Sunday, May 26th, 2013

Went to bed at 10pm and slept through until almost 5am.  Got up at 7 and after the usual morning routine I headed to Laureles Mall for breakfast.

BTW, we had no rain at all yesterday.  When I checked the weather prediction this morning I was surprised to see the prediction for rain has changed to only 40% for today and tomorrow, 30% for Tuesday, 40% for Wednesday before going back to 60% for a couple days.

As I was entering the mall property I was confronted by a large dog that approached me menacingly.  The owner, a young lady, was nearby but wasn’t paying much attention.  Now I have to digress for a moment.

Before I left the States I went to a store that supplies the police and I purchased a small bottle of pepper spray.  Since I lost my laptop, call me paranoid, but I carry it with me wherever I go.  (I also keep it beside my bed when I go to sleep.)  I only put it away when I enter public places or when there are police or security guards nearby.

So, back to the dog, I pointed it at the dog and said, in Spanish, “be careful”, and the owner finally woke up to what was happening and called the dog off immediately.  That’s the closest I’ve come to using it thus far – and it wasn’t really that close.

At Laureles Mall I had an inexpensive breakfast (5800 pesos; $3.25) the Huevos Revueltos (Breakfast Combo #1) at Bunuelos Express.  The same one I’ve had before which included scrambled eggs with your choice of bacon, tomato, ham, or sausage; arepa w/ cheese or butter; and hot chocolate or coffee.  

I noticed something new has been added to the lower level of Viva mall, a stand alone kiosk for making keys.

On the way back to my apartment I also got a good look at the young lady I’ve often seen before from a distance walking her dog.  She is very pretty with a nice figure but she does have a lot of freckles on her face.  Hmm.  I wonder if she’s Irish.  Lol.

Had a late lunch at Laureles Mall – it is really crowded from about 1-2:30pm and I don’t like to feel rushed so I waited until about 2:15 and finally grabbed a table.  I had the Hamburger Combo #3 at Gordog’s.  Here is what the “dog run” and “playground” area looks like from the food court area of Laureles Mall:

Looking left from Laureles food court.

Left center from food court.

Right center from food court.

Looking right from food court.

Busy Sunday at the food court.

Walking back to my apartment I noticed the guy who works at the “Clases Ingles” “store” sitting outside having a cigarette so I took this opportunity to talk to him.  His name is John William (first & middle names) and he has been teaching English for 3 years I think he said.  After chatting for about 30 minutes we walked down to the corner store and had a soda and talked for about another 30 minutes.  He said he would love it if I would stop by sometime and talk to his students to improve their English and he said he would help me with my Spanish.

It’s 5:30 and Athletico Nacional is supposed to be playing so I’m going to see if I can watch the game somewhere where I can also get a bite to eat.

Well, it’s 5:30 and my goal now is to get a little something to eat while I watch the Athletico Nacional futbol game which is supposed to be starting now.  I’m real curious as to who will be showing the game.  From a block away I could see by the green (grass) of the TV at the corner store that they were showing the game there.  I could see in the Viva food court that they were showing the game there.  I was real surprised that they weren’t showing the game at Laureles Mall.  Their TVs just had their rotating series of advertisements for the mall as they usually do.  So I headed back to Viva and while ordering a coconut lemonade at Sarku another one of the managers struck up a conversation with me.  His name is Felipe and he gave me his business card.  The man standing next to him was the owner and when he found out I was from Chicago he mentioned they have 17 employees coming back tonight from the restaurant show at McCormick Place.  After chatting with them I ordered a tuna sandwich from Subway.  When I sat down to eat and watch the game it didn’t take me long to figure out that the game was of 2 different teams than the one I wanted – Atletico Nacional.

After I finished eating I walked over to the corner store, picked out a plastic chair and sat down near the screen.  A young man asked me if I’m American and asked if he could sit with me because he doesn’t often have the opportunity to speak English very often.  His name is David, he’s Colombian but he moved to Miami while very young.  His apartment is just 4 building down from the store and he mentioned that he was going to start a new job Tuesday selling coffee on the street across from Exito.  (What a way to make a living.)

I had another Tutti Frutti for 1mil.  Atletico was winning 1-0 when it started to rain.  I didn’t care that much for the game so I paid for my drink, wished David luck in his new job, and headed home.