Poor But Happy

What?! No way. Wow.

2007-04-26T19:16:00.001-05:00

This is such an unbelievable story, it still blows my mind to think about it. When I decided to propose to my wife last year, I also decided to dedicate myself to make sure she's happy. I have done everything for her. I have supported her, both emotionally and financially, I have been faithful, loving, patient, understanding, fun, sexually satisfying, basically everything that a good man should do to the woman he loves. When she brought the idea to my attention last fall to take her to the US early, meaning she stays there while I finish my obligations here in Bogota, I was initially excited about it. At the time, she had a lot of maturing to do, a lot of personal growth to do, and a lot of independence to acknowledge. I knew it would be tough living apart and doing the long distance thing, but I knew that it would ultimately benefit her.

At some point, I recall one of my co-workers jokingly saying that she was going to meet some other guy. I never believed it because she had so much to risk and so much to lose: her new life in a new country, new opportunities, new friends, and a clean slate. I thought that it would be absolutely ridiculous for her to do something leave me for someone else. And that is exactly what she did. Within six weeks of the day I left in January to return to Bogota, she fell in love with her boss.

So we're divorcing. It'll be her second (and something tells me that it won't be her last) and my first (and last). She'll be returning to Bogota sooner rather than later. Apparently, her new man has promised her that he would come after her and marry her here. Little does he know that the only way that a US citizen can marry a Colombian citizen is if he or she is a legal resident of Colombia for at least six months continuously. Unfortunately for him, the maximum amount of time a US citizen can spend visiting Colombia is 90 days. Whatever. It's not my problem anymore.

I am still stunned that she could be so incredibly stupid and insecure about being alone. I'd like to say that I'm heartbroken but that hasn't really set in yet (if it even does). I'm still on the aghast high right now. I did absolutely nothing wrong. I fought the good fight. I did everything I could to help her make the right decisions and give her the advice she needed. It was ultimately her insecurities and her bad choices that ended everything. (Her new nickname is The FC.)

Time Fixes Everything

2007-04-20T14:34:00.000-05:00

During the first week of February, I had the idea of giving a pop quiz to my 7th grade students when they had poor discipline. (Granted, I don't like to give academic punishments for disciplinary purposes, something my first supervisor Ana Maria taught me, but in this school it is widely and effectively used as an discipline-controlling tool and it works for my classes as well.) Since I teach both 7th grade Physics/Chemistry and Biology, I thought it appropriate to exercise the 'cross-curricular activities' preached by the administration and ask a question directly related to both Biology and Chemistry.

The students were learning about both the process of photosynthesis (in Biology) and chemical equations (in chemistry). So one of the questions on the pop quiz was: 'Name all the parts of the chemical equation for photosynthesis.' I didn't ask for the concentrations (i.e. I didn't ask that they know that there were six molecules of carbon dioxide), only the names of the molecules of the products and the reactants (carbon dioxide plus water using sunlight and energy from the sun produces oxygen and sugar). The students practically shit themselves with frustration. 'You can't ask a biology question in chemistry!' 'This is not fair!' I actually thought it was a legitimate question, seeing as how they recently learned the information (it was literally within the week prior, according to their Biology teacher).

The students complained to me, complained to my supervisor, and complained to each other. Then the supervisor and I spoke about it and concluded that the quiz was not unfair. Fast forward to yesterday when said supervisor comes up to me the day the bimester grades were to be turned in and asks me to not include the grade for the quiz. His reasoning was that the teacher of Biology for my class had not taught the topic of the chemical equation for photosynthesis. Apparently, his belief was that I wouldn't remember what the teacher told me and students themselves had said to me during class, that they had learned the information before my quiz and the quiz was fair. Rather than fight a losing battle and make his job difficult, I made a mental 'whatever' to myself and said ok.

Another, more serious, example of how time fixes everything is the case of Juan Camilo Prieto. Juan Camilo is a 6th grade student with learning difficulties. I didn't know he had learning difficulties until the first parent-teacher conference in October of last year, when his mother approached me and explained the situation. I suggested that the Head of Year (in charge of all 6th grade students) become involved so the three of us could collaborate as to what the best approach would be to teach the student (sometimes the student can do modified versions of the work in the class to best suit his abilities). I filed a report for the student and gave it to the Head of Year suggesting a meeting with the parents to discuss a fair approach to the students (the responsibility of the HoY). I have yet to attend any meeting. The HoY has completely ignored the situation. Meanwhile the student continues to underachieve and I have no choice but to treat him as an equal student, even though he has been diagnosed with a learning disorder.

Does this kind of bullshit happen often in schools in the U.S.?

Looking More Forward

2007-04-15T13:51:00.000-05:00

I began thinking about why I don't really want to be here anymore and I concluded that there are many more freedoms which exist in the states. I can see Andrea and I in Denver or Los Angeles and just waking up in the morning, deciding to get out, strapping the mountain bikes to the top of the car, packing a lunch and drinks, and spending the day in the mountains above the LA basin or the beaches, or biking around one of the hundreds of bike trails in the metropolitan area of Denver. I can see us strapping on the snowboards and going to spend the day in Winter Park or Mammoth.

I miss having choices of things I love to do, outdoorsy stuff. I miss having a bike that is my size and is comfortable. I miss snowboarding. I'd like to learn how to Rollerblade. The logistics of doing things outdoors here are much more complicated (with the exception of Sundays from 7am to 2pm and even then you're limited to the streets designated to the Ciclovia). Maybe I just don't know about any mountain biking trails around the Andes mountains here, if there are any. But not having a car limits a person tremendously regardless of what city you live in or how well-designed the city is for car-less travel.

It's true I'm much more conscientious about my health being married to a personal trainer/fitness instructor. But what I think got me thinking is something my dad said recently which was that he started weight training and paying attention to his physique at about the same age I am now. I still don't see myself attending any gyms but I do see myself doing much more fun, athletic, outdoor activities in my near future. Maybe that's why I'm thinking more and more about getting out of here and starting again.

Looking Forward

2007-04-14T17:23:00.000-05:00

I got back last night from a 10-day visit to the states. On my last evening there, I realized that I had no desire to return to Bogota. In fact, I was looking forward to it with dread. I knew then and there that it was time to go and I am going into survival mode: keep busy, eat right, don't look at the clock or the date too often, and do my job.

I left Andrea in Tucson not yet knowing what she will do for the next 10 weeks before I move back to the states; she mentioned that she was thinking of moving back to Bogota with me for that time, she also mentioned staying in Tucson to start a business with some friends she met while moving out of my parents' house to find her own place. I'm sure she'll decide on something soon.

The thought of leaving her again made my heart ache. I haven't felt that pain in a long time. It was more than just the pain of leaving her, it was also the worry that she will be alright. We made the decision to postpone the wedding until further notice. That may ultimately mean something or it may not mean anything. She explained that she wasn't ready to go through such a formal ceremony and, like always, I support that decision thinking that it is best for her. I understand that she's going through a difficult time (like me) but for different reasons. She's changing and she thinks this period of growth is best done in the solitude of aloneness, around no one familiar around. I don't completely know how to define that, only she does. And rather than put my foot down with selfish demands and ultimatums and impede this process, I have to step back and let her find herself. I feel very vulnerable doing this, like I'm putting it all at risk. All things being equal, I'd rather be there to help her and give her the emotional support she needs. I guess I am more worried about how everything will be when I return, after some time alone and more time apart from her. I know that when I return, it won't be the same as before, when we met, got to know each other, fell in love, and got married in Bogota. I can only hope that it's a somewhat different version of the most satisfying, most enjoyable, and most amazing time of my entire life.

Empty TV Part IV

2007-03-17T15:51:00.000-05:00

I uploaded another video I have been working on. It's nothing really exciting, other than the fact that it plays to a great song. Enjoy.

Yankee Fuera!

2007-03-11T13:04:00.000-05:00

Today I went down near the city center to witness the protest of Bush's arrival to Bogota. I received an email from a friend saying the festivities would begin around 11am but seeing as how nothing around here ever starts on time I left my apartment at 11am and got down there around noon. Just as the fun started. I was greeted by about a thousand people screaming 'Yankee Fuera' (Get out, Yankee!) holding up signs reading 'Fuera Bush' and 'Boycott the USA'. Armed military arrived shortly thereafter in full riot gear (with one armored vehicle) to essentially stir up the cauldron and receive flying debris like rocks, chunks of concrete, and sticks.

I only stuck around for about 20 minutes after the riot police started pushing demonstrators down the road and tensions started to increase. After I started walking away, maybe five minutes after I left (300 meters down the street) two explosions could be heard. People scattered and screamed, traffic stopped; I noticed everyone was running toward where I was standing. I jumped on the first bus I could find (which was the only bus in sight), along with about a dozen other fleeing protesters, and we all got out of there. Not before I got my first whiff of tear gas. It lives up to its name. Good times.

Raw footage of movies I took down there are uploaded onto YouTube.

Empty TV Part III

2007-03-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

The follow-up video from my trip to Quindio, Colombia is now uploaded onto YouTube. Enjoy.

Kicking (Coffee) Treetops

2007-02-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

I just returned from a week-long field trip to the coffee-growing region of Colombia called 'Zona Cafetera.' The school sent almost all of the 125 7th grade students (some chose not to come), their respective homeroom teachers, and a gaggle of security people. I had never been there before but was told by many people that it was worth seeing. And it was. We stayed on a huge plantation called Combia for 5 days and did various activities.

The first day was getting used to the surroundings, which included a swimming pool and enough rooms to house everyone 3-4 to each room. In the first afternoon, the students learned the intricacies of a coffee plantation and learned how time-consuming and difficult it is to hand-pick ripe coffee beans.
The second day we went to a place called Valle de Cocora, a very picturesque place where the students did a long nature hike where they had to challenge themselves physically and mentally plus learn how to work as a group. The guides, from an outfit called 'Bluefields', lead students along the trail which culminated in a huge lunch of fried fish and patacon, which is plantain mashed into a flat, crispy wafer, then fried.

