Despedidas por Comida
Now that it's our last weekend, we have arrived at the time of despedidas, or farewells--both with people and with Peruvian/Limeno things. Not surprisingly, much of this involves food, so I thought I'd write about them through this lens. On Thursday we went for our last pollo a la brasa--rotisserie chicken--at our local polleria. Yum yum. The thing I'll miss most is the spicy creamy sauce in which you dip the french fries.
On Friday we went out for lunch at work--all the chicas, or women under 35 (8 of us). There were a variety of things to celebrate, but among them it was my despedida. With 8 people we couldn't really agree on a restaurant, but eventually we settled on Bembos, a Peruvian fast food chain. I thought it was ironic that I would be celebrating my last work lunch in Peru with a fast food hamburger, but hey it is better than MacDonalds and I wasn't about to jump in the middle of the where-to-eat discussion. Well, when we got to Bembos it was packed, so we ended up at TGIFridays instead. Heh! I actually didn't mind, because (as I told my coworkers when they asked) I don't go to Fridays at home so it's not like we were going somewhere that I would be eating at every day in a week's time. But still--Fridays for my last work meal in Lima!! It was pretty ridiculous. They have a special lunch menu where you get an appitizer, main dish, and a soft drink, so I ordered "Buffalo Wings for One", "Jack Daniels Chicken", and a Coke. Seriously, that's how it was on the menu--nothing had a spanish name except for the quesadillas. The buffalo wings were actually pretty delicious--exactly the kind of greasy comfort food I sometimes really crave from these restaurants--but the main chicken dish was pretty gross--an overcooked chicken breast, a baked potato, and some green beans from a can. Ug. And all the decorations were so over the top--I don't remember them being this bad last time I went to Fridays in the States, but maybe I'm forgeting or maybe it just stands out more abroad. All the waitstaff were fully decked out in flair, the guys were wearing silly hats and one of the women was in pigtails. Seriously. Then they sang a spanish version of their cheesy happy birthday song to some poor person at the table next to us. It was totally surreal. But hey, it was fun going out with the girls.
I made up for my lunch at dinner, when we went to one of Lima's best Italian places for a last gathering Katharine and Amy (my newest peruvian officemate and her gringa friend). The food was good and the company was fun, as it should be. I love how dinner here is an evening out--we met around 9 (although la peruana arrived after 9:30), and we left the restaurant at 12:30, ready to go straight to bed :-)
Today we had our last italian gelato in Lima, after visting some tourist sites (I'll write more about that tomorrow). We decided not to hit any more fine Peruvian restaurants this weekend, because although they are delicious and cheap compared to where we're headed, we've had a lot of that type of food in the last month.
Monday will be my official despedida at work. Friday was supposed to be my last day but I'm going into the office in the afternoon, to meet with my boss who was travelling during the second half of this past week. Work is tying up nicely--it probably would have been fairly stressful if my boss had been around since there are infinitely more small tasks I could do for my project/paper, but since he wasn't and didn't call me from DC as I was expecting, I pretty much finished everything I can. So, since I'm leaving I'm leaving, and that's that. Monday late afternoon there should be a despedida cake for me (we have cake at all birthdays/going aways/other random occasions in this office), but who knows if my boss will actually remember. Either way, a group from work is going out for happy hour and then to Pablo and Vanessa's house to offically send us off, and that should be fun.
It feels totally different leaving here than it did leaving Chile. In Chile I was sad to leave the comforts of Santiago and I was nervous about life in Lima, but most of the people I met there had already left so I wasn't leaving anybody. Now I'm totally excited to be returning to the US and the various things that come with that--English, our house, and hopefully a permanent job I like--but I'm sad to leave the people. All the Peruvians I've spent time with have been so friendly and sweet and fun--son muy buena gente, y les extrañaré.
On Friday we went out for lunch at work--all the chicas, or women under 35 (8 of us). There were a variety of things to celebrate, but among them it was my despedida. With 8 people we couldn't really agree on a restaurant, but eventually we settled on Bembos, a Peruvian fast food chain. I thought it was ironic that I would be celebrating my last work lunch in Peru with a fast food hamburger, but hey it is better than MacDonalds and I wasn't about to jump in the middle of the where-to-eat discussion. Well, when we got to Bembos it was packed, so we ended up at TGIFridays instead. Heh! I actually didn't mind, because (as I told my coworkers when they asked) I don't go to Fridays at home so it's not like we were going somewhere that I would be eating at every day in a week's time. But still--Fridays for my last work meal in Lima!! It was pretty ridiculous. They have a special lunch menu where you get an appitizer, main dish, and a soft drink, so I ordered "Buffalo Wings for One", "Jack Daniels Chicken", and a Coke. Seriously, that's how it was on the menu--nothing had a spanish name except for the quesadillas. The buffalo wings were actually pretty delicious--exactly the kind of greasy comfort food I sometimes really crave from these restaurants--but the main chicken dish was pretty gross--an overcooked chicken breast, a baked potato, and some green beans from a can. Ug. And all the decorations were so over the top--I don't remember them being this bad last time I went to Fridays in the States, but maybe I'm forgeting or maybe it just stands out more abroad. All the waitstaff were fully decked out in flair, the guys were wearing silly hats and one of the women was in pigtails. Seriously. Then they sang a spanish version of their cheesy happy birthday song to some poor person at the table next to us. It was totally surreal. But hey, it was fun going out with the girls.
I made up for my lunch at dinner, when we went to one of Lima's best Italian places for a last gathering Katharine and Amy (my newest peruvian officemate and her gringa friend). The food was good and the company was fun, as it should be. I love how dinner here is an evening out--we met around 9 (although la peruana arrived after 9:30), and we left the restaurant at 12:30, ready to go straight to bed :-)
Today we had our last italian gelato in Lima, after visting some tourist sites (I'll write more about that tomorrow). We decided not to hit any more fine Peruvian restaurants this weekend, because although they are delicious and cheap compared to where we're headed, we've had a lot of that type of food in the last month.
Monday will be my official despedida at work. Friday was supposed to be my last day but I'm going into the office in the afternoon, to meet with my boss who was travelling during the second half of this past week. Work is tying up nicely--it probably would have been fairly stressful if my boss had been around since there are infinitely more small tasks I could do for my project/paper, but since he wasn't and didn't call me from DC as I was expecting, I pretty much finished everything I can. So, since I'm leaving I'm leaving, and that's that. Monday late afternoon there should be a despedida cake for me (we have cake at all birthdays/going aways/other random occasions in this office), but who knows if my boss will actually remember. Either way, a group from work is going out for happy hour and then to Pablo and Vanessa's house to offically send us off, and that should be fun.
It feels totally different leaving here than it did leaving Chile. In Chile I was sad to leave the comforts of Santiago and I was nervous about life in Lima, but most of the people I met there had already left so I wasn't leaving anybody. Now I'm totally excited to be returning to the US and the various things that come with that--English, our house, and hopefully a permanent job I like--but I'm sad to leave the people. All the Peruvians I've spent time with have been so friendly and sweet and fun--son muy buena gente, y les extrañaré.
posted by HelenO at
6:22 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home