Wednesday, April 12, 2017

I slept well last night, despite getting up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 8am.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and then headed to the gym.  There were some dark clouds gathering but I don’t care if it rains on my way back to the apt only now on my way to the gym.  The air conditioning didn’t seem to be on when I arrived and the place was quite crowded.

I watched a repairman show someone how to adjust one of the machines in a way I hadn’t seen before.  After they left I was working on adjusting it for my needs and recording the information in my notebook when a young lady came over and in perfect English asked if I needed help.  (Jose was at the next machine and he sent her over.)  I told her no, I think I’ve got it and I asked her where she learned English.  Her story: her name is Gabriela, she was born in Virginia, her father is from Bogota, her mother from Medellin, she didn’t learn Spanish growing up, she’s been living in Medellin 2 years, she’s attending high school here, and she now speaks English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.  Not a minute later I observed her in the arms of some Colombiano so tightly that I couldn’t see his face.  I ended up doing 17 of the 19 machines on my list and I increased the weight by 5# on 15 of them.

I ran into Jose in the locker room and I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him to explain the meaning of “la orden”.  When you enter a shop here someone comes up to you and says “la orden”.  He explained that it means “how can I help you”.  And as you leave and thank them their reply is “la orden”.  He explained that it means “you’re welcome”.

I was back at the apt just before noon.  I quickly took a shower, Teresa served me lunch and then she and Laura headed to the gym.

After I finished lunch I went to $fecty, paid the Une bill and then stopped at the paper store where I, once again, printed out the page with MT’s financial information.

When Teresa returned I told her that Jose is playing in a chess tournament tomorrow and I’m going to watch the end of his game and have lunch with him.  I understand she was glad I wasn’t playing because of Semana Santa (holy week).  Yesterday I posted a short article about this religious holiday.

I also posted information regarding next week’s gringo meet-up in El Poblado.  Medellin Living has been sponsoring these every month for the past 3 months.

Teresa really surprised me when she asked me to call and order a pizza.  But then the problem started with where.  I googled some local places.  After negotiations we sent Laura via taxi to Pizza Americana in Itagui to come back with an 8-portion pizza, half Napolitana and half Hawaiiana.  She left at 6:40 and because of traffic I don’t know if we will see her again before 8pm.  I was surprised when she returned at 7:35.  She told me they do have home delivery.  I showed them how to heat each slice by nuking them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.  I had 3 slices with a glass of Colombiana; I hope I can sleep tonight.  Teresa tried mine and declared she liked it better than hers and wants to order a whole Napolitana pizza next time.  Yay!

T-shirt of the day: My boss told me to have a good day … so I went home.