Adios tradition

Things are getting better -- then they get worse -- then they get better --
(rinse lather repeat). 
I think it's just the onslaught of the holiday season. Thanksgiving was non-existent & Christmas has been on it's way to doing the same. Marlene is in Panama till Feb. I think & the grandparents are going up to spend Christmas with Cesar. That would leave me with Martin, the kids, Roman & Gabby for Christmas here.

But today was a good day.
After a long weekend of wallowing in self-pity, loneliness & homesickness, I decided to get my butt out of the house & meet Andhi & Frisbee people at the Faro de Miraflores (lighthouse on the malecon).  It turned out to be a simple but great day!
Just one other dude, Carlos, showed up. So the 3 of us scooted down the way & ended up playing Frisbee all day overlooking the Pacific (*thanks to SPF 45) next to the massive all day Sunday drum-circle (of like 20-30ppl)! 

And if you can improve at Frisbee, I am.  I learned to throw it some-kinda backwards today!






Andhi & Carlos posing in front of the ocean with the frisbee & sunset.

  

<<there's a small earthquake going on RIGHT NOW! AAH!>>

Anyways, we even recruited some young kid to play too ... It was a beautiful sunny day & the time just flew! 
Peter & Sandra showed up around 7.  Sandra invited us over for Christmas - so I guess I'll be having dinner w/ my buddy, his girlfriend & just her 3 sisters (since the rest of her family is fighting). Adios tradition.




In Peru, apparently they have street signs for Asians.

  

Other things:

Got our December bonus pay - much needed since we all only have one class this month.

Came home tonite to my brother/sister roommate/landlords curled up on a chair giggling watching Sex in the City. They are awkwardly close sometimes.

An old friend from DLR days, Tait,  found me & wants to come down to Peru for a visit. Dunno if it'll happen - last I saw him he was a quite the party boy, but it would be nice to have someone to travel around with. He sounds pretty amp'd but at this point he doesn't even have a passport (so not exactly holding my breath).

Also, haven't seen the humongous cucarachas for a couple days so hopefully they're gone. Hopefully.

P.S., I just want to send a shout-out to WATER;
both hot & cold.

I'm really glad you're back in my life on a reliable basis!

<<that 'tremmor' just stopped -- 11minutes later!!>>

Tickled Pink---------------

This post is dedicated to:

Pablo "I-just-wanna-make-it-to-your-blog" Chuquin

 Yep, this happened. Matching shoes and everything.

What's not to love?!

Mullet-dom

This week has wrapped up kinda nicely... I had my last Saturday Convo. III
class..students like me, one of them even travels 2.5 hours each way for my class! wow.
Verbal gratuity is getting me through this whole experience. This teaching thing is soo much like waitressing; It can be the pits but more often than not, it's pretty rewarding.

Friday I got one of THE worst haircuts of my life. A direct hit on mullet-dom.
AND she mis-dyed all my hair: Darkened my hair but lightened my roots & bleached my one highlight white. not blonde. I've been flat-ironing it all weekend cuz as soon as this mess curls up I'ma look like the Salt-n-Pepa "Push It" video.
It's the 2009 Hipster-Cut.

ANYWHOoo, went out Saturday nite w/ an over-mixed group of people. Normally I'm a more-the-merrier type but this one went wrong.

Long story short. We end up at a gay club with a few out-and-proud's, a guy whos in the closet & a purity-ring-wearing-drunk-homophobette. It was all weird.

This evening frisbee'd on the Pacific O with Andy, Silvana, Neko ...Peter showed up later be the alpha-male  peanut-gallery (of course :)P
actually tossed with Andy by the ocean a couple times this weekend...turning into a nice pastime.

So apparently every Sunday nite there's this Red-Path/Hare Krishna/Hippie drum circle on the ocean so we walked over & checked it out for awhile

*obviously it wasn't long till the police dogs showed up.

Got home & came across 3 cockroaches literally the size of mice. Now I can't sleep.



GAMI salon&spa

I don't know which side is the "Business" and which is "Party" but I accidentally received a mullet haircut today.
Not to mention, light-ish brown hair with lighter roots & a white stripe in the back corner of my head.

When the color started itching she proceeded to rub it into my scalp. I'm no hairdresser but that's the opposite of where I wanted that dye to be.

It cost 100soles.  aka $37.

the New Place

So I moved...2 weeks ago now.  I'm living w/ a family that rents out rooms ...all the men live upstairs (including the dad & 1of the brothers) and the women downstairs (so far it's just me and the daughter aka landlord).

They're a nice family. The ad was for an native English speaking woman...the daughter wants to improve her English so she can study Anthropology abroad.

