Sunday walks in the Park

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Today I woke up to a beautiful day. It was hot and sweaty but it was still nice. On Sundays, in the morning, on many of the main streets no cars or motorcycles are allowed. It is so quiet (comparatively) and it doesn't smell as much like gasoline - which is nice.



I'm told that right now we are in winter - which basically means it rains a lot. It does not mean that it gets cold. I think the "coldest" it has been since I've gotten here was 77 degrees Fahrenheit. That's cold to the locals. However, since it's so rainy it gets really humid, since it's really humid, the mosquitos come out in full force.



Fortunately, they have invented a fun toy that kills small bugs, but is mainly aimed at killing mosquitoes. It looks like a tennis racket, but instead of tight strings, it has metal woven together. When you press a button it turns on. However you can't hear anything or see any change. You wave it around while you press the button and if you hit a bug it quite literally zaps it. You hear a zap, see a white light and the bug falls straight to the floor. Describing it makes it sound like cruel and unusual punishment, but these Colombian mosquitoes are a force to be reckoned with. In the two days that I have been here, I've been bitten 7 times at least, and that is with the liberal application of bug spray. The first mosquito I hunted, and I hunted it all right, could sense that the bug racket was turned on. He tried to evade my skillful racket hand - and he was a quick little bug! I would like to think that he was screaming as he fled from my wrath and then finally, I touched him with it. the For now, the score goes:

bugs: 7

Brittany: 3



Seriously, that bug racket is my best friend. I don't know why it has taken me this long to find something like that, but flies and mosquitoes in the US, beware.



It is not very common for there to be air condition in the houses here. Everyone has windows that open up all the way and most places have an area above doorways or between the ceiling and the perimeter walls that is completely open to allow air circulation. You take lots of showers here. It's also uncommon to have a hot water heater, so all the showers are cold showers. You can buy an apparatus that you connect to your shower that gives you three temperatures, hot, cold and warm. That's it. You just choose which one you want, there's no knob turning, no trying to figure out the best combination of hot and cold, you just pick one. It stays on warm here, which is basically just a step above cold. That's fine because it was 90 degrees today and no one in their right mind would pick hot water to bathe in, that's for sure.



Side note, C in spanish stands for calor, which means hot. Don't turn the C knob when you're washing your hands and expect the water to be cold. I don't even know why that's an option.

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Photos

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This is the view from my bedroom window. Notice the mountains in the background, not the trash on the sidewalk, it must be trash day or something

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Say hello to my little friend

Comments

[Sofi]

Hola!
Hahaaa C for Calor siii!! Sounds like you're having a great time so far! Can't wait to hear about your experiences in the clinic :)