Muchas cosas!

Well in the past three days a lot has happened in my life! This will be long I am warning you now, but I want to update yall on everything in one blog post. First, Saturday night was my one month anniversary with my beautiful girlfriend Viviana. One month may not sound like a big deal to most people back home in America but here in Colombia one month is pretty special so I decided to pull out all the strings and surprise her with a super fancy dinner. She had no idea and my plan worked perfectly! The resturant did everything great! Here is what you get for 50 bucks in Colombia.

I also had another surprise for her. Next month is the Colombian version of Valentine's Day. One of my clients owns a small hotel in a town about four hours away from Bogota and I am taking her there for three days of rest and relaxation and doing nothing. It will be really nice to get away from everything and everyone for a while!

As you can see by my four photos, you really can get a lot for 50 dollars (US) if you know where to look. The restaurant was great and the food was great, the atmosphere and everything was perfect. I knocked it out the park hehe. Only now I have set the bar pretty high so, for our one year anniversary I am going to need to really step up my game haha. But she loved it and I was really happy. By the way, the plate with chocolate sauce says "Happy first month of dating" the guy with the guitar is singing a song dedicated to us. :D

Ok, next up. On Sunday Viviana's son Juan had a school function and it was pretty important to him. As a 7 year old these things can be a big deal. So I went with Viviana and her family. Her sister came along, with her own 10 year old daughter Maria and the father of Maria. Juan's school is actually really neat. It is on a huge piece of property and they have a working farm for the kids to learn about different animals and such. It is out in the country side and outdoors. The kids get to do many outdoor activities and learn a lot. I wish I could have gone to a similar school when I was his age, they also learn English there.

This was more of a festival that happens once a year. They had food and games for the kids and presentations of the kids. Here is another difference, there was literally maybe 500 or more people there. They had zip lines and bouncy houses and many many games for the kids. The games along with the food cost money, all the money raised was donated to the school. But, they also sold alcohol.  Not only did they sell beer but they sold hard liquor! You would never see this in the states haha. I didn't get drunk of course but I am quite sure there was a few parents there who over indulged lol.

Last but certainly not least, I had a slight health scare (don't worry I am fine) but it is a lot to explain so I am going to write about it in another blog post. Yall take care,Tyler

A big huge thank you!

Well my dear readers, after three years of blogging about my life, all of my life, my ups and downs and travels and not traveling, I have hit just over 10,000 views on my blog! I have tried to blog about my life as honestly as possible. I have always strove to give you an uncensored version of my life and what I am thinking and feeling.

When I first started blogging I only did it because I felt "forced" to keep my family informed about my life in Australia but then a strange thing happened. I actually started to enjoy blogging and I started doing it for MY enjoyment and MY memories and not because I felt "forced" too.

I don't make a single penny from this blog (I am not that famous yet) but I do it because I like to write and I enjoy letting you know what is going on in my life. I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it even if sometimes what I write is boring. Thanks for reading and sharing my ups and downs with me.

Yall take care and I look forward to the next 10,000 views and what life has in store for me. At the moment I am pretty happy :) -Tyler

The day my phone was kidnapped

So yesterday I was riding the bus back home from work as usual and my commute was going as usual. That until we hit a VERY large pothole (which while rare does happen) and everyone on the bus was just upward and forward... luckily I didn't hit my head or anything. Unluckily for me my phone fell out of my pocket and I didn't realize it until after I got off the bus. Well I tried contacting the bus company (there is many many many different bus companies) but I knew which bus I got on, at what time and where. But, of course they were closed. They are only open until 4:30pm apparently.

So I decided to go for plan B and call my phone which was still on the bus. Finally someone answered. I was really excited! At first I assumed it was the bus driver but it was not. It was just some random passenger. Here is where I made a mistake. I started talking to him in Spanish and he knew right away by my accent and not so perfect Spanish that I was a gringo (White guy) and he automatically assumed I was full of cash.

He told me I could come to his place of work the next day and give him the equivalent of 50 dollars and he would give me my phone back!  Well I just bought this phone two weeks ago and I paid basically 60 dollars for it. So there was no way I was paying him that much! Over the phone he then said I could pay him 25 dollars (but by this time I had him talking to my Colombian roommate) He gave directions to his work place to my roommate and the next day I took my wonderful girlfriend and after a long time of trying to navigate using his very confusing directions we found his place.

I was slightly worried about being robbed so I brought basically nothing with me and made sure we took a taxi so we had a witness.  Our taxi driver was really cool about the whole thing. Well I had no intention of paying this jerk 25 dollars USD to get my own phone back! He was taking advantage of me but two could play at that game..... I pretended I didn't speak any Spanish and offered him the US equivalent of 10 dollars lol. I shouldn't have even paid that but he did give me my phone back without any problems.

The only problem was my phone is pre paid and he used a lot of my credit talking to his freakin friends or whoever. Just like anywhere else in this world there is good people and there is bad people but the biggest downside to living in any third world country is that the locals automatically assume if you are white and a foreign you are just made of money when in fact that is not true at all. Sure I probably make more money than that guy but I am no millionaire.

Well I am no worse for the wear and I have my phone back with all my contacts and everything so from now on I am NOT keeping my phone in my pocket. I owe a big thanks to my beautiful girlfriend Viviana who really helped me out with all this mess. Yall take care,Tyler

Colombian Healthcare

Well dear readers I have some unfortunate news. I am sick. I thought it was just the flu, which in Colombia is called La Gripa. It can be pretty bad especially the first time getting it if you are a foreigner. My beautiful girlfriend had la gripa so I had the luxury of blaming her :P but no longer. Because after over a week of trying every OTC (over the counter) medicine known to man I was getting no better! I had fever, chills, night sweats,pain all over my body,headaches and a terrible sore throat and pain in my ears. Oh ya also lots of nasty congestion. Pretty much the only thing I didn't have was overactive bowel movements or throwing up,thank God.

My wonderful girlfriend went with me to the local hospital and after seeing 1 nurse and 4 different doctors (apparently my gringo throat was special) I was diagnosed with tonsillitis! or in Spanish, Amigdalitis since it was not the flu I no longer could blame my girlfriend :P. This whole process took five hours. Luckily my girlfriend came with me though. She was a great translator. My Spanish at this point is pretty decent but I still had some trouble understanding some of those doctors. It is amusing because the doctors spoke no English and nor does my girlfriend. So the "translating" was not in English at all but for some odd reason I just understand my girlfriend's Spanish better than any other person's. 

The pain in the butt about Colombian health care is "one stop shopping" does not exist. First we had to wait to see the nurse. (They went in numerical order) then after she examined me I had to be wait to be examined by the doctor. Well this doctor was unsure of her diagnosis so she asked for 3 different opinions lol. Only one of these doctors was authorized to write me a prescription for all the medicine they were to give me. Of course we had to wait for this also. Finally we had to wait to pay but not only did we have to wait to pay, we also had to wait to get our receipt at one window, go wait to get it signed by someone special then go wait at another window to pay . This whole frustrating process took five hours. It would be so nice if one doctor could see you,write the prescription and then you go pay and leave. 