The third day, the group was split up into two different activities. One group went to a facility which manufactures bamboo arts and crafts and make Rainsticks. The other group went to a place called Canopy de los Caracolies, which loosely translates to a series zip-wires in a forest of trees called Caracolies. One group went camping after the day's activities and the following morning went kayaking (the other group went the following evening to camp and kayak).

The last day the kids went to a nearby school where they integrated and shared activities with the locals. Kids painted murals, played sports, cooked desserts, formed a musical group, and acted out commercials.

All in all the trip was fun. There were a few problems with kids' behavior (one kid was actually sent home early for causing trouble) but generally speaking, the kids, the teachers, and the guides all got along well. Good times.

Last one on the toilet is.....!

2007-02-13T17:15:00.000-05:00

For those of you interested, eggs, if kept at room temperature, only last about 2-3 weeks maximum. I'm currently learning that the hard way.

120

2007-02-11T19:27:00.000-05:00

I recently went online investigating what the feasibility would be to live in Australia. After reading entry after entry of my friend Dave's online journal and his year-long travels and experiences around New Zealand, I realized that I will not be personally satisfied until I (at least) make every attempt I can to fulfill my dream of living in that part of the world. So I went online and found, purely by chance, this site which rates my likelihood of being awarded a visa for Andrea and I. Collectively, we scored 120 and apparently, if I pay the $299 fee, I can find out within the next six to twelve months if the visa can be awarded to us to live and work there. Now neither she nor I are ready to move there within that time period because I'd really like for her to get her permanent (non-conditional) residency visa for the states which is a two-year process after she first arrived.

Personally, I have yet to find a place where I feel like I'm home; a place to live where I could live in financial comfort with the job I have, a place where it is easily accessible by car or plane without costing a fortune; a place that has friendly and open-minded neighbors, a good mix of different cultures and languages, and offers plenty of activities to meet my interests. Maybe I've found the place, lived there and left because it wasn't the right time for me to be there. The San Francisco Bay area comes to mind. I'd like to live there again, just not as a teacher. In fact, of the places I would like for us to live in the U.S., I don't see how we could live on a teacher's salary.

Something that just occurred to me as I finished watching An Inconvenient Truth for the umpteenth time (Did you know Al Gore was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?), I can predict that many of the domestic issues that have been largely ignored by the powers-that-be will be depicted and brought back into the forefront of people's lives through movies and documentaries made in Hollywood. Education, poverty, homelessness, corruption, disease... I can almost guarantee that a documentary will be made of one of these domestic problems and something will be done about it. Why wait for it, maybe I'll make my own documentary about the educational system in the US.

Recluse and Fancy Free

2007-01-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back in Bogota and have been living solo for the past two weeks. Many of the people I work with tell me I'm 'free', meaning the wife is away and I can basically do what I like. I enjoy their little efforts of fishing around for the real reason why I don't join them in social gatherings (one hypothesis was when someone mentioned that Andrea 'had me on a [short] leash'). I see it as a weak way of someone trying to find the answers to my behavior or decisions I make without directly asking me, but at the same time looking cool in front of their friends. Some try to figure me out (men, mostly, I've noticed) by making these types of comments, trying to elicit some sort of response, whether it be defensive or jovial or agreeable. I don't give them any indication of my way of thinking. I think it frustrates them. Who knows.

The truth of the matter is I don't have any interest in going out with most of them; they don't seem too interesting to me. Maybe I'm not giving them a chance. Again, who knows. My frame of mind right now is to throw myself into as much work and as many projects as I can to pass the time, save as much money as possible to leave here debt-free. Go from one thing to another with no down time. This country has nothing more to offer me, as far as I'm concerned and I was ready to leave six months ago. Still needing a change.

Empty TV Part II

2007-01-21T15:58:00.000-05:00

I just finished a video of Andrea's experience moving from Colombia to the U.S. Check out the video here. Or you can just see it here. Either way, enjoy.

More Photos From Tucson

2007-01-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

We went and had dinner with my old and good friend Melissa (formerly known as Tingle) Dojaquez and her husband Francisco (Fran). I finally met their beautiful daughter of 2 years, Annie, and found out that another bun was in the oven. Congrats to you guys.

An old hangout of Eduardo and mine called Breckenridge Brewery is no more. It has apparently been totally demolished. There is currently no evidence that it was ever there. Its location is now being occupied by a Chase bank. Bummer.

A Stroll Down Amnesia Lane

2007-01-03T16:22:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Tucson and happened to drive by our old apartment (from when Eduardo and I lived together). So many memories, parties, times up on the roof drinking and listening to the trains, inside jokes. Good times. (Notice the 'for rent' sign out front.)

Stu....to the rescue!

2006-11-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

Andrea and I are currently within three weeks from leaving Colombia and arriving to the states. I have been very stressed lately for what has been going on, making sure we have everything ready, making sure Andrea is taken care of, but mostly trying to organize transportation for while we were there. We needed to buy a used car, both to travel north and for Andrea to have while she was living in Tucson. I felt horrible asking my friend Chris in Hermosa Beach to look for a used car for us amidst his busy schedule of fixing cars building cars and traveling and working as a mechanic with different car racing teams. Trying to do all of this long distance had been difficult.

Our original plan was to buy a used car, most likely an older Acura from the early 90s so that Andrea and I have a way to get up the coast to Oregon for Christmas with the Fiallos' and then back to Tucson for New Year's Eve. (This model Acura has a very good reliability record for those interested in a good used car). The car would be Andrea's for the 6 months she is with my parents in Tucson and then ours when I return to the states next July.

Things have changed for the better since this afternoon. I received a call from the family, who are currently at my brother's house for the Thanksgiving weekend in Seattle, and was quickly passed to Stu, who is Randi's (Larry's wife) father. Stu proceeds to tell me that he has a 2000 Ford Focus Station Wagon and would like to know if Andrea and I are interested in it. When I asked him how much he was selling it for, he replied 'for free'. I was shocked. I had never been offered a gift so generous and kind in my life and was at a loss for words. I thanked him and told him that we was very interested in his car and would organize a way to pick it up while Andrea and I were in California. In a daze, I was passed to my brother, my dad, to Randi, then back to my mom thanking all of them.

To make matters even more fortuitous, my good friend Danielle was there for us this evening. I was then intending to rent a car online this evening when I realized that I didn't have all of my current credit card information. My cc is to expire at the end of the month and Danielle was nice enough to email me the new number. However, in her haste, she forgot to give me the new expiration date. While online, reserving a rental car for a ten-day period between December 17th and the 27th, I called her on her cell phone. She was visiting her new boyfriend in Florida at the time and driving to his house. When she answered and I explained my predicament, she interjected with her plans to be in Denver, then in Texas during the time we were renting a car and offered Andrea and I to borrow her car, instead of renting one. She is going to contact her parents to confirm that it is possible and get back to us.

The New Empty-TV

2006-10-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest video I put together.

Self-Analysis

2006-10-10T20:39:00.000-05:00

What happens when you find yourself always looking forward to everything? Lately I've been finding myself saying things like, 'only one more day until...' or 'in two more weeks...' and 'by this time in two months, I'll be...'

I've also been thinking about whether or not being a teacher is the right career path for me. I realized recently that being a teacher is one of the few jobs that exist where someone can put so much time and effort into, yet see very little (if any) payoff. In the past 3 years, I've averaged between 22 and 25 hours of classroom teaching. Additionally, I must spend anywhere from on the average of 4-6 hours every day of the week outside of the classroom either planning classes/labs/activities, grading papers, in meetings, or taking classes to become better at what I've been debating about even doing. And what do I see as a result? Parents coming in telling me that their child is a genius and asking me why their failing. Students who bitch about things being too difficult. Mediocrity, apathy, ignorance, blah blah.

Could all these ramblings be symptoms of the change that I've been desiring for for awhile now? Could this mean that I am due for another career change (I was in the environmental consulting business for about the same amount of time before becoming a teacher), or could this all just be me overthinking things?

Times they are a-changin'

2006-08-29T19:02:00.000-05:00

This morning Andrea and I went to the US Embassy here in Bogota to ask for a residency visa for her. We couldn't have been more prepared because we had all the documents we needed (or so we thought - more later on that). We double- and triple-checked to see if everything was in order and it was. Props go out to mom who stepped up and decided to sponsor Andrea when she arrives. I, too, will be her sponsor as I am her husband.

After the initial wait of about an hour, we stepped up to the first bulletproof window and Andrea communicated with the Colombian woman behind it via jailhouse phone. The woman mentioned that we were missing a document but instructed us to drop off the papers nonetheless and proceed to another area. Unshaken, we then waited for about 4 more hours, during which many people were sent home visa-less for of whatever reason. I concluded after the third hour that the longer the wait, the better off you are.

At about 1130am, Andrea's name was butchered over the loudspeaker by a gringo employee and we were called to another bulletproof window. The man began speaking to Andrea via jailhouse phone and after a few moments she passed the phone to me because she couldn't understand everything. It appeared that the missing document was important, but not so much to deny her her visa. Basically what happened was, as a sponsor and unbeknownst to both of us, I too needed to fill out an Affidavit of Support Form I864 (like mom did as a sponsor) and submit that to the embassy as well. The man told me to inform Andrea that she can return to the embassy any time before September 19th with the form (and a letter from me stating that I haven't paid federal income taxes in the past 5 years) and she will be awarded her visa.

She's returning tomorrow.

This afternoon we began pricing tickets for the both of us to return to the states in December. And Andrea has informed me that the pressure is on for her to improve her English as well as complete the ISSA certification before then. Apparently, when she feels the pressure is when she performs best. I believe her.

