We’ve had some problems with the
toilets here. We bought a small plunger
which helps but it is a constant struggle to keep them working. This morning Dylan filled a large bucket with
hot water and poured it in his toilet to clear it. In discussing this problem, Reina mentioned maybe
we should move to a different apartment in August. I told her we signed a contract to stay here
for 1 year. She claims that isn’t true,
that the 6 months I paid for (February – July) is all I am committed to. I said we would probably have to pay 6 months
in advance again and she said that may not be true because I should have my
Cedula. So maybe the reason I had to pay
6 months in advance was because I didn’t have my Cedula!?
A minor design problem in the
bathroom sinks. In American sinks there
is a P-trap installed so every time you turn off the water a small amount of
water is trapped in the curve of the P-trap.
We don’t have a P-trap in ours so you get a slight odor of sewer gas.
There was something unusual in my
soup at lunch today that didn’t look very appetizing. When questioned, Reina admitted they were
chicken hearts. Needless to say I took a
pass on them.
I’m still missing a 1099-R from one
of my pensions to do my taxes so next time we are downtown I need to call them
and find out where they sent it.
We walked over to Angela’s house and
she loaned us 200mil. We took a taxi to
Viva! Exito and bought 38,852 pesos worth of food.
I Googled the computer Reina bought
yesterday for $300 and it was selling for $435 on Amazon.
English Speakers
When my brother, who is fluent in
Spanish, was here I was surprised when he greeted everyone with a little
English: “Hello”, “How are you?”, “Good morning”. Sometimes we were pleasantly surprised and they
answered in English. I think this was
his way of finding people who speak English.
It makes a lot of sense. A lot of
Americans come here and try to hide the fact that they are a foreigner. I’m 6 feet tall with blue eyes; of course I
look like a foreigner. So I might as
well accept the fact and not try to hide it.
Tankless Hot Water Heater
Everyone is familiar with the hot
water tanks common in American homes.
I’ve already introduced you to the Suicide Shower. We have a third type - an on-demand or
tankless hot water heater- in our apartment.
For a brief discussion of this type of hot water heater, go to this
website:
Our tankless water heater is an
“IDEGAS” brand with 2 dials on it labeled “CONTROL TEMPERATURA” and “CONTROL
PASA AGUA”. I understand the first dial
controls the temperature and we have it turned up to the maximum. The second dial controls the water pressure
(or flow rate) through the device. We
have that turned almost all the way down.
If water flows through the device too quickly it doesn’t have time to
heat the water. When I turn on the
shower, I only turn on the hot water for about 15 seconds until it has time to
heat up. I then turn on the cold water
and it’s a delicate dance as I have to turn up the cold water every 30 seconds
or so as the hot water gets hotter. If I
stay in the shower too long (5-10 minutes or so) it seems that the hot water
can’t keep up and the shower turns cold so I have to turn the cold water almost
all the way down and start the process over again.
Medicine
Here are some common medications
with approximate costs. Note that you
need a doctor’s prescription to get these medications in the states, but you
just show a pharmacist in Medellin what you want and if you can pay for it it’s
yours.
|
ITEM
|
US COST; W/ INS
|
US
W/O INS
|
MEDELLIN
|
|
Flomax
|
$8
|
$93
|
$19
|
|
Viagra
|
$140
|
$57
from Canada
|
$17
|
|
Zoviraz
|
$85
|
$257
|
$3
|
No comments:
Post a Comment