According to the doctors my tonsillitis is bad but I should be better in one week (I hope) the silver lining to this cloud was that my hospital visit and medicines were cheap. Really cheap. We also had to deal with an insane taxi driver who drove like a race car driver and then on top of that, ripped me off! In the local buses it is amusing,interesting and frustrating because Colombians REFUSE to move over if there is an empty seat so you are forced to crawl over them. I am used to it now but I still find it odd. Even more odd is their phobia about seating directly in a newly vacated seat. I guess they don't like hot seats because they will literally hover over the now empty seat in a crouched position for like five minutes before they finally sit down! It is so frustrating to see a perfectly good seat being unused like that. I on the other hand sit down right away haha.

There is two other bit of good news, I missed only one day of work luckily. (if I don't work I don't get paid) I am slowly feeling better but still not great.  Hopefully all these meds will help (even if one of them makes me really sleepy!) Wish me luck. I hate being sick. Luckily after our horrible day spent at the hospital the girlfriend and I got to have a really nice date night. A great dinner and just relaxing with each other. Sorry I don't have any good news to share right now or any amusing pictures. Next time. Yall take care,Tyler

P.S. side note:  Technology is an amazing thing even here in Colombia. My doctor's timed my pulse with their I phones and used their phones as a flashlight to look into my mouth haha. Amazing huh? Even ten years ago this would not have been possible. Old school is going out the window it seems....

The two dollar circus of death

July 20th was Colombian Independence Day so in honor of this I was invited to go on a trip with one of my clients since it was a public holiday. It was a small town about four hours away from Bogota. Due to the traffic on the holiday weekend my client wanted to leave at 5am! It was really early but we beat most of the traffic. My client is married and has two sons. His family is really nice and they all speak pretty good English, I work with him every morning on his English and his kids English is pretty good.

Well we got there and the first thing he showed me was the hostel he is building. It will be an eight room hostel with cable tv and air conditioning. He is about one month away from completion! He is also constructing a restaurant to go along with the hostel and he is hoping to buy some more land to build a recreational fish pond and fish related restaurant so he has many plans in the works!

He bought a 1964 Jeep, just something to drive around town in and nothing special. None of the gauges or seat belts even worked but, I was chauffeured around by his 13 year old son William. All things considered, he was actually a decent driver considering what he had to work with haha. He also took me for a ride on his motorcycle. He brother Diego was 16, almost 17. After they gave me the tour of the town I relaxed at the hostel and met all their extended family. Family in Colombia is totally different than back home. Colombians live with their parents basically until they get married or until their mid 30's. Family is a daily thing. You see ALL your extended family all the time, not just on holidays.

Now I guess I should tell you about this circus of death haha. So there was a little carnival/festival in town and since this is such a small town I am sure this is more excitement than the people had seen in a long long time. They just don't have the population to bring the big acts into town. At this circus (it was based out of Peru) of course they spoke only Spanish, and they had a strange accent and spoke really fast so I didn't understand much. We were sitting front row so I was terrified they were going to pick on "El Gringo" aka me. Thank God they didn't!

Once the acts started, there was no need for language so that was good for me. The ticket to the circus cost only two dollars but they didn't things that would be so   illegal in America. They had ZERO safety gear. For example, they had a guy come out with his two little girls, he claimed one of them was two years old and the other one looked to be about five or six. He then proceeded to put them on a ladder (they climbed to the top) and he balanced it on his face! It was so dangerous and if those girls would have fallen off, the little girl would most likely have been severely injured if not killed. I was not a fan of them exploiting little children just for more crowd appeal. But, the crowd did love it!

We also went on a tour of Lake Prado which was beautiful lake close to our little town. It was so nice and relaxing and that day the weather was beautiful (a great change compared to Bogota!) I went there with Diego and his family, including the mother in laws. They fussed over me like hens... So worried I would drown they forced me to wear a life jacket even in water I could stand up in! haha. It was nice to know that people cared though. I got a lot of good food and good times. I certainly can't complain. Our drive home took forever due to the terrible traffic but I had a really great time and Diego and his family were super nice to me, showing me around and letting me experience new things and new foods and drinks.

On a little side note, things are going great for me and my new girlfriend Viviana. I couldn't be happier! But we are taking this one day at a time and we will see how this all goes. Wish me luck. I have had a lot of ups and downs with my relationships but maybe this one will stick. It is different for both of us because she has a child and speaks no English! But, honestly neither of those things has been a huge problem for me. I am learning Spanish quickly now!! I will keep you updated :)

Yall take care,Tyler

Immigration in Colombia

I have been to many immigration offices all over the world for a variety of different visas and reasons. In Asia you fill out one piece of paper and give them your money (cash only of course) and then you get your stamp/visa no questions asked. In Australia and New Zealand it is all done via the Internet and is a pretty straight forward and easy process. You can even pay by credit card if you so choose :)

Not so in Colombia. This was by far the strictest most complicated visa application process I have ever gone through. First off I went to one office for my visa and they informed me I was at the wrong office. (Luckily I didn't wait hours there to find this out) I show up at the proper office after that, expecting to be in and out. Man was I was wrong! I get there and get a number and wait, and wait..... Two hours later I got called into a little office and had to be interviewed by a gentleman as to why I wanted to stay in Colombia. At first he seemed kind of hostile and I started to get nervous that my visa was going to get denied. Luckily I had my Spanish speaking friend with me and he goes to a very prominent university here and for whatever reason this immigration officer seemed to really like that. By the end of the interview he was laughing and joking with me and I could relax.

After a total of 3.5 hours of my life at this immigration office I was told I had 15 days to go to yet ANOTHER office and submit all my now approved paperwork. So the next day I show up at this office assuming I would just hand them all my paperwork and be done with (again I was wrong) I had to 150,000 pesos (about 75 bucks) at this one specific bank which was not located near the office at all so I had to walk 5 blocks to do it. In addition, the previous immigration office said they needed passport photos of me in a WHITE background. Well this second office claimed they needed pictures in a BLUE background only.  So the eight pictures I had of myself in white were useless! So very frustrating.... Well of course there was no where near the office that took pictures in a blue background so I started walking looking for a place.

I walked and walked and walked. After one hour of walking I finally found a place! I kept telling myself, there has to be a place on the next block etc. So after about two hours I made it back to the immigration office and had all the required paperwork and payment etc. Then I had to wait. Again. 3.5 hours later I was called in and they took my finger prints. Twice. once electronically and once manually. So they certainly covered their bases.

Now after seven hours of my life at various immigration offices in two weeks I will have my official Colombian National ID card and visa :). Such a complicated long process but now its over! Yall take care,Tyler

This is the way to go out!

All credit goes to the now deceased author, Val Patterson and The Salt Lake Tribune along with Starks Funeral Home. I didn't write this, I am just sharing it because it was inspiring to me.

1953 - 2012
I was Born in Salt Lake City, March 27th 1953. I died of Throat Cancer on July 10th 2012. I went to six different grade schools, then to Churchill, Skyline and the U of U. I loved school, Salt Lake City, the mountains, Utah. I was a true Scientist. Electronics, chemistry, physics, auto mechanic, wood worker, artist, inventor, business man, ribald comedian, husband, brother, son, cat lover, cynic. I had a lot of fun. It was an honor for me to be friends with some truly great people. I thank you. I've had great joy living and playing with my dog, my cats and my parrot. But, the one special thing that made my spirit whole, is my long love and friendship with my remarkable wife, my beloved Mary Jane. I loved her more than I have words to express. Every moment spent with my Mary Jane was time spent wisely. Over time, I became one with her, inseparable, happy, fulfilled. I enjoyed one good life. Traveled to every place on earth that I ever wanted to go. Had every job that I wanted to have. Learned all that I wanted to learn. Fixed everything I wanted to fix. Eaten everything I wanted to eat. My life motto was: "Anything for a Laugh". Other mottos were "If you can break it, I can fix it", "Don't apply for a job, create one". I had three requirements for seeking a great job; 1 - All glory, 2 - Top pay, 3 - No work.
 
Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I should now say. As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back in June, 1971. I could have left that unsaid, but I wanted to get it off my chest. Also, I really am NOT a PhD. What happened was that the day I went to pay off my college student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my receipt into the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the mail. I didn't even graduate, I only had about 3 years of college credit. In fact, I never did even learn what the letters "PhD" even stood for. For all of the Electronic Engineers I have worked with, I'm sorry, but you have to admit my designs always worked very well, and were well engineered, and I always made you laugh at work. Now to that really mean Park Ranger; after all, it was me that rolled those rocks into your geyser and ruined it. I did notice a few years later that you did get Old Faithful working again. To Disneyland - you can now throw away that "Banned for Life" file you have on me, I'm not a problem anymore - and SeaWorld San Diego, too, if you read this.
 
To the gang: We grew up in the very best time to grow up in the history of America. The best music, muscle cars, cheap gas, fun kegs, buying a car for "a buck a year" - before Salt Lake got ruined by over population and Lake Powell was brand new. TV was boring back then, so we went outside and actually had lives. We always tried to have as much fun as possible without doing harm to anybody - we did a good job at that.
If you are trying to decide if you knew me, this might help… My father was RD "Dale" Patterson, older brother "Stan" Patterson, and sister "Bunny" who died in a terrible car wreck when she was a Junior at Skyline. My mom "Ona" and brother "Don" are still alive and well. In college I worked at Vaughns Conoco on 45th South and 29th East. Mary and I are the ones who worked in Saudi Arabia for 8 years when we were young. Mary Jane is now a Fitness Instructor at Golds on Van Winkle - you might be one of her students - see what a lucky guy I am? Yeah, no kidding.
 
My regret is that I felt invincible when young and smoked cigarettes when I knew they were bad for me. Now, to make it worse, I have robbed my beloved Mary Jane of a decade or more of the two of us growing old together and laughing at all the thousands of simple things that we have come to enjoy and fill our lives with such happy words and moments. My pain is enormous, but it pales in comparison to watching my wife feel my pain as she lovingly cares for and comforts me. I feel such the "thief" now - for stealing so much from her - there is no pill I can take to erase that pain.
 
If you knew me or not, dear reader, I am happy you got this far into my letter. I speak as a person who had a great life to look back on. My family is following my wishes that I not have a funeral or burial. If you knew me, remember me in your own way. If you want to live forever, then don't stop breathing, like I did.
A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, July 22nd from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at Starks Funeral Parlor, 3651 South 900 East, Salt Lake City, casual dress is encouraged.
Online condolences may be offered and memorial video may be viewed at www.starksfuneral.com.

Published in Salt Lake Tribune from July 15 to July 22, 2012

Top regrets of the dying

I took this post from Here so I can't take credit for this great stuff this time around.

Here are the top five regrets of the dying,
1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
"This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it."

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
"This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence."

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
"Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result."

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
"Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying."

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
"This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again."

What's your greatest regret so far, and what will you set out to achieve or change before you die?

 I hope this inspires you a little bit to think hard about your your life. Take care,Tyler

It has been almost two weeks!

I can't hardly believe it myself but it has been nearly two weeks since yall have heard from me! I have just been really busy I do apologize. Not busy with anything in particular mind you, just life. Work was slow for a bit due to summer holidays here but it has been picking up lately. I have been doing some traveling in and around Bogota (when weather and traffic permit,that is) Also I met a now dear friend of mine. We met here in Bogota, Mark of Click Here is a really good guy. He found me via my blog and then we met up here in Bogota. He is a Canadian/American (Born in Canada,moved to The States for most of his life and now lives in Toronto Canada).

Anyway, he is driving his Nissan Xterra from Toronto Canada to the bottom of South America! That is well over 30,000 miles! and he is alone. He is one of adventure for sure. He had roughly 1.5 weeks in Bogota and we spent a lot of time going out and having fun. I showed him around my newly adopted city. He is pretty used to driving in Latin America now since he has made it through Mexico and most of Central America. My hat is off to him though, I could never deal with the insane drivers here! They are so impatient and they will honk at you BEFORE the light is even green. The whole city honks and it is so annoying! They will drive all over the road and have zero respect for pedestrians. It is wild!

I have seen a few traffic accidents here (an amazingly small amount considering how they drive here!) Well the other day I saw a bad one. A real bad one. I only came upon it after it happened but to me it looked like a car had hit a guy on a motorcycle and the guy on the motorcycle was not moving at all. :( Helmets are 100% required by law here and everyone wears one but in this case I am not sure how much it helped. :( I hoped for the best for that guy though.

This weekend is a public holiday here, yes again haha. (Colombian Independence Day this time) and I am going with a friend of mine and one of my clients to a part of Colombia called Boyacya about four hours from Bogota. My client owns a hostel up there and we are going to have a nice relaxing weekend up there and I am excited to get away again for a while even if it is just for a short time.

I am seeing someone new now. We only just started seeing each other recently so I don't want to jump the gun and jinx myself just yet but I figured I would let yall know. She is really nice and we are having a good time so far. She speaks only Spanish and no English so as you can imagine my Spanish is improving rapidly haha :P no other big news to report though.

Take care out there wherever you might be, my dear readers! -Tyler

How to make a positive change in your life

This is my short follow up video to my last video. Here is my way to make positive changes in your life.

Tyler

My answer to one of life's most burning questions

I hope you can take 10 minutes out of your life to listen to my answer to one of life's most burning questions.

Tyler

Speeches that inspire my life

I wanted to post some speeches by five completely different people from totally different walks of life. I use these as inspiration to guide my own life. I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoy them and it is my hope that you can inspire change in your own life. Click the links to open them in a new window and listen. -Tyler

Charlie Chaplin

Steve Jobs

You are not special

Randy Pausch Last Lecture (It is long but worth every minute!)

Arnold's secret's of success

Civil rights around the world

I wanted to write about something rather serious in my opinion. I wanted to let you my readers know that the status of your civil rights varies from country to country. In first world countries like the USA,Canada,Australia etc. you can expect pretty much the same basic protections on search and seizure, being pulled over etc. On the other hand in countries like China,N. Korea,Iran etc people have zero civil rights. The governments there do anything they want, anytime they want, with or without justification. People there have to obey without question or risk being hurt,imprisoned or killed.

In America as far as I know, the police must have probable cause and/or a search warrant to search you or your property, otherwise it is considered illegal search and seizure and you can fight it in court. In my experience as an American citizen  I have never been stopped or searched for any reason other than a routine traffic ticket. Now this experience may differ for immigrants or visitors to America but for me, for my whole life this is how it has played out for me. Everyday we are being more and more monitored and our rights are being more and more tested but, the fact remains that we HAVE rights in our constitutions and no one can take that away from us.

