It's A Christmas Miracle!

I woke up to a lovely surprise yesterday morning. After a night out with friends on Boxing Day, I savoured a sleep in and enjoyed relaxing for a short time- a necessity after the socialising, drinks and food-coma experienced over Christmas. Gradually waking up, I got up and checked my email and was quite surprised to see an email from Diana, my contact at the Embassy. She informed me that Bogotá had sent through confirmation that my visa had been authorised, and that Diana would send my passport back to me in the mail first thing Wednesday morning (which is today!) My Christmas miracle was granted. Now it's just up to Australia Post to send that Express Post Platinum envelope with 'Guaranteed next day delivery' back to me and the visa fiasco will be over. ¡Ojalá!

Update: I got the visa on December 29th- PHEW!

All I Want For Christmas Is My Colombian Visa

It's Friday morning, December 23rd, 2011. Two sleeps until children the world over wait for the fat man in the suit to come down the chimney and bring them the gifts they have been planning for since January, or in my case, overindulging and perhaps being a little too merry while spending cherished time with family and loved ones.

The usual Christmas chaos is going on around me with people organising last minute gifts, getting food preparations ready and a cleaning frenzy in my house for the Christmas Day lunch. This year, I rename the silly season the clinically insane season, for along with this madness, I am due to leave for Colombia in a mere eight days. Eight days... I can't quite believe that it's come up so quickly. When I look at what I have to do in those eight days, I almost have a small heart attack. Along with trying to catch up with friends and family before leaving and celebrating the festive season, I also have to organise my life for the next year and here's the clincher- I still don't have my Colombian visa. Yes that's right, eight days out, Christmas time, and I still don't have my visa, or for that matter, passport (which is sitting on someone's desk at the Embassy of Colombia in Canberra.)

How does this happen you ask? Let's wind back to November. As WorldTeach is an American organisation, the application process has been slightly different for me as an Australian. I had the option of sending my passport off to the U.S.A. to have my visa processed there with the other volunteers', however I didn't think there would be sufficient time to get my visa back from the States before my departure. I thought it safer to apply for the visa in Australia, with less risk of my passport getting lost/delayed in trans-Pacific postal system. I didn't however, bank on my supporting documents (needed to support my application) taking more than three weeks to get to Australia. Gotta love Christmas mail. With twelve working days until departure, I was accosting the postman on a daily basis with no sign of any documents in sight. As I was also becoming increasingly stressed and sleep deprived, WorldTeach and I arranged for the documents to be re-issued and urgently re-sent directly to the Embassy of Colombia in Australia via FedEx, and I would send my part of the application separately. Problem solved you say? Not quite.

In prior communication with the Embassy, I was assured that the visa takes no more than five working days to issue. Knowing that Colombians are not particularly known for their efficiency with administrative matters, I made it quite clear that it was very important that this information was accurate and the visa be issued in this period of time. I was repeatedly told that, providing my documents were all in order, this would not be a problem. They perhaps should have included a clause that said 'Providing your documents are in order, and the visa people in Colombia are contactable, this will not be a problem.'  Unfortunately, the people who authorise the visas in Colombia are not answering emails or phone calls, and hence the Embassy in Canberra cannot issue my visa without passing this bureaucratic red tape. So as we are yet to hear back from Colombia, I have to wait until December 29th to find out whether my visa will be issued or not, leaving one working day to get my passport back from Canberra either with or without visa. Let's hope it's the former.

So as I sit down to enjoy my Christmas lunch, see my friends and family and try to enjoy the festive season, I will have to try and forget about the worry and uncertainty that I am faced with. As my parents keep telling me, I've done all I can now and it's in fate's hands. Send your positive thoughts my way and let's hope for a Christmas miracle (of Colombian efficiency.)

The Birth of a New Blog, and of New Beginnings.

La Mona Australiana- I bet you're probably wondering what that means and why I chose it as the title for my blog. I have been meaning to write this first entry for months, but those of you who know me well will know that I am no stranger to procrastination, especially when my life has been as frantic as it has been the past few months. Hold that thought for a moment, before I get to the title, let me tell you the reason for writing this blog. 

