the long silence

of Colombia utilities...we've been phone and internet-less for a week now, and like our other utility outage, the result has been felicitous in some ways, and incredibly frustrating in some others. Luckily I had a visitor for part of the time, so I wasn't thinking much about being electronically connected anyway. As soon as we get internet again I´ll post some photos.

We had a lovely time, just lovely, and I came away from the airport feeling strangely refreshed, and energized. The results? Well, there´s now a large set of newsprint sheets on my bedroom wall, filled with the scribblings of a language student, for one. I also bought a cheap guitar that I´ve taken to strumming pitifully before I go to sleep. And this morning, I got up and went for a jog. At this altitude (2600 meters), I feel justified in counting that as an accomplishment.

Next week is Semana Santa in Bogota...most everyone I know is traveling, but I´ve heard the local events are something else and am planning on sticking around. I´ve got a lot of work to do on a couple of articles I´m working on anyway, so it will be nice to be able to spend entire days in Bogota´s excellent libraries without the interruption of classes. My favorite is Virgilio Barco, designed by Bogotano architect Rogelio Salmona. The Museum of Modern Art is doing a retropsective on his life right now, apropos of the stage in his life where he can afford to be more reflective than productive.

















Tomorrow my architecture class is visiting the building he designed at the National University, my educational obsession. Hopefully more than one of my slightly aloof classmates from the other university I´m attending, Los Andes, will at least show up. They were petulant and put out when informed we would be making a second visit to the campus, complaining that there was no parking. Ah, the lengths those kids will go to just to make me feel at home...