Archive | March, 2013

Getting Fired

26 Mar

We spent the last week in Cali settling into our lives here, which for us seems to include minimal English-teaching study, intense salsa dancing practice, afternoon naps, and five hours worth of dawn cleaning.  That is, until recently dawn cleaning.  Turns out, we got “fired” from our volunteer job this week.

How does one get fired from volunteer work?  Especially if we were really good sports about the 5am wake-up calls, the possessive and slightly inappropriate physical work environment,  and the strange reward and punishment system (ranging from giving and taking away our keys, feeding us at random moments or not, and the strange balance of messaging obsessively to complete ignoring of our presence).  Well, actually, it’s quite simple: I just didn’t show up for work.

Yes, all of you who have worked with me in the past, I know this goes against everything I have ever complained about in regards to students, co-workers, and professionalism. I was shocked at my behavior as well. However, there is something wonderfully freeing about waking up, looking at the clock and seeing that we were meant to be there at 6:45 am, and instead turning over and going back to sleep.

H did, however, go to work that day, even though we had been staying with my boyfriend for the past few days as there wasn’t even a bed in the hostel for us at that time. She diligently put in the required 5 hours to earn our keep, and warned me that it may not even be worth coming in to deal with it. And no, I did not call or message my absence.  I just slept.

We had an apologetic conversation with the owner afterwards, and we all decided that it made sense for us to just continue staying with my boyfriend and not work going forward. I feel the guilt about my behavior, but it is difficult to regret the outcome since the universe has chosen to take us dancing every night since, fully able to enjoy the Cali rumba every day for a week.

Today we will be cheering on our Colombian favorites for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  To be followed by some evening dancing.  Tomorrow we go to the Pacific coast to camp and enjoy the ocean.  And dance, of course.

(and maybe even study some English grammar!)

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Wait a minute, where are you?

19 Mar

Hello dears!

It’s our one year anniversary tomorrow… One year of living together, nearly inseparable, while making our way south through Latin America. We are neither as far nor as goal-oriented as I had thought we would be by this point (I honestly thought we would be nearly done by now… who travels for this long from the States?!? I mean, we have barely even crossed into South America and rarely have any idea as to what we are doing even day to day!), but we are happy.

So, so very happy with our traveling lives!

I am surprised that we are still getting along; our communication with one another has gotten to a wonderfully efficient level now (no more fighting over heat in Costa Rica). I am pleased we both speak Spanish and are able to make jokes about how horrible we still are in Spanish. We are still incredibly tired by the language learning that is required daily to live down here, but now we are used to napping, going to bed early, and sleeping in whenever possible.

We have amazing friends located literally all over the world, some who we get to run into again on their dashes south, others who we will have to chase down someday. We are still amazed and a little jealous when we see updates from people by how quickly they seem to be able to explore the world, but with our cautious attitude towards burning ourselves out we can never keep up even when we try! We truly do talk about and miss all of you!

Currently we are working in a hostel, baking comfort food, studying how to teach English, giving free language lessons (and free haircuts!) for practice, salsa dancing four nights a week, and generally laughing at ourselves as often as possible in Cali, Colombia.

Yes, we traded the beautiful Ecuador (where we were wearing ourselves out with the intense travel and lifestyle) for a return to our lives in Cali for a bit of a break for ourselves and our bank accounts. I’m quickly becoming one of those desperate, every-peso-counts travelers with all the student loans I’m still paying back up north (the future online English teaching job and the rest from travel should help us with that).

No, we don’t think we’re “sane” that we cannot seem to leave Cali behind when we have so much more of South America we want to see. The good news is that South will always be there (and at the pace we’re moving it’s a good thing!) and we are not finished yet.

We are just on a time out to enjoy baking American Pi Day themed treats, dancing with as many people as we can, drinking for free on St. Patrick’s, practicing Spanish with our co-workers, and relaxing by the hostel jacuzzi while we study our native language.

So my dears, tomorrow we hike up a mountain, go to a film, eat lunch in a grocery store, teach an English lesson, enjoy a freshly baked batch of brownies, and salsa dance until our feet fall off. Because that’s what we do to celebrate our one year. Join us?

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