colombia: parte dos.

before i say anything more, i just want to state that colombia is magnificent. it really is. also, my annoying, uncontrollable nose twitch and wipe habit was probably extremely misleading in the land of snow.

after santa marta, i headed to the large and beautiful city of medellin, which may sound familiar since it is the birthplace of the medellin cartel (the huge cocaine trade run by the infamous pablo escobar). someone even told me the entire metro system and likely most of the beautiful building there were funded entirely on drug money. kindof funny, if it´s true. anyway, it´s set in the middle of big beautiful mountains and the downtown has big beautiful old buildings and the rest is a big beautiful checkerboard of terra cotta brick homes, rolling along the mountainslopes. i quite liked it, for some indeterminable reason. unfortunately i found the people of medellin even harder to understand than the coast of colombia, and i often wondered if they were even speaking spanish, since i could understand nothing at times. it´s actually obscene how much the vocabulary changes from central america. a little horrific, if you ask me.

the woman of colombia are supposed to be unanimously gorgeous, and i did not find them especially good-looking until i got to medellin. they´re pretty pretty. this was confirmed by the funny brit with whom i wondered to the teleferico. and then those gorgeous girls made fun of his leg hair and my nose ring. hm.

the metro made me feel like i was in toronto or something and i got all nostalgic. strange thing to make someone feel nostalgic, no? i can´t begin to describe how much i prefer metros or trams to buses. such a better form of transportation- the stops are clear, you´re generally not thrown around the way you are on a bus if you´re standing up, no traffic, smooth, super fast, clean and air-conditioned... just a better feeling.

anyway, i went to santa fe to antioquia (the strangest word to pronounce... took me a while to get it down), near the city, and wondered why anyone bothers to visit here. it was a cute little town, but nothing special about it at ALL, unless i missed something. anyway, i stumbled upon a vegetarian restaurant(VERY rare in colombia, and especially rare in a small town) while wandering , and had nice conversations with the workers and a lady that was eating there. they had to try to describe pumpkins and random fruits with no english name to me so that i could order (i.e. i didn´t know the spanish names). i ended up really talking to the lady sitting and found out she was a nutritionist and presently studying bioenergetics and she invited me to her house so that i could see it and take photos (i misinterpreted, she actually said she would show me photos, of places in colombia). i thought this was a little strange, but i was bored and thought it´d be pretty cool, and it´s always good to connect with ¨locals¨ (that´s such a cliche snobby traveller thing to say, but whatev), so i went. she had this adorable dog that kept jumping on me and a beautiful house and view from up top and then she showed me more photos (poorly photographed) than i would ever need to see of colombia, describing to me the places all along the way. it was really sweet. then she jumped up and told me she had a CD of photos, she thought. she stuck an unlabelled CD in and it began to play with only sound, and it sounded like a female breathing heavily... sexually. awkward. it was one of those moments where neither of you wants to admit what you´re watching, so you pretend it´s normal and act as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. then the image popped up and it was a girl masturbating to porn. we both were a little shocked, though i suppose expecting this. then we both just burst out laughing and she says that THIS must be the reason her husband told their son that this CD was ¨boring adult stuff¨. omigod, how funny is that? then it got even more ridiculous as a priest walked in, and her grandparents and her whole family and her dog pulls off the sheets, etc etc (yes that´s right, we kept watching... so strange!). it was all so SO random. santa fe ended with me discussing canada with an old man at a cafe while waiting for my bus. i bid him adieu as he shouted through the bus window that i MUST return! so although there was nothing to do in santa fe, i had a pretty good time in the end.

