Lessons Learned

Things I learned this weekend:

• Don't mix friends: We all have our different groups of friends: work friends, child-hood friends, sport friends, drinking friends, ect.... Well that is very true for us here. We have about four or five different social circles and this weekend I learned it is better not to mix. I knew this before but I relapsed and our groups of friends here in Cali really differ from each other greatly. On Sunday we went climbing with some friends and I invited another girlfriend with us and although they were all Colombian it just wasn't enough to bring them together. Rude crude dirt bag climbers hang with peace and love vegetarian couch surfer friend = not successful. Bringing my best friend/neighbor to the American party was not that successful either. Both times equal stress for me...being the person in the middle sucks.

• Climbers are universal: For those of you who don't know climbers seem to have a style that is similar to someone who has been living in the jungle for years, known fondly to climbers as a "dirt-bag" Well it is kind of comforting that even in a country where fashion, beauty and cleanliness rule, that there are dirt bags among them. Maybe they all watch climbing videos and try to emulate the same style but a bini in the jungle of Cali?

• I think I want kids: Think being the operative word but after going to the carnival day with Sofia and Surella I found myself wanted my own kid to take on all the bouncy things and I was sad when she left. Luckily I found a bunch of my students to play with. 

• Being thirty means you can't sleep in: We stayed out very late both Friday and Saturday, okay not my Colombian standards but anytime after 1:00am is late for me. But no matter how late I got to sleep my eyes pop open at 6am and I can't fall back to sleep...it sucks!!!!

 

• My Spanish may be improving but I think my English is getting worse: The idea of a bilingual school is that the students spend all day listening to us speak English and they learn by modeling....and it really works. yet, I am finding it works the other way too. I listen to them speak in English all day but their syntax and word use is coming from Spanish. So now I find myself talking like them. It is really strange. I find myself saying things like "I went to the house of Enrique" instead of saying Enrique's house. I am always using the phrase "For Example." And sometimes I find myself talking in short sentences and skipping small words that are necessary to sound intelligent.

• It's a lot harder doing work for our Salmon business now that we have a full time job and the hope of making money from fishing is low: Last year when we were living on the road in our van...basically living the life, I was so gung-ho about fishing...making the website, marketing, finding new clients. But now with this job and being so far away it is hard to get motivated. Especially since the predictions are so low for this year....but finally I finished ALL the paper work. No I just need to fax it! But good spot for a shameless plug.....If you or anyone you know would like to order some of the worlds BEST salmon go to our website http://thesalmonpeopleofalaska.com/

• I had an epiphany about Colombian "time:" Colombian time (kind of like Island time in Hawaii) is probably one of the hardest things for foreigners to adjust too. People are very casual about time and are not punctual. Well when we left the climbing area on Sunday via a packed jeep I had an epiphany. As I looked around the jeep and it was full of people who take this unreliable transportation on a daily basis I realized even if these people told someone they would be there at 7:00 chances are they would not be there at 7:00 so why even try. There are just too many variables when dealing with public transportation of this kind....traffic, accidents, breakdowns, the driver stops and chats to someone they know, turned over peanut truck....or who knows what else. So why worry about something you can't control. You just leave your house and now you will get there eventually. A hard concept for us punctual North Americans who can just hop in their car and drive anywhere at anytime. It is kind of an interesting change..really just letting go and getting car sick as exhaust fumigates your face and your sweaty arm sticks to the person sitting next to you. 

•  Playing Pictionary in Spanish is a great way to learn a language: On Friday night we hung out with our "couch surfing friends" which are a super fun group of people...imagine how much Aaron liked them when they suggested we play a game. Eventhough they are speaking just in Spanish Aaron thought....these are my type of people! Anyway it was a crack up becuase we were the two English Speakers, there was one Dutch speaker and the rest in Spanish so we all learned new words and had a freaken blast! 

Some Photos of climbing in Dapa...(my friend has more so possibly more to come later) It was fun to be on the rock again!