So, this morning I got up early to go to the gym. It was pretty painful getting up early, and I had some serious bags under my eyes, but I was glad to get to go to the gym, when I hadn't done it in the last two days. I have been eating some serious food too- they like their proteins and starches here. I think I've had 3 or 4 different kinds of meat, plus potatoes, plantains, yucca, and or rice with every meal in some combination. I showered and headed to the elevator to go down to breakfast, coincidentally at the same time as Stella was heading to the elevator. She and her roommate Ana slept through their alarms, so we didn't meet at the gym, but I'm glad we got to have breakfast together. I asked Maria Cristina again about someone who might be able to open the bus for me to find my camera (in Spanish... ugh- I suck at Spanish) and she said that they would be able to at 2:00 pm... I would have liked to have been able to tell her that I'd like to do it sooner, but I just went with it, since I don't really know how to say that in Spanish. Instead I just went up to my room to start doing my job. I had to download Office so that I could enter the key that I bought, which ended up taking a really long time because the internet speed is very slow. Luckily today was a perfect day for that kind of thing, because I don't have anywhere to be until 6:00 pm, so I could have it running in the background all day if I needed to.
While I was sitting at my desk working, there was a knock at the door... room service. Got back to work and a couple minutes later there came another knock... It was Umberto, a very nice guy who works for the Colombian orchestra and has already been a great help to me. AND HE BROUGHT ME MY CAMERA!!!! I was so so excited and happy and thanked him profusely. I was really worried about it. Anyway, I am so glad that there are wonderfully nice people like him out in the world who, even when they don't speak the same language, go out of their way to get to know someone and help in any way they can. It has surprised me how many of the people who don't speak any English have learned my name. I'm not sure why that surprises me exactly, but it's almost like you would think that if they couldn't communicate with you, they wouldn't bother trying to get to know you. But that's not the case at all. They always say Hola, Emma, and try to have little conversations with me, even though we both know that my abilities are quite limited.
There are actually some people that I can communicate with better than others. In general, I think the Colombians are a bit easier to understand, but not all of them. Umberto I can understand a lot of- I was really grateful earlier during the residency when I went into town to get my new laptop, and Nina requested a few things from the store. He helped me find what I was looking for, and helped me with the cashier, even though he doesn't speak English either. I think he is just very good about choosing simple words and doing a bit more miming than other people put up with.
Later we headed to the concert, which was in this outdoor amphitheater in downtown Ibagué. It is all stone where you sit, and is in the middle of this park valley right next to the hubub of downtown. Stella and I walked around a little once we got everyone settled for soundcheck. It had some touristy booths, and I was tempted to buy something, but didn't end up doing it because I didn't see anything jump out at me.
The concert went great, but we didn't get back to the hotel until midnight, and we had to get up to check out of our rooms at 5 the next morning, so that we could make it to Armenia in time for the next day's concert.
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