Soles (s./) to USD ($)

Went to the clinic up the road here in Surco to have my teeth & 'mushroom' feet checked out.
It was s./8 to get in to see the doctors.  <<For that I got to speak w/ a dentist & a dermatologist! 
For s./10 more I got an X-Ray for my tooth.

(sorry, don't mean to be gross, just thought it was kinda cool getting an x-ray in a 3rd world country)

At s./140 I think the medicine for my feet is expensive (*& according to Marlene, this medicine in particular IS expensive here in Peru).
I'm not complaining thou... all that was s./158 ...which is like $58 US!!

Diagnosis:  my tooth is healthy & 'beautiful' (pain was probably just from stress & clenching them in my sleep) AND my feet will be not stinky in a few weeks!

Mushroom toes

Today I conquered the beauty salon jungle:  Susan Hang's 
*Sidebar; one of my best haircuts ever! 
ALSO: shampoo, awesome haircut, manicure & pedicure ALL for just $26 US
are you kidding me!?!?

My mop needed a serious trim & --it's very unusual for me-- but my feet have stunk since I got here
(I mean STUNK!) & I assumed a pedicure would fix this.
**I've been blaming the Croc's

So as the girl is whittling her way thru my pedicure, she starts telling me that she can't paint my toes...I don't understand why (b/c nobody speaks a word of English).  & after MUCH deliberation around the salon another girl comes up to me w/ a piece of paper with the word "mushroom" written on it.

Apparently my toes have a mushrooms growing in/on/around/out of them.  I'm told it's because of the very humid climate here.

Well, now I know why my feet stink. 

In the US I'm such a clean girl ...but here in Peru I'm just disgusting. 

5' 5" Super Modela

Exams are done & I saw the SUN last week for the 1st time!!!
It lasted 47 minutes.
I almost cried.

Also there are 2 Americans here; one's this semi-obnoxious asian chic from NY &the other is a very very VERY (did i say "very"?) short cocky lil' guy...neither one of them gave a good 1st impression, but the shorty asked me to meet them out for drinks this next week...
I'll be surprised if i like this guy...but I hope I am surprised!
Culturally this is a married-&-three-kids-by-24  kinda nation, so I'll take any kind of social life I can get!

Did lots this past weekend!   Saturday (last minute) Martin remembered they were supposed to be at his cousin's Bautizo (baptism). So we made it to the reception at a very nice big house, just a few blocks away from here. The hosts, Martin's cousins, speak excellent English & so after kissing every stranger at this reception goodbye  (while they each tell me the one thing they know how to say in English - so cute and probably the equivilant to us over-pronouncing "Adios" to the foreign exchange student!) we stayed & had a glass of wine w/ Anna-Louisa & Flavio.
I've never met a couple with more degrees! Very smart and very sweet.

We woke up early Sunday morning (w/ a champagne headache from the night before) and the WHOLE family took off to Ñaña, a place in the foothills outside Lima.  The destination ended up being a Police Club (Marlene's father & oldest brother were/are cops).  We BBQ'd and played volleyball/soccer all day...had a great time. 
I even ended up w/ a little sunburn <<that's what I'm talkin about!

 
another type of taxi...covered motorcycles/tricycle thingy's

National Lampoon's Peruvian Vacation!

Pablo at the Police Club in Ñaña, Lima

This 1st month was quite bleek but there are sunny spots to cling to..*NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH are YOUR comments on this journal & my FB page. I have appreciated every single word of encouragement.
I was walking down the street the other day when a well dressed old man got out of his Mercedes& stopped me with "Good afternoon my Queen" (in Spanish of course).
It was little, but it made me feel like a 5'5" super modela for a minute!

Diggin' for Gold

Two things I'm not sure about...
#1, why are these Peruvian men CONSTANTLY picking their noses? 
I mean not ALL...but definitely LOTS!  They look me dead in the eye when I'm talking while they shove 3/4 their hand up their nose.  It's SO hysterically disgusting.  THREE students unabashadly did this today alone...and one even pulled out a roll of toilet paper and started cleaning his ear while he answered a question in class.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 

And secondly, I'm not sure what happened but http://mauinow.com/2011/08/24/no-tsunami-threat-in-hawaii-after-6-peru-quake/  I think I experienced my 1st earthquake...it wasn't knock-the-pictures-off-the-walls ....it felt more like electricity was shaking its way through the building.

Gaso-lina!

