Day 2 in Calí

Ok now since I am a little behind in my posts and you all about the Novenas now I am going to tell you what I did each day in Calí and elaborate only on the good stories.

Sunday 12-17-12

I slept in and had my first breakfast in Calí. After breakfast, we got ready to go to lunch at Tata’s house (Amparo’s daughter). At lunch I was able to meet Amparo’s grandkids, Manuela and Juan Miguel. Manuela (8 years old), the first thing she told me when she met me was, "why do you talk weird" (in Spanish of course). I couldn't help but laugh; I love the honesty of kids. I told her that I speak English and I am learning to speak Spanish, so thats why I talk weird when I speak Spanish. Then I asked her if she would be my Spanish teacher and help me to learn Spanish I would teach her English. She agreed and didn't waste anytime telling me every things name in Spanish as we saw it. Also if I said something even slightly incorrect she would immediately correct me. :) It was very cute.    The kids also introduced me to a game called Mexican Train, which is a domino related game. After my lesson Mexican Train, Amparo and I went home for dinner before my second Novena where we would eat again.

*Are you noticing a trend around food?

BREAKFAST AT AMPARO’S HOUSE

Now in the U.S. I would usually have cereal and coffee for breakfast, which would hold me over for the morning. However, at Amparo's house my breakfast everyday was... 

~cereal

~arepas (like a thick corn tortilla) with cheese

~fruit (typically papaya or granadillas)

~chocolate con queso (like hot chocolate with pieces of cheese in it instead of marshmallows J)

~pan de bono (bread with cheese mixed in with the dough and it is in the shape of a doughnut)

~pan de yucca (bread with yucca mixed in with the dough and it comes in different forms:         yucca is a root)

~scrambled eggs

While Amparo eats half a pan de bono, a few slices of fruit and chocolate con queso.

FOOD LESSON

“Are you hungry?”

“No I’m fine thanks”

“Ok I’ll make you a little something”

So I learned that a Colombian woman’s way of showing that she cares about you is through food. I never had a chance to even think about getting hungry. They would overfill my plate and if I didn’t finish all of it they would say, “you didn’t like it?”. However, if I ate everything on my plate they would think that I was still hungry. Also I didn’t want to be rude or offend anyone, so I learned it was a careful balance. Not to mention, there is dessert after both lunch and diner every day. I also learned that Calí everyone has a good breakfast, big lunch and a small dinner.

FIREWORKS

Random street fireworks the entire time I was in Calí. I have to say the first one I heard scared me a little because it was still daylight and I heard a loud bang. Lets just say that a firework was not the first thing that came to mind. However, I then got used to fireworks randomly going off during the day and night. The fireworks happen a lot on Christmas Eve but otherwise they were sporadic. Also these civilian street fireworks are illegal in Calí.