The decision to go to Colombia

In the fall of 2005, I began my 6th semester at the John Molson School of Business. I needed a break, a change, something new. The year before, I had also wanted to go on exchange but had only looked into the application process about a month before the deadline; I would not let that happen this year. I had no idea where I wanted to go, but my most important requirement was a place where I could learn Spanish quickly and well. I also wanted to go someplace different from where everyone goes. I had talked to some friends who had recently gone on exchange and their experience sounded more like an all inclusive 5 months tourist package to Cancun than an opportunity to live in a new place and submerge yourself in a different culture.
Since this year there was no way I would miss the application deadline, I went to the first ISEP introduction session. At one point Amanda showed us a few examples of people who had completed exchange semesters along with their stories. One that drew my attention was Ryan Rowe’s.

The first person from the JMSB to go on exchange in Colombia. Colombia, Colombia … while Amanda kept talking about other students, I couldn’t stop thinking about Colombia. What did I know about Colombia? This is the place that everyone thinks is dangerous, the place where the newspapers can write that this year kidnappings went down 15% and that therefore only 5,000 people were kidnapped this year. This is the place where cocaine money from the world’s developed countries has been funding a 50 year long civil war between the paramilitaries, the guerillas, and the government. Why would anyone want to go there? Well, from what I had heard from people who had traveled there, this was not what I have just mentioned but a place with the friendliest people in the world, a place where there are relatively few foreign tourists, and Bogotá a city where people are known to speak one of the best Spanish in South America. With those three reasons in mind, I knew this was the place I wanted to go. While I daydreamed about going to Colombia, Amanda had come around to asking everyone in the room where it was that they wanted to go if they had any idea. When my turn came, I responded: Colombia; not as if I had just gotten the idea, but as if this had been a life long dream. I could see in Amanda’s reaction that she would have much rather heard something like Barcelona or Mexico than Colombia, and that I would definitely need to convince her before she would let me go.