My first few weeks here have felt like a whirlwind, and
whilst it seems like only yesterday that I was saying goodbye to my family at
Dublin airport, I kind of feel like I have been living here for a lifetime.
Within the first week of being here, I managed to find a room in a lovely house
in Teusaquillo, a quiet residential neighbourhood situated near the Universidad
Nacional and the parkway, a tree-lined avenida with an array of cafes, restaurants,
bars, theatres and museums. Choosing where to live in a foreign city is never
an easy thing to do. I have found that there is only so much you can tell from
an advertisement or a website and you certainly don’t want to feel or look like
the only ‘gringo’ in the neighbourhood, especially in certain parts of Bogotá.
There is to some degree a certain bohemian population in
Teusaquillo, and life seems a little slower and more relaxed here than in some
other parts of the city. Living with Colombian, Argentinian, French, English/Iraqi,
American and Australian housemates…there really is no excuse but to put my degree
to use and speak English as little as possible. We all speak good Spanish and in
some ways, whilst it is hard to come home and force myself to speak Spanish
after work, it really pays off to take the time and put in the effort to speak
the language of the country I am living in. I have also found that beer, wine,
rum and aguardiente also have been known to increase confidence and fluency in
speaking foreign languages.
I am thoroughly enjoying my new job however, not having a
tutor or any real point of contact has been difficult to say the least over the
past few weeks. It has even been upsetting to a point hearing about the
treatment of other British Council people being taken on trips out of the city,
or out for coffee or lunch and being offered cheap accommodation whilst I have
essentially been dropped in a city and told to fend for myself. Nonetheless,
being a grumpy little bitch never solved anyone’s problems and the key to
finding my feet in Bogotá was to be proactive despite my lack of support from
work.
Some of you might be wondering what I am actually talking
about. Essentially, on my first day of work in which I was meant to be
collected from a hotel by my tutor, María and taken to the university,
introduced to the staff and teaching cohort, offered accommodation and
introduced to my timetable etc., I was in fact not picked up for various hours
whilst I had to make many phone calls to the university and the British Council
both who were as equally confused as me as to what were the plans for the day. I
was also informed that María was no longer my tutor and that in fact no one really
knew if I had one.
About 4 hours of sitting around after everyone else was
picked up by lovely looking, friendly, well-dressed Colombians I was eventually
picked up by a man who introduced himself as Freddy, Freddy Kruger…not the kind
of humour I was really wanting or appreciated at this time of the day. Of
course Freddy did not actually know what was meant to happen after he picked me
up and again various phone calls in broken English and Spanish were made and I
was escorted off to La Universidad Nacional. On arrival, I had a conversation
(which felt more like an intense interview) in Spanish with the Director of the
School of Modern Languages and I was told that they were putting me in a hotel
for a few nights until I could move into my apartment. ‘Thank goodness!’ I
thought and, for once, all at the Nacional started to seem a little more
positive…
HOWEVER, two days later, on leaving the hotel to go organise
my Cedula (The ID, allowing you to reside within Colombia) I was informed by
the reception of the hotel that I had to check out in 15 minutes and that the
Nacional were only paying for two nights’ accommodation and after that I would
have to pay a small fortune myself per night. So after a day of sorting out my
Cedula (a bureaucratic, slow and tiresome process only to be rivalled by that
of setting up a bank account/registering at a university in China) I returned
to the hotel to pick up my life in a suitcase and find a hostel for the night,
since I could not move in to my new house until the next day!!!
The next morning I moved into my new house and have never
been so glad to have my own place. Thankfully, also that was the end (to some
extent) of the problems at work. I still have no tutor and no one really knows who
has responsibility over me. However, I understand that to some extent, this kind
of problem is typical of South America. Everything here seems to move much
slower here and people take a much more relaxed attitude to things than in the
UK…ok that’s my Nacional rant over!
On the other side, general life in Colombia is going well. Most
of my life revolves around food, mainly empanadas and other delicious snacks of
the street. I enjoy attempting to salsa, dance like Colombians and going to food
festivals at the weekend. Eating has become almost a hobby if mine, due to its
cheapness. However I have now found a gym near my house and I’ve decided that
enough is enough and it's time for my empanada belly to say bye bye. So anyway, I feel like all I have done is complain in this instalment
and that I’m being a bit Carrie Bradshaw about the whole situation right now! I promise to have good things to say in the next update. Hasta
pronto chicos xxx
