Hummus Obsession

Toward the end of last school year my roommate, Kelsi, got into reading food blogs and looking up fun recipes to make at home. Sometimes in Colombia the ingredients for certain things can be hard to come by, but Kelsi makes it up as she goes along and it always turns out tasting delicious. One of her newest creations this year is different types of hummus. After a small incident a few weeks back wherein she soaked a "few" garbanzo beans to make hummus that turned into "everything we eat includes garbanzo beans" (apparently garbanzo beans expand...a lot), we have been on a big hummus kick.

Particularly, we have been eating zucchini hummus and roasted red pepper hummus and they are delicious!! Last night we were enjoying some cucumbers and carrots with zucchini hummus and I snapped this picture. Kelsi was not exactly lovin' the fact that she spilled hummus, but overall the eating of it is an enjoyable process. :)

"Living might mean taking chances, but they're worth taking"

There are moments in our lives when we find ourselves at a crossroad, afraid, confused, without a roadmap. The choices we make in those moments can define the rest of our days. Of course when faced with the unknown, most of us prefer to turn around and go back. But once in a while, people push on to something better, something found just beyond the pain of going it alone, and just beyond the bravery and courage it takes to let someone in, or give someone a second chance, something beyond the quiet persistence of a dream. because it's only when you're tested, that you discover who you are, that you discover who you can be. The person you can be does exist, beyond the hard work, faith, belief, and beyond the heartache, and fear of what lies ahead.

[One Tree Hill]

There is a place in Cali called "Siete Esquinas" or Seven Corners, because it is a spot where literally seven different streets come together abruptly and then rush off in different directions to different neighborhoods. Sounds like the perfect conglomeration of madness that could only exist in Latin America, right? However, in all the madness of seven streets converging together without a single stoplight, I have never seen an accident there and everything seems to ebb and flow together.

Lately my life feels a bit like Siete Esquinas and it has made for a challenging two weeks. With the return to school and the beginning of the second (and final) year of my contract, the big question on everyone's mind is "Are you staying next year?" Yes, I agree it seems way too early to be thinking about this, but realistically we have to tell the director by December at the latest if we are coming back next year, and probably decide sooner than that if we need to start looking at options for future jobs. So even though my time in Colombia is barely half over, here I am thinking about what I am going to do next.

And that is terrifying.

Two years ago I was sitting in my apartment on 9th Street in La Crosse, Wisconsin asking myself the very same question >>> "What next?" At the time I thought about everything - Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, teaching abroad, teaching in Minnesota, grad school, volunteering abroad, teaching in a big city like NYC or Boston or Chicago. Eventually, through lots of self-discovery and talking to friends and family, I settled on teaching abroad in Colombia.

Twenty four months later and I haven't developed any clearer vision of what's next for me, my career, or my life. The options abound, and that is exciting because I truly love having a location independent job that doesn't tie me down to a specific city, country or continent. However, this means that narrowing the options is quite the daunting task. For 22 years our lives have such specific guidelines around the idea that we will grow up, go to school, graduate, then go to college, but then what? Where is the handbook on how to be a real person with a real job who makes real life decisions?

I thought the summer back in Minnesota would help me to figure it out. I went back to the place I call home, to the people who have known me for what feels like forever, and all I decided was I am not done exploring yet. I love Minnesota and everything about it. I just don't know if I am really to move back there right now and stay for a long time...I just haven't finished this journey I am on quite yet. In the mean time, that means I will probably do one of four things next year. In no particular order...

• Grad School - Where? Who knows! Somewhere in a big city that I can explore and somewhere with a good program in education. Lately I have been craving professional development, learning and being a student so this would definitely be a welcome change for me.
• Year 3 in Colombia - I love my job, my apt, and the country so staying would be simple, easy and there is still so much I want to do here and in South American in general. Upside - keep saving money, continue with a housing allowance that I get to save most of, get a round trip plane ticket to Minnesota paid for by my school, continue to develop as an international teacher. Downside - many friends are considering leaving and I don't know if I would like Cali as much without the people who have made this experience great so far.
• Teach in the US - Where? Again...who knows! Also somewhere in a city that I can explore. I would love to teach in public schools in a big city because I feel like I might need a change from the privileged private school thing for a bit.
• Another International Teaching Placement - Probably in Central or South America so that I can continue with the Spanish language thing and this culture I love so much. This would expand my diversity as an educator even more, challenge me to try new things and allow me to experience a whole new place. Downside - I feel like I just got settled with the whole Colombian visa, moving all my stuff here, learning the ropes, making new friends situation - am I really ready to try that again somewhere new?

In summary, those are the options I am most highly considering at this point in time. One of them needs to be chosen by December at the latest, and clearly I am not getting any closer to figuring it out, so weight in now please. All opinions welcome :)

Moving On Up: Open House 2010

Somewhere between directing taxi drivers, talking to people in stores and casual conversations in Cali my Spanish has drastically improved in the last year. I not only feel more confident about my pronunciation, but I also know a lot more colloquial vocabulary that helps me to understand and communicate in a culturally appropriate way. So by last week I felt confident in my decision to speak in Spanish for the opening part of my time with 8th grade parents at Open House.

Yesterday morning I told my principal I felt good about it and I felt surprised at my lack of nerves since the year before I was a nervous wreck.

Then it was 5 pm and the parents were showing up and I thought...maybe I should just speak in English and let the translator handle it. That would be easier, right?

At 5 pm all the teachers attended the general assembly for parents before they are sent out to visit all their student's teacher. Around 5:15 pm I witnessed the director of my school (who has been in Colombia for many, many years) freely admit to not being able to pronounce a certain word in Spanish. At about 5:20 pm I witnessed him butcher the same word again and all the parents just laughed casually. At this point I decided that if he could do stand up in front of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade parents, then I could probably do it in front of 8th grade parents, 20 at a time. What was I so scared of anyway?

Basically I get nervous that I sound grammatically like a five-year-old and that isn't really a positive first impression you want from your child's teacher. However, as my friend Angie pointed out, the parents here really appreciate any attempt to learn or speak Spanish, so why not give it a shot? Also, I do all my conferences in Spanish, so the parents are going to hear me speak in Spanish at some point anyway!

Three hours later and I was done with Open House, having done my personal introduction five separate times, all in Spanish. And, just as others predicted, the parents were very receptive and seemed appreciative that I gave it my best shot. Basically Open House round two went so much better than Open House round one, mostly because I just felt so much more comfortable living in Colombia and also as a teacher.

As a result of my own personal nerves in tact last night, I had the chance to pay more attention to what was happening around me, and here are some observations.

• Parents are more lost than their children. Watching 200+ people run around from building to building and try to find classrooms was hysterical. Watching the confusion reminded me of how Open House happens in my family, where my mother calmly finds her way from room to room while my father wanders around aimlessly and never actually makes it to academic presentations but at the end of the night knows all the music teachers, janitors and cute Spanish teachers by name.
• The parents of my students would not last ten seconds in a class with our cell phone policy. The middle school and high school policy is that if your phone is seen or heard in class, the principal keeps it until Friday at 2:30. On the second violation, the principal keeps the phone for 30 days and on the third? Until the end of the semester. I think about 50 parents would have had their phones confiscated in the first minute of the assembly last night, let alone those who were texting during my presentation. So awkward, but culturally they just really don't view this as rude because it is so prevalent! No wonder that when a student's phone rings in school, 95% of the time it is a parent.
• As much as I love meeting my students' parents, yesterday was one of the longest days of the year and I am throughly glad it is over!