I feel like...

Quite a few times in the last couple days in Colombia I have felt like an asshole American. Not because I was wearing my American flag T-shirt, scoffing at people who can´t speak english, or any other ridiculous thing of the sort (I was doing none of those and don´t actually own an American flag t-shirt), but there´s one of the problems in the first sentence...I´m not an American any more than Colombians are, Canadians are, Chileans, North Americans, South Americans, what have you, we are all Americans. But because I am from the United States of AMERICA, citizens of the same have taken it upon themselves to refer to themselves as the most American, so much in fact that we don´t even have a word for us. We use estadounidense or gringo here, but the only politically correct way to refer to ourselves is "Person from the United States of America," c´mon.

I guess I have always known that (especially recently) there has been a general dislike of the United States from other countries, but I guess I was kind of skimming over the fact when I thought it was just that, general. It is in fact very specific, as I have conversations with people who each can individually pinpoint why there is such strong dislike: "I just wanted to go visit my aunt in Florida and I was denied a visa," "every estadounidense I´ve met has been very ignorant and comes off as very mean," "are all of the girls in the U.S. like the ones on "My Super Sweet 16?" I was able to clear up that last issue pretty quickly, and I tried to explain that estadounidenses may come off as colder because of cultural differences (we´re less touchy-feely, need a larger are of personal space, aren´t close talkers, individualistic, etc.) but when it comes to defending our ignorance, I´ve kind of got nothing. They thought this before I had to tell them that about 3 of the 40 people I had told I was coming to Colombia were actually excited...most of the rest made ignorant remarks that I won´t repeat at this time, but you can expect them in a later blog when I get really fired up.

Everything was solidified when I went to the Museum of Modern Art yesterday where I watched a short film about the nature of fear including many interviews with people from both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border. And again I felt really bad as I thought about our extremely flawed immigration and foreign policies. It feels a lot worse when you listen to people´s real stories rather than read statutes, ammendments, etc. etc. about these supposed situations.

And again I feel like a jerk because my Spanish really is not as top notch as it should be, but I am trying...

Paz

Well, I worked yesterday and I´m at work again today...and generally I can´t figure out exactly what´s going on until about an hour in due to the language barrier. Lucky for me, yesterday I was immediately whisked away to a stadium that was full of people (and children) watching scantily clad dancing women and dancing little people (I´m sorry I still don´t know the politically correct term). So you can imagine my confusion peaked quite early in the morning yesterday. From everything I gathered on my own I was guessing it was some type of peace rally...and I was actually pretty darn close. It was a peace celebration for the police, the governor, and the city because they had just signed a peace agreement. There was also one police officer who took the chance to serenade his captive audience...for a little too long. I mean it´s the damn police celebration, we can`t boo you off the stage, sir. However, that did not stop my co-worker from shouting "NOOOO!!!" when he kept asking, another? another?

Everytime I get into the car with my co-workers it´s always like a little surprise about where we´ll end up and what I´ll have to do...I might have to address the nation on Colombian television, or just watch some random police celebration...and thank goodness we only had to watch, because I´m really not sure where I would have fit into all of that craziness.

I am pretty sure I completely forgot to tell this story even though it happened last week. I have previously mentioned how the driving here is absolute chaos...because of the craziness I thought "I will inevitably be in a car that hits someone, or that gets hit, before I leave." So the next day I climbed unsuspectingly into a cab with Andre, Santiago, Jason, and our unusually angsty taxi driver, when not 15 minutes into the ride we were rear ended by another taxi going down a hill. This gave our taxi driver license to storm out of the car and unleash his pre-teen angst on the other driver (I´m lying, he was probably like 30). Where Santiago, who was sitting in the front seat, proceeded to break the meter, as I think he was checking the time or to see if the meter was still running. Luckily, he inconspicuosly was able to shove it back into it´s slot, so our taxista did not notice! phew.

