Colombia & Mail

Hi friends!  Just a quick note because several friends/family from home have emailed me asking for my address and/or mailing instructions.  Here's the basic scoop for mailing things:

• For my actual mailing address, please Facebook or email me and I will provide...
• All mail leaves school (the best place to mail things to me) in the morning and is delivered daily around 2:30
• All mail coming into Colombia should be clearly marked "Air Mail - Correo Aero" to assure the quickest service possible.
• Surface mail can take weeks to arrive; airmail takes four days to two weeks for mail sent to me. 
• Sending boxes/packages is not recommended as much as I may like them :) Boxes can be held up in customs, where upon I may have to pay import fees and processing fees just to claim a box.  I believe this is a bigger hassle than its worth.  Sorry!!
  

For those of you who have asked, I hope this helps!  More details on the weekend to follow...at some point when it is not 11:01 pm on a Sunday night!  Night!

p.s.  Anyone out there working on my State Fair list????  Talked to friends Anna & Andy tonight...all they did was eat Sweet Martha's cookies so hopefully SOMEONE out there is locking it up.  Let me know!

Cell Phones

Hooray!  All the new teachers received cell phones today and we are officially able to connect once again.  The last week has really taught me how much I truly do use my phone to check in with people.  I found it so weird to see everyone at school during the day and then just say goodbye, see you tomorrow, because there's no way to communicate before then!  Anyway, so we all have these really cheap Samsung phones which all match because we all wanted the cheapest phones.  Since phones are typically the most valuable and easiest things to steal off the street here, they are often stolen, so no one really thought it would be worth it to have an expensive phone.  However, Maggie and I are thinking we will need to do something with our phones so that we are not constantly confusing them. :)

Not much else is going on besides getting ready for school on Tuesday!  We are just heading out to hang out with some friends and get pizza for dinner, then tomorrow we will probably be headed to a music festival here in Cali.  The  festival is free and supposedly a pretty popular event to attend.  All the music is from the Pacific coast here in Cali, so it should be interesting!  Details to follow... Have a wonderful start to the weekend!

All moved in!

Lots of shopping and moving later, we are spending our first night in our new apartment!!  We still have more setting up to do and such tomorrow, so I will post pictures when that happens.

Today our group of new teachers spent time at the school meeting with administrators, setting up bank accounts, and filling out insurance information for school.  A busy day of activities, but many things were accomplished! 

I loved our morning meeting with administrators; my principal seems like he is going to be incredibly supportive and I cannot wait to work with him!  The entire school staff seems to have a philosophy of children and teachers first, instead of teaching to the test.  Overall, a very refreshing point of view!  More details to follow, but right now I'm off to bed!! 

Thanks so much for reading, and all of your comments; they are much appreciated!!

Found a place to live!!!!!!!!!

After a somewhat difficult experience of looking at many, many apartments over a period of 3 days, my roommate Maggie and I just found a place to live!  Once again Jaime, our bus driver and my new favorite Colombian, picked us up at the hotel and took us to look at places.  We found this place which is ironically located right across the street from the very first apartment we ever looked at!

Here are some pictures...

View from the outside of our building.  We are on the third floor; our balcony is hiding behind that tree on the corner.

Maggie on one end of our balcony which wraps around our apartment. Yay for outdoor grilling!!

More of our wrap around balcony looking down towards Maggie's room.

Part of Maggie's bedroom. 

Maggie's bathroom.

Spare bedroom in between the two of ours...maybe our office??

My room!!!!!!!!!! With door to balcony :)

My bathroom :)

Living room area with patio door.

Kitchen with marble countertops, new gas stove/oven, and more cupboards than we have stuff to put in them...

In summary I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, especially after feeling somewhat frustrated the last few days about not having found a place yet.  Also, the price fits perfectly in our price range and is located in the southern part of the city, about a 15 minute ride to school and a 5 minute walk to La Catorce (The Fourteen), the huge grocery/Target-like store here in Colombia.

In summary, Maggie and I will not be living in a cardboard box together....hooray!!!!!!

Colombian-isms

After a few days in Colombia I am starting to discover that while the Spanish language has many universal vocabulary words, there are some specific phrases for Colombia.  Those of you who speak Spanish will probably find this more interesting than others, but here are a few of them.

