Thursday, July 11th, 2013

I went to bed at 11pm and woke up about 4:30 hearing what sounded like a horn in the distance honking every 10 seconds.  It was very annoying.  I got up about 6am, took my shower then went with my iPad to the nearby street to start tracking the stops posted on the buses windshield as they came by.  It would certainly be a lot easier if they would stop to pick someone up and I could take a quick picture but of course no one was there.  I started creating Notes on my iPad every time a bus passed by.  After about 45 minutes of doing that I went to Laureles Mall and starting tracking the buses just east of there.  After about an hour I was getting hungry so I had breakfast at the Golden Palermo Hotel.  I inquired as to their hours for breakfast and was told 6:30am to 10am everyday but until 11am on Sundays.

I studied my chess book at Laureles mall until about noon.  I bought a toothbrush for Beatriz for 10,770 ($5.67) and another can of Nestle La Lechera for 1,540 (81 cents).  (Last night I treated her to another bowl of strawberries, as she requested, and she brought this can of “cream” to add to it so today I bought another can.)  I also bought another bath towel for 32,800 ($17.26).  Since Beatriz will be taking showers here occasionally I think I should always have 2 bath towels available in case one of them is at the laundry.

Jhon was having lunch at his sister’s so I had a Whopper and medium Pepsi at Burger King.

I had made arrangements to meet Beatriz at Jhon’s office on Saturday at 4pm to help me buy a cell phone but Jhon said he isn’t available then.  So after lunch I met Jhon and we went to Exito to look at their cell phones.  He told me he heard of a place nearby where we could get a better deal on a simple phone.  We walked over to Calle 44 and across the street from the church is a small shopping mall.  We found the right store (T&T Technology at Calle 44 #84-23 Local 104) and I got a Blu Jenny phone for only 80mil ($42.11).  I was afraid I was going to have to pay at least $100.  If you remember back on Friday, June 14^th when I met with Eddie he had a Blu Jenny phone - with 2 sim cards: 1 for Panama and 1 for Colombia.  My phone has room for 3 sim cards and it has a 2.4” display, a VGA camera, FM radio, broadcast TV and much more.  It comes with a 6 month warranty.  My cell phone number is XXXXXXXXXX.

Jhon and I had a drink at the store as we tried to figure out the phone.  We had the guy at the store set it to English but neither Jhon nor I, even after reading the manual in English, could figure out how to set the current date and time.  Lol.   

For dinner I decided to make waffles again.   I picked up a bag of milk at the store and this time instead of trying to pour the batter into each of the 4 separate segments I just poured it all into the center and let it run to the sides.  And instead of cooking it for 4 minutes I decided to let it cook for 5 minutes.  Well, I got a little side tracked and it was almost 6 minutes before I rescued it and the outside was a little burned but the inside seemed to be perfect.  I think I’ve almost got it.

I got an email from my new friend Eddie.  He’s back in town and wants to meet again for coffee.  I told him I finally got a cell phone and gave him my new number.  I invited him to meet here so he could see my neighborhood, my apartment, and maybe even my girlfriend.  We’ll see how that works out.