Two Month Mile Marker

Its hard to believe I left California two months ago after a wonderful day spent at Jonas and Julia's with Emily, Anna, Julia and Jonas in the sun laughing, making daisy chains, eating artichokes and admiring the beauty that is rural Mendocino county and friendship.

Lovely California Coastline! Mendo Love <3

Its been a while since I've posted news about the colombian life and I apologize. My blogging absence has been the fault of being busy as well as experiencing various emotional ups and downs and working through it all to find mental clarity in all the difficulties and changes that present themselves as part of the natural process of cultural shock and adjustment. Apart from the natural culture shock cycle i think my mental and emotional lows also stem from the natural change of being out of college and in the "real world" and just wondering what that all means... thinking about the future-where i want to be, who i want to be and what my goals, desires and plans are... So those natural thoughts, feelings and uneasy changes combined with picking up my life and transporting it to a new culture, country and city has mixed and combined to create some serious moments of homesickness, unhappiness and loneliness. Furthermore, I have a bad tendency to over think and learning to live in the present is a lesson of my life, and this year will be the biggest practice of that skill. As I learned when I went to college the fact that I am from Elk, the most tight knit and amazing community I can think of is both the best and the most challenging aspect of my life. It has taught me many wonderful things and helped shape me into who I am and given me all the amazing opportunities I have had, but it has always made leaving, travelling, living and accomplishing my dreams, aspirations and goals twice as hard as they would be for an average person from an average town, because there is always a longing in my heart to be in Elk rather than where I am... especially when ALL my best friends are living, playing, working and loving at home, in the fog, along the coast in the redwoods. I have always been the wandering soul of my group of friends, but it has also been one (and continues to be) of the biggest challenges for me to overcome. Furthermore, friendship has a very different meaning for me that most people in the world. For me friendship is a kind of life long unconditional love, a kind of soul connection a relationship that never judges, people that know me better than i might know myself, people who make me laugh no matter what they are doing or saying and a relationship that is always comforting. This is a high standard for friendship, and I have also come to learn that unless I tote my best friends around with me I must learn to accept acquaintance type friendships and be thankful for the ones that develop and morph into true lifelong friendship. After reaching out to various people in my dire moments of homesickness and getting great advice support and out pouring love and beginning to do yoga again I have been able to soften my mental state of mind, to stop putting judgements on myself as to what i "should" be doing or feeling and to bring my thinking down to a soft simmer instead of an overwhelming boil.

Dance Camp!
Last weekend, in the midst of my depression last weekend, I wrote a whole post about DANCE CAMP but my internet failed and didn't post the post and i lost it all.. i was very upset and frustrated by that. But I must share the Dance Camp experience. As I think I had mentioned before, Jessy has been working since last October to bring her dance company from Asheville, North Carolina down here for a tour of Colombia including 8 performances, various workshops and master classes and a 5 day Dance Camp with La Red de Danza de Medellín (The Medellín Dance Network-an organization that gives dance classes to children ages 8-18 who come from backgrounds of limited resources and opportunities but who truly love to dance). Jessy being the fabulous woman she is has including me in this and allowed me to get my foot in the door with La Red de Danza in hopes I will be able to continue working with them and helping them.. as it fits perfectly into my Fulbright side project. My role was primarily translating as only Giles the artistic director of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre (ACDT) can speak Spanish and the other four dancers have a stronger French background. The 40 children of La Red de Danza were split into 3 groups divided by age and each of them choreographed two pieces to fit in with the already created show of ACDT on Fables. The first fable is about the cowardly Ostrich who is in love with the beautiful Swan and wants to show his love by picking her flowers. The youngest group were the flowers and bees, they were soooo adorable. The next Fable was the adventures lobster and scared crab who go for a boat ride in a storm. The middle aged children danced the role of the water, wind and thunder as well as the boat. I helped with the choreography and all the translation for this piece. The oldest children danced the next fable which was the ballet dancing camel, who continues to dance even though her friends tell her she is awful and boring. The children did a dance representing the desert sand dunes and palms. Next was the Lion King and the Lady bug and a challenge of abilities. The young children danced as lady bugs and forest animals. Then the older children came back as campesinos (farmers) and trees in the forest for the fable of the bear with new clothes. Then the middle aged kids danced as clients, cooks and servers in the restaurant when the hungry (tap dancing) hippo comes in to eat!!

 Alexis as the Ostrich and the little girls as the flowers in rehearsal the day before the show.

