Tuesday, May 21st, 2013

I was so tired last night I went to bed at 8pm.  (I knew I shouldn’t, I just couldn’t help myself.)  I woke up at 11:30 with slight heartburn - probably those New York Pita Chips I had after dinner last night.  I took 3 small Tums and went back to bed.  Couldn’t get back to sleep, got up and stayed up from about 1-2pm.  I got up about 6:45 so I slept pretty well all things considered.

We got a lot of rain last night.  I heard it constantly while I was awake and this morning the streets were quite wet.

Garbage truck came thru about 9:15.

Still struggling with RS (Rosetta Stone); sometimes it works flawlessly other times it doesn’t even recognize my microphone.

I reviewed what I was served the last time I had my 10mil lunch at that restaurant on Avenida 80.  I’m planning on going there for lunch today.  This REALLY is a place for the locals.  They probably seldom deal with foreigners.

I got there and asked if they had a menu of the day and she said no and just rattled off a number of things – some I recognized, some I didn’t.  I did hear chicharron so I told her I didn’t like that but I do like salad, beans, rice, arepas, chicken and mango juice or iced tea.  She waved her head NO at the mango juice and iced tea but she suggested some other type of juice so I just said ok.

I had a bowl of beans, a small side salad with tomatoes and onions and parsley?, potato salad, rice, a nice sized slab of chicken, 1 egg over easy, 2 arepas and some tasty kind of juice (not mango or orange) all for 7mil ($3.89) tip and tax included.  That certainly helps my food budget!

1:20 and it’s getting darker, windier, and I hear thunder.  1:30 and it’s pouring.  I took a nap until about 2:30.  Rain has stopped but it certainly cooled things down.  I checked Weather.com and its only 70 degrees now.  Wait a minute, what’s going on?  It says its 81 degrees in Des Plaines.  What happened?  Did the whole world get turned upside down? Lol.

Got an email from my brother - he deposited $40 into my CitiBank account.  Thanks Bro!  But how am I going to learn to be financially responsible if my relatives keep bailing me out?  At least he could have waited until I asked; I wanted to see if I could make it on my own.  Still it’s nice to have just in case of an emergency.

I went to Viva and bought the 15cm (6”) sub of the day at Subway.  I got a ham sandwich with cheese, tomato, shredded lettuce, pickles, onions with mayo on Integral bread.  I didn’t have any problems ordering it from the young man there and it only cost 7mil ($3.89).  I took it over to Laureles Mall and ordered a Mango Juice for 2,700 ($1.50).  On the way home I stopped and picked up another kilo of fresh strawberries for 3mil ($1.67).  I ate 7 of them right away and saved the other 6 for my breakfast cereal tomorrow.