-So we are in the midst of rainy season, which just means it rains a few nights a week and maybe during the day once or twice. It hasn't affected us much, except things are FINALLY much greener and it looks more like the South America of our dreams. But we have discovered that rainy season is also moth season. At any given point in our house, there are around 20 moths. In two rooms. TWENTY. And that's a pretty conservative number. James used to go on killing rampages and we'd have enough moth carcasses on the floor and walls to make it seem like a strange reproduction of the Elephant Graveyard, but now there are so many moths that we have just decided to embrace them and become moth people. They leave us alone, mostly, other than occasionally flying right into our faces because they are apparently the stupidest insect that exist. And we've had further sightings of what we like to call...BATMOTH! I don't think this one was as big as the one James saw the first month we were here, but it's a good 4" X 3", which doesn't seem that large, but trust me, it really is. Someday I'll get a picture of it, when I can stop hiding like a girl every time I hear it's bat wings flying in. That's right, I said HEAR.
-A mischievous 2-year-old was stealing things from the purse of his nursery teacher at church last Sunday. Among these were sunglasses (which he promptly broke), hand sanitizer (which he determinately tried to spill everywhere) and a pen (which he would have certainly destroyed, if not for James). James grabbed him and put him on his lap. He promptly chucked the pen across the chapel and struggled to get away from James. James turned him around and started bouncing him, and then the kid saw something that held his interest: James's glasses. He tore them off his face and had his arm upraised to chuck the glasses as well. James and I (yes, it took both of us) wrestled them away from him and hid them. Then he had nothing interesting to play with, SO HE GRABBED JAMES'S EYELID. I love my husband and of course would never imagine laughing at his pain, but...it was one of the funniest things ever. I had the giggles the rest of sacrament meeting, which is not so cute when you're a 25-year-old. Let me reassure you though...no lasting damage was done to James's eyeball, and the little destructor is still going strong.
I like to call this one Sunny, Sunny Night
Differences between the states and Colombia:
-Women hold hands while walking down the street. Friends or family members, doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter how old they are...28-year-old and 45-year-old strolling along, holding hands.
- Colombia has holidays, or festivos, ALL the time. Like usually 1 or 2 every month. Everyone goes to the beach and a lot of the stores are closed. And, of course, we get the day off from work. James has found out some fun facts about some upcoming festivos:
In November, they have a weeklong celebration starting with All Saints Day and ending with Colombia's Independence Day. His students told him that during this, there are more beggars around than usual, and if you don't give them money, they will "get you dirty". When he asked for specifics, they told him that the beggars will wipe their wet hand on you, or fling colored powder on you. Good to know!
Adults do not get presents for Christmas. Oh, the humanity! This is the saddest thing I've learned about Colombia so far. Also, most of the kids don't believe in Santa Claus, but some will write letters to baby Jesus.
For those of you who are Modern Family fans, you probably already know some Colombian New Years traditions. Yes, Gloria's traditions were true. Colombians eat 12 grapes at midnight. They also run around the block with a suitcase if they want to do some traveling in that year. And they wear yellow to make money during the year.
-Colombians say "whisky" instead of "cheese" (or, like you probably thought, "queso") when taking pictures.
-I've talked about money before...our biggest bill is 50 mil, which is less than $20, but they NEVER have change for this. Sometimes, even if you give them 50 mil and your purchase was 40 mil, they don't have 10 mil (a little over $3!) in their drawers! Or, they will give you like thirty 500 or 200 peso coins (about 15 cents and 8 cents), until they have enough change for you. It's insane.
-Tips are usually included on your check at restaurants. It has the subtotal, tax, and then tip. And it's usually only 10%. I like just having it taken care of. Even though the service is usually terrible, I'd still rather not have the hassle.
