The Global Reach of Blighty's Sport and Music

I was watching the Super Bowl highlights last night, not really understanding American football as usual, but thinking how this event, one of the most watched in the world, represents completely different things inside and outside America.  Inside, it's the end of the domestic season for the national sport, the culmination of a 6 month long, nationwide competition.  Whereas for the rest of us around the world, it's the $3,000 a seat, Black Eyed Peas performance, and million dollar commercials that send a message loud and clear to us all - this is the country that puts on the biggest show on the planet and the place to be.

Well, the Super Bowl and America may have their moment once a year, but I think one of England's greatest exports of recent times, the Premier League, has a much wider and more profound impact around the world.  The video below is shown on Fox Sports and ESPN all over South America, and I imagine further afield too, before the start of the games and really does paint the country in a fantastic light.  Beautiful, iconic landmarks, both old and new, lovely weather (!), brilliant English music and some of the most historic clubs in the game make our 'football' look much cooler and more exciting than that American version over the pond.   With end to end games like 4-4 draws and 5-3 wins last weekend, you can see why.

You only have to walk around any city centre in South America and see the hundreds of people wearing and selling counterfeit Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal tshirts to realise the incredible reach the Premier League has, much more so than the traditional American sports, and that despite America's dominance of TV in Latin America.  More English games are broadcast live here than back home, and the main broadcasters, ESPN and Fox, are included in standard cable TV packages that most homes have across the continent, rather than an expensive Sky package.

It's easy to see how our 'big' teams can so easily claim to have millions of fans across the globe, and how that plays such an influence on potential future stars of the game.  Hugo Rodallega at Wigan is the one current Colombian schoolboys look up to, but Faustino Asprilla's Champions League hat-trick for Newcastle against Barcelona is what is constantly brought up in conversations with Colombians.  The rags to riches stories of Brazilian players using football as a way out of the favelas to the grounds of top European clubs is a dream of many young men here, and even though it will remain just that, a dream, for the vast majority of them, that is more than enough motivation to spend a childhood devoted to football in the park.  The hopes and dreams being to escape lives where drug gangs and poverty are much more prominent than social provision and education.


On a slightly different note, the new Coca-Cola commercial for South America is also introducing the masses over here to English culture.  Oasis' "Whatever" is the song  for the "Reasons to Believe" advert, basically telling us the world is not all bad, we should buy a coke and be happy.  Very clever advertising, getting a load of kids to sing Liam Gallagher's words in a less Mancunian accent appears to work wonders.  My kids at school are all asking me if we can sing along to it, so a great excuse to introduce them to not just that, but all the other magnificent Oasis tunes too, and then the Manchester music scene aswell, The Smiths, Happy Mondays et al - a lesson planned like that!  Maybe Oasis should strike whilst the iron's hot, get back together and do a South American tour on the back of this?  On the other hand, I'm sure the royalties from that advert will be more than sufficient for a few more years before the inevitable reunion tour.

Back in Colombia

Here I am then, back in Cali!  This is the first time I've returned overseas to a place I've previously lived in, I was in Santiago, Chile, for my year abroad, but despite having probably the best year of my life overall, didn't really feel the urge to go and live there again, there's probably something in my head that is afraid of going back to somewhere with such fond memories and then not living up to expectation second time round.  Anyway, I wanted to return to a place I know, with friends, contacts and so on, and Cali fitted the bill, so I've now been "re-settling in" for the last two weeks with Stephen's family, an English guy who's lived here for 30 years or so and who works at the Santiago, where I was last year.

Landslide near Medellin, December

It's strange to be here again.  Memories come flooding back, both good and bad, and it's hard to think that lots has changed in the seven or so months I was away, not least the fact I've crossed a continent on a bike, which is a great talking point with any of the many Americans that I know here.  Cali's weather seems to be exactly the same as I remember it, hot, sunny and tropical most days, but it's worth mentioning that since I left last June, Colombia has suffered torrential rainfall up and down the country, due to the La Niña weather phenomenon, causing deadly landslides and flooding vast areas of land.

I managed to get one of my old jobs back in the school I worked at, but that's just one day a week.  My main job was at a university, but things don't look great there now.  Rumour has it they're under investigation by the government for corruption, staff pay and hours reduced and the suspension of recruiting new teachers all lead to me to believe it doesn't look good to work there again!  I've been handing my CV into language institutes, schools and other universities, so just have to keep at it and hope something comes up, which it should, and tout private classes in the meantime.

Cali, Colombia - A New York Times Recommended Destination!

The New York Times have just published their 41 places to go in 2011, I'm not sure what's relevant about the number 41, but anyway, Cali, where I'm moving to on Tuesday and lived last year, has come in at number 10! Here's what the articles says:

Cali's Feria

10. Cali, Colombia

Cafe culture is on the rise while salsa fuels the night life.

Cali has always felt like the grittier stepsister of Medellín, but tucked amid the colonial homes of the barrios of San Antonio or Granada are a number of new jewelry boutiques, low-key cafes and salsotecas teeming with crowds as sexy as any in South America.

Salsa remains Cali’s lifeblood. If the dance floors of Tin Tin Deo or Zaperoco are too full, try La Fuente, a pint-size bar jammed with sweaty students who spill out onto the street most nights. Or, follow the sounds of Latin jazz to Guayusa, just next door. Those with serious salsa chops hitch a cab out of town to the suburb of Juanchito, whose dance floors do not fill up until after midnight (but go in a group, as this section gets dicey at those hours). Also be sure to check out a performance of Delirio, the monthly cabaret that is part Cirque du Soleil, part salsa clinic.