The cost of the war in Iraq

2006-08-11T23:00:00.000-05:00

You may already have known this, but I didn't. Imagine where this money can be better utilized.

Some photos from marathon day

2006-08-01T16:45:00.000-05:00

Andrea before the race starts sporting a lovely ensemble.

Whereas I am wearing a 15-year-old pair of volleyball shorts.

Plaza de Bolivar was packed. This is only part of the people that would fit in the frame.

We could barely walk after the race was over. All in all it was a good day.

1 hour, 10 minutes

2006-07-30T17:19:00.000-05:00

Today was the sixth annual Bogota Media Marathon. Andrea signed herself and I up for the 10 km run (there was an optional 21 km run also) and the day couldn't have been nicer to be outside, bright sunshine and very clear skies. I had run one other 10 km (it's actually 12 km) for competition, it was the Bay to Breakers while I lived in San Francisco (I recall finishing in under an hour. 50 minutes, I think). For this run, neither Andrea nor I properly trained for this event but I knew beforehand that she would finish ahead of me. The 10 k race started precisely at 11am, which was a bit strange for around here, and Andrea and I were immediately separated. We expected that to happen because she and I have different paces.

So after about 10 minutes of winding our way through the historic downtown streets of Bogota, the race opened up and the men were separated from the boys. I exerted a little too much energy weaving my way through the human walls of people and by the time I got to the third km I started to feel tired. But I pushed on and settled into a nice rhythm. I had to slow down to a walk a few times but I eventually reached the home stretch. This is where it got stupid.

So there we are thousands and thousands of people running in the same 10 k race at roughly the same time and the finish line was at a park called Simon Bolivar (the photo really doesn't do it justice as to how large it actually is). The home stretch was about 500 meters long, downhill and the you could see the finish from the top.

I had this vision at some point during the final stretch of me crossing the tape in some dramatic fashion like Jesse Owens in the Olympics in Germany or in the movie Chariots of Fire. Not this time. Not today. By the time I woke up from this fantastic finish I was envisioning, I saw that there was this wall of thousands of people trying to cross the finish at the same time because the space by which to cross was reduced to mere 7 meters (20 feet) in width. Whoever designed this finish line needed to crack open his industrial design books once more.

So me and thousands of my closest friends and I stop on a dime and my muscles immediately tense up. And for those of you who have ever competed in a running race, or have even done treadmill work or have run outside for exercise know that when you stop exerting so much energy, you need to slow down gradually, either at a slower running pace or a fast walk so that your muscles don't tense up. Again, not today.

So I march amongst the sweaty runners for another 10 minutes until it opened up to this enormous amphitheater filled with music, gatorade and water stands, food, and tens of thousands of people. I find Andrea (who finished about 10 minutes ahead of me) after playing phone tag with her and we quickly left.

Chalk off another thing from the 'to do' list in Bogota. Photos to come later.

For Those Watching Their Food Consumption

2006-07-22T08:08:00.000-05:00

Jumping on the fast food nation bandwagon, Andrea recently found a website that you may want to remember next time you are pressed for time and want to grab lunch or dinner (or breakfast as the case may be) on the go. It lists all of the major fast food chains in the United States, their menus, and nutritional information such as: number of calories, fat, carbs, and proteins in each serving. Everything from the Breakfast Burrito at Burger King to the steamed lowfat milk you put in your Starbucks Iced Cappucino (tall). Take a look. It's not a 100% complete menu list in some cases, and may not have promotional foods, but at least it gives you a good idea.

(Without going into too much detail, you can do a rough daily calculation of how many calories, proteins, carbs, and fats you can consume, based on your lifestyle (i.e. sedentary to extremely active), your age, height, current weight, and your goal (i.e. to maintain, lose or gain weight). There are tons of websites like this, all with more or less the same information.)

Gearing up

2006-06-18T19:32:00.000-05:00

The past couple of days I've been mentally planning for my upcoming trip back to the states: what I have to and want to bring back and for whom, the dreaded 12+ hour trip (through Newark this time, a first for me), where I'll be staying and with whom in Los Angeles and North Carolina, the things I must buy and want to buy because they don't exist down here (or are too expensive), the road trip to Arizona and Las Vegas to register my fingerprints (to facilitate finding teaching jobs in those states as well as California), items that must get fixed (laptop, pocket watch) because they cannot be fixed here (or are too expensive), and the time spent relaxing in the sun at the beach. Of course, I'll be communicating with Andrea on a regular basis via Skype, which makes that much easier.

I leave here July 1st in the morning and return July 18th. I'm looking forward to seeing some people.

Personal Space and Sidewalk Etiquette

2006-05-29T16:17:00.000-05:00

Having been car-less for the past 6 years and living in a city where so many people rely on public transportation and walking, I have to finally comment on personal space and sidewalk etiquette in general. And this can be applied to most cities, I think. Let's say you are walking back from the grocery store with 25 pounds of grocery bags tugging at your rotator cuffs and the sidewalk has a fair amount of people on it. How would you react if you saw me bearing down on you, walking in the opposite direction? The typical, logic thinker would move out of the way realizing that a man of my stature carrying a small refrigerator's worth of food has the right-of-way. Not here. Certainly not here.

Now being one of these logical thinkers, I can justify a certain percentage of these head-on encounters by someone not paying attention for whatever reason; maybe they're talking to a friend who is with them or they may be talking on the phone, whatever. But no, most of these encounters (I've realized recently) are people minding their own business walking in the opposite direction and just completely ignoring my presence. Leaving me to negotiate their presence by shifting my weight and whatever weight I happened to be carrying so they can pass by unscathed.

Which brings me to my other complaint about sidewalk etiquette and that is this dependency that people have where they have to walk next to one another in a group of three or more people. I'm sure many have you seen these moving human walls holding hands or connected arms coming at you in the opposite direction leaving you with the responsibility of getting out of their way. Yes, God forbid that anyone in the group should have to fall behind another and walk single file for six paces. I've never been so aware of my personal space in society until I came here and began walking the streets. It has come to the point where that is exactly what I do: walk in the street rather than on the sidewalk. It just seems to be easier that way.

One more little sidenote about personal space. The library in the school I currently work at (which is rare for a school to have a library in these parts) had recently been constructed to a two story section because the roof is vaulted. The finished product has left the ceiling for the lower level to be (exactly) my height, 6 feet 5 inches tall, and the upper level even shorter in some parts. Do you want to know how many times I've hit my head on the ceiling in this library? Zero. Why? Because I'm completely aware of my personal space and where and how I move my body.

Who Knew

2006-05-24T16:54:00.000-05:00

This past Friday I was married to Andrea Aguirre in Notary Public #5, Bogota, Colombia. Having never been married, much less married in a Notary, I didn't know what to expect but Andrea advised me that it would be very informal. Andrea and I were accompanied by some good friends from my previous school and Andrea's father. We had to wait about 45 minutes for reasons unknown, then were ushered into an office where we sat at a very old desk. Then a very obese, middle-aged gentleman who had an advanced case of emphysema and was rank with cigarette smoke, sat down heavily, read our names, and asked if I understood Spanish. He then proceeded on a 10-minute monologue about the importance of marriage, how to treat each other, respect one other, and any future offspring we may have. We signed a couple of documents and that was that.

Mom and dad arrived later that evening by plane to meet their new inlaws, celebrate with us and, most importantly for my dad to meet Andrea for the first time. Many translations ensued, Colombian arts and crafts were purchased, dinner was eaten, and in general, good times were had by all. In the near future, we'll be making an appointment with the U.S. embassy for Andrea to acquire her spousal visa and whatever other documents she needs in order to work in the U.S. At this point, Andrea and I plan to stay one more year here and then move to the United States for an indefinite amount of time. She would find work as a Body Systems instructor and I would continue my career as an educator. We'll be sending out the S.O.S. to friends and family at about this time next year for any possible assistance in job placement.

On a personal note, if you told me 10 years ago that this was how I was to be married for the first time I would have told you to have another drink. I guess that's how life is. But in all honesty, I'm super happy and looking forward to the next year here in Bogota with my new job and the next few dozen or so years with Andrea.

You Tube

2006-05-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

After seeing Dave Kha's video he made for his mom for mother's day, I decided to upload my own video I made a few months back. It was my first attempt at making a video with the IMovie program I've got on my computer and I think it's a good first attempt. Enjoy.

Strike two

2006-05-03T07:40:00.000-05:00

Today is the second day of the private bus industry strike. The streets of Bogota are normally filled with private buses which carry millions of people to and fro. These buses are not to be confused with Transmilenio, which is the government-owned bus system (the BART or NY or London subway system equivalent) that is also a highly effective way to get around. According to Andrea this strike happens every year, but normally lasts only one day. Apparently, the private companies and their drivers are striking because they want to be able to follow the same routes as Transmilenio.

So I got a call from my 'boss' saying that the strike has been extended another day as they negotiate. So they canceled school today. I don't really see how one has to do with the other since the school has its own buses but whatever. My 'boss' also asked me for the telephone numbers of several other members of the English department to inform them of the cancelation because she didn't have them.

Papa Adam Smooth

2006-04-25T11:17:00.000-05:00

Get Pimpified! Find out your pimp name, if you were ever to make a career move.

May 19th, 3pm

2006-04-25T11:05:00.000-05:00

Hi all. Just a quick message saying that Andrea's an my wedding date had to be postponed a few weeks and will commence on the above date, rather than this Friday, April 28th. So no need to FedEx any gifts just yet.

Also, I should find out within the next couple weeks whether or not I have a teaching job. There's a school here that I interviewed for and a school in Monterey, CA that has been pending since the beginning of February. More news when it comes.

April 28th, 3pm

2006-04-17T17:44:00.000-05:00

Andrea and I will be married in a Notary Public on this day and time. We're pretty fired up. I still have to confirm but, from my understanding, when she and I relocate to the states we'll get married again because the Colombian marriage doesn't apply there.

