Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Trading California Sunshine for Bogota Skyline

Last November, I was fortunate enough to travel to Colombia for the first time. I had the time of my life experiencing new things like frothy lulo juice, winding through La Linea that carves the central Andes, vallenato, visiting an underground mine-turned-cathedral made of salt, and drinking good ol' aguardiente on a curb outside of a nightclub at 3 in the morning. Best birthday ever.

In two days, I return to Bogota for the entire summer to participate in an economic development program called Plan Padrinos at Universidad Externado de Colombia. MBA students from universities all around the world will be working alongside UEC MBA students in reaching out to small local businesses in Bogota to help them develop and implement better business plans. It's all very exciting!

Or at least it should be. To be honest I'm a little envious hearing about everyone's summer plans of hiking, beaching, sunbathing, bonfires, etc. But even more so, I am sad I'll be gone for it all--especially the part where I miss my sisters' 21st and 10th birthdays, grad parties and my sister's engagement party. I'll be 8,000ft high up in the sky where the sun rises and sets at the same time every single day and the weather is overcast on most. All this to say: I already miss California. Even though I know I'll return in a couple of months, it's always hard to leave home.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Unplugged

Sometimes you just need to. The Internet is noisy and it's important to have clarity every once in a while.

Over a year ago I deleted my Facebook account (and have since brought it back only to add people I actually want to keep in touch with), replaced my smartphone with one with only talk & text capabilities and have since made a conscious effort to work on real people skills. And also to work on myself, whatever that means.

By popular demand I'm plugged back into the blog world. I thought about creating a new one, but the concept of "breadlily" is still very relevant to me so this little piece of the world wide web will stay and continue to be developed. Enjoy!