Most days i catch a ride to school w/ Martin. We're usually late (b/c he's on Peruvian time ;) and the car seeme to always be on "E"
So today we finally conked out in the middle of the road on the way home. So what happens is that he locks me in the car, grabs a used plastic bag out of the trunk and goes to the nearest gas station & fills up this grocery bag ...WITH GAS!

Cats vs. Rats

My first month is winding down. 
Under the umbrella of "Time flies when you're having fun"  it feels like I've been here for a year. 
But there's a million silver linings...
for one I am conquering a difficult move riddled with:  food poisoning, dysentery, 'lady-week', horrible toothache, *not to mention severe homesickness+++ combined with you're A-typical high-stress situations: new job/city/country/language/culture/money. 
If you are praying for me, Thank You...I have been sent a guardian angel of a host mother here!
Two, I'm making a good dent in a new idioma, Spanish.  I may be carving out a career path by process of elimination but regardless, I'm carving it out huh!?
and 3, I found a shop that sells Old Navy tshirts for s/5! ..that's like $2 US
they have weird labels in the collar but now I'm warm!  :)  

Also found that i can rely on the fact that my gringa face will always get charged more $$ in the markets...I gotta get hustlin on my bargaining skills. ugh.    I ask the price and then have Marlene (for example) go to the same shop & ask the price of the same purse & it's magically s/20 less for her! %$#@!

Anywhoo, there's a pretty entertaining park a few blocks from school: Kennedy Plaza.  The other afternoon I saw 2 dudes, about my age, spinning techno in this concrete seated-recess in the ground while a bunch of 50-60yr olds sat around boppin their heads & eating their lunch. To add another splash of fun, this park is riddled, I MEAN RIDDLED with cats.  I've been mesmerized with this situation for the past week & just today found out that the local gov't passed some provision for a TON of cats to be placed in the park to keep the rats out b/c the rats were eating all the flower seeds!  So the cats are residents and apparently have free reign in the adjacent church for shelter too!
when it comes to Cats vs. Rats...i co-sign this decision.

This week is exams at school.  I have no idea what I'm supposed to do (again). The training program here is titled:  "Sink or Swim"... I'm doing a good job of treading water!
The other teachers from the US are coming the end of next week! (Yea!!)  Also hopefully that means enough people for a SPANISH CLASS!!

ps, 25 days NO television!

my 1st Peña

This week took a MUCH NEEDED up-swing yesterday:  One. I made it through the week and I still don't have Varicela (chicken pox)! phew. 
Two. I have started to catch my stride with lesson planning... started.
And 3, went out for some *LIVE* Peruvian music, dancing & sangria at a local Peña (< Afro-Peruvian & Criollo music club).  & this morning woke up and had breakfast w/ the whole family
p.s. 10 people live at this address!

Breakfast ingredients *today:  scrambled eggs, sliced hot dogs & fresh cheese stuffed into a roll, fresh strawberries/creme/water blended into a drink, fruit, flan & sliced dried camotes (sweet potatoes).

"so ya' had a bad day..."

I'm having a hard couple days.  I miss EVERYBODY.

I ate something crazy yesterday i guess (**the funny thing is that i LOVED the meal & actually had 2nd's and asked for the recipe!!! haha)

...little did i know i would be throwing-up green cilantro-rice & chicken all night

Luckily Marlene is a nurse & jumped right on it! She really is great as a host...she's exactly who you'd want someone you love to live with  when they travel!  

PLUS Vanessa & Pablo just got chicken-pox & Martin(dad) and Luciana are both sick too ... but she is checking on me/worried about me every minute too! Just another superwoman I suppose.

The language thing is frustrating right now too...although I'm told my pronunciation, for what i can say, is fantastic  :)

it's just that I'm in a world where i can't really talk to anyone w/o it being exhausting.

The job is tougher than i thought too...No training. ZERO. just thrown in.

+I HATE GRAMMAR! What was i thinking!  blah blah blah blah blah

  

and it's been chilly and grey since i got here << so I'm sure that isn't helping

*Honestly the sky hasn't broken ONCE! bizarre.

OOh-kay, that's enuf wining outta me!  geeze

Shut the front door, I'm in Peru right?!

TP

I am hardly embarrassed because there was no way I could've known.

