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!

I love el horno!

So I am pretty sure I mentioned before that I bought an oven to pursue my baking dreams. I just wanted to update on how fantastic life with an oven is. Mind you, it is a toaster oven, but it is just a treat to have.

We bake many things in the oven (as well as other people in the hotel since it is common knowledge that we have one and it is often out on loan.) Megan has become an expert experimenter with her bread (http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/2010/03/mamando-gallo.html), while I have perfected a brownie recipe, now available with Peanut Butter, arequipe (like caramel), or coffee flavor. I have also collected a little gang of helpers (who even fight over who will wash the dishes!) Basically the oven (and anything that comes out of it) is a big hit here, and it makes me super happy to have this simple pleasure in my life here.

Megan's bread

The Brownies

Pedro, David, and Theo breaking eggs.

P.S. Not everything that comes out of the oven is a masterpiece. The other day Meg and I tried to make a cucumber bread that was just nasty. After trying to convince ourselves it was delicious by covering it up with loads of peanut butter, we deemed it inedible and ended up throwing half of it away. All a part of the learning process. Successful items include: pumpkin bread, poppyseed bread, muffins of all flavors, cheesecake, toasted sandwiches pizza, raspberry bread, banana bread, chocolate cake, granola, etc.

How Megan Keeps Me Entertained

Having Megan here has really been a blessing. If you don't know the story, we have basically been best friends since age 7, so we've got quite the shared history and a chemistry that doesn't leave room for boredom. One of my favorite pass times of Megan's here in Colombia is her habit of listing off all the blogs she is going to write once she finds time to sit down and do it (seeing she is super busy with things like going to the beach, reading, talking about her hot dance teacher, and finding new recipes to try... just kidding Mego!) But they always have fantastic titles. Here are some recent ones that I remember:

-La Hora de los Besos: This blog deals with how at 5:00 if you walk through the park near our hotel you will find yourself surrounded by young couples making out and Megan found herself asking where her latin lover was.

-Los Viajes de una Langosta: Translated this means The Trips of a Lobster. Basically Megan was really burnt for a while. I would say she was more of an eggplant than a lobster since she was so burnt she turned almost purple.

-Come to Colombia and Lose your Clothes: This could have many different interpretations, but it really is about laundry. Megan actually did write this blog. If you want to check it out here is her site: http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/2010/03/ven-colombia-y-pierde-tu-ropa.html

-La Sonrisa de Not Understanding: This blog would deal with the smile that someone learning a foreign language learns to wear always, even when they have no clue what is going one. Nod and smile, nod and smile. It definitely has gotten me through some uncomfortable conversations.

-Las Galletas y la Leche: A blog about our eating habits. Meg and I have an obsession with graham crackers and milk. We eat them all the time. It is delicious. Try it.

Megan's blog is super entertaining really. So you should check it out:

http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/

She is telling me about her next entry and it should be really good. Keep an eye out for it.

Also, if you are interested in making bread... check out her dad's blog:

http://allthingsbread.blogspot.com/

Really great bread. We make it in Colombia in our toaster oven.

Peace! ~Lani (and Meg)

A Pizza Update!

I thought it was about time to update everyone on my pizza search. Since my students now all know about my plight for pizza, I have received many invitations to their favorite pizza places. Some of them have been alright, but none spectacular. When I asked one student what her favorite pizza place was and she told me Pizza Hut, I thought, "Oh great, if that's the best here, I'm screwed." But last night the girls from the hotel had a lady's night (oh, yes it's lady's night...) and we went to Jacobo's Pizza and it was SO GOOD! We had crab pizza, which was so yummy. So, for all of you who are coming to visit me, we will be dining at Jacobo's Pizza.

Also, on my birthday I decided to just go for it and make my dad's pizza. I bought all the ingredients and then solicited the help of some of my friends.

Pablo helped me make the dough:

Vanessa chopped the parsley for the sauce:

El Mono took over the rolling of the dough and the baking process...

... which was done in a covered pan:

Everyone was surprised when it actually turned out really delicious! It almost was exactly like at home. So, now I know that when you want to make a pizza badly enough, an oven is not necessary. Try it!

My Friend Wilson

I am supposed to be starting the English Conversation Club this week, but things work a bit slowly around here and we are still trying to figure out the advertising of the club, so, instead of teaching English today, my friend Wilson taught me how to cook chorizo and french fries. (And no, he is not a volleyball!)

Here he is with the finished product.

Wilson is a pretty funny guy. He is 16, in his second semester at the university, and studies history. He is super passionate about learning English, and fairly good at it, which is why I was so surprised when he told me he had taught himself all he knows. Sometimes, I have no idea what he is saying, but often he has no idea what I am saying in Spanish, so we end up just staring at each other or laughing.

Last weekend, Wilson took me to the beach with his friends. The beaches here are so beautiful, but splashing in the waves with 16 year old boys can get a bit awkward, especially when they are scared of you. I did get the chance to teach them the difference between beach and b****, a pronunciation problem I have encountered in all of my Latin American travels.

Wilson also took me to the Inquisition Museum where we played around with different torture instruments as well as a guillotine and a hangman's noose. We also found this cannon.

Most importantly, Wilson loves my glasses. And I must say, he looks pretty good in them too!

PIZZA!

Okay, so I know my first entry should be about the city and my first impressions, or how I am feeling knowing that I will be living here for the next year... but no, it is about pizza. I love pizza! My dad taught me how to make his own specialty pizza; in Argentina I learned to put hard boiled eggs on pizza; in Mexico I found out that everyone puts ketchup on their pizza (although that still grosses me out).

So, besides getting my visa, getting my Colombian ID, opening a bank account, looking for a place to live, trying to make friends, and preparing for teaching, I have taken it upon myself to find the best pizza in Cartagena. So far I must admit I have been thoroughly disappointed, but then again, I have not been digging too deeply in my pockets.

On my first day exploring the city I realized I had not eaten all day - heat does that too you, have I mentioned it is so so so hot? - and so I stopped by a little window that said, "Pizza y Gaseosa (pop) 3.000 pesos." Conversion rate is approximately $1 to 2.000 pesos. I thought that would be a great deal, but the pizza was crap. Hawaiian though.

I left that place unsatisfied, and even though I still wasn't hungry I figured I should eat more since eating is important. So, I found another place with a similar deal. No good. Some type of meat.

Third place I tried had great crust, super think and fluffy. The toppings were pretty good too - peppers, onions, ham, more things than I can remember. But it just didn't taste very good.

Fourth place was the best yet: onions, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and green olives.

But I am still looking, because I just haven't found that one place that I am going to take everyone to that passes through Cartagena.