 The amazing Ostrich costume!

 Amy and Alexis as the crab and lobster! 

 Karen as the ballet dancing camel! 

 The ACDT cast at el Jardin Botánico performance!

 The whole crew of people who worked so hard to put on this fabulous production!! 

 Spanish lessons for Amy at snack time during rehearsal!

Rehearsing the sinking boat scene with Amy and Alexis.

The children are AMAZING. Friendly, happy, talented, hardworking and sooo creative. The pieces they created were wonderful. Furthermore, the costumes of ACDT (created and designed by Giles i believe) were mindblowing. The costumes of the children were great too, the parents were involved and worked very very hard all Sunday to create wonderful costumes under the artistic eye of Giles. I worked very hard the five days, but it was amazing and the final performance in el Jardin Botánico as part of the Book Fair was amazing and I even had a sense of pride and accomplishment. I am not sure what my continued role will be with La Red de Danza but I am hoping to be able to continue working and volunteering with them because the children and the director Esperanza are amazing!


ACDT then took off for a week to La Zona Cafetera for more performances and workshops. I was sad when they all left as i had spent basically a week straight with these girls, Giles and Jessy, but then they came back and we had more fun this week in Medellín! They were staying in an apartment so they had Jessy and I over for a deliciously healthy dinner Wednesday night, Thursday we went to a tapas dinner and then salsa dancing at my new favorite place in Medellín. La Son Havana. They have salsa dancing all nights and live bands thursday and saturday. the band was killer and we had sooo much fun. The company and Jessy left early because they were tired and Jessy had to work at 6 am, but i ended up staying with two of Jessy's colleagues until closing. They are awesome woman and great dancers. After the band stopped playing there were still people milling around and dancing and two older men switched off inviting me to dance salsa. Surprised as most people are that I actually am very competent at salsa dancing even though I'm a gringa, they continued to ask me to dance! It was sooo much fun!! Friday evening we all went to Envigado to meet up with some boys Jessy has been giving English classes too, it was there lesson to talk to all the dancers. Then we went to La Taverna to meet up with the Tios and many of their friends... my favorite Friday night activity! The dancers left on Saturday, partially sad to see them go as they were 5 of my friends for the past 2 weeks... but  I can't wait to make a trip to Asheville North Carolina when i get back to the United States!


In further news rainy season is in full swing, which is both frustrating but kind of nice, especially on lazy Sundays. Both yesterday and today we've had some quite impressive storms... with VERY large amounts of water coming from the sky..... also Medellín starts Christmas preparations in September.. apparently the city goes all out with decorations so extensive they have to start NOW! craziness. ............. I have the next three weeks off (yeah my job is a joke) so i will be spending a weekend in Cali for a reggaeton festival, then headed to the Carribbean coast for 10 days with Jessy to hike in national parks and do a 5 day treck to La Ciudad Perdida (the lost city)... well these plans are still pending as both my flight change and our trip bookings are still waiting confirmation..... so hopefully it all works out. But either way despite the fact that I'm spending TOO much money on this trip it is totally worth it and way better than hanging out lonely in Medellín for 3 weeks.... and definitely better than working... a quick update on my job: not too stoked on it, but it is still a good experience...


I can imagine that it is starting to truly feel like fall, after what i sounded like a few days of an indian summer (the best part of the coast!). Missing the beauty of our land and people as always.


Hugs and kisses from rainy Medellín!

Days off

Wow, its been another crazy week. Time just flies here, unbelievably so and I have two main reasons for this. 1) everything takes way longer than you think, especially when using public transportation, I pretty much need to leave almost an hour to get most places, but then again you aren't really held down to being on time. 2) it gets dark at 6:30 every day. This is the number one draw back of the equator. I love long days, and having you day end at 6:30 is sad especially coming from Northern California summer. Not to mention danger rates go up significantly as soon as the sun goes down so one is even less likely to be roaming around after dark. So that plus doing a good job at keeping myself busy has really made these weeks begin to fly by. Not to mention I somehow ended up with Monday-Thursday off. Edgar (my boss) had been in Brazil last week and came back Monday completely swamped and was unable to make and send me my schedule so I got until today off and I used my time off well.


