Hrm. I should probably use a few more words to describe last night! My lovely coworker took me out, first to a little restaurant with live, local-ish music (guitar, drums, and Spanish singing, but apparently the first few songs were Cuban covers) then to an awesome lounge that takes some explaining. First, there are two guys with guitars on stage, along with a computer and other misc. technology. Then there is a woman (and later, a man) on one side of the stage in a sound proof booth. Another man on the other side of the stage, also in a soundproof booth, plays saxophone. The group proceeds to rip in to selections from The Cure, Tears for Fears, Michael Jackson, and Prince all while the guy on stage mixes the sound in real time! Fabulous. I had hot wine (vino something, but I've already forgotten the Spanish word...it wasn't caliente, but something with an F...), which tastes like Christmas (i.e., mulled wine) and some local rum in a rum and coke. My guidebook tells me Medellin is the place for rum, but I'm hoping to pick some up here (along with COFFEE!)

I keep waffling between wanting to explore tons more and feeling like I don't need to smush everything into this one trip (my company travels to Colombia pretty frequently). On the one hand, any time I'm in a new place I want to see and do as much as possible, and always read up on history and culture and sights and whatnot (plus, a friend just posted beautiful pictures from her European travels on Facebook and I'm feeling pangs of guilt about not producing similar rolls of digital film). On the other hand, we have tons of work to do. And, as I'm discovering, I have a shockingly high tolerance for spending long days in one place. On the third hand (foot?) this is only day six of 15, so I suppose there really is plenty of time left to get more out and about.

Plus, I'm feeling exceptionally dependent upon my coworkers - they're all bilingual and I am...not. I've been in other countries where I don't speak the language and I don't remember feeling this paralyzed, but then again, I was young and with my parents and probably not experiencing the same feeling of stress and responsibility for managing transactions. I've got a few key Spanish phrases under my belt, and I really should just suck it up and have some awkward social interactions where I confess to my lack of Spanish and we Spanglish and pantomime our way through the transaction, but I just keep shrinking back and glancing at my coworkers while they translate. Sigh.