Nope, not heaven. Just the view from our bedroom.
Fun experiences:
-We have discovered that Colombia does not have a postal service. Like none. Remember when the US was going to do that a few years ago? But then we didn't because we realized that it would create unbelievable chaos? Well, Colombia went through with it about 8 years ago. But, somehow, we have lived here for 4 months without knowing this.
So we had to send something to the states for our visa process. I found the "post office" online (for some reason, there is still an active website) and we tried to go there during Semana Santa. Naturally, everything was closed. But as we walked around, we couldn't even find this supposed "post office". We finally asked someone where it was, and he confusedly pointed to the place where you can send money and pay your bills. We assumed he was crazy, and since we needed to send the document ASAP, we went to DHL. Fifty dollars later, I had to send it to my mom instead of the destination P.O. Box because DHL doesn't send to P.O. Boxes. I put our Colombian return address inside of the envelope to make sure it would come back to us. A month later, there's no sign of it anywhere. James asked his coworkers where we can go to try to retrieve this missing document, and they basically told him it's gone forever. One of the American teachers at James's school had a package sent to her "through regular mail", and it showed up somehow 4 months later. So I'm crossing my fingers that our document will show up in 3 more months. But for now, since, ya know, we need visas, I had to have my mom send another document from Utah. After my mom talked to 2 different FedEx stores and 2 different FedEx employees on the phone, we were instructed to put a return slip ($80), and "maybe" it will get back to us. Thank goodness for mommies. But now we know that no one can ever send us anything ever.
-We see people (usually men) peeing outside all the time. Usually, they go into a relatively secluded corner/area to do their business. It rarely shocks me anymore. However, we saw a guy peeing in front of hundreds of people on the main street in Cartagena. Just right there in the middle of the sidewalk. Needless to say, I'm even more wary of questionable puddles now.
-We tried to pay tithing for the first time today (yes, this is the first time in 3 months that James has been paid), and it was a 10+ minute process. We had tried to get tithing slips before sacrament meeting, but they were nowhere to be found. When James asked someone where they were, they told him to ask this guy in the bishopric. We went into the office after church was over, and there was a line of people paying tithing...cashier style? The 2nd counselor was sitting at a little table with the secretary and was double-checking people's tithing slips and putting the money in a box. I felt like it was a test. And they were pretty apalled that we didn't know our membership numbers. Now we know that we need to prepare better, and only pay tithing anytime we have a spare 10 minutes.
-We finally went to the castle yesterday. To be perfectly honest, we didn't have high expectations. We see the castle every day and it just doesn't seem particularly impressive, other than the fact that it's a 400+ year old castle. But it was AWESOME! We could see every part of the city from the top of the castle, which was super cool. But we didn't expect to be able to go into the tunnels, but, hello, we're in Colombia. There were very few places of that castle that were off-limits. In fact, you could have easily walked off a 20 foot wall if you weren't paying attention. Colombia just lets you walk around wherever you want. It was so cool. The tunnels were definitely the best part. We even saw a bat! Which made me turn momentarily into a ridiculous 5-year-old little girl...which then made both of us laugh for 15 minutes. Hey, it cornered me! Even the top of the castle was cool...it was way bigger than we thought. If you want to see 50-odd pictures of a 400-year-old castle, look at our Facebook.
-We also visited the immigration office, which was the most beautiful place we have been in Colombia. The architecture and landscaping was AMAZING. But this is the only picture I took because I thought there would be better pictures online. I was wrong.
Differences between the US and Colombia:
-We usually pay our utility bills at the grocery store. There is not even an option to mail them in somewhere, or to pay them online. It's very convenient...but also less so? I'm so used to just sending a check in the mail or getting it taken out of my account online that it's hard to remember to pay them, even though we go to the grocery store 3-4 times a week.
-Cartagena limits the days you can drive your car/motorcycle. Seriously. Regular citizens with cars or motorcycles have 1 day a week where they cannot drive from 7 AM to 7 PM, and taxis and mototaxis cannot drive for 2 days a week. It depends on the first letter of your license plate. It's crazy. I think it's a really good idea for trying to combat the crazy traffic, but I don't own a car. If I owned a car, I'm sure I'd be pretty mad about it. But my boss made a good point...in the US, we just build new roads. Colombia just takes away driving priveleges. But really, I don't know how they would build a new road anywhere without having to destroy centuries old architecture, so I guess the license plate letters aren't the worst thing in the world.
