ticket's bought...

dec 30-jan2: new years cali style
jan 2-4: popayan
jan 4-6: carnaval de blancos y negros in pasto
jan 6-9: exploring narino with awesome people
jan 9-10: san augustin
jan 11: cali/medellin
jan 12-14: finishing up some more tefl, having a fake despedida, packing
jan 15: back to the states

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here i go :)

just fuckin do it already...

the only thing standing in my way is this damn tefl certification. my goal is to finish it before january 15th so that i can immediately get my visa upon arrival to new york and be on my way back to fabulous colombia. wish me luck.

its over.

in exactly 1 hour, my aiesec internship will be over. i have so many mixed feelings about it, especially after the events of the past 3 hours. give me a week or so to reflect.

at least i can say i do not regret this experience one bit. and the people here are beyond fantastic...ive never felt so supported and cared for in my life.

thank you la familia CINDE

relativity of one

in one day, i will have my visa extention (hopefully)

in one week, i will be done with this internship, taking what i learned with me and letting go of the guilt i feel for not putting my all into it because, after all, it was a learning experience, and with those you are bound to make mistakes

in one month, ill be heading to ytown to see those i love and celebrating with a gran fiesta colombiana

in one year, ill be finishing my (first?) contract with colombo americano and hopefully be pura paisa

and at the other end of all this ill still be one person, but hopefully a more complete one at that.

pictures, finally.

so i finally figured out how to use picasa without it taking 348902 minutes per picture, so here is my vida latina one image at a time :)

best. puente. ever.

like for real. i helped plan an AWESOME trainee weekend with hoyitos and tati botero from my lc here, and though it became beyond stressful towards the end (aka we didnt have housing for ANYONE until 10 minutes before the first one arrived...i guess thats the colombian way though?) it was COMPLETELY worth it. ill add pictures later once i figure out how to do it, but lets just say by the end of the weekend we were planning an alumni association for colombia trainees 08-09 where we would purchase a finca near la piedra de peñol and meet there at least biannually when we were all rollin' in the dough.

ill write a longer post on this later when im not supposed to be working, but to give a bite-sized snack, the weekend consisted of the following:
jardin botanico
parque poblado complete with THE BEST arepas con hogao ive had thus far
befriending my first colombian bartender, to which i will become a regular
CHIVA
alumbradas del rio
teleferico
crepes and waffles
parque lleras, which included cocaina rusas from la octava (duh!)
muchoooooo dancing complete with vallenato for the crazy german who is leaving us :(
piedra de peñol
arepa de choclo con queso that was deliciosooooooo
boat tour of lake in guatape
falling in love with medellin and antioquia all over again

the downside.

thanksgiving was incredibly hard for me, harder than i could have ever anticipated. i didnt realize until about the day before that this would be my first thanksgiving without my family, not in my house, and sans cheap themed chochkies (its the only holiday that we celebrate in our house, so my mom has accumulated a ridiculous amount of ridiculous paraphernalia over the years). then when i heard that one of my best friends abbey was in ytown celebrating thanksgiving with our best friend cynthia i just lost it. it was the second time ive cried here.

its also really hard being away because you can't truly share in the successes of your loved ones or coach them through the hardtimes. this past week cynthia landed her dream job (fuckin right doggie!) and some important individuals confided in me about the grave financial times they are going through. each 90 minute skype convo killed me inside because i wasnt there to pop open the champagne bottle with cynthia nor was i there to smother my loved ones in my bossom and reaffirm that hard times will pass.

but with every decision there are consequences, and in aiesec we tend to be masachistic in this sense. and i though i was sad, i never for one minute regretted my decision. in the end thats whats most important