Monserrate Hill! Bogota, Colombia

Mmkay this was awesome...  

This morning I went to school (¨university¨ as they keep reminding me, when I keep calling it 'school') with Oscar.  Math class.  I understood most of the Spanish and none of the differential equations.  We had some breakfast at a small outdoor food booth thing outside his classroom and this first picture is my view of Monserrate from my chair.  

After class, we walked up a gigantic hill (this high altitude kills me) and took a cable car to the top of the mountain.  The view is AMAZING!!!!  

More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monserrate

http://www.cerromonserrate.com/

 The view from my chair at Oscar´s university

 Desiring more oxygen to breathe while trekking up this hill

 The top of the hill! We bought tickets for the cable car in this building.

 Cable car!

¨Wish Pond!¨ (my favorite English translation) 

 The view

A Catholic church at the top of the mountain, where they regularly hold mass! 

Some vendors up past the church 

There are a lot of religious statues, tourists, and awesome views from every angle 

On our way back down the hill, we saw this llama... I asked Oscar if I was allowed to take a picture of it, and he went over to talk to the owner.  Next thing I knew, the owner helped me up on the llama saddle and I was freaking out! 

Sooo nervous on this un-trusty creature... I mean look at his face, he was NOT pleased! 

 Oscar, Llama, Me, Javier

Just your regular one-blue eyed, one-brown eyed, Colombian llama wearing a small hat!

And a random picture of fruit that I can´t remember what it´s called but it looks like a tomato and tastes like thick, dry pumpkin (not my favorite). This vendor peeled it and added salt, and she´s putting some into a paper bag using those tongs.

New Fruit! Granadilla

Okay, I should have taken a picture of the fruit before we cracked it on the table (and the other one we cracked on my head... they really do that, I guess) and of the inside, which looks like either aliens or eyeballs, I´m not sure.  But I´ll try to get a picture of those. 

The outside looks like an orange, with a long green stem, and it´s hard like a really thick egg shell.  You crack it to open it, then you eat the inside with a spoon.  There is a thick spongy white layer like the pith (yes, pith) inside an orange, but 10 times thicker and spongier, and it doesn´t stick to the fruit like it does with an orange.  PS the oranges here are green and yellow and brown... the people here are leery of ¨orange¨ oranges because they look fake/dyed, Mauricio told me.  

This fruit tastes slimy, yet the seeds inside the slime pockets have a similar crunch to pomegranate seeds.  If you crunch the seeds, there´s kind of a bitter after-taste, and some people chew it and some people just swallow it.  I tried both.  Google ¨granadilla in Colombia¨ and look at some pictures before I get some up!

Video: Here

FIRST-HALF WEEK IN REVIEW

Thursday 9/26
I made it! My brain is somewhat affected by Colombia's altitude... We drove to a city up on a hill, and everything went blurry and slurred.  I feel a little sick (maybe the cow's leg gelatin that Mauricio gave me upon arrival? haha!) but I'm so excited to be here and sooo tired.  My Spanish is not where I wish it were...  My brain's really mush, though.  So I'll evaluate tomorrow because I barely understand myself right now haha.


Friday 9/27
I woke up at 5:30AM to get ready and go to work with Nathalie at a ceramic manufacturing plant.  I videoed a tour and interviewed 2 supervisors (but had to delete the tour because the Internet is too slow to upload it).  I did an hour of French while I waited for Nathalie, and then we went to her former university to get something for her grad school application.

We went to have lunch there, and I saw someone with small salt potatoes that looked delicious... I ordered a 'pita con maiz y papitas' (pita with corn and potatoes) thinking that those small potatoes were called 'papitas' (the ending 'ita usually means 'small').  Turns out that in Colombia, 'papitas' means potato chips... so I got a pita with corn and a ton of french onion potato chips on top, haha!  I laughed so hard when what they brought out was not what I had been expecting... Nathalie said, 'oh, did you think they were French fries?' and I said, 'no, I thought they were potatoes!'  Haha, oh to be a foreigner...

It's exhausting to be in a new place in a foreign language.  I thought my Spanish would not be a factor, but it is.  New accent, new vocab, and the women speak too quietly for me to hear clearly (I understand the men a lot better).  Very clear, though, when I can hear them.

I followed Nathalie and her mom around the mall like a ZOMBIE because I'm not one to get 5 hours of sleep for 2 nights in a row and survive.  5:00PM hit me like a sedative.  I did make it through, though, and also took out 80,000 pesos from the 3rd ATM I tried -- I was nervous for a while there, because no ATMs would work with my card.  I have NO IDEA how much 80,000 pesos is, but I think it's around $40-50, which is what I want to spend per week.


Saturday 9/28
Time flies, and it's hard to keep track of it.  I went to the temple at the 11:30AM session, and then I talked with a guy my age named William; I interviewed him and did a tour of the Bogota, Colombia temple.  The REST of the day was spent trying to upload videos to youtube, which took 1 hour per minute of video...


Sunday 9/29
I went to church and met 2 people, Javier (a police officer, age 26) and I forget the girl's name... I'm hanging out with Javier tomorrow.

I tried a new fruit today!  Granadilla (means 'grenade').  Looks like a hard orange, but inside it looks like an alien and/or eyeballs.

Best moment of the day: I was telling a story to Nathalie, and her boyfriend Mauricio came over... he came in the room and said, 'Oh, I thought you were the TV! You sound exactly like someone on television.' Haha!

Packing List: Off to South America I Go!

In case anyone might be wondering, I took 2 skirts, church shoes, flip-flops, running shoes, slip-on shoes, swim suit, 2 pairs of shorts, 7 shirts, 6 undershirts, sweatshirt, sweatpants, 2 running shorts, 3 running shorts, legging capris, sporty capris, pillow, twin sheet, large fleece blanket, and one million toiletries.  And a duffel bag of things that I was asked to deliver to people I will stay with.  And American candy for my hosts!