I'd be lying if I said Aaron and I have a lot of time to do things outside of school. Honestly, we're working most weekends and nights as typical teachers do. However, we're carving out time to take on some new hobbies and rekindle some old.
I finally found a soccer team! One of my goals moving to South America was to start playing soccer again. After 6 months, Golnar, another new teacher, and I finally joined a team! We play at a micro-futbol field about 3 blocks from our apartment once or twice a week. It has been SO much fun to play again! However, I honestly thought I was going to keel over during our first game as we had no subs and I had to play 60 full minutes. I haven't done that in over 7 years! Although I've been running fairly regularly, I'd forgotten how good of shape you need to be in to play soccer! Besides getting in shape, it's also a great way to practice our Spanish as Golnar and I are the only ones that speak English.
I've also started volunteering at a school in northwestern Cali teaching English. Working with these students is a great complement to teaching at Bolivar. I've always enjoyed teaching English as a second language and this gives me the opportunity to do that. These 8th graders know very little English but are incredibly excited and enthusiastic about learning. Being from a very different socioeconomic status than my 10th graders, working with these kids also offers a new insight into life in Colombia.
Aaron on the other hand has taken up a few new hobbies. First, I got him a bonsai tree for his birthday in October. Since then he's also decided to start one of his own out of a rosemary plant. He has a distinct design in mind and most Saturday mornings I find him meticulously snipping and pruning the morning away.
On top of bonsaing, Aaron has taken it upon himself to be a maestro of juice making. Each morning I'm greeted with a fresh juice combination while blow drying my hair. It's a beautiful thing. Colombia has so many succulent fruits that make it easy to play with flavor combinations. Some of our favorites are: lime (literally throw the whole lime in the blender with about a half cup of water--strain it--and add the strained juice back in the blender), orange, maracuya, and pineapple. We also love Guanabana which on it's own, blended with ice and water, tastes like ice cream! It's frothy and thick with a vanilla ice cream like texture and sweetness. We don't add sugar to any of the juices because when you get fresh ingredients, the natural sweetness trumps any sourness---even with tart fruits like maracuya and lime.
Aaron's also discovering the flora and fauna of Colombia. This is a butterfly we found up in Pance a couple weeks ago. It kept following us and landing on our backpacks. After seeing this, I'm convinced our number system was based on shapes found in nature.
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I finally found a soccer team! One of my goals moving to South America was to start playing soccer again. After 6 months, Golnar, another new teacher, and I finally joined a team! We play at a micro-futbol field about 3 blocks from our apartment once or twice a week. It has been SO much fun to play again! However, I honestly thought I was going to keel over during our first game as we had no subs and I had to play 60 full minutes. I haven't done that in over 7 years! Although I've been running fairly regularly, I'd forgotten how good of shape you need to be in to play soccer! Besides getting in shape, it's also a great way to practice our Spanish as Golnar and I are the only ones that speak English.
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| Pre-game selfie! |
I've also started volunteering at a school in northwestern Cali teaching English. Working with these students is a great complement to teaching at Bolivar. I've always enjoyed teaching English as a second language and this gives me the opportunity to do that. These 8th graders know very little English but are incredibly excited and enthusiastic about learning. Being from a very different socioeconomic status than my 10th graders, working with these kids also offers a new insight into life in Colombia.
Aaron on the other hand has taken up a few new hobbies. First, I got him a bonsai tree for his birthday in October. Since then he's also decided to start one of his own out of a rosemary plant. He has a distinct design in mind and most Saturday mornings I find him meticulously snipping and pruning the morning away.
.JPG) |
| One of the bonsai trees in the beginning stage. |
On top of bonsaing, Aaron has taken it upon himself to be a maestro of juice making. Each morning I'm greeted with a fresh juice combination while blow drying my hair. It's a beautiful thing. Colombia has so many succulent fruits that make it easy to play with flavor combinations. Some of our favorites are: lime (literally throw the whole lime in the blender with about a half cup of water--strain it--and add the strained juice back in the blender), orange, maracuya, and pineapple. We also love Guanabana which on it's own, blended with ice and water, tastes like ice cream! It's frothy and thick with a vanilla ice cream like texture and sweetness. We don't add sugar to any of the juices because when you get fresh ingredients, the natural sweetness trumps any sourness---even with tart fruits like maracuya and lime.
.JPG) |
| Lime, orange, maracuya and pineapple. |
Aaron's also discovering the flora and fauna of Colombia. This is a butterfly we found up in Pance a couple weeks ago. It kept following us and landing on our backpacks. After seeing this, I'm convinced our number system was based on shapes found in nature.
