Two more weeks have flown by and much to tell! Let´s start with the weekend before last. The Celtic music group was set to have their big Samhain costume party that my friend Magda had told me about, so Milena and I put together costumes (her Snow White, me a sort of pirate) and caught a bus Friday afternoon. We arrived and caught the transmilenio downtown. Unfortunately, I managed to confuse the address (not Carrera 16, but Calle 16), which resulted in us getting of in the middle of a very shady part of downtown, realizing our error, and luckily catching a taxi which took us all the way back to the place where it actually was. We arrived at the bar, a nice spacious place with a high ceiling, and there were all the Amigos de Celtismo people, playing music, with masses of amazingly-costumed people dancing. It was quite the event. Not just music, but a tightrope act, a reenactment with several big guys dressed in full armor and chain mail with helmets and wooden swords (further proof that by statistical necessity, with 9 million people, even in Bogotá there have to be a few reenactment nerds like me 7 years ago). Anyway, lots of fun. There was even a toast with homemade mead, although I have to say it was awfully sweet and needed more fermentation, but tasty. We finally headed home with Magda after the best costume was declared (a guy dressed up as the Faun from Pan´s Laberynth complete with big furry legs and hooves).
The next day, we had lunch with Will, walked around the Universidad Nacional, which is like the UPTC with it´s graffiti, Che Guevara murals, and hippies playing music on every corner, but even bigger and an odd oasis just blocks from the huge main drags in Bogotá. Then we went to visit Milena´s family and watch V is for Vendetta, which is really excellent, and had caught my interest because a lot of the protestors against the Ley 30 wear the Guy Fawkes mask.
By the way- an update on the Ley 30. So, you remeber all the public universties have been on strike for over a month. And even at UniBoyacá, a private school with very conservative rectors, we had a huge march alongside the uptcistas, which involved walking all the way from the university to the main plaza, encircling the plaza holding hands, and chanting lots of great slogans insulting political leaders and demanding public education. On the way back there were some problems with police forcefully removing students from the main avenue so cars could pass, but it stayed largely peaceful. By the way, I won´t specify my role in the march just in case some government person might read this (:
Anyway, the latest is that President Santos has offered to withdraw the reform and redo it with the participation of student leaders. It´s still not 100% and so the strike hasn´t been lifted, but it looks like classes might begin again at the públicas as soon as next week. Still, it´s a bummer because final exams could be as late as right before Christmas.
As for me, classes are over, and i just have 2 weeks of hanging out in the office, helping students prepare exams and final projects, so life is good.
Speaking of exams, I presented my final for dance class last wednesday with the samba group. Suffice it to say it was awesome. The girls rented dresses and carnaval masks and we guys danced shirtless, which was met with enthusiam by my students, haha. Anyway, it went really well, the theatre was packed and screaming, and we danced well, just a little bit uncoordinated. Whoof, and 2 minutes of samba steps leaving you gasping for breath, let me tell you!
Other than that, things have been good. On Sunday, Milena, the students from Chiapas, and I went to the Lago de Tota, a huge mountain lake a couple hours from Tunja. It was a chilly cloudy day, but I swam anyway, and almost turned purple (the water is warm, but when you get out the breeze is icy). We hiked around, ate roasted chicken and mangos, and I rode a horse that got excited and almost threw me until I got control- yikes!
Also, I´ve had two little parties in my house with the exchange students, one when the Mexicans made chiles rellenos (peppers stuffed with meat and onions and spices and fried with cornmeal breading), and then yesterday the girl from Portugal made feijoada (bean stew with pig feet, peppers, and onions) and Milena made masato (a drink made with fermented rice and pinapple, mmm!) The last party with the Mexicans and the other exchange-ers will be this saturday, because their semester is over and soon they´ll be headed back home :(
Ok, that´s what´s new for now. Work is almost over and soon I´ll be thinking about travels. Hasta la próxima!!
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