TGIF everyone!
Regarding Building Materials
All of the apartments I have been in
are built the same; the walls, ceilings, and floors are concrete with tiled
floors. Because of that sound really reverberates
through the building.
I was awakened about 4am this
morning by, apparently, someone’s radio alarm.
Then I thought I heard someone open or close the front door. I realized I hadn’t checked the locks before
I went to bed so I got up. On the way to
lock the door I saw a light under Dylan’s door and under the guest
bathroom. I remembered Reina telling me
he was going to be visiting a friend today to study with. I guess he’s getting up early. After getting back to bed I heard a lot of
rummaging around and I thought why didn’t he take care of that the night
before? Then I heard what sounded like a
double crash, one right after the other.
That’s when Reina got up to see what was going on. The next morning I saw the mirror we had hung
in the hallway was broken. I guess Dilan
must have bumped it and that was the crash I heard and that’s why it took Reina
so long to come back to bed – she was helping clean up the mess. I’m glad I stayed out of it.
9am and the garbage men just came
through. Pretty late compared to the
other times when they came by just after 8am.
And, yes, the guy is here shifting through the garbage again for
recyclables.
I got another surprise
yesterday. The windows on the back wall
of the bedrooms are, for the most part, smoked glass. The top of the window from the 6 to 7 foot
level is louvered so it can be opened for fresh air. Reina got a chair and was looking out the
back. I was surprised to see what looks
like the world’s smallest swimming pool or a Jacuzzi in the back of our
building. What’s most interesting is I
have no idea how you would get to it, but it clearly looks like it belongs to
our building. Each building is attached
to the next so there’s no way you can get through that way. And the extra doors downstairs I am pretty
sure are for the 1st floor apartment and the 2nd
garage. In fact there’s a 3rd
garage and I don’t know how to get to it from the downstairs hallway unless it
is attached to the apartment from another side.
Reina told me Dylan tried to kill a
wasp that was on the mirror and, since it’s only hanging there, not really
attached to the wall, that’s when it fell and broke. I'm glad it was a cheap mirror and he didn't hurt himself. She said he was really embarrassed and afraid
it would spoil my breakfast – whatever that means.
A girlfriend Liliana came over and
had lunch with us. She sells products
for the eyes. I think some of the items
she sells would require a prescription in America. She gave me an eye drop sample. Now I know where I can find them after my
Walgreens eye drops run out.
After lunch the 3 of us took a walk north and
then west and stopped and had ice cream.
We then walked to the nearby shopping mall. I think I finally figured out its name -
Centro Commercial Viva Laureles. I think
from now on I’ll just call it Viva!. It has
an Exito (with a Payless shoe store in back) and a Mac Center (an Apple
store). Fast food restaurants include
Subway, Burger King, Sarku and El Corral.
Nicer restaurants include Lenos & Carbon and Il Forno. There are also several ice cream stores and a
Cinnabon. And there are many stores selling
what looks like upscale clothing. I also
saw a Swatch store and a store that sells nothing but children’s
backpacks. BTW, some guy handed us a
flyer on the way in. Burger King is
having a special – a whopper (125gr.), fries (74 gr.) and a 16 oz. Pepsi for
9,900 pesos (appr. $5.50).
I’m also getting a better idea of
where we live on the map. We are a little further
west than I thought.
Regarding toilets: the toilets here look and work
the same as in America the only thing is in many public places they don’t have
seats. (My legs aren’t that strong.
Lol) In the homes I’ve been in I’ve
noticed the water supply is turned off.
I think maybe because many of them leak.
I’ve also realized you can save a lot of water this way because most of
the time you just pea. So when you get
to the toilet you turn on the water and by the time you are done the tank
hasn’t had time to completely fill up.
So when you flush it removes the urine with less than a full tank of
water and you turn the water supply off again until next time.
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