Life Update 2018
2018 August 30
It has been so long since I posted anything here. I decided that I need to rethink the way this blog is written. The original purpose, updating friends and family on my adventures abroad (specifically my 2013 Argentine study abroad semester), doesn’t motivate me anymore. It’s not because I want to keep everyone in the dark, but it’s for a multitude of other reasons. In no particular order:
- Every time I sit down at the computer to do something, I have more incentive to do web development work than to write about travel updates.
- The posts have become more of the same, and with their repetitive format, there’s less room for creativity. It became, “I went here and did this, then did this, and here’s a picture of that thing, then I went here and did this.”
- Centering an entire website around what I did while traveling somewhere started feeling overly self-absorbed after a while. It became less about informing friends and family about an adventure and more about “look at me and how I can do this”.
- I don’t want to come off like this:
A Better Way to Travel Blog
One of the biggest pet peeves for anyone who has been on a long trip is that when you return, someone inevitably asks, “How was your trip? Tell me everything about it.” They mean well, and it’s nice to be asked how things went, but the longer the trip, the more impossible of a question that is to answer in casual conversation. (That’s why I usually respond, “It was good.”)
The details of a trip usually surface randomly when something reminds me of something else from a trip long ago, which is why you’ll often hear me saying, “That reminds me of this one time in Argentina / France / Colombia / etc”.
I think writing about random travel-related topics on this blog, or even something not directly travel-related, but still interesting and related to travel in a roundabout way, will bring about the more noteworthy aspects of my travels.
Technical Stuff on the Blog – Switching from Ruby on Rails to WordPress
You may have noticed this website looks different, again. I switched from Ruby on Rails to WordPress. Why? I’ll make it short because the long version can get boring.
It all began in 2014. I started doing web development about 4 years ago and started doing it professionally about 2 years ago. When I started developing this hobby to something marketable, Ruby on Rails was the shiny web development platform that everyone said was the next big thing, so I picked it up. Ruby on Rails still around and in demand, but it’s not the dominating force of the planet that everyone predicted it would be in 2014.
WordPress is something that developer-minded people (like me) take one look at and want to throw up. However, non-technical people love it, so it’s an in-demand way to make a website and has been for a long time. There are a lot of good criticisms of the platform, but it is the most used platform on the Internet, powering 30% of websites, for good reason.
WordPress is a good in-between for ease-of-use and customizability. For that, web developers can love it after learning its ins-and-outs, as I did. You can do a lot with non-technical skills, and infinitely more if you delve into the underlying code, which is all open source.
And WordPress is (or was originally) the website framework for blogs. It can do much more than that now, but the main object on the site is posts and this website is a blog. I could have expanded on the Ruby on Rails version of this site to make it more blog-friendly if I wanted to spend the time, or switch to WordPress and have all of the things I wanted to build from the get-go. As I became more familiar with WordPress thanks to consulting work, I liked it more and found more reasons to use it myself.
My Life Update
If you subscribe this this, you’re probably wondering less about website frameworks and more about my life. To avoid the problems above, I’ll keep it short and high-level.
I moved out of the apartment mentioned in this post and moved into a different apartment in LoDo (a Denver neighborhood in LOwer DOwntown). It’s a nicer neighborhood and I got a roommate. I also traveled to New York in July 2017, Southeast Asia in December 2017, and Colombia in April and May 2018.
My lease is coming up at the end of September and I’m finally doing what I’ve put off for so much of my life; I’m going to live and work abroad. Since I work online, I can go anywhere where there is a good Internet connection and continue working without any hiccups, and I chose Argentina.
That’s Right, I’m Returning to Argentina
Subconsciously, many recent travels have been about checking out potential places to live.
Thailand
Thailand is a classic example of an online working destination. It’s relatively stable but very cheap (if you come from a western country and have savings in a strong currency).
I saw why a lot of people choose it. Coming from an American point of view, it’s one of the most exotic (to me) places I’ve ever visited. Part of that has to do with its history, being famously unconquered by European powers and not for lack of trying. Nearby Malaysia (where my college friend, Matt, is from who was a great guide to the region)…
…is almost the exact opposite, having been colonized throughout history by Portugal, the Netherlands, England, etc.
Many Thai don’t speak English, or speak very broken English just for their profession. Most people in Malaysia speak English from a young age and use it to communicate with other Malaysian nationals, who consist of about 50% Malay, 23% Chinese, 12% non-Malay indigenous, 7% Indian, and 9% other. These ethnic groups all traditionally speak different languages, so they use English to communicate with each other as a lingua franca. Even in written Malay, they use Latin letters. The people of Thailand are 92% ethnically Thai, so almost everywhere public signs and the languages you hear are in Thai, with the exception of tourist attractions which usually also post them in English.
