I'll comment on this later...

Sin definir sitio para escultura de Shakira

por Martha Guarin R.
http://www.elheraldo.com.co/hoy060322/sociales/noti7.htm

Para acordar lo concerniente a la instalación de la escultura de Shakira, que desde el lunes se encuentra en la bodega 15 de la Sociedad Portuaria, ayer se llevó a cabo una reunión convocada por la Primera Dama del Departamento, Elizabeth de Grijalba.

A nombre de la cantante barranquillera Shakira habló su asistente personal, Anuar Zapata.
También asistieron, Zandra Vásquez, directora del Centro Cultural Cayena de la Universidad del Norte, y a nombre de Planeación Departamental, Claudia Da Acuña. Además, el acuarelista y arquitecto Roberto Ángulo, el cantante y compositor Martín Madera y otros personajes ligados al mundo cultural y urbanístico.

La Primera Dama del Departamento anunció que se determinó crear un comité de estudio para que estudie lo referente a la colocación de la escultura. El mismo lo conformarían representantes de planeación de la Gobernación y del Distrito; representantes de las universidades con programas de arquitectura e ingeniería, la Fundación Carnaval de Barranquilla, sector privado y Cámara de Comercio, quienes serían los que financiarían el proyecto.

La directora del Centro Cultural Cayena de la Universidad del Norte, Zandra Vásquez, declaró que “la Universidad, su rector y la institución en general se sienten complacidos con la sugerencia de Shakira de que en su glorieta más cercana se instale su escultura”.

Precisó que no son ciertos los rumores en el sentido que la Universidad se opone a tal deseo de Shakira. “Se trata de predios públicos y por ningún motivo nos oponemos. En un comienzo se dijo que se planeaba colocar allí una obra artística con motivo de los 40 años de la Universidad pero no tenemos contrato aún con ningún artista y por lo tanto el anhelo de Shakira no altera ninguno de nuestros proyectos”.

“He sugerido que se invité a las reuniones al comité técnico del proyecto de Monumentos Públicos para que participe en las conversaciones. Allí hay ingenieros, arquitectos, ambientalistas y expertos en la materia .
La Primera Dama del Departamento dijo que lo que se busca es llegar al mejor acuerdo para que la obra de Shakira se proyecte a futuro con toda la altura que altura, ante los ojos del resto del mundo

“No nos podemos equivocarnos en su ubicación”

La Primera Dama del Departamento, Elizabeth de Rodado manifestó que la escultura “se convierte en uno de los monumentos mas importantes que se van a tener el Departamento del Atlántico y Barranquilla y por tanto hay que hacerle honor, y no podemos equivocarnos en el lugar donde se vaya a colocar”.
“Para el Departamento es muy importante tener un escultura de Shakira y hay que buscar un lugar en donde pueda admirar en toda su dimensión para que la gente interactúe con ella, tomándose fotos, admirándola o disfrutando cerca a ella”.

“Hay que pensar en un sitio amplio, porque la obra para nosotros debe ser tan importante como lo es la Torre Eiffel para el mundo”.

Sugirió que se colocara en un sitio bello, como un parque en donde se puedan desarrollar eventos culturales y actividades que atrapen la atención no sólo del orden local o nacional, sino internacional. “Además porque estamos en la ciudad que tiene uno de los patrimonios más valiosos de la humanidad, como es el Carnaval”
Explicó que existe un ambicioso plan para crear un centro de negocios –proyectado por la Cámara de Comercio y la Gobernación- en donde se podría situar la obra. Además que se contempla la posibilidad de que sea en la Plaza de la Paz, y que las posibilidades también están abiertas para quienes tengan lotes o lugares donde se pueda situar la escultura.

Just skimming this article made me ill...I'll translate the good parts and make my comments later, once I've recovered from how utterly disturbing this is.

So, here we go. Why would anyone want to erect a statue of a 28 year old pop singer? Has this city nothing better to offer? And why would anyone want to put such a statue in front of a private university where the statuee didn't even go?

