Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

Last night I got to Wing Zone about 15 minutes early.  Interestingly, they had a small search light outside the front door.  As I was walking by a man handed me a flyer with some coupons for Wing Zone good until December 15^th.  (Maybe I’ll use them next time A/N or Colombia plays.)  To kill a little time I walked down the block for about 5 minutes, found another Tienda D1, walked through it and found it basically the same as the one by my house, and returned to Wing Zone right at 7pm.  

A man there spoke a little English and I handed him a note with the game I wanted but after looking for about 5 minutes they finally admitted they can’t get ESPN2.  Sigh!

I grabbed a taxi and a few blocks away on the same side of the street I noticed an interesting restaurant – Waffle something.  I’ll have to check that out later.

The taxi got me to Parque Lleras for 10mil.

Patrick was pretty quick at putting my game on.  I wanted to try the Chicken Thai but I was afraid it might get cold too quickly so I ordered the Irish Stew again and it was just as tasty as the first time.  Patrick mentioned they will be adding burgers to their new menu.  There was a young waitress there I’ve seen before and she asked me how many books I’ve read now and I told here the count is still 24.  It got colder there as the evening wore on and I was glad I wore a long sleeved shirt.  The waitress was obviously freezing and I pantomimed some ways she could warm up her hands.  When she stopped at my table I touched her hands and they were freezing.  Since my hands were still warm I held hers for a minute or so to warm them up.  What she really needed was a pair of mittens.  My entrée plus 2 Pepsis came to 24,200 pesos ($12.74) and I left a 5mil tip.  My NIU Huskies prevailed 33-14 over Western Michigan and I left just before 10:30 and was home before 11pm for 12mil.

I went to bed at 11pm, got up twice during the night and finally woke/got up at 7:15.

This morning I walked over to Paisa Pan on Calle 44 (San Juan), sat down and ordered my coffee and 2 sugar donuts.  Only problem is they didn’t have any sugar donuts.  I pointed to something in the display case and she said it was Pan de Queso (literally bread with cheese).  There wasn’t anything inside (except air) but I could taste a little cheese so it must be mixed in with the dough.  After the waitress brought it she asked me “Cuando” (when) which I mixed up for some reason with “Donde” (where) and I told her I have an apartment about 4 blocks south of here.  She probably thought I was a little weird.  When I realized my mistake I caught her attention, apologized, and told her I’ve been here for 10 months.  I think she was a little surprised at that.  The total came to 2,200 pesos ($1.16).

I walked across to the other side of San Juan and walked further west as far as Carrera 90.  I’ve never been up that way before.  On my way back I saw what appeared to be a “recycling station” where guys dropped off their sacks of recyclables and sorted them for cash.

Then I walked over to Fresca Pan and ordered my usual coffee and pointed to a turnover.  I asked the waitress what it’s called and she said “pastel” something.  If I had had a piece of paper I would have asked her to write it down.  I guess another time.

I’ve been working everyday now since November 23^rd on completing one lesson - Unit 2 Lesson 3 – Core Lesson.  The estimate for it is 30 minutes but I’ve been going through it carefully and taking notes in my new “cuaderno” (notebook).  It’s going to be close as to whether I will score high enough to be allowed to continue without retaking it again.

Uh-Oh!  I just checked and the next A/N game is next Sunday, December 1^st at 3:15 the same time my Bears will be playing.  At least my game starts first so I don’t think Sport Wings will kick me out.

I did it!  I completed Unit 2 Lesson 3 – Core Lesson with a score of 91% and can go on to Unit 2 Lesson 3 – Pronunciation next.

About 1pm I stopped at Jhon’s office and a young man named Andre from Alberta, Canada stopped by from across the street.  He’s here visiting his uncle and it appears he has a girlfriend or wife here with him.

At 1:10 I caught the Circular 302 bus and I was at the Flip Flop Sandwich Shop at 2pm.  It just started raining heavily just as I got there so I sat just inside the front entryway.  (He has a new young waitress with a nice figure.)  I had a BLT and Coke for 10mil, left at 2:20 and was at Vizcaya 5 minutes later.  (Luckily the rain had stopped by the time I left FFSS.)  The heart of the mall is under major renovation, I had to walk around to the front and I was at the theater 5 minutes later.  I bought my ticket for 3mil ($1.58), checked out the theater lobby, hit the restroom, bought a small popcorn for 4,500 pesos ($2.37) and medium soda for 5,600 pesos ($2.95) and was in my seat with 5 minutes to spare.  

The movie was The Butler (IMDB rating of 6.7) starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey.  It was released in the States on August 16^th.  I usually keep an eye on the Spanish subtitles to try to learn something and I noticed an error.  Missing were the capital letters B & K.  So, Spanish words came out like Martin Luther ing and John Fitzgerald ennedy and ueno and ien if they came at the beginning of a sentence but baño was okay.

The movie was over by 5:10 and I was surprised to see for the first time postcards in a small store as I was walking down Calle 10.  On the bus there was a man sitting in front of me with 2 small tumors the size of the 2 digits of your thumb on the side and back of his head.  They looked like little brains.

I was back in Simon Bolivar by 6pm.  After dropping off my hat and sunglasses I stopped at Fresco Pan and had a ham & cheese slice of Pizza and a cup of coffee.  I asked again what the turnover is called and he said “pastel arequipe” so I guess it contains arequipe instead of apple. Church got out just about 7pm but no one came over the the bakery.   I took my medicine at 7:30 and headed back to my apartment at 8pm.