Happy Anniversary to Me!

Fun Fact No. 72: Sugar daddy says what? Apparently it´s all the rage here to set up your young (betwen 14 and 18 year old) daughter with an older (between 24 and 60) guy so he can pay for everything an she doesn´t have to work. Nasty.



So today´s my 10 month anniversary in Peru. I got here on Monday, September 25, 2006. And I leave on Monday, August 6, 2007. Whoa! And today I had the most revealing interview of all my time here. If only I could stay about another 10 months...just kidding! I´ll be home soon! Although I can´t imagine the wrinkly skin I´ll have when I´m 40. No matter how much I protect my skin with sunscreen and long shirts, I´m still brown, brown, brown. Alas alack...damn motorcycle.

Speaking of motorcycles, I think I´m going to hold off on selling it so that I can have my ride waiting for me when I (hopefully) come down here in December. I´m not sure if it´s a good idea or not, but I think it´s what I´m going to do for the time being.

It´s National Book Week here in Peru, and that means book fairs, author signings, concerts and parades. It´s great fun and fantastic because there are still a number of books left to buy before I leave.

I´m trying not to depress myself. But I know I´m going to miss my people here so much. But at the same rate, I´ve missed my people there so much that I think it evens out. A few things things I can´t WAIT to do are:

1. run on Town Lake with Karla
2. drink wine at home with my girls
3. eat a spinach salad at Mother´s
4. Barton Springs with everyone and anyone!
5. ride my bicycle
6. eat more greens in general. And strawberries. No strawberries in this part of the jungle.
7. Flightpath chai. yummy....
8. smbc

and a few things I´m going to miss doing are:

1. ride my motorcycle. I can´t believe how much I love it!
2. go dancing every weekend
3. grilled plantain balls (tacacho)...so good and so greasy!
4. fresh squeezed juice every day
5. rivers. looking at them, dreaming of them, swimming in them, canoeing in them, loving them. The Colorado is nice, but then there´s the Amazon and its tributaries.
6. pirated goods. wow.
7. tooling around town with my friends and randomly hitting up a swimming hole on a hot and lazy sunday.
8. ceviche with Mario


Austin wins, but the things I´ve seen, lived, experienced, loved, hated, learned here in Iquitos make it that much more dear to my heart, even though there are lots of things I won´t miss like:

1. motorcycle exhaust (black sleepies and black boogers every day when I get home)
2. lack of green vegetables
3. icky men that make icky noises every time I come within 50 meters of them. I´ve taken to slapping them in the back of the head if they´re within range.
4. no dairy products. I miss cheese.
5. lies and scandals
6. computer viruses - EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7. too tight clothes with butt cleavage.
8. pushy people