Saturday, February 2nd , 2013

Today started badly but ended well.

First, I was unable to get an internet connection.  That means I wasn’t able to communicate effectively (via Google Translate) with Reina and I wasn’t able to see if the money was now available in my USAA account.

After a quick breakfast at home we took a taxi to the metro which we took to the end of the line (northerly direction).  We then walked a couple of blocks to the wake of the husband of her Aunt Nora. He was 69 years old, a chain smoker, and had a lot of back trouble. 

This is the first day it has rained.  I have heard rain at night but this is the first time it has rained during the day although it wasn’t much more than a constant mist.

A little after 11am I went with her family a couple blocks away for a drink.  I’m talking soda or juice here.  Colombia workers have a mid-morning break about 11am they call Onces. (It actually means snack and is often taken in the afternoon.) Maybe that is what this was?  Anyway, we then went back to the wake again.  It’s not much different from what we would expect in America.  We were there from about 10am to 12:45pm.

We then took the metro back downtown and had lunch at a food court in a shopping mall.  I had a Ceaser salad.  It was good but I wasn’t expecting mushrooms in it.  Reina didn’t mind as she was eating them as I picked them out.

Once again I was unable to get money from several ATM machines.  Kept getting the message - “Invalid Card”.  So we went upstairs to the Internet Café again and I called USAA.  At least I didn’t have any trouble getting through to them.  USAA had invalidated my card because they were afraid there were fraudulent purchases being made in a foreign country using my card.  It took 30 minutes to get that straightened out.  I also gave them my new address (without the Int 201 which I had only learned about later). The call cost me 20,000 pesos, roughly $10.  BTW, to convert Colombian pesos to dollars, just divide by 1800.  The exchange rate is usually around 1780-1800.  Or for a quick approximation, drop the last 3 zeros and divide the remainder by 2 and maybe round up a bit.

We then went downstairs and successfully took 720,000 pesos out of the ATM machine.  So using the quick calculation, that’s about $360, maybe $400 dollars.

We then went looking for a pair of tennis shoes for Reina but didn’t have any luck.  I think she’s looking for a pair of pink Converse gym shoes and couldn’t find it in her size.

At 6pm we met her son and his girlfriend at the cinema and saw Django Unchained (2nd time for me having just seen it in the States with my son).  I warned Reina it was violent and bloody but it’s an excellent movie.  Surprise #1, it only costs 7,000 pesos, about $4.  Surprise #2, when you pay for your ticket, you choose your seats from a display like you would be selecting airline seats.  Sure made it a lot easier to find 4 seats together.  Surprise #3, they don’t put salt or butter on their popcorn, they put sugar on it!  Boy am I going to miss butter and salt on my popcorn!  Surprise #4, when the movie ends, everyone leaves through one of the back emergency doors.  That leads to a common hallway that leads you back to the shopping mall.  I guess that makes it impossible for someone to sneak into another movie without paying.

BTW, the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles.  I guess they did a good job of translating because the audience laughed at the appropriate times.

It’s now about 9pm and Reina was hungry so she had a sandwich and I had some ice cream.

We went into the Carrefour and bought 9 light bulbs and a package of toilet paper.  We took a taxi to the apartment and showed it to Dilan and his girlfriend.  While there I put in the light bulbs and opened the package I had received the other day and showed them the chess pieces and books I had sent myself.

Did I mention that Dylan is living with us in the 3rd bedroom?