Friday, November 29th, 2013

Yesterday I found a brochure advertising a party for Saturday night from 7pm to midnight to be held at the community center across the street from the corner store.  This is what it says translated from Spanish:

Cultural Programming Comuna 12.
Come and share with us.
November 30.
Simon Bolivar.
Recover public space for citizens meeting and contact with nature.
Territory of Culture and Peace.

I caught a Circular 302 bus at 4pm, got off just as the bus turned north, caught a taxi right away and for less than 5 mil I was at Rio Sur C.C.   Actually the taxi driver went a block too far and I had to walk back.  Arriba! Arriba! was just inside the front door so I decided to walk around the mall a little bit.  It’s not a very large mall with small shops on the lower 2 floors and mainly offices on the upper floors.

At the restaurant I met Gary the owner and his wife Diana.  Gary served an appetizer of nachos and chips while we talked and watched the Dallas vs. Oakland football game.  

The first English speaking customer I met was Jim (originally from Ohio) who works construction in Minnesota during the summer months and spends the other 9 months in Central & South America.  He likes Manta, Ecuador and Medellin the best of cities he’s visited thus far.  

I had dinner with Jim and Geo, his wife Courtney and their 2 ½ year old son.  They are originally from Miami but currently live in Barrenquilla.  They find their current home to be too hot, too humid, too dusty, and too dirty.  And there is construction everywhere.

I also met Rudy from Arlington Heights, Illinois and Javier from Bogota.

There were 3 older ladies sitting in a corner by themselves dressed strangely like gypsies or something.  Later 4 young men came in and sat together in the back.  Jim mentioned they are from his hostel and spend their days and nights chasing women.  He has no idea when they sleep.

Dinner was very nice.  I didn’t care for the dressing and there was no gravy but the turkey was all white meat and very moist.  I finally left at 8pm, walked north down the street and in a few blocks I was at my dentist’s office so I just walked down the hill to Avenida Las Vegas where I caught the Circular 303 bus and was back at the apartment by 9pm.  (I was surprised to see my dentist’s office is so close to the Oviedo & Santafe malls.  It’s definitely within walking distance if I could figure out the right street to take from where I get off the bus on Las Vegas.  Someday I’ll go early to a movie at Oviedo or Santafe and try to walk it from where I get off the bus.) 

I went to bed at 10:30, had a little trouble getting to sleep (because of the late night Cokes?), got up twice during the night and finally woke/got up at 8:10am feeling refreshed.

Happy Black Friday, everyone!

I went to the Tinto store and had a small cup of coffee while Harry basically ignored me and continued to plunk away at his laptop so I read a little from my Nook book.

About 10am I was enjoying a large orange juice by the crossover bridge for 2mil.  While I was sitting there the little old lady who I had seen in the Chicago Bears t-shirt stopped by.  I’ve been giving her a hard time every time I see her: “where’s my t-shirt?”  “how much do you want for the t-shirt?”.  Today she finally told me she wants $10 for it.  I told her it’s probably dirty and she said “no, it’s clean”.  I think we have an agreement to make the exchange tomorrow.  So, for 20mil I guess it could be mine.  Now we’ll see if it’s my size!

I stopped at the Salsamentaría Bolivar but they didn’t have any small bags of milk so I went across the street to Fresco Pan and had a café con leche oscuro & croissant for 2,500 pesos.

While reading Dan Brown’s new book Inferno he mentioned La maschere (The Masks), the “comedy” and “tragedy” masks.  So I went back to my November 19^th posting and made the appropriate changes to my reference to the “happy” and “sad” tattoos.

I checked today’s new movie releases in the States and the following sound interesting.

·       Disney’s Frozen (7.9).

·       Homefront (6.8) but not for a date.

The following movies are playing today in Medellin:

Hunger Games (8.3): Los Molinos at 2:30pm; Oviedo at 1:30pm, 3:05pm & 4:30pm.

