Of darkness, ants, and aliens

Not quite two weeks into my ten month stay here in Bucaramanga. Everyday I walk the streets of this city, waiting to wake up. That is, I’m waiting for it to finally dawn on me that I’m actually in Colombia. It will happen soon enough I suppose. Once everything quits being new. The other day I had my first real dose of culture shock. I walked a few blocks from a friend’s house back to my apartment. But it was dark. And I walked by myself. It was an unintelligent thing to do. One of the main pieces of advice we were given over and over again is to never walk alone at night. My apartment wasn’t too far away. Only about a 10 minute walk. So I consciously made the decision to walk home alone. Nothing happened. I was fine. But the whole time I felt nervous. I was anxious with every step. At that moment I became acutely aware I had forfeited of one of the primary freedoms I have back home. Wandering around by myself is one of my greatest joys in life. In Butte I can wander almost anywhere, anytime I want. I can do such things to an appreciably lesser extent in Colombia.

Sorry for being heavy. On a much lighter note, I have some food related adventures to report. Trying new foods is a hallmark of cultural exchange. Here’s a list of new things I’ve eaten since coming to Colombia:

1) A cheese-guacamole-caramel quesadilla. It was all right…but guacamole and sugar don’t really mix that well. It would probably be ok with just cheese and caramel. Really healthy, too.

2) Pig foot soup. Yep. It’s a type of bean soup with a pig’s foot (bones and all) put right in there. This dish was served to me at a family dinner, so I tried to choke down a few bites to be polite. And I did, but just barely. I’m hoping I won’t have to repeat this experience.

3) ‘Hormigas Culonas’, which literally translated from Spanish means ‘Big-Assed Ants’. These ants are a specialty in Santander, and one can buy them by the bag.

4) Hot Chocolate. But here they put slices of cheese in their hot chocolate. Super good. Definitely going to continue this practice back home.

I ate one of these. It tasted like popcorn

The other night (early morning, rather) I was at a party and I noticed that most of the people at the apartment left a little bit of their drinks in their cups when they were through. I asked why this was. My friend Miguel Angel explained to me that in Colombia it is a common tradition to leave a little bit of your drink left over to share with the ‘almas’ or souls who happen to be wandering around. I immediately sensed the opportunity for cross-cultural exchange, so I tried explaining that we have a similar concept in the United States. But unfortunately I wasn’t able to translate ‘pouring some out for the homies.’ Looks like majoring in Spanish in college didn’t get me that much after all.

Other than that, things have been going smoothly here in Bucaramanga. Today I worked with some fourth graders on pronunciation (e.g. for ‘walked’ we say ‘wawk’t’ not ‘waw-ked’). After that we talked about polar bears and dinosaurs. Two of my favorite subjects. Later in the day I gave a presentation about transportation in the United States to some 9^th graders. But our discussion quickly digressed from planes, trains, and cars to whether or not there is a government cover-up at Area 51 or if it’s a hoax. The jury is still out, but popular opinion in class 10C at Instituto de Las Caldas says that aliens do indeed exist.

Starting mi vida colombiana

After a three day orientation with my fellow Fulbright folks in Bogotá, I finally arrived in Bucaramanga on Friday, August 6^th. And I hit the ground running. My director dropped me off the my host family’s house, where I had just enough time to eat one of the biggest lunches I’ve ever had in my life. People in Santander (the Colombian state in which Bucaramanga is located) don’t mess around when it comes to food. I’ve gotten several comments about how I’m too skinny and need to fatten up. Looks like it’s going to happen here. After lunch, I was off to AISEC Global Village 2010,an annual gathering of Colombian and international students, which was held in Bucaramanga this year.

I spent this weekend traveling through Santander with AIESEC students. We were told to meet at Parque de las Palmas Saturday morning at 6:30 to get on the bus which was going to take us through the Santanderian villages of San Gil and Oiba. Like a true gringo, I actually showed up on time. Actually, I was three minutes late. The next people to show up (only nine minutes later) we stumbling home (still a bit drunk) from a party we had the night before. I was lame and left the party at 3am. I got about two hours of sleep. Which was two hours more than any of the other kids who went on the trip.

Anyway, at 8:30am our bus finally pulled out of Bucaramanga and we embarked on our journey through Santander. In San Gil we rafted the Rio Fonce (read, ‘Fonzi’ for all you Happy Days fans), and in Oiba we went caving a repelled down a waterfall. No big deal.

This bus took us on the tour through Santander. A spider had built a web in one of the broken windows and there were a few screws and nails sticking out of the seats. Other than it was pretty comfy

Whenever I tell someone I’m from the United States, they immediately ask me which state I am from. When I say ‘Montana’, I am mostly met with blank stares. Then when I saw Montana is where they filmed Broke Back Mountain (technically filmed in Wyoming, but not for my purposes), I usually get a pretty good reaction.

Other than that, I’ve just been settling here in Bucaramanga. I had my first day of teaching today at Colegio de las Caldas, which is a high school associated with the University for whom I work (La Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga). I participated in two classes, helping the main English professor with activities. In the first class the professor selects a student to bring in a new American song everyday. So I sat there as the 11^th graders listened to ‘Two minutes to Midnight’ by Iron Maiden and analyzed the lyrics. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure to listen to this song, it eloquently describes global war and nuclear holocaust. I thought it was a particularly lovely cross-cultural exchange. In the next class (9^th graders), the professor simply handed me a work book and told me to explain the differences between ‘do’ and ‘make’. So we talked about how no one likes to ‘do’ the dishes, or ‘make’ their bed. There were about 40 kids in the class and at least half were paying attention and engaged in the activity. Score one for me!

After class some bubbly Colombian preteens came up and asked me if I knew Justin Beiber and the Jonas Brothers. ‘Of course I do’, I said. This sent them into giggle overload, and I hope that they are making a swift recovery.

Tomorrow I start teaching students at the university. We’ll see if Justin Beiber and the Jonas Brothers hold the same sway.