in medellin itself, i went to the art museums (one was enormous and full of awesome works like crazy jesus pop art), another hare krishna restaurant (twice... hare krishna´s are LOVIN colombia), wandered and wandered.
outside of one museum there was an array of botero sculptures, and one was a reclining nude, chubby as ever (all of botero´s works are really chubby people... you´ve probably seen his works and don´t even know it). a man and his very young son walked up beside it to take a photo and the dad grabs his son´s hand and slaps the woman´s behind, smiling to the camera. i wonder where latin men get it from? passed down through the generations, expressed subtly in reactions to botero nudes. botero´s male nudes have unfortunately proportioned gold manhoods, while the rest is a dull grey-black.
the campesino cheese in colombia is generally extraordinary- like solid ricotta. i was obsessed with it.
in medellin i also went paragliding as a so-called birthday present for myself (i would have done it if it weren´t near my birthday too), which was probably the highlight of my medellin experience. it was SO cool. not only were the people at the top so incredibly friendly and funny that i was sad to jump off the mountain and leave them (the air was too cold, so we couldn´t land at the top again afterwards- you need warm air to lift up), but the feeling was incredibe and the views were pretty great too! it was so ridiculously calming that i took a photo of my face in heavenly bliss- you´re just floating and there are no sounds except for the wind flapping the glider once in awhile and you´re moving in such fluid motions and... it´s just incredible. super tranquilo. i´d really recommend it to anyone. the scenery could have been better than a giant city, but whatev- there were mountains and a few waterfallls and it was good for a first time. it was funny because i woke up that morning to beautiful splendid sunshine, then got on the bus and it was a little cloudy, get to the top of the mountain and it´s fully cloudy and expecting rain, it sprinkles while i fly, which is the worst condition, and then it´s blistering sun when i touchdown. ohhhh well. it was still lovely. i saw birds flying with some independent gliders- that was cute.

in terms of nightlife, i felt super sick and tired so i was in bed between 7-8 for two or three nights, but i had one big night out with two brits, an american, and a new zealander- really fun crowd. hilariously, i saw the nutritionist with her family in the bar district! what a family night. we gorged on disgustingly sweet mojitos and piña coladas and long islands at a collection of bars with ¨3 for 1 deals¨ (so stupid, they have different prices for the drinks when they´re 3 for 1.. so that they only come to 2 for 1... but it´s effective- they got us into the bar and we all stayed anyway) and then hit the craziest club i´ve ever been to. we left too early for it to get too rowdy, but it was a cowboy theme, which no one warned us of previously, full of dancing midgets i felt sorry for, 5 other stages full of scantily clad men and women and salsa dancers and motionless breasts and when you walk in you´re covered in confetti and your photo is taken with randomly costumed characters, and then... and then there´s the bathroom. by far, my favourite part. for one, it´s also the backstage for the dancers. there´s a makeup artist at your disposal. there are candies. and the faucets are furry horse heads, while the basin is a long trough. i felt like i was in a different world.. it was so fun. you´ve got to give latin america credit- they work for that cover charge. i danced with one girl´s boyfriend and he pretended he was gay, limp-wristed and flamboyant and we had so much fun dancing. he made a real effort to include me, since i was kindof a fifth wheel for the dance ¨sequences¨, which was nice of him. we then hit another club and i got bored and left.

three hours from medellin (and yet i still made this a day trip) is a giant sugarloaf mountain named el peñol that has a PHENOMENAL 360 view of the surrounding simple islands, littered throughout the lake below. it was like looking down on millions of tiny mounds placed on a hazy mirror. it was so so very beautiful. all the way up and down the climb to the top i talked to nearly every person i passed. colombians are so extraordinarily friendly- i love it. at the top, a family asked if i wanted to take their picture, with me, with my camera. weird, but why not? our first photo was a ¨yay canada¨ thumbs up photo, the next was more serious. good times atop the rock. i then sat at the top alone and enjoyed the view. two men came up right when i was leaving and i asked him if they wanted me to take their photo since i was going down right then. they said they´d appreciate that. on the way down the mountain i told a spanish (when i say spanish i generally mean from spain, by the way) lady that i liked her bag, and we talked for awhile. although i only understood about 30% of her incredibly fast, lispy spanish, she had a lovely smile and was really sweet, so i just kept pretending i understood her. at the bottom on the hill, i waited for the bus, and about 15 minutes later, a car pulled up containing the photo men from up top and the older lady with the nice bag, asking me if i wanted a ride! awesome. they drove me halfway, which saved me some nice money that i offered for gas, and saved a lot of time too (buses stop a lot and are slower anyway). how lovely.

next, i was off to bogota, the capital. during the long night bus there, there were many stops for bathroom and food. at one stop, while i was standing out in front of the bus, a man told me that travelling colombia was dangerous, which is, from my experience and those that i have spoken to, completely false. (it is no more dangerous than any other country in the world, unless maybe you´re into drug smuggling.) i told him that no, that´s just what everyone thinks (which is actually a beautiful blessing because it keeps the turistas away), and he agreed. so really, even the country´s people are propogating the same lie, and then denying it! colombia´s bad name can be attributed to this dogmatic assumption and propogation of lies. anyway, i was lying across two seats for the bus ride and at points it was bumpy so head to handle contact meant i woke up with a bruised ear. awkward place to bruise. in bogota, i was there for the worst days- sunday, an uneventful holiday monday, and a boring tuesday. i really shouldn´t have come, but live n learn.

