The first two weeks in Colombia

Hello, family and friends! If you are reading this post, then I want to thank you for loving me, supporting me, or at the very least being interested enough in my life to follow along as I spend 10 months in Colombia on a grant as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA).

Curious what the Fulbright program is all about? https://us.fulbrightonline.org/countries/western-hemisphere/colombia/1632

This adventure truly began on Sunday, July 28, when my dear roommate-of-three-years, Melanie, took me (and my backpack, carry-on, and two checked suitcases) to the DFW airport. After a short flight to Houston, I boarded a plane bound for Bogotá. Since there were about 13 other Fulbright ETAs on the same flight, we all helped each other wrangle a mountain of suitcases through Colombian customs, into several hotel shuttles, and finally to the Courtyard Marriott hotel where our orientation took place. Teamwork truly makes the dream work!

Fulbright ETA Welcome Seminar

“English is for connection, not perfection.”

Our in-person orientation began Monday afternoon and ended Thursday afternoon. At least 15 other ETAs arrived at 5:00 am from Houston, so I was very grateful to have a slow start to the week. Bogotá sits at 8,660 feet above sea level, and I certainly felt the altitude! The first two days of orientation felt like a blur of meeting new people, asking and answering the same questions – “What’s your name? Where are you from? What city are you placed in? – and taking in a lot of information. In addition to our wonderful program coordinators Juan and Laura, the 2024 cohort includes 45 first-year ETAs and 8 senior ETAs who are returning for a second year and serve as mentors. Our hotel was located right next to the airport, nowhere near downtown Bogotá, but we did venture out a few times to walk around and for coffee and snacks.

By Tuesday afternoon, I began to feel much more “at home” with my newfound friends and much less bored-and-trapped-in-a-hotel. Everyone in the cohort and all the program directors and staff are incredibly kind and interesting people! We also went into Bogotá for a coffee tour on Tuesday and a downtown walking tour and fancy dinner on Wednesday. By this point, I actually started to feel a bit sad and anxious about separating from the group and flying to my host city, Villavicencio.

¡Adiós, Bogotá! Hello, Villavicencio!

By Thursday morning, when orientation came to an end with a final lunch on the 9th floor overlooking the whole city, I felt nervous but also ready to begin. Everyone had flights or ground transportation to their host cities scheduled for Thursday afternoon, and thankfully I wasn’t traveling alone! My fellow ETAs Morgan, Aliya, and Edward are also placed in Villavicencio, and we took a very short flight together over the mountains and to the “llano” or plains of Colombia. Villavicencio is a medium-sized city and the capital of the Meta department, and it’s unique because of its location between two of the major regions of the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villavicencio

The Villavicencio airport is undoubtedly the smallest I have ever been to! We walked off the plane, onto the tarmac, and into a single room to collect our baggage. Morgan & Edward work at the Universidad Santo Tomás, while Aliya & I work at Fundación Universitaria Compensar. Our university contacts or “tutors” – Roger and Rocío – were waiting for us at the airport, and we (just barely) managed to squeeze ourselves, our suitcases, and Rocío’s delightful 9-year-old son Juan Diego into one car. They took us to the rental house we have for at least a month, in a gated community on the southeast end of the city.

The first week in Villavo

After the initial shock of “what the heck do we do now?” once our tutors drove away and left us with nothing but our suitcases in a spacious but fairly empty (and not well cleaned) house, we did the only thing we knew to do and ordered Colombian-Asian fusion food to our doorstep.

My introduction to my university—Fundación Universitaria Compensar Meta or just “UCompensar”—began Friday, with lunch, a walking tour through the campus (and past dozens and dozens of children, since the buildings function as an elementary and secondary school during the day and a university in the evenings), and several meetings with new coworkers. An offer of a ride home from our coworkers Alejandra, Alex and Rocío turned into an evening out at one of Villavicencio’s many beautiful malls—and I felt so welcomed or cared for! 🙂 Many things about this city, its people, and Colombia as I have experienced it so far remind me of the semester I spent in Costa Rica in 2018.

The first weekend in Villavo, as the locals call their city, included swimming at a local natural pool with coworkers and roommates, setting up our house, and exploring the local neighborhood. Our house is in a beautiful gated neighborhood with wonderful, very helpful 24/7 security guards, an amazing pool, and plants and flowers galore! My roommates and I get along well, and I am grateful for them, but settling into a new house in a new country has definitely taken some figuring out. Especially when the whole house only had 2 towels when we arrived … for 3 people.

To keep myself from getting discouraged, and to keep track of all the little ways I am growing and learning through this experience, I am noting all the daily Small Victories. Here are a few from the past three weeks:

Small Victories

✔ Ordered and ate our first meal in Villavicencio.

✔ Found several small local groceries store within walking distance of our neighborhood.

✔ Bought groceries for the first time!

✔ Was brave enough to buy and cook (raw) chicken. Turns out cilantro lime chicken hits just as hard here as it does in Texas. Yum. No slow cooker needed, either! https://oursaltykitchen.com/slow-cooker-cilantro-lime-chicken/

✔ Attended an appointment for my cédula de extranjería (Colombian ID) and made it to the bank to pay the fee minutes before it closed.

✔ Figured out how to use the washing machine and hang-dry my clothes efficiently.

✔ Found the trash, recycle and compost (!) receptacles in our neighborhood, after only 1.5 weeks of living here.

✔ Finally got duplicate copies of our housekey made, so we don’t have to all rely on the single key in a lockbox outside our door.

✔ Tried the renowned Colombian dish bandeja paisa (beans, rice, arepa, chorizo, plantain, chicharrón, avocado and beef)

✔ Went to my first real dance class ever! Salsa choke with the renowned Rony Vega! https://www.instagram.com/ronyvega_/?hl=en

✔ Visited a local church by myself (and somehow ended up at the front making a profession of faith … call me for the full story, haha!)

If you’re wondering, “Didn’t Emily go to Colombia to teach English?”, YES. I will write more about teaching in my next post!