Rememberences of Cali

Things I will miss, won’t miss, and will always remember (in a funny way, in a good way, in a bad way) about Cali….

-Mannequins with big breasts, mannequins modeling disposable contact precautions gowns
-Spanx for men and women, and all the signs advertising them
-More shoe stores than there are people in Cali
-Tight, shapely jeans
-Men being okay with doing aerobics at the gym
-Lack of personal space in the gym classes
-Traffic lights turning red and yellow together, as a warning they are about to turn green
-Inability of people to move out of the way on the bus to let people off before trying to get on
-Huge, cheap, prix-fixe lunches, small dinners
-Lulo, lulata, oblea, fresh fruit everywhere, arequipa
-Bakeries on every corner
-Open coal grills and arepas and hot chocolate on every corner
-Ice cream on every corner
-The ice cream man pushing the ice cream cart while it plays the song "Fur Elise" very loudly
-Pre-programmed voices running a long repeating loop of announcements, trying to sell fresh fruit on the street, very loudly, over and over again "Rica rica rica!!!"
-Identical coffee cups wherever I’ve had coffee, saying Café Colombia, with the Colombian flag
-Kids’ amusement parks at every shopping mall
-Cartoon characters for every fast food chicken restaurant
-Individual packets of one piece of gum you can buy on the street
-Friendly taxi drivers, friendly people in general
-Everybody greeting you, all the time, with an entire conversation
-Every single person always asking me how I like Cali and Colombia, when I came and when I’m leavnig
-Everybody doing everything “con gusto”
-Too much personal attention at clothing/shoe stores
-Slow hospital elevators
-Nurses wearing contact precautions gowns, caps, and face masks 24/7
-Pedestrians never ever having the right of way, not enough crosswalks
-Surprising lack of good enough cafes given all the coffee they grow here
-Every house with an open courtyard
-Parking attendants on the street
-Toilet paper doesn’t go in the toilet, it goes in the garbage
-All there is to do at night is go out salsa dancing
-Party buses
-Reliable 5 pm breeze
-The way the clouds look at dusk as they hover over the Occidental mountains, houselights flickering, Cristorey statue glowing green as he watches over Cali