The Truth About Life in Colombia

I know my life in Colombia is in a lot of ways very different then my life in Chicago: having to use a different language to communicate, traveling another country, not driving a car, teaching rich kids, just to name a few.  But really when it comes down to it, the majority of my life here is, well, just normal.  Last weekend for example, was very uneventful.

Friday night a group of about 10-15 went to Hooters in Granada to watch the seventh game of the World Series.  Now if I'm being honest, I actually had very little interest in the game, but was just looking for something to do.  And yes, Cali has a Hooters, and the food was only OK.  After a disappointing ending for most (I mean who REALLY likes the Cardinals anyway?) we attempted to split up the $400000+ peso bill and failed, and then were off to our various destinations.  For David and I that meant home, because yes, we are kind of like old people and like to get to bed at a reasonable hour, even on Fridays.  Others went to Rain, a dance club up north and I believe Talbot's, a little pub up in the same area.  More than anything I was just tired, plus my White Sox shirt & Sperry's are not meant for late night dancing. 

Saturday morning my body gave me the usually pre 7am wake up call so I went downstairs to read and made myself some breakfast.  Then I cleaned the apartment a little bit, because despite the fact we have a cleaning lady, we can still manage to make a mess in 3 days easily.  Around 10am I went to grab a coffee and read a little more at Crepes and Waffles only to discover they didn't open until 12, so I walked to UniCentro to Juan Valdez.  I ordered a macchiato arequipe, thinking it would be similar to a carmel macchiato.  It was, however, the tiniest thing I have ever seen. 

But I happily sipped it and read my book/people watched at the mall.  After a couple hours and being mistaken for a woman named Maria, I decided to continue my hunt for food coloring in Cali.  At last!  I was successful and found red, blue, green and yellow powdered food coloring at Exito, which then meant I also bought the rest of the ingredients needed to make homemade fondant for what I hope to be a super cool 80s birthday cake for my friend Kelsi and I.  If you're in Cali next week, feel free to stop by for our 11-11-11 birthday party!  Afterward I walked home and got ready to head to school for some volleyball against the girls high school team.  We played on the outside court which resulted in a reddish nose and quite a few bug bites, despite putting bug stuff on twice.  Sheesh.  After losing to the girls team 3 games in a row, Shana, Amy and I caught the Mio back north and I got off and got my nails done before heading home.  I caught the end of the Hawkeye game, enough to see them pitifully lose their lead and the game to MN, jumped in the shower and then Skyped with my parents.  My oh so eventful day ended with a Saturday night trip to the grocery store with David.  Jealous?

Sunday was anther early morning that started with me finishing my only-ok-560-page-way-too-long book and then my two hour attempt at making a practice batch of fondant.  Note to self:  If you are going to make a smaller batch actually measure the ingredients!  Although it took forever, I finally got it to the right consistency, and so my self-assigned challenge of cake making is on.  Wish me luck.  Then I made some hummus and started sauce for the lasagna I was planning for dinner.  Lots of internet, blogging and Facebook in between, then I made the rest of the lasagna, threw it together (despite any real recipe) and put it in the oven.  More internet surfing and then dinner.  The night ended with a declaration that I would not do any work all weekend, since it was 8pm on Sunday and I already hadn't.  By 9:30-10 I was in bed, getting ready for another week of work.

So there you have it: a perfectly normal weekend.  No traveling, no parties or visitors or ridiculous field trips, just life. Now you may notice my weekend was mostly David free, but that is only because is taking a statistics class and spent the majority of the weekend working on it, and maybe hit up the casino on Sunday with some of the guys, maybe.  While I do enjoy, even love the exploring and traveling, it can be exhausting and there is something to appreciate in just enjoying the neighborhood we live in for its everyday-ness.