I think the safest form of ground transportation is probably the bus...not because the bus drivers drive safer BY ANY MEANS (I think some of the bus drivers think they are driving really tiny cars as they weave in and out of traffic, floor it, and then come to screeching halts for the speed bumps that they knew were there for the past 200 feet), I think busses are safer purely based on mass. If a bus were to get hit it´s a big hunk of metal that whoever´s got to get through before they get to you...and if you strategically or luckily choose your seat, the perpetrator will most likely take out some fellow riders before you...fingers crossed!

Today on my bus ride to work, as another bus pulled up next to us at a stoplight the drivers started shouting back and forth to each other. The other driver yelled, "Hey, you`re driving a mona," then both proceeded to stare at me until the light turned green. Mona means monkey...and I don´t know why they use that word, but I´ve been told people here use it for people with blond hair and lighter skin, and supposedly it´s not mean.

On the other hand, I went to the gym with Catalina 2 days ago, and the trainer didn´t realize I was a gringa for about 2 minutes, 2 minutes during which I spoke. But eventually my confused looks got the best of me and he said: "Eres una gringa?" and I had to say yes, haha. Here, I have been told that some people use gringo only for people from the United States, and other use gringo for ALL outsiders, even people from other Latin American countries. Either way, I´m a gringa through and through...but hopefully soon I can lose some of my gringa accent!

Cansada

Woo, I´m tired...Before coming here I never would have believed how mentally and physically exhausting talking and trying to understand another language is. Sometimes I´m so tired I feel like my Spanish is getting worse because I´ll hit a point where I can´t understand ANYTHING, not even hola como estas.

But speaking of understanding, it´s funny to find vocabulary words that your teachers definitely told you meant something different in class...for example I learned that ahora means now, and ahorita means right now. Well when my coworker said we needed to go ahorita, I quickly packed up my stuff and stood up. She looked at me like, whoa dude where´s the fire, and I was like you said ahorita...and in true Colombian fashion she told me that here ahorita means in five minutes, in five hours, whatever. Since then I have learned that there is actually no word here for "right now." The closest they have translates to "we should have gone already." Nice.

Speaking of nice I spent all day today lying in a hammock on the porch of my friend Taty´s house watching MTV Latin America, I have now seen a lot of episodes of Quiero mis quinces (The equivalent here of My super sweet 16) I spent the last 2 nights sleeping over at Tatiana´s house because my house here is far away from the center of the city and difficult to return to late at night. I feel kind of like a free loader, but it´s safer this way, and everyone has been so nice! I needed somewhere to sleep on Thursday too, and sleptover at a friend of a friend´s house who I met that night when we went out. The next morning I learned she was 27! But practically everyone here lives with their parents unti they get married. But she was so nice, she cooked me breakfast, walked me to the metro station, hugged me like 5 times and told me to call her if I need anything--including my brother can stay at her house for the 2 weeks he´s here if he has no where to stay...could you be any nicer!? A lot of the people here involved with AIESEC and otherwise that I´ve met are older, I am a baby age-wise but it makes no difference to them...this is a strange concept to me because I always sense lines of age division in the united states.

I went out dancing Thursday and Friday night, where I also LEGALLY tried my first shots of Aguardiente (the local alcohol here). It´s black licorice flavored but I surprisingly liked it. I also loved the music they were playing especially at the first club...and I got to enjoy the song "Que bonita es esta vida" this weekend, which I can now safely say is my favorite song, so conveniently they play it ALL the time here.

Oh, I almost forgot I am now a Colombian National television star twice over. On Thursday Jason and I both got filmed at our work to show us in action and talk about our jobs. They had me working on the computer, and the camera man was like: "pretend to type, I just want to get you working," he kept flitting back and forth in front of me and then got really close to my face with his camera for a long time. So, I naturally, not thinking he was going to get a screen shot since he hadn´t done any in the first 10 minutes, proceeded to type: "This guy is all UP in my face right now" into the search bar. And naturally, what do you know, he starts swinging around to get a screen shot: excellent. Oh well, he doesn´t know english...but it airs july 3rd and I hope some people who watch it do. (p.s. I heard I´m going to be able to get DVD recordings of these shows befre I leave, score!)

