#rhaitalks 16 — Living in a new country for 3 months *Part1
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True story of a foreigner airbnbing in Medellín| 🎧 Yep, play it*
It feels like one year already.
Well, I am an immigrant with a work visa. Multicultural. Extrovert. And my brain still explodes when I barely try counting the amazing things I did and how bad I failed by ordering food at the mall nearby. No matter what they tell you, living in a new country is not what you planned. You can move to work, marry somebody, or just because you want to. No bias or judgment — you’ll find out what that means when you have your second night by yourself in a room. You won’t get their accent, markets sell things you don’t know, you keep converting every cent no matter what you buy. In a few days, coins should look a bit friendly and you realize they have different sizes too! Your tattoos still look different! People look at you and think you’re bizarre. You feel you’re an ET every day of your new life. You love your buzzcut haircut though. Perhaps local water is not made for you and you’re weak trying to figure out what the f*** you had to make you so sick during your first weeks. Tinder, trails, museums, bars, parties, restaurants, views, theaters, streets, squares, and parks will be part of the way you avoid getting agonized at home. FOMO. By week two, you randomly start looking for peace of mind as a new addiction, because your hyperactivity let you down before.
D4mn — while beach-shore is nine hours away by car! Altitude sometimes kills, and your nose keeps dry and itching when pollution hits the city. Then adaptation starts in the next month. You’re able to share some top#5 places to go as well, as the foodie you are — you know Sushi, Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian, very Colombian, Venezuelan, and Italian places. Fresh juices and veggies places? You love them! Now you can tell where nearby Tostao’s, Decathlons, Adidas and Speedos are. Life may be a bit steady by now, you eat out when you want to. Instead of miserably looking for new food every day when you get bored. You look very active again and start to meet sporty guys, as usual. You just overestimated their general ability of living in the century XXI ’cause straight men tend to be more sexist than you thought! Mansplaining, sexual harassment, sexual nuisance, gaslighting, and ghosting happened to you, and sometimes you wish guys just die.
Therapy will help. 💛
By this stage, you accidentally found a few Brazilian neighbors and have some dishes altogether once a week or kind of — while you’re too sociable and barely know people at public places. You miss saying hello! You should know how crazy traffic gets out there, get a public bike. You can go running without a 4G connection feeling safe. You should know how to get to many spots by yourself by bicycle, Metro, BRT, VLT, Uber, and Didi which is cheaper here than you expected to be! GMaps will have lots of favorite pins — ‘cause you keep being a nerd, your public transit card is loaded every week. You do not realize how local you sound when you repeat their slang. Life can be okay in a few weeks, although the workload had hit you last week. Things seem insane, thinking of your sweet home may drive you to tears instantly. You gotta find some beach shore and get your sh1* together soon. It happens. Adaption hurts! Get a new Airbnb and move on. It’s Sunday evening and you’re planning your week. You have some tea and wonder: it won’t hurt forever. Colombia got you!
This is your country too**.
🖤
Ray
*Lovely track sent by my new friend in town: Anna Zechini -🎧 her Spotify.
**Unexpected comment I heard from Diego Espitia last week.
Text by Rhaissa V.
Brazilian and travel enthusiast. Keeps exchanging stuff every day. Loves coconut lemonade now. Works as a Sr. Product Manager | Tks Huge (aka Make something you love™) for sponsoring my work visa and allowing me to tell this story.
