Super excited! What an opportunity!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Exciting News!
During the summer break here (Dec 18th-Mar 1st) I am off on paid holidays. This year I am going to be a chaperone on a school trip from Jan 21st until Feb 14th to HONG KONG! There are 8 students going on an exchange to The Chinese International School in Hong Kong for three weeks and they, plus the school, will be paying for my flights, accomodation, food and travel expenses. During the days while the students are at school I pretty much get to go around HK on my own and check everything out as I am really only their chaperone on weekends. Which is fine by me when I haven't paid a thing to be there!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Border Trekking and Trick or Treating
All are not even closely related to each other. I realize I have avoided this post because I am incredibly tired of regaling my interesting yet horribly misguided view of life moving to another country. I have been hit by bout after bout of bad luck and much of it I have been trying to avoid. However, this post is not all bad.
My tourist visa was expired by 10 days and I needed to renew it to finalize my paperwork to become a legal citizen here. My solution? Take a trip! A long weekend was coming up, so Pedro and I decided we would drive to Chile. Four days, 18 hours each way. Day 1 was to be spent driving and partying in Arequipa, Peru, the second largest city in Peru and built entirely in the style of Spanish colonial architecture. Day 2 was to be spent driving to Arica, Chile, a little beach town directly across the border of Peru. Day 3 was going to involve driving back to Arequipa and getting heavily intoxicated before driving back home on Day 4. Things didn't turn out that way though.
In Arequipa we were mugged at knife-point and had all our money stolen even though we were in one of the safest areas of the city. At the border we were told we couldn't cross the Peruvian side after they stamped my passport and wouldn't cancel it (luckily we made it across, otherwise I was a woman without a country). After sleeping in Arica, we awoke to find the passenger side of the window smashed in with only the radio stolen, which we predict was because it was the only car in the parking lot with a Peruvian license plate (Peru + Chile = war). Since we hated Arequipa, we drove farther to Camana while I was face-smashed with sand and fog through my open window for 18 hours. Needless to say, it was a serious test to our relationship.
I'm gonna have to say we passed it though. Despite all of the problems, the trip somehow turned out to be fun. We saw some amazing festivals and ate delicious food (and drink) in Chile while walking around a nice boardwalk. I tried Alpaca for the first time and it was actually pretty good. We saw the bottom of some nice glasses in Camana drinking our tasty wine and pisco. And we saw some amazing landscapes and talked the whole trip. By then end we could help but laugh at everything that had happened and were in incredibly good spirits. I would do it again - minus the whole mugging, interrogation, stealing thing.
The funniest part of the trip was watching me getting covered in sand when we had to drive through parts of the desert littered with mini sandstorms. AND we also saw a huge tornado, sand tunnel thing literally 20 feet from our car. I kept imagining us getting sucked up into it but Pedro assured me I was just paranoid. I wish I got some good pictures of it.
Two weeks ago it was Halloween. Pedro and I didn't really plan on doing anything serious; both of us were swamped at work and broke after our money was taken so we had planned on watching scary movies on the couch. This plan was changed drastically when his brother who is my age, Enrique, convinced us to go to this huge beach party in a place called Asia. Asia is this community an hour's drive from Lima covered in white, sandy beaches. All of the "celebrities" and richer families of Peru started buying property and housing there until it became this ultra-exclusive club. You have to be approved by the committee before you can purchase property there, and your house can only have so many levels depending on where it is situated on the beach. I felt uber-posh. Everyone who is everyone has a house up here or knows someone who has a house up here.
We went. It was ridiculous. I have not been that drunk in an extremely long time. The club was half-outdoors on the beach front and included all-you-can-drink of hard liquer. We spent the first part of the night bouncing from beach house to beach house and meeting up with this friend or that friend and having shots here or a drink there. The second was at the club. By the time we made it over to Enrique's friend's beach house to grab food and say goodnight to him before heading back to our place the sun was rising. We stayed up that night until about 7am, still drinking. I woke up three hours later and demanded I sleep the rest of my hangover off on the beach. Beautiful, sandy-white private beaches are lined with huge bungalow beach homes, the Hamptons in Peru. I loved every minute of that beach, despite being excessively hungover and getting a horrible sunburn. I was under the impression that "it was still winter, Pedro, it is not going to be sunny." We drove back tired, half-drunk but incredibly happy.
Lucky for me, Asia is where we are spending Christmas this year. And every subsequent weekend after that. Jealous?
