Weeks 6 & 7: In a City of 8 Million
We’ve been in Bogota for a little over two weeks — a soft landing into our dear friend’s sweet little abode nestled in a pleasant neighborhood. Lily has graciously offered a Colombian refuge for our travels, and we have had such an easy time adjusting to a new two months of normal thanks to her hospitality. We have many cross-cultural, bilingual jokes with Lilibet, one of her favorites being that if we get scared in Bogota we can just run across the street from her apartment to the U.S. Embassy and be back in our country.
We haven’t had to yet. :)
Life continues even as a nomad, though daily routines and necessities certainly take a good deal longer in new foreign places. For example, the daily task of cooking a meal. After Mexico pumped us full of cheese and tortillas, we began a purposeful, healthy detox thanks to Dan & Allison’s cooking in Panama, and have attempted to continue the new trend in Colombia. I have yet to master the art of seamlessly integrating my cooking into the place and available ingredients, but am hopeful I will arrive there at some point in our journey. My favorite part of the ‘feeding ourselves’ experience has been the vegetable and fruit market near the house where I weekly stock up on produce, some of which I’ve never seen before.
If you know the Sims, there is a pretty large energy gap between the two of us, evident our first week in a new country. As in, Rachel has a pretty average amount, while Jake seems to be propelled by personal jet fuel all day every day. Jake set off on the transmillenial (Bogotá’s impressive public transit system) first thing Monday morning, as he was back at work and off to meetings around the city. Meanwhile, Rachel attempted grocery & (aforementioned) meal preparation, remote work (via interwebs), writing (or doing everything possible, but), and studying Spanish — biggest success here is that Rachel and Lillibet found the Chronicles of Narnia in Spanish which should infuse more joy into this experience. No one is sure what will happen to the new 10 pounds of books Rachel bought after we finish our time in Colombia, but everyone hopes it will not end up in their own backpack.
Our very first weekend in-country Aunt Laurie and Uncle Scott came to visit, as they had been in the neighborhood (Peru). We did a bike tour of the city (street art images coming), they took us out to a killer Peruvian/Thai fusion meal in Bogota’s gastronomical district. They were also very amenable when we made them spend all day speaking Spanish to new Colombian friends as we visited Cascada la Chorrera outside Bogota.
Last week proceeded with another work schedule for Jake, taking Spanish entrance exams to begin classes this week, finding our new favorite sandwich cafe, and visiting Lily’s family’s church on Sunday.
We also — in culmination of a lengthy email correspondence — had the honor of taking the author of this fantastic book out to lunch. We were awed by her wisdom, passion, and experience. Having grown up in the midst of one of the world’s longest and most complex violent conflicts, Stella committed her life to ‘action research,’ living and working in solidarity with victims of the war and relating to others how to more effectively do so. If you are interested in the topic (Colombia in-general or the emotional effects of conflict), we’d highly recommend her book. Unlike our extended lunch meeting, it’s translated into English :)
Besitos y abrazos,
J&R
