Hola de Venezuela!
After months of planning, a week of packing and repacking my
bags to meet weight requirements, an overnight stay in the Miami hotel
(conveniently located in the airport), and a long wait to go through customs, I
am finally here!
Saturday began with a trip to the Billings airport. We had to take my dad’s truck because my 8
bags wouldn’t fit well in the car….
Dad was so in awe at the amount of luggage that he wilted at the sight of it...
My flights went smoothly, with all planes departing on time
and my luggage arriving safe and sound in Miami. I even had enough strength left over after
the easy traveling to carry all 8 bags all the way from the carousel and across
the airport to the hotel by myself in one trip! …Just kidding. A porter helped me, and thank goodness! *Note to
anyone planning on visiting me: Staying
at the Miami Airport Hotel is key! It’s
located inside of the airport, which makes for a convenient transition the next
day.
I was able to sleep in a bit on Sunday morning before
heading out at about 9:00 a.m. to check in at Avior airlines. The counter didn’t open until 11:00, so I tried to be a good student and begin my
homework for the week, but I was a bit too antsy to be productive. In my defense, it’s a bit hard to concentrate
in a terminal that blasts loud Latino music and features a man with a painted
face and clown wig who runs around frantically kicking soccer balls!
Once I made it through security, I chatted with a
businessman named Rafael who grew up in Venezuela but attended University in
Britain before moving to Australia and then later to the States. He currently lives in Miami but returns to VZ
occasionally to visit his sister in Lecheria, which is where my apartment is
located. Rafael speaks crystal-clear
English, but he was very patient with me when I tried to speak Spanish to
him. He was also happy to explain his
take on most everything - the Venezuelan government, religion, Dan Brown and
other authors, zodiac sign compatibilities, where to go in
Anzoategui (the state that I now live in; his suggestions were Canaima and
Margherita Island), what to eat (cachitos and cachapas
con queso se mano) and how some people go “cuckoo” because they do not properly
drink their Scotch by first layering their stomach with food!
Once I made it on the plane, I sat next to a Venezuelan
security guard named Edgar. Edgar speaks
no English, so between that and my Spanglish, we played enjoyable games of
Charades and Pictionary to decipher what each other was saying for the entire 3
hour flight to Barcelona (Barcelona is the capitol of the state of Anzoategui
and borders both Lecheria and Puerto La Cruz [which is the school’s location]). I learned that Edgar’s sister is a teacher in
Jacksonville Florida, so he travels there with his mother to visit her once a
year (his mom was also seated with us).
He also has three daughters, one of whom is about my age and is studying
English. Edgar plays baseball, which is
the favorite sport of Venezuela, has traveled to Italy, is Catholic (Catolica),
and lives in Boliva (a state south of Anzoategui). He and his mother were both very kind, so it
was a warm introduction to the Venezuelan people.
Edgar y su madre. Estan muy sympaticos!
Edgar said, "Necessitas que me llame por telefono para practicar a tu Espanol con mi hija y yo!" Will
do, Sir, will do. As soon as my phone is set up, I will be making a call.
When the Avior flight finally landed, we waited for about 30-45
minutes in line for customs, and boy, was it HOT! I have no idea what the actual temp was, but
I felt like I had my post-OULA “glow” just by standing in line! Once we got past customs to the luggage
claim, it was much cooler. There, I met
Bryce and Joe, who are also newbies at CIPLC.
We gathered our luggage together (21 bags in all) and then waited for Limon (pronounced
LEE-mone) to help speed us through the exiting baggage checks.
And then…we were FREE!
We were greeted by Steve, the superintendent, Lisa, his wife and the
fifth grade teacher, and Emily, the principal.
They coordinated our transportation, took us out for delicious late
night pizzas at a local restaurant, helped us get settled for the night in our
apartments, and gave us a brief run-down of the immediate need-to-knows. They even had food ready for us in our
refrigerators! It was refreshing to
finally meet them in person after months of communicating through email!
I’ve spent the last few days swimming in the pool, exploring
runs along the beach and surrounding neighborhood, getting to know other
teachers, shopping for quail eggs and papayas, and unpacking.
After our first grocery outing, I brought home a papaya, plantain, chorizo, local meats and cheeses, a bottle of yogurt, croissants, and plenty of other fresh fruits and vegetables. Going into an all-Spanish grocery store was an experience in itself! My respect for second language learners has increased ten-fold just in the past two days of traveling to and living here. As Dana said, "If you're going to learn a second language, you CANNOT be afraid to sound stupid!" I learned this the moment I began my interpretive language games with Edgar on the plane. Right now, I'm not really concerned about sounding silly because I'm so excited just to try my hand at Spanish. Bryce said it's when you've got the basics down but don't quite know the grammatical and conjugational rules that you start to feel a bit more self-conscious about speaking. Right now, it's just FUN for me!
