One hundred days (of second semester)

Once more, my university department head asked me to write a short article reflecting on my experience teaching and living in Colombia—so here is part 2 of my original “One hundred days in Colombia” post from last November.

Today marks one hundred days since I returned to work at my host university following Christmas break, and less than forty remain until my grant ends. I have lived and worked in Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia since last July on a ten-month Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant from the U.S. Department of State. Per the official website, my role is to “meet, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences” not only in the classroom but also all spaces where I engage in my host community, with the goal of “promoting mutual understanding” and “cultural exchange.” As this second semester nears its end, I hope to express how much I have learned, experienced, and grown since first arriving.

Our first semester of 2025 at Fundación Universitaria Compensar, sede Meta, has certainly been an interesting one! January began at our original campus near my neighborhood, but by March we relocated to a different school across the city.

What have I learned? First, to be more present and enjoy each part of this Fulbright journey as it happens. Much—and I do mean much—has changed in my work life just this semester. Our campus move, new classroom spaces, an entirely different working environment, numerous faculty and staff changes, and evolving responsibilities in my teaching role have required me to frequently adapt, “roll with the punches,” and develop my patience. I often find myself missing many aspects of our previous campus: several coworkers who found different jobs or whose positions ended, the ability to walk to work (and save money on transportation!), an air-conditioned office for planning lessons and sharing quality time with coworkers, and a centralized one-story classroom building where I was guaranteed to interact with all the students even on days I did not teach them. In these moments of nostalgia, I am learning to pause and appreciate the wonderful people yet present with me and the great amenities available in our new space.

I mean, the new campus does have a adorable portería cat. No life-sized robotic dinosaurs, sadly, but a stunning fifth-floor mountain view and an operational cafeteria with ranchera empanadas make up for the lack of reptiles.

What have I experienced? This second semester has brought more meaningful relationships with my colleagues and students. Last semester, everything was new, unfamiliar, and involved a huge learning curve; this semester, I enter every classroom already knowing (almost) every student’s name and how each professor leads his or her class. I am much more aware of my students’ English levels, personalities, and ways of engaging with language. Through trial-and-error, many questions, and observation of my co-teachers, I better understand some of the strategies for and quirks of teaching English in a Spanish-speaking environment.

I have also celebrated a few holidays with our students and even themed my conversation club around national and international days as random as “National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day” and “National Pancake Day” (what can I say, I love to eat!). My fellow Fulbrighter Aliya and I partnered together on Valentine’s Day, Women’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day events and had fairly high student attendance. These moments of sharing with students about aspects of U.S. and Colombian culture are among my favorites from this entire time in Colombia.

How have I grown? First and foremost, in flexibility—a major theme of my Fulbright experience thus far. For example, one day, all the tables and desks in our office were in the process of being moved, so my planning hours were spent eating ice cream in the pouring rain under the polideportivo. No complaints there. Some days, I have to adjust my lesson plan drastically based on the number of students or a request from a professor; other days, I put a lot of creative effort into planning conversation club, only to have one or two students arrive.

I have also grown in my appreciation for my students and their remarkable dedication to their studies. Almost all of them are balancing university courses with a full-time job, raising children (one just had a baby two weeks ago!), and supporting their families. Evening after evening, they arrive at our university—on foot, by bus, a few in cars and most on motorcycles—and study English in hopes to become future English teachers and professors. As someone who only had part-time jobs during her own university degrees, I am inspired by their hard work and positive attitudes.

In short, though I have faced many challenges and my time living and teaching in Villavicencio is soon drawing to a close, I am immensely grateful! I am undoubtedly a more compassionate, flexible and understanding person because of the experiences lived and relationships formed over the past two semesters at UCompensar, and I look forward to what the rest of 2025 will bring!