Thursday, June 16th, 2016

So far it’s a beautiful sunny day.

This is a noisy country with construction, barking dogs, roaring motorcycles, squealing brakes, loud music, car alarms, honking horns, men walking the streets yelling out what their selling (like avocados), firecrackers, and vehicles with loudspeakers mounted on top.  And in our apartment building, whistling birds.  Not all at the same time, however.  Luckily, most days, at least near us, all of these things go away by 11pm.

We left the apt about 11am and while Teresa ducked into a shop to ask a question I went next door and added 20mil to the cell phone.  We walked a few more blocks to Comfama – a 4^th floor health club.  We got a tour of the facilities – similar to what I’m used to in the States but on a smaller scale and much more crowded.  They have a weight area, machines area, treadmills and exercise cycles.  There are small lockers near the entrance but I don’t know if you have to bring your own lock.  My Master Lock certainly appears too big for it.  They have bathrooms with a couple showers.

They gave me a slip of paper with their fees – regular monthly membership is 70,100 a month but we signed up for their Hourly Special for a 15% discount.  We can use the facilities from 9am to 4pm Monday thru Friday for 42,100 a person (about $14).

We walked to the garage restaurant where we all had lunch.  I wasn’t particularly hungry yet but I did finish my salad and about half my grilled chicken breast.

Teresa stopped at the tailor’s where her friend works.  I understood from the sign she had outside that her mother just died and the service was going to be today at 4pm.  I believe here they bury the dead the following day.

We walked back to the apt where we took a short nap.

Teresa asked me if I wanted to go to mass before the mass.  It took me a while to understand that she was asking me if I wanted to go look for the table (mesa) before going to mass (misa).

We took a taxi to an area where there were a number of antique/junk stores.  (After that we were going to go to the mass for her friend.)  We were looking for a table for the television but Teresa kept finding chest of drawers and I kept telling her this piece of furniture is for the bedroom.  We did find a nice table and chairs that are more suitable for the apt than what we brought from the finca.  We ended up being too late for mass.

We took a Metro bus and I guess Teresa wanted to see what route it took.  I wanted to get off before we went down the hill but she didn’t so I knew we would have to walk back up.  Since we were so close I insisted we stop in and check out the library.

She sat at a couch while I explored several levels.  I saw lots of rooms with computers but only one room with not an impressive number of books.  I sat next to Teresa on a couch and we struck up a conversation with a nice young man sitting behind us.  He is a psychology major at the University of Antioquia and he speaks a little English.  He loves reading and we quizzed each other about a number of books – he’s more into Earnest Hemingway and poets while I’m more into fiction.  He and Teresa exchanged phone numbers because Laura also wants to major in psychology and she’s currently studying English.

We walked up the hill and stopped at an Exito where we picked up a few things.

I watched the US vs Ecuador match which the US won 2-1.  That should qualify them to play in the semi finals.  Colombia plays Peru tomorrow night.  I’ll probably be hearing some fireworks after that match.

T-shirt of the day: I’ve been shopping all my life and still have nothing to wear.