Saturday Night Fun

On my first full Saturday in Medellin I decided it was time for a real Colombian style night on the town. With my friend Yesika in town (we worked together at Daggett last year and she's a local from Medellin-- Paisa's they are called here) she took me to a great place called Trilogia (a live band bar).  

The evening was full of music, dancing and Aguardiente (the local liquor). The band played every type of music you could think of from every Latin American style to Pearl Jam to Grease (yes the movie).

I was picked up at 10:30pm (yes generally I'm asleep by then, but "when in Rome....") and ended up getting home about 3:30am (surprisingly not tired at all)!!!

Here are a few pictures from the evening....

Yesika and I outside Trilogia

The Band!

The local alcohol of choice. They typically so bottle service around here.

Cheers!!

Felipe from the band!

The girls with Felipe

The group taking a selfie at the end of the night, all smiles!!

Bass guitarist from the band

Having fun!!

Saxophone man

Felipe rocking the stage!

I imagine more nights out like this in my future, but Yesika is only in town for one more weekend! I'm going to have to figure out the hotspots on my own after she's gone!! We've got a great Saturday planned for this weekend, so stay tuned!!

Dinner the Adventure

Well, those of you who REALLY know me know that I do not COOK. Like I can ruin box Mac n cheese type of bad cook! So, take all my utinsels away from me and the kitchen really does become my nightmare!! Last night I got tired of cheese 'n crackers and fruit for dinner so I sucked it up and got out the ingredients for spaghetti. Well midway through cooking I realized I had a problem..... 1 completely metal pot (handles and lid) and no strainer..... In my attempt to drain the spaghetti without the colander or pot holders, I lost about half down the drain (a drain that doesn't have a garbage disposal). But the spaghetti turned out amazing until I realized I had nothing to put the leftovers in except for a ziplock bag.

Kind of gross!! 

I also don't have a microwave to reheat, so I'm taking leftovers to work (where there are microwaves!). 

Tonight's dinner went a little better and tasted quite yummy!! Some type of beef (no idea what the cut was, but not awful) diced up and tossed in frying pan with olive oil, garlic, and salt/pepper.  As if that wasn't abitious enough I made rice (the kind you make in a pot on the stove without a microwave)!!! It was soooo tasty!!

Watch out America, by the time I come home I may change professions to Chef!!

So, really not all that impressive, but considering the lack of kitchen supplies I think I'm making it!! 

There's no telling what tomorrow night might hold, tacos maybe?

Adios,

PS..... I should of written about it first, but I'll be blogging about this past Saturday night next time.....

School and City Tour

Today the new teachers got to go to the campus to take a tour, meet the administration, and get familiar with a few basic pieces of information.  Here are a few pictures of the campus:

The very back of the school

Outdoor theater

Water purification tower (the school purifies it's own water from a stream)

School grounds

Gym equipment that teachers can use after school

Interesting fact #1: Medellin sits at apx 5,000ft (about Denver, Colorado elevation). The school sits at a little over 8,000ft (that's a 3,000ft elevation difference every day)!!!!

Interesting fact #2: Supposedly this area has the 2nd highest frequency of lightening strikes in the world. The Ivory Coast is #1.

Because of the lightening all the buildings are covered in todd like the one pictured here.....

After we finished Day 2 of orientation they took us on a "City Tour" of Medellin. I'm not 100% sure of where all we went, but here are some interesting pictures of the afternoon!

Plaza Botero

??? Some place you go to relax your feet!! Walk on rocks bare foot then soak in a pool of water.....

Plaza Mayor--- there's a fashion show going on this week!!

Cerro Nutibara

Panoramic view of part of Medellin

I live here!! Totally surreal!

Pretty flowers everywhere!

I am still trying to get use to the city. My apartment is great, but on the main road which is really loud. There's no AC so the only way to cool off is to keep windows open, but that makes everything even louder. Things are crazy expensive here as well. Here's an idea of what I've spent on certain items:

10 plastic hangers- $7.50

Cheap wash clothes (not good quality at all)- $3.50 each

Plastic fan- $42

Tea pot- $20

Cheap throw blanket for bed (super cheap quality)- $32

Small bath mat- $15

Cheapest coffee mug I could find- $5

Needless to say, I couldn't buy much at 1 time and I still have a lot of things to buy. What I have learned, everything is imported (nothing is of great quality) so be ready to fork over some cash!! I'm going to try and do more shipping this weekend to complete my apartment!

Until the next post....

Home

After a very LONG day of travels (four different airports in 1 day) I finally arrived in Medellin about 9:30pm. After going through customs (super easy by the way, even for the girl who speaks no Spanish), getting our luggage sniffed and xray-ed, I was greeted by one of the ladies from HR, Catalina. I immediately felt taken care of. 

There were 4 of us that came in on the same plane so we had 4 stops to make along the way. All of the other girls were seasoned expats, I felt a little like an outsider for having the least overseas teaching experience. 

The city was gorgeous by night and it was super cool outside, the kind of weather where you can wear shorts or sweaters!! But I was nervous about what I'd see when I woke up. When I was dropped off at my apartment the security was awesome (asking lots of questions), my luggage was carried up for me, and my wifi was all set up. The school even provided a few snacks for us, which was great because I was starving!!

I finally fell asleep about 1am and woke up about 7 to the most incredible amount of sun I've ever seen shine through a window! When I walked outside on my amazing balcony this is what I saw.....

I live here?!?! What!?

I finally got the nerve to walk around and found some fast food joints and a grocery store.  I was told to have an "arepa" for breakfast so when I saw it on the McDonalds menu (yes, not brave enough to try a real food place on my own with my terrible lack of Spanish knowledge) I decided to order it..... I ended up with a hamburger!! Not sure what I did wrong there, but I ate that hamburger (with my cafe con leche) anyway for breakfast because I was starving!!  

Walking back to my apartment from breakfast, I saw someone walking out of a building with what looked like groceries so I decided to walk in and check it out! It was a mini grocery store!!! I needed a few things so I grabbed things I thought might be what I was looking for and turns out I ended up buying all the right things!!

Here's a few more pictures from the 7th floor of my apartment building. 

Here are a few pictures of my little apartment....

I tried to wash a sweater and the washer hose came out and flooded the floor. I used my only towel to clean up the mess!!

I need bedding, but the throw blanket works in the meantime.

So, that's what I have for now!! 

Going Away......

So I meant to write this blog two weeks ago, after my going away party..... but things got kind of busy so I never did.  I will keep this one short, but wanted to share pictures of my favorite people.

First of all, thank you to Courtney (and Brian) for throwing the giant shindig at their house and hosting 40+ people and thanks to Brian for cooking "the best meat" ever!!

Thank you to everyone else who helped out donating time and yummy food!!  I had the best time socializing with my friends and for those who stayed until the end, scaring the bageebers out of Brian!!

 Sugar Biscuit did the delicious and amazing cake!!  The red velvet was amazing!!!

Sugar Biscuit also did the yummy cookies, which I continued to eat on until the day I left!

 Brian cooking the best meat I've ever had!!!

Maybe one of the best candid shots of all times!!

This isn't everyone and definitely not all the pictures I have from the night, but I said I would keep it short and sweet so I am......