The coordinator came to work late this morning, so I had to sit outsde for ca 30 min waiting to get into the Idiomas Ruge office. It´s quite nice to sit there and watch people. The difficlut thing is that in the street there is always the risk that people came and talk to you.

The first person who approached me was an old man. He came up to me, offered his hand as if to greet and asked if I speak any Spanish. I did not shake his hand and gestured that my Spanish is minuscule. I was trying to avoid a conversation. Well, I was stupified when the man started to speak to me in English. His Englihs was not very good, proabably the level of my Spanish, but nonetheless he was speaking English. I looked at his clothes and realized that the man probably wasn´t a beggar. He asked me the usual questions: where are you from, how old are you, and are you married. Then he compliented me on my beautiful eyes, wished me a good day, we shook hands, and he took off. I was amazed.

Ten minutes pass and an old woman approaches me. This time I was right, she came to ask me for money even though she was not badly dressed. Also the old woman starts by asking whether I speak any Spanish. Again, I gesture "very little" and hope she´ll go away. But, to my amazement, the woman starts speaking English to me. Again, her English isn´t very good but she can make herself understood. She explaines that she has cancer or has had an operation for cancer or something and needs money to buy medicine. I tell her that I only carry enough money to take the bus. She starts asking me about how long I have been in Venezuela, what I do, where I´m from etc. Then she explains that everybody on the steet knows her, in other words that she is not a thief, and wishes me a nice day. When my students arrive (the musicians) I tell them about what happened to me when I was waiting for the coordinator and they are amazed. These things happen only to foreigners, I guess.

Kasia has her own place now, she moved in yesterday. I haven´t seen it yet, but as far as I know it is similar to mine, that is she rents one room in some student girl´s apartment. Kasia is all happy and excited about it, although there is no air conditioning in the room. What I really wanted to say about Kasia´s place is that she has to open the door to the house with a credit card. I don´t know exactly why, maybe the landlady does not have a key for her yet so she has to pick the lock every time she wants to enter the house. So, yesterday evening we stood outside of Kasia´s buliding at maybe 3 in the morning picking the lock with a credit card. It was surreal.