I'm really going to learn Spanish..... Really...
Well here's the story guys. I'm a 40 year old guy who's finishing up college for the 2nd time. I've been given an opportunity, by a company interested in hiring me when I leave college, to spend up to 10 weeks in a Spanish speaking country learning to speak the language. I'm moving into petroleum production, and they have a lot of interests in South America and would like to have me understanding some Spanish when I get there.
So here's the requirements. I need to present them with a proposal as to how much a 10 week stay would cost. Of course I have secondary motives for wanting to spend an extended period in an exotic land, and so I come to you.
I need to find out why you think Columbia is the place to go to spend time with the chicas. Really what I'd like is more semi or non pro action, particularly since I'll be there a while. I'd prefer to stay in a city away from the gringo occupied areas. I am supposed to be learning Spanish remember, so if everyone speaks English, I'll not make much progress. I'd also like any input you might have on how much a small house or apartment might cost for the 10 weeks.
Really I'm interested in any insight you might think would be useful to someone in my position. Incidentally, I do speak a small amount of Spanish already. I'm a middle class, average looking, middle aged white guy, who doesn't mind leaving suburban America to live in less the US standard accommodations.
I hope Jackson doesn't mind, but I'm thinking of posting this in quite a few different forums to get responses from each, but feel free to offer advice on any other countries you might think appropriate as well.
Hopefully come June of next year I'll be running a blog on how things are going, and chasing as much tail as I was during my fist stint in college. In the meantime, I hope to hear from all of you as to where I should spend my 10 week mid life crisis.
Oh. And learn Spanish too. Really.
Colombia Crime over the psast 40 year
[QUOTE=AddictedToWomen]IIRC, CAMBIO reported last week that Medellin had the fastest growing rate of serious (read murder, theft, ...) street crime in Colombia.[/QUOTE]I wuz born in Medellin in 68 but moved here when I wuz two, in the span up to 86 visiting durring summer school I have seen everything from somebody tearing off my moms earing in broad day lite in the centro to seeing somebody get shot in the head to somebody pointing a gun at me for kicks. Medellin has gone up n down. Today it is musch safer than 20 years ago but never let your guards down especially after that grenade explosion at a downtown club after a soccer celebration, like others have posted, try to blend in as much as possible, dont wear jewelry and buy sum cheap clothes at a local store.
Cali