the comfort factor...

...is finally coming into place here in medellin. to clarify, i have been more comfortable here than i ever was in ecuador, but i used to get really happy when i felt comfortable. now i dont even feel the difference.

how did i come to this realization? the events of the past 4 days.

event 1: saturday mari and i left medellin for manizales at 9am, with literally NO plan and NO arrangements for where we were going to stay. but you know what? that didnt bother me, which is a HUGE difference from my former self. i worked my magic, called the right people the night before and that morning, and about an hour before we got to manizales i got a call from someone in manizales saying both mari and i had a place to stay and someone to meet us when we got to manizales. from there we proceeded to have a fantastic weekend despite a few upsets due to weather. this is all due to the fact that the trainees from zona west (and one entertaining german from bogota) as well as the aiesecers from manizales are just fantastic.

event 2: yesterday was mari's birthday, and as a result i decided it was a good idea to give her a surprise party! i pretty much left all the planning until yesterday at lunch time (minus a few details i sorted out last week), sent a few emails, called a few people, and at 830 there were about 15 people in fede's house to surprise the crap out of her! during this process i realized i have enough contacts and enough people who are friends with both me and mari to pull together a surprise party in a matter of hours.

event 3: after 2 months of hating my job, today i actually decided i kind of like it. and by kind of i mean if i worked in another department with a different boss i would love it. the people here are so fantastic and really appreciate the fact that i am here. theyre nice because that is who they are. they are genuinely interested in my life and i in their lives. ive begun to make strides in mending the relationship and maybe staying on as a part time volunteer once i start the whole english teaching thing.

all of these events made me realize that im slowly but surely starting to not sweat the small stuff and let things fall into place. that, to me, is comfort.