pre-departure blues (sent from iphone)
hey y’alll
it is me. back again. getting on another flight alone to a country where i know NO ONE.
and full transparency, i’m terrified. i think i’ve got a bit of a different perspective going on right now in comparison to past trips. a part of me thinks that maybe i shouldn’t be super vulnerable on a public platform, but i want to make sure that any person who may be feeling this same way knows that they are not alone. specially to all the first gens out there reading this.
from the moment the election results were called, i immediately started to reconsider whether this study abroad was the best choice. in case you are reading this with no further background on who i am, i am incredibly passionate on immigration policy. my passion stems from personal experiences, and my knowledge on the topic is a collection of academia mixed in with on-the-ground work i’ve done over the years. in other words, this is a deeply personal topic to me. so the raids, the harmful rhetoric. Knowing that RIGHT NOW is when my organizations and family need me the most and feeling limited in my scope of what i can do while abroad has been plaguing how I feel about this study abroad.
I am beyond grateful for this opportunity, but I can’t help but worry about what may happen when I’m away.
add to that the general feelings of missing my loved ones, and the financial burden of having to pay double the price of my original plane ticket because my flight got cancelled and……. yeahhhhh.
i’m certain once i land, i’ll feel a lot better. I made THE WhatsApp group chat a couple weeks back for my cet cohort and they are hilarious, so i’m excited to meet everyone. our schedule is PACKED for orientation, so that’ll be a good distraction.
ANYWAYS, this is the “before flight” reflection. sooooo, i ask that if you happen to be religious, please keep my family in your prayers. i forgot to mention but ill be leaving all my gold behind, and thats also playing tricks with me. every single piece of gold jewelry i own has been gifted from my family, and I like feeling that my family is with me everywhere I go. Particularly, I think I’m going to miss my Virgen the Guadalupe medallion the most, the same medallion I mess around with when I’m nervous. In a shocking turn of events, it may just be that this study abroad brings me closer to my faith. Idk.
But anyways, boyfriend, besties, family and loved ones: I’m going to miss y’all so much. Please stay safe :)
And, to anyone struggling with being abroad as a first gen, know that you are NOT alone, and please feel free to shoot me a message if you are ever feeling homesick!
3:29 am update:
At the airport. Thank GOD i made it oh my fweaking gosh. both my suitcase and my personal item are FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES to remain in tact. but we made it past security and, me, myself, am personally fighting for my life to not bawl my eyes out in front of the four people at this gate. i’ve got trusty dylan (my dinosaur squishmellow) with me, but i can’t believe this is really happening.
also my entire facebook feed is people commenting on our president’s push towards ending birth right citizenship and quite frankly its pissing me off. coupled with the splash of coffee i had this morning and my 2 hours of sleep, not a great combo.
but i made it past security and thats ALWAYS a win in my book.
Next challenge: making it to Miami and making it to my next flight. i’ve got a one hour lay over which makes me slightly nervous but i just need to GET THERE and we’ll be all good.
also i miss my boyfriend. a lot. i’m leaving you guys with a really cute picture of us.
10:53 am
Up in the air once more. Miami airport may just be my biggest enemy but I MADE IT. I already had a crazy tight 1 hour layover to work with. But add to that FROST IN THE ENGINE and yeah we were super delayed. I BOLTED ACROSS THE MIAMI AIRPORT, in an eerily similar fashion to Costa Rica and made it JUST IN TIME for boarding.
I am now on the plane, and my head does hurt a bit. I am also very hungry bc I’ve been up since 2 am and have had nothing to eat since 6 pm yesterday. However, we are at the homestretch and I KNOW that this American Airlines coke zero + pretzel combo will give me the energy to power through Colombian immigration.
uhhh week one and week two remix?
How amazing would it have been for me to have written my feelings as soon as I landed? Like a step by step, thorough recounting of my first moments in Colombia. Well, unfortunately y'all will NAWT be getting that because as soon as I landed, it has been CRAZY boots. So here is a two weeks late anecdote of my experiences.
I remember having landed and meeting some students from the CET cohort that also had the same flight as me. We made it through immigration, and first thing that hit me was how hot it was! I was also caught off guard by how many taxis approached our group asking if we needed rides (HUGE TIP: do not sporadically take taxis. They can often be more expensive than an Uber *yes, Uber is illegal in Colombia, we'll get to that in a bit*).We had accommodations from CET to get us to our apartments, but our director's Uber got a flat on the way to the airport so we were left to wait in the airport for the Bus.
The ride from the airport to our apartments was bursting with excitement. Everyone was excited to meet everyone and get to know each other better. As we rode though, I couldn't help but think about how much it looked like San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Anyways, once we arrived to the apartments, we were greeted by a local Caleño roomates: Presly, Keller, Sara, Mayerlin and Jhelem. Something super unique about CET is that rather than having us live with host families, they pair each apartment with a local university student. The university students are all super duper cool and have taught us so much about Caleño culture and Caleño slang. I got incredibly lucky with my rooming arrangements because my roomies are all AMAZING. At my apartment, I live with baddie Sara, baddie Erica and baddie Devonia. Below is a picture of all of us hehe. I'll also include some pictures of our apartment! Not to flex on Laurel people but we do have a fully working kitchen with a stove AND oven hehe. Its a cute three bed, two bath with a beautiful balcony. It is located in comuna #17, which is known to be a really safe part of Cali. Yes, I do share a room, but my roommate is so sweet and we do a good job of being conscious of each other's routines. Oh also! Upon our arrival, Sara had some Jugo de Lulo READY FOR US :') It was so yummy delicious and it got me through because I didn't get to eat till like 7:00 pm that night :')
Since we arrived pretty early, Sara walked with us to a small supermarket called "El Canaveral". This market has seen me probably 2 or 3 times a week since I've arrived, but its simply too convenient to just walk to the market every time we need something.
