1. Personal space/touchy-feelyness—family and friends are constantly around; I’ve been home alone once for 30 minutes since arriving (although they respect my space if I go into my room and close the door). Everyone is always touching, stroking, kissing, or holding someone else. I sandwich myself between Colombians and their butts so I don’t fall over while riding buses. Thank goodness people use deodorant here; I think I would have died of BO if I was surrounded by antiperspirant-less Turks in this heat.
2. Wildlife—my roommates have included a cockroach, ants, lizards, and mosquitos. Most mosquito bites are on my legs; I counted 46 today. Bruno, my nemesis; aka the hyper, yappy poodle that lives in the back of the house. GIANT iguanas at the Peace Corps training facility.
3. Fruit—there are a bazillion different varieties. I still know none of their names, so enough said.
4. Party, party, party—people love to drink, dance, talk, and listen to music whenever given a chance. Every night is not necessarily a party, but for every holiday (which there are lots of, thanks to Saints) or weekend everyone comes out of their homes, pumps the music and dances in the streets or bars. Below: my neighbors' sound system.
5. Dirty dancing—should have been made on the Colombian coast. It awkward enough to watch 8 year old girls dancing very provocatively in tight shorts and badazzled bikinis, but they fact that they are legitimately amazing dancers and that all teachers are cheering them on leads to many “this-would-never-happen-in-the-US” moments. However, it’s not just this, but all types of dance, that everyone here is incredible at.
6. Machismo—especially prosperous on the coast. We’ve been warned that stereotypically men here have several girlfriends (of course there are exceptions).
7. Arroyos—rain water eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean, using the streets of Barranquilla as its way to get there. Upon arrival to Barranquilla, the Peace Corps gave us a list of 25+ locations not to be at while raining. These arroyos can swallow people, cars, trees, and anything else in their path; serious business. After a rainstorm many streets remain uncrossable, giving me an excuse to be at least 2 hours late after a rainstorm and a transition into my next number…
8. Costeño time—you have every reason to have a lengthy conversation with anyone while en route to somewhere, and therefore to be late. People come and go whenever and linger everywhere in between. Everyone here is incredibly social and warm.
9. Soccer is the new football—no American football here but instead futbol, aka soccer. People are playing it, watching it or talking about it. All of Colombia’s home games for qualifying for the World Cup will be played in Barranquilla’s massive stadium. Venezuela and Argentina teams will play here in November and tickets only cost about $15 USD.
10. Personal hygiene—my surplus sweating has shockingly led me to be more hygienic. Showering twice per day is standard; in fact, it’s expected when it’s especially humid. Showers, I may add, consist of a single, cold stream of water about half an inch wide. My desire to not be known as ‘the dirty gringa’ also has triggered a need to put away and fold my clothes, make my bed, and sweep my room daily.
Now that I have internet on my laptop, here are some long awaited pictures!!
My host brothers and room.
With students from the first school visited.
My Spanish class (me, Tyler, Monica, and Orlando--our teacher)
From my visit to Santa Marta
No comments:
Post a Comment