This past Easter weekend, she and I went to Santa Marta and Parque Tayrona for a short vacation. I've been to Parque Tayrona, Christmas vacations 2 years ago. Not much has changed, it's still beautiful, heavily populated during vacation days, and hot as balls.

Invertebrates

2006-04-11T06:59:00.000-05:00

Next week I have a job interview with another school here in Bogota. The school is a British-run and British-operated school with a British curriculum. If a job is offered to me, I would be inclined to think that it would be a relief from the invertebrates I've been working with and for for the past few years. God forbid if I should make a mistake or if I make an error in judgment or make some cultural faux pas, I would actually hear about it from a supervisor shortly afterward but no. I have to hear it from a coworker weeks later after the incident has gone through the entire staff. To give you a good example, in my current school of employment, it has come to the point where my immediate supervisor is afraid (literally afraid) of talking to me. If she has something to say to me directly, it is usually in the form of short bursts of well-rehearsed sentences without making eye-contact. What kind of a boss is that?

Speaking of invertebrates, I had a very bizarre conversation with a coworker a couple of weeks ago. Now keep in mind, this coworker woman and I haven't said 10 words to each other since August aside from the occasional 'good morning', mostly because she and I are in different departments and have different schedules. It was the end of the workday on a Thursday and the conversation was very brief but disturbing and went something like this (in Spanish, of course):
her: "So I heard you juggle, or you are a juggler."
me (after a few confusing moments to see if she was actually speaking to me). "Yes, that's right."
her: "So is that the reason why you feel so superior to everyone?"
me (after a few more confusing moments processing what she had just said): "Um, what?"
her: "Yeah, is that the reason why you feel so superior to everyone?" (she repeated it in case I didn't understand because of the language when in fact I didn't understand how she could make the leap from such a benign question to such a malignant one).
another female coworker from behind me: "Yeah, and so hateful, too."

Rather than defend myself or get into some heated discussion, I simply shook my head in disbelief, chuckled a bit, turned to my friend Charlie as I was slinging my backpack over my shoulder and said, "Well, it's good to know that everyone feels so positive on having me around. It makes me feel so good about myself." I wished him a good evening and promptly left.

My point is that there will be gossip no matter where I work, I've learned that from experience. But when gossip prevents someone of authority from doing their job is where I have a problem. Of course all the women get along with each other and along with most of the men, too. Charlie is like Switzerland, he pleases everyone and has everyone's trust but, in truth, simply has a high tolerance for bullshit. I don't. This phenomenon of gossip was common in the last school I worked at, too, but it wasn't as bad. I have my own theories about why it's worse at this current school compared to the last one but whatever. It doesn't matter. I didn't know what to do about it then and I still don't other than to ignore it and focus on doing a good job. One can only hope that the British school doesn't function like this.

Ride the change or change the ride

2006-03-11T13:51:00.000-05:00

Some decisions were made recently that should be noted. Andrea and I will still be getting married and I will still be getting a visa for her to enter the states. The only difference is that she won't be entering with me in July. Some very important doors have been opening for her recently and we both decided it's in her best interest if she takes advantage of certain opportunities that have presented themselves and meet me in the states at the end of the year. Which means, I will be focusing 100% of my efforts to return to the states after my contract finishes in June, instead of looking to other foreign lands.

While Andrea is taking advantage of her opportunities, I'll be taking advantage of my own, namely going back to school and getting my teaching credentials. The decision I have to make now is: Where will I be? I've narrowed it down to four places (not in any particular order): Denver, Tucson, LA, and San Francisco. All four places have their own specific advantages and disadvantages. But ultimately, the driving factors for finishing my credentials will be twofold: if I can find a (teaching?) job and how costly and quick the extended education will be. The programs I've investigated thus far have varied between 9 months and one year if going full time, costs unknown. Which brings up another decision I have to make: do I work while going to school or not? That decision narrows the locations down to two, maybe three places.

The bottom line is I have to make a decision soon because registration to many credential programs will end within the next month or so.

A simple answer to a simple question about a profound subject

2006-03-06T17:30:00.000-05:00

This morning I celebrated Andrea's birthday by asking her to be my wife. She said yes. Today also happens to mark the 18 month-a-versary that I met her for the second time for the first time. If that sounds confusing, it should. I originally met her in a gym about two years ago but only said hello to her (I was talking with a friend in a local gym who she also knew and was apparently meeting there). Then on September 6, 2004 (about 5 months later) she and I happened to be walking in opposite directions through a local park when we recognized each other, started talking, and then went for coffee. The rest has been historic bliss for me.

During my recent plight for finding gainful employment, I came to the conclusion that Andrea and I would be much more successful by being a married teaching couple than two crazy teachers in love. And, knowing that if overseas employment wasn't a possibility, returning to the states as a married couple would also be much easier from an embassic perspective than two crazy teachers in love. Oh, and I'm crazy in love with her too (that goes without saying). So all the arrows were pointing in the direction of marriage and it also felt right to propose on her birthday for some reason. I'm very happy and feel very fortunate.

So the idea is to get all the paperwork necessary for the visa application turned in as soon as possible. I understand that the process takes between 3 and 4 months. Which means we will be getting married quickly with a justice of the peace, then planning a more 'traditional'(?) wedding wherever we end up.

If you would like to read a more romantic story of the recent events, you can visit Andrea's page.

come talk to me

2006-02-11T17:32:00.000-05:00

For some really in-depth conversation, call me! Andrea really needs gringos to talk to, listen to, write to, and read from in order to improve her communication skills in English. The idea is for her to be as fluent as possible before we head off to far away (?) lands. Come on, who wouldn't want to talk to this pretty face?

bad day

2006-02-08T19:15:00.000-05:00

After all was said and done, I am currently part of the last 50%. I sure as hell hope not to be part of the last 25%. This past weekend, I traveled to Carmel, California to attend my first job fair put on by Search Associates, a headhunting service that helps international teachers like myself to find jobs. I left Friday morning, got into San Francisco at 10pm, got up the next morning at 4am, drove and got to Carmel at 715am, left Carmel and got back to San Francisco at 1030pm, woke up at 5am and flew back to Bogota, arriving at 11pm. How stupid am I? We'll find out.

Before I went to this job fair I received a ton of info from the west coast representative about what to expect. Part of the information was some statistics: about 50% of the teachers sign contracts during the job fair and another 25% sign contracts within a month after the job fair. (The statistics didn't mention anything about the remaining 25% but I can assume they didn't get jack shit.)

His description of what to expect was right on for the most part and the fair was a good experience. I had a total of 5 interviews and one repeat at the end of the night. Everyone I interviewed with was great; really friendly, positive, up-front and honest. I got good feelings after leaving all of my interviews. But as it turned out, all of the prospective teachers had good feelings after leaving their interviews too. So I really didn't know what to make of it all. The schools I honestly felt Andrea and I had shots at working at were: An American (Christian) school in Seoul, South Korea, an American School in Bahrain, and a new high school opening next year in the Monterey Bay area of California. The recruiter from Bahrain and I got along great and he was my repeat interview. He said all of my answers to his interview questions were right in the sweet spot, there was a middle school science position open for me and he said he would have to figure out a way to employ Andrea because, at this time, they don't have any positions open for PE or Spanish. He would be looking for extracurricular activities for her to teach after school. He also said he would get back to me 'within 48 hours' about whether or not he would employ us. That was 4 days ago. The Monterey Bay school interview also went well (there were jobs available for both of us), but we won't find out anything until the end of March.

So why was it a bad day today? Well, all of these statistics are echoing in my head now. I was not part of the first 50% and I'm beginning to think that I won't be part of the next 25%. I'm hoping my pessimism and stress that I'm putting on myself these days will prove me wrong and I didn't just fuck up our future and I didn't just blow a month's salary on a stressful trip to California.

Strange sight

2006-01-27T16:56:00.000-05:00

I was walking back to my apartment this afternoon and I saw two street kids playing on the sidewalk, punching each other while their fists were clenched with transparencies for an overhead projector. How often do you see that?

Read the questions bellow...

2006-01-25T18:16:00.000-05:00

Occasionally, a young girl arrives in the middle of the school year and would like to be a student. More often than not, the student is given an admission test to see what her level of English is. This morning I was asked to correct her test and give my best judgment as to whether or not her English was at the level of 8th grade (she is intending to enter as an 8th grader). But to my dismay, the test itself had as many if not more errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar than her responses did. I was embarrassed to be working there. Imagine if she had come from an American school (there is a new student in one of my 8th grade classes whose former school consisted of all but 2 subjects taught in English) and were asked to complete it. She would turn to her parents and ask them to keep shopping around.

On a related note, I just recalled hearing that a potential first grader, when being walked through the school by the director, was quoted as saying: "I don't like it here because it's too noisy. The other girls scream too much." It's good to know that I'm not alone in this opinion.

Wham, bam, shake my hand

2006-01-21T17:03:00.000-05:00

About 3 months ago, I signed on with this headhunter called Search Associates which is based in the US but finds jobs for teachers who want to teach overseas. Although last year, ISS (another company with similar services) rejected my application for whatever reasons they had, Search Associates decided to represent me and invite me to their next job fair. Initially, I thought that attending job fairs was a foregone conclusion because of my current location and financial status but after weighing the options and realizing that these job fairs have a 50-75% success rate, I decided to attend their upcoming one in Carmel, California the weekend of February 3,4, and 5th.

It appears as though more than 30 international schools will be there, from China to Kuwait to Bulgaria and each school has their own hotel room. So the way it works is you make appointments (or they make them with you) and you go to their room and have a little chat. Interviews typically last an hour or so and you can have as many as 7 or 8 in one day (although 4 or 5 is the average). Even though I'll only be able to attend the fair for one day (Saturday), I doesn't really seem to be at a disadvantage. I'll miss the orientation and familiarizing myself with the hotel. Nate was nice enough to put me up for the two nights I'll be back in the states. I won't be able to do much else while I'm back. Sleep and smile, that's about it.

