y cómo deshacerme de ti, si no te tengo? cómo alejarme de ti, si estas tan lejoS?

yes latin pop.
and we´re back. i´m not sure why all of the sudden this font is large. i wonder if it will publish this way too. likely it´s because, again, i haven´t written in ages. i am now unfamiliar with how blogger works. uysh.

last night i went to a real live pop concert. well maybe it was rock. but really it was spanish heartbreak songs, lots of yelling and singing, dancing, and sneaking in boxes of rum. right. anyway the artista was ricardo arjona, a guatemalan superstar who was touring his new album ¿quien dijo?. it was awesome. picture the stage as a subway station and the beginning of the show as a screeching subway train on the video screens, and arjona entering on a walking sidewalk, evidently, running the opposite way so he walked a long time before he got off it. hA!
great show.

i have had a quiet start to the school year. i think definitely necessary after such an intense summer, but it´s an interesting feeling being back for another year. this morning i was thinking about how i felt at this time last year... and how that honeymoon phase really does fade out into something more realistic. i mean, i love manizales.. but it is now so comfortable and normal. it´s interesting to feel that way about something that seems so exotic to most people.

it has been nice to see everyone again, but the changeover has definitely got to me. we have a small staff, and a lot of them left last year so we have maybe 8 new int´l staff. and they are lovely, but it´s just so wierd that they aren´t who they were last year. in HS we have so many new staff that it´s a totally new environment. i can´t believe that the more consistent colombian staff get used to this much change all the time. i feel affected by it and i´ve only been here a year!

it is great to teach the 10s again - they have a lot of energy and they are smarter than last year! haha. they now know what i expect and are used to me as a teacher so hopefully we´ll be able to do some really cool stuff. the only problem so far is that so many of them think they are still on vacation, and that i teach them usually one of the last 2 periods of the day. ie, party time. it can be frustrating.
the 9s are really lovely. they have lots of catching up to do, and there are a LOT of them (ie, too many for my room... we can´t really move around which blows) but they have a great attitude. gorgona has been postponed until the end of october, but i am really looking forward to getting back to the island. it´s so beautiful.

i am planning an activity for peace one day with a group of students... i think we will end up doing an awareness white-ribbon campaign. i am also hoping to get in touch with and anti-minas (anti-landmines) organization in caldas to see if they can come in and speak. there are high hopes.

also! the musical! for those of you that know any HS or MS kid - you will likely know about the disney hit "high school musical". 100% hilarity - you should check it out and then imagine a bunch of colombian kids putting it on. i am really really excited about it. and about being a hip-hoppy basketball player.

ok off to teach - 2 more classes and i´m living for the weeeeeeeekend.


" 18 motivos pa dejarte, 14 consejos pa olvidar , 500 razones pa odiarte, saco la cuenta ya sumar
... cuándo fue que se fue tu amor ? cómo fue que se fue sin mi?
quíen te besó, lejos de aqui, mientras te invetaba en la cama? quíen te rozó, lejos de mi? quíen te acompaña hasta mañana? cuánto perdí? quíen te ganó? qué hago con este miedo al futuro? saco la cuenta ya restar... hE! " - ricardo arjona - quien.

losing reader count, eff.

i hope i haven´t lost you.

i am still here!

too many recounts to write since last time. this post is just a quick one, ensuring that i will start the storytelling this weeekend when i have a moment to breathe.

i am in manizales again, have been teaching some oldies and some newies for 4 days, having missed 10 days of work/school for the AIM that took place in paipa, colombia.

i have also managed to attend IJBC, staff the ARM meeting in chinauta, write special reports for the AIM newspaper, PDB, befriend a two foot tall Harry Potter, make the International Executive Committee of CISV believe that JK Rowling was a leader at my village when i was 11 (what? i know)acquire a working together for peace apron, join the IVC as a trainee, buy a fridge, fix a hot water heater, travel to the coast with team three, play in the sand, dance the whole night through a few times, visit my family who you never realize how much you miss, fall in love all over again, enjoy some incredible concerts on lebreton flats, CAT EMPIREd, bike around like a hooligan and enjoy wholesome time at the wild oat.

woah. it´s been a summer, that is for sure.

great stories coming, i swear. stay tuned please.


