La Ciudad de Primerva External (The City of External Spring)

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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 who is not.

Well, when I arrived on the 14th of August, I stayed in this very cool hostel - it’s my first time staying in a hostel. The hostel is called -Hostal Tamarindo - I shared a room with 9 other strangers, the room had its own bathroom and a patio. The hostel had its own kitchen (to cook your meals), a reading room, a TV room and another patio downstairs. The owner - a Colombian-American is very cool, nice and helpful with information, plus the hostel is only 5mins walk to Parque Lleras (the IT place for young people) and in Zona Rosa area.

After a week at the hostel, I moved to a host family house (I was expecting it to be somewhat similar those in Guatemala), however I was wrong again. The family lives in an apartment complex just similar to those in the states. It’s a 4 bedroom apartment of which 2 comes with its own bathroom. My room had a TV with cable, a fridge, closet, desk and a beautiful view of the woods. Did I tell you, the apartment is Wi-Fi (if you know me, you know am addicted to the internet). Anyways I pay 900,000 pesos (about $450) a month for my room, 2 meals/day, cleaning of room, laundry (they do the laundry for you and wash your delicate clothes by hand) and internet. The family is awesome -a mother and her 2 daughters (one is in medical school and the other is also a medical student doing her residency). They are very nice and respect my space (if you know me again, you know I love to have my space). Plus the apartment is very close to my school.

Also I started Spanish class at a university here a week after I arrived - Universidad EAFIT- this school has a very good reputation especially with its language program and International Business program. By the way, I’m in level 4 (they use the common European framework -so level 4 is the last level in the basic stage). The teacher is good and speaks only Spanish in class - which is great I suppose. With the Spanish program, we get to sit in two undergraduate classes to help with listening skills, have a conversation partner and do sports if you want. Anyways, I tried ‘tae kwan do’ and decided it’s not for me. I like the geopolitical class I sit in, I understand most of what the professor teaches - last Wednesday, they were talking about Fukuyama, Kissinger and economic routes.

So the first friend I met is Lexie, she is from Scotland - we met at the university when I went to take a placement exam. Together we met Steve (from Austin) and others frds. These other frds are Colombians -they are very nice, cool and fun (I know that because we hung out with them this past weekend). They also speak English and 98% of them lived in America for several years.
On Saturday, myself and lexie are going to try a belly dancing class - I will surely tell you more about it next week……until then Ciao

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Photos

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Me & Lexie

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Steven & Me

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The Crew on Friday Night

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The Crew on Friday Night

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On Saturday Night

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On Saturday Night