La Vida Social

We've been going out with my coworkers over the past couple weeks, and it's been fun. Two Fridays ago we ended up bar hopping with two of them, which was great until Saturday when it became clear that a cocktail at each bar was not the best idea...all afternoon I was craving bagels because that's what I ate for breakfast in college, and I hadn't felt quite that way since college...

Last weekend was more mellow--we spent both Friday and Saturday nights with my other coworker and his wife (the one who's wedding we went to in March). On Friday we went out for a delicious dinner at fancy-ish restaurant. On Saturday they hosted a bunch of people for dinner at their place, and we cooked on this swiss barbarque/forman grill type thing that was tasty but a little strange given that we're in Peru. One of the guests was Swiss, though.

This past Friday we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the home of a new woman in my office who just moved back to Peru after 6 years in DC. It's not Peruvian at all, but yum those margaritas and guacamole were tasty! Last night we were supposed to go out with Pablo and Vanessa again (the newlyweds) to a traditional Peruvian music show/dance club, but Vanessa got sick at the last minute so we didn't. Which was really ok with us because we were pretty tired from the night before plus a day of running errands. Now we're planning for next Saturday.

So now we're down to less than a month here, I can't believe it. Just over three weeks, actually. I'm definitely in "check off the list of things to do in Lima" mode, just like I was in Santiago, but here I'm more interested in eating at certain restaurants than visiting certain sites. Although there are still a couple museums I want to go to. Today we visited the pre-Incan ruin that's a 10 minute walk from our house, right next to the pool where we swim. It's a big pyramid, and it's pretty crazy that it's right in the middle of the neighborhood. Here's a view from the top, to get a sense of the surroundings--some trees and buildings, including ours in the far background.

And here's a view looking just at the pyramid from the bottom--it looks like we're in the middle of the desert!

With three weeks of work left I have to write a 15 page paper plus two more shorter ones. It will be busy, but I'm determined not to stress--I'm all into the work-life balance these days :-)