Wednesday, November 20th, 2013

Last night I watched another episode of Lie to Me.  

I also got a return email from James the lawyer about renewing my Pensionado Visa.  Their charge is 395mil ($207.89) plus government fees which went up for US Citizens from $50 to $255 plus the cost of translations or apostilles.  He mentioned his office is in Poblado behind the Santa Fe mall.  I’m planning on seeing the movie Jobs in Oviedo mall today which should get out about 5:30 and my NIU Huskies football game doesn’t start until 8pm so I would have time to give them a visit if they are still open and he gets his address to me in time.

I went to bed at 10:15, got to sleep rather quickly, woke up for some reason about midnight and had great difficulty getting back to sleep.  The last time I looked at my watch it was 3:20.  I finally got to sleep, woke up at 6:40 to Lionel’s radio and got up at 7:15.  I took 2 Excedrin Migraine to ward off the worst effects of sleep deprivation.

I had my usual breakfast at Bunuelo Express for 4,900 pesos.  Wilson came by and sat with me for a few minutes and we chatted.  He has an apartment in Envigado and, like most people here, works long hours.

I went across the street and picked up my laundry for 39mil.  My 3 shirts were nicely pressed and returned to me on hangers in plastic bags just like in the States.  If I use their service again I’ll probably bring them a hanger for each shirt to be ironed.

I checked Multicine Carrefour & Multicine Premium Plaza theatres today and they don’t have any movie I’m interested in.

About 11am I had a visit from Linda (perfect English) and Lucia (very good English) from Jehovah’s Witness.  They left me a little more reading material and a flyer with the location of their weekly meetings in Poblado.  (It’s at 2pm on Sunday right in the middle of my Bears games so that isn’t going to happen.  They did mention the time will be changing to 8pm after the first of the year.)

I emailed Chess Life magazine and requested future copies be sent to my POB in Miami.  I have yet to receive one at my apartment.  They said my first issue to this new address would be the January issue and they haven’t received any magazines back as undeliverable so there’s still hope I might receive some.

I left the apartment about 1:30 and waited only a few minutes for the next Circular Sur 302 bus.  About 30 minutes later (heavy traffic) I got off right after the route started turning back north - right across the street from the first entrance to EAFIT University.  

I found a taxi right away and within 5-10 minutes I was at Oviedo C.C. for less than 5 mil.  Most of that time was because traffic was so heavy and the driver had to basically do a U-turn to get me on the other side of a 4-lane highway.  It does appear to be within walking distance from where I got off the bus if I was sure I could get across the busy highway.  It will probably take me at least a couple more similar trips before I would ever attempt walking there.

Again I just headed towards the back of the mall and up as high as I could go and there was the movie theater.  I had no trouble purchasing my ticket for 7mil. But it being 2:15 I still had an hour before the movie starts.

I walked around the mall.  It’s rather large and laid out in an unusual way with alcoves that unsuspectingly lead you into a parking garage or outside the mall.  I found a Sharper Image store selling one of those old style phone handsets but it plugs into a cell phone and it cost 80mil.  I kept seeing the word “mundial” and when I looked it up later I found it means “universal” or “worldwide”.  

I was back about 15 minutes before show time and I bought a medium popcorn for 8,600 ($4.53) and large soda for 4,900 ($2.58).  That was to be my lunch.  I still had to take 2 escalators up to my theater screen.  Again the movie started with the same Santa Maria short followed by coming attractions.  One was for Paranoia, a movie starring Harrison Ford that came out last August.  Jobs was pretty good at portraying what an asshole Steve Jobs could be.  For example, he got his college girlfriend pregnant but refused to acknowledge the baby was his even when confronted with DNA evidence.  The movie ended rather abruptly and there was no mention of his death or that he tried to cure himself with herbs and juices instead of surgery.

The movie ended at 5:30 and my NIU Huskies game wasn’t to start until 8pm so I finished walking around the rest of the mall and finally bought a small coffee for more than 3mil at a small Deli kiosk and sat and continued reading my Nook book.  At 7:15 I made a trip to the restroom and then caught a taxi.  The restroom had a Sloan Xlerator hand dryer; I don’t remember seeing one of those since the States.  I was surprised to find out that the Oviedo C.C. is basically right behind the Santa Fe C.C.  It was now a chilly night; there had obviously been some rain earlier.  It was about a 5mil trip to Parque Lleras.

I got out at the usual place and walked the last couple of blocks to Patrick’s Irish Sports Pub where Patrick quickly put on my game.  It was a short 15 minute wait until game time so I read some more from my book.  The Pub was basically dead although a couple of very attractive young ladies came in over the next few hours.  (And they were accompanied by attractive young men.)  I ordered one of the last things I haven’t tried there – Shepherd’s Pie.  It was okay but it’s near the bottom of my list as to what I enjoy there.  The game was on ESPN2 and it was nice to be able to see American commercials instead of just a studio sign.  The game was close: NIU was down 10-7 at halftime but came roaring back in the 2^nd half outscoring Toledo 14-7 in the 3^rd quarter and 14-0 in the 4^th quarter.  At halftime I had a perfect view of a woman trying to parallel park an SUV across the street.  After about the 7^th attempt, when she almost had it, she left.  I also finished my 24^th Nook book here in Medellin - City of Thieves.  My next is Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell.

About 11pm NIU was up 35-17 so I decided it was safe to leave.  My total cost at Patrick’s was 23,100 pesos ($12.16) including tip.  If I remember correctly the taxi back to the apartment was about 15mil.