Howdy!

So now that I've been adjusting to life back in the heat and humidity of Austin, I've been thinking about how much I just LOVE this city! How fortunate I am to live here! While I've mainly been lying low (including working at the Paper Place again - don't kill me!), I have visited the bats, South Congress, and the Parlor. My dad was in town for a long weekend (he leaves tomorrow morning) and we've been squeezing in all kinds of fun including a visit with...Kinky Friedman! Now, any Texas-lover or animal-lover should take a road trip out to the Utopia Rescue Ranch anyway. Kinky lives on 500 acres of gorgeous hill country, with stunning views, trickling streams, deer, cedars, the whole nine yards. But he also started, with the help of friends Cousin Nancy and Tony, a dog rescue ranch that is really a dream. They rescue all kinds of different dogs with different stories and MAN have they got it good here at the ranch! Huge pens with trees and swimming pools, daily walks down to the creek to bathe, lots of food and shade and love. It's really inspiring. And I want to take home about 10 of the 50-odd dogs that they keep there! Nancy and Tony are two of the most loving, sweet, caring people who really have hearts for this rescue work despite the financial stress and emotional stress. Apparently the ranch started in Utopia, Texas but with some complaints from the neighbors, Kinky welcomed them to his huge ranch. All in all, it's a terrific, peaceful, beautiful place. Dad and I had visited last year and we were just dropping in to say hi and to see how things were going and it just so happened that my dad's hero since 1971 just got back from grocery shopping. So we hauled on over the half mile to Kinky's trailer and sure enough, there was the man himself.
Basically, my dad's dream came true. And there he was...in the flesh.


















And so it was that Roger Metz got to play with dogs and meet Kinky Friedman all in one fell swoop.

Family

There was a pretty horrible earthquake in Peru last night. Its major impact was felt in Lima and south of Lima in Ica. I was able to get in touch with some friends in Iquitos who were able to contact people in Lima. The thing is that the phones were down, and it's tough to get in touch with anyone. I have some good friends in Ica, and I'm pretty worried. So far my peeps in Lima seem to be doing OK


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"Family is the most important. Sometimes it's the one you're born into and sometimes it's the one you make yourself."
-Carrie Bradshaw

She may not be a famous philosopher, or she may not even exist for that matter, but Carrie Bradshaw was right on with this observation.

Before I left for Peru, I was frantic, scared, panicky, and frustrated, not to mention anxious, irritable, and just plain nuts. Before I left for Peru, my friends bent over backwards to make my departure go that much smoother. Helping me sell my car, putting in my hardwood floors with me, assembling a bookcase, bringing me dinner, listening to me when I cried and helping me pack my bags, my friends did for me what few people would even do for their family. Getting back from Peru, after a long, challenging, and adventurous year, my friends forgot that I was not there for them for 11 months and yet they still continue to help, listen, support, and love me. What have I done to deserve this? Very little, frankly, and yet their outpouring support makes my life just so much better. I have a very small family: a brother, a dad, and a great uncle and aunt. I have cousins (I think 3) but I don't know them or their last names. I actually don't even know where they live. So, as Ms. Bradshaw noted, family is the most important. And in my case, for the family that lies beyond Dad and Tim, it's the one I make for myself. And I am blessed.

My friend Karla said that the average American makes 12 (same as the number of apostles of good ole J.C.) lasting, sustaining friendships in their lifetime. I think that was probably meant for the average American who doesn't move every 3 to 4 years and who probably went to only 1 or 2 gradeschools as opposed to 10, but still, when I think about those lasting friendships that will last me beyond Bowling Green, Austin, or Iquitos, I am so SO lucky. The quality of my friends is extraordinary, and I wonder if God will ever give me a chance to be half as wonderful to them as they are to me.

So that's that. Basically, being back in the United states has had its ups and its downs. The major downer being that I had a pretty bad stomach thing for about 4 days and that stunk, but the major upper being that I am once again in the company of my nearest and dearest. Dissertation be damned, and the pressure to publish too, because there are far more important things in life. I'm going to get funded, I'm going to finish my dissertation, I'm going to get a job. Of this much, I am sure. I don't know how it's all going to work out, but I know I can (and will) do it. And I think you all know why. :)

Falling Up

Fun Fact No. 75: Crying is bad. In the US when you cry, people generally let you do it. In Peru, they always say no no no no no, don't cry! It kind of stresses them out a bit.

