Guest Appearance
Happy New Year! I’m starting 2020 off with an exciting and never-before-seen episode of A Sunflower Odyssey!
When McLean came home the other night, after his first 12 hour day of graduate school, he sat down and for about 15 minutes straight he talked about his first day of school. Being married to a man of, generally, few words, this was a golden opportunity for me. I sat patiently and wide-eyed, listening intently as he regaled me with stories from his day. I will admit, I did interrupt him once, but only to formally invite him to make a guest appearance on the blog to tell this story to our faithful followers- this content was too good to not share. My faithful editor-in-chief of The Sunflower Odyssey thankfully obliged, and this is the result. So, without further ado, McLean.
Hola a todos! After having eagerly read each of Noel’s blog posts as she wrote them, I’m very excited that she invited me to make a guest appearance to tell everyone about my first week of school at la Escuela Superior de Guerra Colombiana (or the Colombian War College). I showed up on Tuesday, January 7, feeling a little nervous about my first day. Not at the school itself, but rather at the officer’s club (called Casa Mata) a half hour north of Bogota. Each of the students had been assigned to an aula, or class, and been directed to wear shirts of particular colors corresponding to our our class (thankfully mine was black, unlike my fellow Americans who were charged with the task of finding salmon and beige-colored dress shirts). We got in formation, and began our day. The first two days at Casa Mata were straight out of summer camp: sharing our past experiences with complete strangers, building a human chair, jumping rope five at a time, and playing “don’t let the huge exercise ball touch the ground.” I wish I could share pictures, but they asked that we keep all pictures off social media, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. It was a great way to break the ice and get to know the officers with whom I’ll be spending the next year, and hopefully fostering relationships that can be continued throughout our military careers.
On Thursday, we finally began our classes at the school itself. We began with two 1.5 hour blocks of instruction titled “The Colombian Political Process,” which consisted of a retired Colombian Army colonel sharing his thoughts on domestic and international politics. As a foreigner with little experience in Colombian politics, I found his perspective incredibly interesting and enlightening. Next, we had “Methodologies of Communication,” a.k.a. How to Write an Essay. Our final class of the day was “Research Methodology,” which was an intro on the principles of academic research.
Friday was more of the same, followed by a Change of Command ceremony for the commanding officer of the school. The ceremony centered on a military parade for which they had been practicing all week. After the parade, the colonel in charge of the course gathered us all together and made sure we all had everything we needed, and he gave us his personal cell phone number with the direction to call him any time day or night if there were anything we needed. He was incredibly attentive to our needs, and he clearly wants to make us all feel welcome in Colombia and really enjoy the course. After our meeting, he graciously invited all of the international students to a small reception to wrap up the week.
During the second week, things became more academically rigorous with classes really beginning to take shape. My favorite class is Colombian Foreign Politics, primarily because of the instructor. He’s a Colombian man in his mid-60s, but he has a funny habit of making a controversial statement and turning away slightly with a shrug and slight raise of his eyebrows, waiting for the class to erupt in discussion. He’s also very attentive to making sure I understand everything going on in the class, which I obviously appreciate. On Friday, he even agreed to hold class in the coffee shop on base. Several of the students took it upon themselves to order a dish called lechona, which is barbecue pork and rice cooked in fried pig skin (see picture) and have it delivered to the base. I was a huge fan.
Although the entire experience has been vastly different from the U.S., the Colombian military officers have been nothing but incredibly welcoming hosts. I’ve gotten to know many of the officers in my aula, who always take care to talk to me, make sure I understand everything going on (which is rare given my faltering Spanish), share traditional Colombian food with me, and even bring an extra coffee for me when they make a coffee run. They are an incredibly intelligent, insightful group of men (no women in my aula), and I know that they’re going to make the next year in Bogota an amazing experience.
*Click on the image below, or if on your phone click on the dot in the lower right hand corner, to view the picture description.