Last weekend I had a lovely girls' day with my girlfriend Megan, who I absolutely adore. She is from L.A. but has been living in Peru for the past year and a bit and is exactly like me. We got manicures and pedicures, went home to change, and then went out to a club around the corner from us with our boyfriends where we became absolute embarrassments to the human race. The bottles were S./160.00 (60$ US) so we split one between the four of us while our other friends split some other ones with us as well. We returned home at 5am and spent the subsequent day in death throws. Serves us right, but completely worth it!
My camera card broke, so I can remove it from my camera. I am waiting to go to a market here where I can get a new one (let's compare it to, say, Pacific Mall). Once I've got it, you'll put images to the stories. But so far things have only been getting better and better each week. Summer is just around the corner for us here and I am super excited!
My tourist visa was expired by 10 days and I needed to renew it to finalize my paperwork to become a legal citizen here. My solution? Take a trip! A long weekend was coming up, so Pedro and I decided we would drive to Chile. Four days, 18 hours each way. Day 1 was to be spent driving and partying in Arequipa, Peru, the second largest city in Peru and built entirely in the style of Spanish colonial architecture. Day 2 was to be spent driving to Arica, Chile, a little beach town directly across the border of Peru. Day 3 was going to involve driving back to Arequipa and getting heavily intoxicated before driving back home on Day 4. Things didn't turn out that way though.
In Arequipa we were mugged at knife-point and had all our money stolen even though we were in one of the safest areas of the city. At the border we were told we couldn't cross the Peruvian side after they stamped my passport and wouldn't cancel it (luckily we made it across, otherwise I was a woman without a country). After sleeping in Arica, we awoke to find the passenger side of the window smashed in with only the radio stolen, which we predict was because it was the only car in the parking lot with a Peruvian license plate (Peru + Chile = war). Since we hated Arequipa, we drove farther to Camana while I was face-smashed with sand and fog through my open window for 18 hours. Needless to say, it was a serious test to our relationship.
I'm gonna have to say we passed it though. Despite all of the problems, the trip somehow turned out to be fun. We saw some amazing festivals and ate delicious food (and drink) in Chile while walking around a nice boardwalk. I tried Alpaca for the first time and it was actually pretty good. We saw the bottom of some nice glasses in Camana drinking our tasty wine and pisco. And we saw some amazing landscapes and talked the whole trip. By then end we could help but laugh at everything that had happened and were in incredibly good spirits. I would do it again - minus the whole mugging, interrogation, stealing thing.
The funniest part of the trip was watching me getting covered in sand when we had to drive through parts of the desert littered with mini sandstorms. AND we also saw a huge tornado, sand tunnel thing literally 20 feet from our car. I kept imagining us getting sucked up into it but Pedro assured me I was just paranoid. I wish I got some good pictures of it.
Two weeks ago it was Halloween. Pedro and I didn't really plan on doing anything serious; both of us were swamped at work and broke after our money was taken so we had planned on watching scary movies on the couch. This plan was changed drastically when his brother who is my age, Enrique, convinced us to go to this huge beach party in a place called Asia. Asia is this community an hour's drive from Lima covered in white, sandy beaches. All of the "celebrities" and richer families of Peru started buying property and housing there until it became this ultra-exclusive club. You have to be approved by the committee before you can purchase property there, and your house can only have so many levels depending on where it is situated on the beach. I felt uber-posh. Everyone who is everyone has a house up here or knows someone who has a house up here.
We went. It was ridiculous. I have not been that drunk in an extremely long time. The club was half-outdoors on the beach front and included all-you-can-drink of hard liquer. We spent the first part of the night bouncing from beach house to beach house and meeting up with this friend or that friend and having shots here or a drink there. The second was at the club. By the time we made it over to Enrique's friend's beach house to grab food and say goodnight to him before heading back to our place the sun was rising. We stayed up that night until about 7am, still drinking. I woke up three hours later and demanded I sleep the rest of my hangover off on the beach. Beautiful, sandy-white private beaches are lined with huge bungalow beach homes, the Hamptons in Peru. I loved every minute of that beach, despite being excessively hungover and getting a horrible sunburn. I was under the impression that "it was still winter, Pedro, it is not going to be sunny." We drove back tired, half-drunk but incredibly happy.
Lucky for me, Asia is where we are spending Christmas this year. And every subsequent weekend after that. Jealous?