• Colombians say "Buenas" instead of "Hola"...they only say buenas because then they don't actually have to think about what time of day it is.
• Colombians never say "Lo siento" (I'm sorry), instead they say "Que Pena" (What a pain)...not really sure on the rationale for this but one reason is they believe a lot in fate, so if they bump into you, its not their fault because it was fate.
• Colombians say "Mucho gusto" (Happy for it/pleased to meet you) instead of "De nada" (You're welcome)

More later, off to swim in the hotel pool!

Getting started in Colombia

Well after two very longs of house hunting...I never want to see another Colombian apartment again. :) Just kidding, but seriously there have been two long days getting on and off the bus to look through apartments.

After arriving in Colombia late on Thursday night, we took a bus through the airport with no major issues in customs, thank goodness.  We arrived at our hotel and had all of our bags sent to our rooms by a lovely guy at the front desk, which was obviously super helpful with my heavy purple luggage.  We got online for a bit, because the hotel has free wireless, which is essential when traveling with teachers, and then went to bed!

Thursday started at 9 with a delicious continental breakfast at the hotel.  The breakfast set-up itself is typical of US hotels, but everything is fresh and delicious.  The first day I had granola with yogurt and sliced papaya with cinnamon tea.  After breakfast we had our blood drawn, because you need to know your blood type to obtain a Colombian identification card (la cedula).  The clinic we went to was gorgeous and nicer than any doctor's office I have ever been in.  The clinic itself is owned by the parents of a student at my school so the school has a good relationship with the staff there.  Afterwards we went to get our photos taken for the identification card.

For lunch we stopped at Crepes y Waffles.  I'm not sure how authentic Colombian it is, but I am in love with it!  They have an incredibly extensive menu and I cannot wait to try many many things!  For lunch (or more like dessert...) I had a waffle with Nutella (chocolatey, peanut butter type stuff) and bananas. Delicioso!! 

In the afternoon, our group of new teachers (14 in total) started looking at apartments in the Southern part of Cali, because that is where the school is located.  I found it incredibly helpful that people from the school came with to talk to us about the neighborhoods and also to ask questions.  I really liked many of the apartments in the South, but when you are taking a bus between each of them and getting on and off a lot I got a bit turned around about the location of each place.

Then at night I went over to my friends Angie and Caleb's place, which is only about 5 minutes from my hotel.  They are both teachers at my school, and I know both of them from La Crosse.  Caleb also majored in math education and he teaches 6^th grade, while Angie teaches 8^th grade English.  They have both been incredibly helpful and gracious in answering all of my questions this summer; I don't think I could have successfully moved to Cali without them.  In addition to answering all my questions, they also had me over for dinner last night, which tasted extra delicious after lots of eating out in Miami.  Kabobs and salad never tasted so good. :)  Also, I felt reassured to know that they have been here for a year and love it so far.  I might add that it helps that Caleb is also a Minnesota Twins fan, so having him down here is very reassuring.  ALSO, for all of you dying to know---the Twins signed a new shortstop yesterday (goodbye Nick Punto, you will not be missed) from Cartagena, Colombia.  Further proof that I am destined to love the Twins and they (Joe Mauer in particular) are destined to love me back. :)

Also, tried my first Colombian beer last night.  Caleb says there are about 4 varieties here...which is about 4,000 less than the States, so perhaps I will hunt down more vino than cerveza.  Overall, not bad, but it's no Summer Shandy, let me just say.

Today we looked at more apartments in the South and then more in the West part of town.  I really like the West part of town because many more restaurants and bars are located there, however it is about a 45-60 minute morning commute in traffic to school if you live there.  Since I will most likely go out to those places more on the weekends, and not every day of the week, I am going to live more in the South and then commute to those places as need be.  (I think I have way too many run-on sentences in the blog world...sorry.)  

So the plan for today is to finalize housing and then go from there!

Lots of love!

Oh hey Colombia, I'm here!!!!!!!

Hi everyone!  I have officially arrived safe & sound in Cali, Colombia!  We made it to our hotel, the Radisson Royal of Cali, where we will be staying for the next several days until we find apartments within the city.  The plane ride from Miami was relatively uneventful but I will post more info later...right now I am off to a quick shower & bed to dream of the continental breakfast in the morning.

