Another Week has Nearly Passed

As you may have noticed, my weeks are getting more and more "regular" with less random stories.  This week has been no exception.  My main excitement has been the long awaited arrival of my work laptop.  It ended up receiving a new motherboard and hard drive.  This also meant that ALL of my files were lost which is rather frustrating.  The upside to that is that my laptop is fresh with no crap on it!  Additionally, this made me smile:

Halloween at Wendy's

Normal weeks allow me more time to reflect and really ponder what life is like here.

The other day, I started thinking about the person I am here.  This was brought on by a particular carrito ride in which I was sitting in B4.  When the carrito pulled up, it looked a little cramped, but I didn't want to wait any longer to get to work.  Inside was a bigger lady, a bigger guy and an average sized man (B1, B2, B3).  The poor man in B3 tried hard to squish up enough for me to fit in.  I kid you not, there was about 6 inches of seat space available for me.  So, I got myself in, did the side sit, however this still resulted in me essentially sitting on the B3 man.  It took a couple tries to get the door closed (I'm sure my right hip/butt will be happy to not take this type of beating all the time once I return home), but eventually I succeeded.  I just sat there, thinking, this is so weird. I'm half sitting on a complete stranger on my way to work.

The B1 lady was the first to get out.  I've determined that B1 is my favorite spot.  Only having a person on one side of you but without the stress of opening the door which comes along with the B4 position.  Since we all had to get out for her to get out, I made a point of climbing into the car first, effectively stealing B1.  Normally, I wouldn't do this, but we were still quite a ways away from my office so I figured chances were good the others would have to get out first.  The big guy got into B2.  Again, I found myself pondering my situation.  I was now squished into the left hand corner of the car with a big guy leaning back on half of my chest.  A random guy was leaning against my boob and I didn't care.  Today, Robert and I were essentially hip-checked into the B1/B2 positions by this big guy.  He just kept pushing and we kept squishing.

Then I start thinking about how we act on a crowded bus back home.  I remember back to those cold winter mornings when the bus was packed with downtown workers and university students.  All of us with big jackets, some of us with big bags.  The floor is slippery from the snow and quick stops usually result in people bumping into one another.  Here, this wouldn't be a big deal.  At home, you quickly turn to the person you bumped into and apologize.  Usually they apologize too, because that is just what we do.  We would never try to squish an extra bum onto a seat (unless its two people with a child or something similar).  The seats are designed for one bum only.  Riding the bus is going to seem luxurious after this.  I also have moments where I get nervous, thinking that I won't remember how to take a bus.  Like somehow I'll be sitting there and will just yell out "Donde Pueda" when I want to get off.  Everyone turns and stares.  Or I'll get on to the bus and make people squish over.  Of course 3 of us can fit on the two seats!  In reality, as I have already experienced, this won't happen.  Canadian life is like a second nature.  You just hop back in and it feels like you've never left.  At least most of the time.

Anyway.

Yesterday afternoon had a bit of randomness to it.  I had lunch with Robert and Mari at Jardin Verde.  Of course, I had frozen chinola.  After lunch, Mari and I made a stop at Sweet Bakery.  I was already late heading back to the office so I just grabbed an espresso to go.  When I got back to the office, I was walking into my area and my sleeve (I was wearing my kimono style shirt) got caught on the door handle.  This caused half of my espresso to jump out of my cup and onto the floor and my hand.  Ouch.  I quickly went to set down the remainder of the espresso and grabbed a bunch of napkins to dry off my hand and wipe up the coffee on the floor.  Luckily, it didn't burn my hand too badly.  Then, I had an embarrassing moment where I had plugged in my headphones and took a bit to realize that the sound was actually coming out of the computer speakers and not my headphones.  Of course, I was turning up the volume since I couldn't hear well.  Also embarrassing but no one seemed to care.  I was then paranoid for the rest of the day that suddenly the sound would start coming out of the speakers instead of my headphones.  (For some reason the settings on the laptop were such that speakers were set as default... I had to go in and put headphones as default and now it works like computers should when headphones get plugged in.)  But this wasn't the end of it.  On my way home, I was walking and about to cross a street when a car decided to suddenly turn right.  I was mid-step and since I couldn't take a full step, I ended up taking a half step... right into the gutter full of water and other miscellanea.  So I squished for the rest of the way home each time I took a step with my left foot.  Ugh.

Christmas decor at Jardin Verde

Mari and I went to pilates in the evening.  We had some issues getting a taxi to come and pick us up.  The location of the studio is kind of random and you have to give a good description of the place normally.  Mari called and tried, but the operator just kept giving up and transferring the call or hanging up.  We asked Arturo, the owner of the studio if he could call.  For some reason, he was totally anti-calling.  He had no problems standing beside Mari and telling her what to say but he wouldn't pick up the phone.  I mean, I can understand that we have to work on this, but when you watch someone struggling and being hung up on, it's time to take over.  We tried to give the phone to him to call, and he quickly gave it to Rina, our instructor.  It's like he was afraid to talk on the phone.  Very weird.  Maybe he has blackberry-phobia?  Anyway, we waited for over 10 min and there was still no taxi.  The man who comes in to work on martial arts with Arturo after our class ended up calling for us.  It was really nice of him.  The taxi driver was also very odd.  He had problems understanding my accent, and then when I told him that we lived near Hipolito, he said to us, "Los gringos quiero lluego papa."  Then he repeated this a few more times.  Haha.

When we got home, we decided to go to the colmado for some sandwiches and beer.  It was nice to just sit at the colmado, the two of us, and chat.

Colmado Sandwich

Tonight, it will be early to bed since we are meeting at 5:30 am tomorrow to go to 27 Charcos.  Adventure awaits.  I'm sure I'll have a least one story to tell about it when I return!