Monday, 1 August 2011

Monday August 1, 2011

Today was a less active day. We started out by visiting an old hacienda that was turned into a shopping mall, the white washed walls and the cobblestone floors were quite astonishing. After that we walked across the street into the Canadian Embassy. I have never been into an embassy before so I was quite excited about the experience. I think if I were not a teacher I would work in an embassy. Who knows one day I might have a career change and do that. We met with three representatives- Jean Pierre a diplomat in charge of foreign trade, Claudia a representative from the education department, and Joshua who is the representative of CIDA in the country. There were introductions and plans made for how we as members of the CBE could partner with Colombian schools and teachers and how businesses in Calgary could partner with us and with the Colombians as well. It was quite interesting. See our main page for some good photos of us all with the diplomats.
Lunch was at Carmen de Bolivar- a restaurant that specializes in Coastal dishes. Claudia our tour guide is a foodie and knows everywhere that is good to eat. It is wonderful because we eat good food all the time. I had pulled beef with red peppers, coconut rice and fried plantaine with a fruit juice made from the Corozo fruit. It was all so delicious. I think I will be talking a lot about food on this blog- I love food.
In the afternoon we went to the offices of the Government of Cundinamarca- the state which Bogota is in. We met with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of ICT. They were both quite interested in the projects that we are doing here and how they could be involved. The Secretary of Education got all excited in the middle and called the principal of one of the schools in- she just happened to be in the building at the time. Lots of ideas were shared for our trip and for future endeavors.
For dinner we went to a wonderful place- with Claudia of  course!- called “La Plaza de Andres” it was a market style restaurant with different specialties being served at different counters. We have a similar place in Calgary just off of Fairmont Drive and Center Street south, east of Chinook. Amazing food there too. I had an arepa de choclo (a corn type of pancake?) filled with cheese. I am so glad that we walked there and back- about 20 blocks because with all this delicious food that we are eatting I sure need to do something to work it off.
Oh and tomorrow they have tickets for us to go to a FIFA game. Colombia vs. Mali. Do you think I should go? Look forward to tomorrow’s post.
Ciao!

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