I have arrived!

7/23/2007
Many of you may have gotten this in email but I havent had time to write two seperate updates and I would have repeated myself anyway...

I am in Bogota, Colombia!!! Yesterday I flew from Raleigh to Atlanta to Aruba to Bogota. I arrived at 8pm and it was raining and dark so I wasnt able to see the beautiful mountains. One of the parents who has a child at the school picked me up at the airport and it was very easy to find him. I met a few Bogotanos while travelling from aruba to Bogota and they were very nice and helpful as if they were old family friends. Everyone else that I have met here is really nice as well. I stayed with a family last night with two adorable kids- Tatiana, 5, and Esteban, 3. It was a very warm welcoming. It was kind of cold last night and this morning I was told that no apartments in Bogota have heat. Christina, the mother, took me around the city this afternoon a bit to show me a nice park and restaraunts. I went to the school today to meet everyone that has arrived so far and was able to see my classroom\office which is the size of a bathroom or large closet. It is a good size though because I will pull only 3-5 students at a time to teach them english and other times I will be helping within the regular classrooms to assist the teacher with students who have lower english levels. A lady who works at the school took my roommate and I to see two apartments that we can choose from. They are three bedrooms with one or two baths. Pretty nice, but small. They are both in gated communities with guards 24 hrs a day. There will be four of us staying in an apartment together so that will help when we need to go explore the city and go grocery shopping. We should be able to move in by this weekend. The school is still trying to collect furniture for us. I believe we have a few beds so far. I will be staying with some other teachers this week until my apartment is ready because they live closer to the school and will be travelling there everyday so Christina will not have to drive me 45 minutes each day like she did this morning. It is a bit difficult to get around the city because there is one main road (autopista) and the rest are small roads between neighborhoods. Also, Christina and many who live here, have driving restrictions that do not allow them to drive between 6-8am and 4-6pm, I guess to prevent traffic problems. The city is kind of dirty from what I have seen of it but hopefully I will find some cool places to hang out, eat, read, and have coffee of course, once I get comfortable with my surroundings! There is a large mall with movie theater a few blocks from where my apartment will be so that is exciting. Right now I am sitting at the computer drinking coffee and playing peek a boo with little Esteban who has become attached to me and wants to sit or lay in my lap everywhere I go. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support and I will keep you updated on what is going on. I´m sure I will have more eventful things to tell everyone this week if internet is made available. That´s all for now! Miss you all! I will try to send pictures when I am able to use my personal computer or the school computer.