Medellín, Monday

Mon 1711 Didn't sleep very well, not nightmares or worried as such but I seemed to be having some sort of vivid semi-waking dream where the world was heavily populated with sort of semi-ghosts as well as real people, they weren't scary or intimidating, they were just kind of like people but not really properly there (this is trying to approximate the dream, I don't have crystal clear recall of it) and somehow this was incompatible with sleeping properly. Probably also didn't help that when I went to bed my throat started to feel a bit sore. I felt pretty shit when the alarm went off about 740 and wished I hadn't signed up for classes, but although it still feels a bit funny my throat has been broadly OK once I got up.

(Right lower side of teeth also hurting a bit when I brush them for last day or two. Don't hurt otherwise, fingers crossed this is just temporary wisdom tooth shifting round kind of stuff.)

Got to school OK, shown round, seems quite a swish building. Had oral exam, put into a group with three others (two French women and a woman from Philadelphia). Everything went OK, we did some subjunctive in second half and while nominally very basic and something I have seen before it wasn't trivial for me.

Paid for the week at end of classes, also paid hotel (they asked me yday if I could pay today) for stay up to and including tomorrow night and have also made another reservation taking me through to next Monday morning.

Walked over to Naan (passing Don Kavi where I will prob be going in a couple of hours) and had a fairly decent chicken karahi with basmati pilau rice with cashew apples and a garlic naan and a hibiscus tea. Was tempted to get a beer but unless I missed something all the beer was artisanalish and cost 10k each. Bill including tip was 55176 which isn't cheap but not insane. In London I'd think that was amazing value, but compared to my typical 20k-ish or less meals it seems pricey. I will probably go back there (not too often) if I am around here for a few more weeks.

Think I have about six weeks left. In a way this feels like a shame but as always better to feel that than be anxiously counting down the days until I can leave.

2226 Back from LE. Not a bad night, only spoke a bit of Spanish and most of that with guy from Manchester I had met (though didn't remember him at first, gah) at Dimeli last Tue.

Colombian woman there who is going to teach a salsa class there on Thu tried to encourage me to go, I prob won't. I already turned a salsa class down at school (tho have signed up for other activities). Oddly another guy I spoke to there was telling me about the salsa club where carrera 70 meets calle 33 (Dancefree or something like that) and he said it was really friendly. In some sense the social aspect of something like this appeals but although you could argue it would be comfort-zone-pushing I'm reluctant to dive (or more like paddle) in to the whole area of learning salsa at this point. And in some ways I really really don't want to learn at all. I mean sure, if someone magically granted me a modest competence at dancing salsa with the wave of a wand, I might eg go down to Dancefree having had this recommendation to see what it's like, but I'd be going to see if I had any interesting conversations with the salsa merely being a kind of "entrance fee" .

FWIW the salsa teacher gave me and Manchester guy (I know his name but not writing it here for probably stupid reasons) some advice on safety. Obviously just one person's opinion but she said:

- if someone speaks to you when you're walking alone (as a foreigner) at night, don't speak back - just gesture with hand or shake head or whatever. Apparently if you speak they will know you're a foreigner and are more likely to rob you or whatever. Apparently it doesn't matter that we look like foreigners, not talking makes a big difference.

- it's a *good* thing (I clarified this to be sure hadn't got sense wrong) to be wearing headphone, presumably on the grounds it gives you an "excuse" to ignore people and in reality if someone comes at you from behind you will feel them as quickly as you'd hear them. I think she actually meant *listening to music* on headphones, though in theory you could wear the headphones just for show. I'm a bit dubious about this, if nothing else I suspect it might slightly reduce ability to hear cars etc.

- I asked explicitly about walking fast - and remember this is abstract, she has not seen me walking fast so there's no personal body language issues in play here - and she said this was bad, I said would it make a difference if you had (never mind whether I could pull it off) confident body language "otherwise" and she said no, walking fast looked nervous, so don't do it.

Her and Manchester guy were also kind enough to say (I don't believe I was fishing, but who knows) that apart from the fact I didn't look as old as I am (I was wearing cap FWIW, which hides the baldness and whitish hairs, though after my no 1 cut other day the whitish hairs are probably less noticeable anyway - I didn't wear it for those reasons at the LE itself, I don't need it to protect myself from sun at night, but I wore it since I figured I'd probably look less conspicuously touristy on the walk home wearing it - if I'd expected to get a taxi home or was at Dimeli which is almost on 70 and not very far really I'd have gone out without cap at night), my feeling that it was weird for me to be in places where nearly everyone was younger than me was all in my head. I don't know if I believe this but jotting it down FWIW.

I walked home slowly (or as best I could; it isn't primarily a nerves thing for me, I *want* to walk fast to get where I'm going - still, I think I did fairly well) and didn't have any problems, though it was fairly early (not that many people around except on 70 though) compared to last week.

Going to do a spot of laundry since I am back earlyish.

2307 Done. FWIW bloke who told me about Dancefree was an interesting chap, he'd studied brewing in Calgary, was going back to Japan to teach IIRC English there until his semi-retired friend finished his last year at brewing school and then they were going to open a microbrewery in Panama (prob Boquete or Panama City) - this chap was from Florida but him mum was Panamanian and I think he wasn't quite bilingual but spoke pretty decent Spanish (I only spoke to him in English). We also had a bit of a discussion about digital nomads and he made the interesting (perhaps because it flatters my own prejudices?) that the lifestyle is over-hyped, as if you're only working a few hours a day, and in reality you're working quite a lot for not that much money. My person take is that some people probably do earn a decent salary but for many it's going to be a way of travelling without drawing on savings but not something you could do your whole life, you'd have to be doing a pseudo-extended-gap-year kind of deal or never plan to retire (as I doubt you'd be earning enough to save much) or doing it as a kind of semi-retirement. This is pure speculation on my part, I obviously don't know and I don't think it's something I want to do myself (notwithstanding some similarities to my current lifestyle where I travel quite a lot), I'm just waffling/writing down what I said to him in that conversation.

Incidentally I tried to install DiDi-Rider and InDriver on phone today but neither seems to be available (I think this is reason) in Colombia, despite other people here in Colombia having mentioned them to me. Fuck knows. Will ask next time I get a chance. Based on speaking to people tonight they use Uber, I am seriously down on ET (no response to my Fri night complaints yet), so while I may still be forced to use ET I have installed Uber on the HTC and will if necessary take a chance of maybe being stuck with any fines or towing charges of whatever the driver incurs (which according to MG site may be a consequence of the legal "hack" being used to allow them to resume operating in Colombia; obviously I'm not an expert, just noting this because I think "normally" you would "of course" not be liable for those things when using Uber).

I have to say that after the possibly iffy business in Cartagena with the taxi to the top of that hill and then Friday night, any attempts I might make to "see both sides" wrt disputes between Uber and Colombian-state-acting-on-behalf-of-taxi-driver-monopoly are increasingly half-hearted. But I don't pretend this is strictly fair, and of course my opinion doesn't actually matter.

Since I only drank kombucha tonight (though one might have been 3-4% as it was a weird "café" one) I am pretty sober and although of course any alcohol is Too Much and I must be drinkaware.co.uk, last few days have been pretty restrained.

Tue 0005 Bed. FWIW despite walking past twice today got lost on way to DK and had to get GM out, but never mind.