Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Ryan and I both got here around 2:30 or so in the afternoon.  We were met at the airport by a nice young woman named Marisa.  No problems with the luggage; the guy at customs asked me if I was here for work purposes and I said yes, told him I was ‘una cantante’.  (Even though I’m not really sure that’s the right word for ‘singer’!) He had me open up my guitar and asked me if I was taking it home with me — I told him ‘por supuesto… esa guitarra es mi vida!’ He didn’t even need me to open my suitcase, which was the one with all the shirts that they might have charged me for.  Nice of them to let it slide, because every penny counts on this tour.


We’re staying at the university itself, in the same building where we’ll be playing tomorrow ( = today).  I think this is a dorm room, or a hostel-type place.  We each got our own room for tonight and tomorrow night also.  Very cool.  They gave us tickets so we could eat dinner in their cafeteria, which we did.  Dinner was fried ham and cheese sandwiches, ‘tortillas’ (which is more like quiche, very unlike the tortillas back home), stewed peppers and some sort of papas (potatoes) dish which looked sort of like fried stuffed chiles without the chiles inside.  Before dinner we walked around town a little. Found a 7-11 on the corner (yep, a 7-11!) and bought myself a phone card so I could call John back home.  It took a few tries before I finally figured out the dialing method, but I got John at work and it was great to hear his voice.

After dinner we watched some TV in the student commons area, with me attempting to quickly translate all the news for Ryan.  It was all local stuff, no news of the sniper investigation back home, which is what I really wanted to find out about.  We then went out and bought some beer (Amstel in miniature bottles) and went back to Ryan’s room to play a few games of Scrabble.  That’s the best way I know to catch up with somebody!!  I had my iPod hooked up to my laptop and just let it play random songs.  While we played Scrabble we talked and talked, about just everything you can think of.  I’m so glad Ryan’s here, I can’t even tell you.  Well, sure I can.  I don’t have that many close friends, and he’s definitely one of ‘em, so it’s really great to talk b.s. and hash things out with him, no matter what the subject.  You name it, we talked about it.

Tomorrow (= today) is our first show.  I talked to the promoter (Rafa) on the phone a few times, so he could get details on my setup, and he seemed really excited and pleased that we’re here.  Everyone’s been very nice, and it doesn’t hurt that I speak Spanish!  I have my mom to thank for that.  Thanks Mama, it sure comes in handy.