Chevere.

NOTE: If you come to Colombia, learn this word! It means cool, neat, awesome, anything good. Its close cousin is "vacano" (because after 12 minutes of conversation you will have exhausted chevere and will need a new synonym for "flipping sweet").

Amazing, the things that can be packed into one week. As of my last post, I had just moved into the hostel from the Garcias' place and was still getting situated in the new city. Since then, I've started volunteering with Atlas Corps, a young NGO (non-governmental organization) with lots of potential and pretty cool staff, moved out of the hostel and into a new apartment, and worn the crazy out of my soles walking around the city.

A bit about Atlas Corps: The organization is about three years old, which is very, very young for an NGO. They work on fostering cooperative fellowships for public sector professionals in Colombia, India, and the United States. For example, a fellow from Colombia goes to the United States for a year to live and work for a host organization (of which there are many to chose from) in order to pick up new strategies and skills for working in public sector development industry. In the meantime, a fellow from the United States comes here for a year to learn about the same kind of stuff. The experience offers both parties new perspective and some really good experience. Our office is verrrrry small (think college dorm and then cut off about a third) and there are a lot of volunteers there helping make everything work. We go to the same place nearly every day for lunch--a little restaurant at the top of some narrow stairs that offers a menù ejecutivo for 6,000 pesos (that's three dollars). The menù is this: your choice of meat, rice, salad, fried planatin (a Colombian standard), and often soup. For three dollars. Yep.

As for everything else: whirlwind. My apartment just fell into my lap, thanks to Atlas looking for a place for their new fellows that are coming in September. I'm staying in the room that a new fellow will be moving into in early September, basically as a place holder. The apartment is in Chapinero, near the city center. This neighborhood's other local name is Chapi-gay (I'm not kidding). I live above a karaoke bar called Brokeback Mountain (also not kidding). My roomates are one Colombian woman who works for the United Nations (super-chevere) and one young English architect that came to travel for one week and has been here for three months (also super-chevere). I think we'll get along well.

Currently, I'm in Medellin exploring and enjoying the sunshine (it has rained EVERY day in Bogota since I got there--a constant, Seattle-like drizzle) with some very gracious couchsurfers (see: www.couchsurfing.org). Today was beautiful and our bus ride down from the hills was gracefully halted by a parade honoring the patron saint of drivers: Santa Carmen. Her holiday was actually Thursday, but as having all of the bus drivers in one big parade presented a very big logistical problem, the parades have been spread over three days. Buses draped in streamers slowly crawled their way up the narrow streets that weave into the hill around Medellin, stopping traffic for miles. Very nice, as we were going the opposite way and only had to stop for a short time...

More on Medellin when I return.