Day 18 – (6/17/2008) - Acne Jeans & Lost Camera

Sad update. While we were walking around with Georgia waiting for our dessert in Cancan Pizza (food again, crappy BTW) in Hyper Maxima, we had to go to the special place to leave Georgia’s special gift (special gifts again :) ), and I left our camera in that place. And so it is lost forever and ever. We are trying to borrow one from Dan’s parents’ friend, to hold us over until Dan’s mom comes. So will have to ration the remaining pictures (2, below).

Back to the start of the day. It was raining today. Georgia said on the way to the kindergarten that she would not cry. And she sat sullenly in the stroller but really did not cry. But when we got to there she did start to cry. Kids came over to say hello and asked for her name. Between the cries she managed that. During a short break I slipped out. The pic is the view from Tauro Hill in the rain.

Even though restored buildings look great, some old buildings that had not been restored have some kind of charm that disappears (see the old missionary church pick from the day ago). Exterior restoration seems to happen at incredible pace. There was a scaffolded building on Basanavicaus that got plastered and painted and done in the two weeks we were here. Now the batch of buildings next to it just got plastered up.

Just-in-Time operations would be really helpful to the crew that is responsible for removing pavement stones – they are removed in large portions of the city and are lying around in piles especially around intersections. There is work going on in two or three places tops. Maybe there are two teams competing – one that removes the stones and the other that puts them back, and the former one is winning.

I saw a wonderful name of the store that either went out of business or is just starting up. In case it is unclear from the picture, it is ACNE, not ACME. Would explain why they went out of business if that is the case.

They served lunch early and Georgia was eating when I came in. When one eats, one does not cry :). The food was really good. Tomorrow they would be separating into their groups and moving to their rooms and there will be about 6 kids, all girls, in Georgia’s and two teachers. There are two older Asian kids (one half-Japanese) and many have really interesting names for the place, like Edwin.

Alicia came in the afternoon and we went to Maxima. The end is in the beginning.