Crepes, good people, and Medellin

Tomorrow we’re off to Medellin, my fellow transportation geeks and I. Actually this class is much less geeky than it could be and still be acceptable to me – haven’t found quite the equivalent of the transit crowd here in Bogotá yet. They’re probably all off studying buses at MIT (like the professor did, and everyone’s terribly impressed with him here).

Tonight we went to an amazing place for dinner – the only light filtered in through a large window above the bar and the candles on every table. There was a man playing the guitar and a roaring fireplace in every room. Bogotá loves its crepes – this was yet another crepes café, but with such a comforting, rustic feel to it. Good food, too.

I’m so glad to have met the people I know here – tonight I met Elizabeth and Porter after their Spanish class and we walked across the bucolic campus with the sunset's reflection glimmering on the mountains ahead of us. Tom and Porter are wonderful both as a couple and individually, and it’s not every day you meet people like that. The other "Fulbright couple," Abigail and Chris, is great too – we spend most of our social time alternating between the two pairs. The restaurant tonight a bit more romantic than I needed, and made me miss things, but the bizarre guitar medley kind of made up for it. The mood shifted as the guitar played drifted from Stairway to Heaven to the Pink Panther theme to a cell phone jingle…then back to more Gypsy Kings, with some Led Zepplin thrown in for good measure.

Tomorrow night it’s off to Medellin (not sure why I keep putting it that way, unless it's because I’m a bit nervous about the trip, partly because I’m traveling with my classmates I don't yet know very well, although the girl who studied in Medellin is awfully nice, as is the rest of the class, really.) Our schedule includes lots of site visits to Medellin’s metro system, so it should be a good way to get to know the city. I’m told it’s much smaller than here (but then, most places are…) – the equivalent of one of Bogotá’s elbows is how it was put to me.

I’m not sure if I’m signed up to stay through Sunday or if I’m flying back here Saturday night. If I get back in time, the frog professor is having a housewarming party in a part of town called La Macarena. Seems like the kind of place Mom would enjoy (heeey, Macarena...) Fittingly, it’s the neighborhood with all the dance classes.

(from http://www.nacla.org)

Well, I’m tired from a full day of…well, looking things up on the Internet and eating…it’s a rough life. So I'm going to catch some sleep. Thanks to some very special assistance with Lexis, I did find what I was looking for, and feel like I’m making some progress on that article Elizabeth and I are hoping to write about the history of the strike at the National University of Colombia. By the end of next week we hope to have a proposal for NACLA (the North American Congress on Latin America). See you Sunday if not sooner!