Dinner and torn dollars

Last night I went out to dinner with 3 men from the CLM. We ate a very authentic looking Peruvian resturant that served Italain food. The food, as I have mentioned many times, was excellent.

During our dinner talk, one of the men, said, "Ryan, you are definitely Italian!" I didn't know to take that as a compliment or an insult. At first, I thought he meant my physical traits, but he was actually talking about my quick wits and the ability to match their banter. I guess I've never thought about that much before, and I was surprised that they've had that much contact with Italians, but they correctly reminded me that they travel to Rome and have many Italian contacts.

After dinner, we paid and walked outside. The waiter, however, tracked us down outside saying that we hadn't paid enough. A couple of the men I was with got a little irritated by this and we marched inside. The issue was not that we hadn't paid enough, but they weren't accepting a $20 US bill they we were attempting to use, because it had a small tear in it. They claimed the bank does not accept US Dollars that have tears or stains on them.

It became an interesting topic of conversation, because I know for a fact that there is an office in the US Government that will accept mutilated bills as long as they can put more than half of it back together.

Regardless, it was a good leasson for me to learn about early on!

Also, please pray for my boss Alejandro. He just sent me a message saying he's on his way to the hospital because they fear he may have a apendicitis!