Medellín the city of eternal spring

The last week of May we spent in Medellín Colombia, at my insistence, after hearing so many nice things about the climate, the food, the safe surroundings, the great exchange rate.

We reserved an airbnb relatively close to the metro, in a recommended neighborhood…but probably should have stayed in a quieter area. The view was wonderful, but it also looked out over a public square and several night clubs. The climate is so perfect you don't really need cooling or heating – but open windows bring noise as well as breezes.

I loved the city, the vibrancy, the climate, the excellent public transportation and plentiful Uber service.

A highlight of our visit was a cable car ride up the neighboring hill (going from 6500feet to 8000 feet altitude!), to a huge public park and botanical garden.

Barbara was a bit afeared of the crowds and beggars downtown, as well as the echoes of the cartel battles of the 90s. But the shopping malls and apartment blocks in the eastern hills are supremely middle-class.

We even attended the Episcopal Church – the standard liturgy, completely in Español!

And we met up with a friend of a friend, quite a nice tourguide for a day. Interestingly we were there around Election Day -- all alcohol sales are forbidden the day before and the day of election! In one middle-class neighborhood, we drove past a long queue of folks waiting to vote.

Colombia is definitely coffee country, the most coffee-particular place we have ever been: this fast-food joint has, notice, three different coffee grinders for your choice of bean!

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Where we are working now

ISG Jubail School is the Anglo-American school for this area: Jubail is one of two planned industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, given a special royal commission for development and planning. Our district, the seven schools of International Schools Group, runs the school in the other industrial city -- Yanbu -- as well. Jubail is on the east coast, between Dhahran and Kuwait. Our nearby "big city" is the tri-city metropolis of Dhahran-Khobar-Dammam, where all the big shopping malls and quaint old markets are, along with the central 3 schools of our district, where Coleman attends high school. ISG Jubail has 410 students -- an average of 2 homerooms for each grade, K-10. Class size varies, up to 22. I have 12 in my required course "Computers & Information Management"; Barb has 12 students in her first-grade class. Most of the teaching staff come from the U.S., some from the Commonwealth. Several teachers are wives of engineers an...

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