Feria de las Flores

First, let me say that I have been thinking about this blog and the best way to use it. I have decided to use this space strictly as a travel blog. Here you will find my weekend adventures and all the fun that comes along with living abroad. Once again, this was meant to be for me as much as it is to you, my readers. Professionally, I do not feel comfortable sharing experiences, good and bad, about the school on such a public space. So, with that said, I have created a google doc to share the weekly happenings. If you want to check that out, just email me and I will share it will you. My email is ksmith825 @ gmail.com 

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Now, I also want to apologize for the delay. I did not have internet for nearly two weeks so I am a little behind. 

For me not to be much of a flower person, I centered my entire weekend around them and I couldn't have been happier about it. This weekend was the culmination of the Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival). This is the second biggest draw/attraction to the city. There are different activities each and everyday from mid-July to early August. Medellin is known for their flowers and it is also a huge cultural celebration.

Saturday, I met a group of teachers at the Botanical Gardens. I took a taxi all the way there and I got yet another compliment on my Spanish. Let me just tell you how low their standards are for gringos because it is far from worth of a compliment!

The different displays are incredible. Having been here just a few weeks ago, the transformation that they made was just incredible. It was bare the last time we were there and now there were absolutely beautiful exhibits and flowers (many of which are orchids) all over. Words cannot do it justice so I am just going to dump a few photos here. 

A typical fruit/juice stand. They also had market stalls with different crafts. 

We explored the gardens for a while and then sat at a cafe for some snacks and small talk about life, school, etc. Then we headed to the metro so we could go to Mercado del Rio. It was an old warehouse which had been turned into a really neat eatery with different littler restaurants all over. It was a nice, quiet atmosphere with tons of character and good food of course.

A few of us decided to walk back to our place for a little more exercise (my most common form of exercise recently). Luckily, we came across a huge festival. There was a tv station there doing a segment about who knows what but it was hilarious. The three guys in the chiva came out and started singing and then one guy carried another guy off on his back. 

This is a small chiva- party bus. 

Desfile de Silleteros - 60 year anniversary 

We checked this out for a while and learned the history of the silleteros. It all starts in Santa Elena, the birthplace of this tradition, where they make the flower arrangements. Kids of all ages (aka actual kids to very old people) make this trek down into the city carrying the displays that weigh between 40 and 120 kg (about 80-260 pounds). This year there was about 500 participants. The parade is 10km so just imagine carry that on your back the whole way.

Here is a little history. In the colonial times (about 200 years ago), the silleteros would carry down the sick on wooden seats on their back. That evolved to fruits and vegetables that they would carry down to sell at markets. Eventually, the began doing the same thing with flowers. It was then that the idea for a parade to celebrate them was born.

With that said, it a huge cultural celebration for the people of Santa Elena. It is a honor to participate in but it is only open to descendants of the generations of people that have participated since its inception.

Saturday, we went to Santa Elena, about an hour away from the city, to check it all out. A teacher has a finca (a farm but not a farm like we would think about it. just a house out in nature with or without lots of land) nearby and many people were staying the night. We all packed a bag to stay just in case we got stuck there. They close almost all of the roads so we were not sure if we would be able to get back or not.

There were probably about 20 teachers from the school that were there and we had a great time. We spent most of the day in the city square. There were food vendors all around and a couple craft stalls. Of course, there was also a big amphitheater with a band and some dancing. I had a roasted ear of corn, tried lechon (backed whole pig then stuffed with rice and beans and cooked again), and chuzo de pollo (chicken kebab). 

meat, meat, meat and some arepas

Local Colombian with the poncho and hat 

Many people headed back to the finca for the night but a group of 8 of us wanted to go explore and see where they were actually making the silletas. We ended up just wandering around but did come across some of the places that they were making them. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time!

With a little help from some locals and the police, we found our way back and waited for the taxi that someone had arranged earlier in the day for us. Fun day but it was nice to be able to sleep in my own bed that night. 

