I finally ended an unhealthy relationship I’ve been in for a while now. There’s only so long you take all the negativity and the screaming on the phone before you figure out that you deserve better. I’ll miss DirectTV, but I think the pain is part of the process. I’ve introduced the term ‘rere’ as in retard, to Colombia via my students. There’s nothing like hearing one student tell another student “stop being a rere!” to let you know, that somehow, in just a little way, you’re doing some good in the world. Christine, I know that make [View Full Entry]

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I think the biggest difference between here and the US is the quality of CornNuts.* Last week I went to the world’s biggest Vallenato festival, about 4 hours from here in car. What’s Vallenato you ask, as far as pop music goes, Carlos Vives is poppy Vallenato. Who is Carlos Vives you ask? Anyways, it’s a local music that is insanely popular here, in fact in my little town if I care to hear it any hour of the day or night, one needs only to crack open a window and let it in. A lot of accordion and scraping [View Full Entry]

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Geetings from the mad country. Sorry all, I know I was off the grid for a while like the Chinese guy in the Matrix. I took a pretty madcap trip over Semana Santa/Holy Week. I have determined that you very much miss the best parts of the country by flying over it rather than driving Colombia’s wild roadways. The car treated us well, despite two flat tires, the two tows and several hours in a mechanic place. It finally rained, and man did it. In my little hamlet alone, there were a number of sweeping out to sea drownings. You [View Full Entry]

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A freaking jellyfish stung me on Sunday. It’s feels kind of like getting stung by a bee. Except underwater, and you don’t have that satisfying knowledge that it cost the bee his life to sting you. You know what Latin America has a lot of? No, not low wage laborers. Okay, some of those too. Trash. It really shocked me how much trash is everywhere when I first arrived. I try not to litter but I’ve gotten to know some trash pretty well in marathon searches for a trashcan. It still hasn’t rained. The last time I remember it raining [View Full Entry]

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Have you ever had smoked stingray from a street vendor? Or diarrhea for 8 days? The two questions are unrelated. So I made it on tv in South America again.* Turns out some camara man was watching me dance retardedly by myself, thought it made good tv and put it on every evening newscast as an example of gringos at Carnaval. At least half of my students and both of my bosses didn’t see it. Lucky for me dancing provocatively on tv gets you a promotion in Colombia. I went to an all day outdoor concert one day, the Festival de [View Full Entry]

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School’s back in session, we just took a field trip that kind of sucked, Friday (2nd) was Shakira’s birthday and my kids took a stomping in intramural soccer, lost 4-0 much to my shame and to the extreme detriment of their grades. Rumor has it the gay, America hating, ex-pro hockey player (Washington) who steals the tennis courts at the best times everyday has been ejected from the country. For being gay. Not really, for being violent in his encounters with the locals. He tried to claim he was just being “sassy” but since this culture’s too macho for such a [View Full Entry]

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The first script for the Karate Kid originally called for Daniel LaRusso to have spina bifida. I missed the Sports Show at Bartle Hall this weekend. What a great event that was to work, all the free concession food you could handle, almost no work, and the tips galore. The best was the time me and Bob bribed one of the guys selling conversion vans with a hot dog and sat in there watching the Arizona/Minnesota playoff game, whatever year that would have been. Jake the Snake before he was helping tank the dastardly Denver Donkeys. A few interesting anecdotes from [View Full Entry]

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“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”* So we’ve reached 2007 (which according to the gypsy woman will be the best year of my life, but then she said that of 2006). If you parlayed a bet on the 4 games the Chiefs needed to go their way, you would have won 700 to 1 odds. Some new lunacy from my stupid bank, if I use one of my bank’s ATMs, but in a different city, they charge me. A couple of nights before Christmas, [View Full Entry]

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Thing about windy season is, man is it windy. Like -can’t open the front door if the back door is open- windy. The pool whitecaps out of the it’s constraints, windows break all over the building, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria. I think I’m going to change my thesis topic to how Colombian Movie theaters are a reflection of all that is wrong with Latin America. In the Spanish dubbed version of the A-Team, B.A. Baracus is named M. A. Barracus, the "M. A." for "Mala Actitud" (Bad Attitude). It’s high season officially, meaning cabbies feel more justified th [View Full Entry]

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A Colombian told me that they were getting into the Christmas spirit because it was getting windy. It does mark the beginning of the holiday season, but for someone used to the cold indicating Christmas is on the way, it seemed a touch strange. I spent the weekend on the beach in the eco-park Tayrona. I’m crazy sunburned, and never feel so out of shape as when I backpack in and almost die of heat exhaustion. Similar to the weather back home right now I suppose. We listened to Roxette’s greatest hits on the way home and it was awesome. Friday [View Full Entry]

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