a day in the life.

you may be wondering, at this point, if i've possibly embarked on some party of a lifetime adventure.. which in one way i definitely have. however, there is another aspect that i think has been missing in this blog - perhaps what i do everyday? cool. i'll tell you about it.
6:00 am. band plays (bang bang BOM BOM BOM, see previous post). i know i have to wake up in 15 minutes.
6:15 am. roll out of bed, get ready, pack for school, make some coffee and head out the door. sometimes some last minute preps for the day.
7:00 am. wait for the bus out front of my apartment building. with kathleen and grant. usually we talk about the army base band and how they sounded this morning.
between 7:05-7:20. board the staff bus that picks us up. it is sometimes, however not usually, punctual. we pick up a bunch of teachers on the way, and wind our way down the mountain, back up the mountain, through the nighttime rain puddles, and up to school. usually this time of day is the best for seeing the snowcaps. they are pretty breathtaking in the morning, and by early afternoon they are hidden in the clouds. It is wild to be amongst tropical plants and gazing up at snowcaps... i sometimes have to kick myself a few times. YES! you are really here.
between 7:25 -7:45. arrive at school. try not to fall down the slippery stairs, usually i'm carrying way too much stuff (today, for example, a cake i baked in our new oven!) say hi to students, open my room, get ready, the usual.
7:55. school starts.
kids pile in. usually i have 9B first period (every day in the cycle except for one) they sit down to some writing and reflection on what we learned yesterday, we listen to music.. and then start class about ten minutes into the period.
today was a review day since tomorrow they have a test. i can't believe i got throught my first unit. i mean, it was easy content but still - great success. now i just have to get through, i don't know... 7 more?
8:55. end of period 1. kids pile out. they are always so quick to leave, but also so slow to arrive... oh highschool students.
8:58. period 2. usually prep. sigh. photocopying, cleaning up, doing lifeskills evaluations (i do them EVERYDAY for ALL my students. it's a lot), getting ready for the next class.
10:01. period 3. 9A piles in. i can't wait until i get my camera cable, i have some pictures of my 9s and their macromolecule projects. they are so hilarious.
11:01-11:24. break time. today it was cake-break with a few kids from student council. yummm.
11:24-12:24. period 4. sometime prep, sometimes 10A, depending on the day. the tenth graders are awesome. there are WAY less of them, and they are much more responsible/mature. on friday, for example, we were all feeling a bit jittery. so i took them outside, and they sat around me on the grass, and we read a few (INTERESTINg, i promise) parts of the origin of species. I think they liked it. well, maybe just the outside and storytime part.
12:27-1:27. period 5. Usually 10B. this group is trying to fundraise to buy a class pet. they have told everyone to bring in 1000 pesos so we can buy one. they want a snake. i say that's ok, as long as THEY (not me) are willing to feed it (rats i think... gross). i would rather just get a fish. but hey, that's too simple, right? gosh.
1:27-2:20. lunchtime! by this time we are all pretty hungry and restless, so lunch is a welcomed break. it's nice to chat with my colleagues rather than 13-16 year olds.. and we get fed delicious hot colombian food. (well, some days more delicious than others). and it is enough food for me for the entire day (soup, rice, beans, meat, arepa, platanos, yuca, potatos ... some funny fruit usually). when i get home, i'm usually craving either a)vegetables or b)cheesecake.
2:20-3:20. period 6. usually prep or 10A. more photocopying/getting ready for the next day/cleaning up from my classes.
3:20. school's out. visitors drop by, some for extra marks, others to say hi, others to tell me about the manizales jazz festival coming up next week, others to find out what i'm doing this evening/weekend. they are nosy kids.
3:30. try to take off from school. only works on monday and friday though. usually we stay for meetings, prep, etc.. and sometimes we have yoga/ultimate/soccer practice.
4:30. take the bus home.
i usually crash pretty quickly after that. it's a long and lovely day.
and then it all starts again the next day...

chiva tour 2006.

so. you know the ancient busses that drive around wild latin american cities, with crazy decorations, a live band and people essentially falling out of them because they are so packed? that's a chiva tour. and we went on friday. wooo wEE!

there were maybe 80 granadino staff that boarded the chiva bus on friday evening. we crammed in, people sitting on top of each other, along maybe 6 rows of benches. THEN we realized that the band hadn't arrived yet, and we all had to squish more in order for the big drums and clarinet players to fit on the bus with us. oh, hilarity.

we started driving around the city, making lots of noise.. and everywhere we went people on the streets would dance along to the music on the bus, and wave at us like we were crazy. we climbed our way up the mountainside, yelling and singing and dancing (sort of), stopped high up in a field with a beautiful view of the city, essentially all fell out of the chiva and danced for awhile up there. we loaded back on the bus, drove back down into town and across to the other side, climbed another mountain, stopped again, fell out and dance dance dance.

we then drove through the countryside for ahwile, and ended up at a salsa rancheros bar(like a cowboy saloon, but in colombia). the bar had horses lined up outfront, and we tried to convince the owners to let us ride them for awhile. It didn't work.

the dancing at the bar was a mix of salsa/reggaeton and country linedancing. ha!

the evening was quite fantastic. it was an experience i'm sure i'll remember for awhile.. super live jam band on a bus, 80 friends, dancing on a mountainside and ending up in the wildwest of manizales. very very funny.

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.