My mom flew in Thursday night, and we spent yesterday exploring Bogotá. Last night we had another great dinner at the apartment with a bunch of friends. Today Isa, my mom, and I flew to Medellín. We’ll be traveling all week, taking advantage of semana santa to get out of Bogotá for a while. If rains don’t screw up our travel plans, we’ll head to a finca in the coffee region on Monday, and then to Pereira on Wednesday, before returning to Bogotá next Sunday.

Then it’s back to the usual–and a whole lot more. I had wanted to write a full update before leaving for vacation, but I was really busy. I’ll be even more so when I return.

In the last few weeks, I received a flood of class requests. I worked my schedule to allow three new classes to start in the two days after vacation. So much new work is great in that it’s a lot more money, hopefully a lot more good experience, and more contacts. It’s bad in that it’s 12 more hours a week of teaching time, nearly doubling my work load to over 25 now, which means upwards of 60 or even 70 hours a week taken up by teaching, traveling, and preparing. But even that’s not all bad. I’m looking forward to a month like that (if not many more months after it), a month channeling finals period–but this time for pay.

This is something of a warning that I may not be very responsive for the next month or two. I’ll be reachable, of course but I’m going to be incredibly busy. So apologies in advance if I don’t respond quickly to emails or make time for Skype calls. I don’t like to live that way, but I have to for now, at least for now. Please don’t take that to mean I don’t want to hear from you. I do–more than ever now that my in-person social life will drop to almost nil. So please keep writing and otherwise being in touch.

Lest I obscure what this post is really about: I’m on vacation! I’m in a beautiful new city; I’m loving the warmth, the new sights, and the two amazing women who are my company this week. Work is far away, and many good things are very close. More to come when I have the time to share it all. Until then, keep me updated on the good things where you are–and all other things, may they be few.