a visitor upon arrival home

I got home tonight and about ten minutes after walking in the door, someone knocked. I about jumped out of my skin because I was not expecting anyone. Generally when I am home alone and the doorbell rings, I ignore it if I am not expecting anyone. But someone was just meters away and could hear that I was home, for sure, so could not be ignored.

Looking through the peephole, it was a kid standing there with another kid. I figured, what harm can they do... so I opened the door. (Its not like I'm afraid to open the door, or should be, but you have to be careful nonetheless... I did have a passing thought as I looked through the peephole that someone might be on the other side with an icepick, but thats sort of a rare item here so I risked it. ;) )

Turned out to be the son of the woman who owns the little store (kiosko) thats in the front of this building. I understood what he was saying - or at least caught the subject and verb - but got it exactly backwards and I told him, "But I don't have anything for your mother." And he responded in English, "But she has something for you!" I was rather surprised - as was his friend when I immediately understood exactly what they wanted.

I stayed awhile to chat with them. It's interesting to see what people's perceptions are as well as what news stories they have heard about the USA... this time they were asking me if Chicago still had gangsters (yes, except in this day and age its the mayor and the city government was my response) and if it was really true that Giuliani killed all the flies in New York City. (I have no fucking clue where they picked that up from - perhaps they died from less government?)

What she had for me was my internet bill. Internet is outrageously expensive here and its my least favorite bill because the customer service of my internet service provider (Dedicado) is horrible. But that's not her fault. I sorta felt obligated to buy something - I usually buy diet coke from her (yes, they DO call it Coca Cola Light here and not diet coke - but thats what I will call it until I likely die of side effects from drinking it!). She was out, I knew that from Sunday when I bought the last 1.5 liter bottle of it from her, but I figured chocolate milk would do - its a strange product, called Colet. You buy it in a box and its got an expiration date thats months away. You can set it on a shelf and keep it at room temperature for the whole time and its fine. Scary. But it tastes good.

Of course in the process of talking with the kids I asked their names. I was sorta surprised that the owner's son was named Bruce. His friend had a much more Uruguayan name - Sebastian. I think between 5 and 10 % of the male population under 30 is named Sebastian. But Bruce... that was a little different.