un blog para compartir unas historias colombianas....

Sunday, December 14, 2008

i'm not a pop star.

except last thursday.





we arrive so late, last minute ticket manipulation.

we run and dance to mala gente as they keep on telling us to go farther and farther up and sideways.

we possibly have the worst standing spots in the whole coliseo.

but there is room for some fantastic dance moves



and juan esteban puts on an unbelievable show.

and i never thought that i could love someone so much from so far away.

and annika and i dance and sing real hard.

and then andres calamaro glides on stage for a surprise encore with great purple pants. aND he sings a song with some of the most beautiful poetry about this wonderful country and how it's so full of hope despite all this violence.

los árboles estan llorando
son testigos de tantos años de violencia
el mar esta marrón, mezcla de sangre con la tierra

pero ahi vienen bajando de la montaña con la esperanza
las madres que den por sus hijos
y que sus libros para la escuela son su soñar
pero ahi vienen bajando de la montaña con la esperanza
hombres y niños mal heridos, buscando asilo
buscando un sitio, para soñar y amar


no merecemos el olvido, somos la voz del pueblo
dice un señor sentado, con sus dos ojos vendados
pero que aún tiene la esperanza en sus manos

son caminos de caminos.

Monday, November 24, 2008

something about this neighbourhood.

coctelcito party at my house, nov. 22.

ivan made pisco sour, apple martini, tequila something with salt and pepper and lime, strawberry and lulo caipirinha.

i made gembre gembre. and some delicious food.



cake i made for javi.

noo, that's the cake i made for javi!





friends from school.

three greats. in my kitchen.


erin, juanca, lars, ali.

woaah!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

streetside roses.

update, minor.

BARACK! happy anniversary big 3-0 mum and dad. 120 parent teacher student conferences in the last 2 days. donut holes. hey pretty. recording songs!

tonight a good friend of mine is playing a concert a la pola - he plays in a funny bogotano rock band called vietato. they are playing with a great band from medellin - artefacto - check them out on myspace it's rocknroll colombia.

this weekend we're working again on saturday (who signed me up for this job) but the countdown is on - so close to the best holiday of the year, november break week and then snowtime canada 08/09!

it's been an intense start to the year. the social studies 8th teacher let us all know that we had taught a 3rd of the year as of tuesday - 60 teaching days have passed already. november, december, january and february are light - we go to golfo de morrosquillo for a week in feb - then we're back march april may and then JUNE it's all done. it seems not to be too far off.

plans for nov break include getting money back from avianca, possibly buying some nice jewelry and spending a day or two in the sunshine. it's possible i might get to manizales but the priority is doing bogota things in this city that i love while i have the time.

i have been thinking more and more about next years plans - it's all up in the air because i'd love to be here, in europe or maybe even argentina but most likely i will.. well.... i'll let you know.

the canal (cisv colombia national board meeting) was last weekend - man colombian cisvers are inspiring! they think out of the box almost all the time which i find so refreshing. the project with ocasa is (hopefully) rolling - we need to get on that for the IPP 09/10.

post script, the otesha tours are open for apps. thiSSSS would be just great.
www.otesha.ca

check out the learning exchange rising tide!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

school today!





it was a beautiful sunny one.

the kids all are members of 4 houses, kind of like hopo, and today the midschoolers were having a sports afternoon with their families. it was cute. and finally sunny.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

a parisienne dedication.

come hell or full circle
our arms filled with miracles
they hop skip
they walk round
like magic, play aces
stay with me
go places
once more for the ages

come one now
come all you
this story breaks free here
tears from the back pages
from somewhere
encina
deus ex machina
good morning christina

come hell or full circle
our path blocked
but showing
make records then set them
make copies
win races
stay with me
go places
once more for the ages

(newpornographers/goplaces)

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

sunday night housewarming.

took a little while

but i had a dinner in my apto, fireplace, raining and sunday night - warm and bright inside.

it was pretty lovely.
and now i have a lot of leftover dessert.





Tuesday, September 09, 2008

physio THER a PY.

things are settling down in the big city

besides the frustrations of cold and rain, being stuck in your house when you want to get a taxi on rainy fridays, and having to wear flip flops to work, i am doing a-ok.

school is insane. my kids and i went through a honeymoon period for sure. we are now quite definitely out of that phase. today i had to send a discipline referal for roughhousing during a LAB ACTIVITY (um... what?!) and lecture a queen diva outside to check her attitude and lying-skills at the door.

i miss my old manizalenos but i realize it's only because we knew each other so well that it was easier. it will come here.

curriculum is a bit of a mess but planning is going well - the middle school science dept (ie three teachers) has a lab assistant and he is running around picking up cool stuff for experiments and helping me make copies and figure out the computer systems. it's been helpful. but que stress.

i am glad skype exists.

on my first night in bogota trying to venture out to juli's i totally banged myself right up carrying a box down some stairs. i tripped. i rolled over on my foot. it effing hurt.

i didn't have much time, so me feeling invincible decided it would likely just heal. no prob.

