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!