Jaemin Yi | Travel, Creativity, and the Pursuit of Awesomeness

I got mugged in Colombia. And it was all cause I was trying to get some.

Before you judge, let me back up and explain.

So it was my last night in Colombia. I had spent 31 incident-free days living it up in Medellín (the city made famous by it’s legendary women, Pablo Escobar…and Entourage) but now it was time to say adios.

My buddies Sol and Sean threw me a Despedida (farewell party) and I swear, it was like out of a movie. The whole night, all these characters I had met over the past 4 weeks showed up to send me off.

My salsa dancing teacher. The crazy, tri-lingual Swedish sisters. The Reggaeton producer who became my closest parcero (‘friend’ in Medellín-talk). The backpacking Canadian fiance’s. My Brazillian and Dutch guitar-mates.

Man, it wasn’t until the Despedida that I realized how much I was going to miss Medellín.

The night was a whirlwind of dancing, pizza cooking, and Aguardiente drinking (not necessarily in that order) and before I knew it, it was already 4am and time to bounce.

After a few heartfelt goodbyes, I grabbed a cab with the Colombian girl I’d been dating and we booked it out of there. And this is where I started to make a series of mistakes.

I give my friend Taneen a lot of shit. I’m always making fun of her. Always laughing at the random and stupid things she says.

But honestly, she’s one of my favorite people to hang out with. I don’t tell her this much in person, but I think deep down she knows (or at least she does now – you better be reading my blog punk).

We got to kick it last week and it reminded me why I love this girl. Every time we hang out, two things happen: 1) we cut through the bullshit and, 2) randomness and spontaneity are the name of the game.

Let’s start with 1).

Most conversations, people just talk about inconsequential stuff. What movies they saw, how their vacation was, what’s going on at their job. Those convos are fine and all, but when I have them, I never feel like I really get to know a person. What makes them tick. Who they really are.

Taneen is a G at cutting through all that bullshit. I mean, there we are, just chillin in her kitchen, doing the whole catching-up-on-life thing, when without warning she just launches into it: