Carnaval Round 2

COLOMBIA TIP #18 – At Carnaval, Go Big or Go Home
It was that time of year again – Pancake Tuesday in some places, Mardis Gras in others, and in Colombia it was Carnaval!  I was ready for my second annual trip to Barranquilla not only to visit Sarah and Eric who work there, but also to see all the craziness of this event all over again!  The other Katie was coming with me and so on Thursday afternoon, we hopped on a bus to Medellin to start the trip.  We took more of a minivan with 8 travellers rather than a bus with 50, and this made the trip three hours faster!  So if you’re looking to save time and not go crazy for 7 hours on a bus, try that!  We were picked up by some family friends Katie has in the city and stayed at their house for the night.  Our flight to Barranquilla was first thing in the morning and we made it with no problemas. And it was hot!  Up on the coast and away from the mountains, the temperature changes drastically.  We were picked up by Katie’s cousin who lives in Barranquilla (all these convenient family connections!) and her cousin’s daughter actually goes to the school Sarah and Eric teach at!  So we went to go pick up the daughter and we got to explore the school and see my old Queen’s friends in their habitat.  We went out for lunch with Katie’s family while Sarah and Eric finished at school and I had some good opportunities to practice understanding some Spanish.  Since Katie’s mom’s family is from the central area of the country, I think her cousin only spoke faster than usual, but after hearing some of the people around Barranquilla speak, I could definitely hear the differences between the accents and I realized I’ve got my work cut out for me next year in Cartagena! After we parted ways with Katie’s family, we met up with Sarah and Eric at their apartment and took some time to rest and catch up.  We then went to the market where they have a bunch of Carnaval clothes and trinkets for sale.  I got two shirts and some sunglasses while Katie went all out with the outfits!  The first thing I think of when I hear Carnaval is COLOUR. You may agree when you see the pictures. The Kolourful Katies (or Kolorful Katies depending which Katie you ask)   After a year and a half in Colombia, Sarah and I are improving our Colombiana poses!   Trolls in Kings.  That’s all.  Oh and Eric’s face is great.

At night, we went to an outdoor concert of a type of music called Cumbia and it was fun!  Basically the tradition is that everyone dances around in a circle around the stage.  It sounds a little strange but it was both traditional and modern and either way cool to see! The next morning, Sarah and Eric needed to get ready because they were actually dancing in the parade!  Katie and I decided that we are putting that on our Bucket List and that’s our goal for next year (so between her cousin and my friends, we are for sure getting in somehow)!  We met up with another teacher at their school who we had met from the Teacher Binational Sports weekends and we went to the parade with them.  We met all of their friends and some of them even remembered me from last year!  And they weren’t shy with putting some flour in your face (I’m still not clear on that tradition, it’s just something that they do…). Our outfits Day 2.  Go Big or Go Home.       The Queen of Carnaval! There were lots of crazy costumes and interesting characters in the parade so it was fun to be right at the sidelines and interacting with them as they came over to see us.  Katie and I seemed to get more visits to the sidelines than the average person, probably cause you could tell we were foreign. There’s the flour, half rubbed off, which was their cue to give us another face-full.  And with El Pibe!  Aka Carlos Valderrama from La Seleccion Colombia (but not really, just someone who dressed up with him.  Sheryl, he’s almost as good as you!)         Even Pocahontas was there!  She was very nice and asked where we were from and said to have fun! And probably my favourite picture of the weekend, a picture with Chikunguña!  But seriously, it sounds terrible, so watch out for those mosquitos! Then finally we saw Eric and Sarah go by in their dance group!  Sarah’s dress was amazing! That night we went out to dance with some of the other people we met in the stands with us and it was really fun!  We even met a guy who used to play professional basketball against Armenia’s team, Los Cafeteros! On Sunday, we didn’t have that much time before it was time to leave, especially because certain roads to the airport were blocked for parades.  We arrived at the airport and had no trouble getting to Bogota, switched terminals, got on the next flight to Armenia and were supposed to arrive around 6pm back home.  BUT as we were flying over top of Armenia, there was a storm that was bad enough for us to not be able to land.  So we flew all the way back to Bogota, waited, and waited, and waited… until 10pm when we got another flight.  At that point Katie and I were going nuts and just wanted the travelling to be over, but we finally made it home, and I went to bed.  Needless to say I had to wing it the next day in class, but the trip was worth it!

The Adventure Continues…

COLOMBIA TIP #3 – You’re going to want to stay longer than originally planned…

Colombia is great.  It’s my second favourite country (Canada still wins, but it’s close!).  When I signed that original contract, two years seemed like a long time.  Halfway through my first year here, the remaining year and a half seemed like an eternity.  But teaching got better.  More weekend trips were taken.  More friends were made outside of school and better friends were made inside of school.  Family came to visit.  Things were added to the Bucket List.  I was lucky enough to cross some things off the Bucket List.  But the thing was that the Bucket List kept growing and no friends had made the trip down yet.  It took a lot of going back and forth, and the Clash song was my soundtrack for a while (Should I Stay or Should I Go), but I finally decided I wasn’t ready to leave.

What I did decide was that I wanted a new school and a new city.  From the Teacher Binational Sports weekends and weekend trips with the other teachers from our group of Colombia schools, I figured I could use my connections to send out resumes and have the advantage of already being in the country and having teaching experience here.

But it wasn’t working.  I emailed schools in November and December.  I got teacher friends to pass on resumes.  I saw one job fair go by with other people getting jobs.  I did have some interviews but was told that the competition was tough.  Then there were the two other job fairs at the end of January where I became very worried my potential spot would be taken by a fair-goer.  The week between those two job fairs I made a last ditch effort to email all the possible schools with openings for me and had half of them eliminated with filled positions.  One of the other two had never responded to any of my emails, so things were looking dim.  I was almost ready to accept defeat and started looking at school boards back home, when I finally got that response I was looking for with Cartagena’s Colegio Jorge Washington (COJOWA) school.  I had an interview Friday morning, got the warning of “we are meeting with many other candidates today”, and the rest was out of my hands.  Saturday morning (while at a finca celebrating mine and Amber’s birthdays), I received an email with a job offer and a response needed in the next 4 hours.  After calling both parents, pacing, asking everyone for their opinions, and having a scare of bad service not sending my acceptance email, I WAS EMPLOYED.

I am so excited to move to this new place and experience living in this whole new part of Colombia.  For all you friends out there that haven’t made it down yet, you’ve got another two years to do so.  And maybe you timed it perfectly, because now I’m near the beach!

And to all those that may not make it down, be prepared for more COLOMBIA TIPS, crazy stories, fantastic pictures, and more!

Because there will be more:

-People to meet (big and small)

 

-Party buses to climb

 

-Dancing in the streets

 

-Cheering on mi Selección Colombia

 

-Practicing Colombiana beach poses

 

-Borders to cross

 

-Opportunities to learn some dancing (BAILANDOOO)

 

-Time to meet my future husband 

 

-Tan-lines to work on

 

-Places to leave my Canadian mark

 

-And most of all, students to teach!

 

Highlights of COLOMBIA TIPS that give some reasoning behind my choice to stay:

COLOMBIA TIP #1 – Please forget all of your stereotypes, negative thoughts, and preconceived ideas about Colombia – this country is AWESOME.

COLOMBIA TIP #2 – “No hay problemas en Colombia!”

COLOMBIA TIP #14 – There is more variety in this country than the number of mosquito bites I got (which is a lot).

COLOMBIA TIP #50 – Every once in a while, think back to when you first arrived and now look how far you’ve come.