I am writing about this because today I was stopped by the police here in Colombia. Due to the past/present security concerns the police/military/government officials have very broad authority here to stop and search you/ask for your ID for ANY reason at ANY time. I want to make it clear that I do not have a problem with this. Today I had no problems with the police either. I handed over my ID, he checked it and he also searched my bag then I went on my way. He was very nice and professional. It was just a new experience for me. Back home this would have never happened to me ever because it would have been illegal. I was just minding my own business walking to work and technically he had no probable cause or search warrant but this is Colombia. When you are a visitor living in another country you have to abide by their laws though and realise that the freedoms and rights you come to expect in your home country may not exist in the country you choose to move too.

I just wanted to make my readers aware that civil rights are not exactly rights. They are a privilege. This privilege can be changed,modified or taken away at any time in certain countries. If you live in country where your civil rights are secured by a constitution and court system of some kind then consider yourself lucky. Here in Colombia they have sacrificed most of their civil rights in the name of better security. It is a bad trade off but, I would rather be asked for my ID at anytime by anyone than have to constantly worry about serious security issues. Next time you get pulled over by a cop in your home country and start to grumble. Make sure you think about how nice you really do have it.

Ok, on to less serious stuff now! Yesterday was another public holiday here so I did not work. I went out with my friends to play a rather dangerous game called Tejo. Basically you threw large heavy stones across a room at a clay backboard/target that had four targets filled with gunpowder. The object was to throw the stones in such a way that they either stuck in the clay or exploded the gunpowder. It was loud,dangerous,alcohol fueled and fun! I was really terrible but enjoyed myself anyway. This Colombian national past time is second only to football (soccer) in popularity. I had an enjoyable holiday weekend.

I also wanted to tell you that everyone in Colombia so far has been really nice to me and I have had zero issues, with the exception of some of the Colectivo (small buses) drivers. They seem to be quite racist towards me sometimes! They will clearly see me, look right at me and drive right by. This is extremely frustrating when I need to get to work or what not. The only reason I can think of for this behaviour is because I am white, a gringo in Colombia. I want to make it clear that not EVERY driver does this but, it has happened more than once. It seems really illogical to me because by not picking me up they are losing out on my money!

The last thing I wanted to mention was the motorcycle riders here in Colombia. Every single rider I have seen in Colombia must wear a full face/head covering helmet without exception, otherwise their motorcycle gets impounded and they are very strict about this. I think its great! I think it is so stupid to drive a motorcycle and not wear a helmet. In Thailand they also had a helmet law but it was rarely if ever enforced. In addition here in Colombia if you drive a motorcycle you must have your license plate number printed on your helmet and on a jacket or something you wear. This policy came into affect because in the early 90's many many crimes were committed on motorcycles and they needed an easy, quick way to identify the person. Also, if there was a bomb or explosion it was easier to identify either the perpetrator or the victims.

Tonight I am off to a weekly event here called Gringo Tuesdays, this is an event organized by Couch Surfing that includes a language exchange and a party where you can meet local Colombians, or if you are a Colombian, meet gringos. It is a lot of fun and a great way to meet people. Well that is all I have for now. Yall take care,Tyler

The Tomato Fest

Recently I went to Sutamarchan, Colombia in the Department (state) of Boyaca. It was about four hours north of Bogota and I went there with my friends for the annual Tomatina Festival it was a wild time! There was people of all ages throwing tomatoes at each other and it was like a war zone! I covered from head to toe in tomatoes. I even had tomatoes in my ears! There was an enormous amount of tomatoes and people were having a lot of fun. Almost everyone was nice and friendly about it but, there was a few people who were really mean and they would throw whole tomatoes at you (you were supposed to crush them first) and those hurt! I did get a few bruises on my back.

The rule was if you wanted to participate you just ran into the war zone. If you didn't you stayed out. But, many people got pelted anyway and some even got forcefully pulled in by their friends! The ninos y ninas (children) had their tomato fight first then it was the adult's turn. All my life I have wanted to go to the huge tomato fight in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina  Spain. So this is as close as I will get for a while.

I had a really good time being immersed in Colombian culture and hanging out with my friends. We had a good weekend tour of Sutamarchan and stayed at a town near by called Villa_de_Leyva. A fun time had by all!

Check my facebook page for more pictures. -Tyler

I am a real published author!!!!!

I was invited to write a guest blog post at http://seecolombia.travel/blog/  I had previously let them know that I was new to Colombia and interested in writing a Newcomer's guide for them. To my great surprise they accepted and here it is! My first published article!  

I am super excited and they even linked to this blog, so it is like the biggest shout out for my blog ever! They have International readers! A big thank you to Marcela,Paul and all the seecolombia travel team :) -Tyler

A mini rant on the two things I hate most

I don't mean to come across as overly negative about these issues but I just have so much to say about the weather and the traffic here in Bogota that I decided to make a separate blog post just about the terrible traffic and generally horrible weather haha. Here in Bogota as I said before, car ownership is only about 20% give or take. But, there is nine million people in this city so that is a lot of cars. Gas here for "Corriente" (regular gas) is about 8500 pesos a gallon. That is $4.78 a gallon! You would think this would deter most people who own cars from driving but it does not seem too. I only complain about the traffic so much because I sit in it all day for my job. For my private teaching I have to go to my client's houses/offices so I routinely spend multiple hours a day just sitting on a bus going nowhere.

Bogota does have a fairly decent (but not unified) transportation system. It is cheap, just one dollar per ride. But, even that has it's downsides. You can't ride the Transmelinio Bus System everywhere (The Metro Buses) so you have to take Colectivo's. That means dealing with much smaller buses that are sometimes so crowded that you are literally packed shoulder to shoulder like refugees or something. You also have to deal with people getting on and off the bus to try and sell you things you generally don't want or need. This system of selling goods on the bus only works because the seller has to give a free whatever it might be to the bus driver. Generally speaking they will just shove their goods into your hands and launch into their spiel. Once they are done talking they come to either collect the money or you give them their goods back. It just annoys me when I have had a long day and just want to get home. Many times you will have to deal with this multiple times on one Colectivo ride. Also, the Colectivo's cost 1450 pesos during the day and 1500 at night. Here it is quite easy to pay a good round number like 1500 but frustratingly hard to have 1450 pesos! So I end up with odd amounts of change all the time.

Bogota does have the "Pica y Placa" days and Ciclovia on Sunday's both of which are aimed at getting the number of cars off the road which I think is good. Pica y Placa means certain cars cannot drive on certain days between 6am and 6pm to help reduce pollution and congestion here, both of which are a problem. Ciclovia is the cycling on Sunday's for four hours a day which is also good. You have to keep in mind though, if people are legally unable to drive their cars they will just load up on the public transport which means for me on P y P days the buses are much more crowded!

Bogota is a huge city and generally speaking if I have to get anywhere I allow myself at minimum an hour. Traffic can sometimes be at a standstill. Bogota is very much like Thailand in the sense that there is road laws and rules but you only know them if you are a local and they are very rarely respected. Locals drive like maniacs and I won't ever be driving here! If there is two lanes of traffic going the same direction side by side, motorcycles make a third lane of traffic by driving in between the cars! The traffic lights here in Bogota are like "racing lights" they go from green, to yellow to red. What really annoys the crap outta me is all the honking! South Americans are the most impatient drivers I have ever seen! If there is line of ten cars and car number one has not started moving the INSTANT it turns green then car number ten will blow his horn (and everyone else too) soon the whole street is going off! This happens all day, all the time and it makes me nuts.

