Catching up (Luis)

During the last several days, Luella has finished up her dental work. The results have been great, but I'll let her tell you about it herself.
I've used the time to both catch up on my emails (thanks to the WiFi in Dr. Ruiz's office) and to catch up with some of my cousins at night. On Tuesday night, we went to dinner with my


cousin Silvia. Last night I joined my cousin Patricia and her husband Esteban.


It was great to talk, laugh, and catch up on family gossip (with 26 cousins, there's always some drama to recount).
Despite what Facebook, emails, and Skype have done to improve long distance communications, you cannot replace the pleasure of a long conversation over a great meal.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Calle 15S,Medellín,Colombia

Over the river and through the woods . . . (Luis)

On Friday, Dec. 23, Luella and I headed for Ciudad Bolivar. That's the town where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. So while my grandmothers are no longer there to greet us, both of my "grandmothers' houses" are there. However, this is not the the Hallmark card version of the song, rather the Colombian version - the river is the Rio Cauca (and San Juan, Bolivar, & Farallon) and the woods are bamboo forests.

Woods

River

On Friday night and Christmas Eve, we stayed at my cousin Rodrigo's "finca" in Los Farallones. His farm is a beautiful weekend farm that consists of 1.2 acres. However, that's enough room to fit seven pastures for ten cows, two feed growing lots, one banana orchard, one food garden, and a beautiful farm house. While they have DirecTV, it is more fun watching the real version of the Animal Planet. In this case, it consists of a gnarly tree stump where they put semi-peeled bananas. That attracts dozens of birds of all shapes and sizes. It is mesmerizing to sit on the porch and watch the beautiful birds flutter around. 

Rodrigo's finca house

I've often told many of you that Christmas in Colombia is not "Silent Night" nor "All is calm . . ." It's a night for music, fun, jokes, and laughter. Our Christmas Eve festivities started with the final night of the "Novena al Niño Jesus" (complete with plastic Santa Claus maracas keeping the beat during the refrain/response). We then did the Secret Santa gift exchange. In our case, we had to give clues of our gift recipient until everyone guessed who it was. (My aunts and cousins did a costume contest at their house in Medellin, where everyone had to dress up like their gift recipient.) We then grilled some meat and chased it down with Aguardiente (complete with shot glass charms so nobody would lose their shot glasses).

Animal Planet

On Christmas Day, everyone relaxed, took naps, and after lunch my parents, Luella, and I headed to Tierra Grata, our friend Jorge Gonzalez's farm in Ciudad Bolivar. We spent Christmas evening by going to 6:00 p.m. Mass, walking around the plaza, admiring the beautiful lights, and of course sitting at the "mesitas" (little tables in the plaza) having Rum & Quattro drinks. 

Our Colombian family and friends could not have been more welcoming and kind. While we missed our family and friends back home, we had a wonderful time and were blessed to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus in such a wonderful place. 

Secret Santa Colombian-style 

Tierra Grata

Plaza in Ciudad Bolivar

Novenas, Pesebres, and Alumbrados (Luella)

One of the things that I have really enjoyed so far is the way Jesus is still part of Christmas in Colombia.  My mother-in-law and I have watched the Novena al Nino Jesus (Novena to the Baby Jesus) most evenings on TV.  The program is broadcast live from a local mall and many families go to pray along and to enjoy the entertainment before and after.  A big production on TV every night to pray a novena?  I don't see that very often at home (or at all.)

Another thing that I love is all of the Pesebres (creche/nativity scenes).  They're everywhere in every size and families don't just have one at home, they have them in practically every room.  From the largest and most elaborate like the one that we saw in the Medellin cathedral, to the one built on the street by Luis's cousin Raul (with moving characters in multiple vignettes - imagine a tiny version of the Pirates of the Caribbean-video below), to the smallest crochet angels and baby Jesus.  Don't get me wrong, Santa decorations are here too, Jesus is just well represented.  [A side note to my co-workers - this has given me a lot of ideas about how we can kick it up a notch.  Be afraid, be very afraid...]

Luis has already posted on Facebook that Medellin is one of the top 10 most beautifully lighted cities in the world. Here's the link to the article in case you didn't see his Facebook post - http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/holiday-lights-photos/.  Luis's father put together a trip for the whole family in a tour bus to see the lights (Los Alumbrados) on Tuesday evening.  There is a particular stretch of lights along the river that you see in the article that are spectacular, but beside those, the entire city is lit up.  We also went out to some outlying towns (Sabaneta, Envigado) and their decorations were totally amazing.  We were able to get off the bus in these towns and walk through the decorated parks that were filled with people enjoying their evening with friends/family, strolling and eating from the many vendor booths set up.  The creativity of the decorations and the sheer amounts were beyond anything that I could imagine - it's beyond Disneyland's It's A Small World on steroids.

Fat or Voluminous (Luis)

Fernando Botero's Jesus

On Monday, Luella had a nice respite from dental work so we did some touristy stuff.

We visited the Museo de Antioquia where the permanent Fernando Botero exhibit resides. We loved the exhibit even more than we did five years ago. I added photos of a couple of our favorite works below.

We found it interesting that Botero never considers the objects in his paintings and sculptures to be fat. Rather, he considers them voluminous. So the next time I call our dog Bogey fat, Luella can say "He's not fat. He's voluminous."