Last weekend I had a lovely girls' day with my girlfriend Megan, who I absolutely adore. She is from L.A. but has been living in Peru for the past year and a bit and is exactly like me. We got manicures and pedicures, went home to change, and then went out to a club around the corner from us with our boyfriends where we became absolute embarrassments to the human race. The bottles were S./160.00 (60$ US) so we split one between the four of us while our other friends split some other ones with us as well. We returned home at 5am and spent the subsequent day in death throws. Serves us right, but completely worth it!
My camera card broke, so I can remove it from my camera. I am waiting to go to a market here where I can get a new one (let's compare it to, say, Pacific Mall). Once I've got it, you'll put images to the stories. But so far things have only been getting better and better each week. Summer is just around the corner for us here and I am super excited!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
So NOW I'm Alive
Okay so here I am again, finally and alive and well. Let's start from the end of the last blog, where I thought I was on the road to recovery.
So as you know, I had gone to the hospital and been pumped full of some liquid to be told I had a stomach infection. I was sent home with some nice drugs and all was well until the following weekend, when all the pain and cramps associated with this so-called stomach infection came back two-fold. I was fed up and miserable and running out of options, so I called Pedro's mother and asked her to try and get me an appointment with a Gastrointestinal specialist. Luckily, someone she knew was going in on Monday so she was able to get them to ask the doctor to sneak me in. I got an appointment for Tuesday.
Early afternoon Tuesday I arrive at San Fillipe hospital where the doctor takes patients. Dr. Cabello was a short, portly little man who thankfully spoke English. He examined me for about twenty minutes, poking and prodding until I was incredibly uncomfortable. I was told I would need to take some tests as he suspected there was a big more wrong with me than just an infection. I was sent downstairs to do a blood test. Suprisingly, I was okay with it, as I had resigned myself to doing anything necessary to get myself feeling better and normal again. I was not, however, glad about how much blood they took out. I looked at the six vials after she had removed them and wanted to faint but I didn't, if only because Pedro's mom was sitting right outside.
Now the most amazing thing about this whole process was how I found out my results. They give you a code after your blood test to a website called Laborotorio Clinica Roe where they post the entirety of their findings. As it is private medical lab that analyzes your tests, it only took two days for me to see my blood results! Unfortunately this had me paranoid when I tested positive for a parasite, vitamin b12 deficiency and Crohn's disease and I had to wait a couple days until I could see the doctor again. I was officially freaking out.
When I finally saw him, he told me I have a friendly little parasite who had been inhabiting my body for the past two months. Creepy but very solvable through only a week's worth of pills. The Crohn's disease reading is a possible positive but most likely a false reading from the parasite, which I will find out in a couple of months when everything is cleared up. The deficiency of my B12 is actually quite dangerous and unfortunately quite permanent, and for the rest of my life I will have to continue to get booster shots of the vitamin every couple of months. Right now, I have to take super vitamins every morning, eat a ridiculous amount of meat and All-Bran (100% of my B12 for the day!) and get one shot every five days for a total of six shots until I go back and see how it has improved. It sucks but at least it is very manageable. It also explains almost all of the strange things I have been experiencing for the last year: difficulty loosing weight, extreme exhaustion, etc. I'm almost grateful for my little parasite friend, now named Juan, as without him I wouldn't have discovered this problem! Funny how things work themselves out. Also quite an ironic way for me to get over my fear of needles :(
Now onto the good stuff. I got a new job! I am now a Middle Years English Teacher at Casuarinas College, a IB private school in Lima. I love it. On top of making my life much easier (i.e. set schedule, close to Pedro's work for carpooling) I am making 6 times as much as I made at Langrow. I am officially "Peruvian Rich" haha. The school itself is great: the teachers in my department are extremely welcoming and kind, I am currently on a week's paid vacation after only working two weeks, I have from mid-December until March off. The kids, grades 6-8, are hilarious and quite the handful. The facilities are amazing and make me jealous that I didn't have half the things they get to experience in their school when I was in elementary. All in all, I am incredibly happy and finally doing what I came here for. On top of that, the IB program is a world-renowned program and one of the top paid teaching positions in the world. It is extremely hard to become an IB qualified teacher and requires excessive training. Somehow by some sheer luck, I am now one, and will be trained accordingly. This means that wherever I move throughout the globe I am basically set. I can now apply for my master's schooling in a couple of years saying that I have already taught IB. This is huge. It also means I can be paid top dollar from now on in any school I apply to globally. I am excited.
