Well, we’ve survived another week. This week wasn’t very exciting, because we
just looked for jobs. But I still have
a lot to write about because I forgot a lot of stuff last week. So here is your second glimpse of life in
Colombia.
Fun experiences:
- Last week, James decided that he needed a haircut, because
his hair was longer than any Colombian’s.
We had just found another mall, and there was a reputable looking barber
shop in the mall. The only other “barber”
that we had seen thus far was in Getsemani.
There was a sign in front of some old broken down doors that said “Barber
in the yard” with an arrow leading back into a shady looking yard. We didn’t want to risk that one. So we decided to try out the mall shop. Because James just always got his hair shaved
in Chile, he wasn’t sure how to tell the guy to style it in Spanish. So he just said “make it shorter”. The guy started cutting his hair and after
about 20 minutes, he had the Jerry Seinfeld 90s poofy mullet. I was delighted and had to put my hand over
my mouth to stop from laughing out loud.
Luckily, he wasn’t done. He
continued to chop away and then pulled out the razor. James had about a week’s worth of beard
growth. The guy asked if he could shave
his sideburns a little bit shorter.
James consented, and he went to work with the razor. At first, it looked like he was going to try
to shave a little bit extra to try to blend in with the scruff. Then he just kept going. Five minutes later he had shaved James’
entire face. It was super
hilarious. Luckily, James wasn’t trying
to grow a beard, and the guy didn’t charge us extra for the shave. So really it was a win-win. And in the end James ended up with a cute
haircut that does not look like Jerry Seinfeld.
- When we checked out Bocagrande (the rich part of town), we
stopped by the beach to take a look. We
were in our jeans and T-shirts, because we hadn’t planned on spending time at
the beach. So there we stand, fully
clothed, just looking at the water for maybe 30 seconds. Then two women walk up with buckets and start
speaking rapid-fire Spanish to James. They
were asking if they could put sunscreen on us (for money, naturally), and James
was insisting that we didn’t need their services. Next thing I know, we both have a Colombian
woman slathering us with sunscreen (which was watered down lotion, I’m pretty
sure) in any exposed areas of our bodies…and some that weren’t exposed…she
reached down the back of my shirt. Needless
to say, I felt super violated, but also pretty amused because no matter how
much we both insisted we weren’t going to pay them, they kept on going. After they were done, they asked for 50 mil,
which is about $17 US. James gave them
each 2 mil (less than $1 each) so they didn’t kill us. What did we learn from
this experience? Never stop walking on
the beach for more than 10 seconds.
Actually, we have since had this happen to us almost every
time we have been to the beach by our apartment. If James was in the ocean and they came over
to me, I would tell them, “No!”, “I don’t have money”, “I don’t speak Spanish”,
etc. and they would still try to touch me.
My solution was just to walk into the ocean when they came over. Seriously, I did this for 2 days. Then James figured out that when they try to
touch you, you touch their arm and say “no” firmly.
This seems to work, and will be our counter attack from now on, until a
Colombian can tell us how to get rid of them without being touched.
- Also, we found this cool tile on the way to church
today. Doesn’t it look like the painting
Rafiki does of Simba?
Differences between Colombia and America:
-Remember how I talked about the insane driving in
Colombia? Now add horse-drawn carriages
to the mix of speeding buses, Jeeps, taxis and motorcycles. There are horse-drawn carriages all over the
city, but I rarely see people in them. I
assume they are better utilized during the tourist season. I don’t know a lot about horses, but from
what I do know, they tend to be scared of loud noises, lights, etc. These horses sit in the middle of heavy,
constantly honking traffic and are totally not phased at all. It’s amazing to me.
- More people than I would expect take the motorcycle taxis
home from work, shopping, etc. It’s not
uncommon to see someone taking something overly large or bulky on the back of a
motorcycle taxi. My favorites have been
1) a single drawer from a dresser and 2) a child’s play kitchen. I also saw a guy on a bicycle trying to push
around a 4’X8’ piece of sheet metal. He
was less successful.
- The phone numbers down here are still an unsolved
mystery. They have the standard 10-digit
number, but then underneath, they have a 7-digit number that is completely
different, and often they have ANOTHER completely different 7-digit number
underneath that. We’re baffled.
- Our “piano” at church is a keyboard. I love it.
- We do not have an oven in our apartment. I think this is fairly common for anywhere
but the US, but it has seriously cramped our style. Even for me, someone who rarely cooks. Luckily, we have found some hard-to-find
American grub, so I will treat myself to that when I’m tired of rice and
chicken.
PB&J and Mott's apple juice
Things we like…and things we don’t:
- Because everyone walks everywhere, when we go to the
grocery store, they tie the tops of the bags to make them easier to carry. James hates this, and unties them every
time. - Colombians are known for speaking Spanish very clearly, which means their accent is very easy to understand. That does seem to be the case, most of the time. It is easier for me to understand someone’s Spanish here than it was for me to understand Mexicans, etc. in the US. However, there are some Colombians who have terrible accents. The first few days we were here, we would talk to someone and James would turn to me afterwards and say “I have no idea what they just said”. I can now tell when James is going to have a hard time understanding someone, because even I can pick up on the bad accent. If I were to explain it, I would say they sound more mumbly and hoarse. So it does suck that even James can’t always understand everyone, but I’m sure we will be used to it within a few weeks.
- We do not have hot water here. Not for dishes, laundry, or the shower. It sucks.
For the first week, I actually didn’t mind very much. The showers were pretty refreshing because it
is so crazy hot here. Now I have gotten
used to the heat (to some degree) and the cold showers are pretty rough.
- The ocean is a negative and a positive. Like I mentioned last week, the ocean is so
warm here. For those of you who know me,
you know that I will rarely get into any body of cold water. I’m proud to say I get in the ocean every
time we go to the beach now. But it’s because
it’s warm. So warm is great.
What is not great is the trash. There is trash EVERYWHERE in Cartagena. So it would make sense that the ocean is also
full of it, right? It’s
unfortunate.
Also unfortunate is the
lack of sea life (from what we have seen).
I keep wanting to look out my window and see splashes from a dolphin
pod, or a whale tail. I’d even go for a
sea lion swimming around. But alas, we
have seen no marine life, other than 2” albino crabs that live in holes in the
sand. And trust me, those are not the
kind of marine life you want to encounter.
- There are so many grocery stores here. There are little tienditas on every corner
(essentially a convenience store) and they have pretty much everything you
would need if you were buying things one meal at a time. Because James went to
Chile, and because I have talked to a lot of people from Mexico and South
America, I was expecting these. But I am
surprised by the reasonable prices, and I absolutely love the convenience. There are also quite a few big stores really
close by us, and that’s nice to get items in bulk. I just love having so many options within
walking distance.
- When we go out to eat, we have generally been sticking to
places closer to our apartment. So we get oceanfront dining at home and when we go out. So that’s pretty freakin’ awesome. But I’m already starting to take it for
granted, and I’m sad about that.
- I love our apartment and I am afraid I will have to be dragged out when we have to leave it :(
Conclusion, we love Colombia and are super pumped to live
here.
No comments:
Post a Comment