Sunday night Meg and I met up with a Colombian guy, Andrés, who essentially Meg had gotten set up with through the señora she lives with. Turns out this guy is the son of a friend of a friend of the señora's... yeah pretty removed. Turns out a friend's boyfriend's friend from Australia was also staying with him so he joined us as well. These guys were super sweet and we ended up planning a trip to San Jeronimo and Santa Fe de Antioquia for Tuesday. We of course got off to a later start than expected... this is Colombia and Meg overslept her alarm. I was punctual per usual (its almost a fault i have). Medellín is surrounded by many small pueblos some are warm and some are cooler (depends on where in the mountains they lie and at what elevation). San Jeronimo and Santa Fe de Antioquia lie north west of Medellín at a lower elevation and are fabulously warm (but alas as I learned in Ecuador warmer and lower=bugs.. and thus i was confronted with the return of the evil bugs from Mindo and have bites all over my body. yay!). As we started driving out of the city I was instantly reminded of Ecuador. "Here is where the similarity lies" i thought to myself, geography. The Andes sprawled before us as we winded through them encountering waterfalls and busses in our lane around the corners. As we winded down and up and down and up the scenery got more lush and tropical as the air got more humid and warm. Andres informed us we would be stopping for the best chorizo in the world... we stopped at a random little restaurant with an amazing view and got chorizo and coke... classic :)

the view.

Chorizo, mandarina (to put on the chorizo) and arepa.

We were then quite close to our destination Parque Tamarindos (a water park!!!!!) when we encountered a horrible car accident. A truck driver had lost his breaks going down the mountain pass (talk about a complete nightmare) and ran into the mountain. The truck was split into three pieces and totaled but the driver somehow managed to escape with a few cuts on his face. Qué Suerte!!

 The cab of the truck

the trailer

So we were forced to wait for an hour at a random restaurant (they were stoked for so much added business) since we had just eaten we had juices and goofed around, entertaining ourselves by having coin spinning competitions. Then they got one lane cleared, and we were able to continue onward to our next destination parque de los tamarindos, a FABULOUS water park. Obviously I don't have pictures of this and we all lamented the fact that you can't have documentation of water activities unless you have a water proof camera... (mom and dad: christmas gift suggestion... ;) ). I'm a huge fan of water slides (RIP windsor waterworks) and in my experience waterslides in Latin America are freaking insanity (waterslides in Mindo and Tena). On weekends parque tamarindos is said to be ridiculously packed, but on a tuesday we were pretty much the only ones.. which meant we could dictate when they turned on what slide for us. The best one being the blue body slide. Absolute insanity. As you shoot down the blue tube there is one moment in the first turn that i would find myself bummed feeling like i was slowing down, but not for long, then you are shooting down at an incredible speed with so much water spraying your face you can't see and for a second you feel like you are going to suffocate until you shoot out the bottom into a big circular vessel going at a truly incredible pace, you go around and around a few times before you drop out (i never was able to do this very gracefully, usually head first or ass first) the hole in the bottom into a pool. After the first time down we had large amounts of adrenaline pumping in our veins and spent the next 4 hours at the park reliving our childhood and being proud of it. 

We then continued on to Santa Fe de Antioquía, the old capital of the province Antioquía. Medellín is the capital now and there is really no comparison. Santa Fe de Antioquía is quaint, small and colonial. We arrived as it was getting dark and went immediately to el puente occidente one of the oldest bridges. It was absolutely beautiful crossing over el Río Cauca. We then headed into town to the main square where we had a much deserved dinner (we were starving) and walked around the plaza. My time was short in Santa Fe de Antioquía, but gave me a taste and a desire to go back for a whole weekend when possible. 

 Meg and I at the bridge

Paul, Andres and I at the bridge.

We headed out of Santa Fe de Antioquia as it started to rain and Paul djed us home with some of my favorite tunes as Andres drove us through the rain. They dropped me off at my house and I sat on my bed exhausted from a day of feeling waterlogged and a day of 100% fun. 

Two days later, Thursday, I found myself on a bus heading out of Medellín again. This time to the Northeast to a place called Guatapé, this time with dear Pitzer alum Sonya Fierst and her friend Anna. It was raining in Medellín and raining the whole way to Guatapé. One main attraction of Guatapé is El Peñol a huge rock with 264 stairs that gives you an amazing view of the winding waterways that make up the region of Guatapé. You can also go on boat rides through the waterways (something to do on my next trip). Apparently these waterways are man made for hydro-electric use, but breathtakingly beautiful and very natural looking. We got off the bus at El Peñol after wishing the whole way there that it clears up, it was raining, hiking the Peñol at this moment would suck and the view would be very disappointing, we chased after the bus and it took us into the city as we waited for it to hopefully clear up. It was cold and drizzly so we went to a restaurant and ate bandeja paisa's (a typical plate of Antioquia which consists of four kinds of meat and is incredibly large and crazy, but delicious in its own way). 

