National Holidays and Botanical Garden

So, apparently I'm not very good at consistently updating my blog...

Anyways, yesterday and last Monday were both national holidays. Last week was for Corpus Christi, and Monday was Sacred Heart of Jesus. In case you didn't know, Colombia is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. So last Monday I went with Katie, AnaCe, Pati, Guadalupe, and Armando to the Botanical Gardens. It was overcast at first, but soon turned into a beautiful sunny day. I took tons of photos, but I will only post a few here.

This is the full name of the garden. It's named after......some guy. He was kind of a big deal back in the day, so look him up if you're interested/motivated.

Right outside the gates, you can buy all sorts of cool plants. Katie and AnaCe are on the left.

There was a temporary butterfly exhibit, so the front entrance was decorated appropriately.

They are currently constructing this beautiful bridge leading to....something, but right now it's kind of a mess and the water is all nasty, but when it's done it will be really nice.

Haha, these are the naturally occurring "Elephant Trees," named so for their ears. Just kidding, I don't know who decided it was a good idea to put ears on them, but we got a kick out of it.

This guy was walking around like he owned the place. The nerve!

There were a bunch of animal statues, but if you look closely at the spots on this leopard, you might notice a few things...

There was a little girl playing near the dolphin, and it was just such a perfect photo with the tall flowers in the background that I couldn't help myself.

Katie and AnaCe taking a quick break.

Finally, the sun came out!

They had roses in all colors, shapes, and sizes.

AnaCe by (well, on) a fountain, with the gardens all around here and the mountains in the background. It was all so beautiful! (Ha, I bet you didn't think I was going to work the mountains into the Botanical Gardens, but boy, were you wrong!)

There were some really strange but beautiful tropical plants.

You can't run, you can't hide from.....this flower? Yes, that's right, it's a flower. Pretty crazy, huh?

I don't know what kind of plant this is, but the colors were pretty and I loved the water trapped in the middle.

There were winding paths in the greenhouses. It was just incredible to be surrounded by so many exotic plants.

I love these little flowers! They hang from a tree and look like ribbons. So pretty!

This looks like your cliche, run-of-the-mill tropical flower, but it's still beautiful.

Here's a real butterfly! There were prettier ones, but they never landed close enough to get a decent photo.

Yes, I realize this is not a flower, but it's pink and green and oh-so-pretty. :)

I don't even know what to call this one, but it's pretty awesome.

Ooh, ooh, I know this one! It's called "Bird of Paradise" and is an awesome plant.

Yes, this is a leaf, but it's not just a leaf. Look at those incredible colors and the droplets of water. Yeah, that's right. Leaves can be beautiful, too.

Here are some crazy vines growing near the lily pond. Enough said.

A little turtle looked very happy in the lily pond. Isn't he adorable?!? (Btw, the correct answer is 'yes,' in case you were wondering.)

Some more tropical flowers. I just marvel at all the incredible shapes and colors.

This is just a really pretty flower sprouting up among the lily pads. It's so serene.

On to the desert! These are some colorful cacti.

This plant has huge, thick leaves that people have used as a sort of living graffiti. It's a cool concept, that the stuff near the edges is older and the plant keeps growing, so as years pass it gets bigger and more marked up.

Wow, those are huge flowers....oh, they're not real. I thought it was kind of funny to have a fake flower patch in the botanical gardens.

Here's Katie doing a handstand. What prompted her? I have no idea.

AnaCe meditating in front of the Herbal Medicine garden.

Haha, flower people! Maybe the sun was getting to our heads, or maybe those 'herbal medicines' were stronger than we thought...

Snapshot of AnaCe and I.

Here's me standing in front of some huge herbal medicine plant. It sort of looks like kelp, but, you know, not underwater.

Haha, Katie was tired so she took a very short catnap. We couldn't just let her lay there completely undisturbed...

I found the entrance to the Secret Garden!! Well, okay, not really, but I am contemplating the angle at which this photo was taken...

Aww how cute! Guadalupe and Armando, our token couple. Katie and AnaCe sometimes call him the "Alpha Male" because he's so often the only man with all us ladies.

Here's a great shot of Pati. Her glasses matched the color of the flowers in this bush! I just with the sun had been out when I took this.

Las Hermanas Gringas! Everyone asks if Katie and I are sisters, because there aren't a whole lot of white people down here.

You might be thinking to yourself, "that wasn't a few photos, that was a lot!" Trust me, I had a hard enough time narrowing it down to this many. I took over 200 pictures that day.


Ooookay, so like I said, yesterday was another holiday. Did I do something fun and exciting? Not really, unless you count unclogging a shower drain in that category. I am pleased to report that it's now working quite well. I also went to the supermarket. A woman asked me if I understood English, which isn't a question I get very often. I said yes, and it turns out she needed help reading a package of cat litter, which was in English. Terribly exciting, I know.

This week I'm going to explore a little more of the city. Hopefully I will blog more frequently. No promises, though. Adios.

Weekend!

¡Hola!

Last weekend Katie was out of town, so I was more or less on my own to communicate. It actually went quite well. Friday night, after work, almost everyone went over to this little shop on the corner for beers. I definitely didn't understand everything that was said, but I generally caught the gist of conversations. I also found out that beer here is super-cheap, about $1.50 for a decent bottle. Don't worry, I didn't do anything crazy or stupid, and one of the guys I work with actually lives 2-3 blocks from my apartment, so he walked me home. It was just a good night to talk with everyone outside work. I did end up salsa-ing with an older, rather large gentleman, so everyone teases me about that, but it was a fun night.