Tomorrow we will get our blood tests to register our visas, tour the school, and have photos taken for our cedulas (Colombian ID cards).

Quick note: They showed an episode of The Office on the plane. (The one where Dwight & Angela get married and everyone else debates new chairs vs. copiers)  I could not have been happier.  Also, located an iced chai from Starbucks minutes before departing the Miami airport...such a great choice.  More to follow, thanks for all your comments, I love and appreciate them so so so much!!

Tons of love from Colombia!

Last day in the U S of A!

Perhaps it is indicative of my excitement level that my blog title for the day rhymes?? :)  Today is officially my last day in the United States, and now that I am finally on my way and have met more of the new teachers I could not be more ready!  

My stay in Miami has been good, although I could never ever live here.  It literally could not be more humid outside; I feel like I could drink the air.  Then, to make up for the obscene humidity they overuse air conditioning in all cars, buildings and hotels.  Ridiculous.  The resort however is super nice and we have been eating lots of delicious meals out.  Yesterday we had a meeting together with the director, Joe, and the 14 new teachers (13 girls and 1 guy...but the guy is married to one of the girls so maybe he doesn't feel so singled out?? :)).  The meeting was very informative and we just generally discussed some of the basics of Cali.  Then we spent the rest of the day having some lunch, relaxing by the beach and finishing up last minute odds and ends.

I am LOVING talking to all these new teachers because everyone has such an interesting story to tell about where he or she has been in the past, where he or she is from, etc.  Listening to everyone talk about their hometowns makes me realize how little of the US I have seen, and now I am leaving to go to South America.  Just in talking with everyone I am realizing how many trips I still have left to take.  (And it doesn't help that I got an email from cheapflights.com yesterday about $129 airfare from Minneapolis to Boston....jealous!)  I know I will definitely need to make it to New York, Boston, and California soon!

So today we take off from the hotel for the airport at noon, then our flight leaves around 4:30....we have to get there early to check our bags in and get organized with such a large group.  Also, some of us may need to rearrange things in our bags to not go over the weight limit.  I hope I do not have the same issues as I did in Minnesota...where I had to re-pack all of my luggage to make it less than 50 lbs....in the middle of the airport at 5:45 am. Ridiculous.

Prior to leaving the hotel I will be abandoning my cell phone and mailing it back to Minnesota in a lovely bubble mailer courtesy of my mother.  I think I am already having detachment issues from texting. :/

Okay, that's all for now!  Not sure when I will blog next in these next few days because I'm not sure if the Radisson of Cali has free internet or not...

Sleeping in Colombia tonight!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel to Miami

Well, here it is...6 months after being hired I am finally in Miami on my way to Colombia Thursday night!  After many, many difficult goodbyes, I am happy to be here and looking forward to a short bit of relaxing before having to search for an apt and move in Colombia.

Despite a two hour delay out of Minneapolis this morning, everything went smoothly with my flight and two people from my school picked me up at the airport this afternoon.  After enjoying a turkey sandwich straight out of a middle school cafeteria I enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the beach with some of the other new teachers.  In about an hour we are off to dinner to meet everyone (all 14 new teachers!), so it should be an interesting night.

Quick note on my travel experience...so I am in the Minneapolis airport...trying to go through security as quickly as possible, because for some reason I ALWAYS feel extremely rushed in those situations.  I have my shoes off, etc. and I make it though the walking thing before some guy tells me says "Whose bag is this?" Dear Sir, how many people do you see walking around here with matching patterned purple luggage? Of course that's mine.  So he tells me he needs to search it.  Fine.  He opens it up and asks me if there is anything sharp in there.  I tell him I have packed and re-packed my bags so many times that I have no idea what's really in there.  Then he goes to open up the pocket of a backpack within my suitcase and I recall....that is where I packed my pencils, pens, post-its and scissors!  Crap...scissors.  So I tell him right away I have scissors in there, and I'm sorry, he can take them.  He says, "No problem miss, I just need to measure them, they should be fine."  He measures them and puts them back in my bag, and says I'm good to go!  WHAT?!?!?!?!  These are actual scissors, adult scissors, not the ones you hand a first grader that don't actually cut anything, ever.  

