Bogotá

The bus got in to Bogotá at around 9 o'clock in the morning. Ordinarily I don't mind night buses but this time I had a cold so all the changes in elevation kept screwing with my inner ear and I couldn't get any sleep. I finally arrived and hopped in a taxi to go meet the family I'll be staying with. The accommodations are fantastic, I've got my own room with two computers and a printer in it. Oh yeah, and there's a maid. Homestays are completely the way to travel.

That night I finally got to really practice speaking with a big group of Colombianos. Carlos (the son of the family) took me to a karaoke party at a friend's house and, much to my delight, the combination of alcohol and terrible singing actually makes speaking Spanish much easier. I think it's because it's hard to look like an idiot next to a bunch of drunk people doing karaoke no matter how bad your Spanish is. Pretty soon I was chatting up a storm, and had such a good time I actually stayed for several hours after Carlos left. If this keeps up I'll make some real headway with the language before I leave Bogotá.