Yanqui

I've learned to be comfortable in my role as the Yanqui or Gringo — I go by either here. I'm not gonna lie, it sucks... It's very for me to be embarrased because I don't know what's going on half the time. And I'm not a hard-ass or anything — I like for people to have fun, even if it is at my expense — which it pretty much has been for the past few weeks. The nurses at the hospital in particular have taken it upon themselves to make me feel welcome by joking "with" me and not sparing any sass.

One of the first days I was at the hospital, one of the nurses asked me if I knew what the word cachucha meant. I didn't, but continued to loudly ask the nursing staff what it was. Once they started laughing, I realized what it was — vagina, pronounced baheena (btw, Georgia, the country is pronounced Heorhia — trippy) Anway, I still wanted confirmation that the meaning was in fact vagina, so I kept on asking.

Anytime I saw this one nurse for the next few weeks — she's still doing it now — screams the word cachucha at me whenever she sees me. Laughing ensues for all people within earshot of the greeting.

Then today, one of the nurses told me that the nursing staff all felt that I had a nice pompino, which she explained to me involved the gluteos. I was pleased, I suppose. They all had a good laugh...

One strange thing about the buses here is that they don't always take the same route. Today, my colectivo was in a big jam, moving about 100 meters in 10 minutes. So it took a turn and bypassed the jam. Cool.