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.