You can take the boy out of the town, but you can't take the town out of the boy

Anyhow, it's been a while, but the fact is that now I am back in class and between the moving in, starting classes and first-week partying it's hard to sit down and write. For one of my classes though I am required to actually start a new blog; a decent one, a real one. Not this constant rambling thing that this is. It should develop an audience and have a specific theme for the writing. That sounds like a dream to me, but trying to figure out what to write about is sort of driving me insane. This is more or less an apologetic post to the few who read this, because I will be neglecting this blog a little bit to focus my attention on the one that is actually being graded. I will post the link as soon as I have it. If you have any ideas on what I could write about, please don't hesitate to tell me.


On another note, I am loving Gainesville too much. I thought the sadness of leaving Bogota would last longer but so far so good. This is where I want to be.

Cheers

Why it is easier to ruin it

When something is really good and we know we have to give it up, we try to ruin it. It is a self-defense mechanism, so that amazing things become torture with no reason whatsoever. Just so it is easier to let go. When I had to leave Paris, I started thinking about everything I hated about that city, but it wasn't much. I magnified it though, remembering the exhuberant prices, the smelly subway, the cold mornings, the ugly parisian looks... later, when I got back to Gainesville, I remembered the good things again, and smiled.

Now it is different to remember bad things to try to trump the sadness, than to sabotage something good just because it has a deadline. That is what I try to do every time in Bogota. I think about everything I don't like about the city, the people, the life in general... and the truth is I love it. But loving it has always made leaving so much harder, that I decided to keep it neutral; to love it as a vacation spot. To never date someone here that I like too much nor find a job that I would love, nor visit my friend's universities to see if I would like them better. Having a double life means developing an ability to let go. I have it... I need to become pesimistic a few days before it's over simply to make it easier. I simply need to think that where I'm going is always better that the place i've left behind.

Fake little girl

It was quite a shock to me when I found out through CNN, that the adorable Chinese girl that had sang the host's national anthem was indeed, not the girl who had sang it. The very cute girl was lip-syncing at Beijing's "Bird's Nest" stadium; the real singer's face was deemed "not suitable."

Ok so all through the opening ceremony of the Olympics I had been teared eyed. And this little girl made me feel like adopting her; I am sure her parents don't want her anyway. But a fake?

This incident may indeed symbolize what is going on in China in a larger scope. The image they want to project to the world vs what is actually there. They want to show perfection by taking the voice of one girl and the face of another... couldn't they find a girl who could fit both roles or are they too picky with their own people? Anyways, as soon as this got out they made China look like liars, really. With something so incredibly unnecessary! How about all those things that do actually matter? For how long can they hide them? China may be a growing super power but its people remain oppressed and it is still a very developing nation.

The sickness of aging

With age we get to become more cautious. More cautious about our feelings, because we know what it is like to be hurt. More cautious about what we say, because social decency is engraved in our minds; more cautious about our decisions, because they begin to have consequences... in the end the carelessness of youth begins to weight on our backs.

Our heart begins to be something we don't hand out easily. We stop taking risks. We become calculating; we are careful with each step, we stop trusting people. We realize that there are many ways to avoid crying. We allow opportunities to just pass us by because they are too good to be true. We become cynical and abandon the idealism of other days. We begin to settle for what is comfortable instead of what is magical.

That is why I don't want to grow up. I don't... I have dreams and will never let them die, and I will always believe in the true goodness of people. In my career, I will get to see horrible things, depressing things, senseless wars and ridiculous fanaticism for shallow ideals. I know this. But let's stick to our grace shall we? If we see something that is worth fighting for, for crying out loud, fight for it. Don't let it get away. Because there are very good things in this world, but they are few, and we need to know how to recognize an unbelievable thing when we see it.

"Y’see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little…push. - The Joker

So Heath Ledger is dead and that makes watching the new Batman movie eerie, morose yet exciting in a sick way. All I was thinking as I watched this ridiculously good performance was "This man drove himself crazy to truly fit himself into this role."

And it made me start thinking... how thick is the line between depressed and insane? How quickly can our mind drive us to make irreversible decisions?

The movie was fantastic. But the cost of it was the life of a talented actor. Many writers, artists, musicians, and overall artistic geniuses are what some people call eccentric, and to some, this eccentricity drove them to their death. When I was in my preteen years I truly believed that in order to become an amazing writer I was going to have to start seeing a shrink.

Overall, a great movie, that I hadn't seen before because I didn't feel like waiting in line too much. I waited 'til a lot of the fuss had died down. It was my brother's fourth time seeing it.

"How come this movie keeps being awesome?" he asked, when the credits rolled in.

"Is there anybody gonna litsen to my story?"

I am oh so happy... or in more simple words, I love the world!!! jajaja ok too much of an inside joke. Anyways, I only have a week and a half left working for Semana, surrounded by some of the most fascinating peopleI have ever met. Eduardo Arias, the magazine's cultural editor, took me in as his young, music-learning mentee, and has therefore brought me many CD's when he walks in the door with a picturesque hat and mochilas. I upload them as I work and hence have some amazing music added to my repertoire. Right now I'm uploading all of The Beatles discography.

Alfonso Cuellar I oficially named my mentor. He is the Editor in Chief of this amazing medium, he loves American politics as much as I do, and he is also strangely bilingual like me. Hence, I aspire to someday be like this man and I am very happy I got to meet him.

Yesterday, the magazine's director, Alejandro Santos, asked me if I would consider returning to work here after I graduate in... one and a half years! Who knows, maybe I will... in any case, it's a good thing to know you are wanted after graduation and not have an existential crisis of not getting a post-graduation job.

To chill or not to chill

I am, by nature, a stressed out person. I obsess with my friends, school, guys, weight, traveling... in the end, many things that are supposed to be enjoyable can easily been made into a nightmare if enough thought and analysis is put into it. That's why I need yoga and to read regularly, to switch-off my brain with TV and to party in the weekends.

But for my desire to become more Zen, to fully appreciate this idea that happiness is a way of living and not a destination, I have found several blogs of people, not Buddhist monks nor self-help coaches, but just people, who have managed to make their day to day lives as enjoyable and happy as possible.


Zen Habits

Is the first and my favorite one. This is the one I would like to share now, in order to not overload with information. It's quite charming really, since this is a 35-year-old guy with many children and a weird habit of waking up at 4 a.m. It's a cool read.

I love la Candelaria

And so it is... I am discovering my own city. I was born and lived here until the age of 13, and after that have spent practically every summer in its "cool" places. I usually club in wherever people are going, chill at country clubs and enjoy nice expensive restaurants. This is the life that I left here, of the city's elite and my bubbled-in friends (they are bubbled, yet still so amazing... how does that happen?) and recently I've been venturing a little bit out of my bubble.

I spent the weekend in a pretty cool house in the middle of Bogota's downtown, the old part of the city, with it's antique houses and universities, the great restaurants and random people. It is sad that I needed the help of foreigners to show me this city again, but usually an unaccustomed eye can see more beauty than the usual one.


I don't think I will describe it more, because I am not the best at doing this. For those of you who speak the beautiful Spanish tongue, this is for you. For those of you who don't, this is the one you need to read. Come visit.. trust me. I have met people from all over the world, yes, including Americans, living in this part of town... and oh, do they love it.

A google competitor.... finally

Check out Cuil.
It's pretty awesome, it searches way more pages than Google, and the layout is fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, the search engine of choice.

Some people disagree, that's fine. That's why I like having a blog.