Only 3 1/2 to go...

It is hard to believe that I only have three and a half months left here in Venezuela. I am both excited about returning to the US and sad to leave a place that I have come to love despite all of it quarks. I am excited to start law school in the Fall and to begin what I think will be an exciting and rewarding career. I am of course excited to be closer to family and Jeff!!! On the other hand I will miss my dear friends here in Venezuela. I will also miss going salsa dancing. Riding on buses with reggaeton blasting. Going to baseball games and having beer dumped on me. Those are just a few of the memories that come to mind.

Now to catch you all up on my life since I have not posted in awhile. Since my last post I headed home to spend the holidays in the US with my family and Jeff's family. It was great to be in Dallas and New York. I have heard from several law schools and I am getting excited about the prospects. I am still waiting to hear from a couple of schools so I have not made a decision just yet. I also had the pleasure to travel with my friend Erica and her boyfriend to Margarita Island for Carnival and that was a blast. We had planned to go since her boyfriend won a free week at a hotel, however, the trip became even more exciting when we learned that a co-worker would be getting married during our trip. We attended the lovely wedding which too place on Saturday of Carnival on the beach. It was quite interesting to say the least. Venezuelan weddings are nothing like the ones we have in the US. They had a civil and religious ceremony on the beach which was followed by a wonderful reception on the beach. We ate appetizers while drinking and dancing until around 11:30pm when dinner was served! There was a DJ, Samba band, regular band, and finally at around 1am there was a Mariachi band. It was a great party and it was fun to share the experience with so many of my dear friends from work. I am so happy for Jose and Ivanova and I want to wish them a life time of happiness.

The fun didn't stop there. I came back from my relaxing trip to Margarita on Tuesday night and that Friday morning my Mom came to visit for a long weekend. We had a blast together. Talking about her upcoming wedding and just seeing the sites of Caracas. We went to a fabulous dinner on Friday night with several friends. Saturday I took her to El Hatillo and Chacaito and then dinner and a movie that night. Sunday we took the Teleferico up the Avila and spent time walking around and enjoying the sights. Monday afternoon she headed back to Dallas with several extra pieces of luggage to help me start the moving process. It was great to see her and I am excited because in four weeks I will see her again in Peru!

That is all for now. I am really trying to enjoy and savor my last few months here. You can't beat the weather especially because so many places in the US are getting hit with snow. I will be back on here to post something for sure at the beginning of April after I head to Peru for Spring Break.

Life Without Water

So things were a little rough last week because we only had water on Tuesday, Thursday, half a day Saturday, and Sunday. When we don't have water all day we are rationed and only receive it for 30 minutes three times a day. This is a new trend in the city because we are in a drought currently so the reservoirs are very low. Needless to say it is going to be a long few months ahead because they are predicting that we will be without water 48 hours every week. I will keep you up to date on the situation, however, in the mean time I found an interesting article on CNN that explains the situation.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/02/venezuela.water.rationing/index.html

Playing a little catch up...

I know. I know. I have fallen a little behind on the blog with the start of the school year. The school year has been moving rapidly! After all of the Bowdoin girls were in town I had more company. Jeff was able to come down and spend some time with me before he started his Masters program at St. Johns. We had a nice time together and he got to know Caracas even more than he already did before that trip. We went to a barbeque at the head of schools house with a few other teachers, went out dancing with some coworkers, and ate dinner on top of the Avila. It was all absolutely amazing. Once he left it was back to reality and lots of work at school.

I have made the decision to head back to the US next year and go to law school! I am really excited about the prospect of going back to school and getting into educational policy because it is such an exciting time in the US. Needless to say I have been working on completing my applications and writing personal statement for the schools. I found it very hard to talk about how great I am and convince the school to accept me. However, I have finally finished it and I super excited to start sending in my applications.

In the meantime, last week we had our October break and I travel to Colombia to meet my Dad. We stayed in Bogota for a few days and then headed off to

Medellin. I absolutely loved Colombia and would recommend it to anyone who has ever thought of going. I think it is actually safer than Venezuela! We visited several museums, churches, and houses in Bogota.

We also went outside of the city to a restaurant called Andres Carne De Res.

It was an

incredible place with excellent food and interesting decor. They seriously had the craziest things on the walls and ceilings (pretty much junk). There were also people dressed up as different characters and stationed all around the place. Needless to say it was an experience.

