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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!