New normal
Dear Friends,
It’s kind of crazy how new becomes normal rather quickly, no matter how strange and startling the new used to seem. The past week provided some great examples:
Exhibit A: Colombian brisket. On the last day of the year, we all went up to El Molino or “the windmill”, which is a complex of restaurants, which architecturally showcases a windmill, located in a neighboring town called Pasca. I was excited to go for two main reasons: 1) El Molino has a brewery that makes a decent craft brew, and 2) there’s a restaurant called American Grill that serves brisket. Now, I’ve never tried the brisket at American grill, but I’m quite positive that it’s the only place in the region that serves brisket, and I’ve been recently craving brisket thanks to the internet and my niece recently traveling to Texas for the holidays. The mere existence of American Grill in rural Colombia is the first example of a rather strange thing that is now totally normal.
Exhibit B: Closed on the 31st. Unfortunately, American Grill was closed because it was the afternoon of New Years Eve. Actually, several restaurants were closed. Do restaurants back home close all day on the 31st?? My memory tells me that this isn’t a thing there, but here in Colombia it definitely is. I didn’t bat an eye since I’ve been on the short end of Colombian holiday closures before. I simply went to one of the restaurants that was open (SMH), and ordered a churrasco, which in Colombia is a relatively thin, beef steak. The one I ordered cost about $12 and came with a couple sides.
Exhibit C: Colombian customer service is dead. Usually the beef comes with some fat, but this cut was particularly fatty, arriving at the table with about 1/4 of the meat as fat. I was hungry and didn’t feel like trying to send the meat back to the kitchen only to have the person at the restaurant explain to me that there’s nothing that they can do for me and that it’s not that much fat. In Colombia the customer is not always right. So I dug into my fatty churrasco, hoping that my sides of papa criolla and rice would help soak up the grease in my gut. Fortunately, the meal was pretty tasty!
Exhibit D: Colombian New Years traditions. Later that day, I didn’t eat much for dinner because I was full, and I didn’t stay up all night because I was tired, so I missed the burning of the año viejo and the people running around the block with their suitcases, but I did eat the grapes, one for each month of the new year: so many Colombian New Years traditions…not to mention the yellow underwear!
Exhibit E: Poop test. The next morning and for the following four days, my stomach was in bad shape. I’ll spare you the runny details, but on day six, I contacted Yeye’s cousin, Jinnet, who is the doctor we call whenever we have a non life-threatening health question, and she recommended that I take my poop to the lab. Yeye and I have done this so many times that it seems oh so normal! I just put my poop in a little plastic cup, drop it off at a private lab, and they send me the results the next day! Luckily, the test came back clear: I didn’t have a bacteria or parasite (thank the Lord!). The overly greasy meat and beer combo probably just threw my gut into evacuation mode. I’m back to normal now, and next time, I’ll be a little more careful with my normal order.
Peace,
Alan
PS. My dad and I had our first conversation about money! Woot! Here’s to many more :)