Update for Everyone III - The Whinge Binge

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My essay idea which I liked a lot was shot down, and I'm back looking for an international internship. Stuff could be better

I did splurge on a Swanson Pyramid of Greatness and Mean Girls posters, though. I love randomly buying fairly useless stuff I like, for no good reason (like buying a South African flag in Niagara Falls).

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Feeling pretty down today.

Same here. It's hitting me right now that my dream of finding a teaching gig abroad for a few months may not work out, and I'm left without a Plan B to occupy my 8 months from graduation until I go to grad school. I may be up sh**t's creek.

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I finished my last exam of my last undergrad semester. I'm done, 4 1/2 years later!

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Well, I got a job offer for 4 months in Manizales, Colombia at a university there. Really excited. Even more excited to be leaving Ottawa!

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Well, I got a job offer for 4 months in Manizales, Colombia at a university there. Really excited. Even more excited to be leaving Ottawa!

Yay, congrats!

What is the job about, exactly?

A lot of it will be worked out based on what they need and what I want, but the basic gist of it is teaching English and/or assisting profs in the faculty of law over there. The guy said he wanted to offer me something which would also help me improve my Spanish. Anyway, it's super interesting and exciting. It's also a huge relief to finally find something after months of fruitless job search and stressful "i'm up sh**t's creek" moments. Thank you Aubrey Plaza, our Lord and Saviour.

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My monthly salary in Colombia will apparently be 1,378,018...


Colombian pesos. I'm gonna need to wrap my head around big numbers.

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My visa for Colombia has just been approved, so everything is set. I'm leaving Ottawa's horrible winter weather in the wee hours of the morning, a week from today.

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I'm pleased to report that supermarkets in evil neoliberal Colombia are stacked with toilet paper.

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First day of work here, sounds fun enough although the interesting stuff begins next week when classes begin. I'm really looking forward to that! Also working with some cool people.

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Fun night out. I have some pretty great roommates here; we had a blast over beer. I really love this country.

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One of my friends is going to energency surgery today, here in Manizales. We're worried, so prayers to your deities and whatever. Hoping hard she's fine 😰

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Yesterday evening I was probably the drunkest I've ever been, so that was quite... interesting. My drunk persona is very weird.

In other bizarre news, my picture was in today's local paper.

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Yesterday evening I was probably the drunkest I've ever been, so that was quite... interesting. My drunk persona is very weird.

In other bizarre news, my picture was in today's local paper.

are these two things by any chance related?

No 😃

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1. I had a very, very Atlas moment today. At a skywalk/observation tower, I was chatting with the guide (in Spanish), who is a law student, and mentioned I'm working with law classes here and he began telling me about the constitutional law stuff he's studied and randomly asked me in Spanish 'what was that judicial review decision with Madison?'

2. I think this is my new favourite thing ever

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Well, I really feel like sh**t. Rather worthless sh**t at that.

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In my lecture on federalism today, I put a picture of Andrew Cuomo on a slide as an example of a governor. I can imagine the mass outrage if the class was filled with Atlas posters.

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I'm on a trip to Colombia at the moment.  Was invited through friends to give some talks here.  But I've been around the state of Antioquia a bit, but have spent most of my time in Medellin and Manizales.  I must say it's been really wonderful so far. 

Oooh, that's awesome! I'm living in Manizales (which is an awesome city) right now, feel free to drop me a line if you want to meet up here or something.

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I'm on a trip to Colombia at the moment.  Was invited through friends to give some talks here.  But I've been around the state of Antioquia a bit, but have spent most of my time in Medellin and Manizales.  I must say it's been really wonderful so far. 

Oooh, that's awesome! I'm living in Manizales (which is an awesome city) right now, feel free to drop me a line if you want to meet up here or something.

Thanks, Hashemite!  I'm only here till Saturday and my friends have me doing stuff, but if I get some time, I'll definitely pm you.  I really like the city so far, it's very cool.  My friends, who live here also, tell me there is high unemployment in the city, but enough industries are doing well to keep it vibrant.  Love the people here too.  What brought you to live in Manizales?

Manizales is indeed a very cool city, and it's also a generally rather safe city and the people here are pretty great and very friendly on the whole. The city has at least five universities, so academia is a major employer here I would guess. I'm working in Manizales as part of a global internship, co-teaching (in English) constitutional law/politics in the Universidad de Manizales (one of the biggest private universities here).

Feel free to PM me if you get a second. At any rate, make sure to check out El Cable (the very hip, modern, lively and wealthy district), Chipre (a beautiful place with an awesome promenade overlooking the mountains and valleys down below, the highest point in the city) and you absolutely need to go all the way to the top of the Cathedral (the view is just spectacular and it's a very thrilling excursion to the top). Make sure to sample the local food as well.

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Off for a long weekend in Medellin. They have wifi on buses here; even if it's waaaay cheaper than Greyhound...

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Peak Atlas nerd.txt moment today; I noticed a copy of the old Colombian constitution (1886) in a small bookstore and immediately jumped on it and bought it. brb killing myself

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Well, I'm staying another semester in Colombia after a short vacation back home in Ottawa. I'm also probably going to go explore Cartagena for a few days early next week. Colombia es tan chévere.

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Bought my plane tickets for a short vacation in Cartagena before heading home for a longer vacation back in Canada. Really looking forward to it.

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I took a 2.5-day vacation in Cartagena, which is an absolutely wonderful city in the best country in the world.

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I'm back in this great country known as Colombia. I have one new housemate (a Colombian, now) who is super cool.

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I just came back from a long weekend trip to Cali (not California), which was quite nice - it's a rather fun city once you get to know it. It is, however, a far more dangerous city than Medellín or Bogotá, with far more sketchy types hanging around - and, as it turns out, my hotel was located smack middle in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of downtown Cali - the taxi driver on the first day locked the doors as soon as we drove into the neighbourhoods (during the day!) and another taxi driver drove at high speed through the area to get to the hotel (at night). On Sunday morning, I took my chances and opted to walk from my hotel to where I wanted to go, against the advice of the taxi driver the previous day; fortunately, it was fine.