World Tour

Friday was my final day at Karmak. My coworkers had a nice miniature potluck for me and everything. I really do value my experiences there. I learned many things that will be serve me well in the future. Just spending some time learning how to operate in an office setting is pretty crucial, not to mention all of the technology that I became familiar with. My job took me to six states, two that were new to me. I regret not having the opportunity to see any other countries during my work travels, but I can't complain much. The people there are really friendly and welcoming... Goodbye Carlinville! Nice place, but Im not going to miss the commute.

I am going to spend some more time in Colombia before I head to my new teaching position. I figured I should share a couple of things about the last trip that I inadvertently left out. Its crazy to think that this excursion was only a week of my life. I feel like I saw and did enough to fill a month.

The first big site that deserves to be mentioned was Pie De La Popa in Cartagena. This amounted to yet another religious building on the top of a large hill. Besides a great view of the surrounding city, I don't recall it being very noteworthy in my mind, but it seemed to command a degree of importance that I never understood. I gathered from a few pictures on the walls that Pope John Paul II had visited and blessed this place, so if its good enough for the Pope I guess I can manage.

During our wanderings in and out of the religious buildings, there was something I couldn't stop thinking about. When we were finally ready to leave, I had to see it again. At the gates to this place, among all of the really annoying peddlers, was a guy holding two sloths. These might be the coolest animals that I have ever seen with my own eyes. They move ridiculously slowly, and a little scrunched face on a longish neck reminded me a bit of a hairy E.T.. They also had really long claws. I read that they are usually safe from being hunted by humans because their claws are so long that a lethal bullet isn't enough to dislodge their body from a tree. Pretty crazy.

Every church should have an exotic petting zoo

This next picture is a kickass statue of Simon Bolivar that we discovered during a night time stroll in a park. Before going to Colombia, I didnt really know much of anything about this man. But he seems to be the historical rockstar of the continent. Imagine a George Washington figure, who, after leading the United States to independence, decided to go ahead and liberate 5 other countries and serve as president in each. He seems to have just plain dominated the Spanish wherever he went. Beast man.

Well my time in the ol' US is winding down. Let's hope its memorable!