In summary I am not incredibly creeped out at the thought of just anyone having a scissors on a plane.  What kind of world is this where I cannot bring more than 3 fluid ounces but by all means, scissors are allowed?!?! Ridiculous.

Traveling is always interesting, so more stories will follow, I am sure.  In the meantime, I am starving! 

Picture of me @ 5:45 am in Minneapolis airport, after repacking my bags...holding my travel version of Joe Mauer thanks to Kirsten Ann :)

Going Away Parties

In the last 24 hours I have attended 2 going away parties for me.  They were both wonderfully planned by fabulous people, and I couldn't have asked for a better turn out from family and friends.  While I know there are so many wonderful things that lie ahead in Colombia, having all of your friends and family turn out to support you certainly makes it harder to leave.  Transitioning from college to adulthood-ness already seems like a pretty terrible idea, and I will be doing so on a different continent.  I cannot wait to get to Miami and then Colombia and start meeting friends, cause right now things are feeling a bit terrifying...

Anyway, to discuss happier things, Friday night I had a lovely going away party hosted by my friends Maria and Anna.  Maria, always the party planner, went so far as to theme the party with appropriate Hispanic touches such as labeling items with Spanish vocabulary words (i.e. sign on the bathroom door that read "el bano"), playing Hispanic music, and having taquitos, guacamole and margaritas.  The party was perfect and I loved spending time with all the fabulous people I love.

Today my parents (aka my mother) hosted a family going away party for me at our house.  Most of my family was able to attend and it was so nice to see everyone together.  There were some notable absences... Papa & Paula, Aunt Susie, Mike & Bobbie & Co. and my gorgeous Goddaughter Stefanie, but I did get a chance to say goodbye to all of them at some point!  

I will leave you with some pictures from the events...

Grandma Jeanne & me

My Wonderful Party Hosts! Anna & Maria

Mathletes representing :) Darren & me 

Kindergarten Best Friends! Kate, Ilse, Liz & me

Guilders. :) Allison (aka #153) & Bridget (#134)

More Mathletes! Maren & me

Hooray! Boxes arrive in Miami!

According to UPS.com the four boxes I have shipped to US International Freight in Miami have arrived safely. HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!! From here they are inspected (along with the detailed inventory I had to provide for each box), then hopefully they are on their way to meet me in Colombia.

These boxes contain essential items including but not limited to: picture frames, MN Twins backpack, 3 (yes, three!) MN Twins bobbleheads (including the AL Batting Champ Joe Mauer version I waited in line for 5 hours to obtain), teaching resources, SHOES!, my pillows, clothes, and more... They better make it to Colombia!

Here's what they looked like before I had my brother assist me in carting them to UPS:

Overall, not a bad system and the shipping $$ is reimbursed by my school when I get to Colombia. Score!

p.s. Not yet writing from new Mac Book :( ... updating my music, pictures, etc. on my back up drive in hopes of getting things together for the Mac Book tomorrow??

River crossings here I come...

I figure my outdoorsy side will be more frequently used in Colombia than my sit around with girlfriends and drink wine in heels like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City side...alas my newest purchase from REI. :) I love them, and have been walking around in my house in them since arriving home. Basically I hope they lead me on lots of adventures in some amount of style and lots of comfort!

22 days and counting...

I received an email today from director's assistant at my school about my travel information, and I am starting to get very excited to meet all my fellow teachers! I have already met 4 other girls because they were hired at the same fair as I was, however, there are 14 new teachers in total!

When I arrive in Miami on July 28th I will meet the school director, his wife, and his assistant at the airport, then we will travel to hotel/resort where we will stay for two days with all the teachers. We hang out there and have some orientation meetings, then all fly to Colombia on July 30th. The resort looks pretty sweet (http://www.newportbeachsideresort.com/), so I am excited for that too! We are all randomly assigned roommates for the stay in Miami...who knows, maybe I will like mine enough to want to live with her in Colombia???

Here are some pictures of the hotel/resort in Miami...


Additionally, bought new luggage this weekend, because my family only has one set...and it's boring...and they will need it to come visit me! Therefore I picked up these lovely pieces at Kohls...I loved them instantly!

Visa, check.