PDB. some of the favourites.

despedida.

despedida de lara, grade 4


grade 4s dancing

grad.

cool masks guys

grad party. nacho kathleen and me.

despedida de deb y german.

german and the musicians.

snacks.


saxophone. saxaphone? saxiphone? saxephone.

just awkward. nelson and me.

paula, erin and the musicians.

isa and me

it has been a long and emotional rollercoaster filled few weeks. uhuh. not to say that it hasn´t been lovely, it has. but trying and interesting and revealing as well!

i am at work today, but there are hardly any teachers around and of course no students. the last day of school was thursday. sigh of relief. i made it through and a) i´m not dead and b) my kids hopefully learned atleast one thing.

i of course have piles of papers to sort through and curriculum documents to re-write which is why i am in today. also, i´m not coming back until august 13th, which is 1.5 weeks late. yeah, good idea to put in some time now.

it feels funny around here. i guess maybe because there is constant change in staff, people are more used to it than i am. so many staff are off on new adventures and it´s sort of interesting to watch them go... i keep on finding myself saying "man, you are going to have a great life!" which is sort of awkward. haha.

we are getting ready to move too. of course kathleen is all packed and organized and i haven´t even started. i´m too much for her. it´s a good thing we will have our own spaces next year.

it´s been interesting to have the graduating class this year too... their grad ceremony and party party UP was last weekend. the 35 of them have been together for so long. and most of them are heading to bogotá to study there, but still, to leave here for them must be really strange. i am just so excited for what they have coming at uni. they are going to learn so much and grow up and have great adventures. but weird to have gotten to know them for a year and now they are off into the world. fly, little ones!

the saddest despedida will be when deb and german leave for canada next week. we had a super party for them on saturday.

for those of you keeping up with my dramatic life. there has still been no word. YET. ...?!

the same as i love you you´ll always love me too.

just thought that might make you laugh.

this weekend to bogotá for an AIM meeting, only three more weeks until summer vacation.

ps, it´s raining everyday. i am jealous of you canadian bbq ers.

being far away.

late last night i received tragic news: that one of my compañeras from university, emma bailey, had been killed in a car accident on monday, driving to london from wales with her best friend kelly who was visiting her from ottawa.

this kind of news never comes or settles easily. right now i am still trying to piece together in my head that this really happened. being so far away from that world makes it seem somewhat unreal.

my heart goes out to her close friends and family. i am devastated for their loss. i wish i could be closer in order to support my good friends that knew her well.

if anything this makes us realize how fragile life is, really. i mean, everyone says that but no one actually feels it until a tragedy like this unfolds. 23 is too too young, she had so much more to do here. and every SINGLE day we need to tell the people we love that we love them, because really you never know.

the thing that makes me so scared about it is that it really was anyone. it could be anybody. it could be carolynn, sarah, katie, kendra, my brothers, alex... whoever. and i´m so far away.

so there was not much sleep last night, and not a lot of food being eaten. erin´s classic symptoms of shock and sadness.

i am thinking so much about all the people that i love today.

and of course i am sending so much love and positive energy to emma´s close friends and family. she will be dearly, dearly missed.

perspectives from a grade 9.

WHY IS BAD TO LIE

1. It is bad to lie because when lieing I am conning myself.
2. It is bad to lie because people will think very bad about you and your repuation will start to go down.
3. It is bad to lie because when doing it, it is not showing education.
4. It is bad to lie because I give a bad image to other people of me.
5. It is bad to lie because people will not believe me in the future.
6. It is bad to lie because people will not want to be with the lieyer any more.
7. It is bad to lie because some people will hate you.
8. It is bad to lie because when lieing to other peson is the same to lie to you, to myself.
9. It is bad to lie because sometimes people will think very bad about you and maybe you aren´t.
10. It is bad to lie because you will recieve a chastise after doing it.
11. It is bad to lie because most of the time you lie, people will know you are lieing.

(yes,i knew that he was lying)

In conclusion I think that lieing is not a good way to take problems away, it is better to confront them an accept the error that you count. It is better to not be because your friends and the people that you live with will think very good abou you and you will have a very good reputation.

Ms. Erin, I am sorry of lieing to you, I don´t want you to think bad things of me, that was just an error.

- signature.

(thanks to one of my special students who thought he could get away with lying, and quite obviously, to my very face. that is gutsy. oh this letter makes me laugh.)
(and why 11 reasons? not sure.)

teacher band!

today after school is the first practice for a genius initiative that ruben the music teacher and i came up with. teacher´s rock band. yessir.
so, obviously, the most important part of making a band is coming up with a cool name.

please leave your suggestions below.

i am going to play simple guitar chords and jump around like a rockstar. pretty much i can´t wait to be sort of like sarah harmer.



i think i can do it.