Apparently you do NOT put toilet paper in the toilet here. This is an absolute. You'd think that'd been somewhere in all the literature I've read.  Even in public places...even at McDonalds!
Let's just say I've single-handedly dismantled the septic system in my host family's home.  There isn't enuf inscense in India for what I've done.
The irony is that the maid told me. Yes, they have a maid & I can't flush the toilet! 

Not exactly 3rd world ...but then again not 1st either...

The Bad, The Ugly & The Good

Welp, 1st week is Lima is done!  >>phew!<< 
it was 0-90mph!  Monday I went to Intrax to touch base/meet local contact, Paula (pron: POW-Luh :)  very nice girl.  Tuesday was my 1st day at Euroidiomas; I observed a few classes, discussed a few things w/ Alejandra Gamarra Saldarriaga (director), & was given just one class. hmmm... BUT IT STARTED THE NEXT MORNING!  So they gave me the books & sent me on my way, ZEE-RO preparation/rules/expectations...NOTHING.  Then, after that it seemed like everytime I turned around they gave me another class! aaaahh  
By Friday I had 4 classes (including splitting a Saturday 9a-5p class w/ another instructor: a self proclaimed "Crazy-Grammar Lady" that wore lipstick like she just got done pushing a shopping-cart all night)
In total I have 30hrs IN CLASS...not to mention the prep..
THE GOOD:
Before I got here I read that Peruvians like to help as much and in as many ways as they have resources for. A type of self-esteem. This, so far, is very true!  All the teachers, if I so much as look sideways, will stop-drop-&-roll to explain...whatever! And even beyond that; they quit what they're doing & physically walk you there!
I asked Alejandra's secretary, Geraldina, a quick question, and next thing I knew she was walking me through the Inca markets, translating & bargaining for a sweater for me...on her lunch hour!

p.s.  it's freezing here...the 50's in the am/ pm. Daytime gets up in the 60's.
But this is PERU! what-the-heck!?

Ok 3 classes tomorrow~back to lesson planning!

Plaza Mayor

I saw the Plaza Mayor in the center of Lima today ~by accident...
Went to orientation at Intrax & after Martin (host father) had to buy/sell some parts (he has his own small co. making plastic fittings for dentist chairs). There is literally STREETS and MARKETS of  dental accessory suppliers & NOTHING else.  Next to that is a solid city block of eye-glass stores. ALL THEY SELL IS PERSCRIPTION GLASSES.  Right in downtown Lima!  I don't get it.
Martin, Marlene &I are walking down these crowded streets then all of a sudden..THE Plaza Mayor!  it was pretty cool to see *outside of a magazine...but it's Monday night and there were soo many people walking around, it looked like the Superbowl just let out!

The Del Aguila's are just the best.  Laughing all the time!

Ok, I start Euroidiomas in the morning!

Corazones de Pollo

Well here's one thing i didn't expect:  All my websites are converted to Spanish. 

...this should be fun! hahaha

After tooo much traveling I have finally landed in Lima, Peru.   (*I figured an airline with such cheap flights wouldn't be a 4-Star experience...I was right. Not even a bag of peanuts for 9 hours of flying!)

Also, Ft Lauderdale may not be a layover I'd pick again. Security was worse than O'Hare and my last burger & glass of tap water had much to be desired.

ANYWHO~My host family is WONDERFUL...not much English in the house but somehow we've been talking non-stop.  Landed last night about 10, it was 70degreen & humid, but today it quite cold.  Straight from the airport was some of the craziest driving I have ever experienced (which is saying A LOT!). The lines on the road are a waste of paint. We drove back to their place all along the ocean. The thick air was a nice change from the re-breathed interior of a plane.  **I'm back on the South Pacific!

We dropped off my bags and met (host family dad)Martin's sister & her family for a very late dinner at Roky's, a Polish-themed Peruvian food family restaurant w/ karaoke upstairs and a pit of plastic balls for kids to play in downstairs.  I came within a hair's breath of eating chicken hearts.

Today started with a late breakfast of leftovers from the chicken/steak/hearts dinner. I gave the kids (Valeria11, Luciana6, Vanessa5 & Pablo2) some American candy bars and now they call me 'tia' :)
...this afternoon was just relaxing and more talking en Espanol.  Met (host family mom)Marlene's brothers: Caesar & Roman. A very timid ex-nanny stopped by, said 'hola' & left.  They seemed to think that was normal?  Roman stayed for dinner & tried to convert my internet to English..dunno-we'll see.  Also they made a concoction of rum, coffee, milk & something else that tastes like a hot Kaluah - I am in love with it!