Update

Fun Fact No. 21: No motorcycle gangs here. It seems like it, though. We pull up to a bar (on Mario's motorcycle, of course) and there's like 30 motorcycles out front. In the US, no way in hell would I go into a place that looked like that. But here, it's the main form of transportation and it's just regular people driving the bikes.

Well, just a quick update with random facts and figures of my life as of late. Last week, on Halloween, I went to mass in a main square for Our Lord of Miracles. There were about 2000 people there, and it was pretty fun. Then they took the statue and paraded it down and around the city from about 9pm to about 3am. I wasn't in the mood to bebop behind a statue, so I went to see Roberto Blades, Peru's Prince of Salsa. I went with Monica and my friends Charitin and Raul. When we were there, we met a guy from Lima who exports Peruvian olive oil. At first we thought he was cool, but then it turns out that he's a big snob. Seriously. And when he took me home, he tried to kiss me and lemme tell you, he almost got a penis pancake. This white girl DOES NOT play around. It was kind of traumatizing, but I got over it the next day. Alas...

Speaking of the next day, it was our friend Ruth's birthday so she invited us over for "lunch." This meant drinking, dancing, and occasionally eating from about 1pm til 8pm. Overkill, but fun.

Thursday there was a rainstorm. OK, it rains almost every day here, but this was a KILLER storm. Because we live in an open house on stilts over a lake, if the wind comes in the wrong way there is NOTHING that is going to keep it out. Pretty much everything in the kitchen (including knives) went flying. It was like Poltergeist, but just a natural phenomenon. It was a crazy storm that shook the house. But it was kind of fun - we couldn't leave the house so it was almost like a snow day, except it was rain. I was supposed to go to the library, but everything was canceled.

Friday was a pretty productive day. I really busted out a good amount on the revisions that I got from Joshua, and Friday night I went out for a quiet, relaxing evening with Cesar, Monica, and Lilia. Later we met up with Mario Jr. and our friend Cindy and kept just shooting the bull.

Saturday I played in a wedding. I know, can you believe it? I got paid 30 soles, which is about $9. I didn't do it for the money, obviously, but it was nice to have a little extra cash. 30 soles goes a long way here. Anyway, now that I've solidly established my reputation in this city as a flautist, I have six more gigs in the next 2 months including another couple weddings, a city-wide concert, a gradeschool concert, and a first communion. Who knew? Now I'm actually practicing. Whoa.

After the wedding I went to my friend Charitin's for a parillada. A parillada usually happens during the day here, but sometimes at night and it's when you sell tickets (for about $2.50) to come to your house to eat some yummy grilled chicken, drink beer, and shoot the bull. Parilladas are super fun and very communal, and it almost feels like a botellon in Spain. I had a great time. Afterwards, we went dancing with some friends and then grabbed another beer. Basically, I was out until 4am and need I remind you that I am too old for this crap??

Today I did my first Skype talk with Michael. It was so cool to hear his voice and know that he's in Argentina and I'm here! And then Julia called and all three of us were talking! How rad is that? I felt like I should bow down to the gods of technology. I'm freakishly awed by these kinds of things. Anyway, both are doing well, thanks for asking. Julia is working on grant applications and withstanding the impending Madison winter, and Michael is going to the music school every day and is practicing bandaneon like a madman.

That's all for now!

My Peeps.

Fun Fact No. 20: Peruvian names are WILD. Instead of Spain where everyone is Javier, Raul, Irene, or Monica, anything goes here. I just met a girl who spells her name the same way I do (!). I know people here named Warner, Wilder, Ever, Zeudy, Cariwey, Percy, Kevin, Charitin, and Wladislay (I spelled this correctly – I asked him to write it down for me). They just make stuff up. It’s kind of fun. My name doesn’t stick out as much as it did in Spain.

I’ve been blogging along for about a month without introducing you to everyone. OK, time to meet my gente (peeps), starting with the family I live with:

These are Mario Sr., Dina, and me. Dina is the one who had breast cancer and is now in remission back here in Iquitos. Mario Sr. is the forestry engineer at the UNAP, the public university here (Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana). Dina is funny, sarcastic, and loves to drink beer. Mario Sr. is cute, wise, and very loving.

This is Mario Jr. He’s next in line after Kirle (he’s 23 – there are only 10 months in between the two of them which is a story for another time), but most people think he’s the oldest because he’s tall (for a Peruvian anyway) and he single-handedly runs the lumber store and the family finances. He studies international business at the UNAP and he is also about to graduate (next August I think). Mario Jr.’s a big dancer (especially salsa) and a soccer player. He’s easygoing, smart, and easy to talk to. Plus he’s my main chauffeur – and he taught me how to ride his motorcycle.