the first day i wandered a lot and in an artisan market i met leandro, who wanted me to fill out a questionaire. we walked some and he bought me a delicious mandarin and then he then led me to the funicular up mount serrat (though he left me there because it´s expensive). i was supposed to maybe call him later to go dancing, but my deadly fear of fones guaranteed that i had a lonely and uneventful evening. the view from serrat was quite spectacular- the clouds left pattern across the city below, mountains in the distance.. quite nice. at my hostel, there was a tv room before the courtyard, so everyone went to the tv instead of chiling in the courtyard, which ensured we were all miigghhttyy anti-social. i really did not like it. the only good thing that came of it was me watching city of god, which is an incredibly well-done movie, watch it! the night ended with me eating a cheese sandwich in a wine shop (the only place open with veg food at all) getting hit on by two old professors practising their english. they were amusing. i bought a bottlá wine and since my birthday was that next day, i thought i´d get an early start. only intending to drink one glass, i ended up downing the entire bottle of sour wine, save one glass for a girl in the tv room, and falling asleep, sad, 5 minutes before 12. at least i slept well.

on my birthday, hip hip horray, i decided to go to the salt cathedral. the universe sent me some company in the form of a 58-year old brazilian man named luis. we met on the bus because he heard me ask the bus man directions to the cathedral and he was going too. he was a REALLY fascinating guy- lived all over the world, speaks like 8 languages, had lots of fun stories and interesting conversation. i really enjoyed his company a lot. i was a little depressed so i mentioned it was my birthday and he got all excited and gave me a huge hug and planted a big kiss on my cheek while yelling happy birthday in portugese! it almost made me cry- i was fragile, i didn´t want to talk about it.. i don´t know why i brought it up. he treated me to a lunch (after we search for about half an hour for any place serving anything other than chicken) and we wandered to the beautiful plaza that looks like a sand dune (for some reason, the tan brick rounds up smoothly around every palm tree, so it´s like a skateboard park, or, as mentioned, sand dunes). we then walked up the hill to the cathedral, which was not at ALL what either of us were expecting. i was thinking a big beautiful white cathedral. this place was underground, thus reeking of sulfur, sculpted from old salt mines, dark (both in lighting and rock- salt is black after oxidized, or something like that) and eerily lit so that the cathedral ironically resembled something more like a vampire´s lair than a house of God. it was fascinating and for once i paid attention to a tour and it was much more interesting than had we just walked in and had a look. if water hit the cathedral, everything could eventually disintegrate. crazy.
luis was a wonderful and welcome distraction for the day, but then i spent my birthday eve drinking one beer alone in the courtyard and just got really sad. it was a pretty low time for me- a mid-trip crisis, i think. no good. had ANYTHING been open i would have gone out, but there was absolutely nothing to be had that holiday monday. i thank everyone for the birthday messages- they almost made me cry because i was still fragile heh. them and luis made my day!

i should have gone to salento the night before, but i had high hopes for my birthday so i chose NOT to spend my birthday eve on a night bus. so this next day was an intentional waste. the bogota comtemporary art museum is pretty awful. found a nice toothbrush. the really nice falafel place made my day.

salento took my breath away. it was so calm, so incredibly beautiful and quaint and i´ve never really been anywhere like it. salento is in the zona cafetera, full of coffee plantations that litter the surrounding hilltains (i don´t know, it´s not a mountain, it´s more than a hill... i´m using this neologism from now on), giving it the patchwork look and texturizing the entire area (love texture). warm greetings from the people who guided me, local by local, to the plantation house. since i arrived on the night bus, i was out the door again at around 10 to hike the cocora valley with a group of folk from the hostel. we stopped first at this house with crazy views and my GOD was it stunning. then off to the valley, which was absolutely MAGNIFICENT. it´s full of wax palms, colombia´s tall, skinny elegant and pretty quirky national plant- all separated by bright lime green fields and the odd spotting of cow and horse. so gorgeous. the boys took horses up the mountain and i climbed it with aarti, who gave up an hour into the hike. it was hilaaariously muddy. i just gave in and got dirty. i had stitched the front of my shoes up that morn because they were completely falling apart after the ciudad perdida trek, but within seconds upon hitting the mud suction i had ripped tham apart again. the holes in my heels arranged lovely wet-mud entry to my white socks. for some reason i made it up just slightly after them, where i was greeted with amazing hot chocolate and a brick of delicious cheese (chocolate and cheese is common here) by a chatty local woman. i walked up another hour or so, but there was absolutely no view through the thick fog unfortunately, so i turned back. farmers were minding their fields when i regressed and they told me i should walk in their fields instead of in the mud. i asked how i was supposed to do this and they lifted the barbed wire an inch for me, so now it was a good six inches off the ground... i evaluated the situation and laughed and told them i´d prefer the mud.
that eve we played tejo- a game involving concrete pucks and gun powder, and then we played yanniv, an incredibly famous card game with israeli travellers (and thus now all travellers.. though shithead still reigns king amongst those in transit). by the end we had about ten people int he game and it was a lot of fun. thw two brits, tim and jamie, are such nice, genuine, accepting guys- i was impressed by them.

