cali, bogota,....mexico city...dallas

i am writing from "home" in dallas, where it's -4C!!! considering that yesterday morning i woke up in bogota at 28C, it is quite a change and i am still not used to it!
so it's been a whirlwind of emotions and places, and while it's nice to enjoy the amenities that this place has to offer, it is still pretty strange being here where everybody speaks english, seems very bratty and complains a lot, all while not smiling very much...but here i am and here i am to stay for a bit.
the day after the valle del cocora, my host J, 2 of his friends and I went to a "finca cafetera", pretty much a "coffee farm" that had a 4-hour visit which explained everything about coffee, from its origin to the structure of the plant and how it grows. it was really interesting, the guides were really good, very interactive as well. i learned a lot about where coffee really comes from and where it goes (i didn't know it came from a plant that has leaves and gives "fruits", inside which is the coffee bean!). i also was told that the best colombian coffee is exported to be toasted and then packaged and sold, so what they're left with in colombia is not that great (only at Juan Valdez, the colombian version of starbucks, can you find the same good-quality coffee)...i also learned that the coffee bean is more or less the same color of a peanut, and then it's when it gets toasted and roasted that it really becomes what we can see in the shop...before that it really doesn't smell or taste like anything!
after that i went to cali for the weekend, and i had another great host, G together with all her friends! it was an interesting experience, we went out, witnessed the infamous cali nightlife, and had a good walk through the city, including a daytrip to the rio pance, where all the calenos go spend their sunday. it's kinda like their beach i guess, although the water is definitely freezing cold!
i was also glad to finally hear something about the current political situation in colombia, and learn a tiny bit about the guerrilla groups, the paramilitary groups and so on and so forth...surprisingly enough for me, it is something people are very reticent to talk about, so it is hard to hear about it from people...and the media abroad doesn't really talk about it either,...
from cali i took an evening bus to bogota, spent the night at the airport, then in the morning i spent "all" the pesos i had left (about 12U$D!) before embarking on a plane to mexico city, endure the pain that is the mexico city airport, and then embark on the plane to dallas, with a bunch of chicanos and mexican-texans...quite interesting! now i just woke up in "my bed" and i am using my computer, i don't have a timer for my internet connection for the first timein a while! hehe but it's already the first day of class, i didn't get too much sleep and i need to bundle up and put gas in my bike and brave the cold and the hoards of students on campus! i am looking forward to that! sadly, who knows when the next trip will be...probably not sooner than march for a week to 10 days, and then mid-may for big ass one! :)