Sooo...I'm baaaaaack! I got back yesterday at 9pm and Genevieve picked me up from the airport (greeting me with wine and flowers) and hauled my enormous load home and up the 3 flights of stairs. To greet me and to assist in the 2007 Gigantic Suitcase Hauling Games were lovely friends and neighbors Selina and Erin and then K.C. came over for some wine and catching up. Despite my exhaustion, I didn't want them to go; I think living in a noisy city with roommates has made me a bit nervous about the closed in solo-living apartment thing again. But I really can't even believe that I'm here. It was so SO good to see my girls that I just didn't want them to leave but I really felt that I've only been gone a week. It's been nearly 11 months. I'm not sure how this adjustment period is going to go, but I hope it goes well.

A few things I noticed right away:
1. I don't stand out. It's fabulous: there's a million other white, peachy, brown, black, cream, toffee, coffee and other colored people here. No one looks at me twice!

2. It's quiet. Almost too quiet. My apartment has no noises. At all! No roosters, no motorcycles, no ladies outside my door yelling that they have papaya or fish to sell.

3. It's HUMID. You'd think living 2 degrees south of the equator in the middle of the Amazon would be humid, but Austin humidity is suffocating. And they said it's been cool lately! Back to wimp mode.

4. Too much stuff. I have lived without so much of my stuff (and I'm a packrat by the way) that I can't believe I have so much of it. It was a struggle to not just throw everything out last night.

My apartment is cleaner than ever (Omar and Marcela - you are absolute DOLLS! Thank you for everything!) and they put in linoleum floors yesterday. It looks terrific and it is nice to walk barefoot on the new floors.

The last few days in Iquitos were kind of stressful. I just couldn't wrap my head around leaving and I was in and out of weird moods. My poor friend Nico was so patient with me despite the nuttiness. It was really a strange time.

Friday was my going away party - nearly 100 people in my house dancing like crazy fools until 5am. It was so good to have people from all different parts of my life in Iquitos in one place at the same time - my roommates, my family from my old house, the boys who work at the lumber store, my neighbors, my students, Mario's college friends, my foreign friends, etc. Everyone got along marvelously and danced, danced, danced!

Saturday was just last minute errands and sheer exhaustion. Saturday night my family, two roommates, and Zeudy and Nico and I all went to dinner at this pizza joint near downtown and then went dancing at Berimbau, a local discoteca until 4am.

Sunday was breakfast with my friends Nancy and Fernando, lunch at my friend Gabel's house and then to the airport with my student Scarlett and her family.

My plane was delayed a good hour and so all the people who came to the airport to see me off hung out and talked and talked and laughed. When the time came to leave, I was able to hold myself together, quite surprisingly. Maybe it was because Mario and Dina came with me to Lima and I could hold their hands. The tears were shed but not with the quantity I anticipated.
We got to Lima and had to go to Lissette's house to pick up a suitcase that I already dropped off a few months ago and then to Dina's sister's house on the other side of town. We ended up getting to bed at midnight only to wake up at 3am to get to the airport by 3:30 to wait in the check in line until 5 to hang out until 5:30 to say goodbye to get to the plane to leave at 6:30. It was kind of traumatizing to say goodbye to Mario and Dina, but I survived and I had a remarkable peace about leaving - cheesy but true: I think it's time to go home. I really feel like it's the right time.

And now it's 7:45am, I've slept less than 12 hours in the past 4 days and I'm writing the blog anyway. I was having a hard time sleeping beyond 6:30 in Iquitos and I guess it translated. Or maybe I'm nervous about being back. Or maybe I'm just hungry. But it's breakfast tacos this morning, kids!

Love to all and I'll see you soon.

TGIF...I think

Fun Fact No. 74: Cop on every corner. If they did this in Austin, I bet it would work. For those who are hard pressed to follow traffic laws, the government has placed 2 cops on nearly every corner in the most heavily congested areas. These people are BRUTAL and they stick to the same corners for weeks at a time, disappear, and then reappear when you least expect them to. Sneaky but it works!

Fun Fact No. 75: Serving with Love, Faith, and Science. This is the motto of the best (and most expensive) health clinic in tow. If you can believe it, it´s pentacostal. I´m generally anti-pentacostal for various reasons, but who knew that they would be such good doctors? And what a cool line: love, faith, and science.


So it´s Friday and I know that most of you who know me won´t believe it, but my bags are packed, my room is clean, and my clothes are washed. Impressive, huh? I don´t leave until Sunday, so y´all should be REALLY impressed. I really want to enjoy the party tonight and the beach tomorrow and the pool on Sunday, so I thought I should just do it. I threw out a lot of stuff (for which you´d be proud, Gen) and got rid of a bunch of clothes. Hooray! My suitcase still weights a bloody TON but we´ll see how that works out in Lima. Dear Lord Help Me if I´m over the limit!

