Some information about Colombia & the concept of time - A discussion around Wikipedia

I'll like to start by apologizing with all my fans (ha ha...) for the delay in my weekly blog. We had a hail storm here in Calgary Sunday afternoon; the kind that makes you wonder if missing church in the morning was a good idea....  So, I kinda of got distracted.  But anyway... we survived ; )  however I can't say the same for some of  the flowers in the back yard. Yes, I have flowers! - did I mention my mom planted them? Anyhow, it hasn't been a normal summer.

Changing the subject, I have no update in regards of our documents. Last week we were happy that the embassy was so quick in sending us the legalized copies, however we haven't been able to get our hands in the translations yet.

So here is the story.  When we first got the docs (english) I scanned them and send them by e-mail to our translator.  This was about 3 to 4 weeks ago.  The master plan was that while the notarizing/legalizing happened here in Canada, our translator in Colombia would work on the docs.  Then my mom would send the docs to us just in time for us to put everything in an envelope and back to Colombia. The End. 

Well... that's me being a Canadian. I've been way to much time in this country and I forgot about the concept of time in Colombia.  So, let me explain that a bit better.   

In Wikipedia (which by the way is probably written by a nice North American someone or someones), time is defined as: "The continuum in which events occur in succession from the past to the present and on to the future".  Therefore my thought process. I would send the docs early (past) so that the translator would work on them (present), so that I would get them at the same time as the notarized ones (future).  See? a con-ti-nu-um... a sequence... simple.

Well, for whatever reason the concept of time in Colombia is rather fluid.  For example, if I got distracted today (present) - because it rained, or it was too hot, or we were in Carnaval... or  something else... (the something else depending on the subject performing the action)  we would do whatever we had to do today, tomorrow. But that's ok... because it's probably not urgent anyway, (no hay afan!) so my tomorrow plans really just magically moved to someone else's present tomorrow! And this happens for many many days, with no consequence whatsoever. Therefore the docs were never translated until I called to ask - what's up with the docs?-  Ooops.  Con-ti-nu-um, broken.  Rather interesting.  

But anyway... I kinda of miss some of that.  It keeps us Colombian relaxed.  haha.  : )

Besides time,  and the fact that I got mad at my translator  - Who's very good by the way, if it wasn't for this last delay - I thought it would be a nice idea to share with you some info about Colombia. 

Five important facts about Colombia:

1.Capital : Bogota (And by the way... this city is not near as close as you see in the movies... it's way cooler and nicer - 80% of the image you have in your head is Hollywood's influence).
2. Population:  45,586,233  (Yeap! more people that there is in all provinces of Canada, which is 32.2 M aprox).
3. Area: 1,138,910 Km2  (Not that much than the Province of Alberta - which is 661,848 km² ).
^4.  Location: Right in middle of the Equator. First country in South America with exit to both the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean.  
5. Language: Spanish.  Si amigos... espanol (not mexican)!   Es-pa-nol

 

But of course, you can get all that from Wikipedia.  You really don't need me to know that.  So, 

5 Interesting things about Colombia that Wikipedia won't tell you: 

1. Colombians feel very strongly about two things:  Futbol (the real one, the one you play with your feet) and Miss Colombia (the national pageant). 
2. Most Colombians love dancing. Merenge, Vallenato, Salsa... and pretty much every other beat you can think off.  By the way... I don't exactly agree with Wikipedia claiming that Salsa is originated in Cuba. Whoever wrote that obviously hasn't been to Cali .  The international capital of salsa (mira ve!)
So there is link for you to see.  If you get past the make up in the little girl (she needs a bit of advise on that matter)... OMG they can dance! (see link)

Kids in Cali dancing


3. Colombia, even thought is a developing country, rates as one of the places where people are most happy! Higher than the US or Canada. (It must be the lack of deadlines!)
4. In Colombia guayabo - means a hangover, hacer la tarea - means to have sex (literally, to do homework), hacerse el gringo - means to feign ignorance (literally, to act like an American), and tombo - is a police officer.
5. Did I mention we have awesome beaches?

So my friends,  that's my country and the country of my future Colombianito(a).

Until the next post, 

LuzM.