Here's the purchase I was MOST excited about: QUAIL EGGS! They're good to hard boil and put into salads. Bryce said she cooked them with peppers and put them on toast, so I'll have to try that as well. They're semi-sweet!
Excuse the blurred photography...Here's Joe and Bryce at Dana's for Monday night's dinner.
Here is what I have learned about Venezuela so far:
- ·
People do not
follow traffic rules. We witnessed that while Steve was driving us home from the airport. Drivers treat
stoplights as yield signs, and if you don’t go when you see a break in traffic,
then you never will. You just creep into
the intersection slowly and then gun it when you get the chance. (Prayers for
my first driving experience will be appreciated! Haha.)
- As is expected, Latinos’ perspective on time is
vastly different than ours. On our plane
tickets, it said that we were to depart at 2:00 p.m. even though the itinerary
had 3:00 listed, but we didn’t actually board until 3:45. Emily said that sometimes the planes will
leave an hour earlier than they’re supposed to; meanwhile, Erin and Dana’s
flight was 2 hours late even though it was listed as being “on time!” Both Rafael and Edgar said that people take time a bit more seriously for business in the morning, but become extremely lax about it in the afternoon.
- About 70-80% of the population is Catholic. The others are predominantly Protestant.
- When you use the restroom, it is common for
NOTHING to go down toilets, including toilet paper. Rather than flushing it down, you’re expected
to throw everything in the trash.
- Emily instructed us to buy extras of things like
laundry detergent and toilet paper whenever we see them in stores, even if we
don’t need them. Venezuela is a
third-world country, and there are shortages of goods at times. (We were instructed to pack our own initial
stash of toilet paper in our luggage just in case, and to bring things
like plastic hangers and knives. Translation:
If you come to stay with me, there will be a fee in TP!)
- When you order water in a restaurant the waiter will ask you, “con gas?” which is sparkling water. I had this for dinner with our pizzas, and
although I don’t normally prefer club soda, it was actually pretty good with
lime.
- “Gringos” is a slang term for Caucasians. Soy una gringa!
About my condo, short and sweet:
AWESOME VIEW, gated entrance, strong air conditioning, two
stories, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, nearby walking/running/biking trail, hammock
on the back patio that overlooks the bay, semi-retro feel that faintly reminds
me of The Lake (due to the wooden stairs and humidity...you Wardians will understand this!), washer,
dryer, refrigerator, two TVs, a local phone line, a pool, beautiful flowers
from Quini’s garden, and a gecko that lives under my stairs/over my Harry
Potter closet. A few repairs and
personal touches are needed, but all in all it’s great!
Here are some pictures of the view from my apartment:
This was my view from my bedroom window on the first night. The lights are so pretty! You can't see much in this photo, but it's the view of the bay.
THIS was what I woke up to in the morning:
Pano from the living room window
From the patio
Here's what the actual apartment looks like:
The pano makes the kitchen and living room bigger than they are, but there is still plenty of space!
The living room
Flowers from Quini's garden
The patio - there's also a mini grill hiding behind the chairs in this picture. The hammock is behind me.
Another pano from the patio. Can you tell what my favorite part of this house is? ;)
Here's my room, for now. I want to personalize it (and the apartment as a whole) a bit more over time. There's plenty of storage space and strong AC!
Here are a few pictures from the pool:
From the patio (Yes, again from the patio!)
Del piso bajo (From the ground floor; "PB" in the elevator)
Yeah, I think I can live here for awhile....
We also have a few iguana friends in the courtyard and pool areas. Did you know that iguanas can swim? (I don't have a picture, but Lisa saw one doing laps this morning!)
Can you see him? He kept running away!
I couldn't get very close to this one, but some don't mind if you're within a foot or two of them. (I'm learning that they usually come around when you don't have your camera with you, so they must be camera-shy even if they're not afraid of people!)
Opal made a game of chasing the iguanas.
Here's the closest I've gotten to one with my camera in hand.
Tonight 6 of us went out to dinner and had flatbread, steak, salmon, salads, and 2 bottles of wine for a total of 5,000 Bs. It was the most expensive meal in my life! (Jokes...it was something like $14 USD apiece. Great for us; sad for the Venezuelan economy).
Tomorrow will be the first day of orientation for the new hires, so although I’m in utter vacation mode, I’ll have to be productive! Buenas noches, Amigos. :)
The past few weeks have flown by, and here at CIPLC we are
already into our fifth week of school! My
class is working on historical fiction pieces as part of an author’s study on
Margriet Ruurs, who has had dozens of books published and is coming to CIPLC
next week to do student and teacher writing workshops with us. My class also received 1:1 iPads for daily instruction, so I've been working
with Ku, the tech integrator, to have my students create “book trailers” on
iMovie once they’re done with their historical fiction projects so that they can advertise their
masterpieces. There are also a few other technology-based long term projects for
Venezuelan historical studies in the making. (Did I mention that I love my job!?!)
