Tuesday, April 24, 2018

2 days …

Last night I woke up at 1am, 3am, and 6am, finally getting up at 7am.  Still I feel pretty good.

Laura left at 8:30.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and left the apt at 9:30.  I took a bus to Envios Market where I picked up a package and paid 52,800 pesos shipping and taxes.  I gave the man 54mil and he gave me 400 pesos back.  I wrote on the receipt 54,000 -  52,200 = 1,800.  He asked me if I had 200 pesos and I said no and he gave me a 2mil bill.  (I had 200 pesos but I was keeping it for bus fare which is now 2,100 pesos per ride.) 

I took a bus to Starbucks where I bought a small white mocca latte.  I met a man named Andrew with a Cleveland Browns man bag.  He said he’s been in Medellin for 24 years so he was here for the bad times.  He said he personally saw 3 people get shot.  Yikes!

I walked across the street and up a block to Oviedo mall.  I stopped in Carulla and bought 3 bars of Dove body soap for about 10,000 pesos.  Here there was no line and I figured that wouldn’t be the case in the Envigado Exito.

I took a Sabaneta bus to Envigado and stopped at the copy center where I printed a couple pages from one of my Chess Life magazines.

I was back at the apt by 11:45.

Teresa and I left the apt at 2:30 and arrived at the clinic (Calle 4Sur #43AA-30 in Poblado) by 2:45 and I paid my 3mil copay.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes to get in to see the doctor.  He didn’t speak English but he was very patient.  He measured my height, weight and waist.

What I understood and remember: I should stop eating prepackaged hamburgers so Teresa is going to make them from fresh meat.  Instead of  the 3,000 pesos I usually spend on bread I should buy a better quality for about 25,000 pesos.  I should use regular butter instead of margarine.  I should drink 8oz of water 30 minutes before and after every meal.  (I got an exclusion for after dinner because of my enlarged prostate.)  I should eat a special type of yogurt called Benecol.  I should drink skim milk.

He also laid out the order in which I should eat my meals, for example, 1^st salad or fresh fruit, 2^nd white meat, 3^rd soup, 4^th seco which is Spanish for dry (not exactly sure what that entails).

We should make another appointment with Nueva eps in 4 months.

When we left Teresa told me she wanted to go to Zara.  She stopped a taxi and I told her we could walk to there from here.  After the taxi left I understood she wasn’t interested in Oviedo (no Zara) or Santafe (Zara is closed) but El Tesoro.  I told her why not go with me tomorrow for my dentist appointment.  She agreed and we took a taxi back to the apt.

On the way we stopped at a health food store where I bought a loaf of bread.

I had a “prepackaged” hamburger for dinner but I won’t be buying more after these are gone.

T-shirt of the day: If you can’t be happy, be drunk.