Gimnasio Ingles is one of two bilingual schools in Armenia. The school is located just north of Armenia on the way to the town of Circasia. The setting is beautiful with a great view of the mountains and surrounded by cattle farms and coffee farms. The campus is now covered in grass, trees, and flowers. The school runs from kinder three all the way up to grade twelve. The total population is about 550 students with two classes of each grade up to grade nine. The three highest grades only have one class each. There is a small library, two computer labs of thirteen IBM clones supporting Windows 98, MS Word '00, and internet is available. There is an art teacher and music teacher for the school as well as an active sports department concentrating mainly on basketball, volleyball and soccer. Presently there are ten Canadian teachers working here. Middle and High school is on rotation with the main subjects being Math, English, Spanish, Science, Social Studies (in English and Spanish), Art, Music, Religion, Philosophy, Economics, and Sports. There are also clubs once a week including cine-club, chess club, newspaper, drawing and cooking. School starts at 7:30 each morning and students leave at 3:00.

I teach Biology to grade nine and Chemistry to grades ten, eleven and twelve. Each class gets between three and four and a half hours of science per week, with a mix of hour and a half and forty-five minute periods. I try to play soccer with the kids during their sports time at least once a week. I am annually in charge of organising the science fair. With ninety three students, I have about forty-five projects to supervise as well as the general organisation and helping the primary school teachers with their class projects. There are usually some very interesting projects taking shape.

My house is located in a nice area of town, north of downtown and partway to school. I am in easy walking distance of several grocery stores, a movie store, some fast food restaurants, and a gym. They have just completed the construction of a new park close to us where you can walk, sit, play chess and play roller hockey. The have gazeboes and waterfalls and lots of vegetation. I am living with my girlfriend Mercedes and her daughter Camila this year. Our apartment is a small but comfortable three and a half with windows facing west enabling us to enjoy the afternoon light and gorgeous sunsets. We´ve been fortunate enough to be lent a T.V., furniture and kitchen supplies.

I have had the opportunity to take several trips around Armenia and Colombia. Salento is a small town about half an hour from Armenia. It is surrounded by mountains and overlooks the gorgeous Salento valley. On occasion, my friends and I go for day hikes along the valley. There are some untouched forests which are filled with birds and many varieties of orchids and bromelias.

Further north is the large city of Pereira. People are presently flocking to Pereira to drive across a new bridge they’ve built across the ravine. Most Colombian cities are built on very uneven ground and often divided by hills, valleys, and rivers. The city isn’t too exciting in itself except as a slightly better place to shop and party.

To the south is the town of Monte Negro. This small town is popular more for the Parque del Café, Quindio’s most well known tourist attraction. This park demonstrates all of the processes involved in the growth, harvest and production of coffee by taking you on a two hour walk through some fantastic flora.

Popayan is an old colonial town, seven hours south of Armenia. The city is filled with old, white buildings, parks, churches and a stone bridge which is supposed to be indestructable. Nearby are hot springs which you can visit by taking an hour ride via bumpy bus. On the road heading south, there are two more major cities Pasto and Ipiales which I visited on my trip to Ecuador.