Other cultures have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Studying languages and history and having a love for all types of foods spurred this fascination and led me to start travelling and exploring the amazing things that the world has to offer. You could say that I caught the travel bug, and I caught it bad. I've never had a clear direction of what I wanted for the future except for the list of places I wanted to visit, where my next adventure would be and when I would leave (or more realistically, when I would be financially able to jump on the next plane.)

Studying a semester abroad in Mexico in 2006 cemented my love for Latin America and its people, and since then I have never really been able to get it out of my mind or my heart. Mexico made me feel like I'd never felt before, and being back in Australia never completely felt like 'home' again. I've had itchy feet ever since, travelling back and forth to Latin America, each time experiencing more and falling more in love with the people, cultures, food, language and so on. I get a feeling when I'm there that's like nothing else. I like the organised chaos, the street food, the music and the fact that there's constant activity everywhere you go, from the bustling cities to the lush jungles. Heck, I even like not being able to flush toilet paper and the obscure sense of time that can never really quite be figured out.

Just before turning 25, you could say I had a quarter life crisis. Sure, it's normal for people (especially Australians) to travel and take gap year. Some take a working holiday in Canada or spend a few years in London. Most usually come back and settle into Australian life but here I was in my mid-twenties with no direction or career path and, due to the travel bug (which sometimes feels like an affliction), no money. All I had was a desire to get back to Latin America more permanently but with no clue of how I could logistically make it happen without winning the lottery or robbing a bank.  So you can imagine my excitement when mum was counselling me one day and stumbled across WorldTeach in the back of the Lonely Planet guide book for Costa Rica. She suggested I look into the program as it seemed to be exactly what I was looking to do. WorldTeach are a non-profit, non-government organisation who send volunteer educators to developing countries to promote global citizenship and improve education. As soon as I started researching WorldTeach, I had my heart set on participating in one of their many wonderful programs, and decided on Colombia, an amazing country which I visited in 2009. After many months of planning and completing the application process, I was accepted into the program. It is now mere weeks until I will be heading to Colombia for the many challenges and adventures that lie ahead as a WorldTeach volunteer. 

During my year of service there will be many challenges, highs and lows as well as many breathtaking and life-changing moments. Keeping a blog will, in fact, be a challenge in itself and will be a way of processing my thoughts and experiences and sharing them with the people in my life, and those who care to read about them. That, along with a promise to my dad (after him asking about 14 times) is the reason I sit here writing this blog. Which brings me to the title. 

Why La Mona Australiana?

I could have called my blog, Fi in Colombia, fionam@blogger.com or any other such names but I wanted something a little different and with a Colombian flavour.

Let's start with Australiana. Yep, you probably guessed that it means 'Australian'.


La Mona. The word in Spanish has a range of different meanings, both good and bad depending on which country you are in and who you are talking to. I always thought it was the female version of el mono meaning 'monkey'. You can imagine that I was quite surprised/offended/confused when people in Colombia addressed me with, 'Tss Tss, Ey mona!' ('Tss Tss, hey monkey?') and 'Eyy mona, que guaaaaapa' ('Hey monkey, how beaaaaautiful?') etc. as a way of getting my attention or as a good old cat call (a completely acceptable form of communication, especially on the Caribbean coast). I don't know about you, but I wasn't exactly impressed with people calling me a monkey. It took me a few days to ask someone what on earth it actually meant. It turns out, mona in Colombia is a word they use for people with blonde hair, like rubia in Castillian Spanish, güera in Mexican Spanish and macha in Costa Rican Spanish. Ah, it made sense! In Spanish, people tend to address you with a physical characteristic, for example, if you are thin you will be called flaco/a, if you are on the rounder side, gordo/a and so on. Logically it made sense as (I hope) I look more blonde than like a monkey.

So I thought, why not La Mona Australiana, The Blonde Australian. Let the Colombian adventure begin.