Colombia

So...

I went to Colombia in South America to celebrate my 30th.

I was depressed and cried like a little bitch, but thats not what this blog is about.

Lets begin with why I have been travelling outside the U.S?

I'm interested in experiencing different cultures, and I'm also interested to learn more about how the world works outside the glorious golden bubble of Chicago.

Why Colombia ?

More than anything I've become increasingly curious about what's happening to the world and to find out if the perceptions created in the media are true.

Even as a zero generation immigrant, it's continually pounded into your head "Yeah Chicago is a snowy windy city... But you live in the country with the strongest social safety net in the world... You'd better be happy you don't live in the rest of the world because it's a shithole where people constantly starve to death and spontaneously explode from random super viruses."

I calculate about seven hours of sleep in our three day stay there. I attribute this to the high altitude we were at. I was walking around like a zombie most of the time. The temparatures through out the day were all over the board and in the mornings I couldn't feel my face.

When we arrived in Colombia, I was definitely tripping out. The idea is a total mindscrew -- my references being like Chuck Norris type movies with guerrilla soldiers jumping out of trees with machine guns and blasting the place up...

The biggest thing was that I just couldn't PICTURE it. Everything I've ever done in my life I could visualize beforehand. I just couldn't figure how what I'd read about it could be real. I couldn't imagine myself there -- it wasn't piecing into my reality.

Bear in mind I work very, very hard. Most days from morning until night. But that's what made this trip in alignment with my 30th birthday I had so sweet. Unlike most people who take it for granted, I appreciated it so much because I EARNED it.

The people reminded me a lot of how cats look, in the sense that they sort of lounge around with nothing to do. They seem in some ways happier and more relaxed than North Americans do, but I'm sure that's also a peace that comes with having very little hope and nothing to lose.