Saturday I went to Gilete for a little while, then the whole gang headed to an indoor soccer field, where the Gilete men had a game. They ended up losing, but afterward we had a beer and just talked about whatever for awhile. It's funny, because most of them know a little English, so they were asking me how to say random phrases and then trying to get the pronunciation right. I'm sure I sound the same to them all the time, but it was nice to be on the other side of things for once. I took a ton of pictures, playing with different action settings, so here are a few highlights (Gilete is the team in white, in case the first photo doesn't spell that out):

Team huddle

Our amazing goalie - he had some really great saves!

Here's the windup, and the pitch! Oh wait, wrong sport...

The field was actually a little smaller than the indoor fields that I've played on in the U.S., and they had an out-of-bounds line, so that changes the pace and tactics of the game a little bit.

Haha, it sort of looks like the ball is just floating there, and everyone's mesmerized by it.

Take a gander (that's right, I said gander, what?) at the one guy making a wall (does one guy constitute a wall? idk) - he's making darn sure to protect the, um, more sensitive areas...

So our player on the right just kicked the ball and is still in midair. I tried getting the kick itself, but this shoot is rather interesting anyways.

It was really fun watching the team, and it reminded me just how much I miss playing soccer. After the game and beer, we walked next to this really beautiful park and had lunch. A lot of restaurants aren't American-style, where there's a menu and you just order whatever, but they have basically their dish of the day, and that's what you get. They eat a lot of meat in Colombia, so it's mildly annoying having to order a vegetarian plate, but everyone's pretty good about it. They even make sure I have sufficient protein in my dish instead of just loading it up with more rice.

After lunch, I went to AnaCe's place (she lives with Katie and Guadalupe, but neither of them were with us on Saturday). She tried teaching me some different styles of South American salsa dancing. I definitely improved, but I've got a ways to go before I really will feel comfortable going out dancing. She also busted out this huge beer for us to split, and we popped in a movie and I spent the night.I told you it was no ordinary beer bottle!

Corona + Lime = Delicious!

Ok folks, that's all I have for tonight! Stay tuned for more adventures from Colombia!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Last night, it rained in my apartment (again). This time I heard it begin and put the garbage, a large, and a pot in the bathroom to catch some of the water. It helped quite a bit, but is in no way a long-term solution. I went back to the offices this morning to tell them that the ceiling had leaked again, but when I got back this afternoon, nothing had changed. I'm definitely not happy with the landlords right now, but the best I can do is talk to them in broken Spanish, which really just can't come across as sternly as I would like. I guess I will have to wait until Katie gets back, and in the meantime, hope it doesn't rain too much.


Ah, that dreaded ceiling panel. The water mainly drips from that one corner, but also comes from that whole front edge. The light fixture fills with water, which can't be very safe.


The water continues its journey down the mirror....


and ends up in the garbage, the sink, and all over the toilet and the floor. I was surprised when I woke up the next morning to see just how much water had collected, not to mention whatever had made its way down the sink drain already (which must have been a substantial amount, since the largest "stream" was directly over the sink). At least the floor is a little cleaner...


Now I'm going to walk you through part of a typical weekday. Lucky you.

Here AnaCe and Guillermo are putting the very hot polypropylene sheet onto a torso mold. They then wrap the torso tightly so the plastic cools snugly to the shape of the plaster torso.

When I leave Gilete, these are some of the things I see every day...

Yes, this is another picture of mountains, but not just mountains. See that white building, a little to the right? It's called Monserrate Sanctuary. I've been admiring it for quite a while now, and found websites about it. It is now on my list of places to see before I leave. I love seeing the mountains every day; does it show?


I really have no idea what building this wall is guarding, but the entire top edge of the wall is covered with broken glass bottles. Apparently, someone doesn't want people getting in or out over this wall...


Here's another part of the wall with some random graffiti. Kudos to anyone who can figure out what that thing on the right is supposed to be (and no, 'alien' or 'monster' don't count).


This guy is juggling in the crosswalk while the light is red. There are people like him all over the city, trying to make a few pesos with various stunts and tricks. A few days ago, there was a different person in this same crosswalk who was balancing a bicycle on his face as he went from a standing position to laying on the ground. That was pretty impressive.


I got a kick out of this: it appears to be a Latin-Americanized Subway...except for the name.


Just about any main road has medians - the bigger the road, the bigger the median. This particular road basically has a park in the middle, complete with benches, gardens, and these! Okay, fine it is just a garbage can, but it looks like R2-D2. See it now? Yeah, there it is. I smile a little every time I see one. Matthew suggested I find a large blue bowl and complete the ensemble. Let the hunt begin! And people thought I was crazy taking a photo of the garbage can...yes, Bogotá, I represent the U.S.


Speaking of R2-D2...I found him! He's working at an audio-visual shop in Bogotá. Who knew?


And finally, the last stop on our tour: my place!

I hope you've enjoyed this little walk in my shoes. You might be wondering, "But Jess, what's with the title? What was good, what was bad, and what was ugly?"

That's open to interpretation, my friend. Consider it a work of modern art. You're welcome.