It has been more than a year since I last updated my blog. Since then I moved to Colombia, got a job teaching English and... well, that's it really.
But this past month has been a whirlwind of emotions and a roller coaster of ideas and experiences.
Too much to catch up on so Im going to list it:
1. Quit my job 2/22/12 (oh, just noticed that is exactly 10 years after I had my first episode where I was misdiagnosed with MS)
2. VISA canceled 2/23/12 The school canceled my VISA and I had a month to get a new one or leave the country
a. Victor and I decided to get a temporal visa which states that I am in the country for 2 years, not true but no bad karma attached. (im putting it out there so it becomes true) To do this we needed to get a letter stating that we are together signed by a notary and fly to Bogota for several days to visit the Colombian embassy. While there we had to answer several questions about our relationship, pay $210 dollars and I am now officially able to use his health insurance and stay in the country for one year as well as work.
3. Rent a Room 2/27/12 Vic and I rented a room inside an apartment full of university students. 4 rooms, 7 people. I dont even remember living like this when I was in college. But, we needed a place in Medellin to stay when we could not travel back to Santa Elena and this was in the neighborhood we wanted and well, it is damn cheap. $150 for both of us every month. The plan was to just stay for a month but then I quit my job, yadda yadda yadda, and we are staying an extra month to save money.
4. Dancing again Two of the girls in the room are salsa dancers and I had not been dancing for a loong time. I began going with them and havent stopped since.
5. New Cookie Business I was lost and looking for direction and had my period, which of course meant I was craving chocolate. I had no idea where to find a great chocolate chip cookie so Vic told me, make one. THat is when my cookie business began. I went to my apartment, met a friend from the states who is living here for 6 months and told her about the idea. THe only problem was I dont cook and I never baked. She LOVED the idea and was looking for something to do to occupy her time so we decided to get into business. (For the past three weeks we have been trying different cookie recipes, buying different cooking materials and creating our logo: a milk and cookie dancing together with our name underneath http://lasmunchies.wordpress.com/) We are already sick of sugar and tired of baking but we are pushing forward. We made a plan and next Friday we will take samples of our cookies with little cups of milk to our neighborhood where all the kids are smoking and drinking and start selling them.
6. Swimming I began swimming lessons, 8 classes for $40 in the most amazing stadium with 12 different pools all outdoors. I started off in level 2 and after 2 weeks they bumped me to level 6. Yay B'nai B'rith for teaching me something! Now I am learning the butterfly and everything hurts.
7. New Dating Business While swimming I met Cesar, a guy in my class, who for some reason told me that I should speak with his friend, Jerry. Jerry is a Chinese-American 65 year old guy from Hawaii living in Medellin for 2 years. He told me Jerry is trying to start a dating business and he is looking for someone who wants to start it with him. Well, we all know my history with online dating, I am the QUEEN! I met with Jerry, we liked one another, he is putting money down and I am putting ideas and time into the project.
8. New Yoga Business Shanti, the Colombian yogi who is not a yoga teacher but will begin teaching classes with me. He is really studying architecture but has decided that his passion is yoga and healing. We met 2 and realized we will work great together. This week we are meeting to discuss logistics. Basically, we will teach every class together, one will be the main teacher while the other walks around and corrects.
9. New VISA 3/18-3/22 - Bogota for VISA
10. New teaching job 3/23, Thursday, I was called for an interview at a different school. The woman who replaced me at Vermont school told this HR director about me and that I was looking for work. I went in for an interview and Tuesday I was called back in to sign a contract. I negotiated what is great for me and terrible for almost everyone else. I wanted a 2 month contract (their mid-year vacation starts june 8th and I only wanted a contract until then). The principal thought this was odd but granted my request and I begin Friday!
10. Moved out of cute, perfect, far far away house 3/25/12 We left our beautiful, cute, little finca in Santa Elena. After 4 months of waking up at 4:30 every morning to travel 2 hours to the school and then coming home another 2 hours to get there at 8PM to go straight to sleep, we realized something about our livelihood was missing the "live" part. We were never really able to enjoy the farm and the beauty of it because we were never there in daylight. And, to top that off, when we were there on the weekends it was always cloudy and raining. But, we had to break the contract. And, we wanted to do it in the best way possible so we told them owner that we will stay in the house until she finds someone new. Of course she found someone when we were in Bogota. We were there from Sunday March 18 - THursday March 22 and had to move out that weekend. So, we came home, went straight to the finca and moved everything to his mother's place, also in Santa Elena, and his friend's storage unit in the city.
OK, this was really a blog for me to remember all the hecticness that has been going on. It is also to remind me that when something ends, if I remain positive and open to living my passionate life, it will all come. And it did.
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