A Chance to be a Kid Again

Most of you would say that I am still a kid so the title of this entry is quite misleading, but my latest trip to Medellin really gave me the chance to let that little girl inside of me bust out and play. It is a fantastic city located more or less in between Cartagena and Bogota and is known as the city of eternal spring because the weather there is so nice. It is clean, big, and friendly, filled with museums and parks. I loved it.

To begin with they have a metro that runs clear across the city and also cable cars that run off it up the mountains surrounding the city making the city accessible to all. We spent one whole morning just riding around the city in them.

Lindsey, Iveth, and Josa Angel on the Metro

MetroCable

They have the sweetest interactive museums and I have sworn to find a job there as a bilingual guide if I ever have the chance to live in Medellin.

Rock climbing at the Parque Explora

Bubbles!

We also took the opportunity to just have fun, play mini golf and ride the ferris wheel in the mall.

Iveth rockin' the mini golf equipment

I found a little car...

...and Jose Angel found some swings

There was also the sweetest park called the Barefoot Park that had fountains, a forest, and a huge sandbox all for people to play in. I took off my shoes and really got into it (not surprising since shoes and I don't really get along) but I have no pictures from that because it was dark by the time we found it.

It is a beautiful place and I highly recommend a trip there. It is well worth it. Definitely my second favorite city in Colombia.

My Visitors

I have been so lucky to have so many visitors while down here! I am honored to be able to share with people the beauty, diversity, and culture of Colombia. It is a country that many people in the United States misunderstand and prejudge unfairly. While drugs, guerillas, and Plan Colombia are a reality, it is not a visible part of everyday life. People shop in both street markets and Target-like grocery stores, ride donkeys or drive private cars, eat traditional rice and beans and fish or MacDonalds... it is obvious that globalization has effected Colombia, but it still has a strong and independent culture, and even within the country there is tremendous variation in food, language, and traditions.

So, thank you to...

my family

Gaby and Bert (not shown)

Erin and her parents (not shown either... sorry!)

Megan

Lindsey

...and Emily Scatterday (for some reason I have 0 pictures of our time together here)

for taking the time to enjoy and learn about a new far off place. I hope you have all been able to bring good experiences and attitudes back to the USA to share with everyone there what an amazing place Colombia is and how welcoming and warm the people are.

If there is anything you are interested in learning about Colombia, please feel free to ask and I can go into anything in more detail (as far as my knowledge and my experiences, I don't claim to be an expert.) And ask those pictured above for their stories as well! I am sure they would love to tell their stories!

Peace,

Lani

Club de Conversacion

I am leaving Colombia in two weeks and I have yet to write anything about the real reason I came down here: to teach English. So now is about time. It ended up being a pretty sweet gig -I got to meet some really great, dedicated, super intelligent students and hang out with some sweet professors. The plan was for me to do a conversation club meeting 8 times a week so that students could go to the one that fit into their busy schedules, and then also do classroom visits to add a cultural, native speaker component to the classes.

A few teachers have invited me to their classrooms to help with oral exams or play games or teach idioms, but really most of my time has been spent on the conversation club and planning field trips for the students to practice English outside of the classroom.

I have a group of faithful students who are super dedicated to the language (and some who have never taken a class but rather have learned everything they know from TV and music, which is just so impressive!) and then other students who come and go. Sometimes it is frustrating because since it is an optional activity, I find myself alone in the classroom when exam time rolls around (or like Tuesday mornings, Wilson is my only student that shows these days, so we just decided to take club over to Juan Valdez for coffee slushies.)

In the club we cover topics of all varieties: Minnesotan vocabulary (eh, don'tchya know?, hot dish), the election process (why the heck do we still use the electoral college?), oragami and the story of 1000 cranes, tourist destinations in the USA and Colombia, dying Easter eggs, skits using the words "awkward," and "sketchy," etc. It's fun because I have no supervision and we just do what we want. Plus when I have visitors (which is OFTEN man!) I just bring them in and the students are fascinated just with asking questions.

Megan with the Wednesday afternoon students and their paper cranes...

...which turned into a paper plane contest.

On Saturdays I plan outings for the students so they can maybe have a bit more fun practicing the language (although what is more fun than a paper plane contest?) I make sure that whatever we do is free so that anyone can come. People usually bring friends and are excited to speak in English, so we always have a good time. We have gone to museums, gone out to coffee, cooked, gone to the beach, and my personal favorite, tie dyed!

Touring the colonial walls around the historic center.

The Inquisition Palace

French Toast for Breakfast!

Tie Dye in the beach!

Overall, it has been a really great experience and I am going to miss my students a ton. Thanks guys for a fantastic time!