"I have family here."

October 5 - October 11

*Alright, so I’m WAY behind on my blog posts! As a result, the day-by-day section is about to get a lot shorter or, at least, more concise. Honestly, you didn’t need to know (and may not have wanted to read) all the fluff, anyway. I still included the topics we covered in training and anything else I felt like sharing, but this will make writing much faster.

- Sunday – Today, we went to my host mom’s sister-in-law’s birthday party. We mostly sat and visited with everyone there and it was nice to see my host brother and niece playing with other kids.

- Monday – Spanish classes have been switched to the afternoon, so the technical trainers have us more awake for teacher training in the morning. (We’ll see how that goes…) We learned in technical training about teaching reading and more about teaching grammar. We also talked about resolving host family conflicts. I had my mid-term language proficiency interview and I think I did fine…guess I’ll find out later.

- Tuesday – We learned about building school relationships and incorporating music, games, and drama in English classes. We also had an end-of-term Spanish party in class, which was wonderful, though I’m going to miss being together, wherever we end up for the rest of training. After class, I went with a few other people to Spanish conversation club at Crepes and Waffles, so that was fun and delicious.

- Wednesday – This morning, we had our volunteer project fair, which was amazing, though I wish I had time to see even more! I went to sessions about ABC English, Library Project, Letter Writing, Fundidiomas, and Chicas Poderosas. During Spanish class, we had a salsa lesson, which was great, since I know very little about salsa and would very much like to learn!

- Thursday – At the office today, we learned about nutrition, common challenges when working with Colombian adults, integration, and the state of PC Colombia. I had lunch with George, our country director, and a group of fellow volunteers, so that was nice and gave me a chance to get to know everyone better. After training, I went with a group to La Gelatería, which is an excellent ice cream parlor within walking distance of the office. I then walked home with a friend as the Sun set, which was beautiful.

- Friday – We learned about curriculum design and lesson planning this morning and then had another salsa lesson before lunch. I’m finding I quite enjoy these lessons, even if I’m not particularly good (compared to Colombians)! We have new Spanish classes (and mine includes most of the people from my previous class, much to my excitement) and we read a story today by Gabriel García Márquez.

- Saturday – We had training this morning on giving feedback and teaching writing. I also got my 2^nd letter from the US today. This evening, I went to English conversation club at Mazzino’s. Apparently, conversation club was cancelled, but of course, none of the CII-6 volunteers knew that, so a bunch of us showed up and happily celebrated a CII-6 volunteer’s birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” much too slowly in English and just visiting and being together.

- The batido alegría at Crepes and Waffles is expensive, but delicious – mango, piña y maracuyá.

- “The weirdness becomes the norm.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “I was born in Chicago, but I grew up here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- “Do you think you’ll come back?” “Oh yea – I have family here.” – CII-4 Volunteer

- It takes about 1 month for mail to arrive from the United States – plan accordingly.

- As you walk down the street, you will likely see a variety of birds you’ve never seen before. Most of them will remind you of birds in the United States – pretty, but not gorgeous. Then, you’ll stare at a singing tree until a parrot flies out and you realize half the “leaves” are actually bright green birds!

- If someone mentions “Gabo” and you have no idea who they’re talking about, it’s probably Gabriel García Márquez, a world-famous Colombian author, who everyone here calls by his nickname, since he’s from Colombia.