First Week Impressions: Bad traffic, but a funny one. Lost in transportation :) 

I’ve been living  In Cartagena for a week so far and I even didn’t  have time to write a post for my blog. Well, maybe I had some, but the hot weather makes me very lazy… :)

First thing that I want to share is that the traffic here is just crazy! It’s a circus! I have never ever seen anything like this before: there are almost no traffic lights in Cartagena and once you see one nobody cares what color it currently shows. It’s a real piece of a jungle. Crossing a street is very dangerous for pedestrians because drivers don’t pay attention to them at all. So far I am not really fond of crossing any big street on my own, I prefer being accompanied by some locals to be sure not to get hit. Traffic accidents are very common.

Then you have this kind of public transport that is very unusual for Europeans. First, there are no urban cards here, you always have to pay 1500 pesos (about 70 eurocents) to the driver for a ride, no matter how long. No tickets needed. Mostly there are old buses, without any type of air condition. Well, actually they have one: they just never close the doors :) Not only for better “air conditioning” but also for the passengers to get in and out whenever and wherever they want. Yes, bus stops do not exist here! You only have to wink to the bus driver so he stops and you get in and then you just scream “paraaaaaaa” (Spanish: stop) so he lets you out. And no route maps either. Actually it’s also difficult to get a city plan, there are only small plans of the historical center. For the rest you better use google maps and that’s it. So, you have to know exactly where you’re going. If you’re new to the city – you’re lost, that’s it!

Anyway, I don’t see it as a bad experience, just a different one. For sure It would be more comfortable if they had this kind of transport I’m familiar with, I just need some more time and some courage to explore the whole city without getting lost every second…;)

PS: They have begun to organize TransCaribe, a bus transport system that would be similar to the european one, but according to what I've been told the problem is that the authorities of Cartagena are constantly stealing money for that so after 8 years of work they still haven't made it :(

How it all began....

Today I am gonna explain why I am going to Cartagena de Indias and how I got this opportunity. Basically, I am going there for an AIESEC Internship for half a year and I am going to teach English in a language center called Centro Colombo Americano.

First of all I must say that recently I have graduated from the University. I studied Applied Linguistics, specialization: German and Russian at the University of Warsaw. I have also some experience in teaching languages in private language schools and for individual clients

Now that I needed a job, and I also felt like going abroad after living 6 years in the same city, I thought I could find something interesting through AIESEC, an international youth organisation that offers paid internships all over the world. The word paid is very important in this context because in Poland most internships that you can get when being a student or a fresh graduate are unpaid which is, in my opinion, almost like slavery, even worse, because they make you think you do it voluntarily.

So, I applied for the membership in AIESEC which I got without any problems, the recruitment was nice and easy. I thought, searching for an Internship wouldn't be that nice and easy. Looking for a job is never nice and easy I thought. It's always rough!

Well, in this case - surprise, surprise - it wasn't! Everytime I am sending my CV to various companies in Poland, I know they mostly won't even contact me. And I was really surprised, because I got accepted in many places!

So, among the options that i had I chose to go to Cartagena. Because of the language (I already speak Spanish), great climate (I am fed up with the Polish cold) and great pictures and videos I found about the city. Hell yeah, I did my homework! :)

Here you have one that I liked a lot:

I am amazed by the things about Cartagena and Colombia that I'm reading and watching, I can't wait to go there! :D

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

I have never ever written a blog before. But now that I am going to Colombia to live there my great intercultural experience, I thought it'd be a nice idea to start writing about it! :) I also thought that I would write it in English - If i did it in Polish, my Latin friends wouldn't be able to understand it, same for some of my Polish friends if I did it in Spanish. And I am too lazy to translate every single post :) So, long live the lingua franca which happens to be English nowadays :) 

I am going to Colombia. On January 16th I will be in the city of Cartagena de Indias on the Caribbean coast. A city of great history, colonial architecture and very hot, tropical climate. Quite different from what I see from my window right now: In Poland it's winter time, with lots of snow and temperatures significantly under 0 degrees. To be more exact: currently we are freezing our asses off. God bless central heating! But very soon, within three weeks I will go to the city of the eternal summer, with average daily temperatures around 30 degrees, lots of sun and lots of humidity. Like in a wet sauna! I suppose, it means sweating all the time for me and taking shower 4 times a day, like Latinos do. Shame on you, nasty and dirty little Europeans who think, one shower a day sounds like good hygene! :) But anyway, I am looking forward to it. The day before yesterday I literally felt pain when I had to take off my glove outside in order to make a call. Shame on you, tactile smartphones for not working with my gloves on!