My Trip For Redcolsi – Diego Sarmiento 1262099

Since my girlfriend and I joined the seed bag of research, one goal of us was to make a
new project and being able to go to a redcolsi. Last semester we were capable to show
our project to the judges in the regional redcolsi in an extraordinary performance and due
to the good grade we got 95/100. We won the opportunity to show our project once again
but now on the national redcolsi for Colombia. So here we are, nervous and ready for our
new trip to Cartagena. A new adventure await us and we will overcome and experience it
the best we can.
It all started on Tuesday, I woke up early in the morning in order to attend to an exam for
a college subject, after that, I went back home, took my luggage, called a taxi and went to
the university to wait for the bus which will drive us to Cartagena. Nevertheless,
something went wrong when I was in the taxi; I remembered I had to bring a sign with the
logo of the company we are working with so in the middle of the way to the university I
told the driver to go back to my house to get something I forgot. For my fortune, even
though I was ten minutes late to the bus, it had not arrived yet. When it arrived, I put my
luggage inside, took a seat and fell asleep until three o´clock for having lunch. After a few
minutes, I wanted to go inside the bus to take my earbuds from my backpack but I
confused the bus, went inside the wrong one so there was I, embarrassed, and could not
remember which bus was mine so I proceeded to go to the restaurant and eat something.
The meal was great, good flavor but the meat was a little dry for my taste, while eating, I
saw that my partner from the same semester, Lesli. She was going back to the bus but did
not tell me anything about the bus getting prepared to leave so I took my time paying the
bill and shortly after, I received a message from her telling me that the bus already left. “A
little late for the advice but better than never” I though. So I just waited there to Know
what would happen, would she not tell anything to the driver? In that case, I would find a
way to return to Cucuta in another bus or maybe she could tell the driver and return to
the restaurant for me. If I am writing this is because the second option happened.
Anyway, the rest of the day was great, I spent my time listening to music and watching
series in English as a way to be more fluent and speak in a more natural way and we
arrived Cartagena the next day. On Wednesday.
It was around eight o´clock when we rode inside the city, the day was clear and some girls
on the bus were excited for seeing the Saint Felipe´s Castle and were taking some pictures
and videos of it from inside the bus; we were heading directly to the university because
we were late for the opening event which started at eight in the morning. Just before we
 were in the University, I ate the food my
grandma packed for me in a bowl, It was
some chicken and French fries for dinner
but I ate it in the morning so I had already
eaten my breakfast just before we arrived
to the university.
As soon as we got there, we went inside
the university, it was smaller than our
university in Cucuta because it was just a
three floor building but bigger than any
other house near, actually it had the
diameter of the south building of the university Francisco de Paula Santander in Cucuta
but the university of Cartagena seemed very antique and important.
Maybe it used to be the house of the viceroy in those old Grand Colombia times, which
would explain why it was so big yet so antique. The exterior of the university was not very
notorious, it looked like a big house but inside it had a green garden with some palms and
little trees, benches and statues of very important liberators (one of those was a Francisco
de Paula Santander statue), all together making a little green park lighted with the direct
sun. We explored those red painted halls to take a look of each corner of the university
there were many people preparing the spaces for the redolsi in each floor and all rooms
had air conditioner making them cold and refreshing unlike the outside, which was very
hot and scorching.

When we were done walking and looking how the university looked, I went to the other
campus in which my girlfriend was located in order to meet and go to explore the most
popular places of the city.
We started taking some pictures from a window of the city wall, which was facing a beach,
after that we just walked to the central park of the city. In there we saw many shops
selling candy, handbags, antique coins, magnets, shirts among other things. When we got
there, we saw the Modern Art Museum of Cartagena, we immediately went inside but we
had to pay to join in but luckily, they gave us a discount for being students so it cost us five
thousand pesos for each person (Alexa and me). The museum was beautiful, there were
so many abstract paintings that even though we could not understand, we theorized
about what might be the meaning of the colors and shape in general. there were so many
beautiful and interesting ones some of them were the ones in which a popular character
named “Tin Tin” took the place of some of the most popular paintings replacing the main
character of those. Another interesting painting that I liked too much was one in which
there were three paintings one next to the other showing some funny yet so tragic
scenarios like a man whose parachute did not work but luckily the Virgin Marie is flying
around and he is asking her to save him.

By the time we left the Modern Art Museum of Cartagena, we were so thirsty, but luckily
there was a passing lemonade seller with his cart, we bought a cup and I’m not
exaggerating when I say it was the most delicious lemonade I have ever drunk. He made it
with some green water and ice he was carrying in the cart and squeezed a lemon in the
bottom of the cup. After drinking it we were ready to continue our exploration of the city,
meanwhile, the group that came in the university´s bus and my group were all hidden
from the sun In a mall almost all day after taking a look of the University of Cartagena.
Returning to the main topic, we went to the city wall and walked most of it, took some
pictures next to the cannons, narrow rooms and the wall itself, after that we were just
walking around the city looking for something interesting to do, see or happen and we
found the gold museum of Cartagena. We went inside and luckily, this one was cold unlike
the modern art one. There were beautiful handcrafted tools and statues, we could learn
some things from overhearing the teachers who brought their students to the museum,
and it was a very wonderful and fantastic experience. Leaving the gold museum, we had
pizza for lunch and went to our respective hotel because the day was getting dark and we
were tired and needed to get ready for the next day for showing our project to the judges.
Thursday, this was the day we had
our presentation, the day was
bright, I ate my breakfast from the
hotel´s buffet and got ready for
the presentation wearing a white
Hawaiian shirt with some fish on
it. My group and I went to the
university in our bus and I met
with Alexa inside the University
one hour later. We found or place
for the presentation and prepared
it for the judges, we were nervous
and Alexa did not have voice, she
was hoarse like somebody who have been smoking since ten years old and even though,
she was doing the best she could to have her part of the presentation said. There were no
signs of the judges and we got more worried but half an hour later an agronomist judge
came and we did our presentation to her, she was captivated by our project and the only
feedback she gave us, was to show the certificate of quality in an image for the poster.
The rest of the day was calm, after we finished our time in there, we went to our hotel
and relaxed for the rest of the day, mainly Alexa whose sickness made her nod off a lot
and needed to take rest.
On Friday, we went to the beach, enjoyed playing in the
sand and in the water, some waves hit us in the face but
it was ok, we enjoyed the experience too much and
became one of the favorite places for Alexa. It was a
marvelous experience and we would go back one more
time some day.
Even though this trip had its difficulties as being in
exams for us, struggling with the decisions for the hotel
the University chose for its students or even the fact
that I almost was forgotten in an unknown place for
being late to the bus. It was a very overwhelming place
with very kind people, many experiences to laugh,
remember, and mostl important to store it in a bright
place in my memories as the first trip I did to a big city alone with my girlfriend.