A Fulbright Teacher in Bogota, Colombia, A Special Series – Apartment Hunting – The North Star Reports – by Laura Blasena. Sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica and The Middle Ground Journal

A Fulbright Teacher in Bogota, Colombia, A Special Series – Apartment Hunting – The North Star Reports – by Laura Blasena. Sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica and The Middle Ground Journal

When first arriving in Colombia, all twenty-nine English teaching assistants were put up in a fancy hotel for a week-long orientation. Between listening to speeches from representatives of the U.S. Embassy, members of the Colombian Ministry of Education, and chatting with past Fulbrighters who had remained in the country, we enjoyed free food from the hotel and hot showers. But, alas, it was not meant to last and when our orientation came to an end we were all sent on our merry way to whatever city housed our university.

Unlike some of the universities that other Fulbrighters were placed at in Bogota, my university did not supply me with temporary housing when I first moved to the…