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 the peak - the view is stunning, plus we got a very cold beer from some guy from Spain once we got to the peak. Later on we went to Guatape and took a boat ... read more

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 later we went to exotic tattoo to get piercing - Lexie got her belly button pierced and I got my nose pierced for the second time. It was painful however a lot of people said ... read more

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 not awesome? We also watched a documentary about conflict & violence in neighborhoods in Colombia - the title is ‘La Sierra’. It’s very interesting and educating - I recommend you all watch it, its subtitle ... read more

!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 class the 12th was great as well. Last Saturday (the 5th), on our way from the belly dancing class, we passed by the stadium - there were so many people because Colombia was playing against Ecuador ... read more

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 casa de cambio to change my money to pesos - we chatted the whole 45minutes to the hostal and he commended me on my Spanish speaking skills . The hostel - Hostal Tamarindo has a ... read more