Comentos

I have a few more random comments about Lima I don't want to forget, plus I want to respond to and solicit comments from my blog readers!

Now that I've gotten used to my commute and riding the combi, I sometimes think it's fun to jump on and off a small bus that is sometimes still moving. I'm also in theory more comfortable with the idea of taking a combi somewhere new--like a museum or other attraction--although I still have yet to make it to any (aside from our Lomos adventure). I was going to a museum this afternoon but instead I completed the last lesson of my teaching english course--I hope I passed! What I really need to do is plan my Lima explorations to take advantage of the weather--outside stuff now, museums later.

I went "out" for the first time on Friday night, with my friend Alexandra (Taylor was traveling for work). We had a nice dinner and then went to a bar area for drinks and dancing. It was fun, but a) it made me want to go out more often b) even though actually trying to dance is frustrating if you're in the mood to do it before about 2 am and c) it's totally annoying not being able to get home easily at night. More specifically, it's annoying that taxis and buses pass you all the time, but you know that you're not supposed to take them, especially as a foreigner and *especially* as a woman. So we responsibly called a segure taxi, discussed crime and safety as we waited, and we arrived home safe and sound.

So who's actually reading my blog? I've heard from several of you via email, but I'd love it if you'd post a comment from time to time. Thanks Lindsay for your recent tips, especially reminding me about Astrid y Gaston--it should be perfect for after the wedding we're going to next Saturday night. I have yet to try the antichucos, but if you insist... the chicken here is definitely delish. I haven't tried any alfajores yet either, but that's because my sweet/cake/cookie tooth is weaker than the average South American. I'm really missing salty snacks these days. Oh but then there's the ice cream. Even though ice cream is my favorite desert, I haven't eaten very much of it, either here or in Santiago. In both cities, the ice cream parlor flavors are good--gelato style so there are lots of them (to answer Derek's question from way back when), but what's sold in the grocery stores doesn't excite me much (sorry Tasha, not even in Lima). And I just don't go out enough for ice cream, although there is supposedly a good place near my work that I need to try--and invite my coworkers as long as they are willing to walk!

Enough with my random thoughts for the evening. If you have any thoughts on my random thoughts, please comment away!

Mi trabajo

Since I'm not having as many random adventures here since I spend at least 45 hours a week in an office 10 blocks from my house, I figured I should write more about work. Overall, it's going very well. My project is progressing with relative efficiency--I'm probably more efficient than I've ever been in an office job, although I'll admit I'm becoming re-addicted to Washington Post online chats. It's been a nice mix of quantitative and qualitative work, although I'll probably be spending the next two weeks straight pouring over WB reports trying to extract specific pieces of data, so I might have to up my caffeine intake to make it through. Fortunately, we have a cappuccino machine in the office and my coworkers like to make Starbucks runs. Unfortunately, in Lima a Starbucks run with your coworkers does not include a nice 10 minute walk to justify Frappuccino. Instead, it involves taking the elevator down to the basement, getting in the car, driving 5 blocks, pulling up to the take out/valet parking lane in front of Starbucks, running in to order coffee, politely saying no and trying not to run over the little girl trying to sell you tissues when you come back to your car with the coffee, and driving back to work. We did this on Friday. It's pretty comical how Limenos never walk anywhere. Yeah, there might be a small danger of being robbed (but this is a nice, non-touristy area) and yeah the air isn't the cleanest, but still--it was a beautiful Friday afternoon!. (this is very far from an original observation, for anyone who's been to Lima)

