Los estudiantes de primer año llegan por bandadas a inundar el campus acompañados de sus padres que lucen orgullosos las camisetas moradas con los logos de VT.  Ellos, asustados y un poco apenados de tener las miradas de los estudiantes antiguos; sus padres, autoritarios, les gritan por donde ir a cómo cargar las cosas para no dañarlas.  Luego los miran con orgullo y sonríen.

El campus es inmenso. Cruzarlo de lado a lado toma media hora, los días enteros parecen irse en caminar.  El clima, un poco loco: qué calor, no, qué frío, espera 15 minutos y volverá a cambiar.

La próxima semana empiezan las clases.  Por ahora queda acabar de llenar formularios y dormir un poco mientras se puede...

 

 

April 14th I finally had my HKD test.  I had been a white belt for a year and was anxious to get the yellow one.  It was a very hard day.  I was exahusted and spent a couple of days after really sore.  Since I hadn't tested before I was kinda nervous, not knowing what it was like or what was really expected from me, but at the end I did good.

 

Now I started my yellow belt program and we'll see how long it takes me to get ready for the next test.  I'm very proud of myself but more important, I'm still enjoying the practice very much, even though I'm trainning on Friday night's after teaching 8 hours (between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.).  Wednesdays is not so bad, but I'm also up at 5 a.m.

 

Anyway, here are the pics.

 

 

A little about HKD:

 

Hap = Coordination        Ki = Power, Inner energy        Do = Way        THE WAY OF COORDINATING POWER

 

Hapkido is a martial art of Korean origin.  Opposite to other martial arts, HKD emphasizes circular movements, it flows like the water.  It's main strength is in the self defense techniques, very effective to counter all sorts of attacks.  It never uses strength against strength, that is why it's known as a soft martial art.

 

 

Ayer se casaron David Hoyos y Pili Escobar.  No es el primer matrimonio de amigos al que asisto, sin embargo es el primero en el cual he sido amiga del novio y la novia, y he sido testigo de muchos momentos en la relación desde el comienzo hace 8 años. Me llena de felicidad ver que una pareja tan especial como esta se ha unificado para siempre.

Aun recuerdo la cara de David hace 8 años cuando me contó que había conocido una nena que había sido compañera mía del colegio... estaba fascinado.  Ayer lo ví, mirándola con la misma fascinación de ese entonces y una felicidad que le llenaba el pecho.  La ceremonia religiosa y la fiesta estuvieron muy sencillas y bonitas, con las familias y amigos cercanos. 

 

Al llegar a la fiesta sirvieron el bizcocho y luego llamaron a todas las mujeres solteras porque la novia iba a lanzar el yugo.  Estábamos todas en semicírculo y el yugo cayó en el piso.  Como me dijo alguien más tarde parecía que hubieran lanzado un ratón, nadie quería cogerlo.  Nuestra cultura es muy diferente a otras en las cuales las mujeres sólo sueñan con casarse pronto, se sienten solteronas a los 26 años, y se matarían por obtener ese yugo.  Aquí las mujeres quieren viajar, conocer personas y lugares, estudiar posgrados, vivir solas por un tiempo y casarse sólo cuando están seguras de estar preparadas y haber hecho todo lo que querían hacer solas.  En fín, como les decía el yugo en el suelo, nadie se movía y alguien me empujó desde atrás diciendo que me tocaba a mí pues había caído a mis piés.  Y bueno, fui valiente y lo recogí ignorando el presagio.  Seré la próxima de todas esas solteras en casarme? de ser así creo que pasará un buen tiempo sin matrimonios, pues ahora no hay ni prospecto.

Luego rifaron la liga que lleva la novia en la pierna y el soltero ganador debe quitarla con la boca.  Se la ganó Juan Pablo.  Sirvieron la comida y pronto se acabó la fiesta.  Más tarde nos fuimos todos los amigos a rematar a un lugar de Salsa y el día terminó muy bién.

 

Aquí pueden ver todas las fotos

 

 

The end of my trip is getting closer;  4 more days and I'll be going back home.  I still can't believe everything that happened during this past 6 weeks.  It seems that I didn't do much, neither I planned to since I only wanted to visit old friends and places.  But at the same time I feel as if such a long time has passed by, maybe because it felt so much like being home the very first moment I got here.  I got to see some people that didn't even know I left, and a lot of people is surprised to hear that I'm going back home again.  I guess they just can't imagine how happy I am living in Medellin, since I like it here so much that I came on my vacations, to Albany of all places, in winter time!  So, I don't know if I'll ever come back here.  I certainly didn't think I was gonna visit so soon when I left. 

