You might be wondering if I’ve forgotten about my blog, since it’s been a while since I’ve posted and update. But I have a good reason. I’ve been off traveling and adventuring.
I just got back from an amazing trip to South America, and an international origami conference. The conference was CFC3, in Bogota, Colombia. CFC is short for Conference for Creators, and as the name implies, is an international organization for origami artists and creators.
At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. I’d never been to South America before, and it seemed like a big leap. Plus I don’t really know alot of Spanish. And the US state department even has a warning against traveling to Colombia.
In the end it all worked out and I’m really glad we went. The conference was fantastic, the people were really friendly, Bogota is a great city and Colombia a really cool country. The food the music and everything was tons of fun.
I decided if I was going to accept the invitation to go, I should give a presentation. I chose for my topic Single-Sheet Polyhedra in Origami. This is an area where I have done a good amount of deep, original work, and I don’t see alot of other folders using this technique. Indeed alot of origami people mistake my polyhedra for modulars! It was time to raise awareness.
Here’s a link to the slides for my presentation: zingman.com/origami/cfc3/singlesheetpolyhedra_jszinger.pdf
More on that at later in the story. For now, suffice to say I was up late several nights in a row the days before we departed. I put the outline of the talk together in an evening. The text is mostly prompts, since I detest when people read their slides, and I knew pretty much what I wanted to say. The thing that took forever was getting together all the photographs and crease patterns. I spent a couple evenings gathering together models and taking pictures, then cropping and color/contrast balancing them. I’m glad I bought a new phone with a better camera last fall, it made the whole process more convenient.
The other thing I did was study Spanish for a month using Duolingo, which is a great app. I’m no great Spanish speaker, but I’d describe my level as “tourist functional”, i.e. I can manage airports, taxicabs, hotels and restaurants, and a bit of small talk. I’ve studied German, French and Hungarian for other trips, and Spanish felt surprisingly easy. I guess cuz it’s pretty close to English, and I’ve been hearing it all my life anyway.
The only thing I wish is that we could’ve linked the trip up with a few days on the beach in a place like Aruba, but it turns out that while we were able to get convenient and affordable flights from New York to Bogota and back, getting around Colombia is not as easy because the country is very mountainous. We couldn’t hook up anything without major expense, layovers and detours. Ah well.