A Year of Soulshining

October 2, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

It’s been one year to the day since I arrived in Lima, Peru and began the most amazing year of my life.  I’ve said many times that I feel like I’ve lived out several lifetimes in this past year.  I’ve passed through my share of seasons, emotional states, and border crossings.  I’ve felt alternately like an old lady and a ten year-old girl. I am now more aware of who I am and what I want to accomplish in my […]

Categories: Bolivia, Colombia, Friendship, Israel, Music, Peru, Playtime, Russia

Goodbye to My Quotidian Colombian Life

March 14, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

  Since the uninhibited mayhem that was Carnaval, I have lived in a small apartment on La Calle de las Damas, in the center of the old city of Cartagena.  I shopped for groceries, did laundry, made friends with my neighbors, failed to cook anything besides jello, and threw parties for new and old friends.  I spent hours walking the cobbled streets until I knew them intimately.  I built a happy little Colombian life, and glimpsed what it might be […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime, Touchy Feelies, Uncategorized

¡Quien lo vive es quien lo goza!

February 22, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

“¡Quien lo vive, es quien lo goza!” – The motto of Carnaval de Barranquilla, translating roughly to “He who lives it, enjoys it!” People often ask me why I have chosen to spend so much time in Latin America.  I respond by saying that it is a remedy, a medicine, that I have needed for a long time to combat the influence of three years in finance and another four years before that in a high-pressure university.  I don’t mean […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime

Full moons and magic nights

February 9, 2012 by Meghan Johnson

“Que te amo con desespero como loco en luna nueva que cuando no estás conmigo la tierra se me acelera. “ I kick myself every time I go out without my camera in Cartagena.  Every square inch of the old city is a photo op.  The most recent self-butt-kicking was while walking along the four hundred year-old fortress walls surrounding the city, watching a sherbet sunset over the ocean.  It almost feels cruel that I can’t share the neon pinks […]

Categories: Colombia, Music, Playtime