TESOL in Tampa

I took a small break from Barranquilla last week to go to Tampa, Florida for the TESOL convention. It was a rather expensive trip, but most definitely worth it! I ended up renting a car in Miami and driving up, which would have been great except for the horrible, horrible traffic between Naples and Ft. Meyers. I loved being able to drive again, something that I miss here, mostly because of the freedom that it gives you. The convention was wonderful, which was rather unexpected, as I've only been to smaller conferences. Everything I went to was quality, though! I hope that I can come up with something to present so that I can go to next year's in Seattle. These TESOLers, they can go from 7:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night going to workshops and presentations and meetings. It's crazy! Thankfully, after a week of this, I feel motivated again to do research and continue studying. The only downside other than spending all of my tax refund check in six days was the fact that the weather was beautiful and I had to stay inside all day. I did get to the beach on Sunday. This left me feeling rather depressed, though, since I went to the gorgeous De Soto beach outside of St. Petersburg and I knew that I had to get on the plane the next day to come back to the not-so-nice beaches of Puerto Colombia. I don't ever remember having seen sand that white before in my life...like sugar. I also came back to piles of work; I spent the whole next weekend and then some grading midterms, essays, and blogs. I'm already ready for another break from Barranquilla, so it's a good thing that semana santa is coming up soon. Ideas for the vacation week: Leticia/Amazonas, the eje cafetero, Panama, San Andres and Providencia (too many people will be there though), Quito, Mexico City (too expensive from here, but I can dream, right?)...

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Quote from a student

I don't think the results of the research about the soap operas are true. I think watching soap operas makes you stupid. And as we know stupid people are happier than itelligent ones.

How true is that! Ha!

¡Carnavales!

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Finally...the Mud Volcano

The Friday of Carnival week Ernest, Evalina (Heather's friend visiting from Canada), and I took off early to go to Totumo, the infamous mud volcano. It's about 45 minutes from Uninorte in taxi, which ended up being a little expensive, but it was worth it to escape from the city for a little bit before the craziness of the weekend.

It was certainly a strange experience. The landscape is very desert-like, surreal in some places. Totumo really looks more like a large ant hill than anything else. You climb up a set of rickety little stairs to get to the top. And once you get in, you just kind of float. In a nothing that feels like something. It was funny; I couldn't get my legs to sink down into the mud, but nor did I really want them to! The mud itself is supposed to work wonders on your skin, but I can't say I've seen much difference, other than smelling like sulphur for the whole trip back. I wasn't daring enough to stick my whole head in like most of the other people did, but at least I was brave enough to get in!

Once you get out of your mud bath, there are ladies waiting for you to help you wash off in the (very nasty) cienaga. That was an experience in itself! I'm trying out Bubbleshare here...I'll add more photos to the album later.

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Happy V-Day

I was going to do a bookblog, and I probably still will, but in the spirit of Valentine's Day...

This is from one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Michael Drayton.
Click here to listen to my reading (my first podcast!)

THREE SORTS OF SERPENTS DO RESEMBLE THEE

Three sorts of serpents do resemble thee:
That dangerous eye-killing cockatrice,
The enchanting siren, which doth so entice,
The weeping crocodile—these vile pernicious three.
The basilisk his nature takes from thee,
Who for my life in secret wait dost lie,
And to my heart sendst poison from thine eye:
Thus do I feel the pain, the cause, yet cannot see.
Fair-maid no more, but Mer-maid be thy name,
Who with thy sweet alluring harmony
Hast played the thief, and stolen my heart from me,
And like a tyrant makst my grief thy game:
Thou crocodile, who when thou hast me slain,
Lamentst my death, with tears of thy disdain.


