Dear Mom, Dad, Hayley, and Emily,
Life in Colombia has been going really well! I've begun to understand a lot more, and I have been able to communicate better. In school I can understand the majority of my philosophy class and I really enjoy it. In my Spanish class with grade 10A (my usual class is 11B), the teacher has been very helpful and I have started a daily Spanish word bank. I honestly don't do much in my other classes except play chess, draw (image 1), and talk. I've done a little bit of work on Khan Academy so that I'm still learning a more than just Spanish and philosophy. The class schedule s really odd because it fluctuates so much. Sometimes we have seemingly random presentations and other times we don't have school in the afternoon and sometimes we have assembly type things in the courtyard in the morning. One of the Fridays we had a celebration of Colombian independence, where my grade reenacted a battle (image 2), then afterwards we set up stands in the park and each grade sold a food that they made (image 3, image 4, image 5).
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All of last week and part of this week I didn't have school which was really nice. With my friends I've started playing a lot of basketball (I excel at getting rebounds because I'm taller than everyone else), playing ping pong, volleyball, and billiards at Pisciclub (pool/rec center). We also cook a lot which is fun (image 6, image 7).
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I've started riding my bike routinely with my host dad. At 5 in the morning we ride 30 minutes uphill out of town to a little coffee stand, have some tinto (black coffee), then glide back down into town. We also went on a 14 mile bike ride to Capitanejo (a town near Chimamocha river which forms a canyon near Soata) and then another 14 miles back. While we were there we swam at a cool little resort called Hotel Finca Ceylan type place with the rest of the family. I also saw and helped the A-Team van.
I went lap swimming a couple of times (image 8) but then I got burned, so my host mom had me take a break for a while. In the meantime I've been going to the gym with my friend John (image 9). At the end of September, the Rotary club here had its 10 year anniversary so there was a parade and a fiesta (image 10). The next day they had a dedication of a water plant that they built (image 11). Aside from that I've done a little bit of local traveling, and hanging out with friends.
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All of last week and part of this week I didn't have school which was really nice. With my friends I've started playing a lot of basketball (I excel at getting rebounds because I'm taller than everyone else), playing ping pong, volleyball, and billiards at Pisciclub (pool/rec center). We also cook a lot which is fun (image 6, image 7).
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I've started riding my bike routinely with my host dad. At 5 in the morning we ride 30 minutes uphill out of town to a little coffee stand, have some tinto (black coffee), then glide back down into town. We also went on a 14 mile bike ride to Capitanejo (a town near Chimamocha river which forms a canyon near Soata) and then another 14 miles back. While we were there we swam at a cool little resort called Hotel Finca Ceylan type place with the rest of the family. I also saw and helped the A-Team van.
I went lap swimming a couple of times (image 8) but then I got burned, so my host mom had me take a break for a while. In the meantime I've been going to the gym with my friend John (image 9). At the end of September, the Rotary club here had its 10 year anniversary so there was a parade and a fiesta (image 10). The next day they had a dedication of a water plant that they built (image 11). Aside from that I've done a little bit of local traveling, and hanging out with friends.
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I miss you guys and love you all so much!
- Ben
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