Sunday, April 6th, 2014

Last night I went to bed at 9:45 even though there was a party going on (at least there was loud music) across the street.  I seemed to have rested without falling asleep and finally at 1:10am I got up and closed my bedroom door which eliminated 99% of the sound.  (I prefer to keep my windows and bedroom door open at night to allow the cool air to enter.)  I fell asleep quickly after that, got up twice during the night, woke up at 6:15 and got up at 7:15.

I had the buffet breakfast at Golden Palermo Hotel then studied some more Spanish at LM.  I sent Dario a text message accepting his invitation to meet tomorrow at LM at 2pm to play chess.  He called me back and confirmed.  I left about noon and stopped at Exito where I bought 2 packages of Wrigley’s Extra – peppermint gum.

Back at the apartment I found I had a reply from 50 year old Teresa (LAC).  She confirmed she lives in Envigado, has black hair (and something about red points), and has a 16 year old daughter.  I replied that I’m originally from Chicago, US and now I live in Simon Bolivar.  I also told her that Teresa is a feminine version of Terry.  I told her of my concern that I am a practical, rational person and she is more artistic.

I’ve been having some problems with my mouse not positioning the cursor correctly.  I finally figured out it’s because of my grungy old mouse pad.  I washed it before I left for lunch, hung it up to dry and now everything is fine again.

I had my usual pizza for lunch at Pizza Americana.

Since I got back from lunch Teresa and I exchanged several emails.  We finally exchanged our actual email addresses and now we can communicate outside of LAC. 

·       Teresa is 50, 5’5”, 132#, brown eyes, black hair, 16 year old daughter, drinks occasionally, vocational college, interior decorator.

I’ve included a picture of her here.

Since I now have a stovetop I made some popcorn and I’m watching In the Name of the King (3.8) starring Jason Statham, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta, and Burt Reynolds.

Saturday, April 5th, 2014

Last night I read Luz’ email and if I want to meet her at 1pm she would like me to meet her at SantaFe CC - but she’s buying.  I told her that would be fine and I gave her my cell phone number and asked for hers.  I’ll go there ahead of time to make sure I get a good Wi-Fi connection on my iPad and get the name of one of the restaurants for us to meet at.  I’ll bet, like all malls as I remember, they have a Frisby and a Mimo’s.

I emailed Margarita that 8am tomorrow would be fine and to ask Jaime to bring his drill because I need to reset one of the supports for the horizontal blinds.

I went to bed at 10:30, fell asleep quickly but woke up at 2am.  I got up twice after that but still managed to get some sleep.

I got a reply from Margarita that she got my email and she told her dad that today at 8am is ok.  No mention of the drill.

Jaime arrived at 8:10 with a young man I’ve seen before and the additional towel bar I requested.  His name is Camilo.  Guess what, the connection for the stovetop doesn’t fit.  The young man removed the stovetop and they are taking it somewhere, most likely to make sure they get a part that fits.  They said they would be back in 20 minutes; we’ll see; it’s now 8:20am.  They were back in 15 minutes.  They installed the stovetop but I noticed he put the plumbers tape on against the threads instead of with the threads.  Then they installed the additional towel bar in the bathroom and the horizontal blinds in the bedroom.  Before Camilo left he asked me when we could play chess together.  (He saw my “wall hanging”.)  I told him to call me and we exchanged phone numbers.  They left at 9:45.

I hustled on down to El Comedor de Chiva where I had my usual breakfast.  Lucas was working today and I asked him if I brought a mug could they serve me my coffee in that and he agreed.  He said the next times he will be working breakfast is next Wednesday and Friday.

Beatriz texted me at 10:10 and I understood she wanted to know what time it would be easy for me to pick up my clothes today.  I replied 1pm today.  Later I translated it as “it is easy to come by today and clothing come hours.”. 

At 11:15 Dario called me and asked if I could meet him at his building at 2pm to play chess and I agreed.

Augusto stopped by and mentioned that the lady I saw him with 3 weeks ago named Marina plays chess.  I told him I don’t remember that meeting and I didn’t see it mentioned in my blog later.  I told him I’m getting a chess table and maybe he would like to come to my apartment and play.

I noticed that Yummy’s restaurant has something called the Ensalada Azteca (Aztec salad) that with a little doctoring up (add cheese, beans and ground beef) could be like the nochos in the US.