-The sun here is really strange. I don't know if it's our position in relation to the equator, or just the season, but the sun/sky are white and blinding from about 12-4. It's not that either are particularly bright, they are just the go-directly-through-your-eyes-into-the-center-of-your-brain kind of rays. Like instant headache-inducing. The closest thing I can liken it to from the places I've lived in the states is when there is a really fine layer of clouds, so your eyes/brain THINK it's going to be a cloudy day, but then you go outside and can't open your eyes against the brightness of the sun illuminating those clouds. I sure hope someone knows what I'm talking about.
This is one of the nicest hotels in Cartagena. It's also where the aliens decided to light the sky on fire.
-I've complained about our constant elevator struggles before...if you will remember, we only have one functioning elevator for 18 floors worth of people. Lately, they have been doing a lot of maintenance on said elevator. Which means, we cannot use our ONE FUNCTIONING ELEVATOR. Up until yesterday, I was lucky enough to only be punished by going DOWN the stairs when the elevator was out. Yesterday, I had to climb UP 16 flights of stairs (James has had to do this 3 or 4 times by the way. Sucker.). I thought it would kill me, but I was smart and took a break every two floors. Yes, the Colombians think I am an out-of-shape gringa, but at least my heart didn't explode. Now I can check that off my Colombia bucket list. Oh wait....
The most frustrating thing about this whole process is that when the elevator is down, they don't tell you. The maintenance people have to hike up all those stairs to go about their every day cleaning anyway...why can't we just send up a few signs with them? That's all I'm asking for. The current process is to wait for the elevator for 10 minutes (a normal wait time, unfortunately), and then either one of the waiting neighbors will finally call down to the security guard on the ground floor, or everybody just assumes the elevator is down AGAIN, and makes the dangerous trek down 16 flights of stairs. Have I mentioned that this is a spiral staircase? So only one part of the step is wide enough for your foot. And 16 floors of spiraling really messes with your brain. By about the middle, my depth perception and equilibrium are way off. Just what you want when hovering hundreds of feet in the air. Luckily, as of last night, we now have TWO working elevators. I can't even imagine how this will change our life!!!
-Now I'm going to tell you what Colombia is most famous for in my mind: half-finished projects. There are maintenance workers all over this city, starting and abandoning projects. "Should we demolish and re-pour the concrete behind the lights that illuminate the wall? Yes, yes we shall. But after about 5 days, let's have about 30 completely finished, 20 finished but not painted, and 20 still in the demolition stage (yes, just leave the piles of rubble there...it will make it look like we're eventually going to start back up). Then let's just abandon all of this for a new project." The building owner across the street sees this fine workmanship and thinks "I should really paint the outside of my building. Yes, I will fix the plaster cracks (but the plaster should be the exact opposite color of my paint, so the repairs will really stand out), and then I will paint over some of it, but definitely not all of it (that would just be silly). I will also paint a few random brush strokes elsewhere on the building, just so it doesn't look like I chose to stop at a reasonable point. And then I will leave it like that for 4 months until I decide to finally make it look like the reputable hotel that it is." Good on ya, Colombia. I'm not sure if they run out of money or if they are just lazy, but I think I want to start offering my services so I can get some of these projects finished before I lose my mind.
-From what we can tell, no one here has a texting plan on their phone. I just don't think they exist. Most people have WhatsApp, which is a texting app. WhatsApp is really great, as long as you have wifi. But the Colombians seem to get around this, which makes me think that they must get some sort of WhatsApp plan from their phone carrier. WhatsApp has a function where you can record your voice and just use that as a text, instead of having to write all of those pesky words. Then, your friend gets to play your recorded message aloud, no matter where they are (movies, busy office, walking down the street alone). It confuses me, because isn't the beauty of texting that you can do it quietly, even secretly, if needed? If you're whispering into your microphone then playing your friend's message aloud, it seems like you might as well pick up the phone and make a call.
All joking aside, we really are enjoying this experience. I'm grateful that we live in a world where it's fairly easy to travel to another country and experience new cultures. While we don't love everything about Colombia, I think we will be sad to leave whenever that time comes. This has become our home away from home.
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