If you think pedestrians have rights in South America forget about it lol. If you are not careful you will get run over. Cars will not stop for you for any reason really. Just as in Asia. You have to walk across quickly and with confidence and hope you make it. If you see an opening you just have to take it! There are very few official cross walks and even when there is, it doesn't matter. I have been run over yet though.You have to hurry though, the lights change quickly and without warning and every swarms all over the road. The all numerical address system here in Bogota can get crazy too. They leave up old obsolete addresses many times and also the signs are posted on every corner of every block but they don't necessarily make sense. In addition, they are quite small. In the day time this is not such a problem but, at night it sucks trying to navigate! I can only get around at night by landmarks. 

Now onto the weather. It is generally speaking between 10 and 25 degrees Celsius or 40 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit year round. This is colder than I am used too so I am still not a big fan of it but, Bogota is nestled into a valley with the mountains surrounding it. The weather never really changes here, the only thing that changes is whether it will rain or not. It does rain here quite frequently actually. I am also not a big fan of that! This is truly a four seasons in one day city. Very much like Auckland New Zealand. I never ever leave my house here in Bogota without a jacket and an umbrella, even if it is super sunny and hot outside. It can change quickly! But, Bogota does have it's nice days though. It can be warm and sunny and nice (for a while) I have only had one day here where it has been warm enough to wear my shorts and sandals though :( I miss them! In Thailand I was wearing them every single day and wore my sandals so much I got sandal tan lines haha.

This is a "P.S." but I wanted to let yall know something else interesting about where I live. Bogota has trash collection like most civilized societies in the world but, it is not on a regular schedule and things can get quite dirty here sometimes.  So, even though it is completely illegal, there is many many people on horse drawn carts (Yes in 2012 they still have horses and buggies here) and they dig through the trash piles and take what they want. I am forever seeing and hearing the noise of those horses pounding on the pavement. They cause big traffic slow ups sometimes but, even though it is illegal it is tolerated here.

Well this blog post has been almost all negativity but I wanted to vent and get that out of my system haha. Hope yall don't mind. The good news is now I don't have to keep rehashing this over and over and we can move on to more positive things lol. Sorry my mini rant turned into a long drawn out one, you know how I sometimes get carried away lol.  Yall take care.

Tyler

More details about Colombian life

Well dear readers, I figured you might be curious about life in Colombia. Not life from the eyes of a tourist but, life from the eyes of a foreigner living and working here (aka me!) There are things I really like about Colombia and things I don't like so much. First my "Like" list. I like my job a lot, I have great clients and a good job. It is fairly easy and rewarding teaching people a new language. I like the variety of food that I can get here for really cheap even if it is bland sometimes. (Colombians are not known for spices) I like the fact that I landed on my feet here and things seem to be working out for the most part. I have a good job, good place to live and some great friends. I like living in a big city with lots to see and do. I like learning Spanish even if right now I still need a lot of practice!

What I don't like is the fact that when you are on a bus Colombians seem to have a genetic inability to move over! What I mean is, if there is two seats together and they are sitting in the aisle seat and the window is free, rather than move over 99% of Colombians will make you crawl over them. It is so frustrating! I HATE the fact that 99% of restaurants in Colombia don't have black pepper and they way overuse salt on everything. It is so frustrating to have an inability to get black pepper when I want it. I hate the fact that Bogota does not have a unified transportation system and it is so spread out. There is a map system for the Metro buses but the Colectivos have no such system. You just have to know where you are and where you want to go. The traffic is always terrible here and so is the weather (generally speaking). They also have people who board the bus for free whenever they want and try and sell you things. The bus drivers allow this because they get free stuff from the sellers of the goods. Almost always it is men who do this and I realise they are trying to make a living but when you just want a bus ride in peace and not be forced to listen to some sells pitch for something you don't want (sometimes even multiple times during one bus ride!) it just really gets old. I hate it but there is nothing you can do about it.

In Thailand corruption was visible everywhere. You saw X shop keeper doing X thing illegal because he paid off the cops. It was not a TOTALLY lawless society don't get me wrong, corruption just greased the wheels of everything because that is how people made their living since the wages were so low there. In Colombia it is different, there is corruption but it is much more under the surface. Construction is going on everywhere all over Bogota but it goes very very slow due to bribery,corruption and what not. For example, the Transmilenio (bus system) was supposed to have many more new stations. They awarded the construction contract to one company owned by three brothers. They started working on the stations and got *almost* done with like ten stations. Then construction stopped because the brothers stole millions of dollars of the money that was meant to finish the construction of the stations. Now we have 10 stations that sit empty because there is no money to finish them.

Bogota used to be an extremely dangerous city. Now security is much improved. There is still crime sure, but it is much better. In general Colombians are very open,friendly,giving people. There is different levels of police here. There is the Auxiliary police, basically just kids out of high school that are doing something to occupy their time. They walk around with a nightstick and not much else. I have noticed they are not really respected here unfortunately and they can't do much. After that their is private hired security guards who are paid to walk around and guard things. They generally don't have any weapons so they again can't do much. After that you have the Policia, these are the big boys. They are true police with guns and authority and they don't mess around. After that you have the Policia who walk around with trained Rottweilers (with muzzles on) but I can promise you, you do NOT want to mess with these guys. If they let that dog loose on you that is very very bad news. The final level of authority is the military.

It may seem strange to Americans to think about the armed military walking around the city but here they are everywhere. They are armed with automatic assault rifles and are very serious. If they ask you anything you are obviously required to give it to them. It is such a foreign concept to think of the military being deployed in the civilian population but here it happens. I have never had any problems with any forms of the police though, they have been nothing but helpful to me with directions and such. Colombia is not the house of horrors that the American media portrays it to be. Is it dangerous? yes. It is so dangerous you have to constantly worry for your life? No. I hope to prove to my friends and family that Colombia has a side worth exploring and worth getting to know. Once I learn Spanish fluently it is going to open more doors for me but I am trying!

Life is cheap here, life is good here and I like it overall. If my biggest complaints are the traffic and the weather I guess I am doing alright. For being a third world country Bogota is actually fairly progressive. Every Sunday they close a major portion of the city to all traffic and have Ciclovia, four hours of time where you can run,bike,walk all over and no cars can drive. They also have many many parks. The biggest of which, Parque de Simon Bolivar is actually bigger than Central Park in New York! There is botanical gardens here and many nature things. Bogota also has implemented a system called Pica y Placa which basically means if your car's license plate ends in a certain number on a certain day you can't drive between 6am and 6pm. Colombians also love to dance and sing and drink so they are very active people. I need to work on my dancing skills for sure!

Well that is all I can think of for now. If I think of more I will add it here or, feel free to ask me any questions you might have about anything Colombia related! Take care,Ty

For Colombia Travel Blog

Now that I have been in Bogota for over a month, I feel that I get a sense of the city. I would still consider myself a newcomer here so this is my unofficial newcomer's guide. First, I want to give you some tips on public transport. The Transmilenio is a great way to get around, it is fairly comprehensive around the city and it is also very cheap, just one USD. Sometimes though, it can get crowded and they could stand to improve the entering/exiting process because sometimes as you can see that it can get chaotic . Overall though, I am a frequent user and big fan of The Transmilenio. I don't want to paint a totally negative picture of it, I just want to let you know my experiences.

