Cartagena Colombia

I arrived in Colombia a little apprehensive. For one thing I was supposed to get a student visa through my school but I forgot to do so. I gave the address of the school but said that it was a hostel and I was just here as a tourist. No problem, of course.

When I got outside of the airport in Barranquilla, there was a very pretty girl giving information to travelers. She told me I needed to take a taxi the bus to Cartagena, which is about 2 hours away. But first I needed cash, because the taxis don't take US dollars. I headed toward the ATM that I had passed by before because of the punk kid that was hanging out next to it. Well, I figured, what's the chance that this kid is trouble at an airport? No trouble, of course.

Apparently the cities in Colombia typically have nice neighborhoods to the north and slums to the south. Also, the bus terminals are typically in the south. So my taxi took me to the slums of Barraquilla where I caught a bus to the slums of Cartagena.

The slums melted into forests after a few minutes. After about an hour we were boarded by soldiers who made us stand with our hands against the bus while they checked us for weapons. I figured that they were either government troops, in which case I was happy to see security measures, or they were paramilitary, in which case there wasn't much I could do. (They were, obviously, the former.) After that the forest became more populated by makeshift houses and children running around barefoot as we arrived at the bus terminal in Cartagena.

The taxi in Cartagena went into progressively more substantial housing, starting with scraps of metal and ending in an ancient, weathered neighborhood called Getsemaní, where my school is.

The school, where I'd be living and taking classes, is a converted house with some largish rooms in the front, and open ceiling over the center, and a half dozen smaller rooms in the back. There's also a family that lives here - a mother, father and a teenage girl and boy. (Plus a random short dude that sleeps in one of the classrooms some days.) They were the first people I met. They are super nice, but they're not really in charge or anything, so they just showed me my room, gave me a key to the padlock for the door, and then went about their business.

I put my stuff and asked where I could get some food. The father showed me a decent restaurant not far up the street. When I returned I checked and found no internet, and it was still early, so I figured I'd have to find some way to spend the next couple of hours. I was a little intimidated about going for a walk, but I wanted to see the walled city of Cartagena so I asked for some directions and headed out with a copy of my address in my pocket alongside a few tens of thousand of pesos. No problems getting there or back, of course.

The old city is about as beautiful as a city could be. It's in an exquisite state of decay, with ancient streets beneath open balconies and flowering vines. The walls are fully intact, including a few rusting canons, several open-air restaurants, and warm caribbean breezes.

The next morning classes started. They gave us a placement test which is unpleasant and not terribly helpful, just as they had done in Mexico. There are only a few classes being taught, anyway, and they don't have students of even levels anyway. Nevertheless, My teacher, Eliecer, is excellent. Unlike my classes in Mexico, the conversation and grammar are all mixed together, so you get to practice the things you just learned in conversation, which I like much better.

The first week I had just one classmate, a girl from Switzerland. The next week I had two more students, an Australian and an Israeli-American. Most of the other 5-10 students are European. The largest number are from Switzerland, for some reason. I made quick friends with the other guy living in the school - Kim from Norway, as well as many of the other students. Like Mexico, much of the socializing I've been doing is in english. I like hanging out with the other students a lot, but I am looking forward to practicing my spanish more in the future. I end up hanging out with the other students most afternoons and nights, only venturing out on my own occasionally.

I'm taking dancing classes here too, and going out typically means trying out the dance moves that we learned earlier in the day. This is a lot of fun despite the oppressive heat and humidity which leaves me soaked in sweat.

Back in the US

I was back in the US for about a month. I visited my friends Christian and Tai in Virginia first. When I first arrived Christian showed me his new hobby - raising bees.

In the next couple of weeks we had a really nice time doing basically relaxing things. It was the end of their vacation before they had to start teaching classes. We spent a lot of evenings on their back porch, cooked some awesome meals, and mostly just chilled. Christian and I also worked on a project we've been thinking about together, and made a lot of progress with the ideas and even put together a rough prototype.

I also got to spend more time with Matthew, Jennifer and family. I even got to see Shirley, Matt's mom, who was visiting them at the same time. Francesca showed me her new baby chickens and I played with Bennett and his super soaker.

One weekend Dave and Emily came up to visit and we ate pulled pork (yum!) The next weekend I went to Baltimore to spend some more time with Dave and Em. I saw their place, Dave's new lab space, played mario kart, met some of their friends, and even managed to find some material for a turban to wear at burning man. We ate crabs too.

I don't actually have much to say about Burning Man, where I went next. It was much like when I went 2 years ago, minus the novelty.

Lateef and I actually left a day early and spent the last night in Reno. We took showers, swam in the pool, ate hot food, and went out to some bars, talked to random people and then spent the rest of the night dancing at a hip-hop club. It was awesome after living in the dust for a couple of days.

From Reno I visited my mom in Santa Fe. I saw her new apartment, and we went for a quick walk in the a park near Tesuque. We also made plans to go to the Galapagos.

The next stop was Puerto Rico. I was staying with my cousin and her boyfriend, Arturo. They brought along a friend, Frank, who is a French guy living in New Jersey teaching French. We tried to surf a bit, but mostly we left that to Christine and Arturo.

Friday night we went to Old San Juan, which is really beautiful. We stayed at this hotel called "Da House" which I found on tripadvisor. It's a kind of old boutique hotel that's been nicely renovated with air conditioning and private baths right in the old part of town near the "party" - which means salsa music outside until 2 or 3 in the am.

On Saturday night I tried out couchsurfing for the first time. I stayed with this really nice girl named Estela in San Juan. I didn't have any real plans for that night other than to make it to the airport on Sunday am. However, Estela was very gracious and introduced me to some of her friends, took me to a barbaque, and even drove me to the airport in the morning! So at 6am I boarded a flight through Panama City to Colombia...