We also went to a Salt Cathedral about 45 minutes outside

of the city. It was absolutely spectacular to see all of the beautiful statues and crosses carved out of salt.

There was also a reflection pool that reflected the ceiling because the water was so salty.

From there we headed to Medellin which was an incredibly nice city with lots of infrastructure maybe funded by the drug money that used to be so prevelant there. We took a bus tour of the city the first full day we were there and saw several parks, cathedrals, and Botero statues. The next day we went with our new found taxi friend to several of the colonial pueblos to the east of the city. They were absolutely beautiful.

We also went to the Piedra del Penol which is a huge rock in the ground that they have built over 700 stairs into so that you can climb it and see the views.

It was incredible beccause it over looked several lakes. The final say we went to a market to buy local handcrafted goods. Overall it was an amazing trip.

I was however disappointed to come back and find out the due to a drought we have been having here in Caracas they are limiting water consumption in the city for who knows how long. I had a huge pile of laundry that needed to be done so it was not a good situation. Needless to say I went over 48 hours with only thirty minutes of water twice a day because during the third time I was at work. We finally have water back today but it sounds like we are going to be rationed once or twice a week from now until who knows when. Oh the joys of living in a third world country. And to top it off they rely on hydropower for electricity so now we are going to be having brown outs or even blackouts because they cannot support all of the need for electricity.

That is all for now. I have included the links to my photos from Colombia so you can take a look at them if you want. I would love for people to add themselves as followers so I know if anyone is ever reading my blog. Also feel free to leave comments....

http://picasaweb.google.com/smt1130/Bogota#

http://picasaweb.google.com/smt1130/SaltCathedralBogota#

http://picasaweb.google.com/smt1130/Medellin#

http://picasaweb.google.com/smt1130/EasternPartOfAntioqiua#

Polar Bears Invade Venezuela!

I arrived back to Caracas late at night on August 4th and the invasion began early the next morning. Shifty (Kate Nielson) arrived that morning and joined me at school that afternoon for my first day back on the job. She was followed that night by Wedge (Jayme) who came all the way from Tokyo which took her about 48 hours. The next night Bones( Sonia), Chinny ( Kate Chin), and D (Danielle) arrived to complete the group. We had two full size air mattresses in my living room so that we could all fit. On Friday they took the teleferico up to the Avila and went around town while I was working and then they met me at school and helped me finish setting up my room. We then headed to Fransico Artur's for some pollo, yuca, papas, and quesillo. We decided to drink a pitcher of Sangria which was so good that we convinced the waiter to find a to go containers so we could take another pitcher to my work party! The girls got to meet my work friend and experience the party culture for a little bit. However, it was to bed early because we were waking up in the morning to take to planes and a boat so we could see Angel Falls!

Angel Falls was amazing! We took an early morning flight to Puerto Ordaz and from there we took a small 19 seater plane into Canaima. We arrived a late because they oversold the flights and had to send a plane back for a us. Of course they didn't tell us so I was pacing back and forth wondering when someone would tell us about our flight. We boarded the plane after making sure to use our athletic skills to make sure we were at the front of the line to get on. We flew a small 19 seater plane to Canaima. When we arrived we were greeted and quickly swept off to meet the others in our group since we were late. We headed to the canoe launch site and had a quick bite to eat. Then we set off on our boat ride. We rode for about 20 minutes and then had to get off and walk for 30 minutes so that the boats could cross a set of rapids that were too dangerous to cross with all of us. We got back on the boat and went another 20 minutes to a small waterfall where we got to swim. It was awesome. From there it was about three hours by canoe (motorized of course) to our base camp. We arrived at the camp selected our hammocks, changes clothes, and played cards until dinner was ready. We were served a very generous portion of chicken, rice, and salad for dinner which was great. From there we decided to head to bed since we would be getting up at 4:30 am to begin our hike to the falls.

Sleeping in hammocks was not as bad as I thought it would be all things considered. I mean I wouldn't want to do it for more than a few nights but overall I was impressed with how well I slept. The only incident was when Jayme, who was sleeping next to me, came back from the bathroom and fell trying to get in her hammock and kicked me. I proceeded to yell and she began to laugh hysterically. It was quite a scene since there were about 70 other people in our camp.