10 days later. still got a puffy ankle. bibi abri and juanma are at my house saying get to the doctor you idiot.

went to the doc. got x rays and put in a hard ankle brace which is not a SHOE in and of itself but yet does not allow me to wear any kind of shoe WITH it unless that shoe has no back. ie, the flip flop.

so my toes are a bit cold.

tomorrow i go to PHYS i O!

the apto is great and i have plenty of space for whoever drops in. come stay with me.

otherwise i am quite in love with this city and the nice things there are to do. we went walking to a great french patisserie and sat in the sunday sun. i am going to buy a (cheap and crappy) bike. the transit system gets you places. i have more than 4 friends. the art galleries are free. jazz al parque is this weekend.

gotta mark then enrico's birthday, if i can swing it without falling asleep.

xo.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

really much too long.

after a lovely romantic italian summer.

i am stuck in ontario august
waiting for a work visa to get back to bogie.

not so much stuck anymore.
in fact it's just great because ontario august is almost the best time.
for longboards, bikes, roadtrips and sweet corn beans tomato peach!
grandparents, brothers, parents, top friends.

but i miss euro-flinging

here is my village:


okay that's me with pontus and tissue in our noses


okay, that's us!

here is firenze:


with two lovely scandinavian friends, before aim meetings.

please see facebook for model shots around venice with juanma
as well as a few other village features.

please see facebook in a few days for a recap of august in ontario at the quinn's farmation and the wild oat.

i feel like a carbon footprint
but i don't think i can wait too long before heading back east over the ocean. at all.

love out there, and goodnight.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

ps.

i'm first weekend-ing at my village in italy! it's hot!

updates to come.

xoxo.

Friday, June 20, 2008

feeling like i left it right.

i wrote this entry on my last day at granadino in manizales. then i felt like it was too much. i still feel like it's too much. but my parents made me post it because they thought it was real nice.

so here, and apologies for sap.




today was my last day.
i have never been sadder, or happier.

it was lovely conclusive and teary excitement, it was feeling like i had done it right and it was all okay.

it was goodbye emails and messages from my students that i can't look at without welling up.

it was eduardo's angry happy sad face, and his inability to say anything except for "se me va".

it was ignacio running into the room after a muddy soccer game to share a despedida.

it was isa and silvia hanging off me for a few hours, on a mission to soak up a few last moments.

and it was me promising to visit and not to cry.

and i didn't until they all left. but then they did. and i cried.

it was, we'll see you tonight, right?

it was a hug from one of my idols maria mercedes the business manager and founder of the school saying the pleasure was all theirs.

this year and last have been so up and down, so good and so bad all at once. i am so sad and so happy.

some 2 years to remember huh.

" ms erin...why you do these things..they are so emotional and you make me cry its horrible.
and that gold bodysuit you remember me because of that? it was horrible jaja
thank you for teaching us about dendrites and concentration and involuntary and voluntary and blood cell types and mitochondria..you can come back when you want and visit us..loveyouuuu "

" hiii Erinn im gonna write in sapnish because i´m very bad at english(u know that). aunque hay veses me daba mucha ravia con por los bad grades de mis quizes y todo eso. me pareses una persona super especial, querida, linda y de todo. yo se que la amistad de nosotras no era la mejor de todas pero aprendi muchas cosas de ti!!! vivimos cosas muy cheveres juntas como el viaje a amazonas gorgona las meeting de SIEMBRA UN ARBOL SALVA UN MUNDO!! que porfin hisimos lo que queriamos y me siento super orgullosa de haberte tenido a ti como lider del proyecto y por ser la profesora de la elective que fue muyyy chevere. desde la electiva te empeze a querer mas jajajjaaj porque me di cuenta de la persona tan chevere que eres. ojala nunca me olvides asi no haya sido tu estudiante preferida y ejemplar. espero que vuelvas a manizales a sembrar los arboles!!!!!
te quiero mucho y nunca te voy a olvidarr!
gracias por el SAQUITO TAN LINDOO QUE ME DISTE!!!!
XOXO "

"Ms.Erin we all are gona miss you alto.. never forgive us .. and remember that you need to come and visit as.. and also you need to come in 2 years when we graduate jajajaj.....
xoxo "

