I have just returned from my trip to Colombia and I just want to thank you once again for donating for me to have this amazing experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life. This trip has been beyond my expectations and it's indescribable. I have never thought to learned so many new things and to make connections with others so very quickly in the short amount of time while I was there. For the past two week we spent of most our time in the beautiful city of Popayan and we also gotten to live with a host family. At first I was very nervous about living with a host family because I was afraid that I wasn't going to like or feel comfortable living with them. This was something definitely was out of my comfort zone, but immediately I have gotten very close with them and they make me feel at home very quickly. I am currently missing them now that I am at home.
On our second day in Popayan we have a wonderful tour of the beautiful historic white city where we saw many different churches and the homes of famous poets and settlers that once lived in that very city. We were also welcome by the Colombia military army and helped pay respect to their fallen soldiers. On our third day we got to witness Colombia’s Independence Day Celebration where they held a parade to honor all the soldiers and all kind of officers that ever served. This was something new I learned that the way they celebrate Independence Day is way different from the way U.S celebrate Independence Day. On our third day we went to Silvia Cauca where we got to see their rich landscape and their villages. We even went horseback riding to get of closer view of their mountains and villages. Riding horses was something that is definitely new to me because I have never ridden one before especially going up the mountains with it, but I'm glad that I did it because I ended up having the time of my life doing it. Then the next two days later we went to Purace where we visited their national park and volcanoes. In the national park we got to see the condors and their beautiful waterfall and hot springs. Then the next day we tried to climb up to the top of the Purace Volcano which we unfortunately couldn't get up because of the high altitude and severe weather that was going on, but overall it was a fun and exciting experience. Then for another two days we went to Rita del Maiz where we got to witness the process of coffee being made and how corn is formed into many different kinds of foods for people. Then during the night we got to learned a little about astronomy and got see some planets and stars through a telescope. Then at the second day at Rita Del Maiz we got to go see a waterfall which was very beautiful. Then on our last activity as a group we went to Coconuco where we saw more hot springs and more mountains. Then on our last day in Popayan my host family took me to go see a lake which was very breathtaking.
The most memorable experience for being was just being in Purace and just enjoying what that place has to offer. This place was one of the challenges part of the trip because of its extreme cold weather, hard trails, and high altitude, but in the end it was all worth it. I got to see other aspect of nature that I thought I would never see in my lifetime. I got to appreciate what nature have to offered there. If I were to go back here again this is one of the places I would definitely go back to. Another memorable experience is going up a mountain with horses in Silvia Cauca. This was memorable because it was one of the things that I have never done before or never even thought to do in my life. The outcome turn out to be better than I thought it would come. These experiences are important to me because it's somehow helped me realize that it’s good to get out of your comfort zone every once in while and not worried about the worst possible outcome that could happened. These moments affect my overall study abroad experience by giving me more courage to take risks.
The challenges I faced on this program was deciding if I should do the activities or not. I'm not gonna lied some of the activities that this trip offered was pretty intense and hard such as walking up and down volcanoes, steep and rocky hills and also walking through rocky and muddy wet trails. I know that I'm not the most active athletic and balance person out there. I know that somehow during the trip I would ended up falling or getting hurt doing these things. So throughout the trip I have always faced with the question of should I do this or not when we have the option of backing out of some of the intense activities. In every activity that we do, in my mind I always have these two kind of thoughts in my head such as if I do the activities, I would somehow ended up getting hurt or if I don't do the activities I would just ended up regretting it for the rest of my life. But I was able to overcome it and doing all the activities that was offered knowing that there's a chance that I may somehow get hurt. And yes since some of these activities was hard I wasn't expected to be perfect in completely them. In fact most of the activities we do I ended up falling, but I just get myself back up and keep going. I was proud of myself that I actually got the strength to do that and not give up when things get hard. This is one of the important thing that I have learned about myself because when things get hard in my life I know well enough to not back down and to just keep going and doing these activities is good practice.
Before this trip I didn't have any stereotype or generalization about the country, I knew exactly what I was walking into, I knew that this country will totally be different from the U.S. I wasn't expecting the food and places to be the same like in the U.S. I want to thank you once again for donating for me to be apart of this wonderful experience. I never thought I would get to have this experience to appreciate the nature and culture that Colombia have to offer. In this trip I was only expected to learned and make connections with the people of Colombia, not only that I was able to do that, I was able to learned a lot more about myself than I thought I would and I am sure to use these skills sometime in my life. This experience have definitely impacted my future, it make me want to explore more of the world and take more risks and get more out of my comfort zone in my life. My future plan that I planned to do now that I'm back from AFS is to look for more program like AFS to study abroad more from. So once again thank you, none of this would've happened without your generous donation.