Thriller Night!

Colombian Halloween - an experience for sure!

Riding back from orchestra rehearsal in the taxi on Halloween, I saw everyone and their mother out downtown wearing costumes and walking around. Even their mothers were wearing costumes! I wasn't planning on going out because I have class early on Thursday, but seeing all the fun, I couldn't resist! Luckily when I got home, Sara hadn't left yet. I threw together a five-minute disfraz and out we went!

Can't even recognize us!

We first went to the mall to see what was happening. We saw this (the first of many like costumes we'd see that night):

They even acted like girls!

And when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE was dressed up! Now that it was later, there weren't many kids out. But there were teens, college students, and adults out, all in costumes! Never have I seen so many dogs dressed up in my life! Even the cars were dressed up!

This would win in a costume contest.

So more people were dressed up and got more into their costumes than I have seen people in the U.S. do. We walked around downtown for a while, our friends spraying random people with spray foam (and those people did not get angry; they were surprised and then laughed!). It was so cool because everyone just had a good time and interacted with people they didn't know. It was so fun, and a party atmosphere! People weren't there to get candy, or to have the best costume, or to try to be cool for other people. They were just there celebrating. It was refreshing! There wasn't any music playing, though, which I found kind of odd! A small matter. We went and ate ice cream on Halloween, which I thought was funny!



I also went to Salento (again) recently, and ate this:

Yum!

Trucha! They typical thing to eat there. This was trucha florentina, with cream, espinaca, y tocineta. I expected bacon and spinach dispersed throughout instead of just a piece plopped on top, but hey, whatever floats their boat! That huge yellow thing in the background is a patacon, but it's more like a humongous chip. That's the typical patacon they serve with trucha in Salento, and I think it's hilarious!

This weekend I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work as a volunteer translator at the national volunteer conference (how fitting!) that was held here in Armenia!

El centro de convenciones de Armenia

The Fourth National Volunteer Conference

I got the gig through my boss at the university. I have never done translation work like this before, so needless to say I was really nervous! It was a two-day conference, and I translated for a group of three women that came from Miami. They have a business called Core Strategies that offers consultation to volunteer organizations. 

Here I am looking nervous and blurry before the whole thing started.

A picture in attempt to show the gran cantidad of people that were there. Not exitosa.

 On the first day, I translated on stage in front of almost 500 volunteers who were attending the conference. Talk about pressure! Lucky Colombians as a culture are very forgiving, and I have felt that in general they care more about you as a person than your abilities. Innate in their culture is be the valuing of every person for simply being a person, which is an example that I think our country needs to follow. Knowing this, I was a little comforted when I was up there on stage.

The rest of the day involved translating for radio and T.V. interviews as well as small meetings and individual conversations (the lunch at the centro de convenciones was awesome, by the way!). The next day, which was today, I translated for a round table that the women led about the movilizacion de recursos in volunteer organizations. That was followed by more small meetings, and both days included translating back into English so that the women could understand. It was overall a great experience, and I learned a great deal about volunteering in general and in Colombia more specifically! 

The translation was consecutive, meaning that the person I was translating for would say a sentence or an idea and then pause so I could translate. It is much easier than simultaneous translation, which is where the translator translates as the speaker is talking. That requires the translator to be able to listen and receive information at the same time they are speaking and outputting information. Yikes! I can't even listen to music and type this blog entry at the same time - how would I ever llegar a poder hacer la traduccion simultanea?? Translation in general requires a specific skill set a lots of practice in order to be good at it. I think I did an okay job with this translation, and I feel that I got better as the conference went on. To translate well you can't just say the words that the speaker says - you need to understand the idea that the speaker has in order to convey it correctly, you need to know how to change the grammatical structure so that it's correct in the other language, and you need to recognize and be able to explain concepts that are not translatable by name. And you need to know how to translate all the technical terms you are working with! What a great experience though - when else would I have been able to have done this?

Today also involved me trying lechona for the first time. Lechona is rice, pork, and peas cooked inside a whole pig. It's a typical Colombian dish that they usually sell on the street. Here is a picture:

Looks questionable, tastes yummy!

I was with friends, and we got ours out in front of the supermarket. They scoop you up a little bit, cut off a piece of skin, and include an arepita and a little fork for your immediate enjoyment.

I felt like my dog eating a pig's ear when I tried the pig skin (I couldn't not try it - gotta try everything!).

I'm glad I finally got to try this Colombian staple! The pig skin is something I could pass on. I think I'll stick with my cookies instead. 

Gracias por estar conmigo. Que tengan un dia fantastica! Hasta la vista!

By the way, aren't the mountains in Armenia asombrosas?

Wow is right!

 

disfraz = costume

trucha = trout

espinaca = spinach

tocineta = bacon

centro de convenciones = convention center

voluntariado = volunteering

gran cantidad = great amount

exitoso/a = successful

movilizacion de recursos = mobilization of resources

llegar a poder hacer la traduccion simultanea = be able to do a simultaneous translation?

arepita = little arepa

Gracias por estar conmigo. Que tengan un dia fantastica! = Thanks for being with me. Have a fantastic day!

asombrosas = amazing