Medellin - Wow!

I actually "talked" to my portero (doorman) this morning, all by myself to ask how to get rid of my garbage and we understood each other!! I know now what to do with my trash and recyclables ~ Yay!! (This would seem more impressive if you knew that he speaks NO English and I speak, well, you know....)

And after that excitement I took yet another journey! Today we boarded a Fokker 100 plane for Medellin.



(Funnier if you say it out loud. Funnier still if someone with a Colombian accent says it out loud!! LOL) The flight was only a half hour long and then the 17 of us boarded a very 'cozy' bus for a supposedly 45 minute drive through winding hills/mountains to the town of Medellin. Unfortunately our driver didn't exactly know where the hotel was, even though he told the director of curriculum he did so.... an hour and a half later.....

The good news is that the 'hotel' is very nice. Well, it's more of a house really, that has been converted. The rooms are nice though. Well, not mine so much. I am rooming with my new working partner, Dahlia (aka Buella) and our room has the actal bedroom, with a tv and closet that is hers, and an anteroom with a bed, which is mine. My 'room' is right as you enter our room and our room is right next to the garage. Huh.

Medellin, though, is truely beautiful. Or at least the part where we are staying. You have to imagine a city of about 3 million located in a lush valley of the Andes mountains. And when I say valley, I mean a very steep valley so the whole part of town where we are staying is like a lush version of San Francisco. And then this evening we ate dinner at a lovely restaurant that lay on the border of a town square. The waitress was delightful and very patient with my Spanish. I am trying so hard to pick up the lingo but it is a frustratingly slow process. And it's nice/embarrassing when the waitress smiles at your attempts to order. I did get what I asked for, though, so I must have done a pretty good job. Or she was a mind reader ( a distinct possibility!!!).

After dinner, I was ready to retire to the room but instead joined Ruben, Dahlia, Rosio, Vicky, and Rebecca on a shopping trip to the most beautiful mall I have ever seen. I am sooooo mad that I didn't have my camera with me (note to self... carry camera EVERYWHERE!!!). Not only did the mall have the most gorgeous stores: Liz Claiborne, HP, Sony, well, I won't list them all, but they were amazing, but it was also just aesthetically the most beautiful mall. Stone floors, water features, an OPEN ROOF!!! Just beautiful. And it was several stories so there were bridges with amazing views. Did I mention that it was beautiful????? And it doesn't stop there.... The women of Colombia in general are very beautiful, but those in Medellin... May I just say, "Wow!!" I mean seriously, they are very well 'customized' to borrow a term coined by our very own Ruben. Apparently there is no body part that cannot be 'adjusted' down here! And the results are, well, once again, Wow!!

I'm here!

Here I am all packed and ready to go!!! And this was me being good ~ at first I had 8 boxes!!!!




Now I'm here!!! I arrived in Bogota Wednesday evening and everything is GREAT!!

That doesn't mean, however, that the journey here was without incident.... I found out a couple of weeks ago that there was an embargo from Colombia and I would only be able to take two suitcases, 50lbs each, no exception, period. Dang. So..... I had to ship way more than I intended (see first photo!!!) and ended up sending 5 boxes averaging 85lbs apiece. I sooo won that contest!!!! And I also packed my two suitcases VERY carefully, using my trusty and oh-so-accurate bathroom scale.

Well..... I got to the airport, at 4 in the morning with my most wonderful Jennifer and incredibly patient Matt. I put my bags on the scale for check in and, turns out that one of them weighs something on the order of 56lbs. No biggee you think? Close enough, you say? NO. I had to take my bag off to the side and then carefully reorganize, repack, hand off to Jennifer until Ithought I had achieved the goal of a mere 50 lbs. Back on the scale. 52lbs. I smiled broadly knowing that the kind woman behind the counter would appreciatively announce, "Good effort! Let's get these bags off to Colombia!" No such luck. It was back off to the side with us as we, amidst all the other early morning travelers, attempted again to rearrange as best as possible so as not to make Jen take too much back home with her (there was plenty left behind there as it was...). At one point, with my goal within sight, I climbed atop my dearest old purple American Tourister in an attempt to smoosh the insides while Jennifer tried valiently to turn the latches, securing my valuables inside. Matt was standing off to the side laughing!! "It's like a scene from a bad movie!" he manages between guffaws. *sigh*

But I was successful, at last. For the record, one bag was a mere 49lbs, and the other 50 on the nose! Good thing they didn't weigh my carry ons..... I am pretty sure that they both would have tipped the scale at about 75lbs apiece!!!!!! But there was no way I was leaving the country without the beautiful sculptures and vases that my daughters had made in high school ceramics class!!!
And all that repacking and lugging was worth it. My really teensy tine apartment already looks adorable. Here are some quick shots. This is my dining room .................. kitchen ................. and ........ living room.