Yesterday and today it finally snowed!! I was so sad that I wasn't gonna see any snow since this winter has been so weird.  We actually got 65* last week!  Now it's finally cooling down.  I can't complain about having good weather for most of the time I was here though.

Well, I feel that there are so many thoughts in my head and I'm just digressing here so I guess I'll just post a summary of my trip when I get back home.  It's been really great to be here but at the same time I can't wait to be back home, to family, to work, to myself... 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

 

This is gonna be a good year for me since I started my b-day dancing last night, and off course I'm gonna end it the same way!  I already received some presents from my friends, I have a lunch invitation, later I'll go for my b-day margarita at Bombers and then to the New Year's Eve party at Dario's house.  Besides, 27 is my lucky number so, this is the year!!!!

Last time I tried to post some news I failed.  I'll be more careful this time so I can tell you a little bit about my trip.  So far I've been having a great time.  I already saw most people I wanted to visit, still a couple more I want to.  I've been to the movies twice, dinners out, bars, just hanging out with friends, but what never ceases to amaze me is that I come to this country to do all the latin dancing I never do in my country.  I've been out dancing three times already and I didn't do that even once in the past 7 months in Medellin.  Maybe it's my city, maybe my friends, maybe it's all that together but I love dancing and that's a great thing of being here.  Albany has had Noche Lounge for some months with latin nights on wednesdays.  And last week they opened a new place: Envy Lounge with latin nights on Fridays.  It's great to have those places, not having to drive to Saratoga for a good latin dancing night.

Well, what else can I tell you... I've been having some relaxed and very enjoyable days.  Weather's been great this week and I hope it stays that way when my brother comes to visit.  I hope to have time to do everything I want to do during the next month, but just being here with all these people I love has been enough to make my trip worthy! 

I haven't taken many pictures lately, I promise to get back to my usual habit and post lots of them soon.  My album is already over 5000 pics, how long will it take me to get to the 6000??

I had already written down a page long entry about the past three days in absolute detail and I lost it, so I'll leave you with this:

Good trip, nice people, cold weather, pictures later...

Bye.

Uy, ahora sí que dejé mi espacio olvidado por un buen rato, pero no crean que me he olvidado de todos los que sé que me leen y se enteran de mi vida a través de mis letras.

 

En los últimos 2 meses he estado dedicada de lleno al trabajo.  Siento que no he tenido un minuto para detenerme.  Como siempre me gustó la docencia estoy feliz de haber encontrado trabajo en este campo.  Estoy trabajando para las universidades: Colegiatura Colombiana de Diseño e Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano.  Dictando las materias de Acústica (Colegiatura), Física Acústica, Técnicas de Teclado y Entrenamiento Auditivo (ITM).  Ha sido una buena experiencia que aspiro a seguir teniendo por un buen tiempo.  A la vez ha sido duro preparar 4 materias por primera vez, además de manejar y calificar 6 grupos de estudiantes, y para completar iniciamos un grupo de investigación en Acústica en el ITM.

 

Además del trabajo sigo por supuesto con mis actividades adicionales.  El coro marcha bien y el Hapkido lo sigo disfrutando.  Siempre resultan más cosas por hacer y a mis amigos no los abandono.

 

En general estoy tan metida en la rutina diaria que ahora me parece increíble pensar que hace tan sólo 5 meses estaba en otro lugar!

Bueno, y a diferencia de mis letras, mis imágenes no las he abandonado tanto así que a través de mi álbum sí se podrán enterar de todas mis andanzas. 

It´s been almost 2 months since I came back to Colombia and everyone is been asking me why I haven´t updated my blog lately.  Well, you might think that I´m so busy that I haven´t had the time but the truth is that there isn´t that much to tell.  Well, that´s not completely truth, there´s always something to tell, but my life is been relaxed lately. 

 

I´ve been trying to catch up with old friends but there are a lot that I haven´t seen.  Going out, getting to know the new night scene, although it hasn´t changed that much, except for a couple of new cool places. 

 

The house my parents moved to is really nice, and much more central in the city, I´m closer to most people although farther from the "pink zone" where the night life happens.  But the city isn´t that big, so that´s not a problem!

