Arriving in Colombia

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[youtube=Oul1lKtr6p4]

Finally! I arrived in Bogota Eldorado airport about 9 hours ago after over 24 hours of continuous travel.

The flight between Kuwait and Frankfurt went by faster than it could have thanks to a Canadian named Mike sitting next to me. He was an interesting character and had spent some time in Venezuela so he had stories to tell. Chit chat was soon accompanied with drink and before I knew it, I only had 2 hours to sleep before arriving pretty tipsy. Frankfurt airport was about a 5 hour layover which I tried to spend sleeping in uncomfortable positions with a mild hangover.
The flight was pretty awful. There was a lot of turbulence (which I have a fear of), bad selection of films, and 10 hours of sitting. Stress levels had to be brought down with some persian magic, or i would have lost my mind.
At first glance Venezuela was breathtaking. Favelas (slums) built on giant mountains of lush jungle. It reminded me a bit of Beirut but the hills were bigger, greener, and the buildings more run down.
The stay at the airport was 3 hours and I got a glimpse of just how underprepared I was linguistically for this continent. The locals talk fast and with an accent making it impossible to decipher what they wanted and almost no one knew english. I will need to start working on that ASAP.
The flight to Bogota was ok (after the atlantic flight, this was no problem) but unfortunately at night time so I could not see the city flying in. My program coordinator, Josh, picked me up at the airport and we taxied to the apartment. For the time being I am staying with several other people working on the program, all westerners, all pretty young... Everyone is very nice and the apartment reminds me of uni days in Newtown when no one has cleaned up in a while. Thats ok though. I have experience. The bunk bed situation is pretty new to me though but I'll manage.

It now around 7:30am and I have been up for an hour or so after 4 hours of sleep. Bloody jetlag...

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