next day i went to the plantations with three others. it was a beautiful walk there and we had a really good time. the old man who gave us the tour of the traditional plantation was super sweet- constantly asking if we understood the spanish and giving us mandarins and surpisingly juicy oranges and passionfruit (if you just suck it up instead of biting the seeds, it´s only sweet and not sour! who knew?). i was taking a photo of the old man in the drying area for the beans and i was trying to avoid having the swissman in it, and hamil noted ¨yea, get that white person out of the photo,¨ which made me laugh- it´s ssoooo true. anyway, i learned that no strain of bean makes it stronger, only changes the flavour, that you can use two different strains of beans in one coffee because they have the same taste, and that freshly ground coffee is surprisingly good! i don´t even drink coffee and i really enjoyed it. team switzerland and i headed back while the other two went to a new coffee farm. we tried to get lost, but it didn´t work. we had a relaxing time chatting about energies and travel and life by the river, then talked to a local artist in this random town along the way.

that night i was convinced to go to cali the next day, the birthplace of salsa, because it was a weekend and i wanted one good colombian rumba before i left. i went with the aforementioned tim and jamie, and tom, another brit. tin and i had really deep conversation on the ride there- we talked about shel´s theory about serial monogamy (only stay with someone until you´re no longer happy, then move on to the next, which i see the merits of, but there´s something to be said for working things out and overcoming obstacles together) and how i feel ashamed to have to be drunk to have fun in most bars/clubs (he told me that´s normal because that area is designed for people under an influence- they always seem really lame when you´re not in that mind state. like a playground for kids- it´s not designed for parents, it´s designed for children... that made me feel better). we were both torn on the subject. anyway, i loved my room in cali for some reason, and we went to a zoo that they assured me was all wild and safari-like instead of zoo-y (i dislike zoos). they lied. i enjoyed the fish (there´s a turtle with a head like a rock! looks like a dinosaur- sooo crazy-looking) and the birds, until the birds started squawking like death and i felt bad again. i saw an anaconda trying to escape by biting through the wire (eek). a frighteningly wide-eyed hilarious llama. jamie is crazy and tried to catch the catfish in the outdoor pond. he also changed his voice while talking to random folk and he maintains this alteration the extent of their conversation. in the taxi to the zoo i was CRYING it was so hilarious. he put on a husky super-creeper voice and carried it through the ENTIRE ride. i can´t tell you how funny it was. as smart as we were, every single one of us forgot where the hostel was located and failed to have business cards, so we got dropped off at a mall and asked around for awhile before finding our way home.
that night i saw more salsa bars than i´ve ever seen in my life. sixth avenue is just FULL of them- it´s almost impossible to go to any other type of bar. the night went by incredibly fast and by the time 2 hit and the bars were closing, we hadn´t even danced! a night is rarely a night out without dancing, and ESPECIALLY in cali! so... i decided i had to stay another noche heh.

this decision was strengthened when, chatting with a german in the kitchen the next morn, dave from guatemala showed up! i was so happy to see him and decided i´d for sure stay another night. strangely, we were staying at a place called iguana, and where we met in guatemala was the lost iguana! weeeiirrrdd.
my day was a waste, but that night we rounded up a huge fun crew and the night was almost filled with dancing! yay. unfortunately, i can´t dance salsa, so it was a lot of me just dancing how i want to really good music, while salsa queens are likely scoffing at me behind my back. i danced one slow, lame starters salsa which i was nevertheless really proud of! we tried to find a hip hop club and failed miserably. the night was fille with free popcorn and beer in giant tubes with faucets.

