Monday, March 30th, 2015

I slept very well, waking up at 7:45 and getting up at 8:45.

I took my shower and turned on The Today Show, which starts at 9am, and sat down for breakfast.  Every morning I try to read the newspaper on my iPad and watch Today for the two hours it’s on so I know what’s happening in the world.  

On the Expat Exchange forum someone questioned as to whether they could live in Medellin on $1,000 a month.  I posted this reply:

Having lived in Medellin for the last 2 years I would like to address the question as to whether one can live here on $1,000 a month. Not mentioned by the original poster is how much savings they are bringing with them. If you have $1,000,000 in the bank then you can live like a king here. If you are coming with nothing in the bank you will probably have to get a room with some homeowner or in a hostel. Since you mentioned a car I assume you are coming with some cash - and your life style will depend on how much cash you have to add to that monthly income of $1000.

Well, at the end of the month I have $338 left in my checking account so I transferred $325 to my savings account.

Once again I’m working to get through a Rosetta Stone writing lesson.  At least now I’ve started Level 3 (of 5 levels).  I steadily improved with scores of 33%, 44%, 56%, 61%, and 72%.  Finally I earned a score of 78% and it allowed me to proceed.

Laura came back about 12:30.

I took a nap from 1:30 to 2:30.

I had another nice lunch of lentil soup, 6 short ribs and strawberry juice.  Colombians traditionally serve white rice with almost every lunch.  I think it’s binding for the digestive system.  I mean isn’t that what you’re supposed to eat when you are recovering from diarrhea?  I don’t need that problem so I try to eat it less frequently.

I wanted to access Netflix from a US location but I couldn’t get my IP changer to work.  It just kept clocking nonstop.

I sent an email to Juan Felipe Sierra, the official interpreter/translator we met in Notaria 31, asking if I could setup a retainer with him.  My idea is I’ll give him 100mil so I can call him in those times where it is important that I talk to Teresa with more exactness than I can now.

About 4:45 it started raining lightly and at 5:30 we heard a little lightning.   We are gradually entering the first rainy season of the year that peaks in May.  If I remember I’ll post the Climate Data for Medellin that I have.

Laura is off school this week for holy week.  I’m just waiting for her to ask for help with math.

After Laura finished watching a few soap operas Teresa and I started watching The Time Traveler’s Wife (7.1) until it was time to watch Master Chef.

Teresa called Ana and she is in her finca for the week so instead of having lunch with her we’re leaving early tomorrow to shop at Merkepaisa in Caldas.  Teresa called Walter to arrange for a taxi ride back.  I understand she wants to leave at 9am so I need to get up about 7:30am.

While the directions for my sleeping pills are to take them an hour before I go to sleep I’ve found they work better if I take them closer to 15 minutes before.

We finished watching The Time Traveler’s Wife, I took my sleeping pills at 10:20 and we went to bed at 10:30.

We heard a little thunder just before we went to bed.

T-shirt of the day: Let it rock, let it roll.