Sunday, September 25, 2005

Update (new pictures follow)

Once more, it’s Sunday evening and I am uploading a couple photos and making a few notes for the loyal readers.

Aysha has graduated from a half blanket on the floor to a full blanket on the floor. She is so close to starting to crawl, it will be hard to decide when she moves from this stage to actual crawling. If you dangle something she really wants in from of her, she will almost crawl – take a step or two, then sit down again and look at what she wants before crawling another step or two closer. It all ends with a final lunge toward the object. She arrives on her belly, outstretched to reach her goal. She could crawl is she wanted to, it’s just she hasn’t figured out that she can.

We took it easy this weekend. With a surprise Thursday off, we had a little one day week Friday. About 45 minutes before the end of the school day, the director came on the school loudspeaker with an announcement: Mr. Uribe (the president of Colombia) will be driving past the school shortly. If your car is parked on the street in front of the school, you must move it. I didn’t even notice him pass, even though I can see the road from my class. Fortunately, he moved along in time not to interfere with the dismissal.

Friday night, Karla and I got a bottle of wine, made dinner and stayed home. The grocery store near our house not only sells beer, wine and rum, they are accommodating enough to offer a rotating 20% discount on booze on Fridays and Saturdays. Two weeks ago, beer was on sale Friday and Rum Saturday, last week, wine was Friday and I didn’t go in Saturday.

We managed to get a little caught up on work this weekend. We went out for dinner on Saturday night and then for a walk around the old city on Sunday afternoon. We stopped on the way at a blender parts cart (a cart parked on the side of the street that sells parts for blenders (tops, blades, pitchers, etc). Our dinner host on Saturday night complained that she couldn’t use her blender for lack of a top. I inquired about the price of one – I didn’t think Carol would make it down anytime soon – and we got his business card. If it wasn’t unusual enough for a man with a movable cart made out or recycled lumber to have a card, what it said was even stranger. Under his name, to help distinguish him from the other blender part carts on the same corner, it said “El Negro” or “The Black Man”. He was the darkest blender man in sight. I am going to remember him (I guess it worked).

On the way home we stopped off at an Italian restaurant called Entoteca that is known for its wine selection. Another teacher, Shannon, was with us and we grabbed a bite and decided to order a bottle of wine. The waiter helped us with the list – the must have offered two or three hundred different bottles of wine – to choose a bottle suitable for us. He had a little chuckle at us when we rejected his first suggestion in favour of “something cheap”. In the end, we laid out $25 for a very reasonable bottle of Chianti. The food and atmosphere was great. Guests can expect to stop in while they are here.

It’s almost time for bed here. I watched half a movie on Saturday afternoon that I hope to be able to stay awake long enough to see the end tonight!

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