I still have interviews today and tomorrow, and I keep panicking that I don´t have enough to write an entire dissertation. Right now I´m tentatively planning to be here in Iquitos for a month in December. We´ll see how the money situation works out. Something else that makes me panicky: money! As in, where´d it go? And how can I get it back? Here´s hoping good ole Paper Place hires me again! hee hee...

So life goals. Hefty subject. I wanna be a college professor when I grow up. I like teaching. A lot. But getting that job requires a finished dissertation. NGO? Saving children in Africa? Glassblower? Spanish teacher? Underwater Basket Weaver? These are my many options in the event that I fail. But then I won´t be failing, right?

Sidekicks & Rediscoveries

Fun Fact No. 73: Individual Platters. At lunchtime - the big meal of the day here in Iquitos, like dinner is for us - they carefully serve each and every plate according to its consumer. In the US, we tend to throw a bunch of stuff in the middle of the table in the dishes they were cooked in and it´s each for him or herself. There´s a lot of care put into each plate here, which is kind of neat.


Well, just under a week left and SO much to do! Randomly, an Argentine named Nico has dropped by to stay at the house for an indetermined amount of time. He´s remarkably cool and easygoing for an Argentine (j/k MSOB!) and I´ve had a blast bebopping around town with him. Honestly, it´s been kind of neat to show off my "other Austin" while I´m getting ready to leave it. It´s nice to say goodbye to the old places and even discover a few new ones. My last fish kebob at El Zorrito Restaurant. My last jaunt to a port on the edge of town. My last dance with Explosión and my first with Los Niches from Cali, Colombia. I played with Explosión one more time last night, by the way. Lots of fun. Anyway, Nico is a good sport and is willing to try new things and hasn´t yet died of fear while riding on the back of my motorcycle. Plus we´ve been pal-ing around with Roy, this muscleman guy who is surprisingly sweet and enthusiastic about everything, from ice cream to puppy dogs.

But the real goodbyes have begun. Fernando, my friend who is a pianist, cellist, and violinist who is single-handedly starting the first orchestras of Iquitos, is leaving tomorrow for a vacation in Lima, so I had to say goodbye to him today. Yesterday my friend Angel Paz, the director of the Polyphonic Choir of Loreto, took off, and that was tough. I bought my ticket the other day and nearly freaked out- I´m actually leaving. I find it quite hard to believe.

I´m having a going-away party at my house on Friday. It should be quite the blast with over 50 people. A bit scary, but I think it should be fun. I´m afraid it´ll be a sob fest on my end, but what can you do? Speaking of sob fest, it´s going to suck leaving Iquitos, but Mario and his mom, Dina, are going to accompany me to Lima. Dina had to go anyway for a doctor´s appointment and Mario´s going just for kicks. I´m going to need them!

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

Jungle Fever

Fun Fact No. 71: Can I get that soda in a deposit bottle to go? So as many of you who have traveled outside of the US know, soda usually comes in a glass bottle that you can't get to-go. You have to give it back, because the bar/restaurant etc., gets a deposit back when they return the bottles. What to do when you want that tasty Inka Cola to go? Dump it in a plastic bag with a straw and roll.

Yes, tis true. I have a fever. I hope I'm not getting the flu! It's generally warm in the Amazon, but it really sucks when you have a fever. It's WAY hotter. I think I got it from my sheer exhaustion. On Friday night I took some sleeping pills and slept 10 hours (praise the Lord!) and I needed it. Saturday night was rough and amazing at the same time. So here goes!

We had a cook-out at the house during the afternoon on Saturday, and then Monica and I went to the Olympic pool for a little bit. I got changed and went to the chapel where our concert was. Everyone sang and played beautifully. And my crying got going because they brought me flowers and a beautiful plate with the names of everyone in the choir. It was really emotional. I then went to Monica's to change out of my black dress and into my black "i'm playing with a cumbia band" top, with lots of sequins, and my skinny jeans. I got to the Complejo where Explosion plays every Friday and Saturday and as the VIP, I got let right in with my own personal bodyguard. Exactly why I need a bodyguard is kind of beyond me, but he's a handsome guy, so I didn't complain.

And then...to the stage. Dancing salsa with the band and then...my turn. A complete blur, but I have pictures to prove I did it. And then I did it again on Sunday night at a different venue! Holy smokes kids, wouldn't I love LOVE to be a salsa flautist. Bad-ass! Seriously, I would dig it, but I need a whole heck of a lot of practice!