WEEK 1

The adventure has begun. I’ve now been here a week and have already had the funniest and most random experiences. My Top 2:

1) Colombian Independence Day: Meg and I spent the day with Brian (her Colombian friend) and his friend Simon doing as the Colombians do. There were fireworks and a military parade in the morning downtown and Alimentarte (a food fair) all afternoon in a park uptown. Alimentarte was like a “Taste of [fill in U.S. city].” Great restaurants of all types had tents with food from their menu and you could find traditional Colombian food, Argentinean food, Peruvian food, Spanish food, etc. I felt like I had traveled around the world via delicious cuisine. I was flooded with nostalgia and memories of all the great places I’ve been the past 4 years and the foods I’ve eaten…I must say, though, I’ve found nothing that beats an empanada as best all-around snack. In addition to food, the fair featured steel drum bands, dancers, singers, street performers, and the Colombian U-20 national soccer team doing tricks with soccer balls.

In true Latin American form, the big event of the evening was the Copa América 2011 soccer match being played that night between Venezuela and Paraguay. Allegiance to celebrating their nation took a major backseat to Colombian’s allegiance to soccer. Personally, I didn’t care which team won, but I still really enjoyed watching the game and re-immersing myself in a soccer culture. I’m still amazed by the power of soccer to unify a people and completely stop all other activity in a nation. I love it. The FIFA U-20 World Cup is being held in Colombia and begins July 29^th. I cannot even begin to express how pumped I am. My current goal is to find a ticket to one of the games. Although the final rounds are being played in Bogota, there will be games in Cali leading up to it. The amount of publicity and excitement for this tournament is incredible! You wouldn’t even guess it was the Under-20 World Cup—Colombians are exhibiting just as much passion and pride as if this were the normal World Cup (memo: need to align my life plans with being in Brazil in 2014).

2) Night Out at Andrés D.C. (BEST club in Bogota): Continuing our decision to “do as the Colombians do,” Meg and I took her Colombian’s friend advice and went out Thursday night to a restaurant-club named Andrés D.C. It’s a restaurant that turns into a club around 11 pm. It has 5 floors, 3 of which feature different types of Latin music and are named heaven, hell, and purgatory; it was QUITE the fun experience (no worries, it’s in a safe, ritzy neighborhood). Meg and I had a delicious dinner around 10 pm, during which we were singled out by the restaurant’s traveling band (4 guys who travel between the floors performing and dancing) and forced to stand up and dance salsa with the lead guy in front of everyone. They put Colombian-colored sashes on us and crowned us, so I guess I’ve finally earned my princess title :P

Post-dinner, we went upstairs to Purgatory and fully immersed ourselves in Colombian culture. We ordered the local drinks and then spent the next 4 hours gaining first-hand experience with Colombian hospitality. We friended Colombians, Mexicans, and Brazilians and I, of course, spent the last 2 hours in bliss on the dance floor. I’m falling in love all over again with Hispanic culture: the people’s joy for life, their love of dancing (actual dance moves), and the omnipresence of salsa music….

Welcome to Colombia.