How is it May???!!!
Welp, it's May.
How? How is that possible?
Once again, I'm doing a crappy job of keeping this blog updated.
I've never claimed to be a blogger. There is no real purpose to this blog- is it about travel? is it about teaching? is it about life?
Who knows? Who cares???
I guess between Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and life...my blog gets the short end of the stick. But there are people (ahem, my parents) who only see things on this blog, so I'm going to try over the next month to make this more of a space to write and reflect and share.
I've said this before. We'll see if I keep it up- chances are slim.
Anyhoodle...
So much has happened ...sort of.
I'm to be real honest- the first 6 months living in Colombia sucked. Teaching sucked. The students sucked. The weather sucked. Life outside of teaching sucked.
I almost didn't return after Christmas break. For real. At the airport in Denver, I sat in the bathroom when they were making the boarding call, trying to 'miss' the flight. No one knows that. I guess now people do.
I've NEVER felt like that before. Sure, I haven't wanted to return to work after break just because who does. Sure, I haven't wanted to leave friends and family before. But I have never truly TRULY found it so difficult to get on the plane. I cried the first half of the flight to Panama.
Why, you may be asking yourself, was it so hard?
I don't want to say too much at this point in time as who knows who reads this thing, but school was not good. At all.
Have things improved? I will say marginally. Marginally.
But there have been some good times...good trips...good visits. Let's focus on those for now!!
Back in November, I volunteered to go on the grade 10 school trip. I don't know why- I guess I thought it was a chance to bond with the students and, possibly, build some bridges. In the end, some bridges were built, some relationships were strengthened, some bonding occurred. And I was able to see a beautiful part of Colombia, which was the best part.
We travelled to Guarija
(the red outlined area is Guarija)
Guarija is located in the northern most point of Colombia on the Caribbean Sea and next to Venezuala. It is very remote and mostly desert. It's home of the Wayuu Indigenous people and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with one Wayuu family on their ranch.
To say that this trip was out of my comfort zone is a HUGE understatement. We slept outside in hammocks, we stayed in a surfer's camp on the beach, we hiked over mountains, I slept in a tent in the jungle. There were toilets flushed with buckets of water. There were bats. Spiders. Huge toads throwing themselves against my tent in the middle of the night. A thief that broke into the ranch on the first night and grabbed my leg as I tried to sleep in a hammock. There were loooooong van rides with a group of 8 teenage girls with a never-ending battery charge on their phones and speaker!!
It was a true adventure. Seeing how the Wayuu live. Seeing how the desert met the blue Caribbean. Swimming in the big waves. Running through the desert at night, with only the moon as a guide (my girls and I came in first in the eco-race!!). These were all good things.
The snarkiness and general crappy behaviour of many students was not a good thing. And kind of tainted the trip.
Anyway...here are some pictures fo the adventures. The really great pictures here were taken by my fellow teacher, and all around legend, Chris- you can find more of his amazing photos on Instagram @cirrusgraham. Enjoy part 1!
How? How is that possible?
Once again, I'm doing a crappy job of keeping this blog updated.
I've never claimed to be a blogger. There is no real purpose to this blog- is it about travel? is it about teaching? is it about life?
Who knows? Who cares???
I guess between Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and life...my blog gets the short end of the stick. But there are people (ahem, my parents) who only see things on this blog, so I'm going to try over the next month to make this more of a space to write and reflect and share.
I've said this before. We'll see if I keep it up- chances are slim.
Anyhoodle...
So much has happened ...sort of.
I'm to be real honest- the first 6 months living in Colombia sucked. Teaching sucked. The students sucked. The weather sucked. Life outside of teaching sucked.I almost didn't return after Christmas break. For real. At the airport in Denver, I sat in the bathroom when they were making the boarding call, trying to 'miss' the flight. No one knows that. I guess now people do.
I've NEVER felt like that before. Sure, I haven't wanted to return to work after break just because who does. Sure, I haven't wanted to leave friends and family before. But I have never truly TRULY found it so difficult to get on the plane. I cried the first half of the flight to Panama.
Why, you may be asking yourself, was it so hard?
I don't want to say too much at this point in time as who knows who reads this thing, but school was not good. At all.
Have things improved? I will say marginally. Marginally.
But there have been some good times...good trips...good visits. Let's focus on those for now!!
Back in November, I volunteered to go on the grade 10 school trip. I don't know why- I guess I thought it was a chance to bond with the students and, possibly, build some bridges. In the end, some bridges were built, some relationships were strengthened, some bonding occurred. And I was able to see a beautiful part of Colombia, which was the best part.
We travelled to Guarija
(the red outlined area is Guarija)
Guarija is located in the northern most point of Colombia on the Caribbean Sea and next to Venezuala. It is very remote and mostly desert. It's home of the Wayuu Indigenous people and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with one Wayuu family on their ranch.
To say that this trip was out of my comfort zone is a HUGE understatement. We slept outside in hammocks, we stayed in a surfer's camp on the beach, we hiked over mountains, I slept in a tent in the jungle. There were toilets flushed with buckets of water. There were bats. Spiders. Huge toads throwing themselves against my tent in the middle of the night. A thief that broke into the ranch on the first night and grabbed my leg as I tried to sleep in a hammock. There were loooooong van rides with a group of 8 teenage girls with a never-ending battery charge on their phones and speaker!!
It was a true adventure. Seeing how the Wayuu live. Seeing how the desert met the blue Caribbean. Swimming in the big waves. Running through the desert at night, with only the moon as a guide (my girls and I came in first in the eco-race!!). These were all good things.
The snarkiness and general crappy behaviour of many students was not a good thing. And kind of tainted the trip.
Anyway...here are some pictures fo the adventures. The really great pictures here were taken by my fellow teacher, and all around legend, Chris- you can find more of his amazing photos on Instagram @cirrusgraham. Enjoy part 1!
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