In the morning I went to the British Council and signed up for my id as well as renting out the three books I would need for my pre-course work. I maybe should have read more to really hit the ground running, but I had a stuttering start, but I won't jump the gun with this thing yet. I met Gloria outside and we spent all day at my place as she flew the next day. We listened to a lot of music and shared a really good time. At one point Praveen entered saw we were busy and left again. Was a classic comedy moment sketch and still makes me laugh. Then the three of us went for a meal at her friend Angelica's house. It was a nice time except for her psycho friend. I set up new year for Buenos Aires the year after next and started inviting people for it. Her friend was quite drunk. I can't even remember her name, but its the only friend of Gloria's I did not like. She started off asking me who my next project was. Gloria thought she was interested in me. I clearly pointed out she was ugly and a bitch so there was no threat. Also she ended up hating me. Praveen was practicing salsa again. She was then asking us what we thought of love and quoting all sorts of philosophers. I love these well read people. They spout shit they have read, but never actually think for themselves. They also never have a point. She gave me two positions and said what do I think. What do I think aout what? You need a question to have an answer. If she meant the two points, then they are pretty quotes but divorced from context. She did talk an enormous amount of shit and even Praveen became frustrated at her pointlessness. Though he did take her number and at one point I thought he was going to sleep with her. Thank god he didn't. I question his taste sometimes, but then he questions mine as well so we are even.
In the morning I met Sylvia at her university and did an interview in Spanish about Pax Americana. I had to defend the usual anti-Americanism you encounter while travelling. Many Colombians don't want American bases in their country. They are idiots. Their main argument is that it would make them a colony of the US and provoke Chavez. Both are rubbish. Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea and many countries have American bases. We have nuclear ones. We are not colonies but allies of the US and we use their protection wisely. No country will attack a country with US bases, because those are the only countries that the US will definitely defend. Even Russia knows this. It is the reason why Eastern European countries like Poland and Czech Republic are crying out for bases. Protection. Its the reason Ukraine and Georgia want to be members of NATO. Protection. Look at the lack of support Georgia got for its war with Russia and also Estonia when it was attacked on the internet. Do you think Russia would be so bold with England or Germany. No. Obviously. So Colombia would become part of a network of Democratic alliances. Why would you not want that, unless you were an idiot. Chavez is also less likely to attack now. He is stupid, but he is not that stupid. The US want an excuse to knock him out and if he attacks Colombia he gives them that excuse. Anyway. I met Alice and Praveen for lunch in the Arabic place afterwards.I went to Olympia to buy some stuff for dinner that day and it was the day of the retards. Every retard in the world was in my queue. First there were the people buying apples with credit cards, then the woman with 200o questions and finally the idiot man who could not count properly what he needed to pay. I felt like grabbing him and counting it for him or just paying for him so he could get the fuck out of my way. I was fourth in the queue and I saw people enter while I was in the queue, get their shopping, pay and leave while I was still in the queue. For fuck sake. Angelica M was too late for dinner in the end, so we went out and did Aguaspanelitas. I think this was the first time I participated in that activity. We go out and give aguapanela (a sweet Colombian drink) and bread to the tramps for two hours around the area I live in. In fact it starts in front of my house so there really no excuses for me not participating. Gloria had gone out for dinner with her family and I was waiting for her call to come over to her place. I kept buying special ham and cheese croissants for the tramps as I felt that the other breads were a little dry and they might prefer something more exciting. Eventually Gloria rang me and I went off to her place. Man BBC Radio 2 is a bit wank. Need to change this. There is a guy with a really annoying voice next to me. He has been here as long as elbow mouse man. Will they never leave. Fuck there is not much choice. Soul it is. Anyway we had fun in the lounge before Gloria left and we spent our last time together there. Neither of us slept and then we went to the airport. She got her luggage wrapped up in that useless plastic stuff. Not sure why. Seems a waste of money. Then again I have been travelling forever and never had anything stolen. It was an emotional goodbye for everyone and it would feel very strange afterwards. I had spent a lot of time with her and had many good memories and now she would no longer be there. It would be similar when Praveen went. The flat kind of felt empty. Weird how you develop attachements to people fast, but strange that it was this time they were leaving me and I was staying behind. I came back from the airport half dead and very tired. Praveen had been in Quiebra Canto and met a girl from the coast. They ended up having a quasi relationship, even though she spoke no English and he spoke no Spanish. Indeed he invited Alice to one of their dates to work as a translator.
