And more waiting.....

Yesterday was an interesting lesson about life in Colombia. Lina had some errands to do and, since the full extent of my motivations while here in Bogota is to just "hang out", I went with her. First we went to the bank... and waited in line. But at least here they use the take-a-number system so we were able to sit down and hang out in some chairs while waiting. Then we had to go to the office where health insurance is handled. It turns out that here you don't pay ANYTHING by mail, for fear that the postal service will either lose or rip off whatever it is you're sending. So every month you go down to the office in person, where you take another number, sit in another chair and wait to be given your monthly statement of balance due. But you can't pay it there... no, no, that would be far too easy. So then you take your statement, go back to the bank, take another number and sit in another chair. And wait. And then you make an electronic transfer of funds from your account to the insurance company's account. And then you come back next month and do the whole thing again. And you also do it for every other bill you pay: electric, gas, phone, cable, water, etc.... EVERY month. In person. To each company.

And then we had to go to one of the offices that she has done some work for to find out about when she'll be paid. The payment schedule seems to be sketchy so you have to stay on top of it yourself. And, again, you have to go in person to pick it up because noone would ever send a paycheck in the mail.

I have to say I found the whole thing very interesting to observe. But, then again, I probably found it interesting because *I* don't have to do it every month. If I did, I'm quite sure I would have another word for it.

And then Lina had an appointment at 5. I tagged along and asked the lady how long it would take; she said just about an hour and a half. Great, I say, I'll just go for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Needless to say, more than three hours later I had walked the entire neighborhood, had my eyebrows waxed and read every single magazine the place had to offer. And that seems to be life in Colombia. Nobody really hurries to do anything and everyone is cool with it, just hanging out and enjoying the time chatting. So I'M cool with it, just chillin'.

Then we met up with a couple of her friends, Cristian and MaLu (Maria Luisa), for a fabulous Japanese dinner... in a Japanese restaurant where they played rockin' Latin music. Kind of killed the mood but at least the food was great. We then went to a club where they were having a traditional eastern Colombian music group playing, along with dancers. I'm tellin' ya, the Colombians know how to get down! I'm pretty sure it's just embedded in their DNA at birth.

Today is grey and rainy and stormy. Lina and Betty are in the process of moving so, since we can't be outside doing anything, it seemed like a pretty good day to make some headway with the packing process. Moving is an overwhelming prospect... and it's not even MY stuff!

This is a picture of the 'caldo' soup we had yesterday. It's a broth soup with potatoes and big hunks of some kind of red meat (note the wishbone). And we had it for.... breakfast. Ah, the breakfast of champions: eggs, orange juice, bread and... meat soup!