To get downtown and back, we took the Medellin Metro. It remains very clean, fast, and efficient. You can see in the photo below how the station floor literally shines. I realize that this is a very "boosterish" post, but all my opinions are sincere - Medellin is a cool place.

Plaza de Botero

Finally, Luella and I were wondering what my life would have been like had my parents never moved to the U.S. To try and get a handle on the question, we've been looking for my Medellin Doppelganger. In other words, the guy my age whose parents never took him away from Medellin. So far, we haven't found the perfect match. Here's as close as we've found: click here

Medellin Metro Station

This isn't normal, right? (Luis)

Water flowing the Bulerias round-a-bout

My travel started off fun enough. My flight left LAX at 12:35 a.m. on Sunday so I was able to stop off at Nora and Chris Huber's party in Santa Monica. Some great wine, tamales, and sweets was a great prep for the red-eye ahead.

The flights were fine and it was interesting to see the airports and cities of Guatemala City and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Unfortunately, one of my suitcases enjoyed Central America a little too much and decided to not join my flight to Medellin. So after racing off the plane (Amazing Race-style) to make it to the front of the immigration line, I spent an hour searching for and reporting my lost luggage before meeting my parents and Luella's (brand new) smiling face.
[UPDATE: Lost suitcase (intact and unopened) arrived 18 hours later and was delivered directly to my parent's house. No idea where it went.]

Driving into Medellin from the airport, we encountered the aftermath of a thunderstorm (hail on side of the road and downed trees). As we got close to may parent's house, the streets got more and more flooded until finally this flood blocked our progress.

My parents are always complaining about how much it rains in Medellin. So trying not to be too alarmed, I had to ask when we saw this flood, "This isn't a normal amount of rain, right?" Turns out, even for Medellin, this was very unusual. Fortunately, we were able to navigate our way around and finally arrived safely (minus one errant suitcase).

Christmas in Colombia 2011 - First Days (Luella)

Since I needed to leave before Luis in order to make it to my first dentist appointments, I traveled alone on the fifteenth.  After days of crazy activity, prepping both the house and work responsibilities for my time away, I mentioned to Luis that I was getting pretty nervous and stressed.  He told me that we had to prepare ourselves for something to go wrong, even after all of our lists and plans.  That way when something did go wrong, we could chalk it up to something we expected and move on.  (That didn't necessarily calm my nerves.)

Wednesday, 12/15/11 - Travel day (night, mostly) started with immediate culture shock at LAX.  As we drove by the international terminal, all we could see were hordes of people with triple and quadruple high stacks of luggage on carts in lines that extended out of every door. (How my luggage can sometimes exceed the 50 lb. limit, but those huge stacks with each suitcase/duffle bag double the size of mine make it though is beyond me.) Normally Luis would have just dropped me at the curb and I would have been fine, but we parked and he came inside to see me off.  He helped me manage the lines and the language issues and got me through most of the security line before he left.  I don't think I've ever loved him more.

Made it onto the first leg of my flight and unfortunately, even after checking Seatguru and changing my seat assignment to a "better" option, I found myself in a seat just in front of the exit row - one that doesn't recline.  Five and a half hours to Costa Rica on a red eye and I had to sit straight up the whole way.  Well, I tell myself, this must be "the thing".  I'll manage through and everything will be fine after that.  All in all, other than pretty tired, I arrived in Colombia in good shape and to the smiling faces of my in-laws. 

Thursday was the first "dentist" day - 11:00am x-rays and then the work began at 1:00pm. with Dr. Ruiz (who is handling most of the dental work).  Dr. Gabriel Jaime Cadavid (our family's friend who has so generously helped to direct all of the work to be done, including arranging all of my appointments at the various doctors - himself included for the oral surgery) came by to check on me numerous times. I think it was to check with me to see how I was holding up, to check with Dr. Ruiz, to see the progress, and to see how we were communicating.  Between Dr. Ruiz's limited English and my limited Spanish-speaking ability, we actually communicated pretty well. Six hours later we called it the end of "day one" and said "hasta mañana."  Defininitely a very tough day, but Gabriel was there to take me home and I could not have felt in better or more caring hands.

Friday was my first appointment with Gabriel. He did the first of two sessions of gum surgery.  It only took about an hour and then we sat around his office catching up until Francisco came to pick me up.  Later that afternoon it was back to Dr. Ruiz for three more hours of work, plus bite adjustment.  Another grueling day of dental work, but at the end of it I had both doctors telling everyone that I was the "best patient ever" (probably because I didn't cry while they used the hammer and chisel...no joke!)  Both have been so patient, gentle and kind.  Oh yeah...if any one needs help translating instructions from their Spanish-speaking dentist, I'm your girl.

After reading through this first entry, I don't feel I have properly communicated how well I have been treated by everyone since I arrived.  For all that Luis's parents have done to make me comfortable in their home, chauffering me back and forth to appointments and making sure that communication isn't a problem, comforting me when I'm either nervous pre-appointment or in pain post-appointment; for the patient and gentle care of Dr. Ruiz during the long hours in his chair; for all that Gabriel Jaime and his wife Margara have done to not only make my new smile possible, but also make me feel like a family member, I could not be more grateful.  My mother-in-law said on Friday, "There isn't enough money to buy the kind of care you've received so far.  Where else do your doctors take such good care of you, meeting you with gifts, saying goodbye with hugs and kisses, taking you home after appointments while offering to take you to dinner and even to stay with them in their home so that they can care for you?!"  I have only one answer... here with my family in Colombia.