So my weekend was a lot of fun...all accept for that part where my debit card doesn´t work here. All of the ATMs said: need to contact your bank. Which I proceeded to do and wasted all of my phone card on as the woman said, "Yeah, I´m not sure why that´s happening, there´s not really anything I can do." "Oh, well thank you for those brilliant words of wisdom ma´am as I´m stuck in another country wih the equivalent of 5 US dollars in my wallet." Bank Lady: "Yeah, you just need to remember to push checking account, because the card isn´t linked to a savings account." "Yes ma´am, I got it, I´ve navigated a country in a different language, but when I go to their atms I still choose "inglés," and I´m reading the checking account option just fine as well as pushing the button...that´s not to say that I didn´t push every button on the damn machine just to make sure. And by the way, you´re really good at your job." I didn´t actually say that last part- but my dad might have because he said he was going to go down to the bank and regulate. I´m fine now because my dad wired money to me Western Union style (thanks dad and cary), but I am still ATM card-less.

¿Que Talle?

SIZE SIZE SIZE...everyone is obsessed with size here. Not one day has passed where people haven´t goggled at my height or who knows what. It´s true, I´m tall, but people look at me like I´m a freakin´gigantor. It doesn´t help that everyone here is much smaller and shorter than in the U.S. At the mall the other day I saw my first Colombian guy over 6´3"...i think this guy was hitting about 6´7" and even I was so taken aback I think my gaze lingered a little too long. And then I felt bad because I realize his life is like mine on a much grander scale.

Not only is height an issue here, but weight or size in general. I still have yet to understand my host dad, he´s very confusing and a little crazy, and he thinks that I don´t understand Spanish so generally our conversations go something like this: him- Como estas? me-estoy bien him-no no no, (hands waving) como estas? me-si, estoy bien, him-NO NO NO, (pointing at me) COMO ESTAS??? He once branched out our conversation in order to ask me, what size Tshirt do you wear, XXL? Um, well no, but thank you sir. When I told him that mediums and larges (larges here because everything´s smaller) fit me just fine, he said, (I imagined it to be something out of the Spanish version of Office Space) "Yeah...I´ve been meaning to talk to you about that, I´m pretty sure you´re going to need to wear an XL when you´re pregnant." Well, all right thanks for the heads up...I´m not sure maybe he pegs me as someone who will be pregnant a lot in my life and should start getting my wardrobe ready now.

Today I had to go up into the mountains for work so we had a driver come and pick us up and drop us off, it was a little different than a taxi. But I live the farthest outside the city so when I was the only one left in the car he started asking me about the U.S.-if we eat a lot or a little, is everyone fat, is everyone tall, and then, "How much do you weigh?" I was like whaa? haha, I told him I didn´t know in kilograms, but he was like probably so and so, and I just said si. Then I told him in the United States you shouldn´t ask a girl how much she weighs because she´ll be offended, he said it´s the same here...so go figure.

He actually was a really nice man and I was proud of my conversational skills when I left. The past few days I´ve been feeling like I´ve hit a wall because I still don´t understand everything...but I realized when I got out of the car I had just talked with a complete stranger who spoke no English about the commercialization of the farm industry in the United States and the economic aftermath, the side effects of pesticides, and why recently there has been a push for community gardens, family owned farms, and organic produce. Perhaps my Spanish has improved a little. :)

lento lento lento

I have so much to say, no recuerdo todos! Today was my first day of work...I mainly just followed my boss around while he talked to important people, and I smiled and said, ¨Si, estoy bien, me gusta mucho Medellin, si.¨ Afterwards, I ate my lunch, watched the news, and then they said check your email. I´m not sure if they thought it would take me 2 hours to check my email but they didn´t have me do anything for a long time. My boss kept walking by and I would give the half, ¨should I not be on facebook right now, do you want me to do something¨ smile but he said I should stay on the internet and check my email. Well, ok. Then, I started correcting the english translation of one of their documents...which I think they translated in a program because it was THE most confusing english I have ever read, and afterwards I was allowed to leave. I found out that I will only have to work from 10 until 4 everyday, and I get one free day every week because they want me to get to know the city. Well all right, if you insist.