The more foreign a location you find yourself in, the more creative your thoughts tend to be. If you work in a creative field (e.g. web design and development) this works to your advantage. It’s just a rule of thumb, but I find that it’s true for me and other people that I know agree.
Why didn’t I choose Thailand?
I never felt uncomfortable in Thailand, but I also never felt at home. It offered me some amazing experiences, but at the end of the trip, I was very ready to leave. There are some places I’ve been where I’ve wanted to stay longer when it was time to leave, but Thailand was not one.
One other big reason is language. Not that I wouldn’t want to learn Thai, but I have my reasons for sticking with Spanish, French, and Portuguese for now. I started studying Spanish in 8th grade when I was 13 years old. Now that I’m 25 and never really stopped studying, that means that I’ve been learning Spanish for half of my life. (Middle school and high school were less like years of intensive study more like years of memorizing simple vocabulary, but the point remains.)
The older I get, the less sense it makes to start learning a new language. The reasons why I’ve stuck with European languages (English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese) have been many, but Spanish is what was offered where I grew up and made sense to study and learn. After that, it’s much easier to learn Portuguese and French (and other PIE languages) when you already know the letters vs Thai, which is not only a different alphabet, but not an alphabet at all – Thai is an alphasyllabary.
I’m not against learning Thai. Many people think the only reasons for learning a language are economic or practical, but they’re not looking at it from the right lens. The reason “I would like to learn Thai” is good enough for learning any language, but Thai is not for me.
I may return to Thailand someday. It’s not at the top of my list but if the opportunity presents itself I may.
France
France was one of the most surprisingly welcoming countries I’ve ever visited. I was lucky to get more variety from the country than most tourists do.
First, I visited Paris and stayed with Nico, who I met in the hostel in Montréal.
Then, I stayed in Clermont-Ferrand with Margot, who I met in the hostel in Montréal.
Then I stayed in Crest with Edwin who I met in the hostel in Montréal.
I met a lot of people in that hostel.
French the language has always been interesting to me (and it’s more practical to know than most people assume), so I started learning it casually in college and picked up the pace around the time I traveled to France. I was excited to try it everywhere I went in the nation and avoided English as often as possible. This is probably the best way to get French people to like you aside from complimenting their cooking skills. From my perspective, Paris was one of the friendliest cities I’ve ever been to, and it’s because I tried a few words in French. Even after needing to immediately switch to English in almost every conversation, people remained friendly because I tried.
Why didn’t I choose France?
For one, France is expensive. If you are born there and have savings all in euros, it’s not so expensive, but it’s still expensive. Converting my USD savings into euros, with the exchange rate of the last few years, adds to these expenses.
Another reason is that France may be better saved for later in my life. If I go to grad school anytime soon, France is a top candidate for a country where I would like to continue my education (despite France being expensive day-to-day, it’s a lifetime cheaper than the US when it comes to higher education, and the schools are usually the same quality or better).
Colombia
Colombia is a hidden treasure when it comes to being a digital nomad. So many people still perceive the country as being dangerous. With some big caveats (seen below), Colombia is safe. Because of this perception, it’s still not a big tourist destination (though popularity is increasing).
Colombia is also one of the friendliest and most trusting places I’ve ever been. Through Margot from France, I stayed with her friend from high school who was living with her Colombian boyfriend in Bogotá. The very first night, which was the first time I met Solène (Margot’s friend), Camilo (Solène’s boyfriend), and their roommates, they invited me to the Radiohead concert and actually went through great lengths to try and find me a cheap ticket, introducing me to Mercado Libre (basically Craigslist in Latin America) and other methods.
When Margot arrived in Colombia, we visited Medellín and spent time with Camilo’s friend, Luisa, and her work friends.
Me, Natalia, and Eric 
Luisa, Vanessa, and Margot 
Medellín’s Metrocable 
It’s very interesting to read about… if you’re into that sort of thing – but truly, Medellín has one of the best public transit systems in the world, the Metrocable is just one piece of the puzzle
To my American audience, if you knew someone through your high school friend’s (who lives in another city) girlfriend’s (from a different country) high school friend’s friend (from yet another different country) who they hadn’t met until a week beforehand, would you let this person stay at your house? I’m guessing the majority of you would say “no”, but in Colombia, it’s not even a question.
Why didn’t I choose Colombia?
Colombia was my second choice after Argentina, and it was a close call.
