This is one street over from James' school, and it took me 3 months of walking past it every day to realize that you get a glimpse of the cathedral.
We are quickly approaching our 6 month anniversary with Colombia, and today at church, two sets of visiting gringos thought that we MAY have been Colombians, before hearing us talk. So we're practically natives now.
Fun experiences:
-Cartagena has a wall surrounding the old part of the city. It's almost 400 years old, 4 km long, and was built to guard the city against pirates. That's right, pirates of the Caribbean. At this point, it's been featured in dozens of our pictures, because we will probably never live near a 400 year old wall ever again and it's pretty cool. One thing we haven't focused on a lot is the fact that the wall is also the place where thousands of modern-day Colombian babies are conceived. The wall has little cubbies and cut outs for the cannons (I'm sure there are names for these things, but I don't care enough to do the research). This is where you can, at most points of the day and definintely any point of the night, see young Colombian couples doing...naughty things. Most of the time you can fool yourself into thinking that they are just making out with gusto, but we witnessed something that was definitely more than making out the other night, just steps from James' school. Hey, I guess you have to take romance where you can get it, eh?
Colombian women who are anywhere in the aquaintance-to-best friend/relative range give each other besitos, which are little air kisses near the cheek. You've seen this in movies, you know what I'm talking about. Luckily, unlike in Europe, Colombians only kiss on one cheek. I was prepared for this when coming here, because James served in Chile and warned me. So my first besito went off without a hitch the second week we were here. I was proud of myself for not even hesitating or overthinking when a woman at church leaned in to kiss me. But now that I do it all the time...I have gotten into my own head. Here are my fears: 1) That I have actually kissed someone. It's such a quick thing, that I can't be sure that sometimes I am not actually planting one on the lady's cheek. I have no reason to be frightened of this, because I am pretty sure I've never done this, and I don't really think the woman would be anything but pleasantly surprised, but it doesn't stop me from having nightmares about it. It's such a natural, everyday thing for me to kiss my husband on the cheek, so I'm terrified that that instinct takes over and I lay one on a random Colombian woman who I'm just not all that close to. If I ever actually catch myself doing it, you'll be sure to hear about it here. 2) Some women will give you a besito promptly after meeting you, and some will wait a while until you know each other better. So I never know when I should and when I shouldn't. Now I just try to leave it in the Colombian's hands, and go for the besito only after they have already leaned in. But sometimes people seem like they want to, but are afraid of scaring the gringa. C'mon, just kiss me so I know how close you feel to me!
My other social fear is that I will use the incorrect form of "you" in Spanish. Anyone who has ever tried to learn Spanish knows that in Spanish, you can use "tu", which is informal, or "usted", which is more formal. So when I speak Spanish, I almost always deflect to "tu", because it sounds like you, and that's what I use with my husband and Primary kids. But when you're speaking to someone you barely know, or someone who is older than you, or someone who is in a leadership position, it's kind of uncool and impolite to use "tu". Well, really, it's just wrong. So I live in constant fear that I'm going to be really impolite and use "tu" when talking to the Colombian President or something. This goof has happened a few times, but always in situations where I feel like they just smiled and thought "silly gringa". We'll see how long I can get away with that.
-So we live in a nice, middle-class, beach neighborhood, but about two blocks back starts one of Cartagena's sketchy neighborhoods. So to get to one of the malls, we often walk through it (don't worry moms, I've never felt unsafe). Yesterday, on the corner of the end of the nice neighborhood and start of the sketchy, we saw some guys doing cocaine behind a light pole. Just right there in broad daylight. Right where all of the buses pass every 30 seconds. No big deal. And no, despite Colombia's reputation, that is not something we see all the time. That's the first definite exposure to drugs I've had here.
Differences between Colombia and the States:
-Colombians wear white all year round. I have finally found my ideal place! There's no bogus "Memorial Day-Labor Day" rule here. There are many stores solely devoted to the selling of white outfits. And often at formal events, the men wear white suits instead of black. So that's different.
-On a similar note, the women here DRESS UP for formal events. It's like every wedding is a prom. I don't know if I've only seen pupi (see last blog for definition) weddings, or if they really wear long, expensive-looking formal gowns to every occasion, but I really want to get invited to a wedding while we're here so I can have an excuse to buy a formal gown that I will never wear again.
-I still can't fully tack down the eating-out etiquette. One area in which we definitely prove our gringo-ness is in the asking for boxes to take our uneaten food home. Let me break it down...I would fully understand if a country just didn't have take out boxes because that was just not their culture. But Colombia does have them. A lot of people eat their lunches from styrofoam take out boxes because they sell them in the grocery store. So they do exist here. But when you're at a classy restaurant and you ask for a box to take your food home...they take your food in the back, slop it on a piece of aluminum foil, ball it up, and put it in a plastic grocery bag for you. I kid you not. For pizza, they actually have specially shaped aluminum pouches that are shaped like a piece of pizza. So if you have 4 leftover pieces, they give you 4 individually wrapped pizza bags, instead of just a pizza box. The reason I'm really so indignant about this is that I feel I have no choice but to take stuff home with me. If you don't finish your meal here, they ask what was wrong with it, and I'm afraid I've offended many a Colombian by not having a large enough stomach to finish my meal. So I don't get it! I don't have the stomach range to finish a small sandwich at one place, and then be expected to eat half of a chicken the next day at a different restaurant. C'mon Colombia! Make your meals the same size or get better take out boxes!
