was left with only one option: get out. fast. My only dilemma was where. I considered returning to my first Latin American love: Mexico, but decided against it as I had already dedicated 6 months of my time (3 years if you count a certain Latin love affair) there and wanted to be fair to the other Latin American countries (and other potential Latin love affairs). So after debating it, going back and forth way too much and having too many restless nights, I made my decision: Medellin. I came here back in December for a week and loved it-perfect climate, pretty clean city, easy to use public transportation, and very friendly people. So I bought my ticket, one-way. What was I going to do in Medellin for who knows how many months? Ni idea. But I had somewhere to stay and some random Colombian friends who I'd met back in December for all of one week so, why not?
I arrived two days ago and not much has changed, which is nice. The same crazies are still there, people are still selling cell phone calls for 8 cents on the street, and rain pours down from clouds that emerged out of nowhere for an hour followed by blissful sunshine, like in December. But apparently I missed some things when I was here last time. My first day while walking around with my friend Giovanni, we kept running into his friends and he would introduce us. I would proceed to do the kiss on the cheek, but after a few of these meet and greets, Giovanni turns to me and states: "oye eso no se hace aqui." Apparently if I do not know the person I am supposed to just shake their hand and ya, no beso. Boy did I feel silly after that. Nonetheless, I was struck with recollections of walking with Miguel into a bar or room in Mexico full of all of his friends who were strangers to me and having to make the rounds and kiss all ten of 2o of them on the cheek. I distincly remember getting tired of it that by the end I would lean my head into theirs and end up slamming my cheek into theirs. Well, glad we cleared that up.
Another thing that has managed to slip my mind which astounds me after having to ingrain it into the brains of 16 year-old teenagers the entire summer in Costa Rica is: Don't put toilet paper in the toilet! AHHHH. Luckily I've managed to realize my mistake now (after 48 hours here!) without any embarassing toilet clogs and having to figure out how to say plunger in Spanish.
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