The other main way to get around is by Collectivo. These are small buses that have numbers and signs saying their destinations. You flag them down on the street and pay less than 1 USD for a ride. Generally speaking you enter from the front and exit from the back. The only way to stop the Collectivo is to push the "stop" button located almost always at the back of the bus. If you get a seat, one nearest the back exit is the smartest choice because they can become crowded sometimes. They are less organized than The Transmilenio but they will get you almost anywhere. They do not have proper stops, it is just hop on hop off. Also, they have people coming on and off the buses trying to sell you their wares. You are by no means forced to buy anything though, it is purely optional.

Bogota is laid out in a grid system. It is a little complicated at first, but once you get used to not using street names and just numbers it is pretty easy. The city is surrounded by mountains to the East. You always know you are looking East if you see the mountains and Monserrate the Church on the top of the mountains overlooking Bogota. At night you will see many houses burrowed into the hills and lit up with many lights. If you see that, you are going AL Sur (To the South). The Calle's of Bogota run parallel to the mountains from South to North. They are abbreviated as CL or CLL.

The Carreas run from East to West and cross the Calle's perpendicularly, they are abbreviated as Cr,Kr or Crs. Avenidas are abbreviated as Av. They are main or larger streets and sometimes have names but also numbers. For example, Av. Boyaca is also called Carrea 72. Each address in Bogota consists of the Calle,Carrea and house or edificio (building) number. an example would be Carrea 42 # 15-34. This means that the house is on Carrea 42, Calle 15 and the actual house number is 34. 

I sincerely hope I have not painted a negative picture of Colombia for you. People in Bogota and Colombia in general are friendly and helpful and so far I have had nothing but good experiences here. Learning a new language is always difficult but being immersed in Spanish sure is helping. You don't need to constantly worry about your safety in Bogota like some in the media would have you believe. You do need to be aware of your surroundings though, because crime can and does happen like in any major city. Of course if you feel like escaping Bogota for a while you can head up to Villavicencio. Both of the above pictures were taken in the Villavicenio region by yours truly.

Well I hope you enjoyed my brief newcomers guide. Your friendly neighborhood Gringo,Tyler

My first weekend away from Bogota

Betty invited me to go to her family's farm outside of  Villavicencio which is about two hours (or just a bit more) from Bogota. Having not left Bogota at all since I got here I was welcoming the change! I really enjoy Bogota a lot but, I hate the terrible weather here and the horrible traffic! I was told it would be warm enough to wear my shorts and sandals for the first time since I have been here so I was excited! After the bus ride up there that cost me 10 USD and dealing with our crazy bus driver who drove like we were in a Nascar race I made it there. It is the same in every third world country that I have visited, all the drivers on the public transport ( no matter what form you decide to take) drive like they will be executed if they are even one minute late haha. Of course they can be way late picking you up but, once you get going, you are flying! There was times when I thought we were going to fall off the mountain! We had to drive thru the mountains (literally) to get to the plains of Villavicencio. It was a beautiful drive and we all made it in one piece.

Once I made it to Villavicencio Betty was there to pick me up. I hadn't seen her in a few day so it was good to be able to hold her and all that mushy stuff :) After that we drove to her family's ranch house which was very rustic and cool. I know my mom would have loved it. Check my Facebook page for all the pictures. It was so relaxing and peaceful up there. Just Her and I and her father and two dogs. Such a change from the loud,crazy,noisy Bogota. I live really close to the airport in Bogota so there is always noise! I was nervous about my lack of Spanish when talking with Betty's dad but, we actually got along pretty well. My Spanish is certainly not great but it is good enough to speak at a child like level and be understood haha.

I came back to edit this post because I forgot something important! During the week I went to McDonald's for my first (and last) time in Colombia. Considering that McDonald's is in nearly every country on the planet and most of the countries I have visited, I like to try it to get a feel for the country. In Colombia the food at McDonald's tastes better than the McDonald's back home (but here they use way more salt on the fries!) But, saying the food is better at McDonald's is like saying its better if someone murders only one person and not ten lol. Bad is bad. McDonald's in Colombia is very interesting. It is so expensive that only the very rich can afford to go there. The people you will see in there are all business people in suits or rich people.

In Colombia there are people who have never been to McDonald's in their lives. There are men who will take their wives there on an anniversary. Considering that I paid 20,000 pesos for my meal (or $10.96 USD!) I can see why. I can get a much better, much bigger Colombian meal for 5000 pesos or $2.50 USD, so that is a little comparison there. Well now you know why I am one and done with McDonald's in Colombia. The best thing about my visit there was the free Internet. I did get a free collectible cup to commemorate McDonald's sponsorship of the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. (Insert sarcasm here)

All in all, other than being eaten alive by mosquitoes everything was great! I even got to eat the Colombian version of Brisket in Las Vegas lol. -Tyler

Life in Bogota!

So this is my LONG overdue update! I have been here three weeks now and this is my first blog, can you believe it! So I am just going to give yall a jumbled run down of what I can remember in no particular order, my apologies a lot has happened in my life in three weeks! So, I know most of my readers think Colombia is the most dangerous place on the planet (and it once was) but I am going to let you know now that is no longer the case. Many people have a view of Colombia that is dated twenty years. Twenty years ago Bogota (and Colombia in general) was NOT a place you wanted to be. These days things have changed dramatically for the better. Before you go thinking I am totally naive, I am not. Colombia is still dangerous. I have heard of numerous muggings and thefts,scams from taxi drivers and just places in general you don't want to go.

Luckily, I have learned quickly how to be "aware" for example in America you wouldn't think twice about using an ATM basically anywhere at anytime. Here, at night you want to use one inside a store or one that is inside a locked room. At night you don't want to wander around alone or hail just any taxi off the street, it is better to call ahead and pre order your taxi so it can be tracked. That being said 99% of Colombians are friendly,hospitable people who are nice and have giving hearts. I personally knock on wood have had no problems so far. So don't let Colombia's past reputation scare you away from visiting. The only things I hate so far is the horrible traffic congestion, the four seasons in one day weather, and the beast that they call the "electric shower".

I have had lots of issues with getting lost because in Bogota it is a city that is basically totally off numbers. I will give you an example. The first coordinate is called a Carrea and the second is called a Calle. So you will have Kra. (Carrea) 72 con (with) Calle 53 and then a house or business number. There is a ton of abbreviations for the Calle/Carrea thing and they actually leave old addresses posted up! It can be quite confusing! At night it is really hard to see the addresses as they are only posted on the side of the buildings and there is no street signs :( The whole city is supposed to work on a grid system but the roads are so windy and messed up it doesn't always work like that so you end up all lost! Slowly but surely, I am getting it though. I have been lost on the bus system for four hours when I first got here and when my Spanish was terrible (that was no fun at all!)