Not that the traditional sonnet is merely sugary. In Shakespeare, as in film comedy, conflict and even insult can be forms of courtship. Here is Shakespeare's contemporary Michael Drayton, with one of the most engaging, meditative first lines in all literature:

Podcasting Delayed...A Little

Oh Cincinnati...how I miss your 24 hour a day fast Internet connection. Sigh. I'm lucky to have what I do here, but I miss my play time, the time to learn how all this new techie stuff works. I need to figure out how to make video files small enough that I can post them on my blog and how to convert existing files into a file format that is smaller as well. For the time being, I'll remain a lurker in the collaborative blogging session! I didn't end up having a spare minute to do my first podcast today, but I plan to give it a try this weekend. Tired of putting these things on my to-do list every week and they never get done. During one of my classes that I taught in the lab this week, I was happy to see that one of my fellow teachers sitting in the back of room was creating his own blogs and asking questions right along with my students!

On another note, I'm also waiting to see if they have much of the 2006 Winter Olympics on tv here. We get a couple of sports channels with the cable, but they only seem to play soccer games! I did get to see some of the U.S. figure skating finals last week, so I still remain hopeful.

Info that I enjoyed finding from this week's blog06 suggestions:

• What is a blog? If you have any doubts, check out The Weblog Project.
• A Podcast on How to Podcast. This was very helpful. I'm going to try to make my first audio entry later today.
• Collaborative Blogging I need to join this.
  
• Uwe's Bookblog entries. This week's entry is Bill Bryson's (who I love) Notes from a Small Island. This motivates me to try making my own bookblog. Barranquilla doesn't have a culture of readers, so anything I can do to help my students become more interested in reading would be a step in the right direction.

My First Video Posting!

We'll see how well my first video post goes. Thanks, ProfeBlanco, for the footage from Caracas!










Watch the Video

Weather and Customs

It was suggested this week in the course I'm participating in that we discuss the climactic conditions where we live and the impact this has on local culture and customs. Beginning at the end of November here in Barranquilla, there's what they call a "breeze", but it's been more like a strong wind! It was certainly a nice change after the heat, but it doesn't last for long (typically through Carnavales, which is at the end of February). This past week there were a couple of days where the breeze went missing, but thankfully it's back again.

People here often tell me that the costeños, especially the barranquilleros, are "warm, happy, friendly, sociable" people, due in some part to the climate. On the other hand, they label the cachacos (people from the interior of the country, like Bogotá) as "cold, distant, unfriendly, less sociable." Personally, I've not found that to be true of the people that I know from the interior, but then again, my personality is in some ways much more like theirs! I don't mind the going out to dance and drink lifestyle once in a while, but I've no interest in doing that every weekend (a slight problem during Carnavales time that we're in now, since that's all anyone is doing!). Carnaval is all about spreading the happienss. This is a picture of the Garabato parade that I went to last weekend. Besides the dancing, the main event was throwing water, cornstarch, and shaving cream at your friends!

I've heard the same from my Ecuadorean friends--that coastal people from places like Guayaquil are happier and friendlier than people from the colder mountainous regions like Quito. Since I've not yet been to these places, I don't really have an opinion of my own on this subject. I wonder if anyone's ever done a study comparing the coastal cultures in Latin America (let me know if you've heard of one). I've certainly found similarities in the costeño cultres of Caribbean Colombia and those that live on the Pacific Costa Grande in México (where I previously lived and worked).

Going back to how climate affects life in Barranquilla, the Atlantic coast of Colombia is also one of the safest places in the country. I don't worry about walking around by myself in Barranquilla or travelling to other coastal cities like Santa Marta or Cartagena. There's no fighting here, and not near as much crime. That's certainly a plus. But, with the happiness of the people here and the realative safeness of life here also comes the disorder! I'll leave that discussion for later, though.

RSS, Vlogs, and Audioblogs

I'm happy to have discovered Bloglines this week through blog06. I'd heard of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds before, but I've never had the time to play around to figure out exactly what they are until now. Hopefully it will let me keep a little more up-to-date with all of the blogs and websites I try to read every day! I feel guilty for not having time to regularly read the news any more--most days I just glance at the headlines in the NY Times and that's it. There's an online version of El Heraldo, B/quilla's main newspaper, but I maybe get around to that one once every month. Every morning when I'm lying in bed not wanting to get up there's one or two men who walk through the streets by my housing, shouting "El Heraldo," and believe me, I think every time that I should get one so I could know more what's going on in the city I live in. But it just never seems to happen...

