One Man’s Walk through life

A Month In Medellin

I find myself in Medellin till the end of the month. I find myself with some much sought after stability, taking tons of martial arts and dance classes, and with time to pair with charles on our ruby ide project.

It is good.

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I arrived in Medellin with Charles and Paul a couple weeks ago, and we all three liked the city so much we decided to stay a month. A week later, we had an apartment (although, castle may be a more accurate description). And we’d all settled in a bit.

Medellin is Colombia’s second largest city after Bogotá, and it’s pretty big. It has Colombia’s only Metro, which is actually quite nice – the Paisas (as Medelliners are called) are all very proud of their Metro. When I got here, I remember walking out of the Metro into the center and smiling at the New York sized crowds of people. I thnk I was homesick; it is good to be in a city again.

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Unlike New York, however, Medellin is quite laidback. Which I like.

The girls here on average are more beautiful than in any city I’ve ever lived in or visited…and that says a lot. And more than that, they’re all still as friendly and warm as anywhere else in Colombia. Of course, this coincides with me having so much to do that I’m not necessarily looking for a girlfriend at the moment, but it’s definitely quite fun to go out dancing. Looking around a good dance club here is…mind blowing.

Our apartment, “El Castillo” is HUGE. The 3 of us found another roomate, and we rented a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, apartment with a balcony in one of the bedrooms, and gigantic terrace on the roof. We think this place was designed for 3 or 4 FAMILIES, not people. It’s a good place to spend a month, especially since it costs about $5 US a day. I’m really enjoying have a place where I “live”. It’s also nice to hang out with Charles for a bit. Here’s a flythrough
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Tai Chi Chuan & Shaolin Kung Fu——
So I somehow found a teacher that teaches both Tai Chi and Kung Fu. I’ve wanted to take Tai Chi ever since I started dancing, it is supposed to be amazing for control and balance. Kung Fu, “Shaolin” Kung Fu, I’ve wanted to take since I was a kid in my babysitter’s house watching reruns of ‘Kung Fu’ with David Carradine. It’s so beautiful, and it’s more of a combative martial art. I was really excited to find this teacher, and after paying a about $35 US, I’ve been taking taking about 2 1/2 hours of class 6 days a week.

It’s so amazing. I’ve been getting up every day around 6 in the morning and heading over to this park where he and a couple students meet in the mornings. We practice mostly Tai Chi, meditate, stretch, and do a little bit of Kung Fu as well… It’s great. I love having all this time to actually do stuff like this that I’ve always wanted to do. With my dancing background, I’ve been learning movements very quickly, of course going every day and practicing a little at home help as well. I’ve really come to enjoy and look forward to going through the forms of Tai Chi. It’s so relaxing and…beautiful.

I really hope I can bring this back with me as part of my daily routine when I come back to the states.
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Exchanging Dance Classes——
I walked into this dance studio, to ask about classes and prices a couple weeks ago. The had a lot of things that I wanted to learn, but it was a bit pricey because all the classes were individual. But I stayed for a bit and chatted with one of the instructors.

Next thing I knew, I’m giving the 3 instructors there swing classes in exchange for 1-on-1 classes of whatever I want. Wicked cool! I’ve only ever taught privates, and not very advanced privates, it’s really fun to teach a little mini class. And it’s also fun to have instructors that learn very quickly and are good teachers of teaching as students.

Meanwhile, I’m learning all these tropical dances: salsa, porro, cumbia, merengue; as well as some club dances: reggaeton, trance. It’s great, because 1-on-1 we go really fast, especially on stuff I already know, and I get to write down their syllabus for teaching these dances. They throw a weekly party on Thursdays, I’m really looking forward to going tomorrow and meeting a lot of their other students. Should be fun.

I’m hoping that teaching classes here will be a good preparation for Argentina, where I think it would actually be cool to teach real swing classes. We’ll see what happens.

Turns out there is actually have a TON of stuff that I know, and they have a ton of stuff that I don’t know
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Where to Next?——
I’m here till the end of June. Then I have 2 or 3 weeks to zoom down to Argentina. With conditions as they are right now in Colombia, I think I might just fly to Peru, take a quick look at Machu Pichu and lake Titicaca. Next, I’ll zoom through Bolivia, which is supposed to be awesome. Finally I’ll get to Argentina and Buenos Aires with hopefully enough time to find an apartment and get to know the city a little bit before Erin comes to visit.

Things start getting more hazy after that. I’m thinking I might keep an apartment in Buenos Aires until I leave South America for good, but before then I might also come back to the states for a month or so for Shira’s wedding and to hang out with friends and family. I definitely also want to see Brazil, so I might also leave Buenos Aires for a month or two at some point for a Brazil trip. However, if I can have a setup in Buenos Aires like I have here…things will only get better