Lifting in the Dark.

Apagon
This comes from the verb "apagar", which means "to turn off". Apagon: We call it a "blackout" in English. These are fairly common, and the power when it is on, is what we call in the USA "dirty power". This means irregular. Volgate fluctuates. I knew this before, but remembered clearly when it fried my wireless modem that I brought down.
Yesterday I was planning on going to the gym. The lights went out, but I went anyway, supposing that perhaps where the gym was, there the light would be also.
It wasn´t.
It was rather strange to be listening to my IPOD in a dark room surrounded by strangers lifting weights.
The gym was exactly not like the 24-Hour-Fitness of which I am so fond. There are weights.
Description: Three stories. First floor, free weights. Second floor, stationary bikes of varied quality. Third floor, some kind of aerobics-step-dance class taught as a group. The teacher of the aerobic deal HAS to be gay. If not, then I am shocked. The building isn´t in great shape, but it isn´t terrible. It has a monthly rate of 40 soles for just free weights, or you can pay 1.50 ./S (that is the "dollar sign" if you will- for soles, from here on out, that´s what I am using) every time you want to go in.
After the uncomfortable grunting and heaving in the dark with strangers, I opted to run the distance (which was probably a few miles) back to the house because the power was still out and there is nothing to do when the power is out.
Luckily, it came back on before I got there.

In a completely unrelated side note, I had a delicious cake for my birthday. Too bad there weren´t two gallons of delicious skim milk to accompany it.
The tradition here is to sing "Happy Birthday" in English (wierd), and then in spanish. Than to blow out the candles. Then to taste the cake. At the cake tasting part, it is expected that someone will shove the whole face in the cake. I had this happen on my mission with a vengence, but this time around, I really wanted to eat the cake rather than ruin a portion with my face so I held it above the would be pushers and kept clean.