cuentas 2

[1] the people here are beyond amazing. even the taxistas, who are notoriously the biggest assholes in a society (at least in my experience, both in the states and abroad). i need to change apartments due to multiple factors, and in the past 5 days ive had 7 people (only 3 of them being aiesecers) who have helped me look and call the numbers in classifieds because i have a lot of trouble understanding spanish on the phone. most of these people i had known for maybe 2 hours before they started giving their time to ensure my comfort. and the most amazing part about it is they people dont expect immediate reciprocity...they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and the sense of community imbedded in the paisa culture.

[2] colombians know how to have a good time. i went to a party friday night at one of the universities in medellin because it was their last day of classes for the semester so they had multiple bonfires, music, and of course aguardiente (its like slopeday at cornell except less sloppy and more legal). the most hilarious part of the night was when everyone got liquored up enough to start speaking to me in english, just like when us americans get liquored up we start speaking in spanish/french/portuguese/arabic/whatever language we know the basics of. for some reason they found me fascinating and kept on asking me some of the most hilarious questions in their broken english. all in all it was an incredible night with incredible people from incredible walks of life.

[3] i went to crepes and waffles for the first time. 3 words: de. li. cious.

[4] dont see that movie with richard gere and diane lane. saturday night i went with my friend mariana (trainee from brazil) not really knowing what it was about, just that it was based on a nicholas sparks novel. by the end of the movie i and everyone else in the theator wanted to kill ourselves for the sheer sadness and hopelessness that movie provoked. every single person, including most of the men in the theator, had tears running down their faces and snot oozing from their noses. moral of the story, it aint no notebook.

[5] i twisted my ankle yesterday, fulfilling my yearly ritual of having it appear that i have an orange imbedded in my ankle. thank god i packed that ace bandage.

[6] yesterday i met the most amazing woman ever. she´s an artist and lived for 20 years in europe, going from london to paris to lisbon painting, teaching, making books and marrying. she has my dream studio apartment, with the atmosphere of an artist who beautifully balances (or integrates) work and life. that 4 hour conversation has literally been the highlight of my trip thus far.

ok i think thats enough for now :)