This, however, has caused me a bundle of problems when it comes to my Peruvian residency. I had signed a two-year contract with Langrow in return for my visa being paid for. Now, I had to cover the costs, which are not cheap. On top of that, they were taking too long, and now I have to leave the country to get a new tourist visa.
We've turned this dilemma into an exciting trip! On Thursday we leave for a road trip, where we will stop in three Peruvian cities and visit Chile so I can get my new passport stamp. Pretty excited! I'll post some pictures.
Other than that, everything here is quite normal. It is getting very sunny and very warm. Pedro's family has rented a beach house over the Christmas break so I will be spending Christmas this year on the beach with Pedro's family, some of our friends, and our visiting friend Michael from Britain who will be staying with us until mid-January. New Years is going to be ridiculous. Heather arrives November 29th and I am already planning our weekend trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the Incan ruins considered one of the wonders of the world. Lot's of things are starting to happen, and now that I'm alive and well I'll be around much more!
All my love, hugs and kisses :)
So as you know, I had gone to the hospital and been pumped full of some liquid to be told I had a stomach infection. I was sent home with some nice drugs and all was well until the following weekend, when all the pain and cramps associated with this so-called stomach infection came back two-fold. I was fed up and miserable and running out of options, so I called Pedro's mother and asked her to try and get me an appointment with a Gastrointestinal specialist. Luckily, someone she knew was going in on Monday so she was able to get them to ask the doctor to sneak me in. I got an appointment for Tuesday.
Early afternoon Tuesday I arrive at San Fillipe hospital where the doctor takes patients. Dr. Cabello was a short, portly little man who thankfully spoke English. He examined me for about twenty minutes, poking and prodding until I was incredibly uncomfortable. I was told I would need to take some tests as he suspected there was a big more wrong with me than just an infection. I was sent downstairs to do a blood test. Suprisingly, I was okay with it, as I had resigned myself to doing anything necessary to get myself feeling better and normal again. I was not, however, glad about how much blood they took out. I looked at the six vials after she had removed them and wanted to faint but I didn't, if only because Pedro's mom was sitting right outside.
Now the most amazing thing about this whole process was how I found out my results. They give you a code after your blood test to a website called Laborotorio Clinica Roe where they post the entirety of their findings. As it is private medical lab that analyzes your tests, it only took two days for me to see my blood results! Unfortunately this had me paranoid when I tested positive for a parasite, vitamin b12 deficiency and Crohn's disease and I had to wait a couple days until I could see the doctor again. I was officially freaking out.
When I finally saw him, he told me I have a friendly little parasite who had been inhabiting my body for the past two months. Creepy but very solvable through only a week's worth of pills. The Crohn's disease reading is a possible positive but most likely a false reading from the parasite, which I will find out in a couple of months when everything is cleared up. The deficiency of my B12 is actually quite dangerous and unfortunately quite permanent, and for the rest of my life I will have to continue to get booster shots of the vitamin every couple of months. Right now, I have to take super vitamins every morning, eat a ridiculous amount of meat and All-Bran (100% of my B12 for the day!) and get one shot every five days for a total of six shots until I go back and see how it has improved. It sucks but at least it is very manageable. It also explains almost all of the strange things I have been experiencing for the last year: difficulty loosing weight, extreme exhaustion, etc. I'm almost grateful for my little parasite friend, now named Juan, as without him I wouldn't have discovered this problem! Funny how things work themselves out. Also quite an ironic way for me to get over my fear of needles :(
Now onto the good stuff. I got a new job! I am now a Middle Years English Teacher at Casuarinas College, a IB private school in Lima. I love it. On top of making my life much easier (i.e. set schedule, close to Pedro's work for carpooling) I am making 6 times as much as I made at Langrow. I am officially "Peruvian Rich" haha. The school itself is great: the teachers in my department are extremely welcoming and kind, I am currently on a week's paid vacation after only working two weeks, I have from mid-December until March off. The kids, grades 6-8, are hilarious and quite the handful. The facilities are amazing and make me jealous that I didn't have half the things they get to experience in their school when I was in elementary. All in all, I am incredibly happy and finally doing what I came here for. On top of that, the IB program is a world-renowned program and one of the top paid teaching positions in the world. It is extremely hard to become an IB qualified teacher and requires excessive training. Somehow by some sheer luck, I am now one, and will be trained accordingly. This means that wherever I move throughout the globe I am basically set. I can now apply for my master's schooling in a couple of years saying that I have already taught IB. This is huge. It also means I can be paid top dollar from now on in any school I apply to globally. I am excited.
