We have curtains!!!

Yay, we have curtains.. I know that seems like a basic decorative necessity, but Bogota gets real cold at night, and we were going through a crazy process of hanging a blanket in the window every night, and using an extra cover on the bed because we didn't have curtains to keep out the cold. The window glass is not thermal like it is in North America, so when the sun goes down it cools off really fast.

So.. off we went on Saturday with Peters brother, Luis, and Mom to buy curtains. I got a nice tour of some different parts of the city. We chose some nice light yellow curtains, custom made in two hours (more or less) and ready to hang same day! We also got nice blue gingham curtains ordered for the baby room, but those take a little longer, Luis is picking them up soon.

We ate lunch at a typical restaurant, a huge open room with wooden tables and benches, an open kitchen with a huge barbeque constantly pumping out bbq smoke. We had a huge plate of chicken, chorizo, blood sausage, pork, chicharron (bacon supreme!), yucca, potatoes and plantains!! Heart attack on a plate! It was piled about a foot tall and we ended up taking more home than we were able to eat!

We were stopped by the police for the first time since I have been here on Saturday. Being randomly stopped by the police is a regular occurance here. They have the right to stop cars and ask for the "cedula" of the occupants. The cedula is basically a registration card with your name and number on it, it's assigned to you and you carry it for life. The police are not malicious in stopping you, it's just a random security check. They have a list of wanted people that they check your cedula number against, ask you to get out of the car, pat you down, take a quick look in your car and in the trunk and then you are off. This was strange to me as a Canadian used to the police requiring a reason to pull you over. Peter assured me it happens all the time and it was nothing to be alarmed at, especially since I know that none of us is wanted in any way. (you can breathe again now Mom)

Sunday we spent buying things for our apartment, a nifty indoor clothesline with four retractable lines, a nice homemade lamp that Peter bought a few blocks away, a TOASTER (YEA LIVING THE HIGH LIFE!!), and various other organizational items. For those of you that don't know Peter that well, he is the king of neat and organization. I think he listened a little too well in the army when they discussed order and process or something. Crystal diplomatically calls him "particular".. I use a somewhat less diplomatic word which I am sure you can guess quite easily!

Ohh also very exciting.. Luis fixed our shower!!! No big deal usually right? You turn on the water in Canada and it comes out hot and ready. In Bogota utilities are billed on a scale, 1 -6. The better the neighbourhood you live in the higher the price scale of your utilities. We live in a 4 neighbourhood so it's on the more expensive side. Expensive enough you have to be energy concious. People are very concious about water usage, hydro consumption etc. etc. Instead of having a hot water heater on all the time using energy constantly in our shower we have a hot water "on demand" heater. This was initially installed for us by Peters' friend Diego. .. Diego is not an electrician... the first time I used the shower it gave a big SPARK!! It worked well, but every time I got into it I remembered that spark! On Saturday, after a huge breakfast and hot coffee, I was so looking forward to my hot shower. I spend a long time in the shower in the morning warming up. I was maybe half way through, no hair washed or anything yet though, when I smelled burning wires! I called Peter who confirmed that yes, it did indeed smell like an electrical fire in there! I was out of the shower as fast as lightening (no pun intended) and Luis came back at night to fix it for us. In true Michael Shouldice electrician style there he stood in the shower (floor still wet) cutting wires and tape-ing it all back up, without turning off the electrical current. He's still here to talk about it and I have a safer shower! Thank-you Luis!!

Our lovely new home made lamp!