I currently find myself with an extra hour before I head to my 10:00 am conversation class and I got up at 6:30am. Why you ask? Well its quite simple really, Colombian disorganization. I'm currently rehearsing for a salsa performance that will occur Saturday. I was chosen by my instructor at the academy to represent him and his students. Sounds pretty cool right? And it is for the most part, except that we didn't start rehearsing until Monday (leaving us 5 days) and now we are trying to cram in as many rehearsals as possible that fit into the four dancers schedules so we had decided today we would rehearse at 8 am because I have to work at 10. I get my ass up (I physically can't get up early these days.. not quite sure why) organize all my stuff for the day which involves bringing a change of clothes, all my class stuff, my swimming stuff etc. Eat some breakfast and head to the academy. I get there right at 8 as all the other instructors are arriving, it was crazy to be there so early since usually I am there at 4. I'm sitting and waiting while they finish sweeping up the floor etc. and hear someone ask Norman, my instructor, who he is with right now. A few minutes later he comes over and says, oh they made a mistake and I have another class right now can you come back in the afternoon. Are you kidding me? Luckily I can because well my schedule is quite open, but it was freaking 8 in the morning! Annoying. I act as if its all fine and dandy because what am I really gonna do about it anyway and leave to head back home. I knew I was going to run into Daniel one of the other dancers because yesterday we discovered we are legitimately neighbors, like we live across the street from each other. And there he was trucking up the street as i left. He looked at me questioning and i explained. He was pissed as he too did not want to get up so early. So we walked back to our houses together chit chatting and getting to know each other and he went back to sleep and I have this awkward amount of time to kill. Furthermore, yesterday when I found out we would be rehearsing at 8 am and I would have to book it directly to campus right before my class, I realized that I wouldn't have time to make copies of the things I needed for my conversation class (I'm doing a lesson on Thanksgiving) so I would have to pay to make copies now. So I go to the local internet and copy place make all my copies which I figured would come out to not be a lot because generally making copies isn't so I just brought 5,000 pesos with me. I was wrong. Came out to be a whooping 16,000 pesos!! Are you kidding me? I was pissed but it was, I thought, really my only option and I had to suck it up. Again I was wrong. So now not only did I get up early for no reason and trek the 20 minutes up la avenida 33 to the studio I'm out 16,000 pesos which is a solid meal or two right there! Its funny because this is not the only time that I've used my American skills of time management and was all prepared to blast through a busy tightly scheduled day and Colombia shits on me. Its as if to make things work in Colombia you have to always be late and disorganized because thats the way the rest of the country is and operates.....Oh Colombia.........
Another fun anecdote that I decided I wanted to share is about the Stadium here in Medellín. I had been there once at the beginning of my time here when we went to see the Under 20 World Cup game, and since then I've walked by it, gotten on and off the metro by it and gotten drinks on the avenue near it but I hadn't really been in and around and explored it. I knew it has some great features but I hadn't ever seen it for myself. Yesterday since I had an afternoon of free time (story of my life) I decided to go for a run. Usually I just run around the neighborhood which isn't super exciting but it gets the job done. Today I decided I would run up to the Stadium (its about a 20-25 minute walk) and see what was up there. Pretty happy I made that decision because let me tell you that place is AWESOME! There are a ton of Colliseums for all different sports... basketball, volleyball, handball, wrestling, fencing, gymnastics, soccer, an olympic size swimming pool, a gym, a track and of course the huge soccer stadium (and there could be more thats all I saw and I only stayed on one side of it). I wandered through it utterly amazed at what it had to offered. People who partaking in all of the above activities. My favorite to watch were the gymnasts. Colombians of all ages were learning to do round off back handsprings, jumping in trampolines, throwing hula hoops up in the air and balancing on beams. I eventually found my way to the track which was my ultimate goal and realized that the outer lane was open for anyone to run. Excellent! I took off running meanwhile seriously observing all the different kinds of people there were working out and training in this area. I'm still slightly confused as to who really uses all these facilities. There are programs through the Alcaldia de Medellín but I don't know if they are just for fun or what. I'm also pretty sure that many of the people working and training there are training to represent Colombia (or try to atleast) in the Olympics because all over there are signs that say "Medellín vamos por los Olympicos"... So I'm thinking that many of the programs are Olympic Development Programs (or what we call ODP). But there are also other government sponsored programs, for example there was a group of handicapped people, they looked like they all had down-syndrome who were sprinting and training as well... I don't know perhaps some sort of Special Olympics because they were decked out in some pretty serious gear. Furthermore, there were some serious muscles I saw there. A girl was running around (but doing the kind of run you do when preparing to pole vault) with the crazy abs I have ever seen. There were some very large girls and boys throwing the shot put, and in the training room I saw a girl with roaring thighs squat some insane amount of weight. So yea, here I am running around the track with people training for the Olympics... that made me feel good about myself... haha. But actually in the lane I was running I was the fastest and I lapped pretty much everyone because it was a mostly people walking and doing a slow jog that were running at this hour in the outer lane. Either way it was a great discovery that I will certainly go back to and look further into what sort of facilities I can use as an outsider while continue looking for the answers to all my questions about who exactly these people (mostly kids) are who are training and using the facilities.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I get sad when I think about what I'm missing and when I see on facebook that everyone is headed home. Again I am missing fall more than I would have imagined and I love going home for Thanksgiving, its usually the first time college students come home and EVERYONE is there. Saturday night at Patterson's and Dicks is just so fun! But, despite the fact that I won't be spending Thanksgiving with my family and friends I will get to have a Thanksgiving dinner and a good weekend!! I have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Jorge and Dora two English professors at la U de M who grew up in the United States so they understand the beauty that is Thanksgiving. Then this weekend a group of Fulbrighters are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us and to get to know the lovely city of Medellín. Plus I have my dance rehearsal that should be fun and then I only have one short week more of work before two months of vacation. Praise the Lord!!!!!! I'm pretty over working and ready to get out and explore and not set foot on the stupid U de M campus for quite a while. Then when I come back to work I will only have FOUR MORE MONTHS of work which will probably be more like three because of spring vacations and the time I'm gonna take off when my parents come! Yup, things are looking up....
Well speaking of work looks like its time to leave the house, get on the bus and head up the hill to campus. Hope you all enjoyed my random anecdotes from the past few days.
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