Carrot Cake - orginally written April 30, 2010

Carrot Cake 
{originally written April 30, 2010}

Ahh, the comforts of little things that make such a difference.

Today at a staff meeting we were served a tiny muffin version of a carrot cake. We haven’t had food at a staff meeting since August. We haven’t ever been served anything remotely like carrot cake before. In fact, I haven’t seen anything like it available anywhere in Colombia. One bite in and my mind was racing to another place. It was some bizarre synaesthetic reaction that took me a world away to a place called home. Oh yeah, that place, I haven’t been there in a while.

I’m now realizing just how much I do miss those little comforts. Although I haven’t liked my job here since I started, I have found things to love: the beach, people, nature, the fruit, surfing, warm weather, birds, geckos, and other animals. But when it comes the time to go home, I’ll be ready.

I miss Oregon. I miss my dog. I miss my family and friends. I miss my house and garden, my neighborhood, and oh good lord do I miss the fresh produce and other local, organic, tasty delights of New Seasons Market.

Who would have ever known something as mundane and innocuous as carrot cake had the power to stir up a whole sensory tornado of feelings.  Perhaps next time at a meeting, if there is food {which there probably won’t be} they should just serve something in the same type of plain and simple category only Colombian food. I’m sure if I were to eat an arepa at a staff meeting back in Portland, I’d have the same type of sensory rush, only in reverse. It would be just as odd for that to happen there as the carrot cake is here. Maybe I’m stuck in a state of metacognition and getting a bit ahead of myself.

There is one thing of which I am almost certain – carrot cake, when I eat it again at home, will once again just be carrot cake. It will not be some kind of mystical Alice and Wonderland type food that transfixes me and transports me mentally to somewhere else. Nope, in the US carrot cake will reside once again as its unremarkable self along side graham crackers and white bread. As for today, it took my mind so far away it might as well have been the liquid in a little bottle with a sign reading, ‘Drink Me’.

Cheers to the power of the senses of taste and smell.

Refecting Back

Reflecting Back

Since it’s just post New Year - a natural time for reflection, coupled with the fact that I’ve had time away from my life in Colombia, I thought I’d finally finish up this blog. I also noticed that the hits on this blog have surpassed the 10,000 mark. A big thank you to all you readers!

There are several pieces I wrote at various times throughout my time in Colombia that I left in various stages in the writing process, but hadn’t taken them all the way through to publishing. I thought I’d finish those off and wrap this up.

When people ask, “How was it?” My sister Wendy came up with a succinct and accurate one-sentence answer: It was kind of a mixed bag.

I tried to keep this blog focused on the positive or found humor in the negative for the most part, so I didn’t publish a lot of the things that made my life quite miserable at times. My daily life of school was really pretty horrible, however my vacations and travel in other places in Colombia were usually wonderful. My relationship with Yoyi also had its own plusses and minuses. Obviously, everything, everyone, and everywhere have things we like and dislike.

I will not dwell in the negative, but I will publish a few of the darker pieces that were part of my overall experience. I will also post some incredible pictures and places that are just gorgeous. I would also like to embed hilarity when possible.

Apart from the obvious closure that finishing this blog will bring to mi vida Colombiana, I’d also like to finish because I spent my Christmas vacation volunteering in Nicaragua. I would like to write a separate blog about the amazing times I had there. Stay tuned for the upcoming La Nica Experiencia.

For now, after a long break, let’s continue La Vida Colombiana.