It was definitely on a much smaller scale than Kidzania, but it was perfect for a five year old. My little star especially enjoyed "hosting" a TV show. They gave her the script, and she did the whole thing in Spanish!
The party ended around six, but it was already dark outside. It was nice, because we got to see the mall all lit up.
Elena and I were pretty tired by the time we got home, but just as we were about to put her to bed, Andino started a fireworks show.
We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed over 20 minutes of fireworks. We declared the holiday season officially started, and then put the girls to bed.
Saturday, the business continued. The pool is FINALLY fixed, so Elena had a swim lesson at home for the first time in seven months.
Vivian didn't get a chance to swim, because she was trotting like a turkey at the embassy with her Girl Scout troop.
Jeff left for a work trip first thing Sunday morning, and I took the girls on a shopping adventure. Vivian was in a group that had submitted a presentation for the Sustainability Conference on Tuesday, and if they were selected, they were supposed to "look professional". All Vivian really has in terms of clothes are her uniforms, comfy clothes, and dresses appropriate for Christmas or the beach. The stores around us are all fancy designer stores, where a shirt costs $200. I figured what we really needed was a store like H&M, so I asked Google if there was one anywhere near us. The closest one was about 10 km away at a mall called Parque La Colina on Avenida Boyacá. In Bogotá, 10 km can take hours, but I figured we would give it a try, and it only took about 25 minutes to get there.
The mall itself was incredible. It was a real mall, huge and full of interesting stores. They even had a Crate and Barrel! Much as I wanted to explore and shop, I had both girls with me, and I knew traffic to get home would just get worse as the afternoon went on, so I moved us towards H&M with only a couple brief stops for photo ops.
The store itself was hopping, but big enough and, surprisingly, organized enough to handle the crowd. We picked out a few things for Vivian to try on, got in the line for a changing room and only had to wait a minute until we had a room of our own. Luckily, Elena was mesmerized by her multiple reflections, so she was occupied while we figured out that Vivian fits in an adult size 2. I remember buying toddler size 2! Elena was still miffed that we hadn't gotten anything for her, and we had to pay upstairs anyway, so we did a quick zip through the kids section and got her a sparkly skirt and a dress with stars on it. Then we stood in another organized line to pay. It took a while for a car to come and pick us up, but then it was only another 25 minutes ride home. I'd like to go back to the mall, and I might even be brave enough to drive.
Once we got home, Vivian tried on her new outfit, and we had a debate over whether it looked better with or without the dark green jacket.
In the end, she agreed to wear the jacket to school, since it's cold in the morning, and I agreed that she should present without it. She begged for makeup, so I applied some mascara and lip gloss. She is such a little grown up!
I had to send the pictures to Jeff who was traveling, and in response, he sent me pictures of beautiful Colombia.
We had a flag raising the next day, where Vivian and some of her friends talked about what Thanksgiving means to them. Elena didn't present to the school, but she took some time in the morning to present what she's been learning to me, growing plants and learning about the zones of the ocean.
Little did we know that would be our last regular school day for a while. On Thursday, national strikes were declared in Colombia and school was closed. Jeff was back in San Andres for work, and we weren't sure if he would be able to get home, but when he sent me this picture, I was more jealous than worried.
In return, I sent him a picture of Elena making her desert habitat. Since the school knew we would be out, they sent learning materials home, which was nice, but sandy.
Jeff did manage to get home Thursday night, and we waited to see what would happen with school on Friday. It seemed like the protests had stopped, but the day before, many Transmilenio stations had been attacked, with the glass being broken. Jeff said that on his drive back from the airport, he didn't pass a single one that hadn't had its glass shattered, and there were rocks and all kinds of debris in the roads. In the end, the school decided to stay closed another day, mostly because the employees who rely on public transportation couldn't get to work.
Of course, Piedad the intrepid insisted on coming to work, and Jeff got in the car first thing in the morning for another trip. As the day went on, things got worse. The protests were turning into looting in several parts of the city. Jeff sent me videos of groups of people commandeering public transportation buses and ramming them into things. One group rammed one into a store, and then went in to steal things. Most of this was happening farther south from us, but close to where Piedad lives, so I asked her to please stay the night with us. It turned out to be a good call, because the government enacted a city wide curfew for the first time in over 40 years. Jeff managed to get home, but the roads were full of people.
We watched the President of Colombia deliver a nationwide address on the television.
One of the protest strategies here is to create a cacerolazo, which is basically a group of people banging on pots and pans to draw attention to the issues they are protesting about. We had heard a few Thursday night, and were wondering what would happen with the curfew. By 9 PM there was no one on the streets, but there were definitely a few balcony pots and pans bangers. Thankfully, they settled down by 10, and we had the quietest night we have ever experienced in Bogotá.
