1. Public Transportation is the great equalizer. No matter how elegant, beautiful or graceful you are, you climb aboard a packed bus that is standing room only and you better hang on for dear life, because comfort is not the drivers priority but rather speed and quick stops to allow passengers on and off. If you add into the mix being a particularly tall foreigner, than our sight gets even more interesting. Imagine squatting slightly at the knees so your head doesn't bump the ceiling, you clutch your bag with one hand to make sure there are no pickpockets, and then you try and hold tightly onto the seat back in front of you without grabbing the persons hair or making it too obvious that you are inches away from sitting in their lap. All this while your bus speeds from 0 to 40 km and back again in mere seconds. Entertaining indeed!
2. Rent a phone on a chain. Here in Colombia most people have go-phones. This means that you don't have a phone plan, rather you buy credit every few weeks to charge your phone. However, sometimes you run out of credit and don't have a lot of money to charge your phone. It can happen to all of us. And of course during this inconvenient time, you must get in touch with your boyfriend, girlfriend, colleage or mother to let them know you are running late. So what is the answer? Why a phone on a chain. Instead of pay phones, you can find individuals who have cell phones waiting for just this moment. Pay 25 cents a minute, stand about 1 foot away or as far as the chain will go and make your phone call (just better hope it isn't too personal).
3. My bike is my office (and my trailer, my grill, my restaraunt, my marketing publication and so much more). Just when you thought a bike was a bike, yeah there are those cute trailers for kids, but it's more or less a bike, well think again. I have never before seen so many various uses for bikes. There are some with full grills on the front, (I'm talking the ones with hot coals underneath) so one can have a mobile arepa stand. How do they steer? No idea. Or perhaps one can't afford a billboard? Just make a portable one, put it on a small trailer and start pedaling. Nothing is more eyecatching than a moving billboard. What could be more convenient than a convenient store on wheels? As I stand on the sidewalk waiting to hail a bus, what do I see pedaling past? Why it is a portable convenient store with chips, candy, gum, cigarettes and freshly squeezed oranges. Perhaps I wasn't hungry enough to cross the street and go to the store, but if one is going to pedal directly in front of me, than sure, I'll take a bag of chips for 25 cents. Mmm
4. News flash for everyone in the U.S. Count your blessings for free and unlimited toilet paper. There are many things we take for granted in the U.S., surprisingly toilet paper is one. My time in Colombia has allowed me to appreciate toilet paper in a new way. As I walk to the supermarket after my morning coffee, I suddenly realize I have the urge to use the restroom. I walk to the back of the store to find a women blocking the entrance. She tells me "It will be 500 pesos" (50 cents) and then passes me approximately 6 sheets of paper. Better hope that is all you need, cause you aren't getting more. You would think my private university would be abundantly providing an ever so important part of a bathroom experience. But no, another 500 pesos to a vending machine. If you are lucky it is stocked. However more often than not, you must make due. So my most critical lesson learned in my first month in Bogota: as I walk out the front door, keys, wallet, phone, umbrella and roll of tp? Check. I'm ready for the day!
5. Umbrellas. Bogota is known to have every kind of weather in one day. You wake up and it is cold, wait a few hours for the sun to peak out and you will be shedding your layers in a hurry. Just when you think you can leave your coat at home, look our your office window and see that suddenly, it is raining. People never leave home without their umbrella. So when it begins to drizzle, you and the other 9 million bogotanos whip out your convenient umbrella. However, no one took into account that the size needed for a person walking down the sidewalk doubles when you carry an umbrella. So as you hurry down the sidewalk you find yourself playing chicken with an elderly woman with an oversized umbrella. You lay yours to the side as you sidestep her. But next is a light post right in the center of the sidewalk. Is there room to pass between it and the building? Or do you get trapped, the space being one centimeter too small for the umbrella's circumference. You see a man and wonder do I bring my up or down as we pass eachother, and then suddenly there is that awkward moment where you both raised your umbrella up and you find yourselves in a tangled mess. Sometimes I think it is easier to wear a rain coat and forget the umbrella....but gosh they do such a better job of keeping you dry!
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