medellin, where its spring all year long

I awoke the other morning realizing that everything in Colombia is built for people five foot seven and under. I was thinking: everytime I am in a public place I am bumping into someone, hitting my head on a damn door frame, getting stuck in a computer desk at an internet cafe, or having to sit sideways in just about every mode of public transportation. Just after this though occured to me, as I was leaving Santiago"s apartment (the happy-go-lucky, yet quite loco Colombian I am staying with for the time being)....BAAAMMM...there goes my head one more time, smacking a wooden pillar that hangs down by his front door. Man, these Colombian architects need to accomodate tall, gangly, large-headed people too. The day was Sunday, and as I left his apartment building it appearded as though there was a giant dog parade. A couple thousand people were walking the streets, in a giant parade-like line, all with a dog. It appeared as though there was a giant Colombian dog parade (wow, the people at dog beach in ocean beach got nothin gon these folks). Every person was walking at least one dog, some had two or three. Boy o boy though, was there a bit of poopey-doopey in those streets. Maybe the Colombians dont believe in carrying plastic bags when they take dogs for walks. Since this is a city known for flowers, I assume that they just let the crap slowly make its way towards the soil, and BAM, they got perfect fertilizer. Nutrients for some of the the best looking flowers in the world. Ha!
I was going to teach my very first english lesson today. His name was Cesar and he happened to be a medical student at a local university. I met him at the hospital estacion, a metro stop nearby. He looked nervous, but underneath it all he had intelligent eyes, and a permanent little grin on his face. I had posted an a request on couchsurfing to see if anyone wanted to learn english in exchange for some spanish lessons. Cesar took the bait and today was our first meeting. He took me to these botonaical gardens. These gardens were absolutely incredible. It appeared as though someone had down-scaled the amazon rainforest and placed it in the center of Medellin. There were lush, green plant with their leaves in full-extension. Boy, these plants were alive, one could almost see the chlorophyl in the leaves.
We plopped down on the nearest bench and I began to go over the basics..nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, greeting, present tense, past tense, future tense, the alphabet. All of these brought back memories from kindergarden and my teacher Mrs. Sofe, helping me make pronunciations through my pudgy cheeks. Cesar seems to be digging every minute of it. He was a medical student in a local university, but apparanetly his grades were good enough to allow him to go to Harvard in two years. The only catch was that he needed to learn English within those two years. I would be his first teacher. It me me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to give these guy a tool which he would utilize for the rest of his life. He wanted to learn English like a toddler wanted to learn to walk. Even though I was his teacher, I had to let many of his wrong pronunciations, slide by, uncorrected. He was so damn determined, that he would blab words that were neither English or Spanish. I wanted to give him some confidence though. He didnt need a damn german nazi as an english teacher, especially on his first round. Round two though and I will definitely have to get my ruler out for a couple of slaps on the wrist!
Its 85 degrees all day long, with constant sunshine. All of the people are constantly grinning and smiling. Salsa music is blarring from just about every corner of the city, day or night, rain or shine. One"s diet consists of a whole lot of grease and a whole lotta fruit to ocunter to grease. Most everything that isnt fruit in colombia is fried. Empenadas, arrepas make up the bulk of th grease. Most Colombians seem to have one of these bad boys with every meal. Empenadas are like the american version of a hot pocket, only they arent filled with a bunch a preservatives, made to last until the next ice age. they are fresh, little bread pockets filled with your choice of meat, egg, or cheese...with maybe some diced onions in these sucks...boy o boy are they good. Arrepas look like english muffins. they are made from corn and filled with cheese. Both of these tasty treats are gulped down with a whole lotta hot sauce. and there you have it: the bulk of a colombians diet. the rest of the diet is completed with fruit. mangos, papayas, and about 50 other kinds of fruits that does not exist in the states. ill get the names of these sweet colorful treats some day soon.

medellin, where its spring all year long

Medellin, Colombia