Los Estados Unidos

We're back in the US. It comes with mixed emotions. It's nice to be back in our house, but it was very sad to leave all of our family and friends.
Coming home wasn't too eventful. We had to stay a few extra minutes in Immigration for Pacho's green card details. We had expected such. What I had NOT expected was how DISGUSTING their bathroom would be! GROSS!!! What a "welcome home" present!
Thanks to everyone who checked out my entries, even when they were without the pretty pictures.
Hopefully you learned a little something about Colombia and had a couple of laughs along the way.
:)

Who knew bats were such icky little creatures?

Have you ever seen a bat close up? I don´t mean on Animal Planet...I mean LIVE. IN YOUR FACE! This rat with wings, hanging, ready to drop on your head and do a little jig. (Bats do jigs, right?) Anyways, we went away for a couple of days to a town called Santafe de Antioquia. It was the first capitol of Colombia. Kinda reminds me of Williamsburg, except the people don´t dress up in costumes and they speak Spanish. So, we stay at this hotel, which leaves alot to be desired. For starters, there is only one person working at a time. Also, we´re the only guests in the whole place! The food was not that great and it rained every day. To top it off, one of the peacocks they had there chose to die and his final place of rest was atop the only slide on the playground. Needless to say, we did NOT revisit that area other than to pay our respects.
Oh...the bats...right. So, outside of our room I happen to look up in this hallway and I see not one, not two, but TEN bats hanging down looking at me. I must admit, I was wigging out! Like I said, they´re RATS with WINGS! YUCK! I mean, I´m not going to go all Ozzy Osbourne or anything, but I will not be taking them in for show and tell either. I did take a picture...too bad I can´t transfer it to the computer.
Guess you´ll just have to use your imagination...

oh where, oh where has my olympus camera gone...oh where, oh where could it be???

See that picture below this entry? The one I said was my favorite? Yeah, well, it BETTER BE because it's the LAST picture I got to take with my camera. The day after I took that picture my sweet, innocent Olympus 510-UZ camera was STOLEN from my clutches and now lies in the hands of God only knows WHO doing God only knows WHAT!
Yes my friends, GONE!
And so, the picture portion of this Blog has come to an abrupt end. I'd rather not go into details because, to tell the truth, I'll just get mad again. But, needless to say, no more pretty pictures to share until I get home and can transfer them from the other camera we brought.
I will NOT let this be the end of my ever-entertaining commentary regarding my trip and hope you'll continue to check back to see how things are going.
Who would have thought that my previous run in with the law would be the foreshadowing for this untimely thievery?! Oh, the irony!

A side street in Girardota.

I just love how this picture came out. I snapped it from the car as we were coming home.

You think YOU have alot to carry???

We saw these little burros carrying quite a load. They didn't even seem to complain. The guy on the other hand was a bit of a whiner! :)

Excuse me. Where's the frozen food section?

So today I've volunteered to cook lunch, which is typically the bigger of the 3 meals. Food down here is a bit different from the US. First of all, EVERYTHING is fresh! Meat, veggies, fruit, etc. There is hardly any canned food on the shelves other than tuna, and there is NO frozen food section, other than maybe chicken or some other meats. Even the soup comes in a package, not a can, like our Lipton, and you prepare it yourself.
This all means that cooking is quite an undertaking. BUT, there is NO obesity here. None! AND, cancer is a RARITY!!!
How many people can you think of who have or have had cancer? Too many to count, right? Here, you could count them on one hand...if that many!
It makes you think that maybe in the US we spend too MUCH time trying to SAVE time (i.e, canned foods, frozen dinners, fast food) and in the end we are really WASTING time needed to preserve our health and well-being. Hmmmm...
PS. Lunch turned out to be delicious :)

Who let the dogs out...who, who???

So today we went fishing. We went to a park where you pay the entrance fee to fish in this huge lake. There’s a little snack bar inside and a playground. After a while the baby got bored, so Debbie and I decided to leave. We had driven there, but since my dad, Pacho’s dad and Pacho weren’t yet ready to go, I said we could take a taxi back. Pacho wanted to at least drive us back up to the main gate, which was about a ¼ of a mile
away, but I said no, that we’d walk back. It was just a short walk along a dirt road with cow pastures on either side. No big deal. So I thought…and, like I tell my students…that’s what I get for thinking.
As we were walking to the entrance, (the baby, Debbie and I) all of the sudden this dog comes running out of a farm building used for the cows. It was barking and showing his teeth and very, very aggressive, lunging at us and everything. It was quite scary. I had Dash in my arms and pushed Debbie behind me. (like I have super powers or something…) I’m yelling at the dog, “BACK OFF! BACK OFF!”
Now in hindsight I realize that it would have been much more sensible to yell at the dog in Spanish since he probably isn’t bilingual, like the chicken, but at the time I wasn’t relying on sensibilities, but rather shear instinct.
Regardless of the language barrier, I think the dog gathered by my body language that I wasn’t going to turn and run. So here we are in the road, the dog lunging, me yelling, the baby in my arms, Debbie behind me, and this dump truck which had passed by only moments earlier starts backing up towards us. He sees what is going on and tells us to get in and he would take us the last 200 or so yards. I concede, seeing no other option and Debbie, Dash and I climb in.
So we made it to the entrance. I proceeded to hail a taxi, but the one that stopped tried to overcharge me and I told him “no thanks!” We opted for the bus and another adventure ensued.
As we get on the bus I can hear a group of teenagers in the back being loud and harassing everyone. Debbie and I sit down and I just ignore them. I mean, I put up with that every day! ☺ Anyways, they aren’t directing their taunts towards us until I get up to tell the bus driver where to drop us off. Then they start in saying, or trying to say, “Good Morning! Good Morning! Hello!” I waited until we were getting ready to get off and then I turned around and looked them right in the eye and said in Spanish, “It’s not ‘Good Morning’ it’s ‘Good Afternoon’ you idiot!” (Ok, for the record the word idiot was replaced with something a bit more profane, but since the children could be reading this, I’ll make it G-rated.) All the others were “oohing” at the one who I had told off but what could he do?
Guess my list of people who won’t be sending me Christmas cards is getting longer and longer. Obviously my policeman "friend" is at the top, then the dog, now the rowdy teenagers. So the saga continues…
☺

