one month in - job-home-friends

It's now been a couple of months that I've been here.  In that time I've sorted out my legal status and started work.  The British Council here is much bigger than my previous one, but other than that there are many similarities and the classes are much the same.

After weeks of searching I managed to find somewhere to live.  I have an apartment near work (which is great - given the awful traffic of Bogotá).  I'm on the 9th floor so I have some amazing views!

The place is still pretty empty (I have the essentials) so I'll add flat photos in a future blog.

At the weekends I've been exploring Bogotá and its surrounding.  One weekend I went with some colleagues/friends to Guatavita (which is where the El Dorado legend comes from).

When I was still in my hotel in town I also walked around Pargue 93 and came across a Christmas village.  I was particularly impressed with how they took the photos with Santa.  With an extra large mobile!  That's not how it was done when I was a kid!

This year I hadn't met people from the Dutch community yet, but that didn't stop me from remembering Sinterklaas - and enjoying my pepernoten that I'd bought in Holland months ago!

Our work (and most of Bogotá) is now on vacation but we did have a Christmas party before most of the teachers left town.  This was hosted at a Parrilla (grill restaurant) and we had plenty of meat, platanos and yucca (oh an wine and canerlazo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canelazo)).

I'm enjoying getting to know the place.  It's quiet as most people are gone but I already have various people either visiting or moving here in the new year so I imagine it will get busy!

For Christmas I'm going to Mexico City where I'll visit people I knew from my first visit there (20 years ago) and I'll also catch up with friends from Dubai who live there.

Happy Christmas and have a great new year!