I pulled a dusty jar of tomato sauce out, only to see a very high price tag: $20.00 for a jar? That's a lot even for NYC standards! I got back to my apartment and explained the problem to my Venezuelan roomate Antonin.
"Sí, es la verdad," he agreed. Later, he explained how sometimes he cooks pasta with vegetables like tomato and guacamole for sauce, but he really prefers an arepa. Man, am I grateful that we had that conversation! Since then, I have been cooking pasta with different, local vegetables, and arepas!
Aside from food, I have also made sure to continue going to music, art and cultural events, something I have always loved doing in NYC. A few weeks after arriving, Antonin invited me to go with him and a friend to the opera. We saw a show called Falstaff and had a lovely time. In fact, we had such a good time that we're going to go back to Teatro Mayor soon for another concert!
Later in September, my friend Phoebe and I went to an excellent dance concert in La Macarena. I had never heard that type of genre before, and Phoebe even went up to dance! Lasty, I went to do Karaoke with some of my English students a couple of weeks ago. It was a challenge though, because they made me sing in Spanish! Definitely good practice, though.
From pine and palm forests to coffee plantations, blizzarding glaciers to fast-flowing rivers, Colombia has just about every kind of environment you can imagine. When we hiked Quebra la Vieja in Bogotá, I felt right at home in the pines; they were just like the ones in the Northeast! On the other hand, the towering wax palms in Salento left me feeling lost!