One of the nicer restaurants we've eaten at...all of the Colombians on the street were taking pictures of it while we were eating, so I thought I needed to document it too. I can only imagine their pictures turned out just as crappy as this one did.
-We eat Subway a lot. Like once or twice a week. Before you judge me, Subway was my favorite place in the states as well, so I would probably be eating there just as often if I didn't live in Colombia. But I do like the taste of home every once in a while. We also like that it is cheap here. It's cheaper than in the states, and it's even cheap for Colombia. So it's a natural choice. The only problem is that Colombians are the worst Subway sandwich makers ever. These are the skimpiest sandwiches you could ever imagine. "No, when I say I want cebollas, I don't mean I want two tiny slices spaced at either end of the sandwich". Seriously though. And the lettuce is almost always half rotten, so I have forgone lettuce on many a sandwich. Imagine a Subway sandwich without lettuce! And the tomatoes are almost always green, so I usually don't get those either. So Colombian Subway is a poor substitute for American Subway.
Pathetic.
-For those of you who care, the Copa America is going on, which is some big soccer tournament? I'm sure every part of that last sentence was incorrect. James and I...well...we dislike soccer. And EVERY person in Colombia LOVES soccer. Seriously, I have never seen anything like this. At no point in my life has all of America been as passionate about one thing as Colombians are about soccer. Every game night is like the Super Bowl. There are no cars on the street, the grocery stores are empty and everyone is gathered at a friend's house, bar, or restaurant with their eyes glued on the screen. They even have soldiers in the streets with guns just in case people get carried away (which we have never witnessed, just to ease everyone's minds). It just blows me away.
Colombia has made it to the semifinals, which means it's one of the final 4 teams. Alright, I can see why that would be exciting. The game that put Colombia in this position was against Peru. James and I were just innocently watching Downton Abbey when we hear all 8000 of our neighbors scream. Not yell, scream. The uproar was amazing. Then taxis drivers listening to the game on their radio drove by, laying on their horn in support of the team. A few minutes later, 100 motorcycles carrying the Colombian flag drove past our building, honking and yelling away. James and I laughed and cursed ourselves for not getting any of this on film. I decided to look up the score and found that somehow, Colombia had won to Peru 0-0. Uh...what? How do you win a game 0-0? How can an entire nation, really, multiple continents, love this game where a team can somehow win a game 0-0? It just doesn't make sense to me. But clearly there's something I'm missing. Maybe James and I will like soccer by the time we leave here...but don't hold your breath.
-Cartagena has been trying to modernize itself, and has been replacing old signs at landmarks with new signs that include English! While I do not expect Colombia to cater to me, I really am grateful anytime something is in English. But this...can only mostly be considered English. Some of the translations are so bad that they are like nails on a chalkboard to me. So I have come up with a million dollar idea. Why don't we send things to bilingual "translators" to get a somewhat literal translation of something, THEN send it on to a native speaker to make it sound normal. It's a good idea, right?! James doesn't think that people would pay for both a translator and then what is essentially a proofreader, but I think it's all about the marketing. If someone has an idea to help me start my "translating the translator" empire, hit me up.
-Any one who is familiar with Latin culture knows that most people have two last names. We still haven't completely figured it out, but I know most people have their mother's last name and then their father's or husband's? Clearly, I'm the best source for this information. But I bring this up because people always think it's so weird that James and I are both Bullingers, and that we don't have a second last name. I kind of want to make one up just so we can fit in. From now on, you can refer to me as Ariel Bullinger Arroyo.
A lot of, maybe even most, Colombians also have two first names. Maria Clara, Maria Isabella, Rafael Isaias...you get it. The trick is knowing whether they go by the first name, second name, or both. And you just never know. A lot of the girls are Maria Something, but some go by the second name and some need both names, or nicknames of both (aka MariAnje for Maria Alejandra). But no one goes by Maria, because 1 in every 2 girls is named Maria. It's really interesting!
-People always bring their phone chargers with them everywhere they go so they can charge their phones at their job, in stores, when visiting a friend, or in a restaurant. I don't know if people are just too cheap to pay for their own electricity or if the batteries on the phones here go out quicker, but I have never had a phone that needed to be charged as much as these Colombians charge their phones.
-We went to a delicious fruit salad shop last night for dessert. Many of the fruit salads included ice cream, so naturally we had those. I had delicious strawberries and cream with ice cream, and James had the Bogotana, which was this:
Welp, that's it for now. Think of us when you watch the Colombia-Chile game! We'll probably be watching Friends.
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