fotitos - parque nacional los nevados.

some pics of my adventure in the mountains. ooooh.



a donkey.


a waterfall!


que liiindo!




tent and mountains


katy!


the volcano!


canadiana in the andes. hah.


juan diego and me.


the hut at 5100 m.


me at 5100m. great success!


duh.

falling in love again.

this time it's with lucas arnau.

if your heart ever melts because of latin music... give this a listen and you might just die. it's so wonderful.

everyday i am becoming a better latin music advisor, if anyone north of mexico is interested in latin music tips. oooh, salsa.

anyway. sorry it has been awhile since posting. this weekend was a farm-party, with too much sun, caldas rum and salsa dancing... all mixed in with the mountains, the sunset, farmer's fields of livestock, the bamboo treehouse and grass mosquitos (i don't know what these bugs are actually called.. who hired me as a biology teacher?). the itchiest bites you have ever gotten, i promise.

as soon as i get some pictures of my trip to the mountains two weekends ago, i will post them. ps. i climbed up to 5100m.

"Yo no sé como explicate
Como mueves parte de mi ser
Yo no sé si quieras darme
Tan solo un poquito de placer
Yo no sé como olvidarte
Como puedo hacer para auyentar
Tu recuerdo en un instante
Que llena mi vida y mi querer
Con tu querer

Y yo te sueño,
Como tu dueño
Y pretender nunca olvidarte
Tan seguro yo de amarte
Y yo te sueño,
Y me enveneno
Atormentado por los besos que
Algún día puedas darme"

.... oh lucas. melt melt faint sigh. ay doctor!

some things i love and some things i don't.

love:
the music here is incredible. every friday night there is some random spanish band playing covers of english songs (but in spanish.. yep.. think beatles and rolling stones y cosas algo asi) in front of the cable plaza. Everyone dances to beautiful salsa music instead of pop.. and no, you can never dance alone. juanes is playing in every corner tienda, they are number one fans of shakira and carlos vives. usually, you can go see the likes of those three for not so much money. wow. today driving down avenida santader we saw some traditionally dressed colombians playing andean flutes.. unfortunately they were playing covers of simon and garfunkel, but it was cool anyway.

don't love:
bom bang bom bom tiiiing!
manizales has three army bases. there is one right down the mountain from my house. they do a changing of the guard everyday at 6am and at 6pm, which involves some army band playing really loud songs. so every morning, i get woken up by a big brass band, loud drums, and dinky xylophones echoing their way up the mountain. and they seem to practice whenever they like. like last night, they played for two hours. fantastic!
supposedly, they are actually good now. there is a new band that starts in february. i am reaaaaaaaally looking forward to that. not just loud band, but loud, bad, beginner band. yesssss!

the first day of school!

or... the first day of my professional career/ adult life/ having to grow up..
oh goodness!
anyway. it was great.
a few memorable and funny quotes from the day.

some smartass male student: " my interests.. huh.. oh. did you know that i used to be a, how do you say, patinador artistico? yah, figure skater."
class: giggles.
me: " oh that's super! did you know i was a coach for that in Canada?! we must go skating sometime."
student: " oh... umm...but i hurt my ankle.. i swear i swear!"
class: laugh laugh laughter.


" ms, you are having us write a lot on paper, and i love the nature. next time, could you please have us write on half papers when we only have a few things to write?"

" hey ms, you see that palm tree trunk over there? the one with no leaves? it's because a group of people always sat around it and smoked drugs so now it's dead. que lastima."

to the grade 12s: "what do you remember about biology class in grade 9 and 10?"
class: " we did a vivisection of a tiger! from the circus we swear it!"
me: " psh"

student: " but ms erin, it's my birthday"
me: "i don't believe you, show me your ID"

grade 12 boys: " thanks for the class ms, we love you." "yeah we love you" "yeah"
me : " hahaha ... muy amable"

cheesecake, pizza y mas.!

what more could you really ask for?
for those of you that have travelled in latin america, coming across a restaurant with a name like this wouldn't be much of a surprise... oh goodness.!

so. it has been one week since my departure from canada, and here i am connected to dial up from my new apartamento, staring out over mountains and a clear night sky.

colombia is overwhelming, passionate, enchanting... full of juanes lovers like me.. :)

there is so much to say and yet i can't put a finger on what i'd like to write for this first entry. so many funny things have happened, so many beautiful sites and people, and i am working at a pretty fantastic school as far as i can tell.

so, i will leave you with some pictures.

this is from our first sunday in manizales, visiting the campestre down the mountain with all the new foreign staff along with our director and highschool principal. we were hanging out by the pool when we noticed the staff making a big plastic slip and slide.. and here is what follows.

yup, that's my principal.