My first week in Colombia

On Tuesday, bright and early, all nine of us marched to the campus, a three minute walk. El Rector welcomed us and introduced to us the EFE team, i.e. all of the teachers and staff that are going to help us learn Spanish and Colombian culture. Javeriana Cali has a beautiful campus on the south edge of the city. As we were walking around, lo and behold, la iguana! IGUANA – I screamed at it from above (iguanas cannot hear well) and she just gave me a confused stare. I curbed my desire to hug it and walked on by.

Joanne let me borrow one of her books: Alfredo Molano's Desterrados

[Spanish] Word of the day: si!

I am in level Basico – Spanish classes run from 8.30 am to noon, starting with grammar and then conversation. In the afternoons we have different cultural activities, like music appreciation workshop (Wednesdays and Fridays) and dance classes (Thursday). Wednesday I meet German for the first time. The G in his name is pronounced as the h in him and the stress is on a. Why am I so particular about how to pronounce his name? Well, because one of the things that he helps us with is pronouncing correctly Spanish sounds. His first choice was easy for me – the elle, or L, I can do it – hey, my name is Lazi, no? Oh, but what a headache, the next sound was erre, R, which for most Bulgarians is easy. How hard is it to roll an r? For those of you who haven't heard me try it – German sounds like an enraged tiger, and I, like a dashing baby cheetah.

[Spanish] Word of the day: CARO (dear, espensive) or was it carro (car) … well, 'BMW' will cover it all :)

This Thursday = verbos!
We learned about 20 or so verbs in the present tense. The afternoon was much more fun as we got to pick different fruits and make sal picon, which here in Cali means a number of colorful fruits chopped finely, with orange or other citrus juice. After this refreshing exercise, Arriba! and on to dance class with Jenny. Jenny is awesomely cool and after showing us some of the basic salsa steps, she had a surprise for us – her students performed Cumbia.

[Spanish] Word of the day: delicioso

Friday was way too much of everything in the morning – heat, sights and smells, words, people. A la tarde, music with German. He brought a beautiful, beautiful Colombian song, Navidad Negra, for us to learn. Let's just say that I need much more practice... the year of solfège I had to take when I was 8-9 apparently left very traumatic impressions on me when asked to sing in public [Note: but even as I type I'm screaming 'here they come, the beautiful ones, lalalala... you don't think about it, you don't do without it, because you're beautiful...' (Suede)]

[Spanish] Word of the day: precioso [beautiful, of course]
Saludos cariñosos,
Lazi

The arrival

My trip to Cali, Colombia began on a red eye to Miami. The dinky 5-hour flight was followed by a 9 hour layover in MIA, where I managed to get a lot of work done, but not any decent coffee. Alas, not an impressive start, but I changed into a pink Gonzaga tee and the remaining three hours to Cali were quite pleasant.

The 'final descent' to Cali was around that time when the sun has set, but the oranges of a few rays are still flaring. The 737 plunged into a wet dark-gray and rocked steadily for a few minutes. Soon I could make the lights of the city below, which blackened and flickered in an awesome incandescent oranges and blues. Inferno, my tired brain concluded, and then suddenly, a brilliant streak slashed the darkness, and it took me a few moments to realize I was looking at the sky peering through the gray veil of the storm.

Immigration – the semi-disinterested officer gave me a stamp of approval after looking at my visa and my tentative “soy professora” attempt at explaining my visit. A gorgeous lab sniffed my luggage and hand, and proceeded to another suitcase, without considering my invitation to play. My tee spoke louder, later on, when I was greeted by what turned out to be our driver. Gonzaga, vamos!, he exclaimed and I found myself sitting next to his wife and three kids in a minivan, accompanied by Yelena, a colleague from University of San Francisco, who had arrived on the same flight.

Villa Javier is where I and the 8 other colleagues on various exchange missions will be living for the duration of our stay (33 days in my case). Upon arrival, Adriana, showed me to my room and offered me a sandwich, which she emphasized with a smile was vegetarian. I ate my sandwich, thanked Adriana, went to my room, took a shower, and passed out on one of the two single beds in my room.

[Spanish] Word of the day: entiendes?

No, but I'll write about that tomorrow.