Sierra Nevada del Cocuy

2006-01-11T21:17:00.000-05:00

I just got back from el Cocuy on Wednesday. On the link, run your mouse over the boxes for some info. Being there and doing this trek was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. Four words come to mind (and if you know the song it's a bonus): joy, pain, sunshine, and rain. It's better if I start with the people I was with. To the left is a photo taken by someone who had apparently never used (seen?) a digital camera before. Everyone is in their late 20's to mid-30s. Starting from the left: Juan Carlos: born in the US, lived in England for most of his life, now lives and works in Chicago but calls himself a Colombian; Patricia: the girlfriend of the guide Erik, who is standing next to her. She is a Colombian dentist who has walked through the park on several previous occasions but still cannot find her way around. Erik: the guide. He's from Holland and is a nice guy who knows the park very well and is well-traveled throughout the world. Paola: the girlfriend of the other guide, Thomas (standing next to me). I don't know much about her other than that she's Colombian and a novice trekker. Rainier: a free-lance journalist also from Holland. A very advanced trekker who almost always arrived to a resting point or meeting point first. Very cool guy. Phillipe: from Zurich. I didn't talk to him much and don't know what he does for a living. He has done many mountain treks in the Alps and was very capable during this trek. Bart: works in logistics for Heineken in Holland. Nice guy, a bit nerdish. He was one of the slowest trekkers because he was the last to arrive to the high altitudes of Colombia and had a hard time acclimating. Thomas: the other guide. He's also from Holland and met with Erik 2 years ago and decided to start their business together. I didn't talk to him much but got a good impression of him. And I'm on the far right.

There were two guides because there were two groups doing two different treks. Thomas, Paola, and Juan Carlos were doing a 5-day trek, utilizing two different camping spots. They stayed at Laguna Verde for two days and climb Pan de Azucar (to be explained in a minute), then stayed at Laguna plaza for two days and do some more individual climbs before heading back. Erik, Phillipe, Bart, Rainier, Patricia, and I changed camping spots every night and kept moving. I heard that they had a great time and the weather wasn't a big factor for what they did.

The diary of the trip, with photos:
The bus trip to the town El Cocuy was interesting. It's normally a 12-hour trip but we had a driver who made it in 10. The first 6 hours were uneventful: your average mid-sized bus on paved roads with good scenery and nice weather. The last four hours were on a one-lane dirt path, winding its way up the Chicamocha Canyon without guardrails, coming within inches of oncoming dump trucks and certain death from tumbling down to the river below. The driver refused to close the door and everyone arrived to the town with a thick layer of dust on them. Erik had planned on arriving at 5pm and to arrange a truck to take us up to the Cabanas but he hadn't planned on arriving two hours early. So we waited there for a few hours talking and dodging rain showers. The truck arrives and takes us for about an hour straight up to 4000 meters (13,000 feet +/-) to the Cabanas (1 meter = 3.28 feet for you math whizzes). We slept there to acclimate a little before hiking.

The next morning we woke up, had a good breakfast, took the group photo above, and headed out at about 9am. The idea was to do a short hike to, again, help with acclimation. We hiked about 3.5 hours to a place called Laguna Verde and was greeted by a 20-minute hailstorm. When the storm passed, we did a bit of hiking around the campsite. This photo is a reflection of a mountain called Campanillas Negro on the lake. Thomas told us that there two enormous, man-made waterways that run the length of the park built from the tops of two high peaks in the park to bring fresh water to the two towns Guican and El Cocuy.

The next morning we left Thomas, Paola, and Juan Carlos at Laguna Verde and headed to Laguna Plaza. This was my first big challenge. We had to pass over a peak called Cusiri and it nearly broke me. I was not prepared for such a tough climb. The pass was about 4400 meters and I realized how unprepared physically I was for climbing like this, even after living in Bogota for 2.5 years. But, I made it over and arrived at Laguna Plaza about 30 minutes after Rainier and Phillipe arrived. On the night we stayed, there were about 20 other tents, which is considered very crowded. People love Laguna Plaza because it is surrounded by three impressive and famous mountains called Pan de Azucar (Sugarbread), El Diamante (The Diamond), and Toti (no idea the translation). If the weather conditions are conducive, you can wake up early in the morning and see El Diamante shine brilliant yellow and orange colors; colors, according to Erik, that distort digital photos. But when we woke up at 5am to hike to a good spot to see El Diamante, Erik said it was too cloudy and we went back to sleep. But by 8am when we left camp, the sky had cleared and El Diamante, Pan de Azucar, and Toti showed us a little of what they were made of (left, flat: Pan de Azucar. middle: El Diamante. Toti (to the right on the panoramic)). At Laguna Plaza, the decision was made to move Bart out of Phillipe and Rainier's tent and into my tent to try to help with the frigid overnight temperatures. We figured having two bodies in the tent would help more than just one.So we left for our next camping spot, Laguna de Panuelo (Tissue Lake). This was more of a long hike than a difficult one. We hiked for almost 8 hours and passed two peaks, the last one more difficult because it was close to the end of the hike. Now might be a good time to describe how, although we encountered rain for 5 of the 6 hiking days, we managed to stay relatively dry. Erik had luckily got us all motivated to make early departures from our camping sights while the weather was nice during the morning hours. By the time it reached the early afternoon hours, the weather worsened and clouded up almost every day. The hike to Panuelo was when the group realized that the weather was going to behave like this more or less throughout the time we were in the park so we were prepared for early wake-up calls and quick tent set-ups in the afternoon. The photo at the left was from the top of the second peak at about 4300 m, Laguna de Panuelo is at the right, back. The other photo is from Panuelo the next morning (the blue tent to the right is where I slept). I didn't sleep well that night because I wasn't accustomed to having another person in the tent with me. Bart didn't sleep well either because he still wasn't accustomed to the altitude yet.

The next morning, we headed out early. Everyone was fired up because it was going to be the day that we pass the Valle de los Cojines (Throw Pillow Valley), the valley that is most famous in the whole park and what many hikers who do this trip want to see. For me, the trip was a turning point. Meaning if anyone (including myself) wanted to back out of the rest of the trip for whatever reason (injury, doubt, etc), they could easily make it back to the Cabanas where we started. If not, they were committed to 4 or 5 more days of tough climbs of over 4400 meters and freezing cold nights. Without any doubt (or injury), we were all ready.

The day started with a climb over a pass called El Castillo (about 4500 m) and then a decent into the valley. We stopped and had lunch near one of the hundreds of pure water sources in the park. The water from the rivers? You can dip your bottle into it and drink it straight, without filters or treatment. The water is tasty and cold. If you wanted water from lakes, it is recommended you filter it but there are people who drink lake water straight from them too. Below are two photos from Los Cojines. The first is one up close of the group posing. As you can see the Cojines are like big lilly pads that you need to jump onto in order to move forward. There was a bit of risk involved. If you jumped onto a bright greed Cojin, you'd be safe. The surface is hard and can support your weight. If you were trapped and had to jump onto a brown one or one that didn't look healthy, you ran the risk of falling straight through it into the water. The water was about knee-deep and muddy. Thankfully, I made it through, but with a couple of close calls. The second is a shot from after we passed through them and were heading up to the next campsite near Laguna El Avellanal.
When we arrived at El Avellanal, we were in the clouds and a heavy mist was in the air. I couldn't see the lake at all and managed to hurt my knee on the final climb up. It wasn't bad, but it did slow me down a bit. We ate an early dinner and slept when the sun went down. When we woke up, however, it was a different story. The sky was super clear and it lit up the surrounding landscape. See the photos above. After breakfast...let me digress a little on the food that we brought. Erik advised us to bring enough food for 7 days (we made the trek in 6). Thankfully, everyone got along well enough to share food and cooking/cleaning responsibilities. Unfortunately, between the 6 of us, everyone brought (essentially) the same thing. There didn't leave much variety: pasta at least twice a day with tuna; a canned vegetable, soup, or any combination of these three. We were lacking proteins and we got creative toward the end but we managed to eat fairly well. I haven't touched pasta since I got back.

We finished breakfast and Erik informed us that the last two days of hiking were pretty tame. Tame meaning we've been at high altitudes for so long that climbing up from 3700 m to 4500 m wasn't an issue anymore. And it wasn't. It did become easier. We climbed the highest peak on the trek that morning, a peak of 4650 m (or 4800 m on the map, depending on which source you look at...either way it was a tall peak) called Boqueron de la Sierra. And the view from the other side was nice...Laguna de Isla and a glacier with a recent avalanche awaited us. This was our view.

We continued to our last camping spot on the trek at a lake called Laguna Grande de los Verdes. Again, we arrived in the afternoon in the clouds and had a freezing cold night. But the mood was different because everyone knew that the trek was almost over and began to feel more relaxed. When we left the next morning, we got a good view of the lake as we walked toward the Cabanas near Guican. It was sort of our 'This-is- the-last-good-look-at-the-national-park-before- we-head-back-to-Bogota' view.

As a tour the experience was good. But in the back of my mind, I don't know if we really needed Erik at all. The trails were well-marked there was no danger of guerrillas. I talked to a few of the others in the group and they agree that we could have gone through alone. Furthermore, I got the feeling that Erik wasn't really a good definition of a guide; he wasn't the least bit prepared for accidents. He didn't even have the basic first aid kit.

All in all it was a great trip and I'm glad I did it. Now, I have mixed feelings; you know when you have a goal in your immediate future and it's really important to you and you finally accomplish it? It's a sort of satisfied/empty feeling that I have.

How many fingers am I holding up?