We got up at 4:30 am and headed out to the lookout for Angel Falls. We took the canoe across the river and when we got out the boat driver asked our guide Jose Carlos, who was awesome, if we still wanted to go because the sky was really overcast. He asked us if we still wanted to go and we said well we didn't come all this way to not try! We hiked up and back without seeing a single person. We stopped on the way for him to explain a few things to us and for a little snack...I tried termites! They weren't too bad. We finally got up to the lookout and the clouds slowly dispersed. The view was spectacular! We took a bunch of photos and then started our decent. we got back to the base camp and ate breakfast. We packed up and headed back in the canoe although it only took about 2 and a half hours to go back because we were going with the current.

Once in Canaima we set out to go to Hacha Falls which was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We got to the shore and had to wade across to the falls. We then walked through part of the falls and eventually got behind them. It was amazing to see all of the water rush down from behind. We even got to go underneath the waterfall at one point. After this we went back to base camp ate lunch and headed back to the airport. It was a really quick two days but they were amazing.

On Monday Kate Chin went home and the others headed to Merida for two days. I was off to school on Tuesday for my first day of classes. On wednesday morning the girls arrived back from Merida and informed me they were going to the centro and would then take a taxi across town and meet me in El Hatillo for the afternoon. It started to rain that afternoon as I was leaving school, but since I didn't have a way to talk to them I headed off to El Hatillo in a taxi. My cab driver had to stop several times on the way because it continued to rain so hard that it was like we were on a river. I got to El Hatillo a little late, but the girls were not there. I waited about an hour and a half and they still had not arrived. As I was beginning to panic I got a text in Spanish that said, "I have your friends they are good please call now." Of course I start to panic and think that they might have been kidnapped, but I call and find out they had been taken in by the national guard. The streets had flooded so badly that they could not get there. The national guard arranged for a car for them to get to my place and we finally met up. Needless to say it has been an exciting trip. I have really enjoyed the company and it has been great to catch up with them and share a lot of laughs!

First full week of school starts tomorrow...We will see how that goes. I am hoping to get a lot of sleep. More adventures to follow!

Wine, Futbol, and Tango in Argentina

Sorry it has been so long....Jeff and I traveled from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina and then on to Cordoba and Buenos Aires. We had an absolute blast. The only real hiccup in the road was getting to Mendoza. We set out at around 8am to the bus terminal to buy our tickets and start a 6 to 7 hour bus ride up over the Andes Mountains and into Mendoza. We got there bought our tickets and found out shortly after that that the route had been closed due to snow. So we were now in problem solving mode. Everyone we spoke to said that it would not open back up that day and we were on a tight schedule. We decided to head to the airport and see about flying because we had heard that there were good deals. We got to the airport and soon found out that when the passage closes the flight prices sky rocket! So we decided to find a hotel for the night and set out exploring Santiago because Jeff had not spent much time there. We had a great day of sightseeing and head to bed. We actually made the 9am bus the next day and it was well worth the ride because the views of the Andes were spectacular! We arrived in Mendoza dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed out to see the city of Mendoza. The city is great there is one major plaza which is surrounded by four smaller ones. Mendoza also had the best italian gelato of any of the city we visited in Argentina. We ammended our schedule so we could stay another night in Mendoza, however, our hostel did not have room. So we set out to find a place to stay and ended up in the nicest bed and breakfast called Plaza Italia B&B with the nicest propritess. That day we went to the park and hiked up the cerro (hill) to see some amazing views of the city and surround towns. The next day we got up and headed jsut outside the city to ride bikes to several vineyards in the area. We got to the bike shop and decided to ride a tandum bike which at first seemed sweet and cute until we got on the road with trucks speeding past, lots of holes and bumps, having to stare at Jeff's back and not know where we were going (he had to sit in the front for balance reasons), and realizing that I had to pedal twice as fast to keep up with Jeff's long legs. However, it was a blast and we really did enjoy ourselves.
That night we got on an over night bus to Cordoba. This would have not been a problem except that every guy around us was snoring so loud we both had trouble sleeping. We arrived to Cordoba and bought our tickets for that night to head to Buenos Aires since we stay another night in Mendoza. That day we walked all over the city of Cordoba and saw the oldest university and many beautiful chruches and buildings. By late afternoon we were ready to crash for the long day so we thought we would get food before heading back to the bus terminal. However, all of the resturants were closed until 8:30pm so we found an internet cafe to pass out time and finally ate and jumped on the next bus.
The trip to B.A. was much smoother because we had seats that reclined 180 degrees and no snoring men. We headed straight to our hotel to shower and clean up and then took a Double decker bus around the city to orrient ourselves and see some of the basic sights of the city. The city looks like parts of Europe. We loved it! We started getting into the Argentinian lifestyle and had dinner almost every night around midnight. The two highlights of our time in B.A. were seeing a professional futbol (soccer) game which was incredible. The fans are so fanatical about their teams. It was amazing. The next night we went to a spectacular dinner and tango show! It was all you can drink on the bottle of wine so needless to say my early morning flight the next day was a little rough. All in All Argentina was an amazing country and I know one day I will go back to do some more exploring.