I left LM at 12:30, stopped briefly at my apartment and then had my usual pizza at Pizza Americano.  I stopped at the apartment again and picked up my chess set and was at Dario’s building at 2pm.  He told me he wanted to win today – I’ve won 3 in a row – and when he won the coin flip and I ended up AGAIN with the black pieces I said “you won the white pieces, you want to win the game too”?  He put pressure on me and tried to create a king side attack but I held on and started a queen side attack.  At one point I threatened to capture a rook and I guess he didn’t notice as he made an inocuous pawn move, I took his rook for free, and he resigned.  4 in a row!  He did comment “you have been playing very well lately”.  Do I owe that to the Chess Magnet School?  I’d like to think so.

Back at the apartment, I received an email (LAC) from a pretty lady named Teresa from Envigado.  I replied questioning if her photos are recent because she doesn’t look 50 years old.  There are some obvious mistakes in her profile: red hair where in the photos it’s black and she has a 1 year old child?  One concern I have is that she’s the artistic type and I’m usually a better match with the more rational type.  Time will tell!

I got an email from Jose asking for my address because my chess table should be ready to be delivered next week.

I had the Fruit Salad Special at Almibar in LM tonight.  I always order it without cheese and without apples.  It comes with slices of mango, strawberries, bananas, and papaya with 2 scoops of ice cream (peanut and coconut for me) with a little whipped cream and arequipe sauce on top.

Beatriz and I finally agreed I would pick up my laundry Tuesday morning before 9am.

 

T-shirt of the day: Chicago/Alton/St. Louis Railroad.

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Last night I sent an email to Luz Amparo reminding her that we will no longer have a professional translating and interpreting our letters.  I told her how important it is to write in short sentences, spell correctly and use periods.

I got a reply from her telling me she isn’t concerned about having to use a translator to communicate.  She wants to meet me for coffee during the holy week of Easter – Monday, April 14^th to Saturday the 19^th. 

I wrote back and told her that I’m looking forward to meeting her and I would let her pick the time and place.  

I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night and woke/got up at 6:15.

I received another email from Luz and she wants to meet any time Tuesday or Wednesday, April 15^th or 16^th and she would let me pick the location.

I told her maybe we could meet for lunch instead of just coffee at Mall de Laureles.  (I would like a better idea of what kind of foods she eats because she mentioned she eats healthy and I want to know if that means something unusual – at least to me.)

Most of today’s Spanish class had to do with the rules as to where to put the accent mark in a word.  My rational being is fighting this because, and he agreed, you don’t need to show an accent mark if you already know how to pronounce the word.  Then I played devil’s advocate and told him then you should put an accent mark on every word so you know how it’s pronounced.  Sigh!

T-shirt: Rock Loves Me.

I checked the USA new movie releases and the only one that sounds interesting is Afflicted (6.6).  I see Captain America: The Winter Soldier was just released and it’s been playing here for weeks already.

Locally, I would like to see Noah playing at Ovideo, SantaFe and Viscaya and The Best Offer at Viscaya.

I took a Circular Sur 302 bus to Monterrey and then caught a Laureles 132 bus that took me up as far as Parque Laureles but then it turned so I got off.  At least it took me halfway to my goal.  I walked the rest of the way to Viscaya and bought a ticket to the 2:50 showing of The Best Offer (7.9) for 6mil, a small popcorn for 7mil and large soda for 5,100.  There were only 4 other people in the theater.  It was a good movie with a twist at the end.

Afterwards I walked down the hill to Avenida Las Vegas and took a Circular 303 bus back home.  Thankfully, this time it only took about 50 minutes.

I had time to stop at the apartment before heading over to Dario’s building.  There was an email from Margarita telling me that her dad would be at my apartment tomorrow morning at 8am.  On the way I stepped in some dog S#*T and did my best to clean most of it off.

I got there on time and today there were 4 kids aged 10-14 and later Dario’s dentist friend stopped by with her husband.  We finally broke up about 9pm.

On the way back to my apartment I found a wooden popsicle stick that I used to do a better job of cleaning my shoe.

I see I have another email from Luz – more about that later.

Thursday, April 3rd, 2014

Last night I went to bed at 9:30.  My eyes felt very tired but I didn’t take any aspirin.  I fell asleep rather quickly but woke up at 3:45 (still that’s 6 hours sleep; not bad for me).  I got up and took 2 Excedrin Migraine and went back to bed.  Now this is rare – I heard a mosquito buzzing near my ear a couple of times.  I also heard the whistle guy a couple of times.  I finally gave up and got up at 5 am.