I can't wait for my five boxes to arrive (four are already at the warehouse in Miami. The fifth is.... well, I'm not sure where but the more than helpful UPS woman on the phone told me to 'keep tracking' it online.... even though I tried to explain that there was no tracking info online, hence my call to her.... Let's just cross our fingers.) And of course it will be fun to go shopping out here.

For now I am filling out lots of paperwork and relaxing with the others who came early. I am using the school's wireless right now but I will have it in my apartment once I return from Medallin this Friday. Here is the crew I am with right now:




That is Aaron on the left, coming from Wenatchee to teach 6th grade math here. The most wonderful Maria Cristina, who helped me tremndously via email, is behind him. Little Julianna is the daughter of Karla, seated next to her. Karla is on the elementary math team and she is wonderful! Anotoly, who I just met here, is going to teach high school math (calculus and such). And my new team member, Dahlia is on the right. She and I will be working with Marcella teaching all of the first and second graders! yay! Everyone is fantastic and fun. I am a very lucky woman!

I miss everyone but I am already having a good time. And I think I will definitly bet the hang of this blog thing. :-)

Good bye.....

I have to thank you Susan, for having such a wonderful dinner for me on Sunday. I so enjoyed myself! The company was terrific, the conversation was great, and the feeling I walked away with was one of being very loved. That will help me to make this move. I am so excited, and yet I am also very apprehensive. Leaving my friends. Leaving my job. Leaving my girls.... Those are tough to do, especially that last one. But your dinner helped me to relax and I realize now that I will probably keep in closer contact via this blog and Skype than when I was home!!!!! How ironic is that?

And I am not the only one off on an adventure. Even though it is sad that we aren't going together, I know that April and I will have many similar, and sometimes horrifying! experiences, and we, too, will share these times with each other and everyone at home. Fun times. That is what I am ready for. I am packed and ready to get started on this grand adventure!!!!

It's almost time....

No pictures this time; just feeling the need to write something....

So here I am, just 10 days until I fly out. I find myself in sort of a weird state. I am soooooooooo excited about going and a part of me wishes that I could just go right now! I am ready to move into my new apartment, I am ready to start thinking about a new school year, I am ready to get to work with my new colleagues in my new school. And yet...

... another part of me is nervous/scared/sad. Leaving friends has gotten harder and harder the, dare I say it, older I get! Of course it doesn't help that one won't be snuggly situated in Camas, but instead embarking on her own adventure on the other side of the world!!!! And it doesn't help that others will be worrying (and quite possibley calling the state department!!!! I have leaned on my friends a great deal these past years. Leaving them is hard.

This is also the first time I have ever moved anywhere completely alone. I've moved dozens of times but always with family. This is very different. I am trying to focus on what a great adventure it's going to be and how strong I am as a woman (hear Helen Reddy here...) when really what I am feeling right now is a deep sense of lonliness. For the first time, I have the feeling that the move is harder on the one going, not those left behind. That for the first time, the mover is the one who feels the sense of loss, the immensity of the 'move'. That makess me feel lonely.

And I think that most of all, this move is hard, not because I am traveling alone, but because I am not traveling with my daughters. Big difference..... I know they will both be fine. One about to embark on her own new journey ~ one I hope to share in thanks to Skype!!!! And the other tucked safely in a pink house where she will finish her education just in time for me to return. And I know that we will absolutely keep in touch (maybe even more than we have in the past, if that's possible!!!!) what with blogs, email, and my favorite: Skype. It's still hard, though.

So what is a woman to do? Look ahead even though her heart feels like it's breaking? Yup. That's what they tell me. And so I do. What is it I always say... I am extremely adaptable, yet also horribly resistant to change. lol So I know that means these next 10 days here and the first 10 days there will be the hardest. And then, like a chamelion, Iwill be just fine! And besides, my girst will be down before I know it for a beachy Christmas!

Wow ~ not sure I should even post this. I didn't mean to get so mooshy.... Laurel. Sarah. I need advice on the content of my blog it seems!!!!