Rainbows

I wanted to share some pictures of a beautiful rainbow we saw in the park last weekend.  Although it rains often here, this was the first rainbow I've seen.  I loved its beauty & the reminder of God's promises to us whether you are in Bogota, Mississippi, Tennessee, NC, SC, or wherever you may live.

Brook wanted a photo under the rainbow.  It was faint, but you can still see it in the sky. 

Happy Tuesday!

Fun & Rest

We enjoyed hosting some singles at our home Tuesday night.  This was something we did often in Memphis, so it felt good to have a similar experience here.  Although here, we broke into some salsa dance lessons!  We also did Just Dance, which has been a real hit around here.

Brook & Francesca, who is from Chile living in Bogota for 6 months

Christian & Avery

Christian is from Cali, Colombia & just came to Bogota last week.  Cali is known for its salsa dancing.

Isabella & Maria Fernanda, who is from Villavicencio, Colombia

We met Maria Fernanda our 3rd week here in Bogota & have gradually gotten to know her better.

Christian, Maria Fernanda, & Francesca with the girls

These are the 3 people Isabella & I went to English club with Monday night.

and the adults

It was a fun night, but during the night, I began to get sick from something I ate (or that is my guess). This could be the first time I got sick from something I prepared :(.  I took Wednesday as a day of rest. Avery & the girls took good care of me.  Avery took Brook to school, cancelled my Spanish class, & he had class in the afternoon.  I did not even go downstairs to the kitchen/living room until 4pm!  

While Avery was at the church leadership meeting last night, the girls & I watched Les Mis.  Brook had not seen the movie before (only the play in London).  We did speed up a few scenes, including when Russell Crowe was solo singing! 

"To love someone is to see the face of God"

English Please

**Disclaimer:  One of the few blog posts from me that has more words instead of pictures!  Bear with me as you read through this today & thank you for doing so :).  

Not to sound like a broken record, but my world is Spanish & sometimes it is plain exhausting.  I don't understand many things, whether it be language or really just what to expect or what is going on around me.  As I've said in the past, not knowing the language is often frustrating.  Even when I am sitting at home with my English speaking family. There are websites I can't access because I am in another country.  I can't order things online.  I can't turn on the t.v. & just assume I will know what is on or what is being said.  I can't send emails without help to Spanish speakers.  I can't text a friend without checking everything in google translate, & even then I pray it has been translated correctly with what I mean.  I can't answer the phone & understand what is being said.  I can't.....and the list goes on and on.  Fill in the blank.  Not that I am complaining, this is just my reality.  And my reality is getting to feel normal.  A lot of these things are really not that important in the big picture of life. 

A few language stories for you, first, last week I had the odd joy of trying to explain what a Tootsie Roll pop is to my language teacher!  They do have something like Blow Pops here, so at least she is familiar with the concept!

Saturday, I saw a man in the store with a sweatshirt on that said Gatlinburg!  To me, that was Gatlinburg, TN people!  I know he thought I was creepy as I stared at him a couple of times, just wondering if I was really reading that correctly.  I actually thought, "wonder if Gatlingburg means something in Spanish?".  The man was Colombian though, so he probably had no idea what he was wearing.

And Sunday, we were having lunch with another missionary family at the mall.  A Colombian man observed us & came up to Avery & said, "Do you speak English?".  Of course, we said yes, & he asked us if he could ask us a question.  This was his question:  "Can you explain the meaning of the phrase...a raincheck?".  He explained he teaches English here & there are some words he just can't quite understand the meaning of it.  He was very nice & very grateful for our answer.  

Last night, Isabella & I attended an English club.  There is a group of Colombians who meet each week to practice their English.  We have been before (Avery actually led it 2 weeks), but went back with a friend here.  Yay for more Colombians learning English!  

The one or two people who read this may already know this information, but the girls & I are coming to the states in November for a quick trip so Isabella can attend a retreat with our church (but they are wanting to keep this a surprise from their friends, so shhhh!). What a breath of fresh air it will be to be around the familiar again. To be able to read a menu, order in English, & it will actually probably seem strange to us.  We've gotten so use to the cultural norms here, but I'm excited to not turn my head & wonder where someone is from if I hear an English word spoken. I'm excited of course to see family & friends too!

Trying to see if we could change our TV to English for just one show, but no luck.  This is probably for our benefit to help us continue to learn Spanish. 

Tonight we have do have the joy of hosting 2 or maybe 3 single Colombians over to our home for dinner, They are not originally from Bogota, so they have even more cultural information to add.  And might I add these people are bi-lingual (still working on their English, but it is so much better than my Spanish), so that helps our conversation to be in part English & yes, part Spanish.  And maybe our water will be back on tonight!  (It was cut off for the day as the do periodically here, we think due to construction).

Avery's Birthday

Friday we celebrated Avery's birthday with a day off from Spanish classes.

The girls blew up balloons & wrote Happy Birthday on them for Avery.

He got some coffee goodies from Juan Valdez & the girls made him funny birthday cards.

We ate at restaurant called Bourbon Bistro, which is a New Orleans cajun restaurant.  Avery is originally from Louisiana & had actually eaten here once before.

A picture of BB King from Memphis!

Beignets...not as good as what you get in New Orleans, but still okay.

We went back to our area of town, stopped by the mall for ice cream, & ate it on this balcony.

This balcony overlooks the highway & Avery has said many times he wants to go sit on the balcony, so we surprised him for a time to sit on the balcony & eat ice cream.

We ended the evening by watching a movie on Netflix & had a fire.  After all we had eaten, I didn't even cook dinner.

And of course, Avery shares a birthday day with my niece, Nicole, so it was a joy to talk to her & hear her voice.