Anyway, back to work. My officemates--the three I share a room with--are funny. They are all friends from university--not super close, hang-out on the weekends friends, but they have known each other for at least 5 or 6 years--so they are often joking around. Most of the time I have no idea what they're talking about because it takes to much effort to listen. Then every once in a while they say my name and I'm totally caught off-guard--without any context, I usually have no idea what they're trying to say to me even if it turns out to be really simple the 2nd or 3rd time they say it and (usually) I finally get it. It's fun when I'm involved in real conversations with them, but other times I can't tell if they totally think I'm an idiot. The whole Spanish is the language of the office but they all speak English too thing is turning out to be harder than I expected. I feel like, if there was no English in the office I would have to speak more in Spanish and I wouldn't feel so dumb with my mistakes because the other people wouldn't speak my language well either, and if I spoke no Spanish than everyone would just expect me to speak English and that would be ok too. As it is, I feel like it's a cop-out to speak English so I try not to, but I make so many stupid mistakes in Spanish and misunderstand the easy things that are part of normal office banter, so I don't speak much at all. I also don't normally eat lunch with the rest of the office, since my three officemates don't usually either (for various reasons) and I feel most comfortable with them, so I don't like just joining a lunch table of people I don't really know and then not saying anything. As a result, I've been eating in front of my computer which is not normally my preferred lunch hour activity, although it has allowed me more time for WP chats. Of course, these are all just excuses, and the basic fact is that I'm shy and a big wus when it comes to making the mistakes that are part of learning a new language, and nothing can change that but me. Which realistically probably isn't going to happen so...

The bottom line with work is that it's definitely a good situation for me, both professionally and socially, but I'm also definitely looking forward to going back in just over 3 months and I'm happy that, as expected, time is flying. I'm glad that I have one more month of work, then a 2 week vacation, then less than 2 months to go until we're back to our apartment, our friends, and our language. Taylor is feeling somewhat similarly (although he is still enjoying his research here and has been successful thus far), and we talk frequently about things we want to do when we get back. I hope this feeling doesn't grow too much stronger before May! In the meantime, one work-related thing that I'm really looking forward to is that one of my officemates is getting married next Saturday, and since the tradition here is to invite everyone you know to the wedding (but fewer people to the reception), we're invited. I'm excited to get dressed up and go to a Peruvian wedding, and I'm excited for Taylor to meet all my officemates who will also be there. And then afterwards, we can go out to a fancy dinner!

Miscellanea

This past week was pretty calm so I don't have tons to tell the world, but here's some random stuff.

Our kitchenette cooking adventures continue. On Saturday night we cooked eggplant parmesan in our toaster oven (I tried to post a pic but I guess blogger doesn't like me to upload photos in Peru. I'll have to fix that). Our "baking dish" was a silicone loaf plan that we brought from California, and to make things even more exciting our two-burner counter-top stove ran out of gas as we started to cook the sauce. Fortunately, our tiny oven happens to have a "stove top" feature--the heating coil in the oven heats up the top of the oven for cooking. So we continued the sauce-making process there. After baking the breaded eggplant slices in the oven, we layered up the dish and popped the whole thing in for about 40 minutes. And presto! We soon had a delicious meal. Along with the parm we ate fresh bread and drank decent wine we had just purchased from our neighborhood italian shop, and it was great. What more could you ask for on a Saturday night?

In other food and drink news, we found normal milk at the supermarket, thanks to our ex-pat academic friends. It turns out the local agricultural university sells un-ultra pasteurized milk, but the grocery store doesn't have it all the time. Taylor is hooked and will be using it for his cereal as much as he can. I didn't bring myself to try it until today, 'cause its whole milk and that still squicks me out a little, but I can confirm that it does in fact taste like normal milk. However, right now I'm used to my yogurt and granola in the mornings, so I think I'll stick with that until we get back to the land of 1%.

On Saturday morning I visited and joined South American Explorers Club, to help me plan my 2 week trip next month and also more excursions outside of Lima. It looks like Taylor, Heidi and I will be traveling together the last week in March, and then I'll go by myself to Cusco and to do the Inca Trail--after much wavering back and forth, I decided just to go ahead and sign up for it. I'm excited that things are coming together!

Well, with 2 paragraphs on food and 1 paragraph on travel planning, I think that covers my priorities for the moment. Buenas noches!

Lomas de Lucumo (sort of)

So yesterday we went on our first excursion outside the city. The destination was "Lomas de Lucumo", supposedly a "destino de Ecotourismo" with hiking trails and nice views. In the end we had success, but it was quite an adventure!

The challenge was getting there. This place was not in any of our guidebooks, since tourists don't come to Lima to hike in random valleys outside of the city. Taylor and I first heard about it from our hostess from our initial days, and then I found it on the official Peru tourist website as a thing to visit in the Lima area. That website didn't have any public transportation info, though.

