Looking for an apartment in Bogota

I´ve started to look for more permanent housing in Bogota. The family that I´m living with is great but I´d ideally like to have a place of my own. I´m planning on staying with the family for one more month (November), then moving into my own place (with roommates hopefully!) in the beginning of December. I´d ideally like to find a place with Spanish speakers. What I don´t want to do is move in with other English teachers and speak English all the time!

This weekend I´m hoping to go away. My host brother has a friend who lives about 4 hours from Bogota and he´s invited us to visit this weekend. I´m super-psyched because it´s HOT there. Woohoo! I can finally enjoy being close to the Equator. I won´t, however, be suprised if we don´t end up going. The thing with Colombians is that they´re not super-great with following through with plans.

Anyway, today´s the first nice day in...weeks so I´m off to enjoy the good weather.

Later!

Settling in to Bogota

So, I actually like Bogota a lot! Hooray!

A few first impressions:

-The people here are ridiculously friendly and very patient with my improving, yet not great, Spanish

-Despite my initial concerns about safety, I feel pretty safe here. The family that I'm staying with has been super helpful about taking me around the city so, despite my horrendous sense of direction, I have a pretty good lay of the land so far.

-Although clean, the city is preeetty polluted. The "busetas" (small buses) that transport people around the city billow out smog...that´s probably because they´re from the 1960s...

-I went out salsa dancing this weekend and it was AWESOME. Men here actually dance. Well. It´s crazy!

-The public transit system here leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of an metro, they have a "Transmilenio" (see pic) which is an above-ground bus system. Think of the Green "B" Line in Boston which stops every 5 seconds for a T-stop or traffic lights.

-Traffic here in general is crazy. I think the biggest threat to my safety is the crazy drivers. They pretty much pay 0 attention to "walk" signs for pedestrians and I swear they speed up as you cross the street!

-It is crazy cheap here. Not including accommodation expenses (which will probably set me back about $50/week), I have managed to eat out every single day for every single meal, go out to bars and clubs, and pay for transportation around the city on less than $100/week!

-My English students are soooo great. My classes are going really well despite the early mornings (6am-8am) and late nights (6pm-8pm) shifts.

-The weather here is CRAZY! One minute it´s sunny, the next it´s dark and rainy. Since Bogota´s so close to the equator, I thought that the climate would be a bit warmer than it is. However, it sits 8661 ft above sea level (making it the 3rd highest capital in the world), so the weather is significantly cooler than the surrounding towns that are not in the mountains.

-The food here is very different than in Buenos Aires. There are plenty of cafes and panaderias (bread/pastry shops) but there isn´t the same "cafe culture" as in B.A. That´s probably because it´s less "Euro" and more "South American" here (although I´m told that as South America capitals go, it´s still very "Western"). The food consists of a lot of carbs- rice, beans, potatoes, something called "arepa" that I think tastes like nothing, more veggies than I ate in B.A. and a lot of "fast food" (hamburgers, steak, grilled chicken, etc.)

-There are a TON of independent restaurant in Bogota. Pretty much every restaurant is a "Mom and Pop" joint. In fact, my host family owns a "fast food" restaurant which differs from American fast food because it´s really fresh and made-to-order. Many restaurants here often have a more-or-less set menu for each day. This can be pretty difficult because they often don´t have written menus which means that I often don´t know what I ordered until it comes!

-I stick out here a whoooole lot more than I did in B. A.. They other day some kids yelled out at me "Mira la gringa!" (look at the crazy white chick). Minutes later, an entire (30-some) class of pre-teens stopped me to ask "do you speak English?", then roped me into a 10-minute interview for their English class.

That´s all for now, nos vemos!

Bogota arrival

I just got to Bogota yesterday. I arrived at the airport a bit overwhelmed and disorientated but luckily my host mom, Gladys, was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. She escorted me to my new home for the next 2 weeks.

I'm living with Gladys, her boyfriend, her son Elaun, and Elauns friend Wilfriedie (or something). They´re all very nice and welcoming. Last night I walked around our neighborhood with Elaun and ended up going to a restaurant that he is somehow involved in (my tour was all in Spanish so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details) to have dinner.

No one that I live with speaks English. This is both great and horribly frustrating and overwhelming. I'm sure that by the end of the 2 weeks that I'm scheduled to stay with them, my Spanish will be much better. I do, however, spend a lot of time smiling and nodding without really knowing what I'm agreeing too. Luckily, they´re used to having English speakers who cant really speak Spanish in the house so they're very patient with me.

I visited the International House in Bogota this afternoon. I met the Director of Studies, Andy, and he showed me around the school a bit. The building is beautiful with lots of light and open terraces. Andy also gave me the course books for my first class (TOMORROW). Yikes! I have to teach tomorrow in the way-too-early morning (6am) for 2 hours! So far Ive only had experience teaching for 40 minutes at a time so a 2-hour long stretch is going to be a bit of an adjustment. Andy tells me though though that the students in my class are really great and I have nothing to worry about...I guess I´ll have better idea tomorrow!