Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

I woke up with a slightly stuffy nose and headache.  Could this be because we had the fan on last night and I had ice cream yesterday?  A couple of Excedrin made everything right again.

It’s 66 degrees here with a light drizzle and this is the first time I can say I actually felt a little cold as I sat on the balcony, perhaps because for the first time there was also a little breeze.

I checked my USAA account and finally see my social security deposit.  Now I wonder how long it will take to be able to access it.  Also, I have some bills to pay in the States and I wonder if it has to be available before I can write checks from it.

Strangely enough I can see that my social security deposit is displayed in black (as my other pension deposits are now) like it is available now.  I think we’ll take a trip to the ATM this morning at Viva! Mall.

8:45 the garbage truck came through.

At Viva! I was able to withdraw pesos with my ATM card and then we bought a few things at Exito using my debit card: a new pair of Bermuda shorts for me (34,900, $19.40), 2 bars of bath soap (4,290, $2.40), and a 2kg bag of brown sugar (3,490, $1.94).  One thing I didn’t bring enough of to Medellin was shorts.  I can’t believe how often I see security men in long sleeve uniforms and combat like boots and women in boots and long sleeve sweaters while I’m near sweating in shorts, short sleeve shirt, and sandals.

We’ve been invited to Angela’s for lunch today and Helen will be there and also Marilu to give Reina a shampoo.  This will give me an opportunity to pay the 3 of them what I owe them at the same time.

Reina and I walked leisurely to Angela’s in about 40 minutes.  I gave the money to Reina and she distributed it to the proper parties.  The only surprise was that it wasn’t a shampoo from Marilu that I was paying for, rather it was Avon shampoo and makeup that Marilu sells that Helen brought with her.

We then jumped in a taxi and went to Angela’s uncle’s house.  It turns out it’s about 10 blocks north of us.  There he was nice enough to treat us to a late afternoon snack of the traditional arepa, etc.

We walked the 10 block back to the apartment and then went to Viva! where I got more pesos from the ATM.  Then we stopped at Exito and bought 137,090 pesos worth of food.  The only problem was I didn’t know how we were going to get it all back to the apartment.  Turns out Reina stayed at a bench in the mall and I took the 2 heaviest things to the apartment, dropped off most of the money just in case and then went back to the mall for the rest of the stuff.