WONDERING WHATS NEXT

I was born in the capital of a country full of cultural diversity. I was born among the smiles and delicious food of a warm and cheerful society. Colombia is a very big country, full of colorful and exotic landscapes, but also of cities that never, ever sleep.

As expected, each country has a specific culture that adapts to its inhabitants, the way they live and the way they interpret life, in the Colombian case, although we do have a culture that unites us as a society, theres just too many people in the different regions with very different environments that make the culture very rich.

Worlds collide

Thanks to my mother’s work I have been able to travel a lot through different cities of my country, I lived in small towns where the morning cold was the alarm clock, I also lived in towns on the coast of the country, with a warm climate that made every jump in the pool a wonderful experience. Although whenever I traveled I arrived to a city in Colombia, the culture was very different, for example, the festivities that were celebrated in La Guajira were not the same that were celebrated in Bogotá. The accents, the common phrases or “slang” were very different. Every time I came to a new place I had to adapt to many cultural changes, sometimes being from the capital of the country was good or sometimes very bad.

The food of the center of the country is very different from the one of the coast and the rhythm of life in the coast was much more relaxed, reason why my constant eagerness to do the things and my way of understanding the passing of the days caused weird situations between me and my friends . As if we were from two different worlds that had been forced to be together. It always took me a few weeks to adapt to everything, the weather, the people, the accents, the humor and customs, etc.But in the end I always managed to make that culture a new part of me. Little by little and place to place I was getting better and better at adapting myself and understanding what was unknown to me. But i did love tasting the culture. All the food, thats better that any other way to understand something new.

Sometimes when they ask me where I am from (only the city) I have a serious conflict, because even though I was born in Bogotá that does not define anything about me, the culture that everyone in Bogotá is supposed to have is not the only one that is part of me. So I always responds that I am Colombian in every way. Within me I have dozens of different accents corresponding to the places I have visited, I celebrate different dates that in some cities do not even exist and I see life in a much broader and interesting way.

From a different planet

Now, the cultural diversity of my country has allowed me to understand not only my fellow Colombians but also people from other countries. This is the first time that I am in exchange in another country so it feels like now im from another planet.

To understand a new culture the first thing you should do is observe,study and see the main differences.For example,  in Colombia the people are very expressive, kind and  love to talk, with strangers, with family, with everyone! On the other hand, since I arrived in Germany I noticed that contact with people in general is very limited. And although everyone is very decent and prudent, kindness is not the same. In Colombia there is always the need to make the other person feel like family, however in Munich the relationships do not work that way. However, Im very comfortable and happy with this new culture that I see. And the warmth of the  Christmas markets remind me of home.

With this new culture I have infiltrated in, I am learning more, about myself, about the world, about who I am and what culture I belong to, if I belong only to one. How exciting it is to know and learn about what I once saw too far and unknown.