 

I´m singing again with the choir I used to, and we had a couple of concerts already.  We are planning a big presentation  with a small orchestra included where I´m gonna be the organist.  It´s a Mozart´s Missa Brevis in C.

 

I decided to continue with my new incursion to the martial arts but changed from Tae Kwon Do to Hap Ki Do, so we´ll see how that works.  My knees, as always, are the problem but I´m ignoring them.

 

About work, I´m still on the look for the big project, sending resumees and having interviews; and working on small things in the meantime. 

 

In general, I can´t complain.  Life is going good and I´m feeling really good.

Pareciera que en el último año me la he pasado huyendo del buen clima.  Luego del larguísimo invierno pasado, finalmente llegó el verano a Troy y yo me fui para Austin donde era un infierno.  Pasé los dos meses más calientes allá y cuando el clima estaba refrescando me vine para Albany donde ya era invierno.  Llevo 6 meses de invierno acá y justo esta semana el clima parece estarse arrelgando.  Ya por fin se puede salir a la calle sin chaqueta y nuevamente yo me voy! La única diferencia es que esta vez me voy a donde siempre hay buen clima.  Me espera La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera.

Y bueno, la empacada continúa, es increíble todo lo que sigue apareciendo por ahí.  Pero pasado mañana me tocará decir: "Salí salí, lo que quedó quedó".  Y sigamos pa adelante porque como dicen por ahí: pa atrás ni pa tirarse un peo.

Esta vez las maletas son grandes.  Lo que no se va conmigo, se olvida.  No así los amigos y el amor que se quedan atrás y de los cuales me llevo la esperanza de un reencuentro.  La vida rodó casi dos años por estas tierras y ahora me preparo para rodar a casa.

 

Una montaña de papeles que harían un hermoso fuego eterno pero que piden ser llevados tal vez para amarillarse en un estante y nunca más ser vistos.  Ropa que vino sin saber que no volvería y ahora se apila en la sección de donaciones.  Regalos que viajarán a conocer nuevas tierras en las que pasarán su existencia.  Cajas, cajitas, tarros, maletas, bolsas, y toda clase de empaque se convierten en los objetos más preciados de mi escaso patrimonio.

 

Ya empacaste? es la frase de moda.  Creo que podría hacer una lista de ellas según la temporada:

Estudiando? Mucho frío? Conseguiste trabajo? Cuando regresas? ... y las no tan simples: Y Kris qué? 

Que vida tan llena de preguntas, y las respuestas que?

 

La ansiedad se construye segundo a segundo y las ganas de llegar a ver, oler, probar, tocar y oír mi tierra.  Reencuentros que me harán olvidarme al menos por un rato del dolor de la partida. Como se construye una vida en dos años!

 

Albany-Chicago-Miami-Bogota- y luego de 21 horas de viaje: Medellín!  Allá vamos... 

 

 

 

This is the first time I spend a birthday with no family, but my family of friends made it a wonderful day.  I went to Bombers where I got my free 24 ounces birthday margarita with Kris, Juan, Alvaro, Grit, Ivonne, Santiago, Sergio, Courtney and Marc.  And later we went to Mauricio's Flower Shop where we had a great latin party. 

Champagne, grapes, good music, balloons, a lot of dancing... thanks to everyone for a great birthday!

I'll put some pics later... 

The first time I pushed myself to go beyond my limits was almost 3 years ago when I went camping and hiking for 6 days in Colombia with Willy and Jorge and we climbed the "Nevado de Santa Isabel", 4950 meters high.  Yesterday was the second time.

Everyone who knows me would know how unathletic I've always been, never exercise and don't do any sports.  Well, the good thing is that I love traveling, love walking on the mountains, and enjoy doing new things.  So when Kris invited me to go hiking and caving I gladly accepted.  We met Gregg and Nikki at their house at 8 a.m. and after almost 2 hours driving we got to Chimney Mountain.  I wasn't sure what to expect since I had never been hiking in the snow and I don't even have any hiking gear with me in this country.  So I was wearing sneakers and a not so warm sweater, but fortunately Gregg and Nikki had some extra stuff and wearing a pair of shoes too big for my feet was definitely better than my slippery and not waterprooffed sneakers.

