Welcome to the next two years of the rest of your life

Late last night, we finally arrived in Medellin. Customs was relatively uneventful and easy, as the school had arranged for school staff to come into the baggage claim area to collect and organize our luggage. Henley is not a fan of flying, and was letting his prerogative to be known to everyone. So, while the rest of the luggage was being unloaded, Heather was able to have Henley’s papers approved and we quickly extricated the dog from his kennel. Our pup was accompanied on the flight by another dog - Millie from New Hampshire. They seem to be hitting it off and have become the unofficial mascots of our group of new teachers.

After collecting our luggage, we proceeded to the exit gate, which was manned by one woman and one man. The woman took our “nothing to declare” form and directed us to push a button by the gate. Heather pressed the button and a green light flashed. This meant that we could walk through and be on our way. Apparently, the button occasionally results in a red light, in which case the man would search through your bags. No one in our group was searched, and we exited the airport.

Four busetas were waiting for us to take us to our apartments. We were divided into two groups, with people being loaded onto two of the buses and bags loaded onto two corresponding buses.

The airport is located in the high hills above the city, near the school. (Medellin proper sits at about 5000 ft, whereas the school and airport are at approximately 8000 ft elevation). On our way down the mountain we took a brief drive-by tour of the school. Unfortunately, it was too dark to make much of anything out. However, as we proceeded down the hill we were able to see the lights of the city far below. Medellin sits in a north-south river valley between two parallel mountain ranges. El Poblado, the municipality where the majority of the teachers live, is on the hillside west of the river. One by one, the bus stopped at apartments and dropped off teachers. For me there was a sense of déjà vu as I was reminded of my first night in Japan 14 years ago – dark night and bright city lights, tired and disoriented, nervous and excited.

Heather and I were the last to be dropped off and so we were able to tour everyone else’s apartments. We had expected the cost of living to be low here and knew that our money would stretch, but no one was prepared for these apartments. Most single teachers are paired with one or two others, but they share massive three and four bedroom apartments. One trio was delivered to a two story suite with three bedrooms, private bathrooms, kitchen, living room, TV room, and veranda on the first floor, and a master bedroom with accompanying bathroom and veranda on the second floor! Another couple was in disbelief of their three bedroom apartment with sun room and two different verandas over looking the city. One veranda was larger than half of our house in Bellingham. We all felt like we were on the opening episode of MTV’s Real World, ohhs and ahhs and screams of excitement all around.

Finally we arrived at our house. I have never lived at a house that had its own name, but this one does…