Fortunately, the Lomas lies close to one of the tourist desinations that is in all the guidebooks--the ruins of Pachacamac--and thus we had some information on public transport to the area. But since we don't live in one of the areas where all the hostels are, none of the directions in the books were super-convenient for us, and we figured we must be able to catch a bus somewhere along the route. And Taylor was convinced that he had seen buses with a destination of "Pachacamac" running along the main street where we live. As it turns out, he was right! We waited for one of those busses and all 5 of us (me, Taylor, Maiah, John, and Alexandra) piled in.

We enjoyed the ride, going up into the hills from the nice parts to the more barren outskirts of the city. And then, the combi stopped at its final destination, nowhere near where we wanted to be. We soon discovered that a destination of "Pachacamac" means somewhere in the department of Pachacamac (like a county or something), not necessarily the town of Pachacamac where we wanted to be. The combi driver told us to go back down the hill to catch the right combi, but I had a map and remembered from reading a Pervian exploradores site that it was possible to get there by going up and over the hill we were on. So we caught a second combi that when further up the hill, and the money-taker on that bus told us we could get a taxi to where we wanted to go. Or at least, to a town that was on the map that looked like it was close to where we wanted to go, since she had no idea what we were talking about when we said "Lomos de Lucomo."

So then we got a taxi (a colectivo--there were 10 people in the station wagon when we started off) and asked to be taken to one of the towns that was supposed to have an entrance to the park--we knew it wasn't the main entrance, but there was suposed to be an entrance. When the taxista tried to let us off at the parque--the park in the middle of town--we explained that we were looking for something else. He had no idea where to go, so we asked some people and they said we should keep going down the road to the main entrance. So we agreed to pay 1 sol more per person to be driven another 15 minutes. When we got to that town--which we knew was the right place and had a big sign on the road into town about the "circuito de ecoturismo"--we asked another guy along the side of the road where to go, and he directed us to that town's parque--a nice little square. Finally, someone in the square pointed us in the right direction and we decided to get out and walk. Meanwhile, the taxista was totally confused as to what we were planning to do--"are there restaurants? a bar?" he asked. No, we said, we just want to walk around. Clearly hiking was not a popular recreational activity in these parts.

We found the trail, and it was actually pretty well marked, although the section we were on was not actually called "Lomos de Lucumo"--it was just the "Circuito Ecoturismo." Clearly, the Peruvian government is trying to establish this area as a nature spot near Lima, but it hasn't quite caught on. And the fact that we were coming in February might have been part of the problem--the Peru tourist site says "you should visit between August and October," although in Spanish, so I think I missed this the first time I skimmed the information.

So since it's the middle of the summer--not the early spring--it was hot and dry and it wasn't quite as beautiful as the photos on the web. But, it was still a nice hike, out of the smog, and at the top we did have views of the city, the ocean, and the river valley. Unfortunately I can't post pictures until Maiah or Alexandra send me some, because our camera was misbehaving.

The trip back was less adventuresome, because we took the way the guidebooks told us to go and it was relatively easy. It was great to come back after a long, hot, dusty day of exercise and clean up, satisfied with my first trip outside of Lima. Moreover, now when we want to go see the ruins it will be a piece of cake!

En la Cocina

We had a nice dinner of roasted chicken, green beans, and rice tonight. Why is this blog-worthy? Well, aside from the fact that my immediate family probably still can't get over the fact that I now eat green beans willingly, our meal tonight was notable because the chicken was cooked like this:

Pollo in the horno

Yes, our landlord brought us a toaster oven, but unlike the spacious one they showed us in their own kitchen, we now have something that looks like it would barely fit toast. Nevertheless, we purchased a whole chicken and decided to try to roast it. Happily, it worked great! Taylor de-boned it first, which was crucial, but it turned out nicely cooked in just 1 hour. Now we have grand plans to roast vegetables and even bake pizza in our little oven. It will be interesting. Unfortunately our wine experiment did not turn out so well. We're trying to give the local wines a chance, and we actually had a very decent bottle of Peruvian wine our first weekend here. So we bought two more bottles during our last shopping trip, and we opened them both tonight, and they both tasted like grape juice. Hm, not what we were looking for. Tomorrow maybe we'll buy some ginger ale and mix it up for a refreshing summer beverage!

