Semana Santa!

This is super late, but we have been so busy the last week that I haven't had a second to stop and write an entry! So firstly: I got my visa!!!!

I also did all the paperwork for my Cedula Extranjeria! That is the document here that is like a green card is in the US. I thought there was supposed to be a waiting period before I could get that done, but since my mother of Colombians resident visa is good indefinitely, I was able to go and do the other paperwork too! At first, my thought was that I didn't really need a Cedula. Why? My visa is good as long as I want to be here, and it lets me work. Then I found out that I can work, but not in a regulated profession. I.E. anything that requires a degree. So I can't work as a nurse or a substitute teacher, or anything else really. So it was an easy choice to just get my C.E. I thought as soon as I had it, I would stop getting weird looks, and less questions.. What? Why don't you have a Cedula? Who doesn't have a Cedula? But come to find out, mine has fewer digits than a normal Cedula so I still get weird looks. Oh well! I'm official!! And Carlos and I got to go out on the town a little even! We didn't get much time alone because we had a full schedule of conference events, but it was still a nice break!



So here there are some very big culture differences this time of year. Last week, for Semana Santa (Holy Week) business is not as usual. Since this is a very Catholic country, all of the Holy days are observed. In the US, most of the celebration centers around Easter Sunday. Some people are out of school/work on Good Friday, but thats about it. Here, the celebration starts Palm Sunday, and continues until Easter, with Sunday being very low key. So Palm Sunday starts the festivities. At our church here in our complex, the Priest led the congregation around the lake and they walked around for the mass. Walking seems very popular here for Holy Week. For Good Friday, it is a tradition for a lot of people to walk to church.

There are two popular churches between here and where Carlos' parents live. The tradition in Johana's family is to walk to mass from their house, to the neighboring town, Giron. It is about 8 miles. Down treacherous mountain roads. So back to the big differences.

Palm Monday is a holiday here. A stay home from work holiday. We used Monday to go to lunch at a friend's family's house. It was amazing. They live in a super nice area up in the mountains overlooking the city. This is the neighborhood I strive to live in :)

It was so cool to go up and check it out. Then Tuesday Carlos went into work late, and then went for a couple hours in the afternoon. Same on Wednesday.

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday he had work off! Thursday we went up to La Mesa de los Santos with Carlos' parents. That is were there is a huge organic coffee farm but there are also lots of other farms, some little restaurants, and some little hotels. We ate lunch at a restaurant with ponies and trains, playgrounds, and dessert. Then we went to a big farm that is like a little mini zoo too! Of course we also had to stop for some coffee :)









Friday and Sunday we went to the farm for lunch. Sunday was very nice, but not the typical Easter celebration. I am used to having Easter Sunday be a huge production. Church, brunch, Easter baskets, candy, and all things pastel. Here is seemed like a normal Sunday but we had a delicious lunch with great people, and had a great day.. We even had an egg hunt! I was worried about being able to dye eggs since that is not a tradition here, but I got the great idea from a friend to use tissue paper.

It worked great! Some colors better than others.. Green yellow and orange didn't show up, but I think that was also thanks to the fact that all the eggs here are brown :)






On another note.. the laptop search is going into hyperdrive. I have a family of ants living in my close to death MacBook. Ants here are a part of life. They get everywhere this time of year. At the beginning of the rainy season, (right about now) they haven't been killed off by the rain, and they are out in full force. I HATE THEM. They aren't like the ones from Cincinnati, they climb up 12 stories to get to us and they are tiny. So small they look almost like moving dust particles. They are so gross because they get everywhere. I think at least one crawled into my laptop, that was far away from any food I might add, and had babies inside it.


Look for it crawling on the caps lock..

This is seriously the grossest thing ever, and I am ready to spray Raid into the inside of it to kill everything, even if it kills my computer too. I even caught some trying to mate on the screen.

The nerve. So starting now my blogs may become a little picture free for a little while, or they may be there but all bunched up at the end since that is what always happens when I use my phone. Wish me luck on that :)