A neon sign in a bike shop caught my eye during a Sunday Ciclovia ride: Se Vende La Calidad De Vida which means “Quality of Life Sold Here”. It made me laugh. My previous career being a Wellness Director for a wonderful retirement community (Frasier Meadows in Boulder, CO), it would have been really convenient to have “Quality of Life” for sale in some nifty little bottles. But as a Wellness Director, I also know exactly what that neon sign is really saying: ride a bike and you’ll feel better in and about your life. …I like it. Maybe you can’t or don’t want to ride a bike, but you should do something – many things – that make you feel good in and about your life.
It’s a huge reason why I moved here. I didn’t really need to “feel better about my life”, but I had been wanting change, challenge, and a chance to live in a Spanish-speaking country for a long time.
I don’t regret this huge change one bit, BUT, it’s not all roses. It’s not all Calidad de Vida! I’m still pretty young in my South American journey and many things are relatively new and interesting. If you know me or have read a few of my blogs, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’m a look-on-the-bright-side kind of person. So maybe it’ll rain on your parade (I looked and I can’t find the Spanish equivalent to that English saying) when I tell you I have some serious bummer moments.
I truly love living here at this time in my life, but some things are starting to wear on me. I’m grateful to have been hired by an established language company here, but some of the practices and administrative hoops are frustrating and inefficient. I’ve had many, many class cancellations over the course of of my 4 months of work here which really hinders my ability to bring in income and is just plain frustrating because the schedule is constantly changing.
Bogotá is a very interesting and complex city, and for now I’m glad I get the chance to live in such a huge city for all it has to offer. It comes with it’s downsides, though. As much as I love people in general and love working with people, there are so many damn people here that as I walk around the city to get to work and everything else, I find myself literally cursing people in my head. Usually I curse in Spanish, because it feels less mean!
I walk really fast (envision turbo-Gringa on a mission to get to her classes!), and it is sooo annoying to get stuck behind strolling pedestrians. Really, are you out for a lovely walk?..because this is a super-busy street with buses belching smoke buzzing by and it’s not enjoyable so please move your nalga and get out of my way!
One reason I think there are a lot of slow-walkers is because Colombians dress pretty nice. They are generally pretty into their appearances. Additionally, Bogotá is the biggest and the capital city and is quite international. Of course this is where you’re going to find a high concentration of business people. (Hence, why I have the job I do!)
Where am I going with this? High heels. I have seen the most, ahem, ridiculous footwear on women as they tiptoe (probably painfully) over the hole-ridden, treacherously-broken cement-block sidewalks. Of course they can’t walk fast! And then if they’re on a handsome Colombiano’s arm, the guy has to walk at a snail’s pace too just to stay by her side. I’ve seen a few that literally appear to be holding Her up.
I’m being sliiightly dramatic, but not really that much. It’s mostly funny in comparison to my Solomon trail-running shoes that I hoof about the city in, breaking a sweat in my couture yoga pants and backpack. I kind of wish I could look like many of the Colombian beauties here, but… I don’t. I have a long way to walk to and from classes so there’s just no way my feet are ever going to look as cute as theirs do. Laughing about this, I talked with one of my classy (and very intelligent) business English students and she told me matter-of-factly that she likes walking but she must drive to work each day because… and she pointed to her feet. Because these, she said. I have to wear heels!
Not sure if “have to” translates basically into “a cultural must” or “I want to”. Or literally the workplace dress code demands that the Colombian women have to wear impractical-yet-super-cute footwear.
I’m going to teach you a Colombian phrase that communicates frustration: Me saca la piedra. The literal translation is “it takes the stone out of me”, but the idiomatic meaning is that “it ticks me off” or is something that makes me lose patience. Here are some things, in no particular order, that me saca la piedra…
- pigeons
- dog poop
- slow walkers
- super-broken, undulating sidewalks
- It’s raining and it’s sunny at the same time, and it’s sort of breezy but somehow I’m also sweating.
- traffic
- bus exhaust
- student cancellations
- government or business websites that are super-confusing or just plain don’t work. Click here! And there is nothing to click, or there is literally no link.
- jack hammering in the street in the middle of the night
- car alarms (Dios mio…)
- Crowds on buses, crowds in the street, crowds in the plazas… yes, I know, it’s a big city. It’s also superb material for people-watching.
Even with all that…this is still a pretty cool place to be. I plan to move out of Bogotá to experience other cities sometime this fall. No doubt another location will bring its own list of “piedras”, but isn’t that part of the draw to living abroad? Challenging oneself to almost-constantly adapt. It’s amazing how adept humans are at adapting quick quickly, actually, because we’re wired to seek out La Calidad de Vida. Our quality of life depends on our abilities to adapt. This applies to everyone, not just those of us living abroad; ask my former clients/Residents of Frasier Meadows and they’ll tell you how important it is to adapt to changes of all kinds.