This week I've also been tinkering with video blogging. I don't want to have to pay for a service to host my videos, but so far I've not found anything that's been easy to use. Any suggestions? I'm also interested in adding audio, but I need to go buy a microphone first. It would be much easier if I was back in the 'nati where I could simply call from my cell to audioblogger!

Thoughts so far on blogging in education

I'm participating in two different TESOL EVO 2006 sessions, one on collaborative blogging in education and the other on using drama in second language acquisition. So, for a while at least, this blog will have my thoughts about what we've been discussing so far in the blog session.

Shouldn't technology make our lives easier, not more difficult? The students may enjoy it, and so might I, but how much are they actually learning? And how much time is wasted? These things exhaust what little is left of my energy at five o'clock on a Friday afternoon.

I'm enjoying the blog06 session the best so far, mostly because it goes hand-in-hand with the activities I'm attempting to develop for my students here.

Life on the Road

I found a blog this morning called Driving to South America, about tales of a retired couple and their road trip through South America. This could be you, Dad! How long do you think it would take you to get from Ohio to Barranquilla?!

I knew I was back in Barranquilla when...

• I got to the Avianca desk in Miami and I had to pay $53 in airport taxes
• I was on the airplane and no one stayed in their seats, the kids behind me were playing videogames with the sound on and turned up loud, and the lady sitting next to me said the airplane food was "delicious" (hint: airplane food is never delicious)
• In the baggage claim area, passengers and their kids were jumping over and on the conveyor belt. On the conveyor belt
• I smelled the gas fumes from all the cars in the 5:00 traffic and wanted to gag.

Happy New Year, a little bit late, resolutions, etc.

Haven't posted for a while, even though I wanted to, 'cause McAfee on my dad's laptop blocks everything and even after playing with it for a while, couldn't figure out where to un-block Blogger.

I have to say, one of my resolutions for the new year (what I'm going to fix in 2006) is to take more pictures. People have been asking me, and I really don't have many good ones. I have no excuse really, now that I have a digital camera, other than I am extremely lazy when it comes to taking pictures!

And I have to find something useful to do with my time. I've spent the last I don't know how many years volunteering and I NEED to find me someplace to feel like I'm contributing something to society in Barranquilla. Even if the locals don't have that need, I do. What have I done with the past six months? It's not like working with the students is very fulfilling (sorry, those of you who are good students). And what do I do, really, other than work, sleep, and kind of eat? So much for my idea of working in Colombia being at least more relaxing than being a full-time grad student. It's not, in many ways. I don't want to keep losing hair from all the stress! So that's another resolution-don't lose any more hair from working too much.

I WILL finish my first knitting project this year, I swear. I WILL pay off my $26.50 overdue book fine to the Cincinnati Public Library. I WILL at least start doing yoga again 4 times a week because I realized I have no muscles left in my body.

I had a great New Year's Eve with my friends in the 'Nati. And it was 60 degrees the next day! Balmy! Amazing! Even thought 60 is still a shocker after 85. I wanted it to look like this (Christmas last year), but I can deal with not having to wear a coat all the time when it's January!

And we went salsa dancing at the Mad Frog, where people know how to turn! I truly miss living in that city (mostly because of friends and connections) but also because even though there's really not much to do there, there's 10 times more to do than in Barranquilla (which how is that possible?).

Islas del Rosario

So, I went to spend some time this weekend in Cartagena with the folks visting from UC and we ended up taking a day trip to the Islas del Rosario. Like many things in Cartagena, the isla trip was nice and I enjoyed it, but I think I always expect more after hearing people talk about it. The lancha takes about one hour to get out to the archipelago, which is just outside the Bay of Cartagena. There's somewhere between 23 and 27 small islands, depending on who you're talking to, many of which are privately owned. We were on Isla Grande, at a place called Media Naranja. This was the first turquiose blue, what-I've-always-thought-the-Caribbean-should-look-like water I've seen since I've been here.