2006-01-02T16:12:00.000-05:00

With my right eye it's pretty clear, however many you want. With the left eye, it appears as a blurry series of sticks because my astigmatism has returned. I started noticing the fact that my left eye was blurrier than my right about 5 or 6 months ago but didn't pay any attention to it. Recently I've been concentrating on the fact that it exists and have tried different things to try to help the situation (wearing sunglasses a lot, keeping my eye wet or watered, checking the blurriness at different times of the day, etc). Today, I went with Andrea to a local outlet mall to find a hat for my trip tomorrow and stumbled into an optics store that sells sunglasses. Andrea bought a pair half price. After the sale completed I asked the lady a question about my surgery 4.5 years ago an what I was seeing. She took me back to the consultation room and gave me a quick eye exam. She told me that the astigmatism I have had my whole life has most likely returned in my left eye and gave me the name of a specialist to go and see.

I sure wish I knew the name of the surgeon why operated on my eyes way back when but I can only recall that it was in Concord, CA in the East Bay, and that he was reputable with over 10,000 Lasiks done in his career at that time. Nate was with me when I had the surgery done and maybe he recalls but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure whatever guarantee that existed with the surgery has long since expired. They do Lasik surgeries down here too, at a fraction of the price but I'm a bit hesitant at this moment. So I guess the answer to my original question at the top is one finger, the middle one.

Rolling with punches

2005-12-15T13:23:00.000-05:00

As it turns out, Andrea will have to work through the Christmas and New Year's holiday and won't be able to go on our planned trip to Sierra Nevado del Cocuy. Much to her disappointment, I will most likely be making the trip without her. This morning my intention was to head to school for the annual Christmas breakfast (and last day of obligations) and then to go and talk to my friend German at the Platypus Hotel to see if there was a group or a person going to El Cocuy. There wasn't but I found an advertisement for a tour business called De Una which is run by a couple of Dutch guys. They've been taking small tour groups to El Cocuy for the past 5 or 6 years without any problems from anyone. There are two trips, one of 7 days where there will be two campsites and several day treks and one of 9 days where each night the group will camp at a different location. I spoke to Erik, they guide for the 9 day trek, and told him I was interested. Both groups leave January 3rd and come back either the 9th or the 11th. Tomorrow I'll head down to their office, get the full scoop, and go from there.

I got an email last week from the high school coordinator of a school in Kuwait called The American School of Kuwait (ASK) that was interested in employing Andrea and I, she as a PE teacher for elementary and me as a high school Physics teacher. I got another email this morning from the same guy telling me that if I (we) don't attend one of the recruitment fairs in January and February for international teachers (which are very common), it will be very difficult to find a job at ASK. So I wrote back and asked him where he'll be during that time and also suggested doing a video phone interview. If worse comes to worst I may fly out to meet him, we'll see.

What I've Learned

2005-12-12T08:22:00.000-05:00

These are some random notes about what I've observed and learned about Colombia and comparisons and contrasts between Colombia and the U.S. while living here. (Many of these comments are generalizations.)

Some differences between the Colombian culture and the American 'culture':
1. Whether it's the business of education, customer service, physical fitness or engineering, it's much more important to fit in with your coworkers than to do a good job. In the states, if you are well-liked by the company and your coworkers but do a crappy job, you get fired; here you get a pay increase. As a result, many of the students and adults that I've met who have visited the United States think Americans are unsociable, unfriendly, and insincere (but have great service).

2. It's a sociable culture. Formal meetings are just a glorified place to catch up on gossip, with a little work thrown in for good measure. Oh, and punctuality doesn't exist in any context. No one arrives on time and nothing starts on time, not even movies in the theaters.

3. The Colombian students I've met and taught don't seem worry about the same things students in the states worry about. They don't trifle with such things as being offended if called a fag, or whether you passed or failed English. They worry about being kidnapped or car bombed. They worry about being caught in crossfire by shrapnel. But it's not as if they worry like the true definition of worrying. They live with it, it's part of their lives and their culture. It's like, in the states waking up every weekday morning and knowing that you have to be in rush hour to get to work. Now replace 'in rush hour' with 'among armed escorts'. Furthermore, I've been told that it's safer now than before. Five years ago, it wasn't even safe for you to travel from one city to another by vehicle. Imagine not having the freedom of getting into your car and traveling from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, or from Tucson to Phoenix, or from San Francisco to San Jose. It wasn't safe. At any turn in the highway, there could have been guerrillas with a makeshift blockade where you would have been robbed and (possibly) killed. And the reason why it is 'safe' now is because the government established safe routes for you to go, if you choose to go. Meaning there are national military groups stationed along highways. You turn on the news here and whiny little organizations like the ACLU don't even make it to broadcast, and their national news lasts 90 minutes. Living here has put some of the ridiculous little problems we hear about in the states into perspective.

4. I've learned that the spanish language is a more difficult language to learn than English. And I'm glad I learned most of my spanish here instead of other Central and South American countries. I've heard Chileans speak, Brazilians, Mexicans, etc and I can conclude that the Spanish here is much cleaner (if you will) than the Spanish in most other spanish-speaking countries.

5. My personal lifestyle has changed. Over the past 5 months, Andrea has been going to another part of Colombia to work during the week and has been returning on weekends. I've learned new and creative ways to save money, out of necessity mostly. Here are some examples: during the days I'm alone, I've managed to reduce my daily food expenses to about $2. (When Andrea is here, that number obviously goes up.) Breakfast never changes, a bowl of cereal, lunch is what $20 a month gets me at school (which is a lot) and I stuff myself, dinner is either four eggs sunnyside up with four pieces of bread and water or a half can of beans with a half cup of rice, sometimes a tortilla is thrown in as a burrito. Water bills are reduced by methods you don't want to ever want to know about. Electricity bills? candlelight dinners are not just for romantics anymore.

5a. As a supplement to item 5 listed, I'd like to take this opportunity to explain how I've become somewhat of a minimalist while living outside of the U.S. The apartments I've lived in have progressively gotten less and less decorated as the years go by. At this moment, I'm sitting at a 2.5 year old cheap, square wood-plank table which barely fits my 12 inch laptop, telephone and Nalgene bottle. It is accompanied by 6 matching wood-plank chairs (4 of which will fall apart very soon). There is no other furniture in the main living room. The walls are painted but bare. Dust shadows of what was hanged by the previous tenant still remain. A cheap mountain bike (Andrea's) stands against the wall facing opposite me. The kitchen has a small refrigerator (purchased), microwave (loaned to us), and an oven that actually works. The bedroom has a queen size bed frame with mattress (no box spring) and a wooden table for the TV (which is never on). The closet consists of my clothing, most of which is old. But the clothes that are new were gifts. There is a bathroom that has a shower stall with glass door (broken), toilet with a large rock in the tank (see item 5), and sink. The rent is 700,000 COP, which sounds like a lot but is only about $375 a month and is considered upper-middle class.

Some similarities between Colombia and the U.S.

1. The rich breed richer. Most of the students I have associated with have a ton of money and two parents working very long, hard days. Students see more of their live-in maids than their biological parents.

2. Both Colombia and the U.S. have presidents that are hated, they both have crime, corruption, pollution, big cities, small towns, pop culture, brand names, idiot drivers, idiot passengers, idiot mall-walkers, idiot sidewalk-walkers, idiot bicycle-riders; beautiful beaches, beautiful mountains, beautiful plains, virgin territory, deserts, snow-capped mountains (the one geographic difference is Colombia has jungle, which is spectacular); problems with education, poverty, drugs, kidnappings, gas prices; kids are insecurity, have absentee parents, and are spoiled rotten; there are underfunded governement programs, overfunded government programs, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Personal observations and advice.
1. Colombian women are some of the most attractive on the entire planet. Of the 20+ countries I've been to, the women of the Czech Republic and Colombia top out at numbers one and two (I'm not sure of the order, however).

2. If you're a teacher, stay away from family-run schools. If you apply to a school where the blood line runs from the principal to the substitute teachers, prepare yourself for being ostricized and treated unfairly.

if you like number puzzles

2005-12-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

i recently discovered a new (?) game called sudoku. it's a japanese game called 'number place' (how original) in the united states. it keeps my brain sharp. i just started playing and can complete an 'easy' puzzle in about 15 minutes.

humorous translation

2005-11-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

i can't help but read the english translations of products that are produced in a spanish -speaking country, to accompany it's own spanish instructions. this is the back of a product called 'Carve' which is a half-assed hamburger helper-like substitute which i decided to try recently. i like the product because it gives me the freedom to select any liquid (literally ANY liquid!) of my choice, including hot. and i like the double-standard at the bottom, telling me that i must consume the product immediately after i add any liquid of my choice. or i could just wait until the next day.

my perception of the u.s.

