a nice update

bonjour! i had my first french class last night and i loved it. it’s funny because my mentality is working in english and spanish, so i write notes down in both languages…as long as it makes sense to me.

i finally got out all last week to see bogota and all the sights, it was awesome. i falling in love with bogota a little bit more each time. i made a few friends, i had a friend of a friend of my friend andy who is here in bogota, and then he had a friend of a friend who arrived wed. night. she and i ended up seeing every inch we could of bogota.

thursday, on my way to meet up with them, i found myself at the plaza bolivar, which is the plaza down in central bogota and the president was actually speaking at the time. there were a lot of people there to hear him speak but not all cheering him on. Professor Moncayo was there to speak as well..Professor Moncayo has become a pretty popular man in Colombia. his son was kidnapped about 10 years ago and is still in captivity. he speaks out and the people listen to him, he hopes to talk some sense into the president and the farc. it’s a really sad story but at the same time he has never given up to get his son back to freedom. most of the people in the plaza were actually there to greet the professor, rather than the president. that was a nice treat to see downtown…

walking around bogota, we found so many cute little places to eat, to shop, to hang out at…i love it. and there’s a good variety of restaurants or coffee shops that serve foods and such from different countries. i'm continued to be amazed at the beauty of bogota, it's jaw dropping.

i got to go to the museo de Botero. Fernando Botero is an amazing artist from Medillin, Colombia, he created an imaginative world with every object with a chubby appearance. it’s really cute! the museo was huge and everytime we turned a corner, there was another part of the museo to see.

this past weekend started the celebration of Bogota’s 469th birthday. and like every other holiday here, it is celebrated for days. a major street downtown was closed off for most of the time. friday night, the street was full performers and sellers. it shows city life, and it’s crazy fun.
the next day, we went up to Monserrate, which is the coolest church ever! the church sits on top of the Andes mountains, some people climb up the mountain to get there but the mountain is super steep and the second i saw how steep it was i changed my mind about walking up…ha i might be lazy sometimes. so we ended up taking the cable car up, it was so awesome. the view at the top was unbelievable. of course it gets colder on the way up and it was misting while we were up there but the mist made it more dramatic. then the sun came out and made a rainbow! it was beautiful. now that i’ve seen Monserrate, and i’m living in bogota, i want to go up there all the time. it’s so peaceful and beautiful, a bit chilly but it was awesome.

so this week, i start my life in bogota. not too shabby of a life, it’s funny to start my day teaching a language and to end my day learning a language. and somedays inbetween i learn about politics. i never would have guessed that when i was thinking about leaving or when i left, i would be happy so soon in colombia. but it feels right and life goes on and i want to go on with it.

i miss ames so much and can’t wait for my visits back but life is good.

come visitJ i can’t say it enough.