Speaking of alcohol, Taylor had a fun (hah) experience yesterday--he had a lunch meeting with someone he wanted to interview for his research, and he (the interview subject) proceeded to get him (Taylor) completely plastered. My guidebooks warn against going one-for-one with Peruvians, and it's true--they each had 2 pisco sours, half a bottle of wine, and 1 1/2 straight shots of pisco after the meal. Taylor called me at work at 5:00 pm, having just returned home from his 1:00 appointment, proclaiming "I'm the drunkest I think I've ever been in my life!" It was hilarious. (I took a funny picture of him on the couch, but blogger is being annoying and not letting me upload it right now.) But, being the superstar that he is, we still went swimming at 7:00 and he was completely functional today. Good thing today's lunch meeting was cancelled, though! Welcome to politics in Peru.

On Sunday we're going on our first excursion--we're going hiking outside of the city with Maiah and John. It will be nice to escape the smog and see what exists within an hour of crazy Lima.

La Rutina Diaria

We're getting settled in here in Lima, and a daily routine is starting to fall into place. I like it!

First of all, my WB job is working out after all--despite the bureaucratic idiosyncrasies of the Bank, I went in on Tuesday at lunchtime to meet my boss and ended up starting work that afternoon. And if all goes well, they are even going to pay me something! Work so far is going well--I'm quickly learning what data does and does not exist, the exciting first step of any analysis project. But even better, the office environment is really great. I share an office with three Peruvians who are in the post-undergrad/pre-grad school junior associate program at the Bank--exactly the same type of job in which I spent most of my billable hours over the past 6 years. So, we have a lot in common in that respect. They are all very nice, and it's cool that I instantly have young Peruvian friends. I haven't hung out with them yet outside of work, but I hope I get a chance soon. Everyone else in the office seems nice too--I've met a bunch of them in the lunchroom or around the office but at this point I can only remember about 3 names. The best thing is that they are all Peruvian, but they all also speak fluent English. Which means that the social language of the office is definitely Spanish, and I can listen and speak somewhat when I'm involved, but if I can think of how to say something I can just switch to English and they all understand. It's not the trial-by-fire that an entirely Spanish speaking workplace would be, but it's a nice balance that I'm comfortable with.

Another daily thing is getting to and from work. I decided that walking 50 minutes a day in heels was excessive and unnecessary, so I learned how to take the bus. Since I only ride about 5 minutes down one street it's really not that hard--I can hop on any bus and I'm on for too little a time to get hassled--but it's still a notch or two more stressful then riding the bus in Santiago. The main thing is that you have to verbally tell the guy when to stop (you yell "I'm getting off at X street"), and since raising my voice and emphasizing my imperfect pronunciation is *always* my favorite thing to do (hah), preparing to get off raises my blood pressure a bit. I try to get on the bigger busses, because they are usually less crowded and there's a greater chance that someone else will get getting off at (and thus calling) my stop.

The third element of my daily routine is that we found a pool and started swimming! It's much more formal than in Chile (which was technically supposed to be more formal than it turned out to be), so we had to sign up for a "class" and pick a fixed time to go--we're swimming Tuesday and Thursday from 7 to 8 pm, and Saturday morning from 8 to 9. At first we were worried they would give us a hard time about wanting to swim laps rather than learning how to swim, but it turns out the standard procedure is somewhere in between a class and a masters team. The "teacher" is more like a coach, who helps people with their technique but also writes a 2-3000M workout every day. We can either do our own thing or do the workout, and it's nice to have some variety. Three hours a week at a decent pace is definitely more swimming than I did in Chile, so I'm psyched to actually keep in shape here! Hopefully it will do slightly more than just balance out the 9 hours a day I'll be spending in an office...

So now that the basic structure is in place I'm looking forward to filling my free time with gatherings with friends, visiting the city's tourist sites and good restaurants, and some weekend excursions. Yesterday we spent the afternoon eating delicious ceviche and relaxing at a private pool/football/cricket club (yes, originally British) with one of Taylor's academic contacts (the most middle-class of all of Lima's private clubs, our hosts assured us). It was a nice afternoon all around, but talking with the two couples was a particularly interesting glimpse at our potential future as an academic ex-pat family. I don't need to write a ton about it, analysis-wise, but I just wanted to note it here so that I'm reminded of it later on. Duly noted.