Paranoia (5.2): Los Molinos at 1pm & 3:30pm; Carrefour at 2:15 & 4:40pm; El Tesoro at 3:10pm; Oviedo at 1:20pm & 4:10pm.

Diana (4.8): El Tesoro at 4:25pm; Oviedo at 12:30pm & 3:20pm; Vizcaya at noon & 3:40pm.  But one IMDB reviewer was terribly disappointed; a waste of 2 hours he said!

I think Paranoia is something I might watch on my own; Hunger Games is probably most appropriate of the 3 for a date.

I got an email from Margarita that they want to show a Gringo named Ron the upstairs apartment today and they would like me to meet him.  I told her I don’t have a problem with that but because of my lunch date I won’t be available from about 1:30 to 3:30.  Unfortunately, she says he’s coming at 2pm so I guess I’ll miss him today but she’s going to give him my email address.

I ran into Gloria on my way to Mall de Laureles and confirmed that she would meet me there at 2pm.  At 2:05 I went back and she signaled to me she would be there in 2 minutes.  She arrived about 2:10 and obviously has a cold so she isn’t feeling her best.  We ordered our lunch from SanJote Parrilla.  I had my usual chicken brocheta and she had something that looked amazingly like skirt steak.  She said it was Solomito but since they don’t give out receipts I can’t be sure.  I’m going to try to find it though.  I wouldn’t mind having a good steak.  Why didn’t I ask to try hers?

I wanted to make a date with her to see a movie next Thursday but she says she doesn’t have another day off for 20 days.  I guess we’ll just be friends and I’ll see her if and when she can find time for me.

On my way back through Viva Mall I took some pictures of a couple of Christmas displays they had.

Ok, the 2nd isn't really a Christmas display; it's more of a Christmas themed children's play area called "Happy Station".

 

I found Bob at the corner store with William.  William told me the 3 women I saw last night at the restaurant were dressed the way they were because they were wearing special clothes to ward off the energy from the cell phone towers (or something like that).

Bob appears to be looking for another woman to have on the side just in case Patricia doesn’t work out.  He mentioned he had lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant east on Calle 35 (maybe 33?) and he overheard the owner talking English.  He talked to her and she is a 52 year old German lady.  She wouldn’t let him leave until they exchanged telephone numbers.  I have to get out more!

Bob tells me he will have an apartment on January 1^st, right on the opposite corner from the Tinto store and on Avenida 80.  It is 3 bedrooms and he will have one of them for $300 a month.  Interestingly, there are 3 men staying there now until December 6^th.  One of them is a young man and I saw the other 2 walk by with Laura the black girl from Likkes.  They are both short, overweight unattractive Americans in their 50s and Bob said he saw absolutely gorgeous women going into their apartment.  (Remember, prostitution is legal in Colombia!)

At Fresco Pan I had a slice of ham & cheese pizza and a cup of coffee for 2mil followed by a dona (doughnut) with arquipe inside and a cup of coffee for 1,500 pesos.  While I was reading my Nook book there were 4 or 5 people at the next table conducting some kind of business.  When one of the ladies left she stopped at my table and said something about apartments.  I finally understood she was renting an apartment a few blocks away.  I asked her how much and the amount didn’t make sense (too high) so I asked her to write it down.  She wrote down 105,000,000 and when she showed me her business card I finally understood she was selling houses not renting apartments.  I told her I was only interested in renting and that ended the conversation quickly.

There was another church service across the street that started at 6:30 and let out just after 7pm.

I think next week I’ll have lunch at FFSS, make a payment to Mail Boxes Etc. and my dentist and then walk over to Oviedo and see Paranoia (1:20pm & 4:10pm) or Hunger Games (1:30pm, 3:05pm & 4:30pm).  Then I can walk down the hill to Avenida Las Vegas and see exactly where I should get off the bus should I be going the opposite direction.

At 8:30 I took 1 Excedrin Migraine with the hope it will counteract my 2 cups of coffee and allow me to get to sleep quickly.