A Sad Day

The above is a picture of my Spanish teachers (Ana is wearing the teal sari and Alfredo is...the only guy), Mirna is wearing the pink sari and Mercy and Lumina are the two nuns. Well today was there last day in class. Monday they will move to different cities in Colombia to continue God's work.

I am sad to see them go :(

El Smoking

The first time I encountered this odd term was right before Oscar's mother, brother and sister went on a cruise. We needed to take his brother, Esteban, to get a "smoking". I had no idea what this was, until of course, we went and it turned out to be a tuxedo that he was renting for the formal night of the cruise.

Once I figured it out I put it out of my mind for a while...until I got to the "clothing" lesson in my Spanish class. It turns out that tuxedo is "esmoquin" in Spanish. HA!

...and the world makes sense once again.

"No hay de que-so, no más de papa"

Today is the start of IdiomMonday. Every Monday I will try to post a new idiom.

The idiom above is used when you do something for someone and they say "thank you", the response could be "No hay de que-so, no más de papa."

Usually you would say "de nada" or "no hay de que", which means, "it's was nothing."

"No hay de que-so, no más de papa" comes from a Mexican variety show called "Chespirito" (pic above). The guys on the show are funny in a very stupid kind of way. Loosely translated it means "no cheese, no more potato", but it isn't an idiom that you should translate word for word, it doesn't make sense. It's more of a play on the words, changing "que", to "queso".

I think it's funny.

Brush with fame?

There are two parts to this story:

1. I watch a telenovela (3 actually) every night to imrpove my Spanish listening skills. It's called "Amor Sincero" and it's a true story about a little girl, Maurin, from Cali who grows up to become a famous Colombian singer. It's a pretty interesting story, her mother had 4 children from different parents before her, but is now married to her father, a local police officer. As you can imagine, because after all it is a telenovela, there is a lot of drama. Well, the only part you need to know is that Maurin now has a manager who is a little kooky (see above picture)

2. Last Tuesday I had lunch with my boss, Dr. Emura - I was telling him about how hard it is to understand accents from other parts of the country. Especially Cali, because I watch "Amor Sincero" so I know the accent well. Dr. Emura is actually from Cali and informs me that he is good friends (from high school) with the guy that plays Maurin's Manager (see above picture). So he proceeds to call him up and put me on the phone with him! What? What followed was a very awkward conversation with a pseudo-celebrity (in English thank goodness!). He was cordial, but it was pretty evident that neither of us had any idea what we were doing talking to each other!

I might add that Oscar was very excited about this as he follows "Amor Sincero" religiously :)

Que Chevere!

How cool would it be to go to school in a castle??

"No dar papaya"

"No dar papaya" is a saying here in Colombia that literally means "don’t give papaya", but colloquially it means don't put yourself in a position where you become vulnerable and can be taken advantage of.

Here that means don't wear/use iPods, jewelry or fancy clothes and don't go walking around deserted streets at night.

Diversity

Today I was in class with people from: Canada, Colombia, Croatia, England, France, India, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland.

Juan Valdez Lives!

I came upon this article today about the re-emergence of the "Juan Valdez" brand through Starbucks like coffee shops.

I used to walk by the Times Square location often - that may or may not have been the one that closed...and I've been to the one in the Newark airport a couple of times for the coffee.

They sell typical Colombian pastries (sweet and savory), but they probably need to do a better job of educating their customer on what each pastry actually is - from what I can remember they are all fried and look pretty much the same.

They are also all over Bogota, which is nice because there are ZERO Starbucks here- though I have yet to go to one here, they are ways pretty busy when I pass by. I hope they continue to do well.

Rainy Season

It's true, there is a rainy season here. At first it would rain for about two hours between the hours of 2-6pm.

NOW, it's pretty much raining all the time, and I hear it can be this way until June...at least it's not cold...

And two good things come from all of this rain:

1. There will probably be a plethora of beautiful flowers blooming in a couple of months, and

2. RAINBOWS!

p.s. I have yet to see one person wearing rainboots, which is kind of funny because with all of the potholes around the streets and sidewalks it's very easy for your feet to get wet.

Parque Simon Bolivar

On Easter Sunday Oscar and I went down to Parque Simon Bolivar for the closing ceremony of the "Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro" - one of the biggest theater festivals in the world that takes place in Bogota every two years.

Here are some pretty pictures of the park.

Packaging

This type of packaging is VERY popular here. As you can see everything from jelly to creme to mayonaise comes in this...well, I don't even know what you would call it - squeeze bag??

I haven't figured out the reason, but I know it's not for ease of use, because these are much more difficult to actually get the product out. Packaging costs? Recycling? I don't know. But if I do find out I'll be sure to let you know.

Our Adopted Dog

This cute little schnauzer runs around our neighborhood...we didn't actually bring him home with us or anything, but we're partial to schnauzers, so we've adopted him like you adopt highways or whales, etc.

Any name suggestions?

My Easter Egg Hunt

This is a picture of a traditional Colombian tamale - nothing like Mexican ones, these are much bigger and are wrapped in some kind of leaf.

I have encountered these in Colombia before, but wonder if they are related to Easter at all.

Oscar's Tia gave us these - with the leaves on, you sit them in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes, unwrap and wallah! inside you'll find chicken, corn, carrots and, you guessed it, an egg!

Colombian Architecture & Design

A collection of recent photographs of building design in Bogota. Never boring and always colorful, I really enjoy driving around the city looking at the interesting buildings.

This stretch of buildings is in Candelaria, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Bogota.

The building says "zoologico" - I have no idea what they sell...life-size animals?

This looks like a "jardin" or pre-school.

This is one of my favorites, but I have no idea what it is.