After work I went to the Plaza of Bare feet with mi amiga y companera andrea, and we met up with Sarah Stafford and Jason. It was exciting to finally meet Sarah (a Ser Mas coordinator)in person, because we´ve been doing the equivalent of online dating for a few monthes now...you know, exchanging interests, phone numbers, chatting online for 2 hours a day...you know you´re jealous.

Yesterday I went to the movies with Catalina (my host sister) and some friends. The story of what happened I think very well depicts Colombia: We were supposed to be meeting everyone at the theater at 4. We arrived at 4:30. Everyone finally arrived by 4:50. We stood in the line which was ridiculously long for at least an hour. Then they decided they don´t actually like that theater very much...let´s take the metro and a bus in the opposite direction which will take an hour to go to a different theater. And now, let´s stand in line for 45 minutes here to see Hostel 2. I love it. Before I left carybeth said, maybe you will be more timely when you come back. I can only guarantee I will be mas lenta.

Things I have learned about Colombia cont´d:
3. The noise never stops, and I mean practically NEVER. I don´t know how anyone can sleep straight through the night here. I´m a light sleeper, because even Alex´s attempts at trying to prance around quietly (where a lot of the time her clumsiness got the best of her, love ya alpal) in the mornings would wake me up. I have a friend, Julia, who´s studying abroad in the Dominican Republic and she said it´s the same in Jarabacoa. I think the city assumes everyone would be able to sleep even if a train ran smack down the middle of the house...because that´s the decibel level
we´re talkin with the neighbors music, screaming, etc.
4. HONKING: Julia also said that everyone does the just-wanted-to-let-you-know-i´m-in-your-blindspot-honk. I hadn´t even thought of that, I think it happens occasionally, but honking happens ALL the time here, past reasons have included:
we´re at a red light and it´s still red but I think it might turn green soon, viva colombia, what do you think of george bush?, your car is ugly, i´m breaking the law so i technically shouldn´t be here but you´re still cutting me off, you´re driving gringos, and hey my car is the same color as yours (This really makes for a lot of noise when there are taxis around).
5. I don´t think they have a word for alone time in colombia, because here you are always with people. I am used to being able to read a book, or go on the computer by myself. But here, Cata´s parents will just sit down and watch me on the computer, and they don´t know English so it doesn´t matter, it´s just different. This whole togetherness thing became apparent when I was laying watching TV on a bed...then her dad came to watch to, and then her mom came to watch to...mm hm of course all 3 of us can lay in this double bed comfortably. I like the idea of community, but as an estadounidense I guess I am used to being able to turn it off and turn it on at will.
6. There is a lot of pollution here since the city is settled in the valley between mountains...let´s just say when I blow my nose it´s apparent. mmmmmm

this concludes my list for now, and on a completely separate note: Do you understand the following phrase: "Have you done wash yet?"
is that a wisconsin thing, or an invention of the Reddy household?

gracias por todos, besitos!

Que Bonita Este Vida

Well, I waited a little to post again because I didn´t want anyone to worry about me, but I´m feeling better now so I think it´s safe to post.

On Saturday I had eaten lunch en la casa de Catalina, and around 5 we were heading over to la casa de Tatiana for an AIESEC meeting about the national conference, and afterwards for Tatiana´s birthday party. My stomach kind of hurt on the way over there and it started to hurt a lot more once we got to Tatiana´s house. She told me I could go lay down on her bed, and I did but I felt really bad because there were like 20 people there who I wanted to meet and who wanted to meet me. Anyways, after laying down for like 45 minutes I had to run to her bathroom so I could throw up everything I had eaten that day (attractive, I know). I spent the rest of the night laying on Tatiana´s bed where I could hear the awesome party I was missing (None of the windows here have screens, and most of them don´t have glass either, only iron bars, but not in a jail type of way) As I was miserable in Tatiana´s bed the song, Que Bonita Este Vida, fittingly began playing at the party. That roughly translates I think to, "How beautiful is this life?" or something like that, and it´s actually a really good song, so if anyone knows the artist, you should tell me. Anyways, I´m doing a lot better now, I think my stomach just needs some time to adjust to the food.