Here is Kirle. She’s the oldest (she’s about to turn 24 in December) and she’s studying administration at UPI, the private university here (Universidad Privada de Iquitos). She’ll be graduating in May. Kirle loves to dance at home (she rarely goes out) and she’s in charge of all the girls who work at the house. I live in her bedroom and she shares another one with her brother. She has the greatest laugh EVER and she’s fun to talk to. Plus she loves Veronica Mars just as much as I do and we like to be silly together.

This is Veronica with her boyfriend John Carlos. Veronica used to be a twit but she’s changed radically from last year to now. She’s 19 going on 20 and she just graduated from high school. She helps out at the lumber store and helps take care of her grandpa who has Alzheimer’s. She’s a great swimmer (gorgeous freestyle) and an even better dancer, although she seldom goes out. She’s sarcastic and mischievous but she can be fun. She thinks I’m the weirdest person in the world, but I think that’s why we get along.

Here are César and Monica. César is a biologist from Chiclayo, a city on the coast, and he works for an NGO doing rural education about the environment. He’s very sweet and smart, and gentle. Monica is a forestry engineer from Córdoba, Spain who works for a Spanish NGO helping cut back on deforestation. She is pretty much like a long lost sister – I feel like I’ve known her for years and she’s the close girlfriend that I really needed here, since all my girls back home are…well…back home.

I’m missing pictures of Mario Luis, Lars, and Lilia, not to mention Zeudy and Charitin. As soon as I get off my duff and take more pictures, I’ll post them.

Hired Help

Fun Fact No. 19: Wine isn’t wine. What I mean is, they have this wine from Tarapoto, a city about an hour away in plane, but it’s SUPER sweet and refrigerated. It’s more like grape juice. One day I ordered regular wine at this pizza joint and everyone nearly threw up. They thought it was disgusting.

A cultural practice that I can’t seem to get accustomed to is hired help. My mama taught me (and my brother) to do it your own damn self. Therefore, I know how to

-clean the bathroom

-wash my clothes

-make my bed

-mop the floor

-vacuum, dust, polish

-make dinner

-wash the dishes

Etc.

Of course, there’s always the good ole South American machista who’ll demand that the woman do all the work (which was always bullshit in my house – dad cooked, mom washed dishes, mom swept, dad mopped, mom mowed the lawn, dad trimmed the trees, etc.).

And then there’s the family with whom I live. It’s a little tricky for me because I’m the guest AND part of the family. So they have a cook and all around skilled helper, Florinda. She’s basically part of the family, so no one ever EVER yells at her or orders her around. She is asked nicely to do things and she does them and then she gets paid (in salary and in her living situation – she lives right next door in a house that has been added on to ours). She has five kids, and the boys (Ever and Nay) work in the lumber storage and the daughter (MariCruz) and younger son (Pelachin) help cook, clean, wash, etc. Pelachin (11 years old) gets shit sometimes but not nearly as much as the other girls, Ana and Silvia. Ana is the goddaughter of Mario Jr. and Kirle. Her parents have been friends with Dina and Mario Sr. for years, and she is basically hired help. The girl does have attitude, granted, but Kirle yells at her around the clock. Silvia, whose relation to the family I have yet to determine, is another hired hand who gets yelled at pretty often but is a lot more agreeable than Ana. I’m not allowed to wash my dishes or serve myself food or anything like that. Which is weird for me – having grown up in a strictly middle class family, we have never had servants or maids or anything.

Here, I insist on washing my own clothes because I think it’s a bit degrading for someone else to wash your underwear (isn’t it?). Oh, and I guess I should also explain that we don’t have a washing machine – it’s wash it by hand or wear stinky clothes. I learned how to wash my clothes by hand in San Antonio de Pintuyacu a while ago. I’m pretty quick and I’m pretty good. I can get out most stains (and trust me, I’m the queen of random ketchup stains).

The thing is, I think one of the reasons I get along so well with this family is because we have a lot in common and we’re from similar economic backgrounds. They are strictly middle class here, and they don’t ask me every five minutes how much X cost because they really don’t care. They understand that a digital camera is expensive but they certainly don’t begrudge me having one. After all, Mario Jr. has a brand spanking new motorcycle and they have HBO (occasionally my salvation from crappy telenovelas).