So since I've lived here I've come to realize that girl Ivonne (who, prefers to be called "Neko" which is Japanese for 'cat') goes to bed by 10:30 every night. Not exactly compatible for this night-owl...apparently I was watching a movie on my computer too loud the other nite b/c I came home the next day to this note with a new pair of headphones on the doorknob:

also, I have a huge window in my bedroom that looks into the back hall/walkway/utility room where everyone does their laundry...it's fine except my curtains are basically white sheer netting..so everyone can look at me while i sleep.  Also, the Neko's room is kitty-corner from me so we can see into each others room all the time...ps, she has a naked mannequin in her window that always scares me (for various reasons, obvi.)

The other day so told me that she has tons of movies if I wanted to watch them...cool right?

So when I went to look thru them (in the living room) the other nite I realized they were all either scary movies, porn or a mix of both genres.  It's all just a little weird.

Also, there is a very smelly dog...harmless but smellll-ly. It stays outside but you can still smell it in the house.

Oh well...there's not only water, but HOT WATER here & clean pots-n-pans!

Ok, here's where I live in the world (for now :)



That's all ...gotta go to work!

1 Block from the Pacific Ocean!

Today is moving day.

Last night was this hap-hazard night-out, that just got weird.
It was a pre-planned night of chifa (Peruvian-Chinese food)& dancing for Anna-Louisa's birthday (Martin`s cousin) at El Jade. So as I'm all ready &waiting to leave, when apparently Marlene & Martin get in a big fight so now we're 2 hours late **in Peru, this is like being 5 minutes late & now Martin is staying home.
So anyways, we show up to what looks like a nursing-home-night-out & Anna-Louisa (who suffers from some type of bi-polar condition) has obviously over-dosed on her med's.
Also, what I thought was sangria OBVIOUSLY turned out to be just grape juice.
Aye-yie-yiie

So I'm packing now..
Again actually, because I went to move to another place last week & after the guy said "ya, see ya tomorrow!"  he never called me back the next day till like 10pm. seemed too odd so I bailed on that departmento.

I do love this family (*especially Alberto, the grandfather) & they have taken care of me the best they can, but it's definitely time to go...
Here's a few things I won't be missing:

• yes, those are the pans EVERYTHING is cooked in here

• that's me washing the shammy-cloth that is my bath towel in the sink...sooo, I am THAT dirty after a shower...imagine before...then add in that there's no water here 1/2 the time...

• meat in the freezer does not need to be wrapped...those chicken wings that are frozen to the shelf today are din-din tomorrow!!

• couldn't figure out the problem with the ironing board catching fire till I realized they had put the cover OVER the original plastic wrap

Ok... back to re-packing! My next apt. is about $100 more per month but it's just a 20 minute walk to work & 1 BLOCK from the ocean.



Bamboozled & Immigration

I'm always amazed how filthy everything is here (the pollution level is astounding) but somehow people generally don't stink. As it turns out, I was just being bamboozled by winter. Yesterday was quite warm & sunny...

"Tah-dahhh"

Peru turned out to be one big scratch-n-sniff.
All my buses now smell of butt-cracks, dead fish & teenage hormones.

ANYWAY.....

So we had a big ol' meeting with Intrax, the company that we all paid $$$$ to co-ordinate us here in Peru.  The long & short of it is; they're admitting that we paid for...lets say a "hamburger" & they haven't even given us an empty bun! Like NO-THING!

• 1 wk Paid Training:   Nada ...more like:  "Here's your books, there's your class. Go."
• Full Time Work Schedule:   We average from 9-26 hours per week
• Housing Assistance:  I don't have water where I live & I literally think Peter is sleeping in the park tonight.
• Visa Assistance:  It went like this:  "Get a taxi to the 'migration office. Look for Sheila."
• Spanish Lessons:   Because none of us have any grammar or vocabulary OBVIOUSLY it's a conversation course. <<<this is a time joke that isn't funny)

So NOW they're offering to refund our program costs if we drop out of the program.
That hardly sounds like enough.

Thursday -for some reason which Intrax didn't know much about-  I had to go to immigration alone.
**Andy & Hannah-Montana went last week but I was told I didn't have to go since I had just fled to Chile last week**
Anyways I spent almost an hour that morning begging taxi's to take me to the immigration office.
NONE of them would.
So I called Daniel at Intrax & he finally suggested that I don't go. The school then got upset with me & said I have to find a way there but no one could tell me how.  I ended up taking a bus to Euroidotas then a cab from there to downtown.
Note:  If I ask for the taxi, it is 28soles, if a Peruvian asks it's 10soles. 
I actually cried in the cab *from frustration* the whole way to immigration. I can only imagine what the cab driver was thinking...
 SILVER LINING!  That afternoon I took a shower WITH WARM WATER!!! the stars aligned for me
but this silver lining got recanted when I went to see YET ANOTHER apartment that, in the ad, was an all inclusive bedroom for $280/month but when i got there it turned out to be a 3rd floor stark room with a closet in the hallway & sharing a bathroom w/ some German chick & a cat. Also, the cost magically went up to $400. 
The style of business here is very confusing.
**I realize this rent is cheap but remember, I am only making $600-700/month here.


So ya, you could say my eczema is flaring up.