I was very tired from the airport and slept a fair bit. Spoke to Gloria now she was in Buenos Aires, my future home. Both me and Praveen were very tired. I cooked lunch for me, him and Manuel. I wrote that I don't think I did very much. There was nothing on at the cinema so I just stayed in and slept
The next day we went to Jennifer's class and Praveen taught Hinduism. He was pretty good at it to be fair and had to teach for at least an hour. He had a translator but always gave him way too much to cover. While he was teaching, Jennifer and I were chatting at the back as we had not seen each other in a while. Aires and Avianca are crap and useless. You can't book flights with a credit card from Europe, which is retarded as a lot of their customers will be from there. Stupid people. Actually Aires were ok, but I could not fly to the border. Angelica M came to meet me to do some shopping, but somehow got lost and then never answered her phone. We met some random weirdos in the shit bar as normal as Praveen insisted on sitting with these two girls for drinks. Daniella, Diego and David joined us for drinks afterwards. I went to the toilet and some perra ended up shouting at David. He got shook up and went home. Praveen was still injured from nearly being killed and went back to the flat. Possibly for a tryst. No idea. Of all the girls he had stuff with I only ever met one. The quasi girlfriend. His one night rendezvous' were always secret affairs. The remaining three of us went to Vinacure for the night. Great club. I wanted to go to the Medellin one but after being burnt by Mangos we never went. This one was carnival themed with a stage show every 50 minutes for 10 minutes. The first one was based on little red riding hood and the second on Michael Jackson´s thriller. There was hardly anyone in it, which is a shame. Lot of space to dance. The people were all Colombian though which was a bonus and there were a lot of good looking people too. There was a large group of girls who got approached by three wanker guys who ended up surrounding them and penning them in like an episode of one man and his dog. They did not seem to realise at any point that the girls thought they were repulsive and they had no chance in hell. Took a taxi back home afterwards.
Spurs drew 2-2 with Bolton, coming from behind twice. United almost lost to Sunderland at home though and had to rely on a last minute equaliser. I met the Mexican girl from Cali who had written to me. Had lunch with her and Alice in Kokoriko and then we went to the couchsurfing picnic. We ended up in Parque Virrey in the end. We had some food and mingled as normal with the Bogota core group of couchsurfing (ie we did not mingle at all). Drunken Cesar joined us and Praveen and I had realised he was probably our only proper male friend in Bogota who was actually Colombian. A dog came by and sat down on the bottle of water. I am still laughing, hearing Alice go 'oh no it touched his willy.' So English. But the dog had rubbed its cock on the bottle of water. We were then rather childishly offering this to people and drunken Cesar ended up drinking from it. We played football and somehow one of the guys managed to kick it into the sewage they call a river. Cesar had already fallen in their going for a piss and now it was my turn to fall in while going for a ball I never kicked in there. Dammit. I smelt of sewage and I was off to Cucuta that night on a night bus. We renamed Drunken Cesar as Gollum for hoarding the mate and I think he must hate our nicknames for him lol. I finally confirmed that mora was blackberry in English after months of confusement as to whether it was blackcurrant or blackberry. We met a few more people at the barbecue and then I had cut my finger climbing out of the river bank as well. I took a night bus to Cucuta to meet Iranis and watched the film Taken. It got panned in the reviews but I thought it was a pretty good film. Spoke to my notions of pride and fighting for what you believe in. Watched it in Spanish without subtitles and understood everything. My Spanish was getting there.
I got intermittent sleep on the refrigerator that this bus always is. Why do they think this is the only bus to leave Bogota, where people want to take the freezing cold climate with them. Strange. I arrived earlier than expected in Cucuta. It seems full of strip clubs. Typical border town. The internet girl was phenomenally stunning and there are a lot of good looking girls on the border. Not too smart I think though and they are certainly not used to foreigners down there. Found out that Praveen had slept with some Yankee we had met in the party up in the mountains and that some other Colombian had stayed in my room and complained all the time. Pampered bitch. You should not moan when someone gives you hospitality. Ungrateful. I had missed another party and Praveen was reinforcing his theory lol. I arrived at the hotel and was interrogated as to whether I was who I said I was for Iranis' security. She had arrived before me and it was good to catch up after not seeing each other for 4 months. She had even said she was worried I would not make it and that she had taken comfort from Chavez even though she hates him, because he is Venezuelan and she was alone there. We chatted a lot about different things and walked around town a bit. She helped fix my back with some chiropractic techniques and some reflexology. Was really useful. We ended up sleeping together even though neither of us had planned it. It was a good night, if somewhat unexpected. I am aware this blog is entitled Bogota and I was away in Cucuta, but I would be away for 4 weekends of my last 6 in Bogota in general.
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