The bandeja paisa that has brought back that lovely feeling in my stomach I was so familiar with in Ecuador and the reason I am home on a Friday night. 

Then in a food coma and still in the rain we wandered down the street to get cappucinos with a shot of baileys to aid with digestion... as we finished our cappucinos the sun started to peak and feeling slightly lighter we started walking back up towards el peñol. We then decided to hitch hike to save us time as Sonya and Anna were hoping to get back to the city by 6. 

Anna, me and Sonya in the motor-taxi headed up to el peñol.

We got to the base and began the climb (all stairs) to the top with the view grower more and more amazing.

 incredible no?

 repping my favorite town at the top!

view through a window of the building on top of el peñol. 

 the stairs that carry you to the top.

view of el peñol from the bus on the way home. 

When we got to the top the view made every step and bead of sweat more worth it than anything! After sufficiently soaking in the view we headed back down, almost got charged too much for a ride down and again ended up hitchiking this time with an American family travelling by private car. We caught the bus and bounced our way back through the mountains to Medellín where it was still grey and drizzly. 

So it was certainly an exciting and fun few days off, unfortunately it left me quite exhausted and stomach sick. But nothing i'm not used to and i am actually beginning to feel better, but it should also be bed time as tomorrow I must work at 8am.. grrrr.... There are a few other amazing things happening in my life right now, but things I will have to write about at another time. 

I hope you all enjoy the many photos i've included in this post as well as the stories of my first two trips out of Medellín. The best part of both these places are that they are easy day trips but also wonderful places to spend the weekend... who is excited to come visit me??? 

sending love from Antioquía. xoxo

Settling...

What a week its been. My heart is very saddened by the loss of our dear family friend Jonathan Shepard. He has been such a ever-present force in my life,  I have distinct very early memories of trips to "Shepard farm" and the warmth and smell of the pygmy. He was among many other things, the coach of anyone who played as much as a year of soccer, a strong community figure, a political activist, an intellectual, a writer, but to me and my sister, he was family, some form of a crazy uncle figure and this loss is greatly emotional for both of us. The fact that i am thousands of miles away from everyone I love makes this even harder and trying to find closure on it will be a challenge as pretty quickly my Colombian life changed and carried on and its easy to forget and not think about it, which in turn makes it seem unreal, but it is very real and the Acker residence will not be the same without the frequent Jonathan visits, long stories, conspiracies and copious cups of coffee consumed at all hours of the day and night. He was an amazing man and a strong and beautiful presence in my life. Thank you, Jonathan for leaving a mark on my heart and our community, you will be greatly missed and it makes me happy to know you are with your dear love Luz, wherever that may be.....

Including this picture as a tribute to a beautiful man. 

I am writing this post from my new bed, in my green room in Apartamentos Firenze. I have moved and it is lovely. Although I am of course still getting to know my room mates, I am not much closer to everything (well most things), I have a new felt independence, I can cook for myself and I am surrounded by young energy and people to hang out and talk with... friends! The ONLY downfall is our pug Juanita is not potty trained.... but she's a city dog and rarely goes outside.. so what is a pug to do? luckily we have stone floors, an empleada and a mop is easy to access. Pictures to come because I want to take them during the day....


Mi vida colombiana is starting to finally feel like its coming together and getting settled. Some notable things that have happened in the past week include moving and having a graceful and peaceful departure from Luz Mary and Jairo's house and promising to visit frequently, because i do plan to, beginning to swim again at the pool at the university--even though Colombians don't understand how swim lanes work and it was at times extraordinarily frustrating it felt so good to get in the water and after just 3 days I already have a bathing suit tan line on my back, going to a free jazz concert of Triage (colombia) and Deborah J. Carter (USA) as part of El Festival Internacional de Jazz en Medellín, starting two dance classes (a modern dance class taught by Jessy Kronenberg, and a baile tropical class... i'm hoping to take one more salsa class!!), another night at the tavern in Envigado, and getting involved in La Red de Danza which brings kids ages 8-18 who live in the outer and poorer regions of the city into Medellín to take dance classes. I am hoping to be as involved as I can be. Jessy has worked for them and brought me Saturday to meet the whole crew. Furthermore, Jessy is bringing her old dance company from Asheville, North Carolina to perform and create a performance with these children as part of their tour of Colombia. I will go Friday to help translate at the rehearsal and be as involved as I can as Jessy is truly doing an amazing thing here.
Some photos from lunch with Edgar and the whole family...

