There's a first time for everything, am I right or am I right?
I say that because my American Airlines flight was on time!!!! I'm just as surprised as y'all are. Best of all, even my LUGGAGE ARRIVED ON THE SAME FLIGHT AS ME!
Anyway, we traveled all night Tuesday and arrived in Bogotá on Wednesday morning at around 12:15. We met someone named Bryce, who was about our age, on our flight. As if y'all thought that me traveling here with someone and having a host family was dangerous, Bryce is backpacking about Colombia for the next two weeks. Insane, right? You learn a lot about a person on a five hour flight. Now, we are settled into our host family's house and they are all so sweet. This is actually the first time I have ever lived in a house with men in it (once again, first time for everything) so adjusting to that. I have a host mom, host dad, host brother, and host sister and of course, Carolina is with me and has known them since she was just a little nugget.
I'm back in the land of fresh food. IT IS SO GREAT. I woke up Wednesday with Carolina and our host mama, Patricia, had prepared a breakfast for us full of fresh fruit and fresh juice and eggs. I had mentioned to her the night before that I liked arepas, so she prepared one of those for me too. I can't complain whatsoever. Once we got going on Wednesday, we had a FULL day. We met up with Erika, our internship coordinator, to go over our intern tasks. Luckily, she's like Carolina and I in the fact that she's excited and can work with two scatter-brained girls. We went and grabbed lunch afterwards and I had some delicious Colombian food. Seriously, you have no idea. We met Edwin's (our other coordinator and Erika's husband) mama because it was her restaurant, she's a phenomenal lady too. We left, caught a cab back to Erika's, grabbed our things and got ready to leave. Somehow, in the midst of all of that, we had a typo in the address that we sent to our Uber driver. Needless to say, we got lost. We went south instead of north, and ended up spending two hours in the cab. What are the odds?
We got home safely though! Shout out to Patricia for her patience. She's also hysterical, so I love her. She also made me try this weird fruit called a guama and they're weird, but so delicious. Seriously, google them. Afterwards, we went to Jumbo (their version of Super Target) and picked up a few things. I told Carolina we need to order our tickets soon to Ecuador because the Pope is coming, so tickets will be expensive if we don't hurry. I forgot she's Catholic, you should have seen how excited she got. So excited that she accidentally slammed her head on the inside of the car hahaha.
Surprisingly enough, we have already gotten to travel and just got back from a night-bus trip on Thursday night to Bucaramanga to see how Smile Education Foundation's programs are working there. We have an AWESOME program in Rionegro going on with a music program that we've been sponsoring. It's shocking to see how much happiness some xylophones and maracas can bring to a group of kids and their entire community as well. As most of you know, I have zero patience and kids usually aren't really my thing (unless they are extremely well behaved or I can pass them off to their parents when they start crying/snotting/being bratty) but these kids were SO bright and wonderful. I can't wait to get the footage that we got up onto the Smile Education Foundation Facebook page. ALSO LET'S TALK ABOUT THE BUSES HERE!? Not Ecuador, not even a bit. They had charging ports and wifi and seats that reclined 160 degrees. ANYWAY. Shout out to Edwin and Erika for taking us along and introducing us to the program because it was so great.
After seeing the program in Rionegro, Carolina and I were off to meet Hector & Deisy Mendez, the father & sister of our friend Sergio. Little did we know, we were in for quite the weekend. We went and had pizza on Friday night (best idea ever) and went straight to sleep afterwards. We woke up early Saturday and headed to Chicamocha National Park--easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Hector showed us all around, walked up and down the mountains with us, and even watched our stuff while we got on the extreme swing. Best $5 I ever did spend, by the way; then came the trip in dune buggies where Carolina almost drove us off of a mountain. Lesson learned: Carol drives fast and Colombian dune buggies are not to be trusted. Anyway, we ate a ton of arepas and enjoyed the whole day. Although exhausting, it was most definitely worth it. The following day, we slept in (for our first time since we've been in Colombia) and then got dressed and headed out to see a little bit of Bucaramanga. Hector and Deisy treated us to lunch at the best steakhouse I have ever been to. I seriously mean that, the food was so good. Afterwards, we hit Giron, a small part of Bucaramanga. It's a cute little town and I also experienced my first Catholic Mass--which was great, but a little bit weird since I had never been before, but still worth the experience. From there, despite our massive meal at lunch, we went to have dessert in Florida Blanca. These things called obleas. Talk about heaven. Afterwards, we spent some time at the local mall and headed back on a bus. Such a beautiful weekend with a beautiful family!
Now, obviously, we're back in Bogotá learning the ropes of a massive city; so thankful for Erika and Edwin and their patience with us. Not to mention Edwin's awesome dad, who treated us to lunch from his bakery today. He's also hilarious. Carol and I got back from work today and decided to kind of wander the neighborhood, go to the grocery store, and see what was around us--well worth it. Can't wait to see what else Bogotá has in store for us for sure. This weekend, we are off to Giradot with Edwin and Erika since Monday is a holiday (this Monday was a holiday too...and in two more weeks, there's another holiday) to catch some rays by the pool. If all of y'all could say a quick prayer that I don't get sun poisoning again, that would be great.
Also, bought my ticket to Ecuador this week so Quito, I WILL SEE YOU AND ALL OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE IN TWO SHORT WEEKS! Peace and blessings, y'all.
If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.
-Mario Andretti
No comments:
Post a Comment