5/30 Monday –I began my day with a sore throat. Gradually, I lost my voice. However, I still managed to complete a lot of work. I created an excel sheet to document ALL of my expenditures. I also plan to guard my money very carefully, to count my change after every transaction. Afterwards, I documented all of the meetings and activities of the last week involving work for the Foundation. I also began to plan my English classes. Essentially, I will focus on vocabulary for certain practical situations/themes: banks, hospitals, schools, transportation, food, etc. I will also teach basic verb conjugations and prepositions. I will spend a significant amount of time on practicing pronunciation, one of the most difficult facets of the English language for native Spanish speakers. A reason why the pronunciation is so difficult is because English emphasizes the hard sounds of consonants. In Spanish, the majority of words end in a vowel or soft sound. Later in the day, I met with Gloria, a member of ICX to discuss the quality of my exchange so far. She seems very cool! She has traveled to and lived in many different countries, including Peru, Argentina, Italy, and Switzerland (I just can’t remember specifically which others!). In the future, I hope to be as cultured in experience as she is. As we discussed @, travel, life, romance, partying, we enjoyed some wonderful smoothies. My favorite aspect of the food here is the FRUIT. Fresh, pure, exotic, and flavorful! I could just eat and drink fruit for every meal :D That evening, I met the head director of the Foundation for the first time. Her name is Greici. Super cool! She is a fellow @er who recently returned from her exchange in Brazil. She is beautiful, kind, intelligent, everything you could hope for in a boss. Apparently, she has also acted in a Colombian soap opera. Badass!
5/31 Tuesday - I couldn’t sleep. So far, I have endured two nights without rest, and my other nights are marked by vivid, stimulating dreams. I woke up feeling even more ill, and they continued, I became aware of my fever, migraine, and full body aches. Nevertheless, I went to the high school for my classes with the girls. It is difficult to follow all that is said in the philosophy and ethics courses. However, the activities and conversations that I do understand are fascinating. They are discussing very critical and abstract concepts, such as the creating and purpose of man and gender roles of society. The high school is all-female, so there is an overlying spirit of feminism, which I respect and admire. I enjoy my English class the most, with students in the 9th grade. They are super cute, kind and talkative. I am also able to genuinely contribute assistance in the class to the professor and students. I read conversations and vocabulary out loud for them to repeat and practice pronunciation. Only when teaching English, have I realized the difficult of the language. Honestly, I prefer the sound of Spanish, but English is so necessary for business and communication in today’s world! After classes, I returned home, ate, and passed out in bed. I woke in the sweat of fever, and then slept some more. My adoptive mother gave me some tea, water, and hot sugar cane juice, alongside bread and medicine to sooth my illness. She told me that I have a virus/flood as a result of the climate change. Apparently, it is quite common. So, I spent night sick and resting.
Funny times: During English class, Duvan attempted to make a pun with the words t-shirt and teacher. He super failed XD
I also had an interesting thought during breakfast… as I watched flies about the home (very common), I thought about how animals require no passports to travel from country to country, continent to continent. I wonder if the animals can sense a difference in culture alongside climate….
Speaking of animals… I found a worm inside my avocado during dinner, and my adoptive mother says, “Don’t worry, it’s more fiber,” and she laughed. (Fortunately, I didn’t actually have to eat it!)
Other thoughts….
A peace core project just recently began here in Santa Marta. The focus is to assist professors in teaching English to the community. English = the most valuable verbal export in the world. The @ members ask to practice English with me, which I am always more than happy to do. At times, I am too exhausted to speak Spanish coherently. Especially at the end of a long day, I lack the willpower, especially to listen and discern. It is far more difficult to listen than to speak! Exciting news: A friend recommended me to privately tutor a university student in English. So, I might have another source of money! We’ll see…
On the topic of languages, the three other interns can speak at least three languages, one can speak five. I am very impressed! USA needs to emphasize the importance of foreign language starting in elementary school. Seriously. The US needs more cultural awareness outside of its own borders! However, I do appreciate the diversity of my country. The culture of the US is indeed the culture of the world. As one of the most diverse countries in the world (if not THE MOST diverse), there are hundreds of languages, foods, and holidays from every country in the globe.
When I return to the U.S., I also hope to embark on more domestic travels. There are a few Colombians who I have met that have seen New York, Miami, San Francisco, etc., cities that I, as a US resident, have never seen. What a shame! I must change that J
6/1 Wednesday – Woke up feeling much healthier! I am determined to fully recover by tomorrow. Today, we hosted an event in the plaza of the university to advertise the English courses during vacations in June. Our goal: 3 classes (English, German, Spanish) with 15 students in each. The other interns and I played music from our respective countries and presented photos and info in our languages. I also walked around campus with Duvan, both of us in Gangster University of Houston baseball caps. He set the beat, and I rapped in English about the summer courses. We passed out a ton of interest forms. Also, because I brought no items from the US (no flag, no pamphlets, etc.), I dressed up as the flag in red, white and blue, and created a presentation of visuals and info in the computer. Today, we received the information of many interested students. I am excited! I discovered that several @ers are talented Harmonica and chess players. How kool! Also, we played thumb wars, rock/paper/scissors (though it is a tad different here), and that violent, unnamed slapping game lol I returned home for lunch, and I watched the price is right with a Colombian host and the prices in pesos. I’m not quite as talented at guessing the price in other currencies, but I hope to improve my skill. That evening, I headed over to the U for ping pong practice, but I discovered it had been canceled due to the rain. On my way back home, I ran into some @ers. We hung out at a local panadería (drinks, bread, deserts), and drank some gaseosa (soda). Afterwards, I went with Cristian to drink coffee at the famous Juan Valdez Café. Essentially, Juan Valdez is the Starbucks of Colombia. It tasted incredibly delicious! He taught me about differences in coffees and mangos.
Pañuelo de papel – tissue paper
La Gripa – flu
La Virosis – virus
Oso de peluche – teddy bear
El té – tea
La Panela – sugar cane
El/La Nativo/a - native speaker
La visita – period/menstruation, literally it means the visit (from mother nature)
Carrefour – a huge store like Walmart
Casilda – another new nickname
No comments:
Post a Comment