Sacked and Adventuresome

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Oh where to begin with this one....I suppose I can start off by saying the adventure is back on, and the everyday habituals have officially come to a close for me. What I mean, is that I’ve been fired for faults not of my own, and I’ve decided to stay in Colombia a while longer. What this means for you is that you’ll get some more exciting exotic stories from me again. I'm already about to embark on more adventures this month!

My manager has never been super kind to me. Actually, everybody at the hostel is constantly walking on eggshells with her. We never know what her mood is going to be like, and the guests have even told me themselves that they’re absolutely frightened by her (to which I can only agree). As far as I know, I’ve never done a thing to her and actually try to steer clear of her since I’m so scared of her myself. I just can't help but feel that she hates me. Many have assumed and told me that she’s just jealous, especially since I have a Colombian boyfriend –ya know, taking one away from the "pool," but I believe this is just a poor excuse. Anyways, despite her hatred towards me, she approved of me getting a work visa, (I think it came from her boss/owner of the hostel as I know he likes me; he lives in Uruguay so isn’t here to see any of this), which coincidentally begun my end at the hostel.

The Colombian government requires you to obtain your Colombian work visa abroad at one of their consulates (because that just makes sense). And by pure luck, instead of deciding to go to some exotic country nearby, I decided to obtain my work visa back at home in California. I figured it would be cheaper to fly back via standby, cheaper to stay (for free) at home, would be super to have a nice visit home since it had been a while, and most of all, I didn’t want to screw this one up. -Dealing with this situation in my own language would be a lot more safe! So home I went! Though I only had until June 30^th to get this done by or I would have to leave the country for good, as my tourist visa would expire (the time permitted would not start again until the new year). On top of that, a co-worker was about to leave for most of June on vacation, so my boss wanted me to complete my visa trip before his vacation commenced, because she doesn’t have enough people to even cover for a one day of absence. I tried many times to leave in May, but my boss just kept blowing me off when it came to talking about the dates. Finally, I told her I had to leave a certain week or it would be never. She then looked at the calendar with my perspective dates and 30 seconds later, approved of them –thank you for blowing me off so many freakin’ times when it only took you 30 seconds to agree, whore.

I gave my manager a checklist of what she needed to give me before I left and trusted her with it. I suppose that one was my own fault for hoping in the better of her. I’m going to stop with all the details here, as it would be far too long for you to read. So I’m just going to say that what was suppose to be a week’s trip turned into a month. Problem after problem kept arising, all of them were faults of my manager. Some of these you could see being incredibly on purpose, and the others make you wonder if it was an honest mistake or not. At one point, she even tried telling me over the phone that I had to pay for the days I wasn’t there!! Regardless, four days before I finally got my work visa, she told me I had been replaced and they’ll consider me for the future. She told me she understood there were a lot of problems for faults not of my own, but it has taken way longer than I had initially said, and therefore, I was sacked. So I’ve decided to take the visa and go back to Colombia and find another job (the government doesn't know I've been fired). I secretly am quite relieved, working for her is sooo stressful and working 6 days a week for peanuts isn’t any great hell either. I just love my co-workers so much and the chill atmosphere, apart from my boss. I had actually planned to quit and find a new job within a few months anyways, but she sure blindsided me with this one! However, I really feel like this is for the best and I’m sure I’ll find something better. Of course, her boss is going to get an earful from me, and I’ll let karma take the rest.

One blessing that has already arisen from this, is my dear friend Haley is coming to visit for a month. She’s a school teacher with summers off and is dying to travel to South America, but is petrified to do it alone. So she’s going to come visit me and we’ll travel together, though we won’t hit much of South America as I’m going to have to be on a super tight budget! If I hadn’t been fired, I wouldn’t be able to get to travel. One thing's for sure, is somehow my life always works out to incorporate awesome travels. Things just seem to happen and clear the road for me to be able to go on them in perfect coincidental timing. So where, you might ask, are we going? Well no doubt we’re going to take that sailboat from Cartagena to Panama! Yup! I’m trying to get on that boat again! Hopefully we won’t end up on a canoe in a storm for two days with more scars on my butt! I’ve already invited Moncia, but she just laughed at me and now thinks I’m insane. She’s too traumatized from the last round to even try again! I’m also taking Haley to San Gil, the outdoor adventure capital of Colombia. There, you can do white water rafting, rappelling, hiking, kayaking, horseback riding, etc…totally up our outdoor alley! The rest of the time we’ll be hanging out in Cartagena. As I’ve said, I’m on super tight budget now that I don’t have a job, and who knows how long it’ll be before I manage to get a new one. I’m confident, however, that it’ll be amazingly awesome –which I’ll blog about!

Of course, I’m a bit scared I won’t find another job and have to completely figure out my life all over again. It seems so much safer to just accept that I was fired, cancel the visa and start over again back at home in North America. But ever since I was little, all of my teachers have constantly told me that I've always managed to choose the hardest problems to solve. Only this time, I’m recognizing it beforehand (I was always surprised when they told me this, because I didn’t really think they were the most difficult). I find the Colombian lifestyle very exhausting when it comes to everyday things, and the job I’ll most likely end up with will not be half as good as what I can get back at home. But what I do know is that I’ll be sure to become fluent in Spanish a lot quicker! It'll become an advantage to my future career, or so I think..I have no idea what my future career will entail! Haha! And this Colombian boyfriend of mine that my boss is so jealous of is amazing. He’s a genuinely an all around good guy –they don’t make them like that anymore, so I’m going to have to hang on to him for a little while longer. I mean, I never even write about my love life in my blogs, and I’m giving you a snippet here. So I’m choosing this challenge, and I’m confident I’ll come out on top. I have to. There's this quote that goes “a ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” I’m not going to sleep through my life and become a robot. So even if I don’t find a job, at least I can say I’ve tried and thoroughly enjoyed my last few months in Colombia.

So everybody, I’m back! Check frequently for adventures. :0)

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