Adventures in Chile!

I arrived to Chile with my Mom and Bert last Monday and we have been having a blast. We spent three days in Santiago which is a great city. It is hard to believe that it is a city in Latin America because it has very little resemblance to any other large city in Latin America that I have been to. While in Santaigo we did a walking tour around the center of the city which was a lot of fun. We were also able to go and see Pablo Neruda´s home in Santiago called La Chascona. We had a wonderful tour and got to begin to understand his life. We also went up Cerro San Cristobal which is a "hill" and we were able to see some amazing views of the city and the Andes. From Santiago we headed to the Coast to stay in Valparaiso and we travelled to Isla Negra and Viña del Mar. In Valparaiso we stayed at B&B La Nonna and we absolutely loved it. The owners Renee and Carolina are amazing. They have showed us around and made us feel so welcome in their home. We only had one hiccup which is that I have been pretty sick, but they have helped me get medicine and even see a doctor so that has been good. We are leaving tomorrow to go back to Santiago for the day and to meet up with Jeff who is flying in from New York. From there we will fly out tomorrow night to Calama which will get us to the Atacama Desert. I am excited about the travel that lie ahead. I will try and update the blog throughout my trip.

The Basketball Adventures Continue...

The weekend after my adventure to the beach I took nine middle school girls along with one other coach back to Maracaibo to play in a basketball tournament. It was a lot of fun and the girls played really hard even though it was unbearably HOT! We arrived on Thursday and headed straight to the school to play two games. In the first game one of the girls went down pretty hard on her ankle and so she and I were off to the clinic for x-rays and to test my Spanish skills. We arrived at the clinic and were immediately whisked in to the main emergency room to find out that we needed to head over to pediatric emergency since she was not yet fifteen. When we got there we were surrounded by crying sick babies. I went to the registration desk to check her in and thought I was so prepared with her passport and insurance policy number of the school, however, I soon found out it would not be so easy. The woman who was helping get her registered kept insisting that I give her the girl's school ID (we do not have school ideas but most Venezuelan Schools do) after about ten minutes of explaining over and over again that we do not have a school ID card the women finally accepted her passport. Then we hit the next problem she has a diplomatic passport so when you renew it they staple the new passport to the old one and they also issue you a new passport number. Of course the insurance was registered under the old number which was once again difficult to explain but I managed to get over that hurtle. After about forty minutes of back and forth we were checked in. They took the x-rays and we determined it was only a bad sprain. We got back to the hotel to find out the girls had lost both games. We got up the next morning and headed off to play the third game of the round robin. We lost that third game and the girls were a bit down but we were off to a water park to cool off from the awful heat. The next morning we headed for our final game. We were the fourth and last place team and we had to play the third place team from the round robin to see who would win third place. We WON with a score of 7 to 4!!!! The girls were so excited. After getting our medal we headed back to the hotel to shower and head to the airport. On the way to the airport I began to feel car sick and I thought that was a bit odd but I thought when we got to the airport the queesy feeling would go away. I checked us all in and immediately headed to the gross airport bathroom. I began throwing up...not much fun in a public place. We finally boarded the plane to head back to Caracas and my vomitting had not stopped. I got on the plane and continued to be sick the whole hour plane ride home. Unfortunately once you get back to Caracas it is still a forty minute ride back to the school and of course I continued to be sick. I continued to throw up until 2am!!!! Needless to say the trip back was quite long and miserable but the girls were really sweet and the other coach helped me so I was able to make it back and start getting better. I think that my stomach does not like Venezuela...At least I hadn't kissed any pigs lately!!!