Graduation in Latin-American style

November was all about the graduation. The first weekend was a spiritual weekend. Most of my classmates lived their whole life on the island. When they graduate, everyone is going to the big cities in Colombia to study, saying goodbye to the good life in beautiful San Andrés. That weekend was a really special and really emotional weekend. We ended the weekend with a visit to Johnny Cay, that's one of the smaller islands in front of the coast of San Andrés.

The rotary organised a walk in the center of San Andrés to support breast cancer in which I participated.

At the end of the month, we started decorating the house with a Christmas tree and lots of lights. The whole family was coming together for the graduation of my host brother. It was really cosy, everyone lives far from eachother and it was fun to have everyone here. It was very busy in the house, but it was totally worth it.
We went diving with the family, it was my first diving experience, I already did freediving and snorkling but I never dived with oxygin. It was amazing and I can't wait to go diving again. When you're 12 meters down in the water, you forget all about the world next to the beautiful underwaterworld.

26 November: thanksgiving day, a day which is very known in the states, a day to say thank you for the things you have. 26 of November was also the graduation day. A lot of work was finally going to pay off. I had to get up at 6.30 in the morning. The celebration was at 8.30. It was with the special clothes and the hat and everyting you can imagin or that you've ever seen in the movies. After lots of speeches, we received our diploma, moment of glory! Done with college, starting a new life. For me: I am graduated for the second time, this time in Latin-American style.

I'm writing this blog at 3 o'clock. Like I already said, they have a reason to party for everything here, and graduation day is a BIG reason. Tonight everyone is going to dress up in beautifull dresses who were bought or made a lot of time before this day. The party is going to be on a boat called MonteCarlo who's going around the island. It will be a long and unforgettable night.

Tomorrow I'll be flying to Bogota for my trip to the Amazone, I'm really exited, I hope I'll be able to get up in the morning after the celebration for our graduation.
Greetings from San Andrés.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Everyone knows the famous movies 'Pirates of the Caribbean' with Jack Sparrow. I think it was kind of based on a true story. The history of the Caribbean islands is all about pirates. One of the most fierce pirates out of the history is Captain Morgan. They say he hide his treasure in a cave in San Andrés. I visited the cave, it's amazing. I searched for the treasure, but they probably already removed it. The guy who was leading us around told me he had been diving in the cave and said he came out in the ocean. I think that had probably been the way out for Captain Morgan too.

Also the thunderstorms you see in the movies aren't fiction. When it storms here in the Caribbean, you can feel the ground shake under your feet. I have never been afraid of storms in Belgium, but the first time I experienced it here, I pulled my pillow over my head.
12 October 2011: Dia de la raza or day of the races. Here in San Andrés you can find all kind of people and all kind of cultures: black, white, rastas, Christian, Jewish,... That's one of the most beautiful things about this place. They accept you for who you are, no matter how you look like, what your believes are or what your culture is. El dia de la raza is a very important holiday for the people here. All the schools of the island had to march in one big orkest. It was an honor to be a part of it.

From the day I arrived in Colombia, I could tell that there were going to be elections. Everywhere you looked you could see the campaigns. The rules of the rotary exchange program say that an exchange student can't be involved with politics, but it was kind of hard not to get involved. There were two contestants in the running to become the new governor of the island, one of them was the principal of our school.
The day of the truth: 30 of october, a really busy and stressy day. All the islanders had to go to give their vote, the traffic was crazy. Everyone was really excited to know who would win. At night around 6 o'clock we knew who had won. We were really happy to know that the new governor would be the director of Colegio Luis Amigo. She starts the first of January and within 4 years there will be new elections.
Latino people like to party, so when it was halloween you could notice it. They really like this day here. Everywhere people dressed up and little children with a bucket in their hand to collect some candy. Even at school we could come in disguise, that was something I couldn't imagine happening in Belgium.

At this time everyone is really busy to search clothes and arrange everything for another really important day: the graduation day.
Greetings from San Andrés!