Late to the party

I shopped on e-bay for the very first time yesterday, and I ‘won’ my very first auction today.  I was looking for The Berkeley Review MCAT study books; I bought a jacket.  How does that happen?  At least, I needed a jacket.

I only have one other ‘winter’ coat and it is a charcoal gray.  I have nothing light.  It’s a wool and cashmere blend, and I got it for $22.00.  I didn’t get the books though–they went for $275.00.  I have bid on another set.  Currently, I am winning at $1.05.  I think I would die if I got a set for that little.

 

Things I hate: Shopping, running, and unpacking

Today I went shopping for clothes.  It was the first time I’ve gone shopping since I went with Emily, Corinna, Dasha, and Steve (do you see the anomaly in that group?) in Trujillo last year.  I got  6 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and a dress all for $47.  I did not get what I went in for, which was a black skirt.  I pretty much hate clothes shopping.  I always have always hated it, but its done and I shouldn’t have to do it again until fall.

I have signed up for Running Racig’s virtual mile.  The rules are pretty simple.  I have the entire month of July to run it.  It has to be run outside, I have to take a picture of me wearing the virtual mile racing bib, and  I have to be honest about my time.  Since I am currently clocking in at just under 15min/mile, I probably won’t send in my time until closer to the end of the month–just so it won’t be completely embarrassing.  I have decide that the Lake Rabon triathlon will be my first.  I just don’t think I’ll be ready for the one on July 17, and I really only had 2 goals:  to finish and to not be last.  But if I do finish last, at least I finish.  This one is on August 13.  The swim is 300 yards, the bike is 12.8 miles, and the run is 3.1 miles.  I guess they have something against  using the metric system–otherwise it would be 275m, 20k, and 5k.

On a different note,  I finally ordered some of my photos from my South America trip.  These will go in the frames that I have hanging photo-less on the wall.  I hope to be settled in soon.  After all, I’ve been here 3 months…I should be unpacked and decorated by now.

Mas de Bogota

Since I am trying to not speak any English unless it is absolutely necessary, I am feeling a little bit isolated. But today that changed. Not that I magically became fluent overnight, but it is coming back to me, especially if the person with whom I am speaking speaks slowly (for Spanish). For example, today I took the Transmileno to the other side of Bogotá for no reason than to see another part of the city. On the return trip, I had conversation with an elderly gentleman who sat next to me. It was nothing serious, weather, I’m new in town, ect, but it was a chance to practice Spanish with someone who didn’t speak crazy fast. I’m feeling a little more confident.
After successfully ordering lunch [3 courses $5500 ~3.25], I stopped in the frutería. I only wanted to get a few snacks for the road, but I was talked into a fruit salad. Nothing like I’ve ever had. It included mango, papaya, pear, banana, and a couple other fruits I have never seen before. Before leaving, I ask the fruit man Que es esto? esto y esto, and very patiently he shows me all the fruits in the store, both in the natural state and the cut up state. So while my fruit salad was only slightly less than lunch, the education about fruit was worth the $2.75 price tag.

Some things about Bogotá(and  probably South American in general)

• Each store has a specific function. You want meat go to the meat store. Bread the bread store. A key, the key store, and so on. It makes shopping very purposeful–why else would you be in the key store if you didn’t need a key.
• GAS–not as cheap as I thought it would be. It’s ~$7500 COP/litre which is roughly 40 cents and with almost 4 litres per gallon it makes a gallon $1.60. I mean I’d be happy to pay that per gallon, but with super oil rich Venezuela as Colombia’s neighbor, I thought it would be less.
• While, I’ve never been to San Francisco, that is the closest city I can compare Bogotá to. The HILLS (lots and lots of hills), the fog, the mist, the rain, and the cool temperature. And in some areas there is a fair amount of colonial architecture.

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