When we got to the mount we met Robin, Chris, Brad, Doug, Patrick and Ben.  The climbing up to the entrance of the cave was not long, I'd say about one hour.  And after I had the right shoes it wasn't that bad.  The view from above was beautiful, at least different for me used to the green all around.  It was only white and gray with the brown stones on the uncovered tops and the brown branches of the trees.  And then we got into the cave.

The entrance is between two flat stones almost horizontal and it's so tight that you can't turn your head at some spots, but it was very short and then it opened to a wide space.  Some of the group were rappelling down through the rock to the bat room and in the mantime Gregg, Chris, Kris and I went down a different way, climbing down a 12 ft drop with a rope.  I can't say that that was very hard for me but the only thing I could think of was how was I gonna be able to climb back.  My arms are strenghtless and there wasn't much place to put your feet and push up.

Anyway, I wasn't gonna stop there so I went down and there we were at the Bat Room.  It was a very big room full of tiny bats hanging down from the rock and you could actually pet them very light without waking them up.  (I'm telling this with a lot of detail specially for my mom who hates them! he he he).  Some of them were flying around but they stopped soon after we got there.  After everyone was down the group splitted and some of the people went back down the mountain.  Gregg, Nikki, Brad, Robin, Kris and I continued the exploring.  Gregg was leading us through different rooms with tight passages in between and we did this for about 3 more hours.  My jeans were soaked so it made them tighter and me being not so flexible made a lot of obstacles very hard for me.  After pulling myself up a rock I had to put my knees down as soon as possible before my arms collapsed and that hurt my knees a lot.  I scratched my back, my stomach, my hands and have perfectly purple knees now.

Finally we left the cave.  Me, with a great feeling of acomplishment in spite of all the help I got in there, but knowing that I definitely did the biggest effort.  The way down was fun.  It was 5 p.m. so it was almost dark and a lot of times I had to slide down in my feet and hands or simply in my butt, but the snow made it soft and entertaining.  When we got to the car, the rest of the group had gotten hot cocoa for us and it was the most delicious cup I've ever had. 

I was wet, cold, tired, sored, hungry... but happy.  And today I feel like a road roller passed over me but I have stories and pictures to share and more important memories that will stay.

 

Check Gregg and Nikki's page with info from the mountain and cave, pictures, and November 26th trip report.

And My pics 

Hace 18 días dejé atrás el verano interminable de Austin con el alegre prospecto de llegar a un Albany otoñal.  Un buen clima, hermosos colores y mil cosas por hacer.  Para mi desilusión, el invierno había tocado las puertas con algo de afán y entró en pleno llenando los rincones.  Los árboles que no se habían cambiado aun su traje se quedaron paralizados sin saber que hacer.  Hojas secas cubren el suelo bajo los árboles aun verdes, y uno que otro valiente que se atrevió a vestirse de rojo brillante sin aviso.

El Domingo en la madrugada regresamos de Nueva York adonde fuimos a bailar al Grupo Niche y al llegar a recoger el carro nos sorprendió su blanca cubierta.  Nieve a mediados de Octubre!!

Los días se han vuelto más y más fríos pero sabemos lo que nos espera adelante.  Aun son disfrutables las noches y caminables las calles.  Aun nos vemos las caras y las manos.  Muy pronto todo será blanco y sólo los fantasmas rondarán las calles de la ciudad.

After two months in Austin and too much heat I came back to Albany, NY with too much rain and some 30*F less.  But it's good to be back and around all the good friends that I had left behind.  Last night I started with the right foot going to a party at Daniel Mosquera's house where we danced until 5 am.

Everyone is surprised to see me here and I've been enjoying everyone's faces when they think they're seeing a ghost.  There's still a couple of people left to surprise...

Being in Austin was great, specially getting to spend some time with my brother, and of course the concerts and fun we had.  But living there without a car was definitely hard.  I'm proud though that I survived the heat with not too much complaining (well...).  This year is gonna be kinda extreme for me: winters upstate NY and summer in Texas.  That's about a 120*F range!

Anyway... thanks to everyone in Texas for making my last two months a good time, and thanks to everyone here for making me feel so welcome and loved.  (That sounded kinda cheesy but hey, I had to say it!)

That's my update for now, I'm going for Colombian lunch!! 

So they say Austin is the Live Music Capital of the country, and I've no doubt.  Last weekend, on Friday the 16th my brother and I drove down to San Antonio to see Carlos Vives in concert.  It was at a small place so we were very close to him.  The crowd was mostly Colombians, Venezuelans, Mexicans and Peruvians, dancing to the rythm of the Colombian's vallenato.  (more...)

