Waking up is (not) hard to do....

Every morning, beginning earlier than 5:00AM, I am woken by at a minimum one of these sounds (usually all of them combined):

• The evil dog from next door (who leaps up to bite my hands every time I am in his presence), yelping - I fantasize about kicking him off the ledge of our 4th story entranceway.
• The 1 year old child that lives directly below my room, crying.
• A boombox blasting music.
• At least 2 car alarms going off simultaneously in the parking lot, which happens to be approximately 10 feet from our building.
• Repeated car horns (Colombians LOVE using their horn... I'm here, don't pull out yet, I'm leaving, I am the only car on the road but feel like announcing myself...)
• Women chatting at high volume.
• Motorcycles revving by.

Now, in order for you all to get the full picture of these noises, you must picture an apartment on the 4th floor, but completely and entirely open. The window is the entire wall, and there is no screen, just pure open air. The door to my room, as well as the rest of the doors in the apartment, have gaps between the door and the ceiling a foot tall. This creates a situation in that I can hear LITERALLY every noise that happens in the rooms in this apartment, plus in the rooms in the apartment below ours, plus outside. Ugh.

THEN, I hop in the shower that does not have hot water. Of course, it is rather warm here, but not so warm that I wouldn't want warm water for a shower. I even used warm water in Tanzania! But it is surely the best wake up call you could get, splashing your face, head, back in cold water.

Then I eat breakfast. Today breakfast was an arepa (yum) and a hot dog.

And that is a morning in Ibagué.