Piedad went home early Saturday morning, and then we had some quiet family time. We've gotten Disney+, and we're loving the new show The Mandalorian as well as rewatching classic favorites.
Andres was able to make it for swimming on Saturday, and we had a bunch of people over for football on Sunday, so the girls got activity and social time, despite school being closed for two days.
We waited anxiously Sunday night to see what the school would decide for the following week, since the protests were definitely not over. They came to the decision that the mornings are generally okay, but we need to get everyone home early, so school would run until 12 with shortened periods for the week. There were some parents who were uncertain about sending their kids Monday morning, and I agreed with them, but I also had the luxury of going with my kids, which makes a big difference.
The girls and I headed out Monday morning, not sure how it would go, but we made it to school in the usual amount of traffic. Jeff also headed out on yet another work trip. We all had good, if somewhat stressful days and were ready to do it all again on Tuesday. Jeff finally went into the office and brought us home Honey Nut Cheerios, which was a big hit. Elena had me take a picture of her plant's progress.
I also took a picture of the girls in front of the Colombian flag that has gone up outside our building. Over the weekend, we noticed several buildings in our area displaying the flag.
Andres was able to come early for futbol, which turned into gymnastics.
He was done a little after three. I was really worried about him and Piedad getting home, but they both insisted they were fine. Piedad had already planned not to come to work the next day, because she had a medical appointment she had been waiting months for, and we agreed that getting there was the top priority.
Wednesday was announced as another full strike day, so school was closed. When I saw pictures of the number of people on the autopista, I agreed.
It worked out well, because the next day was Thanksgiving, so I had plenty of time to work on the pumpkin pies and gravy base.
Piedad made it to her appointment, but by the time she was done, there was no transportation to be had. The appointment was up in the 160s, so I told her to come here, and offered to pay for a taxi if the buses weren't running. It turned out that there were no taxis either, so she walked the whole way, and made it to us just as it was getting dark. I felt so awful for her, but she got some Elena cuddles to help her feel better. There was no question of her getting home that night, and she insisted that she had to be here to help us with Thanksgiving, so we agreed that she would stay through Friday morning.
I was glad of her help, because Thanksgiving ended up being a huge hosting day for us. We started with the parade at 10. We had two families for the entire parade, and another two families who came by towards the end of it. We put out a brunch spread with muffins, breakfast bake and sausage balls, and then sat down to enjoy the parade.
We were excited to see Space Snoopy, since Jeff brought one back for the girls after his last trip to the States.
Luckily, I had gotten my turkey early, and it had happily been defrosting in the fridge during our crazy week.
I had debagged it the day before to get the parts for the gravy, and after the parade, it was time to take out the spine. Our friends Lisa and Shawn had arrived around noon, and Lisa brought a ton of sides, so she and I were prepping in the kitchen, with essential support from Piedad.
Lisa and Jeff cheered me on, while I hacked away at the turkey. Every year I'm so worried that it won't work, or it won't cook properly. This is Piedad's third year witnessing my turkey prep method, and she kept reassuring me that it works out every time. Thank goodness she was right. I got the spine out, broke the breast, prepped it, and put it in the oven. While it was cooking, Lisa and I alternated between working on the sides, rewatching the parade, and enjoying some of the many bottles of wine we had for the evening.
As Piedad had promised, the turkey turned out great, and we moved it to rest while our second wave of guests showed up.
I had invited the four other teachers from the U.S. and the rest of the English department. Most of them showed up, which made for a fun crowd.
Elena's teacher, who is from the U.S., not only brought wine, but also came with the fixings for deviled eggs, which immediately endeared her to Jeff. She was impressed that we had a special deviled egg plate (thanks Mom!).
The sides were ready, so we asked Shawn to do the carving honors.
Turkey down, lol.
Piedad thought it best to remove the knife, and then we invited everyone to come in and get their fill of food. There were many full plates and full bellies.
Elena had had four little friends over in the morning making paper dolls and playing with toys.
By the afternoon there were just our two girls and two big kids left, so they ate in the living room. Elena wore her new H&M sparkly skirt to celebrate.
We took our time with dinner, allowing everyone time for seconds, before clearing away the main course and putting out the desserts.
To our guests' credit, they made a sizable dent in the dessert too. Despite our hopes that school would be cancelled the next day, we knew it would go ahead, so everyone left at a more or less reasonable hour. Of course, five minutes after we said goodnight to everyone, a huge group of musical protesters came marching down 85.
I was worried our friends would get stuck in it, but everyone got home fine. School the next day was a bit rough, but we made it to the weekend. We have two more weeks of school left before our long break. I'm not sure what those weeks are going to bring for school or for Colombia, but we are so lucky to be able to have friends and family to share these experiences with.
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