Día 288: "I adore anonymity."

I'm realizing that language doesn't matter. You can make the same cute jokes, have the same great conversations, and use pretty much the same silly sarcasm wherever you go, if you find the right people and you have an open mind.

This morning, I stopped peeping at the proposal over Diana's shoulder and instead suggested that we collaborate via Google Docs to edit our sections of focus for today. I designed an "editing legend" for myself, to make sure I was making consistent changes passim, and I was so into the work this morning that my colleagues almost had to wrench me from my seat for lunch.


But wrench me they did, and we headed to La Plaza de Andrés, which I just now realized is the restaurant that Monica and Claudia had recommended to me on the plane!


Over lunch, I had a dish whose name I couldn't remember for the life of me (calentado paisa), a maracuya smoothie, and lots of chistoso (amusing) conversation -- faux Spanish lessons came from all sides as my colleagues did their best to land me in embarrassing "malapropismic" situations in the future.

Now back at the office, Diana and I were having some issues with version control as edits to the proposal bombarded us from TNC offices across the world. One of my biggest achievements for today was convincing my team to move to Google Docs as a way to streamline our edits, at least within our Bogotá office. We tend always to be hesitant to play around with new technology but I swelled with pride as all the members of our team joined the document online in my last two minutes at work before Maria Victoria and my taxi arrived.


And what a lovely gift awaited me in the car! Maria had brought along her two somnolent sons, Juan Sabastian and Nicolas, to pick me up. The latter napped as the former initially giggled at my Spanish but eventually became my tutor, quizzing me with palabras for buildings, fruits, and animals. (Meanwhile, I tested his knowledge of characters in the show Phineas y Ferb.)


At home I regaled Viviana and her mom Rosalia with anecdotes about my day as they laughed at my enthusiasm. I chilled out long enough for a quick workout and meditation sesh before pestering Vivi to explain her masters thesis to me (she's a sociologist). We distracted one another from our respective responsibilities for quite some time before she got cracking on her case studies, and I on this post.

We're now off to El Corral, a country-famous hamburger joint!

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