colOmbia

yes, i emphasized the O in colombia. there is no U....get it right. so..i went to colombia for 9 days last april/may. i write about it over a year later, because master's degree part II has taken my attention from my blog. and i have also been encouraged by a friend to keep up with my writings. onward.

we landed in bogota april 28...i had dipped out of a class called "end of the west" a week early to make the journey (i got a B for claiming that the us and france had a positive future--the professor was germna-swiss..you do the math).....so, it was cold! coming from tropical florida to mountainous colombia...change of pace. unfortunately, i had only brought one pair of jeans and some sneakers that looked ridiculous with them.

we hung out in the city a couple of nights. good scene...relatively cheap in comparison to america. we took some buses out to the salt cathedral, which was far worth the sojourn. a friend and i licked the wall. mind you, swine scares were at their zenith at this time, but we didnt care. we survived. the next day, someone apparently died from the swine flu at, or shortly after having visited, the edifice. i survived, so did my friend. in fact, my group was 7 deep, and none of us contracted the disease. so we took a night bus to bucaramanga the next day. let me tell you, night buses are awesome...they're cheap AND they save you the fee of one night's accommodation. ;)

bucaramanga was much much hotter. we spent some time in a market, and shopping by street vendors. we went to the quaint town of giron for a few hours, and moved on, via taxi, to a nearby farm. finding a taxi was hard; but, getting up that damn mountain was harder. two cabs, stuffed with 9 people (we had acquired some friends) later, we arrived at the finca. one word: breathtaking. okay, we got there at night, so i didn't actually see anything, but i did the next morning. some of us went for a walk through the valleys; some of us slept in. then we went parapente...that was one of the highlights of this trip. paragliding, in english, i suppose. imagine jumping off of a hill and flying over a valley for fifteen minutes. frightening? absolutely...but, the adreniline rush...much greater....id do it a million times again...and it was only about 20 bucks!

next, we took a bus to santa marta. slept through the night again. hung out in santa marta for a bit before finding a ride out to parque tayrona (must see). there, we saw little monkeys and hiked an hour to the cabanas on the beach. the park is very peaceful and serene...it has this vibe--a partially hippie one...that makes you not want to leave. the cabanas we're too expensive, and..for those on a really tight budget, you can walk another half hour to find a campsite and hammocks. the beaches were nice, beautiful. several of my friends tried to find the lost city....many hours, no shoes, and a rainstorm later, they apparently did. they also took the donkey trail, so there may be a better route somewhere.

from there we to another bus to cartagena. tourist trap. it's pretty, cute, commercialized. it reminds me of san jaun, puerto rice--it's probably the fort. the city was alright (pretty damn hot), but it didn't make my top ten list. in the interest of time, we ended up flying back to bogota from there. we didn't do much, as we had a day left. as for the exit fee, we did not pay one. we had to go first to tax exemptions, where they stamp your passport, then onto the ticket booth. this was over a year ago. next week, im going to colombia for three weeks...we shall see what it brings.

poland in brief.

july already? shit. i never reblogged after dublin and krakow and warsaw. it turned out well...cold as hell, but i finally got to see poland. i knew enough polish to get around and ask the basics. we wanted to go to the salt mines on the same day we did auschwitz, but jak daleko wielesa i gdzie jest weilesa just didn't get us there that day. we did see the wawel castle and cathedral. still, i have plenty excuse to go back to poland. yay.

i ended up breaking my glasses on the train ride from krakow from warsaw (appx three hours). we only had a day in warsaw. i passed out for five hours in the hostel. hmm...we pretty much only went to the polish uprising museum, saw a socialist castle, had some perogies, but it was awesome. it was so long ago, that i don't have the energy to type of it right now. poland was the first country i ever wanted to visit, when i found out i was half polish as a child.

on my way home from the dub, we had a layover in newark. i had to leave the airport and get to atlantic city. this cost me some extra money, but i had been so hung up on someone that i just had to go there and see if i was wasting my time. seven hours and four trains after leaving newark airport, i walked a mile or so through the city at night towards my parents' house. i told my job there was a death and i couldn't get back down to florida. i skipped a class or two. i really just layed low in the city for a few days. but the most important part..i didn't see him once. and i could finally get over it. and just like that, i was completely over jersey and indiana. i found closure. maybe even nirvana. magna rosa...and how beautiful it was.

the dub.

so here i am in ireland. at the abigail hostel at 1.18am. been here since yesterday. in the city that is. flying into krakow, poland at 7am. i saw all the main touristy sites....for the third time. christ church...st. pat's catherdral....guinness disillery...temple bar and area. the norm. been there done that. my friend, brian, is all new to this so it's way more exciting for he than i. idk. i just want to upload my photos online so i know they are safe. oh, also went to the jameson distillery and got my whiskey certificate. hopefully be able to upload some pictures onto here later.