Dad & Debbie arrive to Colombia

Dad and Deb arrived on Thurs. July 5th @ 10:20pm. Delayed due to storms in Miami. We've had alot of fun showing them around the town. Yesterday we went to the pig farm and Deb held a baby pig. Dad asked lots of questions and I tried to translate as much as I could but my "pig-breeding" vocab just isn't that expansive (thank goodness!) Dad and Don Pacho (Pacho's dad) have had so much fun getting to know each other. Despite the language differences, they are similar in many ways. Today we're going fishing! I'm sure I'll have to translate many a fish tale between the two of them. :)

La finca

Ayer fuimos a una "finca." A finca is similar to a house in the country. We had a picnic of sorts with a dish called "Sancocho." It's made w/chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, yucca & cilantro. It is delicious. Here are some pics:

The billingual chicken.

Last night we went to an auction. It was REALLY crowded. Obviously I always stand out for being so tall and blonde, but I still tried to slip in without attracting too much attention. Well, as soon as the auctioneer saw me he announced, "GOOD MORNING! WELCOME TO COLOMBIA!" Ofcourse everyoned turned to look at me since he was speaking in English and I was obviously the person he was talking to!
Anyways, all night he kept calling me "la gringa" which is pretty much equivalent to "whitey" in English, but isn't so offensive.
So, here is the chicken I bid on and won. They advertised it as being "billingual!"


We gave it away to someone who needed it, but somewhere there is a chicken with my name on it.

Dash gets to know his Colombian "peeps."

Dash w/tía Marta and primo Mateo.











Dash con Pedro "el patrón" bidding on items.













Con la tía Luisa.













Con el Tito Pacho.









Dash con la prima Paulina.

Even the elderly know how to "boogie" in Colombia

fotos de Girardota

"around town..."

Yesterday was a bit less exciting. :(
No police or drama. We had lunch at Pacho's sister's house & I took pics from her balcony of the city below. We also went and had icecream. Like I said, not too eventfull.
Today we are headed to an auction in the countryside. I will take some video. It should be really neat. Too bad my dad isn't here to help. He is coming on Thurs. I can't wait!
ALSO, Pacho is getting a car from someone to use while we are here. A bit scary as the people here drive CRAZY! We'll se how that goes.
love to all
:)
Oh yeah, next Wed. we are going to an ecological park. It should be amazing!

"rooster?"

My "alarm clock."

My run in with the law...

Things here are really, really good. I did have a minor incident with the police yesterday. It seems that he did not want his picture taken. I wasn't even taking HIS picture, I was taking the picture of another building, BUT this jerk policeman got in the picture as I was taking it and then got mad. He asked me all these questions. I told him I was here vacationing and was taking pictures for a website I was creating. (I can't BELIEVE he doesn't know who I am! The nerve...) :)
I was by myself and got a little nervous. This woman who is a neighbor of ours happen to pass by. She told him that I was a teacher. He was like, "Well, who knows what she'll do with this picture?!"
Oh yeah, like I'm going to take over Colombia or something...
Anyways, I told him that I didn't even WANT his stupid (stupid was replaced with another word a bit less eloquent)picture in my camera! I told him that I would erase it and we would all be happy. I was sooooooo mad. So I came back to the house and everyone was like, "he can't tell you what to do!" but it was too late.
Hopefully I'll stay out of "trouble" today. :)

fotos

Ya llegamos!

Hola from Colombia! We made it! The trip was fine, other than a minor incident in norfolk. Apparently American Airlines didn´t have a ticket for Mr. Dash. BUT...after about an hour we got it all straight.
Things here are wonderful. My husband´s family have been beside themselves with happiness to see the baby. The weather here is great. No humidity and about 80.
I can´t write too much now as we have to go figure out why my laptop from NSA won´t connect to the internet. We all know how computer savvy I am! Once I get THAT straight, I will send pics.
Buy the way, my English is probably a mess so please forgive me. I am thinking only in Spanish now. It is actually really really difficult to write this because I can´t seem to remember the words! AND the keyboard is in SPANISH letters so everything is out of order!
Chao for now...

WED is just around the corner...AGHH!

Well, I am REALLY getting anxious now. I just hope the little one handles all the traveling in stride. I'm sure he'll be fine. God help the person who has to sit next to us! I'm sure I'll tell them about my BLOG! (I know, I'm a dork!)
Thanks to all of my "kids" for checking out this site. I know you are all busy living your own "vidas locas" but I really think you'll enjoy the info I post, especially the videos! (It really is scary, me with all of this technology at my disposal. Be afraid...be very afraid!)
If you'd like to e-mail me directly, please do so @ kgsanin@gmail.com
You KNOW I love to hear from you all.
Have fun but be safe!

12 días más

Only 12 days left now. We are so excited we can hardly wait. We have an 8 hour layover but other than that, both of our flights are direct. It will be interesting to see how
Mr. Dash handles the plane trips. He has flown before, but this time he has his own little personality which includes his opinion on how things should go...
Thank God for portable DVD players and Qui-Qui Rico the Singing Puerto Rican Chicken!