Bogota has a really good metro bus system (Transmilenio)  that is cheap (tickets are only a dollar and you get free unlimited transfers) but the buses don't go everywhere and there is no subway. The Transmilenio is really good if there is a station close to where you want to go. My only complaint is that it is always super crowded and they have the most INEFFICIENT loading/uploading system ever. Everyone just pours thru the turnstiles (both entering and exiting passengers thru the same ones) and then both exiting and entering passengers just pour onto/from the buses. It is a mad house! So, if you can't get where you want to go you have to take a "Collectivo" which range in size from a bus to a mini van and you pay the driver about 50 cents and hop on. They rarely stop for you, they will stop ANYWHERE at anytime so you have to be ready and you just have to know what bus goes where because there is no map or system. They are almost always overcrowded and sometimes you are literally packed shoulder to shoulder in a van. If you are lucky enough to get an actual seat on the collectivo you don't move at all until you have to get off. You enter the collectivo from the front and must exit from the back so if you get a seat near the back door that primo! Also because the button to "stop" the collectivo is only located in the very back! Generally speaking as soon as you push it though, they stop! Anywhere,anytime lol.

Traffic is always terrible in Bogota! It can take over 1 hour to get anywhere (I always give myself at least an hour to get anywhere) car ownership is only at 20% but there is 8 million+ people here so that is a lot of cars and add all the buses and taxis to that, with no subway system and it is always a mess! I hate it! Because for my job I have to travel to the client's house/office so I am always fighting traffic. But other than the bad traffic and the bad weather and electric showers I love everything else about this city. I even love how "raw" it is. I love how it is dirty and graffiti filled. I love how the sidewalks are sometimes broken or non existent. For the same reasons that I love Thailand, these third world cities are not "sanitized" and overly clean with no character. Obviously that is not for everyone but I feel more at ease in a city like this than I would in some sparkling clean city somewhere.

On the collectivos there is constantly people getting on trying to sell you things (they give a free whatever to the driver in exchange for him letting them hawk their stuff to you). They drive wildly (well everyone does in Colombia lol) they honk CONSTANTLY if you don't move your car/bus/truck/whatever the INSTANT it turns green and I do mean the instant! You just get used to all this noise after a while. In a city of 8 million people and me living close to the airport it is hard to avoid. I have almost sprained my ankle more than once jumping off a Collectivo because they don't stop but for a millisecond. When you are crammed into transport like that you really guard your wallet etc. But, when it is your only option to go to work you have to do it. Gas is 5 USD a gallon here so I will never be driving here! As you can see my commute can be pretty crappy sometimes lol

I am a private English tutor here and I have seven different great clients! I love my job because it is one on one and my clients are great. I have to go to their homes/offices which sucks because of the traffic but I am making good money and I really enjoy my job. I also moved to a good apartment with three Colombians, a chef,a comedian and a bartender. Only one of them speaks a little English so I am learning Spanish quickly. Being immersed in the language constantly I find that I am learning quickly! Everyone has been super nice. The only downside to my apartment is that beast they call the electric shower. See, our house (and a big part of the city) doesn't have hot water on tap. so the only way to get hot water is to rig this scary looking electric thing directly to the shower head. Thus far I have not been electrocuted haha. But, it is so temperamental!  Just a pinch in the wrong direction and you are either freezing or burning! You want good water pressure? forget about it!! In a city that ranges from 40 degrees F to 75F year round with A LOT of rain, being cold is not something I like!

Now for my big news. I hope yall are still reading this far since I didn't lead with my big news haha. On my first day in Colombia I met a really cool guy named Sergio who speaks both English and Spanish and he has been to Texas! I met him via Couch Surfing. He told me he had someone he wanted me to meet, On my first day here he introduced me to a beautiful girl named Beatriz (she prefers Betty and its easier for me to say) Well Betty is now my official girlfriend :) Yes you heard that right, I Traveling Tyler am in a committed relationship! She is great! She studies biology at a big university here and she is also studying English and teaching me Spanish. We help each other language wise. She can cook and she is super sweet. Her family is awesome and I had a great Mother's Day with them. She is studying biology and she is so much smarter than I. When I say I am one lucky man, it is true! I don't know yet if we will go for the long haul or not but, I want to give us a chance.

So, long story short, for the first time in quite a while I am super happy. Everything is working out for me so far :) I have no desire to run off and travel more at the moment. I am not retiring forever just settling down for a bit. I have a great job,a good place to live and an amazing girlfriend who I like very much. I don't want to mess this up and give it a shot! So that is me thus far :) I have met some great people and I am having lots of fun. Thanks for reading my LONG rant. I had a lot to spill haha.

This is the first country I have been too where you can see belly dancers at the grocery store like this!  She was pretty good though lol.Oh ya, I got to be a "Gringo" extra in a Colombian soap opera that will air on national television! That was not even on my bucket list haha. So surreal but an awesome thing to do. I got paid 60 bucks USD and I didn't even have any lines! I can't wait to get the picture of me in a suit that looked very similar to Ron Burgundy haha. All I had to do was stand there and look like a white guy :) It was a lot of fun though and I got free food and to hang out with my friends and meet new friends. Also, got to practice a lot of my Spanish. I told my girlfriend she is dating a super star now haha. Oh by the way, our "scene" was supposed to be in a bar in New York City lol.

Til next time,Tyler

Bogota!

I made it alive and in one piece to Bogota! I had a few dramas with boarding my flight because they FORCED me to purchase a return flight back to America even though I had no idea when I was coming back. I found out only later that Colombia MAY check for a return flight but it is not REQUIRED like my stupid airline forced me to believe. Well luckily I was able to cancel the return half and get my money back.  Other than that, nothing too major happened and the security process both at home and in Colombia was a breeze in both countries the security people were nice and friendly. When I got to customs in Colombia I got a very friendly and heartfelt  "Welcome to Colombia Sir" and not just a "Next in line!".

I look forward to seeing more of my friends here and making new ones. Everyone is so friendly here thus far and my friend is so nice for hosting me. Soon I will be working and everything will be well in the world. I am hoping to have my own place and steady job hours very soon. So far so good in my new country :) Soon I will be writing a "newcomers" blog post about my experiences here. One last thing, I am raving about how great Colombia is, and it is... but, there is still dangers of course. It is not the safest country in the world but, as long as you are smart and don't do anything stupid, generally speaking you will be alright. Bad things can happen to good people anywhere! I got pick pocketed in Buenas Aires but never (So far knock on wood) in Colombia. Basically I am saying that you should NOT believe everything you read/hear about Colombia and you should give this wonderful country (and people) a chance but, you also need to be smart...

That's all for now, til next time-Tyler

Tom Petty and The Beavers

I know, I know it is Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers but I went with my dad and uncle and cousin to wage war on some beavers this past weekend. More on that later, first I want to tell you about the best concert of my life! I bought two tickets to see Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers when I was in Thailand. I have always dreamed of seeing him my whole life and I knew if I didn't see him now I might never get the chance. So I jumped on the chance even though the tickets were expensive it was so worth it! This concert was not even in Texas, it was in Arkansas so we had to drive 700 miles round trip just to go. It was worth every mile though! Tom (and The Heartbreakers) put on an amazing show! I got see a band that I have literally grown up on, my dad was having me listen to Tom Petty from the time I was just knee high. I knew every word to almost every song and so did the most of the rest of the audience. It was a sold out crowd of 15 or 20 thousand and everyone was into it!

