English Version So my 24th birthday was 2 days ago and I celebrated it here in Medellin - my first birthday out of Nigeria or United States. I was a lot of fun because I'm blessed with wonderful people. My host mum gave me a beautiful earring, Lexie y Juliana gave me a purple dress, purple ear-rings and bought me a Chocolate cake, Freddy gave a really beautiful wrist-watch and Juliana's mum gave me a perfume. So we went to a Jamaican Bar first and later to club Dejavu to rumba - I totally loved the club because it was mainly [View Full Entry]

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As usual, so much as happened since the last blog. From going to Peter's house party and hanging out at Jeffery's apartment on a Friday night to sightseeing. We went to see Manuela (she is Juliana's sister) sing at her schools annual English song festival - she sang one of Rihana's song and sang very well - am so happy for her because she won out of 17 contestants. On the 16th, we went to El Penon and Guatape, at el penon, we climbed the rock - 649 stairs, yeah I did it but it was very tiring but once at [View Full Entry]

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I was happy to leave Bogota behind, it's not a ugly city but it is too cold. I only stayed 5 days and I met wonderful people at the hostel - Hostal Destino Nomada. I also went to the Salt Cathedral 2hours away from Bogota and Monserrate. The Salt Cathedral is very impressive - an underground cathedral made completely from salt, if you are in Bogota I suggest you visit. Monserrate has a beautiful view of the city and artisan craft market, it’s great but I prefer the metro cable ride in Medellin. The walls of Bogota are covered with political [View Full Entry]

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What a week! It was an emotionally one that I will ALWAYS remember for the rest of my life. On Tuesday we had our final exam for level 5, I didn’t do so well but I passed however I’m still proud of myself because I didn’t study at all. On Wednesday Juliana, Lexie and myself visited the mosque in Medellin - ok I wasn’t a mosque, it’s a house that is used as a mosque - no one was around so we couldn't get in but I’m still glad we went. Juliana drove us, she is a good driver, and then [View Full Entry]

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Ooh what a week! Last week started very unproductive, I was able to convince Sarah, David and Colm about watching the soccer game live. We went to the stadium on Wednesday to buy our tickets -which cost $40 and started making plans for the weekend since it will be my last weekend in Medellin. Belly dancing was great on Thursday; we started learning a new move -more difficult but gracefully. Friday, we had our oral exam which we all did well - we talked about health problems, my topic was la anemia de célula de hoz (sickle cell). Friday night, I [View Full Entry]

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Chévere is another slang word for cool in Colombia. So I didn’t blog last week, I was so busy trying to finish up my Statement of Purpose & other supplementary essays for Graduate school - Guess what, I finished all the 14 essays on Wednesday. This week has been a productive one. We are learning how to express emotions, opinions, suggest this, recommend things and health issues in my Spanish class. There was a Health Fair on campus this week, we went as a class, I did an eye exam, paps smear and breast cancer exam -all for free, is that [View Full Entry]

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This week has been colorful and it exposed me to some aspect of the Colombian culture. On Monday, we took an exam for level 4 and I passed, so now am in level 5 (the 1st level in intermediate Spanish) -Que Rico (how lovely)!Also I feel my Spanish is getting better - on Thursday I told the class the sad news about the Yale graduate student who was killed in Spanish. On Friday, there was a market on campus -El Zoco market- they had a lot of beautiful things, from clothes to artisan crafts to accessories. I bought a really pretty [View Full Entry]

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!Chimba is a slang word for cool in Colombia! This week has been every eventful. First - we (I and Lexie) started the belly dancing class last Saturday - the 5th it was awesome, the ladies were very nice and the maestra (teacher) is very beautiful, flexible and graceful. The Thursday class in a combination of musical dance and belly dancing - a guy (a very cute guy with dreads) taught the musical section of the class; we did some exercise on rhymes, harmony, melody and how to concentrate. Mind you, this was totally in Spanish and I understood everything…….yesterday’s cla [View Full Entry]

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So I have been in Colombia - in the city of external spring (Medellin) - for 3 weeks now. Colombia is the first stop on my one year travel across Latin America. Before coming here, I assumed the country was going to be similar to Guatemala. Boy, was I wrong! The city am in -Medellin- is way more developed than Xela (the city I stayed in Guatemala) - it can easily be compared to the states. The water is safe to drink, the transportation system is very easy to navigate and is hard to pin point who is a tourist and [View Full Entry]

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I started having mixed feeling as my one year adventure across Latin America approached but I was determined to make it worthwhile. Packing was a b**** as I had problem fitting everything I wanted in a 50 litres backpack, anyways I ended up with a 40 pounds backpack and a 20 pound hand language. I became anxious once my Copa Airline flight landed in Medellin - I started asking myself why I didn't familiarize myself with the currency or why I didn't polish the little Spanish I knew. The taxi driver the hostel arranged for me took mi to a [View Full Entry]

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