http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Cstine/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Cstine en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:10:15 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:10:15 UTC what a fantastic weekend...Sascha and I went to this little town called Tamesis. When I say little I mean little. You could never get lost because from one side of the main town to the other takes about 10 minutes to walk. Much smaller than the University of Maryland campus I am used to walking acrossThe first thing we did when we got there was drop our stuff off at our adorable and friendly http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-306074.html I am sorry for the short entry last night but I am ready to attempt summing up my last 9 days in this wonderful country...Last weekend was wonderful. On Saturday I woke up early and sacrificed paragliding on a beautiful day in order to take a daytrip by myself. I took a bus to Rionegro a small yet bustling town about an hour from Medellin. The town was cute the bus ride was pretty and the http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-304538.html WOW I have a week to sum up here and that is too difficult. SOOOO this time I will let the pictures do most of the story telling.and the uploading of pictures took almost two hours so im spent. i will write more tomorrow when I am good and depressed that it is my last day. http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-304173.html Wednesdays at the foundation are slower because the kids have clases de valores throughout the day. During some downtime I had somewhat of an awakening. I have constantly been thinking about how these children need motivation to come to class behave well and learn some English. My state of my mind was on a grand scale thinking that the kids need to see new places understand that there are http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-301220.html Picture time againThe pictures of the children are at that place I had mentioned in my last blog the game box.The pictures of artwork that I took until I got yelled at are of some of my favorite paintings at the Museo de Antioquia. The museum was alright nothing to go crazy about. The first floor was all really boring and old portraits. I have never seen so many portraits in one section of http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-299364.html I have the better part of a week to talk about so I will go through and describe some of the more important highlights...Funny StoryMy first story still makes me laugh out loud as I am walking down the street by myself and thinking about it. An important thing to keep in mind as I tell this story is that the students we are teaching hardly know ANY words in English. OK VERY few. To begin http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-298634.html I am in love with Antioquia.Ok first I will begin with Friday. Friday was mine and Sascha's first day teaching by ourselves. We taught the older kids in the morning organized and planned our behinds off and then we each had really long one on one lessons in the afternoon. I worked with Luisa who is a wonderfully kind and cooperative 13 yearold with striking green eyes that you cannot help http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/Guatape/blog-296726.html Yesterday one volunteer and I Jennifer spent the first half the day with two girls Marcela and Leidy. They are two of the three girls I mentioned in an earlier blog whose mother was selling gum by the park the other day. They are absolutely adorable and we had a great time teaching them and playing with them. Not know Spanish very well isn't too bad because the children are the most patient http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-295028.html Today was my first official day working at the foundation and it was an interesting one. Most of the children are away on holiday so less than half have been there for over a week. They will slowly trickle back in until Sunday then it will be back to almost 60.It is so interesting how this foundation works. A lot of the children have parents who are dead and a lot have parents who are addic http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-294219.html I have spent 24 hours in Medellin and I am SO MUCH happier than I ever expected to be. For starters the airport is a 40 minute drive up and over a mountain and the city of Medellin is already at an altitude of 5000 feet so you can imagine how beautiful the scene is and how fresh the air feels. The city is HUGE and covers a large valley in between some of the andean mountains. In the airplane http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Medellin/blog-293712.html