The Miss List: Colombia

As my time here in Colombia comes end, I thought I would draw up a "miss list" - the things that I think I will miss most about living here, as well as the things that I have missed from home while I've been here. And a couple things that I wont miss once I leave Colombia...

Will miss:
- Living directly across from the ocean. I'll be near the coast in Kingston, but more like a 20 minute drive than a 20 second walk. Plus my walk home from work will no longer have the ocean on my left and a fortified wall on my right.
- The perks of living in a hotel. While it's not quite the place where continental breakfast is provided, it was great to have fresh sheets and towels, a clean room and of course mini bars of soap.
- The colour. Vibrant yellows, shocking blues, pinks, greens and oranges. El Centro, the old city, is such a wonderful contrast to bland concrete buildings.
- Salsa dancing. Alright, so I'm not a natural, but it's fun rhythms to attempt to dance to, plus having a good dance partner makes you feel less like you're making a fool of yourself.
- Limonada. Street vendors sell this delicious ice-cold beverage of key limes, sugar and water. Wonderfully refreshing on a hot day.
- Haggling. Granted I would have loved it more if I was better at it, but it's nice to feel like you have a say in the price you're paying. Especially when you know the original price quoted was outrageous.
- Playing Loco Ocho. At the hotel people are frequently hanging out in the courtyards, often with drinks in the evening. The card game we played the most was Crazy Eights - simple rules, and fun in all languages.

- Katie and Don. Turns out I got pretty used to seeing them almost every day and exploring inside and outside the city with them. I always appreciated their help - from getting me set up and oriented around town to continuously helping me translate, they were basically indispensable.

Wont Miss:
- Being unable to understand what's being said around me. Even with my lessons and new ability to recognize Spanish words and form simple sentences, I rarely get anything in real-time. I'll be facing Patois in Jamaica, but at least the official language is English.
- Bad coffee at work. I'm in a country known for its coffee, but apparently my office didn't get the memo. Granted that all the best beans are sent overseas where they'll fetch a higher price, but I there is plenty of good coffee to be found.
- Service charges from the bank. I'm not a fan of paying $5 just to take my money out of the bank, which means I withdraw a lot at once (usually I can only get $800,000COP at a time) and am stuck with large bills that hamper my attempts to hoard the more useful smaller bills.
- Shots of rum. Although it goes down easier than your rail shot of rum back in Canada, I'm not a fan of the Colombian method of buying a bottle of rum at the discotheque and doling out mini-shots to everyone.

Miss about Canada:
- Cheese. Seriously. The cheese here has nothing on a couple slices of good ol'Canadian cheddar.
- Being able to go out alone after dark. It hasn't been a huge hindrance since the draws of going out at night are for social reasons, but it's a restriction that I don't like having and I know I'll still be following in Kingston.
- My people. Obviously. I certainly don't feel out of touch with e-mails, instant messaging and Skype, but the real deal is always better.

Well, my next post will come from Jamaica, once I've managed to get my bearings and started to settle in. I received approval for my Security Clearance request from the UN to travel. I've been rather taken with the fact that I'm required to inform UN Security of my movements, and enjoyed getting to learn a bit about how UN Security operates. I also finally got my ID badge this week, which I had my picture taken for just after I arrived. Perhaps would have been useful earlier on versus my last week in Colombia, but a nice souvenir nonetheless.