I almost feel back to normal now, but it sounded like I missed one heck of a party, as from where I was laying I could hear chants of "Jason, Jason, Jason!" (the other trainee from Madison) and just the day before he had been telling me he doesn´t dance.

P.S. There isn´t wireless internet in the house where I´m staying, so I have to use Catalina´s computer...so I´m not sure how soon I´ll be able to upload pictures or chat on skype until I can use my own comp, lo siento!

Celebrity Status: SOLIDIFIED

Today, I was interviewed on a live talk show which airs on Colombian National Television to promote AIESEC, completely in spanish! You know, just another day in the life of an AIESEC trainee. I was very nervous beforehand since the entire show is conducted in Spanish. All of the Aiesecos said, "No, you will be fine, don't worry another trainee is going to be getting interviewed, too." Me: "Oh yeah, where's he from?" -"Mexico." Me: "Oh, right, I'm sure he'll be struggling a lot with his Spanish on live national television, excellent." Luckily there were other Aiesecos Colombianos being interviewed as well, and we were all on screen at the same time...I understood 2 out of my 3 questions, but on the last one I had to turn to Andrea next to me for further explanation. I think I will be able to see a recording of it at some point, it played on Teleantioquia. I have pictures of it that I will post soon. You won't want to miss the pictures because this show was serious business, I even had to go into makeup before the show! I came out with maquillaje latina, which on me looks extremely scary. The makeup artist got a little overzealous with the eyeliner. I don't know if any close-ups were taken...so you just might not get to see the full effect, but I'm sure you can only imagine.

After the show we went to a sports complex to play sand volleyball. It was wonderful because I feel much more comfortable playing volleyball than I do talking in Spanish. The Colombians take warming up very seriously. Before playing, at least 4 people asked me if I was going to go warm up and run some laps. "No, estoy bien." Granted, the people who were "warming up," were running at practically a walking pace and/or making sand angels. Playing was fun, and afterwards I got to experience the "bolso de agua" phenomenon which I knew nothing about previously. It literally is water in a bag. When I got it I had no idea what to do with it, though. But Ana showed me quickly, "you just bite the corner off." Ahh, right, (kind of) easier than it looks. Let's just say I'm glad they gave us straws with the milk pouches/bags of milk they gave us in elementary school.

I'm glad my AIESEC friends here all know enough english to help me out when I say, "Como se dice _____ en espanol." But I've noticed that while some of the younger generation here knows English, it seems that barely anyone beyond the age of 30 does. However, that does not stop the hotel receptionist on duty right now from belting out, "Eye of the Tiger" which is on the radio right now (he doesn't know I'm sitting in the "computer room," although I don't think that would actually stop him from singing) There are many songs from the United States that get played on the radio, but when the receptionist sings along he probably has absolutely no idea what he is saying or what it means. But for that matter, I know english and I'm not sure that even I know what "Eye of the Tiger" means.

Last but not least, today I also got to meet the mom and little brother of Santiago, the reception coordinator. His hermanito is named Juan Diego, and is probably one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. He is only two years old, but already he knew to give me a kiss on the cheek when he first met me and then when he was leaving. That is how everyone greets eachother here, but I can't believe at two he already knew!