We also went to "Jardin Plaza", a beautiful mall with so so many stores, restaurants, a home improvement store and a massive supermarket. This plaza became like a second home for many of us because they really do just have EVERYTHING.
CET then asked us to walk to Casa Cet (one of the buildings where we would be taking classes) for a mini orientation. I don't remember too much, but I remember them feeding us pizza and me being ready to go sleep.
Once I got home was when two culture shocks kind of set in:
1. No AC: I've definitely traveled to places with no AC before, so I wasn't super worried about this. However, it was definitely a little bit hot, which caught me off guard. Cali stays a nice 75-95 degrees farenheit, but that first night I was reminded hehe. CET was also kind enough to provide us all with fans, which made a substantial difference! (worthy to note, CET also completely furnished the apartment, even including essentials like bedding, towels, forks, microwaves, a blender etc, which was a huge benefit because it meant we didn't have to pay out of pocket)
2. No Hot water: This one however, I wasn't exactly expecting. I think between skimming the packets of information they gave us, I didn't quite catch the no hot water. Nevertheless, it actually is not that bad, at all. Because its typically hot in Cali, a cold shower is actually very refreshing. You really do get used to it.
Anyways, moving on to the next day (btw: it'll probably only be the first couple of entries that are jam packed because thats how our schedule was. after like the second week, it's been going a lot more chill)
uao orientation + casa cet
the next day, we woke up bright and early because the bus that would take us to our orientation at UAO would picked us up at 7:30 am. The University is a private campus, meaning that to get in, we had to scan our fingerprints. I found it rather interesting because I feel like in the United States, there is a lot of discourse about certain universities being their own little bubble and being disconnected with the rest of the city, so I would love to know if Colombians in the area share this sentiment, or if that is just the culture of the campus. Not saying one is better than the other, just a difference I noticed.
I also misinterpreted our university partnerships listed on the CET website, so here is the scoop: we are able to use all of Univalle's (public university walking distance from our accomodations) facilities and resources BUT the university where we would be taking direct enroll courses was la Universidad Autonoma del Occidente, which is about a 15 minute drive.
We went through the orientation with other exchange students, and met students from Ciudad Mexico, Jalisco, Peru and other parts of Colombia. We learned about safety, all the programs the university offers and even met one of the professors for our course "History of Armed Conflict".
The campus was stunning, and the food court was HUGE! It has a couple different options to munch on, including an ice cream shop! Food at the university is relatively cheap, so many students opt to purchase lunch at the university on the days they have class.
The next three days were really just spent at Casa CET reviewing Roommate agreements, Academics, Code of Conduct, A First Aid workshop and some advising.
I will drop some pictures of us at "depeapan", a 24 hour bakery/restaurant located about 5 minutes away from Casa CET. The food here is absolutely amazing and in hindsight, became many of our go-to breakfast spot for the days we have classes at Casa CET. According to roomies and other locals, a typical early breakfast in Colombia looks like Coffee or a natural juice paired with either a Pan de Bono or Buñuelo. Both are a doughy pan with cheese kneeded into it and they are FANTASTIC. 10/10 Reccommend and has become a breakfast for those 9:00 ams at Casa Cet (omg also, students here take courses at 6:30 am??? A lot of our local roomates wake up between 3:00 am - 5:00 am to get to school on time! so yeah, ZONT complain to me about "early" 8:00 am courses because I WILL bring up my roommates in Colombia).
I do also want to take this time to point out the courses I will be taking this semester, but before I do that, I do want to offer a word of caution to those students wanting to direct-enroll in courses. Please please please, when you are deciding what courses to take, make sure you take into account transportation! In Colombia, there is a public bus system called MIO that is very good and functional. However, some roommates have mentioned that it can at times be a inconsistent with the pick-up times, and because on the days I have class at Casa CET, I also have class at UAO, (vise versa) my schedule is a bit tight and it is important that I can take a mode of transportation that will get me to class on time. All this to say, I take Ubers to get to UAO.
Originally, I intended to take two UAO courses in Spanish (which to prospective students, if this is something you want to do, just bear in mind that you need to test into a proficient level of spanish to do this), without realizing that I would bear the brunt of the transportation costs all on my own for one of those days. I was able to talk to CET staff about this and they changed me to the course at UAO all my other peers were taking, allowing me to split the cost of Ubers with peers. ANYWAYS ALL THIS TO SAY, JUST MAKE SURE YOU TAKE EVERYTHING INTO CONSIDERATION:
HERE ARE MY COURSES:
Tuesdays:
Reclaiming Blackness (a course particularly focusing on activist movements in Colombia)
Race and Ethnicities in the Colombian Context
Wednesdays:
History of Armed Conflict (course with other CET students at UAO)
Thursdays:
Environmental Conflicts
Cine, Memoria y Paz (direct-enroll course with Colombian Students)
first weekend!