Point being, I’m not so good at letting someone else clean up after me. It kind of freaks me out. I was talking with Monica about this the other day, and she agrees. But here, everyone has their thing that they do. I have often wondered how the Peruvian economy works because there are SO MANY random vendors of random stuff, and there’ll be like 40 of them in a row selling the same thing at the same price as the person next door. But somehow they make money and survive. I’m not sure how it all goes down, but I guess supply and demand really works here. And there are no chains in Iquitos besides TopyTop (a Peruvian clothing store a la Old Navy) and Chez Maggy (a pizza joint based in Cusco). No McDonalds, no Sears, no KFC or even the big national chains like Metro (a Walmart-esque joint) or Ripley’s (like Macy’s). I’m guessing that somehow the local economy keeps on top. Those big wigs have done their research, I’m sure, and if it would be lucrative, they probably would have been here by now. So I guess having Florinda and the girls and then all the boys that work the lumber store is a good thing – keeps that petty economy flowing. But it still weirds me out.

Ugly dogs, earthquakes, and beaches

Fun Fact No. 18: Lima is painted in colors just as vibrant as Venice. The only thing is, I think it's just to make themselves feel better about the nearly 1 inch film of soot that coats the surface of every building. So the buildings are turquoise, pink, orange, red...

OK, this past week was quite eventful, so I think I'm going to do a play by play. Here goes.

Wednesday, October 25
Praise Jesus I didn't drive to Pachacamac. Good Lord, that would have been TERRIFYING. We (Elsa, Wilder, and I) went in bus. Driving through Lima would have been awful. The shantytowns that are built into these huge hills are kind of scary and amazing at the same time. You always see Rio de Janeiro's famous favelas built in the hills on the outskirts of town, but I've never seen anything like that close up. Dizzying, winding streets and STILL crazy drivers. Seriously, folks, nuts! Anyway, once we got out of Lima proper, we were driving on the coast and because it was sunny (for once), the view was beautiful. We got to Pachacamac, which is a famous ruin from about 6ooAD that has been pretty well restored. Pachacamac was the god of earthquakes, and I guess he was a pretty pissy character. He wasn't really into people pissing him off, so you had to enter the temple backwards so he wouldn't get mad. Anyway, the ruins are really neat. And when you get to the top, there's a tremendous view of the ocean. It's really beautiful.

Before we went up, we ate at the restaurant that they have there at the entrance. The guard dog is the UGLIEST dog you have EVER seen in your life. It's very VERY unique. I felt really bad for the poor little guy because he really wants some love but he's so gross that no one wants to touch him. U-G-L-Y!

That night we went to the movies. Bañadores 3. It's an Argentine flick that's basically the antics of Mr. Sinus with the boob show of Benny Hill. Truly hilarious.

Thursday, October 26
Dina came over and we ate guacamole and chips (!) for breakfast and then we went all the way the hell back to San Juan de Lurigancho, a suburb of Lima that is like 2 hours in colectivo. Well, that's counting traffic. I think normally it's only an hour. We went to her sister's house, picked up her sister and went to Gamarra. There's a reason it's a lot like Gamorra. Because it's HELL. This place is like the craziest market-type place I have ever seen. It's nuts. They have a whole building called "Jeans" where they sell, yup, you guessed it, JEANS. And I'm talking thousands, and thousands and THOUSANDS of jeans. And we even saw a factory behind a partially closed door and they seriously make 'em right there folks. Wowzers. Anyway, we were shopping for all the boys that work at the lumber shop in front of the house. Plus they were buying some more pairs to sell. It was complete COMPLETE chaos. OK, I think I'm exagerrating because the market here in Iquitos, Belen, is pretty nuts and a lot less organized. But still.

After our LONG shopping spree, we hit the road and I went back to Elsa and Wilder's. Lissette's younger brother Martin was there with his girlfriend, Carolina who is going to be sent to Pennsylvania to do translations. Random aside. Anyway, we were sitting there chatting when lo and behold there's this deep, rumbling sound that sounded like an airplane was flying overhead except that it was flying underneath the house. It's hard to explain, but anyway, it was an earthquake. Books fell of the shelves, and all the furniture shifted. Turns out Lima is at the bottom of a huge fault. I had no idea. Cool and scary at the same time.

That night we went for a drive and Rudy, another brother of Lissette's, took us all around the nicer parts of Lima - Miraflores, Barranco, San Isidro. We grabbed some sandwhiches and drank tea. It was super relaxing. And wonderful to spend time with them.