Adios de Colombia! Besos!

he llegado a medellin

hola todos!
I LOVE colombia. Jason Hall (another Madison aiesecer) and I arrived yesterday night to Medellin, when we walked outside of the airport there were probably 15 aiesecers waiting for us, holding an aiesec banner, and cheering! It was exciting, I didn't really know how to react at first, and I was scared to use my spanish, so instead I just smiled a lot, haha.
But Federico, my "padrino," which apparently translates to english as "godfather" (but I think it more accurately is buddy at least in this sense, because this guy is the same age as me) made me speak in Spanish! I'm so glad he did because today I already feel more comfortable speaking, and I've either began thinking in spanish a little bit, or forming responses in spanish uber-quickly out of nervousness...because today when I was talking to my dad and carybeth on the phone I accidentally kept dropping in spanish words....it almost was difficult for me to think and speak totally in english, maybe not difficult, but it seemed strange at the time.
After leaving the airport we went to eat dinner in a shopping mall. When I was in line a man saw me (and immediately knew I was una estadounidense), he came up to me and was like, "what do you want, a hamburger, anything? I will buy it." haha, then the girl I am going to be living with, Cata, said, "See, I told you you would be a celebrity." It was awesome meeting everyone at dinner and hanging out last night...I can't remember all the names of everyone I met, but I will know them soon!
Hoy en dia, I went with Santiago (the reception coordinator), Ana, and jason to ride the metro...I thought it was just going to be a regular subway because I wasn't catching what they were saying when they said: "metro cable." It's considered part of the metro system, but there are huge cable cars that fit about 10 people in them that go up the mountain side of Medellin. (medellin is a valley, and it is surrounded by mountains on all sides) The view was amazing from the cable car to see all of the houses built into the mountains, in the mountains is where most of the poorer population of Medellin live) On the way up they talked to Jason and I about how el metro cable changed the lives of the poor families living in the mountains, now they have access to basic services, jobs, etc. Los Paisas (people that live in the region of antioquia where medellin is located) are very proud of their metro system, understandably. The view from the top was amazing.
After that, jason and santiago left to do something for his job, and ana had to go home so I met Federico en la plaza de Botero. We walked around, I saw a lot of the city and a museum, and we ate dessert on a rooftop restaurant. As we were walking around I noticed that everyone seems to stare at me, or at least their glances linger a little longer than average. Federico also put me through pronunciation bootcamp, as well as not allowing me to speak in english. For all of the afternoon I spoke in Spanish and he spoke to me in english so we could both practice. He would not let me mispronounce a word and make me re-do it on the spot in embarassing spots like on the metro where EVERYONE was listening, "No, el p de papa, paPA! Let me hear it again."
They are having us stay in a hotel for 3 days before we go with our families, and I start work on Tuesday, so I will more to update about soon. Oh, and Dad, they were surprised to hear you actually had to go to school to be a chiroptactor and that's what you do as your full time job now. Apparently here they only have self-proclaimed chiropractors, who aren't actually chiropractors at all.
Things learned in Colombia so far:
1. Manzana Postobon is the most delicious soda ever, it is apple flavored and we have no equivalent for it in the U.S.
2. Colombia really does have some of the most beautiful women in the world...it was apparent from the minute I got on the flight from Miami to Medellin

SHAKIRA

well, I said I wasn't going to write, but whoops I lied. I have to:

I had a dream that I was karaoke-ing Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" at a bar in Colombia. The crowd loved me, obviously, granted only for my voice because Shakira moves in ways that I would not embarrass myself trying to imitate. Anyways, my performance was so well loved it began to receive national notoriety and what do you know, soon the tales made it all the way to Shakira herself. Shakira did not believe that this gringa could actually sing, so she needed to see for herself. After hearing me she fell in love with me and the fact that I stood an entire foot taller than her. Shakira and I went on to record many duets together.

This can only mean good things are coming in Colombia.

