LOST!!! First Taste of Disenchantment

Wednesday, August 6

My host mother told me that I should go to this cell phone place and ask for it to be unlocked, give it two hours and pick it up. Then she gave me the directions to get there. So I made sure I had everything I needed, and set out. I got on the bus and watched attentively for Av. General Paz. I saw it as we were turning on it, and I hit the buzzer. So far so good. Once I'm there, I cross the street and find the street I need to be on.  I follow it until I find the place, I leave my phone and start walking around to wait 2 hours. I walked down that one street until I ended up in front of Patio Olmos (remember I wanted to visit there?). I went in and checked it out. It's big and fancy. I like it! I bought a mate and made my way back to the cell phone place.


The person told me that this phone was complicated, and that they needed to keep it a couple of days. OK. He gave me a work order and I was on my way. It was starting to get dark, but no biggie. I'll go back to where the bus left me and come back home.  Well, none of the buses were going to my home. Maybe if I find bus stops on a street going in that direction. So I started walking and walking and walking. The farther I walked, the more anxious I got because I wasn't finding any bus stops. I ended up in front of the Police station. I had a vague idea of where I was, but I was in fact lost. I asked an officer for help, and he told me to cross the street to a place where you pay to use telephones (people don't just let you use their phones down here). He also told me to hail a cab after that. So I did as he said, calling my host family to tell them I was fine and looking for a cab to get home.

Then I came to appreciate the United States police (at least Hoover police...I'm not familiar with others). The Hoover police would probably let me borrow a phone, give me directions, and even give me a ride to somewhere safe if they weren't busy.  I don't resent the police of Córdoba; this is their culture... They do their job.  I'm not saying one is good and one is bad, just that they are different.

As I continued trying to get a taxi, I chuckled and thought wow, this is a kink in my "honeymoon." The taxis that went by wouldn't stop, because they already had people in them.  I was getting frustrated.  I don't use taxis in Alabama; how do know if it's available?  Finally, I started figuring things out. Full taxis tended to drive in the far lane while empty ones drove closer. And, more obviously, I noticed that there's a little red light on the windshield that says Libre (free) if it's available. I finally got one, and finally got home.

Once home, my host mother showed me where I was and where I was supposed to go on a map, and then she made me go to the corner store and get the map photocopied so that I could have it in my wallet and not get lost.

4 pt. star: where I was. 5 pt. star: where I should have gone. Red line: Where I went...

Ug. I had a headache, and I was just feeling kind of deflated. So after talking to a couple of people on
Facebook, I called it a night and went to sleep.