went to san cipriano the next day with dave and four others. i just needed to waste a day so i could take the night bus, and there´s NOTHING to do in cali. so i followed them to s.c., which is really strange. its draw is that it´s a colony of black people in the jungle. that´s it. ah, and you take a motorbike with planks attached to it down the railway in order to arrive at their village. that was a little thrilling, but that was the extent of it. the river we swam in was clear and cold, so that was kinda nice. there was a small waterfall. we got kinda scammed for a lot of money and argued with them a lot which really soured the end of the trip, but oh well. wasted my day, anyway. on the bus ride back, i rediscovered my love for leaning out windows and waving wildly at strangers. i received nearly unanimously friendly responses, including ¨out-of-their-mind enthused to be interacting with humans¨ hermits. made me smile.

off to popoyan that night. casa el descanso reminded me of grandma and grandpa´s place- so cozy and covered in crafts and fabric and all things homemade. felt so homely. we couldn´t find the light to our room and we wandered around for about twenty minutes, inside and out, looking for the switch. there was a craft of little homes on the wall and dave said ¨i can´t believe i´m trying this¨ and started moving each house hoping that one would prove to be a secret hidden switch. it was hysterical. we felt so idiotic, but felt less so when we discovered it BEHIND THE BED. who puts a light switch behind a bed?! i guess it makes more sense, so you can turn off the light before bed without rising, but... shuddup. when dave was in his bed, he told me before we turned off the switch ¨sometimes i do this¨ and swished his feet back and forth, without continuing his sentence. i laughed like mad and then he continued ¨you know i´m asleep when i stop.¨ it may not sound like it because it´s possibly all in his tone and composure but he´s one of the funniest people i´ve ever met.

next morn we split because he wanted to be off to san agustin quickly and i wanted to look around popoyan a little. there was nothing to see except white buildings, i soon found out, and caught a collectivo to the bus terminal. dave´s bus hadn´t even left yet so we were on the same bus anyway. hooray. unfortunately, i sat at the back with him which was an extremely bad BAD idea because this ride was terribly rough and the only ones affeected were the four seats in the last row. it was so bad that i cracked my head two or three times off the top and had to hold on for dear life for the entire 6 hours, my feet constantly flew into the air and slammed down each time, and innumerable times involuntary ¨hmph¨ noises were squeezed from my chest as the bumps caught me on the exhale, (the act of which was performed 3/6 hours, clearly), and the wind was forced from my throat. we were higher than the other seats too so we couldn´t even enjoy the view. it was kindof hellish and after awhile time didn´t exist and you couldn´t take anything seriously or you might request a stop and jump off the next cliff. i´ve been on a LOT of buses and this has been the second worst ever, only failing to beat my 18 hour 190km northern laos mud trip because it lasted 1/3 the time, though the ride was far worse. the people in the seats in front of us were actually sleeping. i was so jealous.

we checked in at el jardin in san agustin, which is full of birds squawking ridiculous in these enormous cages in the lobby. i stared at them blankly and slowly, bluntly stated in awe ¨but that is SO bad for business¨, which dave found mighty amusing. the next day dave took a chiva (big open-air bus-like thing) tour while i took a free self-guided tour of the countryside. san agustin is known for archaelogical ruins, but i found the countryside to be much more fascinating, as usual. there was one spot where you need to walk down this cliff almost and there´s this absolutely spectacular breath-taking view below. it even made the hell-ride all worth it (that says a lot!). it was shocked, i couldn´t stop gasping and telling the man i saw on the way how incredibly beautiful it was. below was rolling, but steep hilltains and a huge canyon to your right with many layers of mountain legs adding interest, a raging river at your feet, multiple waterfalls to the left, skinny and nuzzled all cozy in the the lush, steep hillsides- they almost looked manmade they were so perfect. so, so lovely. that was the bext part of the walk, but nearly everywhere i walked to for five hours was gorgeous and amazing- it was probably the best walk i have had my entire trip (like, not a trek, but walk).
there were few signs to direct you, as usual, so i inevitably got lost a few times. at one point i asked a man leading a horse carting tons of bamboo if he knew where the next site was located. he started tying up his horse and i told him it was not necessary for him to lead me, i just needed a general direction. he said he knew that, knelt down, and lifted the barbed wire an inch for me (it must be a colombian thing). this time there was enough room for me to sneak under, so i did so and he pointed me randomly across the field. what a nice guy. i didn´t think i´d find it with the random point of the finger, but i did, and i ate my gigantic avocado (they don´t have hass avocadoes here- they´re huge and more watery, less creamy) on the hilltaintop.

