Party time!

  Barranquilla, Colombia
Sunday, September 7, 2008

2-More views

Time for another update! Thought I'd wait til a bunch of actual interesting things happened before I wrote another one!So what's happened since I last blogged...
The Atlantico region (where I'm living) was in a state of high alert last weekend as a ship carrying 90 odd canisters of cyanide capsized and sank in the Magdalena river (where most of our water comes from). Panic ensued as the Colombian naval fleet arrived to try and gather all the canisters, rumours abounded of a 3 day cut off of the water supply to nearly the whole region, people flocked to the supermarkets and fought over bottled water like the last minute turkey buyers in M & S on Christmas Eve, and all over the city reserve tanks of water hidden in the buildings' basements were brought into action. Fortunately it transpired that the canisters were all plastic and securely sealed. The naval fleet got most of them and rewards were offered to local fishermen who found the rest. I maintain that it was all a big scam by the bottled water giants to scare people into buying their product! And the students who thought that class would be canceled due to the water shortage were sorely disappointed!

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Apart from that, I've just been doing a lot of "networking" (ie partying). Last weeked I went to one of the other teacher's flat for a housewarming party. Got to sample some authentic tequila,which incidently has the same effect as extra strength mouth wash - and stings for about 5 minutes after!They must water the stuff down back home because I've never tasted anything like it!!

2-Bojanz - jazz painist concert

Then this weekend I went to a French jazz painist concert in the local theatre (very random for here, but it was free!) which was actually really good, followed by a couple of house parties, where I met possibly the entire American and Canadian community currently residing in Barranquilla! Everyone was so nice though and I'm starting to feel like I'm fitting in more now that I know more people. Was feeling a wee bit homesick the past couple of weeks, just missing everyone (both in Northern Ireland and Scotland!), missing the dog (I know it's stupid but I love that dog!!), the lack of haggis suppers and the occasional cold breeze!! I think it's because I'm very aware of just how far away I am from home. But things are picking up here and in the coming weeks I'm going to be a busy bee!

Me and the boys

I've been given another class, this one is Level 4 on the extension programme, which means it's mostly older students learning English for their careers. It's an evening class, so I'll be working late 2 days a week. I've also been asked to give English classes to a very prominent political figure who lives here in Barranquilla. He just wants to brush up on his English before an interntional summit he has coming up soon. So I feel very honoured that the university chose me!
I've also been approached by a Colombian author to translate some of his books into English as he's trying to break into the American market. It's still pending price negotiations and whether or not he likes my style of writing, but I'm really hoping it works out as it will help kick start this translation career of mine, as well as good, regular money!
I'm also giving private lessons to a lady who works at the university and I've decided to learn Mandarin as well! My classes start in a couple of weeks, so between all that I won't have a lot of time for anything else!!

Right, think that's everything up to date! As always, keep the e-mails coming, it's great hearing from you all!

PS: Mum, can you send me Dorothy and uncle Andy's emails?