BB

Happy Friday!  Woo hoo, its the weekend!  Today's post is brought to you by:

Bogota Bridges

And I'm wishing Avery & Nicole a super happy birthday today!!

Weekend

I love weekends.  I love just catching up on things & usually end up staying home a good bit.  We did get out a few times, but it was close by home.

Friday night we went to a nearby area to get pizza from a local place instead of "chain food pizza". While there, we noticed all the youth hanging out & thought this would be a great place to meet people....once we know a little more conversational Spanish.

Saturday, I crossed the bridge across the highway to another neighborhood to go to breakfast at a friend's house.  About 4-5 North American women are going to start meeting twice a month to study a book together, have some community & accountability.  I went back across the bridge later in the day to take Brook to a birthday party.  The party was a little different from those in the states...it lasted 4 hours! Anyway, she had fun being with her friend & meeting other girls.  Both times crossing the bridge, there was so much traffic.  Everyone is trying to get out of the city for the weekend.

Do you see the people selling cotton candy?  It is very common to have people selling things at your window when you are on the road, usually stuck in traffic.

Happy Monday!

Bogota Bridges

Happy Thursday!  We have made it through our first 2 days back to Spanish class, but we are now staying busy & tired from the work & thinking!

For more of today's blog, checkout www.bogotabridges.com.

Back to Spanish School

Spanish classes resume today, so say a prayer as we jump back into this routine.  This is what Spanish usually sounds like to me:

This is from a soccer game, so yes, it is a little faster than normal, but somedays it just all seems this fast!

A lot of my life is spent on Facetime, Skype & text. Last week, I was able to Facetime with my dear friend Kaitlyn who just had her firstborn son (you can see Brook & I in the bottom corner of the photo). We also were able to Facetime with another group of friends in Memphis Saturday night who were having a birthday party for one of our friends.  It was fun to feel like we were a part & to catch up with people we haven't seen in a while.  Yea for technology!

And this how Avery & Brook have spent some of their vacation time....mastering rapelling! They have found a tree in the park where they practice.

Back to class today...say a prayer for some new understanding & remembering what we had already learned.

A Day Outing

After I felt a little better after passing out Friday morning, we went on a family outing with our team leaders. I knew it would be a low-key day with a long drive in the country basically (once you get out of Bogota traffic.) They took us on a loop trip around one side of the city & we were able to see some new sights.

This is the view from where we ate lunch.

We found an Italian place, so the girls were happy we were eating pizza.

That is our group at the table.  There were wine bottles all over the ceiling.  The pizza was cooked in the fire oven & was so good.

Avery & the girls with our team leaders & tour guides/driver for the day.

Family photo

This was the front of the restaurant where we ate on the side of the road.

And this was the restaurant next door.  I do admit, there were parts of this drive that reminded me of driving in Western NC, along the Smoky Mountains, & Blue Ridge Parkway.

Another view from the parking lot of the restaurant

These are views from our drive. 

The wide open green spaces were pretty.  I was just imagining them with fall colored leaves though, which we don't get to see here.

We finished our drive with a stop at the Alpina factory & the pottery store.  I blogged about these locations back in May.

Happy Monday  to you.  I'll be doing last minute homework today...Spanish classes begin again tomorrow.

School Days

Brook started 2 new classes at a school in Bogota this week.  This is a Christian, English speaking school where we plan on enrolling both girls next year.  This originally started as school for missionary kids, but is now predominately Colombian kids.  Most of the teachers are from the USA & come for a 1-3 year commitment to teach.  Brook is taking art & bible one day a week with the 5th grade class.  She has gone to homeschooling classes in the states, but this was her first time in a "real" school environment.  She was very nervous the night before, but after many prayers were said for her, she was relaxed the next morning & ready to go.

After this picture, she & I hopped in a taxi, passed by a few cows on the side of the road, & made it to the school in just about 20 minutes.

The school is currently under construction as they are adding a 3rd floor, so there is a lot of activity.  Believe it or not, this is the front of the school!

The windows from the first room is Brook's 5th grade class.

The school has an outdoor space where students eat lunch.

This is Brook's closest friend here, Brianna.  She & her family have been so kind to us.  Brianna made Brook feel very welcome.

Brook was so excited to even have a locker to store her things!

It was good to see Brook for the first time in over 4 months to be with kids, especially kids her own age.  It will take some time to get to know the other students but she won't be as nervous for next week.  I spent the time doing my own Spanish homework in the library.  Next week they are going to let me observe an elementary Spanish class to help me :).  I also was able to see a few people I know who work there & meet some others.  We stayed for a special chapel presentation, took a bus home & returned 4 hours after we left, so not a bad day!

House Updates

We are slowly getting some projects accomplished on our break from Spanish.  Have I said how much I'm enjoying this time??  However, I can feel that I need some Spanish instruction.  I may have forgotten a few things :(.  I promise, I will start my homework package this week!

This morning, we are hosting our team at our home for our monthly team meeting.  (No, we don't celebrate Labor Day in Colombia). We got two new storage cubes (in lieu of paying for an expensive coffee table), new curtains, & painted our den wall last week.  We wanted to get these things & a team meeting was just the motivation!  Since we are renting, we went with a pretty basic wall color, so it wasn't a drastic change.

Before with the old blinds...just the cheap plastic blinds 

New blinds!

Before where you can see the old & new paint

Finished with our new storage cubes

I posted this on instagram, but a Colombian friend of mine just returned from the states last week & brought me this sweet treat that I received Sunday at church because we kept her kids for the day last Saturday.

A good day people!

Hope you all enjoy your Labor Day!