Friday, October 27
Wilder's aunt passed away and they were exhausted from being at the wake all night, but Elsa still felt like going with me to Polvos Azules, the world capital of Pirated Goods. No a la pirateria, but seriously folks, it's hard to turn down the opportunity to buy "Brokeback Mountain", "Bring it On", and "Veronica Mars" for about $1.50 a pop. And I'm not saying I bought any, I'm just saying it's hard to turn it down. I had to buy a CD for a friend, and then it was just about looking at all the STUFF.

The important thing that happened on Friday was that I finally got to see my friend Beth LaBate who is married to a Peruvian and has been in Cusco for the past 10 months. I packed my bags and got a cab to Dina's sister's house, where I met Mario Sr.'s older sister Zulema. Tia Zulema is SO rad. This lady is so vibrant, and funny, and sweet and just plain GREAT. I called Beth's husband Jimmie and Zulema and I decided to meet up with them at a strip mall there in San Juan de Lurigancho. We went to Metro, which is like a Super Walmart. I haven't ever actully been in a super Walmart or a Super Target where they sell all the regular crap plus food, including fresh produce, meat, and bread. I had no idea what a monstrosity it is. We don't have ANYTHING like that in Iquitos and it was mildly scary.

Anyway, we went to Jimmie's uncle's house to eat dinner and we just chatted for a few hours. It was so nice to see both Jimmie and Beth who are doing really well. Beth's Spanish has improved tremendously and Jimmie was really happy to be back in Peru. They're leaving for Vermont on Tuesday, and they'll be there for a few years. They're taking a dog from Peru with them that is really stinkin' cute. We just chatted and joked and it was really nice and comfortable. Beth's research was really interesting, and Jimmie has been working on his tourism degree. It was a great time.

The next morning we woke up at 4am to get to the airport. We checked 8 bags (only one of which was mine) which was a royal pain and then we barely made the plane on time. Traveling with Dina was really fun, especially considering that I rarely fly with friends. We got to Iquitos at 8:15 and the family still thought we weren't getting there until Wednesday. From the airport I called Kirle to tell her that we were going to a beach in Lima and we'd call her from the beach. It took about 20 minutes to get home from the airport and lemme just tell you about the double takes. It was hilarious! Kirle started yelling "Liars!" at us as she hugged her mom. It was really priceless to see their reactions. It was just wonderful. We ate cebiche that Dina made from shellfish that she brought from Lima and we laughed and talked and laughed some more.

Later on, Mario, Veronica, and Aldair, a cousin, and I went swimming at the Lion's Club pool. Two hours later we were complete prunes and exhausted. Later that night we ate pizza (yummy!) and then got some ice cream. It was a nice - although exhausting - day.

Sunday, October 29
Oh this was the best day EVER! After breakfast, we went down to this port on the Nanay River that is usually flooded. Well, about 10 months of the year. Right now, there's a beautiful beach on the other side of the river. Normally you have to pay a few soles to hire someone to take you across, but since Dina knows everyone, her friend took us over in his houseboat and so we had a place to keep our stuff and to eat lunch later on in the day.

The water was gorgeous, cool but not too cold and the sand was soft and white. Cheesy description but it was just perfect. We played water volleyball and we just laid (sp?) on the beach and then laid in the water. The current there is pretty strong, so it was nice to just swim against the current or let the current take you down river a bit and then swim back up. It was really heavenly. Around 3 we grilled chicken and potatoes and drank beer and wine on the boat and then hit the water again. We left around 6 and walked home from the port. By that time, I was pretty exhausted but I really felt like a glass of wine. Unfortunately, wine (let alone good wine) is hard to come by here. You have to go a little out of your way just to get this crappy, super sweet stuff that I would not normally drink. But desperate times call for desperate measures and so we went with it.

My friend Cesar invited me to his friend Monica's apartment. Turns out Monica is Spanish (hooray!), from Cordoba, and joder, it was great talking to her. She's going to be here until the middle of July also, and she is lots and lots of fun, so we hit it off. She works for an NGO that has to do with agriculture, etc. Lilia, Cesar, Monica and I drank wine and shot the bull until 1 in the morning. They are all such sweet people, and we just get along so well, and I had had such a lovely day at the beach that when the time came to go home, I couldn't fall asleep. I watched two episodes of "Veronica Mars" (highly recommend it, btw) and then fell asleep. Wonderful, wonderful day.

