Friends, Visitors and Manu Chao

The best part of this semester has been the many visitors I have had, some planned others not so much. A week or so ago I saw a mendocino friend Austin Roberts post on facebook that he was headed to south America and what do you know he was flying into Bogotá. Just so happened that the timing for his trip matched up perfectly with with the Manu Chao concert in Medellín. I mentioned it to him and the next thing we know Lloyd and I are having margaritas with Austin in Parque Lleras and heading to Manu Chao. The city was buzzing about the concert, everyone my age I know in Medellín was going or was wishing they could go. I had a feeling it was gonna be good.


I've been to a fair amount of concerts this past here in Colombia, some were certainly better than others, I remember some better than others, some venues were certainly better than others, some served alcohol others did not, some had hour breaks between artists, other began at 2 am. What i'm trying to say is that the latest, Manu Chao, was by far the best concert I've been to in the last year. The venue was perfect, the crowd was better, the energy was wonderful and the music was great! Here are two videos from the night. The biggest bummer of the whole thing is that i didn't bring my camera. :(

Desaparicido-Manu Chao, Medellín 2012

Welcome to Tijuana-Manu Chao Medellín 2012

My parents left about a week ago. I'm sure many of you have already heard their stories so it will be not be necessary to describe all the adventures we had together. It was quite fun and i truly enjoyed showing them around my new home and introducing them a bit to my life here and the magic, beauty and uniqueness of Colombia. Some photos...

In Guatapé

overlooking the dam

Alirio's vegetable garden

We did the Pablo Escobar tour, which I hadn't done and was looking forward to doing. Now I've realized that its better to not mention to Paisas that you went on the Pablo Escobar tour because they don't quite understand why we (foreigners) would be interested in that man. Furthermore, many like to pretend like he never existed. The times I have mentioned it to Paisas they either go silent or look at me confused. There are many reasons for this response, but in general it is something people say with a hushed voice or don't mention at all. One cannot deny that Medellín has not changed that much, its all still alive and well just pushed out of the downtown areas of the city. Its all very complicated and obvious the deeper you begin to understand this place.

as part of the tour we were shown these old artifacts that were in Pablo's jail. yup those are his briefs, who knew Pablo was a nut-hugger type.?

After waving my parents goodbye as they headed up to the airport to fly back to Florida, I sighed. It was not exactly a sigh of relief nor a sigh of sadness. It was a sigh of reality perhaps. Having my parents gone now means I am entering the final stage of my time in Colombia. Lloyd leaves Wednesday and then the visitor phase is truly over. This saddens me a bit as it has been absolutely wonderful having a best friend to do everything with, even if its spending a Saturday night on the balcony talking about life. So here I am looking at two (maybe two and a half) more months in Colombia and it all looks like a blur. I don't have any solid plans and I really don't know what the next two months will bring. Some travelling hopefully will occur so that I can check off my much shortened Colombia Bucket List. Other than that I don't really know. I was thinking about it yesterday and how I see two options: Fall deeper into the Colombian culture and life as to absorb up everything before I leave making it a thousand times harder to go back home (Ecuador experience). Or start to prepare myself for departure now, not saying that I'm gonna totally step away from trying to deepen my existence in Medellín life but start to emotionally detach so that when I return home in early June I will mentally and emotionally be in some kind of limbo land hopefully making it easier to absorb back into the US culture and start to shape my life in California.

Will I be ready to go? Yes, for the most part I am, however there is a huge part of me dripping with fear about returning to California and trying to start a path towards "real life" and a successful future. I'm afraid of regret. Of regretting not staying after I go home. I know there are great opportunities here that with a little effort, luck and energy I might be able to find, but I have not felt a motivation to find them. I received a message from another friend on a Fulbright who has decided to extend her grant, now this is not an option with the Fulbright Colombia commission but hearing this exciting news gave me back that twing of fear. It made me question if I should stay, if going home was truly the right choice. But then the social pressures I tend to put on myself fall away and I realize that I'm done here. This it he time of the stay where the little Colombian quirks that have always been annoying start to really get to you, I remember the same thing happening in Ecuador. I'm done living in a huge city, I'm done living in an overly male dominant society, I'm done over-consuming fried food and meat, I'm done living in a strong Catholic society, I'm done breathing poor air quality, I'm done seeing plastic girls with a bitch face and ugly hair, I'm done being stared at, I'm done being honked at, whistled at and cat called, I'm done living far away from the place and people who give me strength and happiness, and most of all I'm done feeling useless and under-utilized. I know that its time to go for now, I know that returning will be hard and I will find myself in a moment of wishing I stayed, but I know that if I stayed it would be hard. But I am excited. I know great opportunities will cross my path if I put myself out there to find them. No need to be afraid. 

I wrote a blog when I was two months in, now I have a little over two months left. I can undoubtedly say I am a slightly changed person and most importantly I am much happier and content now than I was then. I've gone through it all and come out the other end and its been a wild and fully enjoyable ride.