I had my usual breakfast at Los Mejores and then stopped at Fresco Pan for a cup of coffee so I could study my Spanish notes.  I expected Maria to stop at my table and ask what I wanted but she just brought me my usual coffee and ham & cheese pizza so I ate it.  Now I’m stuffed!  Gonzalo stopped by to say hi and as usual as he was leaving he said “Just a moment”.  Of course I didn’t see him again after that.

A little later I stopped at Redd’s and had an orange juice then I went into Viva CC and studied some more.

Warning – Spanish 101 lesson immediately ahead.

I forgot to mention something about my meeting the other day with Bob & Margarita.  He mentioned they had spent a lot of time trying to express the difference in Spanish between “being boring” and “being bored” to the point they finally agreed not to use the word.  He’s right that there isn’t a separate word in Spanish to describe “boring” and “bored”, in Spanish it’s just “aburrido”.  But they have 2 different verbs to express “I am”.  (First, I must mention that “I” in Spanish is “Yo”.)  To describe the essence of something or a rather permanent condition like “boring” they use “soy”.  For a temporary condition they use “estoy”.  So, “I am boring” is “Yo soy aburrido” and “I am bored” is “Yo estoy aburrido”.  Got it?

End of Spanish 101 Lesson

During my Spanish lesson I got a call from Dario and I couldn’t understand what he was saying.  I gave the phone to Jhon and after he talked to him I was able to understand Dario.  He told him: 1) use International Spanish, 2) talk word by word slowly, 3) use known phrases.  Dario told me that he wouldn’t be available for chess tonight but not to forget about the English class at 7pm tomorrow.

I’ve already expressed my problem with the fact that everything in Spanish seems to be masculine (preceded by El) or feminine (preceded by La) but a word we used today was really ridiculous.  Dress in Spanish is “vestido” and it’s masculine!  Now I can’t depend on any noun making any sense masculine or feminine wise.

After my Spanish lesson I took a bus and walked up to FFSS where I had 2 Cokes and a hamburger for lunch.  They were playing a medieval movie called In the Name of the King on their large screen TV that looked interesting so I made note of it.

I stopped at AFA and talked to Lorena.  I learned: each translation between a man and a lady is done in her office; a man’s translated letter is sent to the lady’s email address (with any pictures as attachments) and they also call to read the letter over the phone; my “confirmations” were a result of letters I sent.  I sent letters to Luz Amparo and Yuri on March 25^th and Rubi on March 27^th.  I received Confirmation letters from Yuri on March 28^th and Rubi and Luz Amparo on March 31^st.

I stopped at the apartment for a little extra cash and then took another bus to the Home Center where I bought another set of horizontal blinds (35,900) for my bedroom.  The other set was green and this one is blue to match my blanket. As I was coming down the escalator there were 2 TVs playing sports to advertise Direct TV.  My White Sox were playing the Minnesota Twins and were ahead 8-7 in the top of the 7^th inning.  It was raining so I stopped at Popsy and had a Snickers ice cream cone.  I started raining harder so I took a taxi back to the apartment for 6mil and it stopped raining just a few minutes later.

I finished Tom Clancy’s The Cardinal of the Kremlin and downloaded his Clear and Present Danger.

T-shirt (actually more like a uniform top worn by a man and a woman): Montessori School Teacher.

Now I keep losing my Network and Internet connection.

I just checked my Inbox on AFA and found I have an email from Luz Amparo.  She signed my IMBRA form and now I have her real email address.  I think I’ll say “hi” real quick.

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014

I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night and woke/got up at 6:20; no car alarms going off, no motorcycles racing up the street, no taxis honking their horns.  Yah!

I had my usual breakfast at Los Mejores followed by a glass of orange juice at Redd’s.  

After Spanish class I cut through Viva CC and ran into 23 year old Paula from El Buton.  She was with the lady from the next kiosk and they were both across the street buying some street food from a vendor.  She made a point of talking to me but eventually got frustrated not being able to communicate and that ended the conversation.

I met Reina at LM and we ate at Frisby.  She showed me pictures of her colonoscopy – too much information – and had a 2pm appointment with the doctor to read it.  I gave her one of my sets of corn on the cob holders for a birthday present.  I walked her down to the bus stop and asked her why she always walks in the street instead of on the sidewalk and she made a motion that told me she’s afraid of someone accosting her with a knife.  Something maybe I should remember!

