My top two priorities since I have arrived in Medellin, Colombia were to improve my Spanish and learn to dance salsa. I met with my private Spanish tutor 4-5 weeks in a coffee shop close to where he lives. I signed up for 40 hours of lessons with him which average out to around $11.75/hour. My salsa instructor comes to my AirBnb 3 times a week to give me private lessons. I’ve taken four lessons so far and I’ve been really happy with the progress so far. Those private lessons average out to $10/hour.

I’ve also been making more of an effort in getting out more while in Medellin. On my birthday, I went out to a local salsa club to join their free group salsa class that they offer twice a week. I’ve made it out to a couple networking events to mingle with people in the travel industry, business owners and digital nomads. I’ve also tried Medellin’s local specialty bandeja paisa which is packed with a variety of delicious meats.

I plan to spend about two more weeks here until I begin traveling again through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Next week, I will write a piece about Colombia’s notorious Pablo Escobar and how Medellin has changed since his death.

Scott Frost also takes the podium today in Big Ten Media Days. I am curious to see what Frost has to say in regards to all the hype the Huskers have received during the offseason. How many times do you think he will say ‘teamwork’ or ‘compete’ or ‘avocado toast’ today? We’ll have full coverage of that and much more on Corn Nation today. Anyways onto Flakes...

Frosted Flakes

Big Ten Media Picks Nebraska in Big Ten West, Michigan in East | Football | Corn Nation

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has released their preseason Big Ten prediction poll consisting of voting by 34 media members around the conference. The Big Ten has no official poll, so the Cleveland newspaper has taken up the charge, released this poll for the ninth year in a row now.

Two Huskers Earn NABC Honors Court Recognition | Basketball | Huskers.com

University of Nebraska basketball players Tanner Borchardt and Johnny Trueblood were recognized for their efforts in the classroom Wednesday, as both players were named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court. The honor is presented to players who are a junior or senior academically at an institution and posted a GPA of 3.20 or better at the conclusion of the 2018-19 academic year.

Check out the Big Ten Media Day primers from Parker Gabriel (Lincoln Journal Star), Evan Bland (Omaha World-Herald) and Sam McKewon (Omaha-World Herald).

Travel and More

Travel and Leisure released their World’s Best Lists last week. Definitely worth checking out if you want to know the Best Cities, Best Islands, Best Hotels and much more!

One Third of U.S. Workers Haven’t Taken a One-Week Vacation in More Than Two Years | Travel | Travel and Leisure

It doesn’t look like 2019 will be a good year for vacation either. According to Allianz Global Assistance, only 42 percent of respondents said they felt confident they would be able to take a vacation this year — the lowest since 2013.

Nine Secret Lakes in Europe to Escape to This Summer | Travel | Conde Nast Traveler

From Finland’s largest lake and a spot in Sweden where you can stay by the water along a Medieval pilgrimage route to a jewel-colored lake deep in the Bavarian Alps, these are the European lakes stealing our heart this summer.

Instagram’s latest hot spot is a waste dump in Siberia | Travel | Lonely Planet

That irresistible blue hue is not the color of pristine waters reflecting off the sky, but rather the deposits of calcium salts and metal oxides.

Google Translate’s Camera Just Got Much Better | Travel | Travel and Leisure

Google is also unveiling a new auto-detect feature, so you can select “Detect language” as the source language. The translate app will then automatically detect the language and translate to your chosen language.

Antelope Canyon, a Navajo Natural Wonder, Adapts to the Instagram Age | Travel | Vox

Antelope Canyon is about 15 minutes away from Page on the Navajo Nation, a 27,000-square-mile area of land that expands across northeastern Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It is the largest territory retained by a Native American tribe, bigger than 10 US states, and is self-governing.

Some tourists are climbing Uluru in Australia before the upcoming ban | Travel | Lonely Planet

The date chosen to ban visitors from climbing the Uluru in Australia is October 26, 2019. But it appears that day cannot come soon enough. In the lead up to the closing of the route, tourists are reportedly flocking to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, ignoring the clearly expressed and the well-signposted wishes of the traditional owners, the Anangu people, while stirring outrage across social media.

Did Fake Alcohol Kill American Tourists in the Dominican Republic? | Travel | Quartz

Counterfeit or illegal alcohol is part of a larger category described as “unrecorded” alcohol because it is not recorded in official statistics and not monitored for quality or for taxation. The World Health Organization estimates that 25% of the alcohol consumed worldwide is unrecorded.

Hubble Space Telescope Spies Something Mysterious Around a Supermassive Black Hole | Space | CNN

The galaxy, which is 130 million light-years away, contains a supermassive black hole at its heart, as expected. What wasn’t expected is the thin disc of material around the black hole.

Enigmatic Skull Could Be the Oldest Modern Human Outside of Africa | Science | National Geographic

If confirmed, the discovery would help clarify the earliest movements of our species as anatomically modern humans spread out of Africa. But not everyone is convinced by the strength of this new evidence.

The Fashion Photographer Who Duped The Drug Lords and DEA | Crime | Bloomberg

Although none of his four daughters or his fashion friends knew it, Vega was a freelance spy working for the U.S. government. He’d insinuated himself into the social circles of Colombia’s cocaine kingpins. And even as he provided information to the U.S., Vega was also running a con.

What Happens Now to the Child Soldiers of ISIS? | News | TIME

Raised in northern Iraq’s small Yazidi religious minority, S. was 9 years old when the so-called Islamic State killed his father and brother, kidnapped him and turned him into a child soldier. He witnessed unspeakable violence, saw friends tortured and was beaten by the “teachers” who indoctrinated him into the group’s severe version of Islam. I highly recommend reading this article.