I had a very productive morning!
I slept from 11pm to 6:45am only getting up twice during the
night. From about 6am on I did hear a
continuous car alarm off in the distance.
After my usual morning routine, on my way to catch a taxi I
saw John William having a cigarette on his front “patio” before his first
teaching session of the day so I chatted with him a bit. He told me it would be easy to catch a bus to
Monterrey C.C. but I told him while I don’t have a problem taking a bus I’m
just not comfortable with knowing which bus to take. (There are always buses lined up outside of
Viva that all say Circular 303 on them.
I’m sure some day I’ll take one just to see where it goes.)
I took a taxi for 12mil ($6.67) to The Flip Flop Sandwich
shop and talked to the owner Chris some more.
I ordered the same breakfast I had Monday (it’s called Animal on the
menu) only this time I had crispy bacon instead of the “sausage”. A hitchhiker couple from a nearby hostel
stopped by and Chris gave them a map and marked which metro stations were ok to
stop at (circled), which were not ok to stop at (x’d), and which had something
interesting to see but don’t linger in the area (x’d & circled). He also gave them information for the best
tour in Medellin
and said that the best thing to see is Guatape.
The best tour is the Pablo Tour at Casa Kiwi for 35mil for 3 hours. (Just stop at Casa Kiwi a few blocks south of
FFSS and sign up.) After they left I
asked for a map for myself and had him mark it up like he did for them. This is my 3rd map of the area; I
can’t say it’s better or worse but it is a little different. And there is a 2013 calendar on it so it
probably is much newer than either of my other ones. I paid 13mil ($7.22) for breakfast which
includes coffee and I handed the young waitress a 2mil ($1.11) tip.
I walked a couple of blocks north to where I could easily
catch a taxi heading in the direction of Monterrey C.C. Like last time, while the meter read only
4mil again the driver told me there is a 4,500 ($2.50) minimum.
Once I got inside, my plan was to move to my right counter
clockwise through the mall and stop at every store until I found the headset I
needed. I had a note with me that said:
“Estoy buscando unos auriculares USB con microfono
unidireccional. Preferiblemente uno de
los siguientes modelos:
·
Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000
·
Plantronics 655
·
Plantronics 500
·
Plantronics 470”
The first 2 stores I stopped at I just heard “no,
sorry”. But at the 3rd store
the man took me outside the store and pointed to a store on the 2nd
level.
On my way to the escalator I noticed an area had been closed
off and inside there were lots of chairs set up for some type of
exhibition/presentation. Also inside
were 2 young men dressed up like they were on a SWAT team. (Do you remember what SWAT stands for? The answer is at the end of today’s
posting.) I really wish I had my iPad
with me so I could have taken a picture because I couldn’t believe all they had
on them, including: goggles, night vision binoculars, GPS, handcuffs,
flashlight, handgun, automatic weapon, etc, etc, etc.
At the store on the 2nd level the man took me
around the corner to another store where I found (besides a very attractive
lady working there) a number of different headsets. I showed the salesman my list and he headed
upstairs to where I guess the stockroom is and he came down with a Microsoft
LifeChat LX-3000 for 80mil ($44.44). I
remarked to the salesman that that was a lot of money but I sure was happy to
pay it so I wouldn’t have to look downtown or order it in the States and have
someone like my brother mail it to me.
Not to mention the wait involved.
The salesman gave me a receipt which included my address and information
from my Cedula so I assume it’s covered by warranty for awhile.
On the outside of the box it says:
·
Premium stereo sound
·
Noise cancelling microphone
·
Optimized for Skype
·
Ideal for voice and video chat
·
Compatible with Microsoft Lync
·
Compatible with Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!
Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger.
Later I Googled Microsoft Lync but I really don’t understand it;
besides it says it’s “targeted toward corporate environments”. Apparently you can use Yahoo! Messenger to
text message someone but when I went to the site it was all in Spanish. It did list a number of countries, not the USA, but when I clicked on Canada it
translated it to English. Maybe I’ll
check that out later.
