It’s the last 2 weeks of my exchange, and honestly time has flown by so fast, it makes me so sad 😦 I don’t think the kids realized that we are leaving soon, but it is still amazing to see the improvement they have over just 4 weeks of school.
I got to talk to some of the little cousins today, and they are oh so adorable! One of them brought their friends around so that they could hear me speak Spanish, English and Cantonese. They are such cutie pies.
Gotta plan out the rest of my trip as there isn’t too much time left! 😦
Been a few days since I updated, felt like there wasn’t much to update yesterday as not much happened,
Yesterday was kinda brutal at the school. While we were teaching, there happened to be swimming lessons going on at the same time outside. The attention span on the kids was very very low. Also, knowing that only half of your class showed up is also very disappointing; they can’t just come whenever they want to learn English! 😦 The highlight of the day/class was that the kids started kissing us on the cheeks goodbye, it was so adorable ❤
At night, my host family asked me whether or not I wanted to join them for church. I wasn’t doing much anyways so I decided to join them. I have only been to church once previously, and it was a Chinese Christian church and I Was forced to go. This church was very cute and small, everyone knew each other. I did not understand a single thing during that hour, but it was nice to experience it 🙂 The funny part about the experience was the guy who was singing, was falling asleep himself.
I have also been reading a lot and I’m more than a 3rd of the way into my book! So glad that I’m able to get in the habit of reading while I’m abroad!
how I spend my nights
Today was more eventful. Originally after teaching, we were all going to meet up at Unicentro to watch a movie. Hung and I took the bus there and man it was a confusing path…we’ve never gone that way on a bus, but luckily I recognized the roads again. We realized that none of the movies were in English or the good ones did not have English subtitles, so we ended up going to eat instead. It was really nice to just spend time with other people on exchange. We have discovered our love for drinking publicly, it’s honestly not that big of a deal as I have done it in Hong Kong as well, however it’s just a different experience being able to do that with your friends…frequently. We are also in discussion of possibly going to Cali all together which will be extremely exciting! 🙂
Andrea and I with the Copa America Cup
One thing I’ve really noticed recently are how bad the bus rides are. In Canada we complain about how late, or slow, or anything about the buses. However, the buses here have no schedules, there are no bus stops, and the roads are extremely bumpy. It is hard to tell whether or not you just missed a bus here and you must wave down the bus like a taxi if there is no bus stop nearby. I have been thrown up, down and around the seats while on the bus due to the roads being in poor conditions. I also got to experience the bus driver almost hitting someone today as they were not paying attention while crossing the street. #StaySafe
Happy 1 week in Colombia! Proud of myself for surviving, haha.
Realization: I’m going to get fat here. The meals are so big, it is actually a struggle for me to finish each meal 😦 It was cool today though, I got to eat a slice of avocado that was longer than the length of my hands; it was massive I tell you.
As I was leaving the house to take the bus to work today, the host family realized that I had never been on a motorcycle before and they insisted that I do it. Since I’ve always wanted to ride a motorcycle, I couldn’t say no. It was so exciting and fun riding on a motorcycle! It sucks when the wind is blowing all up in your face, but it’s such an interesting feeling going so fast but not in a car. I absolutely loved it!
First motorcycle ride! 😀
I absolutely love the kids. They make me so happy to see them everyday, and to see that they are learning words so quickly is so impressive. I am so proud of them, I can’t wait to see the progress after 6 weeks! We played some games today where they were split into teams, and man they are so competitive; there isn’t even a prize and they are so competitive! Can’t help but smile when I am with the kids 🙂 One of the kids ended up giving me a note at the end of class, which was so cute.
One of the children gave me this after class :
Unfortunately on the drive home, the car broke down. The man running the place where we teach was nice enough to drive me home but to have his car breakdown made me feel extremely bad. I also couldn’t communicate with him in Spanish as he spoke absolutely 0 English. He was nice and called his friend who drove me home, and good thing I know directions since the guy didn’t really know where he was going 😛 But at least I had this view while I was waiting!
Don’t need to go that far for such a beautiful view!
I am surprised that I am getting used to the freezing cold showers here. I’m starting to forget what warm/hot showers feel like D:
Wow it’s almost been a week since I first landed in Colombia! Today was another chill day, just spent my day at home preparing for my 2nd class. The students are all so lovely. The excitement they have to learn and the energy they bring is just amazing.
Today’s class was very surprising to Hung and I since we had an additional 10 students on top of yesterday’s 20. The more the merrier 🙂 We got to teach them numbers up to 100, colours, and animals. It was a nice feeling when they would ask questions or ask for help, it felt like I was useful. The way the children pronounce words are so adorable, I’m assuming it’s how I sounded when I was learning English as an ESL student 😛
After the break today, we played musical chairs with them, and it brought back so many memories of my childhood! It was so nice to see them all laughing and smiling during the game, really made me miss being a child. But seeing their happiness made me happy 🙂
Random note: The children really like to come up to Hung and I to take pictures of us individually and randomly. It’s adorable but weird at the same time haha.
When I got home, I decided I should really practice my Spanish and go over my textbook. It’ll help me improve and go over the verbs I should know more often. Hopefully it’ll help me!
Later at night I crashed an AIESEC meeting. It was so nice to see familiar faces and get involved in the conversation. Missing the colder weather in Canada 😦
Passport&airports 