Relapse

Medellín, Colombia

Medellín is such a beautiful and affordable city that I decided to stay there a while. But since I had nothing pressing to do besides drink cheep beers and study Spanish, I ended up relapsing on Tinder.

One date I went on was not so remarkable. We made out a bunch and she tried to talk me into bringing her to Patagonia with me. But when I told her I didn't believe in God, I thought her head was going to explode. I didn't see much of a future there.

My other date was much more blogworthy. I met Ana in the food court at the Centro Comercial Santa Fe. There I edited her Masters thesis, which she had written in English.

It was called Didactic as Theory in Teaching English or some such, and I couldn't make heads or tails of her argument.

She was writing about challenges teachers face when teaching children English. She said that the Conflict had led to childhood behavioral problems - especially aggression - and that teachers needed to teach a philosophy of peace. So I guess I kind of understood her argument.

But what "Didactic as Theory" means I have no friggin clue.

I was eating nasty Chinese food I had picked up in the food court. It is somewhat difficult to edit and eat lo mein at the same time. I can't recommend it.

Ana's paper cited examples from her experience teaching children in grades 1-12 at a private Catholic school. She included a history of the Colombian Conflict in which she highlighted the crimes of the FARC but was pretty meh about the atrocities carried out by paras and the government.

I wasn't all that impressed with the paper, so I never called her back.