I'll be right in the mix again this time next week, hopefully!

P.S.  After looking at the list in more detail I see Santiago, Chile, is number 1, and I lived there between 2007 and 2008, and Manchester, my home city back in England, is number 20!  It appears I obviously live in cool places!

Getting Ready for Colombia Round 2

It's been an odd few months since finishing my CELTA, preparing gradually for my return to Colombia, earning a few quid where possible, whilst not particularly enjoying the winter...I missed last year's snow and ice whilst in tropical Cali.

Top Gear, fantastic TV

In spite of the weather, I do come to enjoy living in England after having been abroad for a year or so at a time before.  You appreciate so many more things about the country, one of my favourites is TV.  I'm convinced British television is the best in the world, nowhere else could you just turn the TV on on any random evening and have a fascinating documentary on a free-to-air channel about some landmark building constructed hundreds of years ago, or watch three middle aged men drive from Iraq to Israel in convertibles, as with the Christmas Top Gear Special.  You can get some of the big programmes on YouTube when abroad, like X Factor, which when seeing foreign versions of the franchise, you realise how fantastic the British version really is as a TV show, if not for the artists it produces, but it's good to be here and not have to trawl the internet for hours to find these shows.

In between everything else, I've been trying to write my book on America and have made a decent, if not especially fast, start to it.  Book authoring is a long haul thing I think.
The Guardian have just published an article I wrote for them on teaching English in South America which I hope is useful for anyone thinking of teaching or moving abroad.  The person who typed it up did however spell my name and Colombia wrong, and spelt "South America" without a capital, and it hasn't been corrected at the time of posting this, so don't blame me!

Won't be seeing this for a while!

It's a bit more daunting going back to Colombia this time.  I don't have a concrete job offer and therefore no visa either, which means I've got two months to get that sorted, so there'll be no time to lose once there.  Unfortunately this urgency will probably be lost on the immigration person who deals with me, and I'm not ruling out the idea of having to border hop to Ecuador to get myself another tourist visa when my work visa is delayed.  I'll have to cross that metaphorical bridge when I get to it.  I do have friends in Cali though, and know where I want to live, so that should make settling in considerably easier, as will the lack of anything remotely like cold weather.  I'll have to find my salsa feet again too!

I leave on Tuesday and this blog will be updated every now and again with my various Latin adventures and escapades, so make it a favourite or you can now follow me on Twitter!  If anyone wants to contact me for whatever reason, you can do so by clicking on my profile on the right-hand side, or also through Twitter.

Now a qualified English Teacher!

This blog and the internet never cease to amaze me.  Since I've been back in the UK everyone seems to have heard about my American cycling trip, through either this blog, facebook, or even the old fashioned newspaper.  I've had messages from a whole host of people, ranging from my child minder from when I was 2, ex-colleagues and even an old friend who told me that I'm an inspiration to their life, and have convinced them to quit their bar job!  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but it brightened up my day.  The blog's been a great tool for showing people what went on in America and also, and probably most importantly, helping me to achieve my fundraising target of £1,000 for Muscular Dystrophy.  I think I've developed a fairly nice "online persona," or whatever the jargon is, so thought I might aswell keep this updated, the obvious reach of the internet makes it a great way to keep people informed of what's going on, and if they want to join in in whatever adventures I'm trying to plan in the future!

Last night with fellow CELTA people

So, I've just completed a 4 week intensive CELTA course, which now makes me a teacher, of sorts.  CELTA is administered by Cambridge University and stands for "Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults,"  It's one of the most recognised English teaching qualifications in the world, although lots of people refer to TEFL, which isn't an actual qualification.  As I said, the course is intensive, but for a reason.  Despite having taught for more or less 2 years, the amount that I knew, or rather didn't know, was incredible, and the course definitely does what it says on the tin, teaches you how to teach.  Most people on the course were also in similar situations to myself, either having travelled or wanting to travel.  The course is a great way to do this, its worldwide recognition makes getting a job in your dream exotic location much easier than without one.  Being with similar minded people was really refreshing too, all interested in similar things, and all doing the course for more or less the same reason, to see the world, speak a new language, meet new people...make the most of life.  The continual lesson planning and assignment writing was made much more bearable having conversations about where we were all heading afterwards, if ever there was an example of working towards a collective goal, this was it!

There aren't too many places to do the course, I presume that's how they keep tabs on the quality of it, but there are centres in most countries and as it's administered by Cambridge, there are obviously more centres in the UK, than in other places, so if you're thinking of travelling the world, want to work in various places to fund that and are open to the idea of teaching, have a look at this to find out where you can do it.  I highly recommend it.

Colombian Paradise

I've just been on a "couch surfing" holiday to London, staying with a different friend every night for a week, which is a great way to catch up with people you haven't seen for a few years.  I'm now looking for whatever form of menial seasonal labour in the run up to the festive period, and at the same time, planning my return to Colombia in 7 weeks after spending a Christmas and New Year at home in Manchester .  I hope to use my CELTA and teach English again in Cali, although with more authority and knowledge this time round, but it's proving hard sorting jobs out with Colombians by email!  If any of you read this and want to employ me, get in touch!