 Me, Maria (Edgar and Luz Mary's sister's daughter, half colombian half american) and Edgar at lunch.

Me, Maria and Jairo my old host man and a fabulous saxophone player (he gave me his CD).

I have become semi-frustrated with the English program at U de Medellín. Apart from the fact that I have to unjustly work Saturdays, and despite Edgar's argument that it is the most important day of the week I feel the most useless on Saturdays. I have been meaning to meat with him and see if we can change this, but he is a hard guy to track down and every time I trek up to campus to meet with him he isn't there or he's in a meeting. Apart from that though, I am often appalled by the low levels of English many of my students have and it is a direct reflection of the way classes are run. For one, the book they use is absolute CRAP. It doesn't have ANY grammar in it, just stupid pointless lessons and random vocabulary words that are not useful. It is a book published in Colombia and even has mistakes in it. Ridiculous. Furthermore, most of the teachers are not native speakers, they speak in a very heavy accent and make many mistakes. Last week I visited a woman's level one class and she HARDLY spoke English. This has created a question in my mind that I have pondered before, especially when I consider potentially being a Spanish teacher some day. Should the only language teachers be native speakers? I have two main arguments for either sie of this. Of course native speakers are advantageous since they have perfect pronunciation and can teach culture along with language. However, non-native speakers who have learned the language have a better grasp and understanding of what it is like to learn that language, and how the grammar actually works. Take myself for example, I know very little about the specifics of English grammar, however I have a very strong grasp on the workings of Spanish grammar and spelling.. something native speakers struggle with... And when I look back on my language teachers some of my favorites have not been native speakers, but most of them have been. Its a difficult question for me to answer and something to seriously ponder especially if I think I want to teach Spanish some day.


Today is my day off and it was a great one! One of the professors who comes to my Friday conversation class for professors and administrators who lives near me invited to take me to la plaza america. This is a large market that sells everything from meat to baskets to veggies, flowers and plants. Beatriz bought me a plant for my room, and some crazy fruits I had never tried before. I purchased lots of fruit and veggies... pineapple, mandarinas, apples, peppers, ginger, papaya, a HUGE avocado, cabbage, lettuce and strawberries.. Beatriz then took me to HomeCenter (home depot basically) so I could be tupper-ware and a bedside lamp then she drove me around the city showing me different things. She is a wonderful woman, she is an athlete and a yogi (we are going to go to yoga class together) and has never had kids. She has invited me to do many things with her. She speaks ok English and wants to learn more, but today we just spoke Spanish. It was a great morning. Then I dropped all my stuff off quickly at the apartment and headed to Parque Poblado to meet up with Pitzer Alum Sonya Fierst and a friend of hers who went to Hampshire and knows MAY MARTIN (small world) for some comida tipica for lunch. Then i headed up to campus hoping to talk to Edgar (my boss) but he wasn't there, so instead i ate some arequipe (dulce de leche) got confronted by a random man who saw me coming down a pathway and shouted at me "where are you from?" this did not throw me off at all. "California" I responded and we continued walking together and talking. Then I ran into Edgar's brother, Norberto (who is hilarious and I watched him finish a bottle of rum by himself one night). Then i headed back down the hill to the gym, where i ellipticaled for an hour why reading the current book i am reading and lovely (again, thank you Jessy Kronenberg). Then as I was getting ready to consider being done, I saw a class was starting with the most beautiful instructor ever. I asked what the class was.. abdomen... sold. So i did an hour of ab-work with the most beautiful colombian man i have seen yet... he even touched my abs...twice...and my legs while i was doing pelvic thrusts.. Unfortunately colombian women are the most beautiful and sexy women in the world so most sexy colombian men hardly look twice at the tall awkward gringa. Then i walked home, met Paola's (roommate) awesome gay friend, had the apartment to myself, took a much needed shower, cut up the pineapple i bought to day, ate some grapes with seeds in them (HATE THAT) and made myself a yummy salad.. a real salad. the first one in a month and a half! Then i started writing this post and now its pretty much bed time...and my roommates have just gotten home.


Tomorrow Meg and I are being taken by a SUPER TALL Colombian and his Australian friend to San Geronimo a small area outside of the city. Should be warm and beautiful, can't wait to share the stories and the pictures.


paz y amor.