In the taxi on the way back I noticed the price of gas at a
local station was 8,580 which I assume is pesos per liter. So if its 8,580 pesos per liter, and there’s
3.78541 liters in a gallon, and if I use 1,820 pesos to a dollar that means it
costs $17.85 per gallon. Can that
possibly be correct? Maybe there is
something larger than a liter that they use.
The taxi ride home was another 12mil ($6.67). The taxi driver got a kick out of my Spanish
when we got to my street and I tried to tell him to go almost all the way to the
end by repeating “mucho” which means “a lot” or “mas” which means “more”. After I got back to the apartment and was
removing my fanny pack I had a heart attack because my pepper spray wasn’t in
its compartment. I knew I had it between
my legs shortly before we arrived at my apartment. Many times in the past I would put my cell
phone between my legs and when I got back to my townhouse would realize I had
left it on the seat in my car in the garage.
I was really hoping the driver would see it and bring it back so I could
give him a reward as I feel much more comfortable having it with me. But when I felt the whole fanny pack I could
feel the bulge that told me it was really there – I just had put it in a
different compartment. Whew! I have to be real careful here that I don’t
do stupid things like that!
It’s been an expensive couple of days for me so I decided to
get an inexpensive lunch at Likkes on Avenida 80 for 7mil. In the past I was almost the only one there
at 12:15 so I wondered if there would be a table for me at almost 1pm. I think they only have 3 or 4 tables. From a distance I could see 2 tables with a
couple each at them but when I got there I saw there were 2 empty tables and 1
more just inside the restaurant. I gave
them my list in Spanish of things I like and don’t like but I wanted to take
the little arepa off my list. I like the
larger arepas but the little ones – not so much. I sent an email to Reina just before I left
for lunch asking for their names so I could tell them apart. Here is what they brought me: a bowl of beans, a plate with a lot of rice,
a little bit of a lettuce-based salad, a dab of potato salad, a small arepa, a
large slab of chicken, all with a fried egg on top, and a glass of strawberry
juice. I ordered an extra glass for
another 1 mil.
 |
| 7mil lunch at Likkes |
While I was eating my lunch, a homeless man came in and was
talking to someone behind me. Before I
knew what was happening the young man from the table in front of me was pouring
the remains of his plate into the homeless man’s plastic bag. I tossed in my little arepa and the young man
said something that was probably complimentary and patted me on my shoulder as
he left. I thought that was a very nice
thing he did – giving him the remainder of his food I meant.
Back at the apartment I finally opened the headset. It comes with Limited Warranty and Product
Guide booklets – in Spanish and in English (thank you!). The Express Warranty is for 90 days for the
software and 2 years for the headset itself.
There is nothing really useful in the Product Guide.
Drat! The sound from
the Rosetta Stone Intro is coming through the laptop speakers not the
headphones. After trying a number of
other things, finally I went to Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Sound,
and for Playback & Recording I set to Default both the Headset Earphone
& Microphone, respectively. (And the
red light has to be off on the headset control or my speech is muted.) Yeah!
It’s working! And I like that the
ear-cups completely cover my ears although some of the reviews I’ve read
complain that after 2 hours of constant use the ear-cups feel too warm and too
tight. We’ll see about that one! For me, after 2 hours I think I’d be ready
for a break!
Finally, a little before 6pm I decided it was time to get
something to eat. On my way there I saw
John in his office so I stopped to chat.
We ended up walking a couple of blocks to a corner store and I had a
Tutti Fruiti (mango juice) and he had a coke.
While there he ran into one of his students – an attractive lady about
40 who spoke very good English; her name is Margarite (sp?). This weekend she is going to Santa Marta (sp?) – on the north end of Colombia near Venezuela
that Chris, just this morning, mentioned has the most beautiful beach in Colombia.
John mentioned that he is going to meet friends in Bogota this weekend so I
guess the tutoring session won’t be that soon.
About 7pm I finally decided it was time I get something to eat if I was
going to tonight. I had the chicken
brocheta (shish kebab) at SanJote and a mango juice for 12mil ($6.67).
BTW, the cheap floss I bought is no good. It’s like using thread. The more expensive one, the Oral-B Satin tape
is very good. It reminds me of my Glide
floss which also is made by Oral-B.
SWAT stands for Special Weapons And Tactics.
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