Happy Thanksgiving Day!
A restaurant in Medellin
is offering a Thanksgiving dinner but I don’t want to take a chance on missing
tonight’s Bears game.
I understood Laura’s graduation is this morning at 10am so
I’m not sure what that was last week.
Teresa wanted me to wear a nice pair of slacks, short
sleeved shirt and by best shoes. I
understand she made arrangements with Walter to pick us up. She also didn’t want me to take my fanny pack
so I had to leave some things behind including pen and paper for taking notes
of what happens during the day. So all
of today’s happenings are from memory (very dangerous).
We left the finca at 9:35am, got past the killer dogs undetected,
waded past the landslide, but Walter wasn’t at the top of the hill. Teresa called him and we headed down. I think because I chose the right socks and
we went fairly slowly my feet weren’t in pain like before. At the bottom of the hill Walter joined us
after only a minute wait.
We got to the school by 9:55 and went inside. I know Teresa wanted to get there early in
order to get good seats but the only ones left were in the sun. They had plastic chairs set up on the
gymansium floor and we sat on some chairs on the cement floor in the
corner. I was right behind an upright
support beam – the perfect place for taking pictures (sarcasm).
Most of the students were outside the door we had just come
in. The ceremony started at 10:05 with
the students marching in.
Here’s what it looked like from our viewpoint after they had
all taken their seats.
I moved down to the floor for a second in order to take this
picture of the students sitting on the concrete bleacher seats.
It took 10 minutes for all 250 graduates to file in and take
their seats. There were another 10
minutes of speeches and then they called each student one by one to come pick
up their diploma. Here’s Laura on her
way down the aisle and then being given her diploma.
Since her last name is Alzate she was one of the first and
we had to wait another 45 minutes for everyone to receive theirs.
As you can see in this picture they were all carrying this
thing in their right hand.
After the ceremony here’s a picture of Laura with her
girlfriend.
Laura with her mother.
The three of us.
After the ceremony we decided to go somewhere for
lunch. We stopped at an Italian restaurant
in Caldas named Ambrosia at Carrera
52 Calle 131 Sur 20. They only had 2
tables inside that would seat 4 each and 2 small round tables on the patio that
would seat maybe 3 each. Sitting at the
two round tables pushed together outside was a husband, wife, and young man who
had also just graduated. Teresa talked
to them and they allowed us to sit at the 2nd round table with the
husband.
I was surprised that for an Italian restaurant the menu
didn’t include lasagna but I ordered spaghetti bolognese. The waitress informed me that they didn’t
have any pasta. What? And they call themselves an Italian
restaurant? I didn’t say that, I only
thought it. I ordered chicken cesar
salad again. Teresa ordered chicken
breast and Laura ordered Filet Mignon.
We talked with the other couple and learned that they have a hair salon
(or are going to have?) and are moving to New York in January. I told him he’d better wear a thicker coat
than he had on then. After 45 minutes
they brought us a fancy silver plate with 6 slices of bread with olive oil
dribbled on them. There was a jar of
olive oil so I added more to my share of 2 pieces. Teresa’s chicken came first but it was so white
it didn’t look cooked and I wasn’t surprised when Teresa sent it back. My chicken Caesar salad came next and it was
chunks of barely cooked chicken and lettuce but no sauce. I tried the two sauces that they had left on
the table. It was nothing special. Laura let me try a piece of her filet mignon
but it was chewy with no special taste.
After everyone had finished I asked for the check and they first brought
a decent sized piece of frosted cake for us to share. The owners came out separately and appeared
to say some nice words about Laura’s graduation and future. I paid 75mil for the lunch and 5 minutes
later Walter arrived just as it started raining.
None of us had umbrellas so we dashed into the taxi. Walter must have been in a hurry as he went
pretty quickly around the bends of the road.
At one point there were 2 buses ahead of us with 2 cars between
them. Walter passed them but as we
passed the first bus we saw another coming towards us in our passing lane. He cut in between the 2 cars and I said in
Spanish “Don’t worry, he’s a professional” and I saw his face get a little
embarrassed. He got us all the way up
the hill in the rain without stopping until we got to the fence not being able
to get any further due to the landslide.
I understood Laura didn’t want to ruin her hairdo so we
waited in the car for about 10 minutes for it to stop. We got past the killer dogs undetected.
At 8pm I had a hamburger that Teresa made for me and a Pepsi
I had bought Tuesday at Carulla.
At 8:30 I started watching the
Bears Packers game on my Slingbox even though it was on Direct TV because I
didn’t want to interrupt what Laura was watching. The audio/video started buffering again and
Teresa told Laura to give me the TV so I switched.
The audio was in Spanish but
the video was clearer than the Slingbox.
The Bears were ahead of the Packers 14-13 at halftime.
The 4-6 Chicago Bears beat the 7-3 Green Bay Packers 17-13. I believe this is a sign of things (good) to
come for the Bears.
I took 2 sleeping pills at 11:30 and went to bed at
midnight.
T-shirt of the day: Blah blah blah.
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