During our research of Bogota, it’s been really hard to find good internet sites on the city, even if they’re in Spanish.  But recently we came across a couple of great map sites that we thought you might be interested in.

The first is a map where individuals can add locations on the map that they think are important.  It’s great for us because it shows landmarks we might be interested in, like the country club.

The second is a map that the city of Bogota has created.  It’s similar to something like Google Maps but it’s in Spanish.

We don’t know where we’ll be living, but feel free to search around.

Random Bogota trivia: Bogotá has the highest quality as well as the most expensive potable water in Latin America.

Kristen and I are now in the throes of Spanish class.  I started a couple of Mondays ago in a class that will allow me to top off.  In other words, my classmates and I already have some Spanish.  Kristen started on Monday in a crash “conversational” Spanish class.  Her class only has 3 people, including Kristen, which ratchets up the pressure.  There’s no place to hide!

After only a week or two of Spanish, we’re already getting confused on which language we should be using when we talk to each other or other people.  The other day I was watching Lost, and when a Korean lady opened her mouth I completely expected her to speak Spanish.  It’s getting really weird.  Kristen woke up this morning with random Spanish phrases repeating over and over and over again in her head.  There’s no escape!!

Due to the scheduling of Spanish classes, our schedules are completely opposite.  Meaning, I’m in class from 8-10 and then have 2 hours in the lab.  But Kristen’s in class from 10-12 and then goes to the lab and back to class, which means we get to see each other for about 15 minutes the whole day, even though our classes are right beside each other.

We’re both enjoying our classes.  It’s quite different from taking Spanish in high school/college because we know that every word we learn is directly applicable and necessary to our survival in Bogota.  Which increases the pressure, but also makes the classes more worthwhile.

On to baby news.  Kristen had a couple of weeks of no contractions, including during our travel to Austin for Bo & Leigh’s wedding, which we were so thankful for.  Now that she’s needing to walk across the campus and take multiple flights of stairs, they have returned.  We go to the doctor on Wednesday, and we’re hoping the doctor won’t recommend bed rest until her Spanish is done in 7 weeks.

As you can see from our baby tracker, we’re less than 90 days until he’s due.  It’s been really, really, really cool to see Kristen’s belly grow and feel and see Jackson move.  Kristen has been saying for several weeks that she can tell he’s rolling or moving instead of just kicking.  And recently I’ve been able to tell the difference as well.  It’s hard to believe that there’s a little person in her tummy who can do all those things!

Nope, you didn’t see this flight # on the news this week although you should have!! We were flying on this flight from Houston to Baltimore on Sunday night after being at Leigh and Bo’s Wedding. The flight was going along just fine and the pilot announced that we were beginning our final decent into BWI. The flight attendants gather our cups and made a few more rounds to harass people about putting their chairs up.  It was slightly bumpy but nothing too bad. All of a sudden, we entered into 5 plus minutes of horrific turbulence. It was so bad that we all thought we were going to die. The flight had a movie playing which ironically was “The Pursuit of Happyness”. As the plane started to lose control the movie screens starting breaking up the picture which was quite unsettling. We didn’t need any more visual with our terrifying situation. As it got bad, a man in 6 or so rows in front of us stood up and decided to walk all the way to the front of the plane to use the restroom. People starting yelling at him to stay down and not to walk. Everyone in his row stood to let him out. The FA kept yelling from the back of the plane but he kept going. Meanwhile, people are beginning to cry, throw up, and scream. I happened to be one of the ones crying!  It was so bad that it was difficult to grip on to one another. There was a little boy in the row in front of us who was seated a few rows away from his parents. While his mom was getting sick his dad kept yelling up to calm the boy and make sure he stayed in his seat. The whole experience shook us really badly. I don’t think either of us have ever been on a plane and thought that we might die. I will say that there was not enough time to process the situation and to quote verses or have profound thoughts. The up and down and side to side was so bad that we would not have been able to help each other if someone had gotten injured. Needless to say we are not looking forward to flying in May or ever again for that matter. We were so thankful that Jackson was not born yet because I am confident that we could not have held on to him when things got so rough. We will definitely insist upon getting a seat for him when we move so that he can be buckled in…I highly recommend it for those of you with little ones!

We got diverted so it took a few more minutes to land. When the plane calmed down many people thought we had already landed. As people looked out the windows all we could see was fog and clouds. We were so scared that we couldn’t land. Finally we landed…still quite shaken..and so glad to be alive!!

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter. We celebrated by going to our church for an Easter service and then basically spent the whole day eating! After church we headed to Maryland where we got to have lunch with two of my aunts and their families. It was so fun to catch up with cousins and get to know their new spouses! I must say that my Aunt Lynn and Aunt Carrol put together an Easter meal that was reminiscent of Grandma’s house! We even had Parisian carrots.

After our family lunch we headed back to Falls Church to have dinner with our small group from church.(There were about 34 of us total b/c it was the group we attend as well as a bunch of other people from the original small group…it has multiplied 3x so every year they get back together for Easter dinner) . Everyone brought place settings of their china and we had a huge buffet of food! We have been so blessed by the small group that we have joined at McLean Presbyterian. We have been overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone has been. They have pulled us in and have made us feel so comfortable. It has been so encouraging during our time of transition.