Lest you think that I am piddling away my time, dear reader, I do have some interviews lined up tomorrow. I am actually getting stuff done too. Or so I like to tell myself. Ha.

Sunshine in Lima?

Fun Fact No. 17: You can drink the water in Iquitos but not in Lima. Irony upon ironies, in one of the biggest cities in South America, Lima (8 million people, I think), you can´t drink the water from the tap. Well, you can, but it´s not recommended. Iquitos, a tiny city in the middle of the Amazon Basin has perfectly fine water that comes from the Nanay River (one of the cleanest and fastest running rivers) and is heavily chlorinated anyway. If there was anything in it, the chlorine has killed it.

So I got to Lima this morning around 11am and Rudy, one of Lissette´s brothers, picked me up. The plane was supposed to leave Iquitos at 8:15 but of course, it left at 8:50. Iquitos doesn´t have terminals or runways. There is a big room and just like in a Seinfeld episode, they change the podium to read the different airline that is currently leaving. There is one runway that the 7 or 8 flights a day share. Seems to me to be kind of dangerous, but I guess it works. Oh, and you can only get to Lima via plane. Well, you could go by boat and then bus, but that would take you about 3 weeks. The plane ride is only 1.5 hours.

When I got here, it was sunny and 71. Sunny!?!?!?!?! Lima is only ever
A. hazy and overcast
B. hazy and overcast
C. hazy and overcast
Seriously. I was super surprised. It was actually pretty! Almost...

Anyway, Lissette´s parents took me to a vegetarian, organic restaurant for lunch which was pretty thrilling because I don´t think I could eat another bite of chicken. I almost gagged the other day on my lunch I think because I have never eaten this much meat in my LIFE and my body needs a BREAK. Where´s my spinach salad from Mother´s?

After lunch, Dina, Mario Sr.´s wife came over to pick up some stuff I brought for her from Iquitos. The family in Iquitos thinks she´s coming home next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday. Actually, we´re going to surprise them and get back on Saturday (she´s been here in Lima for 4 months for chemotherapy for breast cancer). We spent all afternoon trying to find cheap tickets ($38 instead of $70) and finally, my friend Lilia who works at a hotel in Iquitos, found us two tickets for $48. I couldn´t believe that I was the one who knew someone who could help us out, but thanks to my handy cell phone (!), I gave her a buzz and she worked her magic. Truly miraculous.

Tomorrow I´m going to drive (!) to Pachamarca, which is a little bit outside of Lima and has some of the oldest ruins in Peru. Did I mention that I am going to be driving? Holy crap. I´m quite terrified. We´ll see how this goes. Thursday I´m going to see my friend Beth LaBate who has been in Cusco for the past 10 months and is heading back to Vermont to write her dissertation. That´ll be fun!

Some friends of mine just emailed me about my costume for Halloween. Sadly, Halloween doesn´t mean jack here. It´s a Holy holiday when they carry the Lord of Miracles (El Señor de los Milagros) back to his spot in the main cathedral, but that´s it. No costumes, no make-up, none of that stuff that I LOVE. Oh well...

Lima bound!

Fun Fact No. 16: Catholics are all the same. Well, I wouldn't want to go and make any super-essentialist statements like that, but really, there is very little difference between a Peruvian and an American Catholic. Neither of us goes to church, except maybe for Christmas or a funeral, and both of us believe in God and have no problem with alcohol and dancing. Of course there's the occasional devout Catholic, but in either case, he or she is usually older and dates back before Vatican II.

Well, this weekend my friend Kirle was rearended by a motocarro and flew off her motorcycle. She just has some bruises (thank God!) but regardless, on Friday night we stayed in and watched some movies (Kinky Boots and then Casanova. The Casanova was a copy and it the spoken language was Russian. Kind of funny, niet?

Saturday I finally started "fieldwork." Well, I went to visit Carlos Reategui, one of the percussionists in the band, Los Solteritos, that I'll (hopefully) be working with. He was surprised to see me. I think when I tell people that I'll be back, like I did last summer, no one really believed me. But here I am, true to my word, and it was good to see him. Carlos owns a local chain of creamy popsicles that come in every local fruit flavor including aguaje (an orange palm fruit), cocona (a super tart yummyness), guava (not like guava in the states - it has a vanilla yogurt flavor and comes dressed in a really long seed pod), and pineapple (whose season begins soon...). His store is called Shambo, and at any soccer game or event or even just on the main drag, people are selling Shambo chupetes. They're really delicious. Anyway, we hung out for a bit and he showed me pictures of his baby who is now a year old. I think it'll be good to work with him and the band so I'm excited about it.