Raisinets and Bugles x 2

Well, I wasn't planning on writing again until I got to Colombia...but this was just all too eventful/frustrating not to record, so this will be my farewell post. (And it is times like these that I am reminded that my life really should be a movie, I should just strap a video camera to the front of my head)

So, earlier Saturday I'm trying to get on the computer to get my confirmation number and exact flight times...I knew it was somewhere around out at 6 from philadelphia, into atlanta, arrive in milwaukee at about 10. Well my cousin's internet had gone out so I had to get a hold of my little sister to get the info. As I'm calling my aunt says, "Are you sure you don't want to just stay an extra day?" I said, "No, I really need to get home so I can get ready for Colombia." I should have just answered yes, because here it is Sunday morning and I'm sitting in the Wellesley Inn in Atlanta. How did I get here? I don't even know if I can remember it all.

I flew from philadelphia to atlanta with no problems. Now, some of you are probably thinking, "There's your first problem, what the hell'd you fly down there for?" And that's a good question, I'm still not quite sure of the answer besides my tickets were 175.00 roundtrip from expedia.

So once I get to Atlanta, they keep delaying my flight, and they made us switch gates 3 times. Finally, 2 hours after we were supposed to take off (10:30 at night) they tell us, "Your plane has arrived, unfortunately the interior of the plane is too hot for you to enter right now, so we just need to cool it off and then you can board." They get on the loud speaker probably 5 more times over the next 45 minutes to tell us the same thing." I'm like, "yeah yeah, turn on the air conditioning, do whatever you gotta do, just tell us when we can get on the plane." Finally they let us board the plane, where we sit again for another 45 minutes, where they make another 5 announcements this time saying: "Be sure to turn off all electronic devices, anything that has an off/on switch must be switched to off." Yeah, yeah, we got it, all of our stuff is off. After the 5th of this announcement and one random one which I'm still confused by that said something about "We got clearance to turn on the right engine to help cool the plane, this is going to cost our company 2,000 dollars, but we just really want you guys to be comfortable" (what does that even mean?!) After all of this I knew something was up...and 10 minutes later the steward gets on the phone and says, "I'm really sorry, we won't be able to take off tonight because all 4 of the workers on board will have exceeded the 16 hour work day, it's illegal for us to take off." There is an IMMEDIATE uproar in the plane, people begin freaking out. At this point I was just laughing a little on the inside because stuff like this ALWAYS happens to me. The man next to me is yelling so loudly at the flight attendants he is either a) going to have a heart attack, or b) physically assault the plane crew. The other passengers are telling him to shut up, and I'm beginning to feel embarassed, hoping they don't think he's my dad. The flight attendant continues apologizing over the loud speaker, telling us that he really in fact does care, as the man next to me continues to verbally assault him, "YOU TREATED US WORSE THAN AWFUL, YOU DON'T CARE, YOU DON'T CARE, THIS IS BULLSHIT." The flight attendant begins to visibly cry as he is standing at the head of the airplane and keeps repeating into the microphone, "We do care, we do care..." Oh man.

I of course got in line behind the crazy man who held up my line for so long that I couldn't get a flight out until 1:00 in the afternoon the next day, and I said I'd just take a flight voucher instead of being put up in a hotel. As I'm walking away they say, "You'll get a flight voucher for $50, maybe 100." you've got to be kidding me, this hassle is worth more than that I was thinking, but I just kept on walking towards concourse B, because I was advised that was the best place for sleeping. I got to concourse B and it was absolutely deserted besides the 5 janitors who were standing around talking to each other. I called my dad to tell him what had happened, and I started crying on the phone. haha this is funny now as I'm writing it. He was like, "What is everything fine? Do you feel safe?" I was like, "I feel fine, I just really wanted to get home to get ready for south america, getting stuck in an airport overnight a 2nd time within 3 months isn't as funny as the first time" (I got stuck in the dallas, tx airport for 28 hours in april) I look up from my phone call to see the janitors eyeing me like, "Is she having a nervous breakdown?" I look down to double check my departure time for the morning only to realize that these tickets haven't been issued in my name, they've been issued to Kevin Riley, who the heck is Kevin Riley? (hey sorry man if you have troubles flying tomorrow) I sprint the half mile back to the Delta counters only to find nobody left working them...I pull secret ops and bust into a Delta office where both men sitting at their desk look extremely startled to see me, and when I ask if this is the delta office it took them a solid 8 seconds for either to utter a word. I spit out a million words a minute as I explained, "I am not Kevin Riley, I just need to get to Milwaukee!" Round 2 was much more successful as Molly Reddy now has a direct flight to MKE out at 9:55 AM, and they gave me a hotel voucher.

