Day 40 - Fusagasugá and bad luck

Well, I have decided to now post the days things happen instead of waiting until I have my past days posted. I had days 22 - 37 written down in Notes on my phone, however, on day 38, Friday, July 17th, my phone was stolen. I'm going to try to backtrack as much as I can which hopefully won't be too hard since I've already written out each day once and I have photos for most of the days, but things definitely won't be as exact. I've also had really really bad luck in Bogotá, so my actual camera doesn't work. ..so I currently have no way of taking my own photos. All I can do is steal those of my friends.

Today, Sunday, July 19th, we went to church. For breakfast, we had fruit and arepas with cheese. I had mango and a banana (which was probably the thickest banana I've ever had; it was weird haha) - everyone else had mango and papaya, but they have noticed that I'm not a big fan of papaya. I honestly try to eat as much of it as I can when it's served to me, but usually there is a LOT of it, and I just can't eat it all and it seems to not make me feel the greatest. We had fresh manadarin orange juice and arepas with cheese. Those arepas are my favorite. There are some that just don't have a lot of flavor, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what is the difference. They're more yellow-y, and the ones that aren't my favorite are normally more white. (Although I have had some good white ones - it just depends upon the place). The cheese was normal cheese as opposed to "queso campesino," which seems to me to be just like "queso fresco." Basically, it's a type of cheese that taste a lot different than any cheese that we, Americans, are used to.

The service was long. I feel like the worship was probably about an hour long. Many of the songs were songs I recognized from English. However, it just seems that in most Hispanic churches, no attention is paid to trying to be on pitch or in rythym. That is something I am certainlty not used to, so it distracts me a lot. Some of the songs, there were just too many words that they tried to fit into one breath, and so it was just awkward. But the people don't mind! They clap whenever they want to, no matter the rhythm and they like to act out the words of the songs, which I find a little odd, but I have seen it before in the US. I was really tired and the service was long, so I had a hard time understanding everything especially since, once again, I didn't have a way to take notes. (Soon I will post about La Iglesia de Su Presencia, a HIllsong church in Bogotá that has been my favorite of Hispanic churches. It is for this reason that I say "once again.") However, the preacher did talk about how we underestimate God's power and need to change that.

Shortly afterward, we all headed to the mall for lunch at the foodcourt. Juan David and his mom met us there. I'm pretty sure they went by bus, whereas Sally and I went in the car with the grandma and grandpa cause the six of us wouldn't be able to all fit in there. The setup was a little odd. It seemed like the different restaurants had peoplet hat would come up to you to ask your order. I guess it's just whoever gets to you first? I don't know what you do if you want a different restaurant. There was also a Subway, but there, the people went to the kiosk and ordered like normal. There was also a place that had the Chick-fil-a symbol, but off course, it wasn't actually Chick-fil-a, which for Sally, was a total letdown.

Sally and I ended up ordering a hamburger and fries. I was afraid of ordering something "Colombian" and getting way too much food cause really, I was still somewhat full after breakfast. But, I think we both agreed that we should've gotten something "Colombian." I mean the hamburger was alright, but there was just something a little off about it. We notied a white boy (haha) sitting at one of the other tables with a family, which was super odd in such a small town. When we passed by him, they were all staring at us. It was funny. His "family" was probably really surpised to see other gringos! We all headed over to the car and I think they forgot that we wouldn't all fit. So I asked if we were going to try and then they realized that they had forgotten about that. However, I insisted that it was possible. I could easily sit on Sally's lap haha. So, we ended up doing that. But then, Hilda, the mom, scooted up forward in the seat, and Sally and I were able to sit side by side, for the most part. It wasn't a long distance, so it really wasn't a problem and at least no one had to pay for the public transportation!

When we got home, basically everyone went down for a nap again. For a while, I tried researching ways to find my phone. Of course, there was that seems promising...but, of course, I needed to have downloaded it before I had it stolen! When we woke up, there was no power. So Sally and I talked for a while until we noticed that the power was back on, but the light was very bright so we just left it off. Shortyl afterward, Sally, Juan Davíd, and I went out for a small dinner. I was still full so I didn't really need anything (also I need to exchange money as all I have are coins and my credit card at the moment). We walked around for a while until we finally found a place. Sally and I ended up getting ice cream and water, haha. It was $1.80 USD for 2 scoops of ice cream and a 500ml bottle of water.

The climate here is absolutely perfect. I thought I might need a sweater for the nighttime, but ended up getting warm, but was absolutely perfect without it. However, after eating ice cream, I needed the sweater!

Sally didn't take any photos today, except for the one I took of the restuarant with the Chick-fil-a symbol. So here is a photo I found on the internet of the mall!