Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

It’s 8am and it’s obvious today is another garbage pickup day. I checked my notes from Friday and the garbage truck was here at 8:10 so I hustled the garbage down to the street just in time as at 8:05 the truck was here.  I guess now I know the garbage pickup routine.

I’m thinking with the drapes up it’s going to be warmer in here because they block the windows I used to keep open.  Or maybe they will keep out the sun and have the opposite effect?  Anyway it’s obvious we’re going to be using more electricity as they do keep the sunlight out.

My morning routine seems to have evolved to getting up between 6:30 and 7:30; taking a shower; pouring some cream (milk?) in a small cup so it will be warmed up a bit in time for my coffee; starting to read emails, add notes to my blog or just reading; shaving after waiting 30 minutes for my hair to dry; and then having a first cup of coffee.  I’ll have my second cup after Reina gets up and makes breakfast before she takes her shower.

Every meal here seems to include rice (arroz) and/or bread (pan).  I was concerned, how can I say this delicately, my insides would get clogged up but I haven’t had any trouble at all.  Maybe it’s the glass of juice once or twice a day, maybe it’s all the walking.  I have no idea!

I am a member of Colombia Expats Forum on yahoo.com so I give and get a lot of good advice there.  At least it’s always interesting reading.  Today I exchanged emails with a man who grew up in Sycamore, Illinois and he said he went to school with a Terry Andresen.  He now lives on Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela.  He is coming to visit Medellin this June so we’ll probably get together for a drink.

I’m currently reading “The 9/11 Commission Report” which I bought when it first came out; now I finally have time to read it.  It’s 428 pages long, not including the appendices and notes.  I have to admit it’s a little dry and detailed so I do skip a few parts.  I also brought a Nook with several books already downloaded to it and a $100 Barnes & Noble gift card so I can buy more later.

It’s 10am and the guy (see Friday’s events) has broken down all the boxes, separated the plastic bottles into huge plastic bags, placed everything into a cart (don’t know how he got everything to fit) and has carried it away.

About 1pm we took a bus to visit a friend of Reina's named Maria.  She owns a small salon.  At least I think that’s what they are called, you know, where women get their hair and nails done.  I guess Reina told her my brother is visiting and she gave me her computer as she wanted to see a picture of my brother.  I told her all my pictures are on my computer back in our apartment but Reina reminded me of the video he had sent me.  After she saw the video she asked me to send him a picture of herself.  Reina told me before we got there she had silicone enhancement to her breasts and butt.  And I think the picture might have been 10-20 years old.

From there we walked to Aunt Helen’s stayed for a few minutes and Reina picked up a comforter for our bed.

It was about 4:30 and we are on the bus home and a man gets on the bus, makes his speech and starts handing something out to each of the passengers (who will take one).  For a change I took them.  It was 4 packages of wafer cookies: 2 with coconut filling, 1 vanilla, and 1 strawberry with 4 wafers in each package.  I said to Reina “Quieres?” (sp?) which means “Do you want it?” and she surprised me by saying “Si”.  So the 4 packages cost me 1000 pesos (1 mil; about 55 cents) and we each had a package of coconut cookies and we saved the others for Dilan.

A few stops later another guy gets on the bus and hands out little cards with a picture of the Virgin Mary on the front and some words on the back.  I don’t know how much he wanted for those.  A few stops later, a young lady gets on the bus and turns on her little boom box.  Reina and I looked at each other and in unison said “mas” which means “more”.  I thought, now we’re going to have to listen to her favorite music and then she started singing.  She was asking for 200 pesos (about 12 cents) or so for the entertainment.   (She wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t my choice of music.)