Monday, November 21, 2011

Street hustling and weight watching

On Friday evening, as I was walking back from class, I saw a street vendor selling chocolate bars along the side of the road.  Ever the connoisseur, I decided to evaluate one that I hadn't tried yet.  I chose some obscure one with almonds in it, and then reached for my wallet.  The chocolate bar cost 1000 pesos, and I only had a 20k bill in my pocket.  So I asked the guy if he could break it.  He nodded, and reached into his pocket.  He pulled out a roll of bills.  Judging by the color of the stack, they were all 1k, 2k, and 10k bills.  He slowly peeled off two 1k bills and one 2k bill, and then slowly grabs a 10 and hands it to me.  I hold my hand out to receive it.  He slowly started to put his money away and started to look in the other direction. 

Now, for those keeping track, I just received 14k change on a 20k bill, where the cost was 1k.  He started to look around for other customers, while my hand was still hanging out there, waiting for the rest of my change.  I literally raised my hand about a quarter of an inch, and started to say "oye...", and before I could get a second word in, he whips out his wallet (in his other pocket) with a stash of only 5k bills in it, and quickly gives me one of them with a smile.  I shot him my nastiest look, and then continued walking down the street.

I suppose I can't hate the guy for trying to hustle me.  And even then, it's nothing that would hold up in a court of law.  He could argue that he was just taking an extra-long time to pull out all the change from his pockets.  But he was clearly trying to scam an extra 5k pesos off what he thought was going to be an easy mark.  Guess again, bitch.

In related, yet opposite news, I am now down to 68.0 kilos. For those who think in pounds (like me), that's 149.6.  I haven't been this light since I was cutting weight for wrestling in 12th grade.  And before I get any strongly worded emails telling me to eat something, just know that I feel great.  I'm running, working out 3-4 times a week, and I walk everywhere.  I haven't cut calories in any discernable way, the only difference is I don't eat normal American portions at most meals, and I've avoided refined sugars for the most part.  That's it.  And in doing so, I've managed to shed nearly 20 lbs in 3.5 months.

One of the other consequences of that - many of my pants currently do not fit me.  Even the skinnier pair of jeans I used to have are now just regular jeans.  I guess I'm going to have to go shopping down here at some point...

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