Friday, September 26th, 2014

Last night I went to bed at 11pm and was soon bothered by a few strong strikes of lightning followed by a very heavy rainfall.  I closed all the bedroom louvers and door and quickly fell asleep.  I got up twice during the night (I drank too much liquid the night before), woke up at 6:45 and got up at 7am.

At 7:30 I hustled 2 bags of recyclables and most of my Chess Life magazines out to the guy on the street followed by a bag of garbage.

The COP closed yesterday at 2019.50 to the dollar.  It’s been a while since it’s been that high.

I checked the US movie releases and I would like to see The Equalizer (7.8).

Locally, The Giver is playing at Oviedo; Brick Mansions is playing at Los Molinos, Monterrey, and Oviedo; and This is Where I Leave You is playing at Santafe.

I had a bowl of cereal in the apartment followed by an orange juice at Redd’s.

Walking through Exito I saw 2 aisles filled with Halloween costumes – mostly for young children.  I saw another aisle closed off that they are setting up with Christmas decorations.

I withdrew the last of my September money from the ATM machine and later found I got 2007 COP to the dollar (before adding on the 1% Foreign Transaction Fee).

While I was in the Viva food court a young man came up to me and asked if I spoke English.  He told me he is from South Africa and works for a local English newspaper.  He had his laptop with him and needed a Wi-Fi connection.  I told him which stores had signals but he couldn’t find one open to get a password from.  I sent him to El Comedor de Chava in Mall Laureles and told him the signal is stronger there anyway.

At Jhon’s office we called Direct TV and my NFL package should be set up next Tuesday but someone has to sign some documents.  We exchanged several calls with Teresa and I learned she has some new medicine for Luna and that plastic thing is now securely around her neck so she can’t lick her wound.

Jhon and I changed when he would pick up my refrigerator from Saturday morning at 9 to Sunday morning at 10.

After Spanish class, on my way back to my apartment I ran into Elkin and his wife and then Juan and said goodbye to each of them.  I gave the one dog biscuit that I had with me to Killer Dog (I mean Mason) who still wasn’t so sure about me.

I exchanged some things at the apartment, looked outside, the sky didn’t look at all threatening so I left without an umbrella.

Walking up the hill in Envigado I could see dark clouds to the east.  I met Teresa at the Carbon de Leña restaurant (Calle 36 Sur #42-45) exactly on time at 1pm.  She was hungry so she was already into a bowl of mazamorra.  I ordered the Sencillo which included tomato soup, a small salad, French fries, about 6 short ribs, and juice.  My order came to 12mil.  Teresa must have been real hungry because she had a fish plate and then another order of fish only for 15mil.  It rained hard while we were eating but tapered off to almost nothing by the time we left.  

We shared Teresa’s small umbrella as we walked a couple blocks to the bus stop.  We got off at Monterrey where we took another bus to El Tesoro.  (Later Teresa found that she had left her umbrella on the bus; obviously we are going to have to watch out for each other!)  Someone on the bus told us to get off at a spot where the mall wasn’t in sight.  A security guard told us to walk inside this building and when we got there we saw that the mall was just behind.  We took an elevator 5 floors down to where we were then at the same level as the mall.

We got to the doctor’s office 3 minutes late.  Teresa waited about 30 minutes to see the doctor and came out about 30 minutes later.  She was very happy and I understood her breasts are otherwise healthy.  The doctor gave her a prescription for some cream so the cysts in her breasts won’t be so uncomfortable.  Teresa pointed out a young lady and an older woman that she said had breast cancer.

We stopped in the mall at a small café called O-Cake where she had a glass of milk and I had a vanilla latte and we shared a small strawberry cheesecake for 10,500.  We had a nice conversation about a number of important issues.

Teresa had never been to El Tesoro before so we walked around the mall for a while.  (See the end of the post for an interesting sign I saw in one of the store windows.)  I needed a new fanny pack so we started looking in different stores for one for her to buy me for my birthday.  At first they were too big or too small or too ugly but finally we found one we both liked for about 49,500 pesos.  She bought it for me but still wants to buy me shoes and jeans for my birthday.

Teresa had told me she needs to be in the finca tomorrow because someone is putting in some water pipes.  She also told me she needs to stop at a store to buy the water pipes.

We took a taxi from El Tesoro and she called someone about the water pipes but I understood they were closed so she will need to go there tomorrow afternoon.  

Suddenly she had the taxi stop, I paid the fare, we got out and she immediately spotted the bus she needs to take.  We quickly got out, said goodbye and she got on the bus and left.  I turned around and suddenly realized I didn’t know where I was.  I spotted the steep stairs that led to a walkway common to the entrances to metro stations so I followed it.  There was a long line to buy tickets so I took out my metro card and used that.  As soon as I got through the turnstile I realized I needed to decide which direction I was going to go.  I was surprised to see I was at the Poblado station.  If I had known that I would have taken the Circular Sur bus across from Monterrey CC.  I walked down the stairs to the tracks and when the train came I saw it was packed like I had never seen before.  I decided to go to plan B so I took a bus and it was almost empty.

Just before I got off the bus I decided I would buy a few small bottles of Coke for us to have for the weekend but when I got off I found I only had 2 5mil notes so I used that to recharge Teresa’s cell phone at the corner store.  While waiting for that to complete I picked out a 500ml bottle of Coke from the refrigerator and asked how much it cost.  I was told 1,500 pesos and I was able to find that much in change that I had with me.

I finally received an email reply from Margarita.  She wants me to take the routers and return them myself so the apartment will be empty.  She also said that Marta & Jamie will be showing the apartment next Tuesday and she would like me to meet them to return the keys but she didn’t say what time.

Back at the apartment I made some popcorn which I had with my Coke while I finished the TV series The Killing.  

Sign in store window: Welcome to our place in the woods: take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.