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.