Saturday afternoon I went shopping with Kari, another friend of Mario's who I have officially stolen. She's fun and easy to get along with, and she's ever so fashion conscious, so she dragged me about to find a more suitable pair of "going out" jeans. She convinced me to buy a pair of low-riders (that I actually just exchanged for another pair because as Michael O'Brien and I learned our first day at Texas, "butt crack is the new cleavage" and frankly, that grosses me out) and a pair of nice, semi-normal (since everything here is skin-tight) dark jeans. I felt a little ridiculous because I'm not a big shopper and how the heck do I know what to look for? But we had fun. Then we met up with Zeudy (my new favorite person here) and bopped along the boulevard and went shopping for food for dinner that night. I cooked at Mario Luis' house and it was really refreshing because I like having friends over for dinner, and I sure as heck can't cook over firewood or charcoal like they do at home, so it was really fun. I made spicy guacamole (yum!) and a potato thingy with olives and artichoke hearts and other random stuff. It was Mario Luis, Cesar, Zeudy, Kari, Charatin, Raul, and Lilia, and it was so nice to just sit, eat, drink Martini (with pineapple juice) and shoot the bull. Then the girls + Cesar and I went to Berimbau to go dancing. At this point in the evening, I was exhausted, so at about 2am I had to hit the road. I think the rest of them were there until 4 or 5. I just can't do that crap anymore!

Yesterday I spent the whole day at Gabel Sotil's house. Gabel is a professor at the public university here, and he used to be the Regional Director of Education. He's perhaps the best educator I've ever met, and he regularly gets invited by UNICEF to write books about the state of the children in the Amazon, and their education, etc. He has three charming boys who are very sweet and easy to get along with. Hugo, the middle son, is all about an iPod that he wants me to bring back from the states (they cost 3x as much here). The oldest son, Gabel, is a super wiz with computers and helped me fix a bug on my laptop. The youngest, Marcos, is about 13 and has some serious attitude but is really funny. They have a good friend, Jean-Pierre who is half Peruvian, half French. He's one of the first signs of alternative life I have seen in Iquitos. He studies art at a small, private art school here and has a little pile of dreadlocks on the top of his head. His accent is interesting, because sometimes he sounds really Peruvian and sometimes he sounds really French. Regardless, we all had a great time eating and watching soccer. I got there at about 11am and left at 8pm. It was a really nice day.

Last night I was really homesick. All of the sudden 9 months seemed REALLY long.

Beer suds

OK, from here you can see the actual house.


















Fun Fact No. 14: Birthdays are REALLY important. Yup, my favorite holiday (i.e. anyone's birthday) is like number 1 priority. Everyone wants to know when your birthday is and if they have a friend who has a birthday within about a 3 week proximity, it's like "oh-my-gawd!". Birthdays are parties with cake and beer, of course, but also lots of speeches (EVERY single person gives a spiel about you and how great it is that you made it to (cough) age, and they wish you every happiness in the future, blah blah). I can't WAIT for my birthday!

Fun Fact No. 15: Beer is communal. Whenever you drink beer at someone's house, or at an outside bar, there is one glass for the whole group. The boys always pour the beer, and they pass the glass around. After you drink your (basically) shot of beer, you have to throw the suds on the ground and then pass the glass back to the person pouring. Any germ-o-phobes would have a huge problem with this. Of course, I couldn't care less. :)

Very little to report except that I went to a birthday party last night. And drank beer. And more beer. And ate pollo asado. And fries. And did I mention the beer? Oh, and there was karaoke to Avril Lavigne. Whoa.

Another kind of interesting (and strange) observation. When you go out to the bank or anywhere in public during the day that is not the market, you usually change into nicer pants and a nice top and cute shoes. As soon as you get back home, you change into your ratty tank top and shorts and flip flops. Now, that's the general rule for the Peruvians. For me, however, it's tricky. Very tricky. I can't go out in the ratty tank (as I would in Texas) because then I'd be confused for a jungle-hopping tourist. But I can't just bust out a super cute top either because then I'd be confused for a rich snob. It's weird but true: there is a balancing act every day in terms of my wardrobe. Strangely enough, Kathryn, the girl who is hardly a fashion plate, has to carefully pick which top goes with which capris. At night, though, anything goes. These people dress to the nines, so it doesn't really matter. I actually wear this one-shouldered tank thingy I somehow own (?). Yup, welcome to the jungle.