(sorry) attention whoring: painful goodbyes / 8 months in Colombia AMA

[Hash]

So, after a total of 8 months and a half, tomorrow morning my time/adventure in Colombia draws to a close and I'm back to dreary Ottawa (for now).

The work I did here was not the most exciting, fulfilling or future-building. In fact, the university was fairly sh**tty and the program I led is poorly thought-out and has a whole load of issues which prevents it from being really effective. My boss was a complicated guy who I didn't really figure out even after so much time, and he was oftentimes frustrating driving me to the point of being angry. Still, despite all that, even the work was interesting to me and I worked with some good people.

At the end of the day, this was - by far and without any doubt - the best experience of my life thus far, for many reasons. I've fallen in love with Colombia, the country, the people, the culture, the food and its awesome diversity. I'm pretty sure Colombia is my favourite country of all the ones (20-ish) I've been to in my life. This isn't to say it's perfect - obviously, and I can find a few things which I disliked about it. But this country is so great, so underrated and tragically misunderstood by most outsiders. My own preconceptions about Colombia/South America have been shattered, and I've learned so much as a result. It's a country of remarkable diversity - in terms of cities, landscapes, environments, regions, culture and people.

In short, I'm sad to leave this country after having such a good time here. Some day, I'm sure, I'll come back to Colombia.

I apologize for this sappy and attention-whoring thread. In a bid to salvage it, I guess AMA about Colombia?

[Boston Bread]

What kind of program did you lead? Is it some kind of exchange or co-op?

[Hash]

More seriously, what was your favorite dish?

Hard to say. I really enjoyed a good lunch of frijoles, rice, small salad and chicharrón (deep fried pig skin). A bandeja paisa is also really good although if you eat a full plate of that, you're probably not eating for a week afterwards. But the charm of Colombian cuisine is in individual foods rather than dishes: chicharrón (the pork), chicharrón (the sweet/dessert version) but also empanadas (the best), Colombian-style churros (proof of God's existence afaik), the different soups (sancocho), anything involving arequipe, a chuleta, a fresh lulada in Cali or Colombian-style hamburgers and hot dogs. And I only really know about the meat-heavy Andean diet; food from the Pacific or the Caribbean is very different. Also, Colombia has some really good beers. On the other hand, aguardiente is basically rat poison but it does the job if you're looking to get drunk. Most Colombians seem to know that aguardiente is actually pretty sh**tty but they keep loving it.

What kind of program did you lead? Is it some kind of exchange or co-op?

I did an exchange/internship. The program I led was an existing program in the university where I worked; I led the implementation/introduction of this program in the law faculty of that university. The program is to have a foreign professional and/or teacher work with a local professor in an existing class in a faculty (like law, communications, marketing etc.), with the last 30-60 minutes of the class every week being in English, talking about something related to whatever topic was covered by the main professor in Spanish.