" ms.erin im going to cry. I know that you are only my theacher and we are only your students but really we are going to miss you alot and i wiill never forget all the INCREDIBLE moments together (amazonas and gorgona and the caw disection jajajja). Tankyou for all the things you have teach me,(like the cpr that will be really usefull). I promise that we will continiou with the campain, you will see that in some years it will become famus jajajaj. you need yo come to owr graduation jajajaj . tankyou and i know that you will be succesfull. "

" just want you to know that i feel to grateful for this whole year of learning with you. I know that is hard to be a teacher and thats why i admire every one of you. Its very sad to know that you will leave us but i am totally sure that anywhere you go you will be sucessful. Although you think is a lie, you leave me a print that will never erase and such beautiful memories. Thank you for being so patient and funny with me and for enduring all of us. Good luck in bogota!..and please dont forget us.. "

"I just want you to remember that you have also been a significant part of our lifes or at least for mine. I know I was annoying all this time and I'm sorry for that, sorry for my behavior and for being kind of a pain in the_____ for this two years in many aspects hahahaha. Far from all the time we spend together you should know that your class was the only class (after music an art) that I enjoyed the most, because you seem to understand us or at least you tried, you also allowed us to be ourselves and you knew how to handle us.... So thank you for this two years"

" Ms. Erin;

Llevo dos años hablando en inglés en clase de biología, y quiero que el último recuerdo mio esté escrito en el idioma en que de verdad siento. Nunca he sido bueno para las despedidas, sobre todo cuando se que le estoy diciendo 'adiós' a alguien que ha contribuido tan activamente en mi vida. De todas formas vale la pena intentar, y la ocasión lo merece.

¿Cómo olvidar los dos años en los que aprendí sobre el curepo humano, la estructura y funciones de la célula, sobre plantas, protistas, animales, hongos y esponjas?

O, más importante aún, ¿Cómo, olvidar los dos años en que aprendí sobre honestidad, servicio, dedicación; sobre tolerancia, civísmo, liderazgo, compromiso, amistad, y entendimiento?

Estoy completamente seguro, de que habría podido aprender sobre 'Respiración Celular,' u otro tema relacionado a la biología, leyendo un articulo en alguna enciclopedia, o en internet. Lo que de verdad valoro, más que el conocimiento y el crecimiento académico que obtuve en los pasados dos años, es el conocimiento y el crecimiento moral y personal que gané durante ese periodo de tiempo. Sin duda alguna, habrán ocasiones en el futuro para aprender sobre la biología, pero un momento como el que pasó, donde pude madurar con la ayuda de personas como Erin Way, nunca volverá.

Con todo esto, puedo darme cuenta, sin miedo a equivocarme, que esto no es una despedida. Yo también llevo una marca dentro de mi, que siempre me va a recordar a aquella profesora que me enseñó a ser estudiante, y a ser persona.

Entonces, más que decir adiós, sólo me queda decir: ¡Gracias!

Gracias por todo, y mucha suerte"

Sunday, June 15, 2008

you're so vain.


realizing i am too tall to dance on a chair in my house.


good pose. haaaa.


it was grad last night, starting at midnight until wee morning hours.
hoot!

i didn't take any pictures there because i was busy dancing to juan luis guerra with pablito who is taller than me! great.

i am pretty good at merengue.

this is the dress i made up, photos thanks to ms m.
i tried to wear tacónes but i ended up in flipflops, obviously.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

successes!

first: my elective students sold over 200 tshirts and we raised more than 1 million pesos to spend on planting trees in the nevados!

second: i am wearing an awesome skirt.




marking final essays.

i wanted the grade 9s to think of good names for their essays. some of them got the point. others not so much.

here are the list of titles.

they got it.

Cocaine: Colombia's greatest source of Violence
Glifosato in Cocaine Plantations
Legalization of Marijuana in Colombia
Soil Fertility in Colombia: Issue or Advantage?
Yajé and the Shamanic Flight in the Amazon
Guadua: A push in the Development of the Eje Cafetero
Coca Leaf and Opium Poppy: Lost forever
Coca in the Andes Region
Chiquita Brands and the Sweet Flavour of Justice
Colombia and the White Yarumo
Wax Palm: National Tree of Colombia
Sugar Cane: Sweet but Problematic
Importance of Corn as Biofuel and Food Source
Genetically Modified Tobacco
Coco Channel 5 and the Rosewood Tree

they tried to get it.

