From time to time, I’m going to write more about my life in Colombia, and this post is dedicated to a very important person there. Raul Posse is the man who hired me to teach English for a language school in Bogotá which specializes in providing personalized one-on-one or small group classes for business English language learners. Not only was …
This week I sat down and looked at all the topics about which I want to write, and they felt so trivial in light of recent events in our country. The back-to-back shootings less than 15 hours apart over the weekend of Aug 3-4 has our nation reeling, yet again. The words “terrible” and “horrifying” and “tragic” are appropriate, but …
At 22 years of age, I graduated college from Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. That time of my life has been on my mind because I recently visited friends in San Luis Obispo (commonly called “SLO”). I haven’t spent any significant time there since graduating and therefore, being in SLO brought back many a memory, and some reflection. …
I’ll never forget the tears that just kept coming, back on March 10, 2018, as my plane took off from San Francisco: final destination Bogotá. I was excited and happy that I’d made the decision and finished all the preparations to move to Colombia for a year, but the overwhelming feelings of unknown and having chosen to go far from my …
I feel like I’ve developed a relationship with you, dear readers, and to maintain the transparency in this relationship, I have to be honest with you. I struggled during December, and it’s not because I was lonely at Christmas (which I wasn’t). My move to a much smaller city in the coffee region of Colombia was a bit tough. Yes …
I arrived in Chinchiná, Caldas within the Eje Cafetero (coffee-growing) region of Colombia on Saturday. I chose this move in order to have a different experience particularly for the holiday season. The organization Minga House coordinates volunteers to help with a wide variety of community needs. Many of their volunteers are foreigners who come for a meaningful travel experience and …
Today was a planned shorter day, since I walked longer yesterday in the sunshine. It rained a lot last night – I heard it – but I awoke to a partly cloudy/sunny morning. I eased into the morning, no rush needed. Bacchus, the only other pilgrim who stayed in the albergue last night, was getting ready to go about when …
I slept in today after going to bed around 1am. It was so nice to have my comfy hotel room. I went downstairs to the cafe attached to the hotel and purchased a big slab of pumpkin bread (er, cake; let’s be honest), brought it back up to my room and made tea. (Please can I have this life forever?!) …
Walked about 30 minutes from my albergue that was on the outskirts of a slightly bigger town called Pedrouzo Arca, or Arca, and found a cafe where I could order a real breakfast and do some journalling. Not in a hurry, and it feels nice to take this time, especiallly as I get closer and closer to the “main destination” …
No one was in a rush to leave this small Foncebadon albergue today, so I got up about 7:30. For the first time I didn’t really sleep that well. My bed was right by the door which led out to the bathrooms. Any time anyone got up to use it, the automatic hall light would go on, and sometime the door …