-Colombians have a hilarious word for people who are rich, fancy, etc. It's PUPI. Pronouced just as you think it is. It's been the easiest slang for me to make a regular part of my vocabulary. It's like the most satisfying way to describe someone.
-As many of you who speak Spanish know, Latins will call each other fat and it's not offensive at all. It's like telling someone that they are tall. I was prepared for this when coming here...but my boss calls one of the 13-year-old girls at my work "gorda". It's just her nickname. The little girl isn't offended, and by no means does my boss mean it offensively, but it makes me jump every time she says it. Think about what would happen in the states if an adult called a 13-year-old "fatty". That's pretty much an instant lawsuit/viral angry Facebook post.
-I know we post too many pictures of us at the movies, but that's because it's just so great. We get to go sit in air-conditioned, comfortable seats for 3 hours, pay $12 for tickets, 2 huge drinks, and a huge popcorn, and usually we have the theater to ourselves. Well, turns out, that's because we usually go at 2:00 in the afternoon. We tried to go at 6ish, and the theater was FULL. We couldn't buy tickets. And the concession line was 20 minutes long. Four hours makes that big of a difference. Now we know.
-New movies come here at least a week early. And it's not just the Spanish dubbed version...it's the English version with Spanish subtitles. So look forward to a lot of spoilers.
-Now that it's the "rainy season", there are pretty much nightly lightning storms over the ocean. It doesn't rain, it doesn't thunder, but the whole sky lights up from lightning either super high in the clouds, or way far out over the ocean. It's crazy. But fair warning....if you go on a Caribbean cruise in April/May, it does appear that you have to deal with crazy lightning storms. But maybe that doesn't affect them as much as I would think it would.
-When it does rain/lightning in Cartagena, there is almost never thunder. I can't figure it out. I took science...why is there no thunder if the lightning is right on top of us? It's so weird!!! And on the rare occasion that it does thunder, the car alarms all go off. Oh, Colombia.
- We've talked about it before, but anytime there is music, people will stop what they are doing and dance. Or just sing at the top of their lungs. Really, they do this even without music. I'll just be walking down the street and a woman walking by herself will be singing at the top of her lungs. Or the whole bus is singing along to the radio. I feel like I'm in a musical.
-Speaking of buses...we haven't talked a lot about those. They have no shocks, and their brakes are...touchy. And we stop every 10 feet to let someone on or off. So all of this results in...carsickness. Not terrible carsickness, but just enough to make you feel uncomfortable until you can stuff your face with food. But I realized that 6th grade Ariel would have loved these buses. Remember on field trips when you would sit with your friends in the back of the bus so that you would fly out of your seat anytime you hit a bump? Any seat on these buses are like that. That would have been amazing as a 12-year-old.
-There are not a lot of crosswalks here. And even fewer that are at stoplights. So you just cross the road when you can. I am a rules person, so I generally refuse to jaywalk in the states. Now, I never use a crosswalk. It's just a constant game of Frogger.
-The other day on our way to work, we came out of our building to find a wounded donkey sitting 20 feet from our door. I don't know the story, but he had a slash in his side, and the Infant and Adolescent Police (not sure why that exists) were the first ones on the scene. Naturally? You certainly never get that in Orange County.
-And there are donkeys brays coming through our bathroom window all the time. Just in case I ever forget I'm in Colombia, that brings me right back.
-Yesterday we passed a man asking for money on the street. Not an uncommon sight, except that this guy had plugged a pothole with gravel, and was asking cars for money for his job well done. We passed him a couple of hours later, and he actually had quite a bit of money in his bucket. So if our jobs don't work out...we know what we're doing!
-Here's a picture of a statue that looks like Joseph Smith in profile. I have no idea who the statue actually is.
Well, that's a wrap for this post! We love and miss everyone!