Some expats on Colombia Expat Exchange were a little miffed that an expat couple Gary & Diane mentioned they had opened a new Tex-Mex Fusion restaurant nearby in Laureles called Arriba! Arriba! & Boogaloo because you aren’t supposed to advertise on that site.  This must be the same Gary I had Thanksgiving dinner with at his restaurant Arriba! Arriba! in Rio Sur last November 29^th and ran into again at Sport wings on January 20^th.  I think I’ll try it sometime in the near future.

I got an email from Patricia (LAC) the pretty 54 year old lady.  In my last email I said “Type text or a website address or translate a document.

It’s been so long I did not think I'd hear from you again. You are a nice lady, but you're not very talkative, so I guess you're not very interested in me.” 

Her reply was “That? Because you say this?”.  I replied back “You are a woman of few words.  Goodbye.” And she replied “goodbye”.  Actually, she spelled it “A dios” which technically would be “To God”, at least if she had capitalized the “d”.  She may not be too literate or her typing skills need work.

I had my usual chili for dinner at El Comedor de Chava.

If it seems like my life has been a little boring lately, I agree with you.  I sure hope I make some progress soon with the ladies on AFA.  If nothing changes, I plan to have lunch at FFSS on Friday followed by a trip to AFA to discuss the situation.

A Few Insights into the Colombian Culture

A Few Insights into the Colombian Culture

This is truly my first time traveling outside of the United States, so I’m noticing quite a few things about Colombian culture that are different to me. These things are definitely not bad, and mostly entertaining.

The most fun, definitely, is: Most drinks are sold in bags.

You can find water, juice, and milk sold in bags.  Actually, I haven’t found milk sold any other way. Other things like mustard, mayonnaise, and jam are sold in paper containers with twist off lids.  Kind of like the material juice boxes are made of.

Most people around here don’t wear wedding bands.

I complained about this once to another gringo, and he made fun of me because the only reason I didn’t like it is because I didn’t know who I could hit on.  (He was right.)  I was also told that there is no such thing as a single Colombian woman.  Meaning that most women find their husband / boyfriend while in school.  I have yet to have much experience with any of this, but I will say that the two Colombian girls that I know are definitely single.

The guys are not that bad, and the women aren’t that hot.

I was told by several guys that I was going to be at a disadvantage in Colombia, because there are so many beautiful women, and there aren’t any hot guys.  Honestly, I was expecting to see a bunch of “12′s” (on a scale of 1-10 of hotness) when it came to women.  There are definitely a lot more “8′s” and “9′s” than in the US, but few of the women are tipping the scales.  The average attractiveness for men seems very similar to those in the US, other than most of the men are a bit shorter.

The people here are really nice.

The taxi drivers have almost always been great to me.  Most even help me to learn a little Spanish.  (Big Tip:  If you don’t speak Spanish, have the address of where you want to go written down!  Whether you’re taking a taxi, a bus, or the Metro, you will always be grateful you have it.)

The people here are amazingly nice.

The best example was when I was going to meet someone at 8pm.  He told me to take a bus, and gave me generally crappy directions, but I knew the area of town alright, and I figured I wouldn’t have a problem.  I ended up at the end of the line with no one that could speak English, no number to call, and no actual address.  Everyone at the bus station tried to help me.  One guy finally called his daughter that spoke English, and she came with her boyfriend to help me out.  They figured out where they thought I was supposed to go and then drove me around until everything was settled.  The only thing they would let me get them was a beer.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2014

Happy April Fools Day!

I went to bed at 10pm, got up once during the night, woke up at 5am (car alarm), woke up again at 5:30 (car alarm), woke/got up at 6:30am.

I packed up my dirty laundry and took it to Fresco Pan where I had coffee and a slice of ham & cheese pizza.  I found Beatriz right away at the building next to the Tinto store and I handed over my laundry.  I then had a glass of orange juice at Redd’s.  I forgot my notebook so I made a quick trip back to the apartment.  At Viva CC I realized I forgot to put my fanny pack back on so I didn’t have a pen so I quickly returned again to my apartment.  Back at Viva I practiced conjugating the regular Spanish verbs for a while and was at Jhon’s just before 10am.

I told him that today is April Fools Day in America and he told me Colombians have something similar on December 28^th.

After Spanish class I had a Double Stack burger and medium Pepsi at BK for 11,800 (with coupon).

T-shirt: 1987 Wild Fox Team

Tonight I had a ham sandwich from Subway and large strawberry shake from BK.

The next post is from this month’s issue of Medellin Living: A Few Insights into the Colombian Culture.