La llegada y el primer día

¡Hola! Imagine this... It's May 31st and you are about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. You have spent the last month packing and preparing and stressing out trying to make sure you are ready when the day arrives. Well it's finally here and this was my experience in the first two days of our groups adventure in Colombia. 

I woke up at 3:50am even though my alarm didn't go off until 4:20am because I was filled with so many emotions that sleep just wasn't going to be a thing for me. The group met at the check in counter at 4:45am so we could go to the gate as a group. At this point everything was starting to feel real... or so I thought.

We got to Miami and got on the flight to Cali. If I thought things were getting real when we left Cincy they were actually getting real now.  You know you are in for an experience when you think you know a language then the flight attendants start speaking in that language and you only understand half of what they are saying. Besides my minor mental explosion realizing I was about to have no idea what was going on for who knows how long, the flight was good. When we landed we all made through customs, which was goal number one after the plane touched down, and went out to meet one of our Colombian leaders, Oscar.

Once we found Oscar and loaded into vehicles, we headed to lunch at a pizza place. After this we rearranged our luggage into the vehicles that would take us to our homes for the next month and set out to meet our families. I was the last one to make it to my house and was so tired when I arrived that I pretty much said hello to everyone and went to bed. 

Overall, it was a super exciting but long and stressful day.

The next morning I woke up and ate breakfast with my host family before heading to the university that we will be taking classes at. While we were at the university we got a tour and met our teachers for our classes. This was another difficult day for me because we only used Spanish and I realized very quickly that I was going to have to get used to living in a constant state of confusion and just try to pick up as much information as I could.

If I am being honest with all of you readers this day was a wash for me because I spent the whole day just trying to figure out what was happening.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 18th- The Climb

Image
 Today our group ventured to the Nirvana Nature Reserve about an hour and a half away from Cali. Upon arrival, we enjoyed some coffee and pan de bono before beginning our hike. I find it best to summarize our experience hiking through the lyrics of the iconic song "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus (2009).  There's always gonna be another mountain I'm always gonna wanna make it move In our case, our hike through the nature reserve was a seemingly never ending incline. To say that some of us were feeling a bit out of shape today is an understatement.  Always gonna be an uphill battle Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose I am happy to report that we came out on top in our uphill battle (except for the last 20 minutes of our hike where we had to trek all the way back down and then it was a downhill battle). When we reached the top there was an amazing view that went for miles (or kilometers if you are in Colombia).  Ain't about how fast I get there Ain't about what's...
Read more

June 22nd- Las Mujeres Tejedoras

Image
This afternoon, after our morning Spanish classes, we had the opportunity to meet with Maria, a member of the NASA indigenous community. Maria works with a women's cooperative called La Fundación Tejedoras de Vida. La fundación, or foundation, aims to preserve, strengthen, and disseminate cultural information about the NASA people. In addition to sharing information about the NASA people, the foundation primarily works to defend the rights and interests of indigenous women. A few of its objectives are to: provide training for women's rights and civil rights, develop projects that benefit urban and rural indigenous communities, and provide opportunities for employment that support the economic development of indigenous communities.  One of the ways the foundation achieves its goals is through artisan work. The NASA people have a strong tradition of weaving beautiful and meaningful works of art. One of their most detailed pieces of work are their "mochilas" or bags. Eac...
Read more

June 26 - Bosque Colibrí (Villacarmelo), Reserva Natural

Image
 June 26, 2022 Today we got to explore the Bosque Colibrí, which is a nature reserve that also cultivates several crops, such as coffee and honey. The entire experience from start to end seemed very intentional and introspective, and we also got to learn so much about how they maintain the reserve and how it sustains itself. Everything that we came in contact with was very environmentally-conscious and connected to the ecosystem in which it is situated.  When we arrived, we enjoyed a short yet steep hike to the gates of the reserve, where we were greeted by our guide, a biology student at the Javeriana. We then walked up even further, learning about the different birds and trees that surrounded us and finally reached a house with several outdoor spaces to facilitate our learning and reflection. When we reached the reserve, we got to meet the owners of 12 years and are professors at the Javeriana.  We learned about the different geographical nuances of Cali and Valle del C...
Read more