que bacano parce!

today was an eventful day! My sent me with Sor Helma's sister (older nutty lady) to do errands downtown ( we went to El Hueco again) and to the botanical gardens to see the exhibit of Orchids, Birds and Flowers. I took alot of pictures of the flowers..orchids are my favorite flowers :) Medellin is known for its beautiful flowers...afte that we were out all day on buses! We got on the wrong bus for almost an hour! I pretty much had a tour of Medellin lol riding these buses feel like being on rollercoasters no lie! First off, medellin is VERY hilly so there are alot of ups & downs & curves. Second, buses or cars in general over here drive so fast! Uh I'm feeling nauseous just thinking about it lol plus with the high elevation over here compared to Boston, it gets you a little loopy if you're not used to it. The buses don't look like the mbta buses...i don't know how to describe them, they are small & you pay the driver directly. I'll take a picture next time if there aren't ppl on the bus.
tonight my aunt took me to see a show performed by the folkloric ballet. It was amazing!!!! The theme was music and dances from the pacific & Caribbean coast of Colombia . A band opened the show , they were sooooo good! I recorded them, so it'll be up on fb eventually. After, the dancers performed accompanied by another band ( soooo good!)i took alot of pics and videos of this too...you should have seen the bodies of the guys dancers omgggg lol there was one guy who I was creeping on during the show he was tall dark and handsome (shocker) lol anddddddd at the finale of the show he pulledme on stage haha i almost died! But then i realized the dancers were bringing ppl on stage too it was fun i wanted to get it and really break it down (like at the club with Tasha & Dani lol jk) buttttttttt remembered that my aunt and another nun were sitting right there FRONT row so i kept it G lol overall the show was great and makes me appreciate Colombia for its diverse culture :)

I hope you're doing well over there in MA...and thanks Dani for this blog idea, its the only time I get to talk (well write)  in english

relaxing

hi I don't have much to write about but people keep asking me to add more posts haha. Lets see what have i been doing....yesterday i went to "El Hueco" with the young nun Sor Maria Teresa..it was alot of fun! Imagine downtown Boston where all the stores are mixed with a craxy huge flea market. There's a bunch of empty buildings that people set up little stores /stands in niches or holes hence the name el hueco. There where stands for everything!!!!!!! It was like if cvs, WalMart, bjs, home depot, radio shack, target and the mall were converted together into a flea market.i didn't buy anything, just people watched haha it was so exciting being surrounded by sooooo many Colombians!!!! And cute Colombian guys too :) omg and there were bakeries!!! And people selling cut up mango and sugar cane juice! We rode the train and bus there, it was cool I felt like a local :)
Today I roamed around the Convent and school grounds, shadowed sor Maria Teresa while she worked, sunbathed, and had lunch w. My aunt at the school cafe where Elquin & his wife work (he is family  on the Duarte siide). Oh!!!!! His son Camilo wants to see J balvin with me!!! Yay!! And supposedly Zion y Lennox are performing too!! I really hope we end up going! 
 i was supposed to go to a town that is really low.income or as they say un barrio pobre, but the priest over there is hospitalized until Friday so we're going later this week. I just came back from visiting an elderly woman who lives nearby the school/convent. She lives in a really small humble home with her sick husband. I went with two nuns and 8 girls from third, second and first grade. They go twice a month to bring groceries to families in need.we also went to the lady's neighbor's house where an older woman lives with her 4 kids, some grandchildren and two orphaned kids. They talked about the struggles they had in their life and how they never had the chance to go to school and how they live really humble lives. The most moving part was to hear the students tell the family that they should keep faith and never give up. But it much more cuter hearing it from a 7 year old girl in Spanish. After we went back to the elderly woman's house and talked about what we learned. One of the nuns lectured the girls and called them out it was kind of funny, she was like "see Mariana that woman cried because she couldn't study and here you are doing bad in class!" yikes...one girl said when I get home im going to tell my mom she doesn't need to buy ipods blackberries computers unless she needs them for her job (apparently this girl's mom has boob and butt implants according to the nuns) haha..it was a great experience I hope I get to go on more trips.
Right now im waiting for the nuns to get out of a meeting (they have soooo many) and im going to see ice age at the movie theater woo woo!  Hope everyone is doing well :D

