QueenPuya

I made my triumphant return to the world of work today, with a much-needed trip to the herbarium of Colombia.  Juan hooked me up with a driver friend of his, thinking he'd be less likely to rip me off than a regular taxi.  I appreciate it, as Colombia is more expensive than I thought.  Damn dollar.  Pedro Alphonso drove me halfway across town and chatted away at me the whole time.  My spanish is ok, but whenever I'm asked a question directly I freeze up and I can only be useful in Spanish for about 10 minutes max at a time.   In a cab usually I just answer some question that I think might be of interest, such as my thoughts on the weather, Colombia, rumba music etc.  Maybe half the time I'm right.  I have gotten a good sense of the typical South American cab conversation and I know what they like to hear.  Compare their country to others (its always better!  Actually, they do keep improving...) , talk about my husband and my family, compliment the food, list tourist attractions I've seen.  Whenever they talk, I mostly just say Si!  excitedly or Claro...  Si as the answer to everything can get you in trouble when things start to matter.  Somehow I ended up at the dental school with the driver, who was looking for a friend of his to help us find the herbarium, even though I knew exactly where it was.  I tried time and time again to ask him to repeat again slowly and that I am not good at Spanish, but I'm particularly cursed in that my spoken Spanish is way better than my oral comprehension of Spanish, which is not easy for other people to understand.  Ah well.... I found the herbarium, a very nice herbarium director, and several nice students who tried English on me and asked me about grad programs in the US.  I spent hours photographing dead plants, but it was actually the most fun I've ever had at this hated task, because there really aren't that many species of Puya in Colombia (only about 8 are common) and they are well collected, so I got to see many specimens of just a few species, and really got to know them, page after page.  The Colombian species are particularly difficult to tell apart, as they super fuzzy and look like a wad of  seedy black cotton on the herbarium papers.  I am super excited to see them in real life, though!  Soon...maybe Wednesday?  

I said sí, claro a million times this weekend, over two very long lunches with Juan's extended family.  We had the very tastiest food and I'm now enamored with Colombian cuisine and searching for a good cookbook.  I've never gone hungry in South America, but here I actually look forward to every meal.  I made it through half a bowl of tripe soup before I realized what it was, but by then I was over it and kept on going.  They drink a lot of hard liquor here, so that helped too.  It is amazing to me the focus on family time here and the extremely high tolerance these people have for each other.  That sounds bad, I guess, but lets be honest that no matter how much we all love each other in the US and how good a time we are having, we can only take so much talk before needing to be alone or apart.  I have yet to see that threshold here, which I guess helps out this freeloading gringa.  Also this weekend Juan and I went to the Feria de Artisanias.  It was very similar to the one Matt and I went to last year in BA, but about twice as large and a bit more expensive.  I dropped some serious cash, but I am thoroughly happy.  They do AMAZING work down here...it is such a pity that I've never seen Colombian crafts for sale in the US.  They are spectacular (and really make my mass-produced Andean knits I've been giving away as presents look kind of ghetto).   If you like shopping, I'd HIGHLY recommend a trip to a major South American city pre-Christmas.  Luckily we had to leave for another family lunch (with the exact same people!!), or I would be flat broke and way over my 100lb luggage limit.  Good thing jewelry doesn't weigh much.  OK, Sloppy Joes are ready so I'm off.  Good night and I'll write more hopefully when I have Puya plants in hand.