Every night guys. Every night.
I don't even know anymore...6 months in as of yesterday, I think? We're just here living the dream in Colombia!
Fun experiences:
-Last weekend, we took a bus to the movies. It was a Saturday, so the bus was crammed. Luckily, James and I found seats, but they were not next to each other. James sat across the aisle from a 11ish year old little girl wearing a New England Patriots hat. Compared to Mexico, Colombians don't wear very much American/English stuff, so I was surprised that she had 1) a beanie in 100 degree weather and 2) a hat for an American football team. As soon as James sat down, she immediately turned towards him and started chatting. She was really excited to talk to a gringo and talk about American stuff. Clearly by the reaction of her family, and James' insta-smile, she was quite the character. She asked if I was his sister (just what every wife wants to hear). She was delighted to hear that I was actually his wife, and started introducing us to all of her family members on the bus. James told her that I didn't know very much Spanish and the girl should try to teach me. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear her very well from my seat, but what I did catch was "Do you want me to be your daughter?" (but in Spanish, obviously). She's the best person we've met in Colombia.
-James is becoming THE gringo at his work...for the 4th of July, they had him go to the main campus and have a staged "discussion" with another teacher about America in front of students. So that was fun. And then yesterday, they asked him to be in their promotional video as the token gringo, so he was filmed having another fake conversation. I would love to elaborate on these seemingly interesting happenings, but this was all I got from him.
Differences between Colombia and the states...and miscellaneous observations:
-Masterchef Mexico Junior is quickly becoming my favorite show. I try to watch at least one show in actual Spanish (not a show filmed in English, then dubbed in Spanish), and this is the one that I often catch. It's my favorite because 1) I love listening to kids speak Spanish and 2) I don't understand the competition. I'm sure it's just like all the other Masterchef shows...it has a balcony where 1-4 people get awarded and don't have to cook? That seems weird on a cooking show. And there's a nun...I have absolutely no idea why. It seems like she's mostly there as comedic relief and to comfort the kids when the judges make them cry...which is often. It's funny and sad all at the same time. Oh yeah, and I learn Spanish.
-A lot of people in our area will walk around barefoot on the dog poop-, human urine-, and trash-covered sidewalks. To be fair, we live on a beach, and lots of people walk around Laguna Beach, etc. barefoot too. But Colombians are CRAZY about getting sand off of their feet after being on the beach. They usually pour water out of a water bottle all over everyone's feet. Uh, hello! You'll pour water that you PAID FOR over your feet to get sand off, but you'll walk around barefoot on the dirty sidewalk any other time of the day? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Carnival amongst the trash
-Because it's 100 degrees ALL THE TIME, most of the women/children wear sandals. One thing we've seen a lot is that they will walk around with one of their toes sticking out of the straps. It just hurts me to look at. Maybe it's a trend here...
I know what you're thinking...this definitely deserves a picture.
-Gringos visit our ward a lot. Like I would say we get on average 1 couple a week. So it's fun to get to speak English and learn about people's trips. When we ask the gringos what their favorite part of the trip has been, they say they LOVE the fruit juices here. Our reaction is always "really?" (said in the same tone as "her?" when referring to Egg on Arrested Development), because we just haven't been impressed. So we've asked multiple gringos and plenty of Colombians which fruit juices we should try, and then we try them, and our opinion is still...meh. At our favorite restaurant, she makes a good maracuya (passion fruit) smoothie, but that's really the only thing we've liked a lot. The other problem is that juice is more expensive than pop. Everything is more expensive than pop. So why not just get pop?
-Have I mentioned that they don't have lemons here? Limon in Spanish is either lime OR lemon, which is super weird. But it's not super confusing here, because lemons just don't really exist. Even though I know this, I always get excited when I see "limonada" because I think I'm going to get lemonade. I don't. I get limeade. Which can be tasty...but never as tasty as lemonade.
-I love my name. I didn't always, because as you can imagine, I get teased a lot. I hated that when I was a kid, but now I like that it's unique. It's less unique in Latin America however...because a lot of guys are named Ariel. D'oh! When I tell people my name here, I always say "Ariel...como La Serenita" ("like the Little Mermaid") because otherwise they are confused. They think 1) that they heard wrong because Ariel is a boy's name or 2) that I said "Adiel" or "Adrian", etc. because my Spanish accent is so bad. So it's just easy to bring up La Serenita so there's no confusion. However, now a few Colombians affectionately call me "La Serenita". It's just like being at home!