The best part of the whole deal is I got to go and spend time with my dear old dad and I know that when he is 80 years old and when I am 80 years old we will both look back on our lives and remember what a great time we had at that concert. It was so amazing when Tom would just be silent and let the audience sing part of the songs. He is 61 or 62 years old but he looked and acted like he was 32! He feeds off the energy of the crowd and is always so relaxed (I bet its because I highly doubt it was cigarettes that we saw him smoking haha) You would think that all that smoking would tear up his voice but after 40 years of hard living and touring I highly doubt he is going to change now lol. He was such a great showman and has an amazing band to back him up. After 35+ years together they are just so in sync with each other.

My only complaints are that I didn't spend more money to get floor tickets, they didn't face any kind of big TV screen towards our section (though we were close enough to see him pretty well) and leaving the concert it took us like 45 minutes to find a taxi! I did get myself an awesome shirt though :) So overall I had an amazing time and I am going to put a little clip on here uploaded from another concert goer so yall can get a little taste of this. Oh ya, one other thing I will never forget, Most people these days don't have real lighters anymore to bring to concerts but it was amazing to look out and see all the iphones waving and glowing in the dark haha.

Bogota in less than a week!

In less than a week I will be in Bogota Colombia starting my new adventure! I am excited to be living in a new place, at a new job and having new experiences with new people. People often wonder how I can so easily start over in a new place knowing no one and having nothing. Well my answer is, usually I have SOME connections there (at least one person) and I don't own much of anything so it's not like a huge move for me. I enjoy the new experiences in new places. I do have a few specific goals for my time in Bogota. I want to learn Spanish fluently and correctly so that I can be as knowledgeable as possible in Spanish, I think that is just a great life skill to have, especially being from Texas. I also want to try something new whether it be learning to dance or play an instrument just try something new. Also, of course I want to travel and get to know as much of Colombia as possible. My time in Texas has gone quickly! I have loved being with family and friends and I am actually glad I chose to come home for this short time but now it is time to move onto my next adventure :)

You know, I believe your life is just a sum of your experiences and memories. When someone dies I am sure as they near death they look back on their entire life and remember everything that made their life, "life". Some people have great memories and experiences, some people have bad memories and experiences and I am sure that some people are unsatisfied with their lives at the end, wishing they had or did more or something different. I am just happy to say that I am happy. I am pleased with my life and how lucky I have been to see and do the things that I have thus far. I look forward to many more years of memories and experiences but, were I to die tomorrow I would still be a happy man. I have great family and friends from all over the world and I am not lacking too much ya know? My life certainly is not perfect and never will be but it is pretty good really. Not everyone has the luxury to say that.

Today I am going with my day to Arkansas to see Tom Petty. It has been a life long dream of mine to see him. I have seen Paul McCartney,Eric Clapton,Steely Dan and a few others of the classic rock era so Tom is really one of the last real great ones for me.  I saw they had tickets for sale and they were not cheap and his Texas shows were sold out but this will be so worth it! Also, last night I saw a film called "Compliance" at the Dallas International Film Festival. It was a really good film about what happens when people blindly comply with authority without question. I don't want to give too much away but it was based off what happened in 2004 in Kentucky at a McDonald's with someone pretending to be an officer of the law.

Well this is all I have really. Wish me luck and yall take care,Tyler

Just a little update

Hey yall just wanted to let you know that I have my own website now! I am now hosting my blog on www.travelingwithtyler.com  (if you have my old Google blogspot link it will redirect) so you wont really have to change anything if you read my blog but I just thought I would let those who are interested know anyway. In the near future I want to try and increase my blog content/viewership so this is just the first step. Thanks alot yall take care,Tyler

Adjusting to home

Well I have been home a few days now and am slowly readjusting to Texas time zone and food. Those are always the biggest hurdles for me. After six months of eating rice and noodles almost everyday my stomach is just not used to this American diet again. It is amazing how adaptive your stomach is and how hard it is to go back to "normal" American food. In Thailand their food is so fresh and natural because they shop at daily open air markets and not traditional grocery stores so they don't have any prepackaged or shot up with hormones or chemical additives. But, back in America like it or not most of our food is shipped to grocery stores,prepackaged, shot up with hormones and chemical additives :( Thailand is also 12/13 hours ahead of Texas so right now my body is still "in the future" so to speak.

All has not been bad though! I have gotten to see my family and soon for Easter holidays I will go down and see the rest of my extended family which is good. I have slowly but surely been visiting my friends with the time I have left here in Texas until I leave on April 26th. I still have more people to see and more things to do. Lots more to eat once my stomach gets better but, I am getting there! My family is generally same same as they say in Thailand. But, no news is good news right? My brother is growing like a weed and almost out of high school! Of course the town I grew up in is ever changing now but generally things are pretty much the same.

I do miss Thailand though. I miss the people and the culture. I miss my friends and Noong especially. I miss the care free life style and not being told what I can and can't do and treated like an adult with common sense and not a child. I miss driving my motorbike as fast as I wanted, any way I wanted. I miss the great food culture and eating things people would never touch over here! I miss the great weather and I miss my beach friends. I also miss my kids at school who sometimes drove me nuts but overall were great kids. I really do look forward to my next adventure in Colombia but I will miss many things about Thailand and certainly do cherish my learning experiences of living and working there.

As they say in Thai, râm laa or in English, goodbye til next time. -Tyler

I made it!

I made it back home safely from Thailand via Korea. 17 hours total flying time, 22 hours total trip time. Plus the day I lost crossing the International Date Line. I am wiped out but I got my Whataburger! Now I am just resting and readjusting to life (temporarily) back home. I am excited to see everyone soon! -Tyler

OK I fibbed a little....

Well I said I was not going to blog again until after I left Thailand but I fibbed a little. I just wanted to write a short blog and thank Noong and all my friends from back in my little beach town for a great six months once more. I really have enjoyed my time here and certainly will be back because I would miss Thailand way too much to stay away forever! There is so many things I love about this country, the people,the food,the lifestyle,the cost of living. I could go on and on. Of course it is not prefect there is many things that frustrates me too! But, overall I have had a really good time!

My good mate Maurice  from Australia surprised me on my last day and came up to Bangkok to see me off. We saw a movie (John Carter) it was ok not horrible, not great. I also saw Hunger Games (ditto on the rating) and got all my shopping done. I have managed to pack my bags TOTALLY full but I made it underweight somehow lol. You know I think the taxi drivers here in Bangkok must have had some kind of crackdown on seat belt wearing because many taxis don't even have seat belts much less make you wear them (a scary thing sometimes with their driving!) but recently they have always reminded us to wear our selt belts.

I got my favourite meals before I left Thailand Radd Naa,Steam duck and baby clams, and Sticky rice with bbq pork. I even had spaghetti with basil leaves and mussels. It was all great! I love the food culture here and will really miss it. I will miss the freedom of driving my motorbike too :(  I write this at the airport with sadness in my heart that I am leaving Thailand but with happiness to know that I have my next adventure soon!

Goodbye (for now) to all my friends in Thailand, thanks a lot! Hello soon to all my American family and friends! :) I am so gonna eat and eat and eat food back home that does not have any rice or noodles lol.

Tyler over and out. Next time I write you I will be back on American soil for the first time in a while and this time around I am actually happy to be going home for a bit :).