~Cony~

Okay, now that I’ve had time to mourn the loss of my friend I can write about her. So Cony, this is your special tribute. Cony is the daughter of Jose who lives in the US with her mom. She was here the for about the first week I was here, but then unexpectedly and suddenly she had to go home. Which was very traumatic for me. See, she is fluent in both Spanish AND English so she was my personal translator. Without Cony I am forced to actually pay attention to when people talk to me. And I hate to say it, but without Cony my life is just not complete. LOL Cony and I had a different adventure everyday, I’m telling you this girl is out of control. Always wanting to go somewhere and look for an adventure of some sort. What kind of adventures did we have? Hmmm…. There was the surfing lesson, parachuting, and the time we thought the nanny was a burglar. Don’t know that story?

So, I am staying at the house of a doctor and his family, but the first 10 days he and his family were in South Chile for a vacation. So it was just me, Cony, and the nanny. Also, the doctor had his hardwood floor re-done, so we couldn’t walk through the front door. We had to use the sliding glass door to the kitchen, walk through the kitchen, outside to the pool, then into our room through another sliding glass door. We couldn’t lock the doors, because they didn’t have locks or keys. And we were limited to the kitchen, our room, and a little computer room to hang out in the house. Cony’s last day, we forgot the keys and she had to scale the wall to let us into the house, which after she did that made me feel real uncomfortable. I mean, it was rather easy (but incredibly funny to watch) for her to scale the wall, then enter the house with the unlocked doors. Later that night, before Cony and I were leaving to go to Papa Gallo for some drinks all of a sudden the door in the kitchen is pulled shut. Strange. Then the light goes on. Cony is like “Staci, there’s someone in the kitchen.” We totally didn’t think it was the nanny because she always talks to us, so we start freaking out. Not to mention, it was the weekend and we hadn’t seen her in 2 days, so we thought she was visiting family in Bolivia. There’s not much noise being made or anything, but we can see shadows. So I’m like, okay Cony we need to call the cops just in case you know. As soon as she starts whispering in her cell phone, the lights go out. Like 5 minutes later I see shadows in the window of the bedroom of the nanny, so I creep over the window with my mini pepper spray (thank you mommy). And I discovered that it was the nanny in there after all. But…. I mean, who the hell does that? Who the hell comes in late at night when two girls are there and doesn’t even speak to them. I mean honestly, we were scared to death. And we truly did not believe that the house was safe (robberies are pretty common here), so we went to Papa Gallo’s then the beach with friends until the sun came up.

That same night, while on the beach we for some reason decided it was a good idea to instead of walking down the ramp to the beach, we would run/walk/sink down the huge sand dune or whatever it was. Then, we ran up it like 3 times to go back into the house to get a sweatshirt, use the bathroom, etc. Talk about amusing…. Oh yeah, and the nanny apparently not caring about us very much locked the kitchen door from the outside. And took the key. Which meant we couldn’t get into our room…. Unless we walked on across the hardwood floor. So, we did what we had to do. Yeah, let’s see passed out at 7:30 a.m. get woken up around 9:30 by the man who did the floor and get lectured in Spanish….. not cool. I had no clue what he was saying. Spanish + early mornings after late nights = not happening

I’m sorry for all of you who are reading this and not caring. And Kelly, yes I know that I am probably rambling, buuuut Cony I know that you will appreciate these stories. So everyone else either quit reading or enjoy!

Hmmm…. Then there was the day when we were bored, but our feet hurt so incredibly bad that we could not possibly walk around the mall any longer. So we decided to see a movie. The only movie we could see was “Over the Hedge” only called “Vecinarios Invasores” and completely in Spanish. And we liked it…. Not so much the little kids climbing all (literally climbing) over the theater. Over chairs, crawling up and down the aisles….

Then, there was the time at Zofri when we bought clothes and the crazy salesman (who yes, spoke some English just not much and not very well. I mean my Spanish was better than his English, which didn’t say very much for him at the time.) wouldn’t let us leave the store. I think we said 50 times we did NOT want to buy jeans since we had already bought boots & jackets…. And then there was the crazy guy who like I thought was going to like attack me or something. La la la we were just walking along talking about boys and how cheap liquor is here and all of a sudden this creepy guy is like staring at me and walking towards me. And when I say staring in mean like creepy, staring with a passion into my eyes and my face. Like all the way to like 5 inches from my face, but thank god keeps walking in the other direction. “Cony, did we meet him last night with Johana or what? Who the hell is that?” She had no clue….. creepy is all I can say.

Cony and I almost got beat up by some women at the festival for the Virgin del Carmen in La Tirana. We were minding our own business waiting in line at the church to see the Virgin del Carmen when all of a sudden I get nudged in the hip. This women behind me is trying to get a head of me and Cony because her daughter or something was with other family in front of us. (This line was long & we had been waiting for quite some time) I mean this lady was honestly, rude. We were in line first and she was obviously behind us. She kept nudging me and nudging me, but Cony and I weren’t moving and we had the upper hand because the little fence thing was to our immediate left so we couldn’t be knocked out of place. Then, she nudges me again this time almost knocking me over and I finally turned and looked at her. She rattled off something in Spanish, which I ignored because I didn’t care too much. Then she said something else along the lines of me letting her in front of me and I was a brat and I looked at her just o-so-sweetly and in perfect English “I’m sorry mam’ but I don’t speak Spanish.” Cony & I won of course & walked up to see the Virgin (which wasn’t all that amazing actually)…. If you don’t think that was funny I totally understand…. But had you been there and seen this lady and her face ooo soooo funny. Especially since she knew I spoke Spanish….. it’s the little things in life which amuse me so much.

But Cony…. My favorite memory with you is when your dumb ass forgot to get your change. So, we decide while were at La Tirana to buy some souvenirs, which were like a dollar. We both pay with $20s (the money is different here, but to explain the exchange rate and pesos right now, just isn’t worth it) and bounce. Like 20 minutes later, we decide to buy another souvenir. Except Cony can’t find her money. I’m like, oh god you lost your wallet, someone robbed you. “Wallet, who needs a wallet? I just throw my money in my huge suitcase of a purse and try to find it later. It’s only tough to find when I have a zillion items in my purse and it’s pitch black outside….” So we’re in the middle of the street trying to find her money, her dad and her are going through her purse while Nicolas is holding his cell phone for light and I am silently laughing. Her dumb ass had forgotten to get her change from the woman earlier. So we had to walk all the way back across town and convince this woman that Cony didn’t get her change. Needless to say, she bought a wallet that night.

Cony my love…. Our goal lives on through me & I have fulfilled it the only problem is that your not here to enjoy it with me. But, when I return we will be reunited and create a new goal & live it up ;) MISS YOU!!!!