-While talking with our sister the other day, we made a realization...we go to the beach here less than we did in California! I'm as shocked as you are. I think we just take it for granted because it's ALWAYS there now. The first thing I look at when I wake up is the beach, and the last thing I look at before I go to bed is the beach. And there's plenty of viewing/walking near between that. It's just so nice to sit in bed and stare at the beauty from afar, instead of actually going down and sitting in the sweltering heat amongst piles of trash. So, sorry, not sorry.
-One thing I've learned in my quest for learning Spanish is that a lot of learning a new language is just finding easier way to say things. Really, I just need 5-10 verbs and I can say almost anything. Maybe not with the eloquence that I can have while speaking English, but it gets the job done. But I think the Colombians probably think I'm not very intelligent because I say everything the same way.
-One of our big disappointments about Colombia is that some people seem to really dislike gringos. Before we came here, all we heard is that the Colombian people are so nice. Unfortunately, that has not been our overall experience. I hate to say that, because we have met some of the nicest people ever here, and I'm sure the ratio of nice/not nice people is the same as anywhere else in the world. Nevertheless, I am disappointed. People in the service industry are often grumpy or, at best, just indifferent to us. It frustrates me, because, for instance, I go to the local store 1 to 2 times a week, and see the same rotating 8 employees there. At this point, they recognize me and know I am not just another tourist here for a week. And yet, they are still grumpy and/or indifferent to me, no matter how smiley or friendly I try to be. The reason for this (as I see it) is that Cartagenans (?) are just tired of gringos. And really, they have good reason to be. As we watch other gringos try to vacation in Colombia, we are horrified. Everything the other countries of the world say about American tourists is true. We don't dive into other cultures, we try to turn it into America. At best, we make a show of marveling at their culture, but that's still not super flattering. If you're telling someone how amazing it is that they can live with 3 other families in one house, it's not REALLY a compliment, just you trying to show your superiority over them. A couple of disclaimers: 1) we are guilty of many of these things too (aka eating mainly at Subway and McDonalds when we go out, 90% of the content of this blog, and hello, I still don't speak Spanish) and 2) this is not every American tourist, nor do I think that anyone is doing this with bad intentions. It's just so frustrating to me to see people order ice cream or Subway in English. Seriously?! You can't learn the name of the 6 types of food you put on your sandwich? You can't learn how to simply say "I would like..." and then substitute whatever it is from the menu that you would like to order?! It amazes me. We just expect people to know English, which maybe 1% of Colombians do, and I've got to tell ya, it's almost never people working in the food industry. I honestly hate being lumped in with people like this, even though I can be one of them occasionally. But I try really hard to conform to Colombia, instead of making Colombia conform to me. We would expect a Colombian to conform to America wouldn't we? So why can't we respect the culture and not be THOSE tourists? Sorry for the rant, but maybe it will make everyone conscious of their actions when they leave the country. And then maybe the people of Colombia won't be grumpy to James and me :)
-Colombians HATE their drug rep. People, all the drug stuff went down in the 80s and 90s. It's 2016. It's long gone, at least in this area. I've been watching a lot of videos of people speaking Colombian Spanish so I can get a better ear for it. And you know what they always say? "Colombia is not what people think it is. I love my country and hate that the world only thinks of Colombia in relation to drugs." They are outraged about it! We've had conversations with people about it at church, and James' school, etc. They feel like they need to bring up the fact that Colombia is not what everyone thinks it is. And when we've brought up Sofia Vergara (stupid American tourists!), they talk about how she makes Colombia look stupid. Now that Netflix has the new episodes of Modern Family (!), I've tried to pay attention to the things Gloria says. Not because I really think we should be taking a silly television character seriously, but I like to compare her fake Colombia to our real one. But on the last episode we watched, she said to Manny, "I exaggerate about a lot of things. Colombia is actually pretty normal." And I just felt the whole country of Colombia sing Hallelujah! I like that the Colombian pride we experience here finally had the writers and/or Sofia Vergara give pause and think about what they are doing for Colombia's reputation.
-One thing that is NOT different about Colombia and the states is your accessibility to the Bullingers. We can facetime/skype/facebook messenger video call anytime you would like. See, we did it for our nephew's 2nd birthday. So feel free to video call us any time you want to see our tan, sweaty faces.
Yep, this is me shamelessly showing off our nephew.
Sorry if this got a little heavy...in content and in lists...maybe you can tell I don't speak to very many people every day? :) Every English conversation that I have gets a little long-winded because I'm home alone for a large part of the day. But fear not! I am not lonely and I am very happy with my life. Just don't be surprised if you get to hear about my every thought. But I think I have finally written everything out. So chao for now!
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