met up with an old irish friend i hadn't seen since i was fourteen. had no idea who i was looking for...just a phone number and a name. good times, though. jameson and gingerale is a nice mix. but im excited to go to poland. jesus. six people sleeping in our hostel....i didn't make it to sleep until 3am last night due to jet lag and loud people running around. i don't mind it much. but ive been to ireland three times now...and there isn't really anything new to see in dublin, especially.

i've still got it bad and that's making me quite the downer. i don't know what to do, if anything, about it. i'm just constantly thinking about it...even now...five drinks later. we have to walk to the bus stop around 4.30am....it's 1.30 now. yay. it's a short flight to krakow...on ryanair, mind you, so it may be interesting.......it's probably going to snow. wow. okay im gonna take a nap before i have to wake up. ill be six hours ahead and even colder tomorrow.

besitos.

depletion.

my tank is way past empty. im going to crash. waiting around for phone calls from people with numbers of other people in poland....my mom waited til the last minute to contact my family, so i doubt anything on that part is going to go through. my uncle hasnt been there since 1968. that going back to soviet shit. even before solidarity and shit. i feel like hell. ive slept like 8 hours over the past three days. i packed last weekend, but i dont remember what i packed. i and dont feel like unpacking to check. oh well....here goes nothing.

emotions and airplanes.

you know something is wrong with me when ive lost the stamina associated with an upcoming trip. too much on my mind. too many papers. too much work. a boy. i don't even feel like going on the ireland/poland trip on which i am about to embark in two days. im sad and lonely. there's someone i like. a lot. and he is consuming my mind to the point where everything else seems.......blah. i know, that's not my personality at all.

no news, no feelings.

so, five months have lapsed since my last recording. my fall/winter expeditions were dry and mundane. i went to indianapolis for a grand total of five time....for what? a boy, that apparently doesnt care. burn. spent december up north...eight days in.....yea, indianapolis.

then i flew to philly....spent a few days in atlantic city..then drove seven hours to vermont to snowboard a couple of days.....back to the city...met up with old friends....then felt the urge to drive to d.c. on a hangover and three hours sleep....it was sweet though. nothing quite compares to old stomping grounds. but nothing is ever the same. simultaneously, nothing is different. it is what it is.

grad school = a bitch. gives you no time to yourself. it's a constant avalanche of readings, writings and presentations. at least i passed. four jobs in tandem with a full graduate schedule is not ideal in any way shape or form. so i quit my office job. still, i just picked up more hours at starbucks.

finally got diagnosed with adhd...apparantly this is the gift of most sucessful entreprenours. only time will tell. i have an itch to leave the country. i haven't been anywhere signifigant since peru. oh peru. id rather avoid another episode of that nightmare. though still, no regrets.

impending trips include....possibly columbia in march. i'd like to go back to jersey either this month or next. money is a bitch. i am going to taiwan for sure in may...this shall be payed for by the gracious student loans i receive this month.

then comes the issue of where to study in the summer. i could do london for three weeks in the summer. but, it seems so bland. they speak english...so many damn americans, i might as well stay here. but i can't deal with another florida summer. so i can go anywhere. i prefer south america. but, im keeping my options open. for now. who knows. every plan tends to change, so i can't really depend on anyone/anything. hopefully, i'll be able to keep this thing updated more so this semester than last.

indie indeed.

grad school starts in exactly one day, and i have yet to book a trip for december. this is slightly disturbing, despite the fact that i flew to indiana on a whim the other day and am still here now. i will be speeding down 95 around from west palm beach at2pm tomorrow in order to make it for my seminar in international relations course. that should be an interesting endeavor.

i flew out of pbi (ie, west palm beach) for the first time in my life on friday. now, i had only ever flown from fort lauderdale or miami since my immigration to the state in 2006. let me just say...pbi was amazing compared to fll. it was much larger, cleaner and less crowded. whereas im normally forced to sit on some random space of floor in fort lauderdale, i had a whole section of chairs and i table to myself in west palm. the two airports are virtually equidistant from boca raton and cost about the same to fly from. new recommendation: go for pbi over fll..any day.

in other news, i booked a plane ticket to chicago for this november. it was only 164/rt so i had to do it. i wish i had unlimited funds. ive been kayaking for a cheap fare to europe for december. it looks like jfk and ewr are the cheapest departure hubs...dublin and frankfort the cheapest destinations. i definitely have a place to stay in germany, and possibly in ireland. of course, i dont want to spend so much time in a single destination, especially in europe. this continent kind of bores me. it's too quotidian for me. although, i would very much like to get to eastern europe and discover the land of my ancestors (poland). of course any country is a good country to visit.

well, indiana is not india but it's still work a trek. i was here two years ago, but on some random rainy weekend in may. that time, i slept in creepy three-story schoolhouse owned by my friends father. we also drove around in a car in which the turn signal, windshield wipers and window were all underperforming, or not performing at all. and, as i mentioned, it rained the whole time. it was a unique and cherished experience, however. that friend i had visited passed away last march. she had no relations with the friend i am with now. it was quite eerie when, last night, i found myself standing on the same bridge as i had with her over two years ago. may she rest in peace.