On Saturday we were invited to the Muleiro's house to celebrate the Mexican Independence day with our mexican friends.  They prepared a lot of delicious mexican food, and we also celebrated Jeronimo's birthday.

The NI Eagles had a soccer match on Sunday so I went to see them, and ended up receiving too much sunlight.  The good thing was that they won, but in the afternoon my skin was already so red that it hurt, and I must say, as light as my skin is, that have never happended to me.  Anyway, we were really tired, (my brother for the soccer and I only for the extreme heat) but there was a Molotov's concert so we went and jumped and sang for a couple of hours. (more...)

That was it for the weekend, and it certainly was enough, but this past weekend wasn't so relaxed.

It started very good with a beer by the swimming pool.  We went to Jeronimo and Daniela's place, got into the pool, had some snacks and beer and relaxed while our families worried about the huricane Rita coming here.  It was actually a little windy, but that's about it.  Not even the rain got this far inland.

On Saturday I got a day job at the flea market and I had to be standing the whole 8 hours so by the end of the afternoon I was tired.  We went to meet Alejandro and Sayuri's baby, Santiago, and after that we went to Sam's boat for a couple of beers with friends.

Sunday, what a day.  We had tickets for the Austin City Limits Music Festival.  The main attraction was Cold Play closing the festival at 8:30, but Aterciopelados (a colombian rock band) was playing at 12:30 so we went at that time.  At this point my friends are probably laughing at me, since I don't like this band and I was going to their concert for the third time in my life! but anyway, my brother wanted to go, and they are colombians, so just for the crowd it'd had been fun.  But they cancelled.  Instead we went to see Maneja Beto, then we had lunch, and then we saw Bukka Allen, Ruthie Foster, Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca, Franz Ferdinand, and of course, Cold Play.  The weather was insane.  I swear, I can't understand how people were walking around with no t-shirt, and actually laying down under direct sunlight!  It went up to 108*F.  I was melting down, tired of walking around, starving for cold water.  But anyway, I still danced, and jumped, and screamed, and enjoyed the music a lot.  The festival was over at 10:00 and 60,000 people were walking out at the same time to take the shuttles or taxi cabs.  We were in line for the shuttle, but then we realized it was too long, so we went to the taxi line, and then we realized that it was also too long and slower, so we went back to the shuttle line and it was already 11:30.  We ended up taking one of the last shuttles.  When we arrived home I was really hungry (we didn't eat anything after lunch), really tired, but mostly really dirty.  The dust in the air was so much by the end of the night that it looked foggy.  My nostrils were full of dust, my throat felt dry and I was feeling really sick of my stomach probalby from swallowing all that dirt.  So I took a shower, grabbed an improvised bite, and went to bed.  (more...)

You can check the pictures, although I don't have very good ones of the concerts.

My last days upstate NY were great.  I got to do so many things and see so many people that it feels as if I streched out the time.  Last Monday I arrived to Austin after more than 9 hours, 4 airports and a lot of junk food.  Now I'm staying with my brother and not doing much, or so it feels after the year I had.

 

Half of my belongings are here, and half in Albany.  I gave away a lot of things and I still can't believe how much I accumulated during one year.  Right now I don't have a home, I don't know where I'll be next week, or doing what.  I'm having interviews here and there and waiting for answers.  It's a weird  feeling.  I don't want to make myself at home here because I might end up going away, but I don't have a home anywhere else right now.  And the truth is that it's only a matter of uncertainty, because I know there's more than one place where I can feel at home.

 

When I was leaving Albany and Juan told me "keep the keys for when you come back" I knew I was really leaving home, not an apartment, not a city, but a real HOME. I don't know yet how I managed not to cry at the airport, or the night before, with so many nice people, telling me all these nice things.  I think somewhere inside me I truly believe that I'll see them again.

 

I have so much anxiety about getting a job and settling down somewhere, even if I know it's gonna be a great experience wherever it is.  As I've said before, I'm good at adapting myself to new situations, and that doesn't worry me, but exites me.  But still, the waiting is not that enjoyable.  I don't want to be between chapters, I want to be doing something.

 

Anyway... if my grandma really believed that I was the most patient person that she ever met, I'll have to honor that fame, take it easy, and let things flow at their own speed.  There's always something to do right here, right now.