so quick entry, this is more to vent haha..being at this convent feels like being in a mix of a beauty contest like nuestra belleza latina & judgement day lol during breakfast I was interviewed one by one by each nun and my aunt. I feel like I have to give the right answers and speak perfect spanish (well close enough) or I will be voted off! Seriously though, I have to dress the right way, be super proper and smile smile smile lol At breakfast we were talking about the importance of knowing several languages, so I said i want to learn portuguese..my aunt said oh yes you have to learn portuguese and italian because you will be doing tours for your dad...uh excuse me?? those who know me well know that my face says exactly what Im thinking (FSGB coworkers usually say fix your face!) Then my aunt proceeded saying that emily and i have to carry on my dads company and do tthe tours! in the nicest and sweetest way possible I explained that I have my own career thank you very much. Ugh I am waiting until she tells the whole family what i said and then i will hear the complaints haha

Good news is that my moms family is waiting anxiously to see me and i am soooooo excited to see them next week!! Also, my aunt introduced me to two guys my age that are supposedly related to me that are going to take me around this weekend AND I might see J. Balvin on saturday woo woo!!!! Amd my cousin Nicolas might come to Medellin this weekend =) ok Im going to walk around the school and convent while my aunt works. I promise i will have more exciting posts..eventually.

wifi!!

I'm in Colombia! After 4 hrs in Miami and 3ish hour flight I'm finally here! Flying to medellin was a new experience compared to going to Bogota. People dress and talk different ..and people to medellin are so much calmer!! Usually when we fly to Bogota, people are anxious and trying to board way before it's time to..and ppl dress nicer (haha sister remember that time the old guy pushed us away with his cane?) So as we are boarding the plane, there's two cute Colombian guys behind, i was praying they had seats next to me lol in the plane one of the guys took my bag & put it in the overhead cabinet without even asking if i needed help (typical well mannered Colombian)! At this point i saw an empty row of chairs so i thought yay that's our row..but NO i sat next to a drunk older guy  who thought we were bffls, he kept talking to me even when i put my headphones on lol  my Tia Nona picked me up from the airport with another nun...btw my aunt was super concerned that my flight was late and that i was one of the Last ppl to come out...aka if she's worried about me being in the airport alone there is nooooooo way she's letting me roam Medellin alone  or go out at night lol the younger nun said she was my vacation buddy while I'm  here..yay..lol. The ride to the convent was amazing because you have to drive down mountains so you get the best view of medellin...its huge!!! There are sooooooooo many buildings ! Ill try to take a picture. The nuns here are funny, you would think that nuns are quiet and serious but not these! Last night they were talking about the inappropriate novelas they watch & cracking jokes..the younger nuns were trying to convince my aunt to not have prayers at 4am(didn't work out) Actually which reminds me , i should probably get up it's 8am, the nuns have been up for hours ! I'm ready for breakfast, arepas, huevos, jugo, hmmm. I have no idea what we're doing today but I'm excited!!!!:D

miami

I made it to Miami! Unfortunately my phone didn't do so well, for some reason everything erased from my phone :( I don't have anyone's number and my pictures are gone!! I hope I can fix it somehow. Btw for those who asked, there is a time difference..Colombia is an hour behind. I just found out haha.  hopefully someone texts me so I can get phone numbers and be entertained for the next 3 hours before my flight :D

pack, nap or blog?

So per Daniela's request, I made a blog. I guess the purpose is to document everything that happens during my trip in Colombia...well not everything, just the events that are the most entertaining. To prepare you, I most likely will be writing about the numerous times I eat tamales, arepas, pan de bono, pan de yuca, pan de lo que sea, and KUMIS! omg and fresh orange/tangerine juice!!! Also, keep an eye out for a post that says " hi I just got kidnapped," if you see this, PLEASE call the cops. In all seriousness, thanks Dani for the idea, this blog thing is kind of cool! I'm excited to keep track of my time in Colombia because it is the best Latinamerican country everrrrrrrr hehe!! Ok now it is time to nap and wake up at 5am to finishing packing :)