Bogotá, My Home Away From Home
I Began My Trip to Colombia as a Teen Feeling Lost, and Ended With a New Sense of Belonging in the World
After finishing seventh grade, I found myself at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, where my mother put me on a plane headed to Bogotá, Colombia.
It wasn’t as crazy as it might sound. I was a blonde, fair-skinned California girl, daughter of a Colombian mother and an American father, with a very superficial understanding of my mother’s culture and language. The plan was for me to spend six months in Bogotá with my Aunt Olga, learn Spanish, and then return home to finish the year at my French …
