Friday, October 25th, 2013

2 months from today is Christmas.

Last night I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep rather quickly and didn’t wake up until 5:30.  I got up at 6:15, took my shower and was at the juice stand on Avenida 84 by 6:43 where I had another large orange juice for 2,500 pesos.  School must start at 7am as I saw a lot of girls walking north on Avenida 84 in their school uniforms – navy blue or navy blue and red plaid skirts.

I left at 8am and had my usual coffee & croissant breakfast at the Calle 35 bakery – darn, I forgot to look for the name of the place on their baseball caps.  Jhon’s office was still closed when I walked by at 8:45.

I checked the new movie releases in the US and I didn’t see anything I’m interested in.

Just after 10am I was in the lower level of Viva where I spotted Gloria walking around with her clipboard taking care of some things.  Finally I motioned her over and she said hello and shook my hand.  Using the Translator app on my iPad I told her “My dentist wanted me to come to his office yesterday at 3:30.  I asked him to reschedule it so we could go to the movie yesterday.  He rescheduled it for today at 11:30.  Are you available for lunch tomorrow?  If so, what time, noon?  I’ll bring this iPad so we can talk using its translator.”

She told me she would be available for lunch at 2pm so I told her I would meet her in the Exito cafeteria.  

About 10:20 I was on a Circular 302 bus to Monterey.  I was at the dentist’s office by 11am, 30 minutes early.  Since my iPad includes a camera I took this picture of Dr. Jorge Alberto Rendón Franco (dentist and Endodontist) and his lovely young assistant Natalia.  

After finally getting my 2 permanent crowns I left there about noon and walked up to the FFSS.  On the way I saw what looked like the largest katydid I’ve ever seen just sitting on the sidewalk.  I tried to pick it up by grasping its wings but it seemed to rake me with its legs and I let go and it flew across the street to the “forest”.  Afterwards I thought that I should have taken a picture of it with my iPad camera.

For lunch I had a hamburger for 13mil which included chips and a Coke plus a second Coke to ward off the heat.  While there I chatted with David, from Kentucky, who I’ve met before.  He mentioned that he watches sports using FirstRowSports.EU.  I asked the waitress how to order a hamburger medium but with no blood and she said to try either “dos quartos” or “tres quartos”.  Here’s the FFSS menu boards:

On the way to Monterey C.C. I decided to check out some restaurants to see if they carry ESPN2.  Patria Mia does not have ESPN2 but it does have ESPN +, 1 & NFL channel.  Al Rojo might have ESPN2.  Hooters does have ESPN2.  I also noticed that the restaurant where I originally met my first expats on June 23rd 2012, LeBon Cafe, has changed and its now a Beer Store.  

I caught the Circular 303 bus at Monterey and was back at Exito before 3pm.

About 6pm I went to Viva Mall with the intention of getting a ham sandwich from Subway but the line was so long I decided instead to get a FriBurrito for 5,900 ($3.11) and small strawberry milkshake for 7,500 ($3.95) from Frisby.

I watched the Medellin futbol game with Bob hoping that Gloria might stop by after work but she didn’t.  I wouldn’t be able to talk to her anyway but it would still be nice to have seen her.