that eve, dave and i convened with dave 2 and had a grand time. dave 2 is the only white guy that has EVER agreed with a local who said i was pretty. i never realized it until then. whenever i´m with travellers and a local and the local comments on my looks, the travellers always brush it off, which isn´t particularly nice. i must say, i do commend the latinos on their bluntness- it´s so different and more honest than the western way, though annoying at times. i saw mike from the panama-colombian sailing ride and i joined him and four local guys while they played bongos and guitars and drank beer in the park. they were really nice and open, i enjoyed it.

next day we were off to pasto. dave played his ukulele at the bus terminals and on the bus and it was really nice. there were two narcotic checks on the journey and after one, there was white powder scattered on the floor of the bus... which made us laugh, and wonder. the hilltains from mocoa to pasto were stunning and incredibly dense. it made me wonder who was the first to decide ¨we´ll just build a road *flutter hand over map* all through here- sides of cliffs, through the dense green- PERFECT.¨ furthermore, the first to stand in the thick of it all, surrounded on all sides, at every angle, by foliage, and remark to their dearest ¨now this is where we should settle down!,¨ moving their arms to indicate the spot, therefore moving all branches with them and unintentionally gnawing on leaves that sneak between their lips while speaking, spitting verde. crazy peoples.

in pasto, dave left for ecuador while i wanted to spend a day there. the next day i was running out of colombian pesos and didn´t want to take out more, so i tried to exchange ten american dollars since that was all i would need. the bank thought i was ridiculous and doing all the paperwork for ten dollars, they wanted my original passport, which i did not bring with me. bah! but then i got a bus to the volcano and i asked a man if it was safe to climb, since the danger levels changes all the time. he told me i should talk to the policia. i walked up and he told me it was safe, but i shouldn´t go alone (but he didn´t give me a reason why). i told him i was goign to go and he told me to wait, and he´d give me a ride up. i knew there was a police spot up the volcano, so i figured they were going anyway, and i gladly accepted the ride because that meant i could be back in time to go to the lake and then leave colombia in time so that i wouldn´t need more money. the two officers were really sweet and kept stopping the van when they saw me trying to take a photo. it was touching. at the top i found out that had driven the entire way just for me! in total they wasted about 1.5-2 hours with me! how sweet. oh, colombia *sigh*. the views were phenomenal, but i couldn´t go to the top of the volcano because it was level 3. i got a free tour of the park thing though because the police gave a ranger a ride up, mid-way. good times.
back in the town, i saw a photo of the lake i wanted to go to and decided that that trip was unnecessary and i left pasto and headed for ecuador! due to a misunderstanding with the taxi guy (he just blatantly ignored the fact that i said i was going to santuario de las lajas, and not the border), i ended up in ecuador. oh well. the ecuador-colombia border is so loose it is no wonder to me how colombia can export 80% of the world´s cocaine.

so in conclusion, colombia: the country i said, in more ignorant times, i would never travel alone to... : check!
colombia was just what i needed at the time in every way, including not feeling so much like a tourist for 5 weeks. what a lovely time.
ciao, mis amores : ) i wish that all is well.

so now it´s time for random additions:

- it´s so interesting how, in learning a new language, you can understand how others speak too... for example, in spanish they don´t say ¨do¨s like we do. the verb ¨to do¨ exists, but they don´t say, for example, ¨do you dance?¨- they would always just say ¨you dance?¨. that´s a bad example, but anyway, this would explain why they might leave this out when speaking basic english. also, the conditional, ¨polite¨ way of saying things (would, could, should), isn´t really used often in the spanish down here, so this may explain why a spanish person could appear blunt and rude when speaking english, if they´re not used to using the conditional sense. i don´t know if that makes sense... but i think it´s really interesting.
- i knew this before but now it´s even more clear: i NEED windows- without them my mood darkens, i can´t wake, light just makes me so happy.
- i will NOT miss colombian beans. bland, thick, potato-like- bllaaahh.
- on a night bus, a film by columbia pictures came up and i freaked out, flipping wildly through my dictionary for the spelling of colombia, thinking i had been misspelling it this whole time.
- i´m starting to forget english words and prefer using many spanish words in place of their english counterpart. especially ¨bridge¨ for some reason. i always resort to puente.