2005-11-22T18:22:00.000-05:00

some students have been asking me lately about what i plan to do in december and next year at the end of my contract. i emphatically inform them that i am done with bogota, colombia, and the whole central and south american culture. i can't speak for brazil, chile, argentina and other neighboring countries and their respective cultures but i feel as if i know the south american way of life pretty well. i also inform them that i'm not planning to leave alone, andrea will be with me, wherever that may be. i also know that i'm not interested in returning to the u.s. any time soon. with the exception of friends, family, and a few selected geographic locations, i've had a negative opinion about the states, the people within it, and the 'culture' that surrounds it for a while now.

i've been reading henry rollins' book 'broken summers' (again) recently and he has some great perceptions about the states that i think i can relate to. to quote him: 'Amerika is playing catch up and it's out of breath. By the time they figured out that all that fast food and other crap was bad for your health, it was too late. Ronald McDonald was already in the home and he would never hurt you and you were already hooked so why stop a good thing? You're allowed to be an ignorant piece of shit in this country and someone will always be there to carry you. I meet fuck ups all the time. Divorced, substance abusers, two kids by two mothers, collecting unemployment and somehow driving and new SUV. They are pigs running wild and they are allowed to live. They are carried. Amerika spits in your face and charges you double and tells you to be proud. I love Amerika but it's hard to be proud of a place run by cowards who are afriad to tell the people the bottom line. They won't tell them to use less gas, they just get more oil. Here it's thousands of idiots driving in cars and trucks they don't need, clogging the lanes, on the phone.'

i like reading rollins. i don't always agree with what he says or the music he likes but he has a way of writing thoughts that i've had for a long time into clear, blunt, and to-the-point prose. the book also describes rollins' integral involvement with the West Memphis Three. three teenagers who were convicted of murder in 1993, even though there was no physical evidence, motive, or connection to the victims. they have been in prison since. rollins details his part by going on tour and making compilation CDs to raise money for DNA testing. HBO also made a documentary on the case called Paradise Lost I and II. if you're interested in knowing about the book, the film, or the case, you can see the information and reviews on amazon.com.

i hope not to end up like charlie

2005-11-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

this is charlie. charlie is from madrid but has been living in bogota for over 20 years. he's been an english teacher in the system for about that time and i consider him a veteran. he has turned down jobs that i have tried to get. he was nice enough to take me under his wing when i got to my current school and has helped me a lot with the way things function there. he's one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, plus he a polyglot, knowing three languages fluently. he's a teacher, and i certainly hope not to end up like him after 20 years of teaching.

charlie is a classic case of a teacher who has given up and stopped caring. he's stopped caring about the job, the students, the teaching methods, the school administrators, the curricula, and everything else that comes along with being a teacher except the paycheck at the end of every month. (For you Simpson buffs, charlie's like Rev. Lovejoy and Ned Flanders is education, if you can recall that episode). he doesn't speak unless spoken to (which is a good quality to have in my opinion), he's a 'yes-man' doing whatever is asked of him without complaining or wondering why or whether it is the right thing to do. he keeps his head down and his nose clean. he's passive in every way and his students think he's a boring teacher. but he makes sure that the school pays him every month.

i may eat my words here but i don't think i'll end up like charlie. what i need to do is find a place where students are able to recognize when a teacher cares about his job and are able to respect the teacher for it. but the questions is is it a place? or is it an age group? or is it a culture? or is it a socioeconomic class? i haven't been to enough places or been teaching long enough to know if it exists. i can say this, when students backs are against the wall, that is when they learn. otherwise, from my experience here, a teacher is just another adult telling them what to do and occasionally spewing out information which they think is useless to them.

all systems go

2005-11-13T09:33:00.000-05:00

after talking with a classmate from my master's course, the area of colombia called Sierra Nevada del Cocuy is filled with military people and is safe to traverse. so next month, andrea and I will be doing the Guican-El Cocuy trek, as described in the LonelyPlanet Guide to Colombia (1995 edition). it's a difficult trail and the guidebook says it is a minimum of 7 days hiking. to quote the description:

'This is one of the most spectacular treks the Colombian mountains have to offer. On the way, you'll see more than 20 snow-capped peaks, a dozen beautiful mountain lakes, marvellous frailejon-filled valleys, waterfalls, glaciers, and abundant flora. You'll need six to seven days to complete the whole circuit as described below, but of course it's up to you how long you wish to walk and where you want to camp. Keep in mind that the changeable weather may affect your plans considerably." (The article mentions later that the only period of reasonably good weather is from December to February. The rest of the year is rainy and snowy.) the picture is of the trail map from the guidebook. the trail starts in Guican (to the left, middle of the page) and continues in a clockwise fashion until Cocuy (below Guican). the trail is marked on the page by a dotted line.

in case it's too difficult to see details, some stops along the way include: lakes/rivers: Rio Cardenillo, Laguna Grande de los Verdes, Laguna de la Plaza, Laguna de la Isla, Laguna del Avellanal, Valle de los Cojines, La Cascada del Rio Ratoncito, Laguna del Rincon, and the Laguna Hoja Larga. mountains and elevations: Guican (5000m), Boqueron de la Sierra (4850m), Ritacuba Norte (5200m), Ritacuba Negro (5250m), Ritacuba Blanco (5060m), Puntiagudo (5060m), El Picacho (5030m), San Paulin Norte (5180 m), El Castillo (5100m), San Paulin Sur (5180m), Boqueron del Castillo (4800m), Concavito (5100m), Concavo (5200m), Portales (4850m), Toti (4900m), Diamante (4800m), Pan de Azucar (5150m), Pulpito del Diablo (5120m), and Campanillas (4800m).

the plan is to hire a guide in el cocuy (the town) and go from there. from what the brit in my class said, guides are easy to come by and are pretty cheap. but all things considered, if we do the 7 day trail it would be very difficult. i'm certainly not an expert trekker and neither is andrea. i hope not, but what i think will end up happening is we'll do a few days of hiking and camping through some of the more popular trails, toward the end of the trek (bottom right corner of the photo).

some other people have hiked around this part of colombia. you can see some info about their trek here and a travelogue here, which also includes pictures.

Leaving my mark

2005-11-07T12:49:00.000-05:00

i just got a knock at the front door (which never happens) and received word that i will officially be part of the 2005 Colombian census. from what people have told me, it's a big deal because the last offical census was in 1993. i'm curious to know two things: one how many people actually live in Bogota, i've been told anywhere between 6 and 10 million people and two, how many foreigners live here, i've been told between 2 and 10 thousand. i don't think i've ever been asked to participate in any census anywhere, so this is a big deal for me too. it's a bigger deal because i get to miss a day of work with pay this coming wednesday.

other recent events: i've started my second master's course class. this one is called Introduction to Gifted Children taught by an older black lady named Willa Bing Harris. Unfortunately, this class is much less interesting than the last class and i'm getting almost nothing out of it. we've finished one week of the course and have one to go. then who knows. in the last course, the professor had us each make a project to be turned in two weeks after the actual class finished. i seriously doubt anything like that will happen with mrs bing. the good news about the class is it was a bit less expensive than the first. and the cost, apparently, goes up or down depending on the number of students.

Andrea will be starting her certification course to teach spanish as a foreign language next week. she's a bit concerned with how much time it's going to take from her day (it's an online course) and how intensive it'll be. she's also in the process of setting up her own blog. we just started it this morning and has nothing on it but check back periodically if you want a quick spanish lesson.

sittin' at school in a tie, watchin' parents of stu-dents goin' by

2005-10-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

this morning is the first parent-teacher conferences at the new school i'm working at. it just so happens that it's also the day to give parents their children's grades for the first bimester. i got here at 7am along with everyone else (it's now 10am) and i've talked to three sets of parents, mostly from kids who have effed up in one way or another. i'll be here until 1pm. talking to that many parents is supposedly a lot, says another english teacher. thankfully, i'm not a homeroom teacher. they have to talk to everyone. i was also informed by the same teacher that most of the parents (if they come at all) come between 10am and 12p. wahoo. in between conversations, i've been grading papers and effing around on the internet. the school just put up a wireless antenna yesterday and i'm utilizing it to its fullest potential.

i had temporarily forgotten how much i despise wearing a suit and tie.

damn

2005-10-26T20:37:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are into juggling or like to see juggling videos, Anthony Gatto has a new website with more sick videos than you can shake a club at.

enjoy.

advice

2005-10-13T19:15:00.000-05:00

when you get a chance, take a look at my new webpage for prospective employers next year. i went ahead and put the weblink on my CV also. i also put a quick copy of my resume online too. the idea is for it to be shorter and more concise than the three page monster that is my CV.

if you see typos or have suggestions on what is written, feel free to comment here or email me. in all honesty the long-winded diatribe i wrote is for the utopian classroom, not for what we teachers see everyday of the week.

A different kind of noisy neighbor

2005-10-11T16:14:00.000-05:00

i thought that the upstairs tenants were a bit rowdy this past weekend. i'll take that kind of noise any day over what happened last night. at 1020pm, a car bomb exploded about three blocks from my apartment. apparently, a national congressman who has been marked for death by FARC for the past few years has re-fanned the flames of his enemies. according to the newspaper article, his first assassination attempt was in 2002. apprently he receieved another threat recently. according to witnesses, the bomb (50 kilos of nitrate) was hidden in a parked red Chevy Corsa, that parked on the corner of Calle 71 with Carrera 9 at 1005pm. the bomb was detonated about 15 minutes later, minutes after he walked out of a radio interview at a national radio station located at Carrera 7 with Calle 63 (about two kilometers away). the idea was to blow him up on his way home. instead the FARC was a little too jumpy on the switch and injured a bunch of his escorts in vehicles ahead of him.

i didn't know this until now but, apparently, he lives in my neighborhood.

how does this affect me? not sure, really. it's not like i can watch out for parked cars. or lines of escorts for that matter, they're just about as common. and it's not like i can find out where this guy is going to be at all times. i guess i can rest a little assured that his assassination attempts are few and far between.

