Week 2- Orientation

This week was busy, busy, busy. I pretty much dropped off the face of the earth in terms of communication with people outside Colombia because I had little internet access, my days began at 7 am, and they ended at the earliest at 11 pm.

The rest of the Fulbright ETAs to Colombia arrived in Bogota Sunday, July 24^th. It was SUCH a great feeling to have everyone all together again! Even though we’ve only technically known each other for a month and were only in the same place in the U.S. for a total of 4 days (teaching orientation in D.C.), the reunion was definitely a joyous affair....so joyous the hotel staff had to ask us to be quiet, oops! It really feels like I’ve known them much longer….

My typical orientation day consisted of breakfast, heading out as a group at 8 am by bus to the building where we had our orientation sessions, orientation until 6:30 pm, dinner, and then an evening activity (aka exploring the nightlife). It wasn’t a super strenuous schedule--we just got a lot of information and were kept busy. Orientation consisted of logistical and administrative tasks, as well as cultural education. On the logistical side, we opened up Colombian bank accounts, sorted out visas, discussed the aspects of our contracts, had a security briefing by a security officer from the US Embassy in Colombia, and were introduced to the Fulbright community in Colombia and key people we need to know. For the cultural education side, we had classes on the following:

• Colombian political history (REALLY interesting!)
  
• U.S.-Colombia Relations
• Colombian Music, Culture, and Diversity class
• Colombian Dance: a dance group came and performed for us and then taught us cumbia and Afro-Colombian dance moves (no surprise, my favorite class from the week)
  
• Civil Society in Colombia and the Roles of NGO’s (I got some great ideas about what types of orgs I want to get involved with)
  
• Culture Shock and Adjusting to Life in Colombia
• The National Bilingual Program and the Higher Education System

So basically, LOTS of information processing!! Our second to last day of orientation we had a 6-hour city tour in the afternoon and evening which was really cool. We went to the barrio La Candelaria, which is the historic center of Bogota. The city began in this neighborhood, which features cobblestone roads and many museums and tourist sites. In Candelaria, we visited el Museo de Oro, el Museo Botero, and La Casa de Moneda. My favorite part of the city tour, though, was when we went to Monserrate, a mountain that dominates the city center of Bogotá. We rode in a téléferico to the top (!!), which granted us the most amazing and beautiful views of Bogota! All of downtown Bogotá, south Bogotá and some sections of the north are visible facing west…if only we could have stayed for sunset.

All in all, a VERY successful week! Now off to my final destination: Cali.