There is something a bit more oppressive about the atmosphere in Colombia though. Maybe it’s something that lingers after years of violence with the drug trafficking, then FARC; maybe it’s something with the atmosphere (though the climate varies more than you would expect, and Medellín’s climate is one of the best in the world – with the combination of its elevation and distance from the equator, it’s known as the city of primavera eterna or eternal spring); or maybe it has to do with the current crisis of neighboring Venezuela, Colombia gaining more and more people down on their luck escaping the terrible situation by the day.
One thing that I can pin down is the Colombian working culture. It is one of the most intense in the world, with 7-day work weeks and 12-hour workdays being the norm. Although official labor laws in Colombia are much more reasonable, they’re often ignored.
The American in me wants to say how admirable it is to dedicate so much of yourself to work. But the more conscious part of my brain realizes how unhealthy this can be, especially with long-term health and happiness. It’s also less productive! In France, for example, the legally mandated work week is 35 hours / week. Despite them working less than average with more days off, they are more productive per person per year than many countries in the world, including the US… According to a motivational poster I remember from my high school’s gym, “It’s not about the hours you put in, it’s about what you put into the hours!”.
Despite the statistical safety, there is a slight feeling of danger still in the country, and unfortunately it’s not always in a “let’s go skydiving, paragliding, and scuba diving” way. For an excursion from Cartagena to Santa Marta, Margot and I booked an Airbnb. Little did we know that the Airbnb wasn’t technically in Santa Marta, but a 20-minute drive outside the city in neighboring Rodadero.
Most streets in Colombian cities don’t have proper names, but are named Carrera # or Calle # (carrera = avenue, calle = street) depending on if the road runs east-west or north-south. So the corner of Carrera 4 and Calle 5, for example, can be found in pretty much any city in Colombia.
Because of this address system, we looked for the Rodadero address in Santa Marta. In Rodadero, that address was in a nice neighborhood, and in Santa Marta, that address was not. The neighborhood appeared rundown, but that’s not why we judged it to be dangerous. What clued us in were friendly locals seeing us with our stuffed backpacks and shiny phones and telling us, “Hey, you guys probably don’t want to go down that block,” as well as a taxi of other tourists pulling over and asking, “Are you guys lost? You really shouldn’t be here…” We were never attacked or never seemed to be in immediate danger, but it was an uncomfortable situation and took some time to figure out why the lot where our Airbnb was located was a pile of rubble.
By so many accounts, Colombia is safer than it has ever been and it is extremely dependent on region. Bogotá and Medellín were some of the most violent cities in the world in the 1980’s and 90’s, but today, Bogotá has a murder rate of 23 per 100,000, meaning that you are as safe in Bogotá today as you are in Chicago, Kansas City, or Cincinnati. In the 1990’s, Medellín received the coveted title of “Murder Capital of the World” with a staggering rate of 375 murders per 100,000 people, but in 2015, Medellín’s murder rate was 20 per 100,000, putting it on par with Oakland, Atlanta, or Pittsburgh.
There are some cities in Colombia where it is still not safe to visit, unfortunately
Some of you may have already seen this somewhat map of the 50 most murderous cities in the world:
Three of these cities belong to Colombia. They are Cúcuta at #50, Palmira at #37, and Cali at #28. It’s only a 45 minute drive between Cali and Palmira, Colombia, so for the purposes of this writing, they can be considered the same(-ish) metro area.
It’s a shame that a city known as the Salsa Dancing Capital of the World would have such a high murder rate. Cali is apparently a beautiful city with a ton of culture to see and experience, but many people aren’t visiting due to reputation.
And within each city, as with any city in the world, your safety can vary drastically depending on the neighborhood. I felt this was especially true in the cities in Colombia. Take Medellín. As I said earlier, it is a very safe city now and has been for a long time, but there are still many neighborhoods or districts where you just don’t go if you don’t live there.
Argentina
So, I’m moving to Argentina. How long will I be there? It could be 3 months, it could be 3 years. That’s the beauty of the situation I have been working towards for the last ? years. Depending on your perspective, I’ve actually been working towards this for my whole life.
I didn’t write a lot about my future trip to Argentina in this post, so if you’re disappointed, sorry. I’ll write more about Argentina when I’m in Argentina.
What is the future of this blog? The plan, as stated before, is to do more content based on more general thoughts about travel or things that I’ve noticed about traveling and the world, rather than “Step 1. Travel, Step 2. Write a post”.
Will I actually keep this up? Who knows? Maybe I’ll publish this and go dormant for 1.5 years again like I did for my last post. I don’t plan on that happening, but anything is possible…
But still, I don’t plan on doing that. I’ll write more, and soon. Until then, don’t cry for me, USA.