Hidden talent

2005-10-09T10:37:00.000-05:00

i wanted to share the creativity of one of my tenth grade students. they just took a bimester test in which they had to write a 200 word composition (among other things). the composition was they had to finish a story that the teacher started. it began: 'At 530pmon September 15, 1992, George was sitting in his Manhattan office, perched on the 33rd floor of a mirrored skyscraper overlooking Central Park.' i'll write what the student wrote. i'll also protect her name but keep in mind, this is a 16 year old girl whose first language is not english.
'He was so bored that had eaten his left hand nails and was beginning to eat his right hand thumb. The American treatment for canibals that was receiving wasn't good enough and his 20,000 British Pounds were now gone. This was his new worry. His wife had been tasty, his son bitter, his little daughter sweet as sugar, but they were as lost as his money. George felt miserable and the most lonely person on Earth, he looked to hs right and saw a window, but it was a coward(ly) choice, over his shoulder but looking down, a pair of black scissors so infected that (he) couldn't find another response to desperation, any rope or cable or at least a gun, he died in the way he found more pleasure, he just ate himself.'

i thought it was very creative and had a good use of the language so she got an 'a' for that part of the test. the irony is is that she is far from the best student in school. she is repeatedly in trouble and has some discipline problems in and out of class. but she has a talent for english that i hadn't seen before.

under the weather

2005-10-04T16:34:00.000-05:00

i've been sick with a cold since the weekend and it's been kicking my ass. i've noticed a change in how my body is dealing with these viruses over the past couple years and i'm not liking it. before, i would get a cold and have symptoms for about a week or so and that's it. lately these colds have been sucking the life and energy out of me, rendering me useless for days on end. it's so bad sometimes i feel i'll have a heart attack just going up a flight of stairs.

a lot of people have been getting sick. most attribute it to the changing of the weather. bogota has been experiencing off and on thunderstorms lately. these thunderstorms are insane. i'm accustomed to the tstorms in tucson (elev. 3,200 feet (1,000 m) with thunderstorm bottoms starting at about 7,000 feet (2,300 m). here, the elevation of the city is 8,000 feet (2,600 m) and the thunderstorm bottoms are well over 10,000 feet (3,000 m). that's a pretty tall storm. and there's lightning here too. i heard three police officers were killed when the tree that was sheltering them was struck.

BEF 534

2005-09-21T19:53:00.000-05:00

this week i started my first ever graduate course, courtesy of the University of Alabama-Birmingham. the name of the class is Multicultural Education and is the first in a series of getting a masters degree in Education. the class is taught in english (thankfully) by an ex professor from George Mason University and is a pretty intersting class so far. it started on monday (unbeknownst to me) but i started on tuesday. i arrive a bit late most of the time because my classes at my school don't get out until 330p, which is when the masters course starts. but the teacher is flexible and he's having me (and a couple others with the same problem) do a little extra work to make it fair for everyone.

it's a pretty intensive schedule. 330p to 730pm 5 days a week and after a month, the course is over. next friday i've got to write a 2500 word term paper on a topic of my choice, related to the class. i haven't decided what to do yet but i have a couple ideas. i tell ya, it makes for a long, busy day for me. it's very reminiscent of my university days of working two jobs and going to school.

the downside to all this is that, in order to leave my school the two days of the week that permit me, i'll have to take a pay cut. i don't know how much it's going to be (probably not a lot) but the fact that it will happen at all just irks me.

Andrea

2005-09-17T20:50:00.000-05:00

Tonight i celebrated my one-year anniversary being with this amazing woman. what can i say about how i feel about her? everything. from an objective perspective, she's the kind of girl who is honestly modest, accepts my imperfections, can be an independent and free thinker; is adventurous, fun, and open-minded; who always tries to improve but doesn't try to be perfect; who calms me down and brings things to perspective when they have been blown out by my occasional losses of tranquility; oh, and not to mention someone who looks pretty damn good in everything and thinks i look good in (almost) anything. from a personal perspective, she's good for me and i'm good for her.

i'm happy. i'm happy to be looking forward to continue being with her. we're planning on traveling together next year, destination unknown*. she's ready and willing to leave everything that is familiar and known, her family, the few friends she has, and the culture behind for a change for the better. i'd be honored to be there with her.

thank you andrea.

*anyone who knows of a school that is interested in hiring me as a teacher of English, Spanish, Physics, or general science as well as a school for andrea to teach Spanish, feel free to contact me.

the things we think but don't say

2005-09-11T17:19:00.000-05:00

one of the worst acts of diplomacy that i've learned to perform is not to stir the cauldron when it doesn't need to be stirred. andrea is like me on this, if there's an opportunity to complain about something we both prefer not to and just accept people for who they are. there is the odd exception but in general, if i feel cheated or screwed on something, i won't bitch about it. my reasoning for this personality quark is that the effort to bitch for a different outcome isn't usually worth the outcome.

admittedly, the more i ignore opportunities to complain about things the more they add up to a general irking. the most recent episode came this weekend when (finally) the washing machine that the school promised i could use arrived. i knew something was up when the two people who delivered it (at 630am!) on saturday didn't even make a move or offer to hook the thing up, nor didn't have anything for me to sign saying i received it. i realized later that it was because the thing wasn't worth the metal it was housed in. the tubes leaked water and it didn't oscillate nor spin. it added water, made some horrble noises, produced malodorous air, then drained the water. it basically needs an overhaul which, i'm assuming, the school will not pay for.

now, i'm sure their guns are loaded with reasons why they shouldn't fix it and i should. my guns, though loaded, will only amount to a Scud versus their long range nukes and i'll end up footing the bill.

i could go into who's responsibility is, what exceptions there are, what misunderstandings took place and end up where i am now. so i won't say a word, do the diplomatic thing, and swallow the cost to fix the thing. i'll give it back at the end of the school year without hearing so much as a thank you (which would ultimately admit that the school knew it was broken when they lent it to me and god forbid if that would ever happen). they'll be happy and i'll wear a fake smile about it.

the good book

2005-09-07T21:26:00.000-05:00

when i first read the bio on 'See No Evil' on amazon, i was thinking it was going to be a book that enlightens the reader about the direction the CIA has been going during the past decade. and it did, but not in the way i expected. it was told from the eyes of the field operator who believes that the best way to get to know your enemies is by talking with people who have turned against them.

it highlights how he entered the CIA from the bay area and how he was trained as a field agent (there are even blacked-out lines in the book proving that the CIA read it and edited it to protect some identities and operations). it's like being a detective in the local police department and shaking down petty criminals to get to the big fish, but on a global level. it's basically hobnobbing and networking.

what was incredible about the book was how two things affected the downfall of foreign intelligence in the middle east: the information and technological boom in the 1990's and the arresting of Rick Ames (a CIA agent) for being a KGB spy. the information age made everything easy for everyone, even the CIA. it was lulled into thinking that they would rely more on satellites and the internet to get the info they wanted rather than with agents in the field gathering data.

the timing of all this was incredibly ironic, at times i found myself shaking my head in disbelief. it was at a time when the CIA was less and less interested in middle east intelligence and more interested in making oil deals with exxon, ammoco, and mobil in russia. plus, any remaining CIA agents in the field were petrified to recruit enemy associates because the FBI was on a witch hunt for other Rick Ameses.

while all this was going on, two very important people integrated with international terrorism could have been eliminated (or at least controlled): Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. in fact, in 1994, the author was meeting with iraqi army generals who had fought under hussein and were asking the CIA for U.S. support in a planned coup again hussein (which never happened). then again in 1995, when bin laden was in sudan and the sudanese wanted him out, they were ready to 'deliver' bin laden 'on a silver platter' to the U.S. (which also never happened). bin laden ended up in afghanistan to keep in close contact with his clan in iran. this lack of intelligence and interest in the middle east allowed the bin ladens and iranians (using money and weapons from Iran-contra back in the 80's) to plan and execute what happened in nyc, unbeknownst to the CIA because there were no field agents!

something else i thought was ironic and didn't know was that hussein, bin laden, the islamic jihad organization, basically all middle east terrorist groups were in some way associated and educated by yasir arafat during the 80's and 90's. and it was arafat who received the nobel prize for peace in 1996.

why was this book so interesting to me? maybe because i've been out of the country for the last 4 years and don't watch the news. i'd rather get my news from the source.

it has begun

2005-09-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

i thought it would take a little longer than a couple weeks. in a school full of females, there was bound to be one of them to have the hots for me. the problem is that she's apparently fallen for other teachers in the past and has had disappointing consequences. the parents have gotten involved in the past also, the father i've been told can be quite unpleasant. whatever. i know where the boundary is between a professional rapport with a student to build confidence and something more. i know how to handle it.

my new passport is ready for me to pick up, go to the local ministry and get another visa. tomorrow morning i'll head down and take care of all this nagging crap and then i should be in the clear.

i'm also almost finished with a really good book called 'See No Evil,' by Robert Baer. it's about the CIA, the government, terrorism, and how the faces of all these identities have changed over the past ten years written from an ex-CIA intelligence gatherer. he had been stationed in lebanon, iraq, sudan, russia, and other places where g dubya's evil-doers reside. good stuff. i'll fill you in when i finish.

crazy bus drivers, lazy bus passengers

2005-09-04T19:16:00.000-05:00

i experienced another hair raising bus ride home on the way back from juggling this evening. for those of you who don't know, much of the public transportation in bogota is by private bus companies, most of which compete for riders standing on the sides of major streets. the bus drivers stop as often as necessary (even though typical bus stops are present) and wherever it is convenient. i've seen on a number of occasions where a bus driver was blocking three lanes of traffic to pick up a passenger; plus i've had bus rides where they driver stops to drop off or pick up passengers 6 or 7 times within one street block.

while on the subject of bus passengers, i think most of them take advantage of the stop-wherever-i-need-to-stop policy. i can't count how many times i've been at the back of a bus (where the most leg room usually is and, coincidentally, where the exit is located) and seen a passenger get off at one location, then another waiting passenger rings the bell to get off 10 meters down the street; which is followed by another lazy passenger getting off 15 meters after that. i guess people really want their 45 cents worth. i for one try to get off when the bus stops to pick someone up or when the bus stops for someone else getting off close to where i need to. but i guess i'm a minority in this thinking.

well the bus driver this evening was in command of a beast of a machine. although managing it like a champion, i think he was oblivious to the fact that those passengers standing (me included) were like dogs tied to the back of a speeding pickup truck. apparently, he was racing another smaller bus to the other side of town. must have been a slow sunday night.

I've moved

2005-09-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

I decided to relocate my blog on the web because i wasn't super happy with www.journalhome.com, mostly because pictures and web links were difficult to manage. so here i am. if you are at all interested in my random entries (mostly of the goings-on down here in the tropical mountains), check back randomly.