La Banana and the problems it's facing in Colombia
Effects in Cocaine of Colombian Society
Corn Ethanol IS the BEST Solution
The Coffee is one of the biggest Contributions for Colombia
Colombia, Cocaine Erradication
The Scarcity of Rice
Amapola: Beautiful Flower, Bad production
Marijuana: bloody Industry

they didn't get it.

The Coffee
The Palm
Quindío and Plantans
The Sunflower
The Evil Plant
The Growing of Tomatoes
Seagrasses are a part of our world.
What has been causing Marijuana in the Colombian Country?

i will let you know how they turn out.
the vast majority seem quite good.

good work kids!

Monday, May 26, 2008

pictures from the musical.

hsm
feb 19-20-21, 08

100% stars.
























Saturday, May 17, 2008

why i do, what i do.

sometimes it´s hard to remember that you are doing a good job. especially when you get parents asking you to email them everyday, telling you that you should spend more time with their kid, that you should be helping them more on your own time.

it can be frustrating, when you have 100 kids and parents that don't send you emails themselves but expect YOU to contact them every day.

but i got this email yesterday morning and teared up before 8am.

Hola Erin, muchas gracias por tu respuesta, tu siempre tan comprometida con estos muchachos, muchas gracias.

Tu nota es muy importante para nosotros, porque sabemos que E no está pasando por un buen momento, es muy duro saber que se puede perder el año por un descuido ó por algún problema ó simplemente porque le vaya mal en un trabajo ó un examen y esto lo tiene un poco ansioso y nerviosos y a su vez esto lo hace distraerse un poco más, la verdad le toca esforzarse mucho más de lo normal y esto lo pone muy ansioso, pero le toca hacerlo.

Muchas gracias por darle tantas oportunidades para que él pueda hacer mejor las cosas, él lo valora mucho y nosotros también, es por todas estas cosas que tú has hecho por él que estima y quiere tanto. No dudes contarnos cualquier cosa que observes en E, que son muy valiosas en estos últimos días del año, casi que pueden marcar la diferencia entre ganar y perder el año.

En este día del profesor quiero felicitarte, desearte que lo pases muy feliz y agradecerte lo buena que has sido con nuestro hijo E, tanto él como nosotros valoramos mucho tu labor como profesora , te agradecemos todas las cosas que le has enseñado y el buen ejemplo que le has dado para el manejo de situaciones, yo sé que E te quiere mucho y nunca te va a olvidar porque has sido una profesora que ha dejado huella en su corazón

Nuevamente muchas gracias, nunca vamos a olvidar lo que has hecho por nuestro hijo.


anyway. this mum is great. and sometimes it is so nice to hear those words, since you don't get them that often.

so i wanted to share this happy moment with you.

translaesh:

Hi Erin, Thanks so much for your response, always so committed with these kids, Thank you very much.

Your note is very important for us, because we know that E is going through a tough moment right now, and it's hard to realize that he could fail the year for any small problem, or simply because he does badly on an assignment or test. This has him a little bit anxious and nervous and in turn makes him a bit distracted, truly he has to put in much more effort than normal and this makes him anxious, but he has got to do it.

Thank you so much for giving him many opportunities for improving his work, he values it a lot and we do as well, and it's because of the things you've done for him that he esteems and likes you so much. Don't doubt in communicating anything you observe in E, the information is very valuable for us during these last few days, almost that it could make the difference between him failing and passing the year.

I would like to congratulate you and wish you well, and thank you for being so great with our son E. He values just as much as we do your work as a teacher, thank you for everything you have taught him and the good example you have given him in managing situations, I know that E loves you very much and that he will never forget you because you have been a teacher that has left a mark in his heart.

Again many thanks, we will never forget everything you have done for our son.


okay, it sounds way nicer in spanish, but you get the point.

Friday, May 16, 2008

sports daaaaay.

in highschool we have one full day where the 9s, 10s, 11s and 12s enter in competition against one another in a variety of traditional and somewhat ridiculous events. basically, the point is to be competitive, and better than the other grades.

there's lots of yelling and shouting and cheering.

lots of funny/kind of conceited tshirts.

dancing (it's colombia).

this year,a unacional ultimate demo.

and some great sportspersonship.

its no wonder we don't nearly get through our curriculum.


olympic themed parade, grade 10s


baseball?


tugga war


basketball


volley




i´m not sure it is possible to have more beautiful students.


ha!


volley bomba


eduardo aka el bravo


dancing in the afternoon


this was a priceless moment, albeit very blurry, a ken and barbie recap about wanting to go for a ride, and in comes my kid on his effing motorcycle... atleast you can see valeria's awesome hair flip.


some of the best boys.