The interior of the island was also interesting, although not very accesible. One of the other girls and I started walking on our own, but a guide quickly caught up with us. That was probably for the better, since all of the paths looked the same! I didn't have my camera with me though, which was unfortunate. Lunch was included, too-the typical fried fish, arroz con coco, salad, and patacones.

The best part though, was the trip back. The sea was fairly calm in the morning when we went out, but the afternoon was a different story. It was the next best thing to a rollercoaster! Luckily, we had sat in the front of the lancha, so most of the water flew over us and hit the poor, unspecting people sitting in the back. I felt bad for the couples that had brought their babies with them...it must have been completely miserable. So, in the end, I'm nice and tan now, but I'm sure I'll lose it quickly over Christmas!

10 more days until I freeze

So I see this tree outside my office every day and then I think about how it's only 30-some degrees in Cincinnati right now and how I'm going to freeze to death when I step off of that plane on Christmas Eve. Maybe that's a good thing though...it doesn't feel like Christmas here, where on a hot day it's still in the 90s. I went to the artesians fair to buy some presents to take back with me and was looking at some hats made of Alpaca wool, but it's not easy to think about wearing a wool on your head when it's that hot!

There's no Christmas music playing here either, although I have been hearing a lot more cumbia lately on the buses since Carnaval is getting close. The carols I have heard are all translations from the English versions, other than one or two. I'll have to post pics of some of the crazy Christmas light displays I've seen. To me, it's rather depressing that Christmas here is just as commercial as it is in the States, if not more so. To be continued...  

Futbol

So I went on Sunday evening to see Junior play against one of the Cali teams. This was the fourth time that I've been to the stadium. It really irks me that every time I go, they change the rules about what you can and can't bring in with you.

Costeño Dictionary

Check out El nuevo diccionario del Costeño to learn lots of "Spanish" words in the Costeño dialect. You probably won't ever hear them from anyone who's not from Colombia's Atlantic coast, but it's still interesting. For example, we have boli: jugo (zumo) de fruta congelado que se vende en bolsitas de plástico transparente which are kind of like the popsicles you make out of Kool-aid in little Dixie cups when you're a kid, but tastier. They were called cubitos in Mexico.

Being diseased in B/quilla (or other places where you can get amoebas from the water)

I find it necessary to comment on the wide variety of strange health problems I've seen since I've been here. Fortunately, the only major thing that's happened to me so far is my twisted ankle that stayed swollen for over two months. I find strange bruises all the time, from the way-too-small shower and the crazy bus rides where I think that I'm going to fly through the windshield if I don't hang on the whole time, but I can live with those. My roommate woke up one morning to find a weird lump that looked kind of like a gigantic splinter on the back of one of her fingers, that then disappeared (just guessing, since she hasn't mentioned it since). Another girl I was talking to last night got something called a "dog" parasite from sitting in a chair at the one beach I go to frequently. I'd already decided to never, ever get in the water at the beaches in Barranquilla again, but that makes me think twice about even using the chairs when I go to soak up the sun! One of my coworkers called me this morning to tell me about the "mold" he got from his towels not completely drying after using them. Someone else got stung by jellyfish at the beach (which they didn't know at that time) and the doctors first thought it was herpes. The same person had some other strange kind of dryness/rash/growth that they said was from soap. I just keep waiting to see what will come next!

All of this, plus the experiences I've had visiting the doctor and dentist here, make me seriously think about what would happen to me here if I really do get sick sick. Don't get me wrong, I know that there's good doctors here, but I've yet to meet any of them. Maybe it's because I've gone to the IPS (through the insurance I have here), and the quality isn't even close. Time to try private practitioners! The time it takes studying here to become a general practitioner is shorter than it is at home, and the doctors come out soooo much younger! That, on top of how much students cheat here (once again, certainly not everyone, but we've had some very interesting conversations on this in my classes!), make me question what the doctors tell me here. Well, I'll continue this rant later...time to go home and cook my Thanksgiving food!

Scrabble Kings Vie for Linguistic Superiority

Another interesting article in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/).