So as I ventured out to find my hotel shuttle, there was of course no Wellesley shuttle in sight, I mean honestly, why would there be? Lucky for me, a man in a Best Western uniform said, "Where you going honey?...I'm going by there I can take you." He told another Wellesley in waiting to come too, it was a middle aged woman, she says to me, "Is this legit?" I was like, "I really have no idea, but I don't really care." So, the Best Western shuttle was filled with 2 Wellesley customers and a Holiday Inn-goer, and we arrived successfully, thank you sir!

I checked into the hotel with no problems, and stopped at the vending machines to buy dinner and breakfast. I put my money in for raisinets, click the button, watch the metal coil spin, not quite far enough because nothing falls. That would happen to me, I put another 85 cents in so this time 2 fall. I think, I'll need breakfast so I'll get some bugles, and the same exact thing happens. That would happen to me.

So I get to my room, and I'm overjoyed to see there's wireless. Checking my email always makes me happy, and I was sure I would have tons since I hadn't checked it in over 24 hours. I only had 6 new emails, 5 of which were facebook notifications, 4 of which were posts from my little sister. awesome. I was thinking, not even raisinets and bugles x 2 can remedy this situation.

I checked my junk mail just to make sure...where I realized that I'd been missing a ton of the mass emails sent from aiesec colombia, since I just got added to their email list. I randomly clicked on one, and what do you know, it's a call for volunteers to house the new trainee, Molly Reddy, and if you can't house her, you can greet her at the airport, we need to make this great for her! Well...that made my night a little better.

sorry for this extremely long post.

Mi Familia Nueva

I received an e-mail today telling me who I am going to be living with in Medellin. I'll be living in a neighborhood called Bello (which translates to "beautiful"), it is 15 minutes away from downtown Medellin. Bello even has it's own website...I certainly have never lived in a neighborhood that has it's own website before. I'm going to be living with an AIESEC member who is about my age named Catalina, and her two parents. They look like a very nice family, she included lots of pictures in the email. They are all cute pictures, but she randomly included one of the dad that looks kind of like a mug shot. I'm kind of banking on the fact that it's not actually a mugshot...but on the off chance that it is, they also included a picture of their dog, and this dog is so cute I don't know how I could not be happy for the next 10 weeks of my life.

Flight Plan

Well, I am currently in Pennsylvania visiting my lovely cousins and aunt and uncle. I got here yesterday, and in that short time I have discovered that I am truly addicted to the internet. I never realized it before (as much as I do) now. When I was in my dorm, and even while I've been at home in Waukesha, I always was on my computer solitarily, with no one around to judge me on the endless hours of my life that I waste away in front of the computer. My family here doesn't judge me, but with people around I am more conscious of the fact that people are watching me watching the computer. So I've been hopping on their wireless on my laptop at night when I really should be sleeping. But for some strange reason I haven't been able to sleep for extended periods of time lately (over 8 hours), so who knows what that all means.

I bought my plane tickets for Colombia about a week ago, which finally makes it pretty official. Here's my flight info:
Depart: 9:04 AM Wednesday, June 13th: Chicago to Miami to Medellin. Arrive: 5:50 pm

Depart: 9:55 AM Monday, August 27th: Medellin to Miami to Chicago. Arrive: 8:30 pm

Then I start classes September 5th and somewhere in between my arrival and the start of classes I need to move into my new apartment and probably/possibly get my wisdom teeth out, fun! (They'll have to come out sometime around then.)

I'm trying to post a picture of the cousins that I am with, them being on the right, my brother and sister on the left, and me in the middle...mostly because blogger just added this nice new upload pictures feature...but it's running really slow right now.