Arrived home from Chicago late last night, visa in hand, thank God. I have been so stressed about finding a time to go to Chicago, and this weekend worked out great since I was already in Milwaukee to see Keith Urban in concert at Summerfest. (Which was AMAZING, by the way)

So the whole visa process went incredibly smoothly. We had a 9 am appointment, showed up to this tiny little room on the 20th floor of an office building on Michigan Ave and gave them all my paperwork. Then, after paying the fee ($205) for my visa at the bank across the street, they told me to come back in an hour. Mom and I went to the two story (!!) Forever 21 store down the street, came back later and now I have a visa! Hooray! It's really just a piece of paper with my info and picture on it that they stuck in my passport, but it looks official, I hope.

Visa in my posession, now I just really need to get packing! My goal is to ship my boxes out tomorrow or Thursday LATEST. They have to go to Miami to be inspected by customs before I leave. Therefore, I am off to the UPS Store to buy some boxes, then back here to listen to endless John Mayer and Keith Urban while I pack my entire life into boxes. Awesome.

To Chicago??

School is officially out for summer and I'm back at home after finishing student teaching. Driving out of La Crosse for the last time definitely felt weird, as I have come to consider it home over the last four years. While I know it is certainly a place I will visit often, a part of me cannot imagine not living there.

Back at home I am trying to gather all the necessary documents to obtain a visa at the Colombian Consulate in Chicago. After forking over $55 of my life to the state of Colorado they have agreed to send me my birth certificate with an apostille seal on it in 14 days. Great. $35 dollars to the state of Wisconsin will ensure me my college diploma with an apostille in 6 days. Awesome. Today I believe I will be going to Walgreenes to get passport sized photos taken. Tomorrow I'm getting a shot so that I do not get yellow fever. Overall, moving to a different country is a lot of work.

So now the question remains...when exactly am I going to get to Chicago to get a visa?? This upcoming weekend I am going to Milwaukee to see Keith Urban at Summerfest, an outdoor music festival. Therefore, I thought Chicago would be a lovely side trip, but I'm not sure when my birth certificate and diploma will be arriving. Thus, perhaps I will be squeezing Chicago into 4th of July weekend??? Basically I have no idea when I'm going there...shoot.

13-18 Weeks...really??

Turned in my license application today!! One notary signature, two sets of fingerprints, and $100 of my life later I should be a licensed teacher in 13 - 18 weeks. Thanks Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. :)

This is my last week of student teaching, and after 18 weeks I cannot believe the next time I'm in a classroom the students will be mine...and the classroom will be mine. WEIRD. However, exciting at the same time. I'm getting a little bit nervous for setting up my classroom and deciding on rules/guidelines/policies and everything that goes along with having a well run classroom. During student teaching I have just used the practices of my cooperating teachers, which have all been very effective, but now I need to come up with my own style of management and discipline.

In other news...tomorrow morning I leave my house at 6:00 am to be at school by 6:15 am to ride on the bus with my students for 2 1/2 hours to an amusment park in Minnesota (Valleyfair). The experience will be a bit surreal since I went to Valleyfair on my 8th grade trip. However, I am excited for everything except maybe the bus ride. And I do not really appreciate that most coffee shops open at 7 am. Perhaps the bus driver will want to make a brief side stop???

To Do Lists

So I officially graduate college in 8 days. YIKES. After that I still need to finish up student teaching, but really all formal classwork is done....so Colombia here I come???

Not so fast.

Turns out I have approximately one million things to do before they let me into the country including finding time to made a little visit to the Colombian Consulate in Chicago. In order to get a visa I need the following:

• Birth certificate


• College diploma


• High school diploma


• Letters from my school in Colombia


• Police clearance letter


• Good health notice from my doctor


• Teaching licensure


• 4 passport size photos


• Copies of my passport


• Transcript

Also, several of these things need to have an "apostille" on them...basically this fancy government seal thing that they only do in really specific locations and of course the government charges you money for. Awesome. And I think you need to have an "apostille" from the state where the document was issued...does this mean I need to send my birth certificate to Colorado (since I was born in Denver)?? Not sure yet. But it seems like a lot of work that I'm going to somehow need to fit into working, seeing friends, attending summer concerts and supporting the MN Twins/JPM (Joseph Patrick Mauer) in the hopes they somehow manage to be over .500 on the year...