The next day was the climax. The actual parade was happening. It was one of our best days since we got here. Crowded does not even begin to be able to do it justice. People from all over the country and all over the world come just to see this parade. We definitely got there later than we should have but we were still able to manage to squeeze in behind some people on the bridge overlooking the parade to see enough of it. They were selling stools to stand on that nearly everyone had so of course we all bought one. It would have been hopeless without that. Next year, we might even splurge for buying tickets to sit in the bleachers. 

Right when we got there, we saw a float with a band come by and a series of horses. However, that passed quickly and we waited and waited. It was hot and crowded but the entertainment was not lacking. People selling drinks (mostly beer) and food came by advertising (the nice way of saying yelling) constantly. A couple came by with their stereo on wheels to dance for tips. Two drag queens came by. It was busy. 

After a bathroom break, we got back in time to catch the start of the parade. It was phenomenal. Everything about it. The crowds. The silletas. The silleteros. The music. The dancing. The bands. 

These men and women, children and adults, are incredible. We were towards the end of their trek so they were definitely tired. They often raised their hands or waved their hats for the crowd to make noise for them. They occasionally stopped and the crowd would chant 'Si, se puede! Si, se puede! Si, se puede!' (yes you can!) over and over for them. We had a great time playing with a selfie stick, interacting with the locals, and watching a serious girl fight over the umbrellas. 

On the way back I got my first little Colombian souvenir to commemorate the silleteros. All in all, it was a winning day and a great first puente. I have some pretty high expectations for the remaining 15!

Lastly, here is a little comparison for you. The weather does some crazy things here. Often foggy in the morning but it clears up nicely in the afternoon. Unfortuanley, I think I have a lot more of this rainy/foggy coming at me soon so I am enjoying the clear, blue sky views while I can!

A little bit of culture

And here is the second post I promised. Its a list of various things that I have learned directly or indirectly throughout the week.

Life fun facts.... 

- they have something call pico y placa to assist with the traffic here. It only exists on week days but according to your license plate, you are only allowed to enter the city on certain days or stay after certain hours. For example, some of the admin had to leave the happy hour early because they had to be out by 5:30. 

- most people wear their engagement ring on their left hand and then they move it to their right hand when they get married. 

- Its a city of contradictions. Lots of greasy, heavy food here yet it is a very health conscious city. Its quite the combination. 

- new fruits that I ate this week: maracuya, granadilla, and cherimoya. and I have a zapote on my countertops that I haven't tried yet. 

- there are rules for every little things-  over 220+ amendments to Colombian law

- laptops have a totally different keyboard. Zoom in and check it out.

School fun facts..... (I'm going to add in some more pictures of the school to beautify this otherwise wordy post)

- Colombia is the country with the second most public holidays. Here they call them puentes. The first one is next Monday. That's right... we are starting the school year off with a holiday.

- name games here can be tough because many students have the same name 

- I'm having an identity crisis... I'm not coach smith anymore. Should I be Ms. Kassie (culturally normal) or Ms. Smith? Let the students pick? 

- All schools are required to have a certain number of instructional minutes per week. This upcoming year, the school has decided to count the 4 minute transition time as instructional time because ,in local schools, teachers change rooms and not the students. Doing this allows them to create nearly an hour long lunch which is a combination of a lunch and an extra help period where kids can go find teachers for help. 

- the school tries to stay current. I have heard ' according to brain research' many many times. They read and try to act on it. (For example, max of 10-15 minute lesson, brain breaks, no extra help after school, etc) 

Many schools come to visit to try to attract the Latino population 

- the companies that parents work for actually choose their vacation time. What this means for the school is that students may be out for a week at a time if they want to have a family vacation that year. 

- School practices 

• generally no points off for late work- there shouldn't be an academic consequence for a behavioral offense 
• no 0s and no missing. They are starting this year to give IE's, meaning insufficient evidence. This aligns with the belief that grades should represent what students can do. Within the next year or two, the plan is to move to standards based grading using a 4 point scale. 

