Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

Last night I went to bed at 11:15, woke up at 5am and got a drink of water, woke up at 6:15 and got up at 6:30.  I do seem to be sleeping better when I avoid caffeine (coffee and soda) in the evenings.

Today’s cleaning day so I just had coffee and croissant at Los Mejores and then stopped for coffee at the Tinto store.  I put away my Nook just after 8am in anticipation of seeing the woman who walks by between 8:10 and 8:15.  She came by at 8:16 and I concentrated on looking at her face because I was afraid she might be too young but it’s very possible she could be in her 40s.  

I stopped at Likkes and ordered 2 lunches to be delivered to the apartment and then had a glass of orange juice at Redd’s.  It seems like she packs up about 8:30 as a few times I’ve been her last customer.

Olga showed up at 8:50, or at least that’s when I looked outside and noticed her sitting on the stoop.  I showed her which bell to ring in the future for my apartment.  She found the paint thinner and used it on some spots on the windows where I would have used a scraper if I had one.

On the Colombia Expat forum there is a man, Robert, from Vancouver who will be visiting here starting tomorrow night and taking classes at UPB.  I offered to meet with him and tell him about my experiences here in Medellin for the past year.

About noon I started looking out the window for our lunches to be delivered.  At 12:20 I had Olga call Likkes and ask where our lunches were.  I understood they came before noon but no one answered when they rang the 2^nd floor apartment.  They delivered our food 5 minutes later and I showed the man the bell for my 3^rd floor apartment.

Olga finished cleaning just before 2pm.

I was about 10 minutes late for my Spanish lesson with Jhon.  I had tried to call him letting him know I was going to be a little late but I got some message in Spanish.  Jhon listened and told me I don’t have any minutes left and I need to listen for “usted no tiene saldo” to understand that that’s what they are trying to tell me.  Other than my Tuesday “wash” days we will be meeting from 10am-noon Monday thru Friday.  

That was interesting!  I had heard some thunder in the distance but it didn’t look like it was raining so I grabbed my portable umbrella and as I walked out the apartment I thought I heard rain on the hard plastic sheating on the roof.  I went back inside to get the large umbrella only to find it missing.  I must have left it on a chair somewhere - probably LM.  It’s a bright yellow Exito umbrella with my name printed in permanent ink on the material that wraps around it to keep it closed so it should be easy to spot.  I guess this is God’s way of telling me not to bother buying another expensive umbrella from Shedrain seeing as I’m just going to be leaving them around Medellin.  Tomorrow I’ll buy another large Exito umbrella – luckily they are only something like $10; I think.  When I got outside I found that it wasn’t raining at all; was that just someone’s shower I heard?  Not sure.  

I was at Pizza Americana by 5:30.  If it seems like I’ve been eating here a lot, it’s true, and I do have another reason which I don’t want to share right now, other than the fact I like their pizza.  I hope that 600mil of Pepsi doesn’t cause too many problems with my sleep tonight.  It started raining hard at 5:45, which kind of defeated my primary purpose for being here.  I left at 6:30 and luckily the rain had already stopped.