Last Wednesday I went to the house of the Colombian Ambassador in France. It was all part of a reunion of alumni from University of the Andes (Uniandes) in Bogotá where I studied Biology. The idea is to create and formalize a network of alumni, current students, and members of Uniandes. To my surprise it just happen to be that the Colombian Ambassador, Fernando Cepeda Ulloa, was the rector, vice-rector, and a professor of my university; so he was hosting the reunion of alumni at his place; which is the official ambassador’s house in France. The house it’s located at the Splanade de Invalides, right in front of a very beautiful park, and some historical buildings where you can find Napoleon’s tomb, and it’s very close to the Grand Palais; such a luxurious house boasting a collection of sculptures and paintings from Colombian most well known artists, like a Botero painting.
The reunion was quite a nice experience, the Ambassador received us, the man is really funny and friendly… with an extremely accentuated Bogotá accent, and despite his informality you could clearly feel that he’s a very wise man. We were about 20 persons, most of them were the typical Colombian upper class, with the exception of an architect whose bohemian life-style was evident, and a first year middle class PhD student engineer who was trying to look upper class… and I, the man who trascends class! All of them extremely successful and cool people, I was impressed in a very positive way. The majordomo gave us plenty of wine, and cooked for us a very tasty chicken rice, just as it’s traditional in Colombia.
The reunion was quite a nice experience, the Ambassador received us, the man is really funny and friendly… with an extremely accentuated Bogotá accent, and despite his informality you could clearly feel that he’s a very wise man. We were about 20 persons, most of them were the typical Colombian upper class, with the exception of an architect whose bohemian life-style was evident, and a first year middle class PhD student engineer who was trying to look upper class… and I, the man who trascends class! All of them extremely successful and cool people, I was impressed in a very positive way. The majordomo gave us plenty of wine, and cooked for us a very tasty chicken rice, just as it’s traditional in Colombia.
Uniandes logoThe funny thing is that about two months ago I wrote to the ambassador asking for an economical support to buy my flight tickets to the Conference in China; and late in the afternoon when I was doing the groceries at Carrefour, he called me to tell me personally that they didn’t have money for those purposes and to give me contact information of someone from a science foundation in Colombia… who of course, didn’t have money for those purposes either. In any case, you can imagine my surprise when I realized it was the ambassador on the phone. Who knew I would get to meet him personally a couple of months later.
The paradox is that in Colombia it was OK to give more than 100 Euros to soldiers for killing guerrilla, but to give 100 Euros to a good man for representing the country at an international scientific conference is impossible.
In conclusion, the experience at the Ambassador’s house was pretty cool and enjoyable and I look forward for the next alumni meeting from Uniandes here in Paris. With so much potential and good people I think we could do great things!
The paradox is that in Colombia it was OK to give more than 100 Euros to soldiers for killing guerrilla, but to give 100 Euros to a good man for representing the country at an international scientific conference is impossible.
In conclusion, the experience at the Ambassador’s house was pretty cool and enjoyable and I look forward for the next alumni meeting from Uniandes here in Paris. With so much potential and good people I think we could do great things!
Haha, nice.
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