- Roger showed us a very neat website by Geert-Hofstede in order to compare cultures. Some big take aways: 

• Individualism in the Colombian culture is virtually nonexistent. They said many of the students look alike and even the majority choose to wear their uniform everyday. It is a P.E. uniform so they only have to wear it on those days but almost everyone wears it everyday. 
• Students are incredibly protective here of their group. For a teacher, that means never single a kid out or the rest of the class will make life difficult for you. 
• This means it can be hard for a move-in/ new student to the school. 
• It is a typically very competitive culture. Both students and staff are allowed to sell stuff at school. 
• they are much higher than the US in terms of indulgence. What this means is that they know how to chill out, relax, and have a good time. You can typically find people at all hours of the day sitting around, sharing a meal together, etc.

- Students fail years here not courses. You fail and must repeat the whole year if you fail 2.5 classes. 

Outdoor amphiteater 

- Some students come from very wealthy families... we were told that some may get dropped off and have body guards. 

- The school tries very had to keep students there K4-12. They have a foundation that supports families that have fallen on hard times with a scholarship. 

- They have a huge huge HUGE halloween party at the school. You'll of course be seeing some of it later. Think costumes, slip n slide, dance party, party bus, grease pole, etc. 

• Also kids go trick or treating in malls here... not neighborhoods. 

- I will apparently know when Novemeber 30th turns into December 1st. The city lights up in fireworks (that are illegal but it doesn't stop anyone). December is a big party month in celebration of Christmas. The city center does an fantastic job with Christmas lights. Roger said students are often distracted/ tired in December because of the late night/early morning parties. 

Alright, thats it for now. Talk to you next weekend! 

First real week of preplanning

So... I'm having a hard time trying to organize the massive amount of information that I learn on a daily basis for you. I'll start with some of the more boring stuff and include some random facts and tidbits on a separate post. 2 weeks in and I am still very much in the place where everything is new. 

On Monday, we got to meet our administrators and the new local staff. I very much enjoyed meeting everyone and was encouraged at the atmosphere. It feels very welcoming and fun-loving with high expectations. I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly intimidated by the great success of the AP program at the school. They had a 95% pass rate for all students that took any AP test and only one person out of 60+ failed the calculus exam. Huge shoes to fill... With that said, I am in a great place to learn and grow professionally and feel that I have a good support system. 

We left school at 3 to attend 'happy hour' at a really neat place. I tried a drink called lemonada de coco and it was very rich. They had multiple different appetizers brought out to us and we had a great time getting to know each other a little more. I got some brownie points by trying the blood sausage but only after I made a local eat it first. 

one of the plates with all kinds of yumminess 

I hunted down some fresh ground peanut butter before heading back to the apartment in a taxi with two others that live close. It really would be nice to live a little closer to the heart of the city. We struggled a little with directions so I asked to get dropped off at exito to get some groceries. I like to tell myself that food always tastes better after carrying it home. 

Tuesday was more meetings and more settling in.... pretty much the story of the week. One of the admin talked about how they were 'a school of yeses' and I liked that openness to new ideas and continual improvement. They are encouraging everyone to step out of their comfort zone and broaden the audience of the students works. We learned a more about culture and what that means for students here. Basically, they love to talk. Classroom participation should never be a struggle but classroom management might be. 

This is in the middle of one of the malls here. The whole city is preparing for the flower festival. 

Wednesday meant more of the same- professional development. So far, I have been impressed with the professional development offered. They generally practice what they preach and model what they want to see. We learned about their lesson planning guide and I was interested to learn that ethics was a part of that. They would like each lesson to have a component of ethics in it. This is because we have students that are coming from wealthy families and will likely be thrust into positions of authority relatively soon. 

I got to meet Sam this morning. Sam has been teaching AP Calculus here for the past 7 years or so and is moving up to be the math coach this year. I am so thankful for his willingness to share, help, and support me. 

I went to my first intercambio Wednesday night. An intercambio is a free language exchange where people come to practice their Spanish and English. It is a really neat atmosphere where the conversation fluidly switches between languages. Everyone is very nice and obviously there to learn so the stakes are not very high. 

Thursday, I went out to lunch with some people at a very neat restaurant. Speaking of food, I seem to be struggling to find my normal. But don't worry, I am still trying everything and seeking out all the new goodies. I didn't have to really change much with the AB curriculum so I finished the bulk of that today and am now trying to sort through BC. 

