Another update!

  Barranquilla, Colombia
Monday, September 29, 2008

Scary stormclouds over Barranquilla

Time for another posting then! Have been busy busy lately, so haven't had much time to write! Here's just a quick fill in on what's been happening in over here in Barranquilla. Firstly, I FINALLY got paid! After 2 months, everything eventually got sorted. Thank goodness or else I would have been quite literally singing for my supper (and we all know I'm no Kelly Clarkson). Went out and bought a new outfit - trying to blend in with the locals and all that! Got a lovely blue dress and a pair of fantastic spangly silver shoes, as well as some big dangly earrings, all for the grand price of £25!

1-Another Friday night at Mon and Andreas!

I then proceeded to don said outfit for a night on the town, starting with steak and chips at the revolving restaurant on the top floor of one of the swank hotels with the French assistant Isaure (we promised ourselves that after so much hoping and pleading we would treat ourselves!). It was also Will's birthday (part of the American/Canadian group!) so after dinner I met them at another high rise bar, this one on the 26th floor and boasting wall to wall panoramic views of the city, which was (very aptly) called Piso 26. Had some cocktails and danced some salsa before heading to the more economic venue of "La Truja", where a bottle of beer will cost you a mere 50p. At 3.30 everyone was getting peckish so we headed to the local Empanada emporium for some...well, empanadas! (for those of you unsure, empanadas are the latino version of cornish pasties), and back to Joe's for a house party. Finally rocked on home at 6.30, so needless to say a good effort was made at celebrating! An effort was, however, not made on Sunday to do anything!! This weekend I'm going to a Fonseca concert (Colombian pop artist) which sounds really fun, and the weekend after that I'm finally getting to go to Tayrona National Park! Spending my nights in a hammock on the beach and my days hiking in the forest and visiting the indigenous villages on the reserve. Very exciting! 

Best tequila in Barranquilla!

What else has happened?
Last Friday I got my chance at American Idol (judge) style fame as I was invited to one of the local schools to help judge their "Fourth English Song Contest". Four and a half hours in the blistering heat, 25 competitors, at least 15 repititions of "High School Musical" and "Hannah montana", singing, a lot of the time screeching, but there could only be one winner...and guess who was forced to the stage to present the awards in front of 200 people? That's right! Gutted I forgot to bring my camera to capture my moment of glory.
Apart from all that, just working away at my classes - I now have an undergraduate class, a night class and a business class on top of my other duties. I've been officially contracted to translate a book by a Colombian authour into English, which will keep me occupied for at least another month. It's a self help book about personal development, which is actually really interesting (copies should be available by December for those interested ha ha ha!)
I'm progressing with my Mandarin classes, although the whole pronunciation thing is fairly tricky (there are four different tones for each syllable), but I can't wait to get to the writing part when we learn to draw the chinese characters!
Right, think that's enough for now! Will leave you with some pics of Heidys ladies day. Some of us ladies from the languages department got together for a day at Heidys house for barbecue, swimming, salsa and twister. Lots of fun!

Carmenza teaches us ghetto salsa!

Talk to you all soon! Keep the updates coming! XXX