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 …
Did you enjoy the mistakes, lessons learned, and funny stuff from my previous post? Here are some more… (it’s never-ending, really) Traffic, pollution, and a dramatic decrease in the desire to run……. so disappointing. I’m an ex-triathlete and still a big runner. In Colorado my passion was to run trails and I’d get lost in my mind, happy as a …
Moving to any new place involves transition and discomfort – in a weird, maybe sadistic way, it’s part of the appeal of choosing to make a huge change. Accepting that there will be unknown challenges but believing you have sufficient tools to deal with them is like playing a “game” of adaptation. I want to share with you some of …
No matter how important we say they are, first impressions can be unfair. Depending on the situation, it is very possible you don’t have nearly enough information to assimilate an impression that is just. Upon many of my first impressions of Colombia, I have been delighted- sometimes simply due to the fact that everything is new and intriguing. Later on, …
I just returned from a backpacking trip with my two brothers. It was fabulous that they made the time and effort to come to Colombia to visit me. I’m thrilled to have been able to share a bit of my Colombian life with my immediate family (my parents were here in August)! From a word-of-mouth recommendation, I booked a …
We’re back into rainier months in Bogota. It rains here frequently anyway, but during a couple months twice a year it rains even more. I’ve been through one season so far, April-May, which was pretty darn wet. The reasonably nice days have begun to change just this past week, and heavier rain has occurred in the afternoons and late at …
Let’s call her Whitney. And maybe she’ll grow up to save the world one English lesson at a time….. My parents had no idea of the road I’d take them on over the years on as I’ve grown, changed, made 1000 mistakes, needed help, changed my mind, explored new roads, stayed on some of the same roads, changed my mind …
A neon sign in a bike shop caught my eye during a Sunday Ciclovia ride: Se Vende La Calidad De Vida which means “Quality of Life Sold Here”. It made me laugh. My previous career being a Wellness Director for a wonderful retirement community (Frasier Meadows in Boulder, CO), it would have been really convenient to have “Quality of Life” for …
I teach a variety of levels of English to my business-professional students. Most of them are high-level speakers already, but I have a couple who are closer to a beginner. I have a lot of respect for each of them because they are busy juggling work and life and learning a second language. Language mastery is quite difficult, especially as …
I’ve never lived in a city that covers a huge area of land, or is extremely densely-populated, so Bogota is new to me for this reason as well as all the other reasons that fall under “South America”. But I’m sure some of the challenges and the access/opportunities are similar to what exists in New York City, San Francisco, and …