Restaurant up top. Grocery store down below. Piano in the middle. 

For some reason, Thursday was a bit of a tough day for me. Tough enough that I opened up the last three of my cards (thank you again to everyone). I think my brain had just reached its limit. There really in no time to shut it off because the normal things that you don't have to think about at home are still added stress here- especially because its in a foreign language.  How do you get consistently hot water? How do you get the mail? Where is the gym? Where is ___ at the grocery store? How do you recycle? How do you email your secretary to request supplies (<- google translate). The list goes on... I am ready for the kids. I want to meet them, build relationships with them, encourage them, help them. But yet I'm not ready for kids because I still have so much work to do. 

Its the slow times that life gets hard. Times when I'm surrounded by my blank white walls. Times when I can't tell my taxi driver how to get to my apartment. Times when I have different food in my panty. It's then that I have to remind myself how much I wanted to and still definitely want to do this. This, by no means, is not a woe-is-me post or a buy-me-a-ticket-home post. I just want to be real. This blog is meant to be a forever journal for me that I just decided to share with the rest of the world. So the real me, the realistic me says, yes, life gets hard. 

BUT the great thing is that there are as many and even more things that I am loving about doing life here. And those are so easy to list off and so easy to realize - especially when I am out and about, experiencing new places, and cementing great memories with some awesome people. 

Even in a mall, you can't escape the green. 

I hunted down my soon-to-be gym Thursday. Its called smartfit and it is in the mall near me. Let me just tell you how much altitude affects the body. I was dying!! This mall is quite nice and even exciting enough to have a zip line running through it! 

Anyways.... Friday was back to the grind at work. I tried the cafeteria at school where I believe I will be eating everyday. There are many choices and the food is of course fresh. We eat around 1:30 everyday though so I'll have to work on that snack. I got home and worked the rest of then evening to get the first day powerpoint, syllabi, etc done and went to be early for the big adventure Saturday. 

Walking through his neighborhood. 

Roger, my high school principal, offered to take us all hiking so of course I was all over that. He lives on the other side of the mountain/ past the school. I took a taxi to San Diego mall where we were meeting and hopping on the local bus. We packed in there and got off at his neighborhood. We walked to his house, dropped off our stuff, and headed out with some of his neighbors. 

red bellied grackle 

We climbed up over some hills, through different gates and properties, and eventually in the river. It was a river hike the rest of the way so it was a little slow going. It was incredible. We saw a couple trout in the river and just enjoyed the challenge and scenery. Eventually, we made it to a beautiful waterfall. 

We hiked back (its always quicker getting back!) and made it to Roger's house where he made a nice spread for us. A couple of us picked some oranges off his trees in the backyard for some juice. Delicious tacos and fruit was on the menu. It was quite the spread. I was already feeling spoiled and the day was far from over. Appreciative is an understatement.  

Next stop was a nearby town. He offered to take us to El Retiro, just a few km away. We stopped at a bakery where I had a rich chocolate peanut butter treat. Then we crowded in the cars and drove a little farther into town. It was such a nice, quaint town. Nothing touristy. No gringos in sight. 

Chiva 

If you can't tell, I just love all the different doors. 

Overall, Saturday was just what I needed. I got out of the hustle and bustle of the city life. I was surrounded by nature and good company. 

When you go to bed at 9, 6:15 isn't a bad wakeup time. These early wake up times here on the weekend make the weekday alarm clock hurt a little less. About 7:30, I walked into town to meet up with Andrea at the farmers market. It was so fun to walk around, sample things, and buy some groceries. I walked down the mountain to get there so there was no way I was going to make it back up with all my food. Taxi it was! And I even managed to give good directions. 

my first arepa since arriving. Arepa con quesito. 

A little food prep and house keeping was on the agenda for the rest of the day. I even managed to get  some pictures up on my walls to spice it up a little. 

One more week of pre-planning. This week, all staff will be back. I am excited to meet the rest of the school family!