This, however, has caused me a bundle of problems when it comes to my Peruvian residency. I had signed a two-year contract with Langrow in return for my visa being paid for. Now, I had to cover the costs, which are not cheap. On top of that, they were taking too long, and now I have to leave the country to get a new tourist visa.
We've turned this dilemma into an exciting trip! On Thursday we leave for a road trip, where we will stop in three Peruvian cities and visit Chile so I can get my new passport stamp. Pretty excited! I'll post some pictures.
Other than that, everything here is quite normal. It is getting very sunny and very warm. Pedro's family has rented a beach house over the Christmas break so I will be spending Christmas this year on the beach with Pedro's family, some of our friends, and our visiting friend Michael from Britain who will be staying with us until mid-January. New Years is going to be ridiculous. Heather arrives November 29th and I am already planning our weekend trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the Incan ruins considered one of the wonders of the world. Lot's of things are starting to happen, and now that I'm alive and well I'll be around much more!
All my love, hugs and kisses :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Fun Times at a Peruvian Clinica
Yes, I know, the blog has been horribly neglected. But this time I actually have really good reason!
So let's start from the beginning. About three weeks ago, on a weekend, Pedro and I went on a eating spree of amazing good food all over the place . That meaning, I gave in and had every delicious thing I had been craving for weeks. It was amazing, delectable and something I thought was completely worth it. I tasted things I hadn't had before and absolutely fell in love with. All was well, I thought.
That Sunday night both Pedro and I began to feel a little sick to our stomachs. Nothing serious, a little bit of pain but nothing to really worry about. This lasted for about three days, after which Pedro got better. I, with my amazing immune system, got worse. This lasted for about three weeks, with escalating pain throughout my abdomen. Slowly I began eating less and less, as I was feeling more and more nauseous every time I put something in my mouth. I started feeling better by the beginning of the second week, which I solved by ordering pizza. That's right people, and not just any pizza, the worst: Pizza Hut. That night and the next day I was instantly twice as bad as when I started feeling sick. By the time it was nearing the end of the three weeks, I had severe difficulty smelling food cooking or sipping a glass of water without wanting to throw up and missed two days of work. This was last Monday.
Monday night I was up the entire night vomiting basically nothing since I had not eaten real food or drank water in about two days. For some stupid reason, I thought I would still be okay to teach my Tuesday morning class at 8am and had Pedro drop me off before work. I have never struggled as hard through another hour and a half in my life. My fake smile was permanently glued on my face until 9:30 when I took a cab home and collapsed in my bed. I had never felt such severe and intense pain in my life, and feared breathing By 11 I knew I needed help and called Pedro, who rushed home to take me to the hospital.
In Peru, there are two names for hospitals which virtually mean the same thing: hospital and clinica. He took me to the Clinica Americana, or American Hospital, where we hoped they would accept my travel insurance. Before leaving Canada, I had purchased three months travel insurance covering all expenses through Scotiabank at the advice of my mother, even though I was "sure I won't need it, mom" and wondered why I was "...spending extra money when I could be buying trips to Argentina and shit." I literally ate my words when Scotiabank covered everything that I needed. We walked in to the Emergency Room, which was incredibly clean and well-kept, and checked in for an appointment. I was seeing a doctor in under 45 minutes. By this time, Pedro was helping me walk.
The emergency appointment area was a huge all-white room separated into about 8 rooms by your standard blue linen curtains. Everything looked only slightly different than Scarborough Grace hospital in Toronto; I might even have said the Clinica was of better quality. The biggest difficulty I knew I would have would be understanding what the doctor was telling me. This proved more than true. Here is an example of the typical flow of the conversation while I was with the doctor:
Danielle: "Pedro, ask him what he thinks is wrong with me."
Pedro: Turns around to the doctor and asks him in Spanish.
Doctor: Speaks constantly for five minutes.
Pedro: Turns to me. "You're sick."
Before I continue, let me quickly inform you about my worst fear: needles. I have a severe and unwavering fear of injections to the point where I have refused necessary medical treatment to avoid a blood test or an injection. So here, I am, in a hospital where I can't speak to anyone, awaiting my fate to finally discover that I have a severe stomach infection and needed to supply a blood sample as well as receive a number of medications through IV to feel better. I pretty much freaked for a good five minutes. Eventually though, I gave in and these little Spanish nurses came in and got to work. My blood sample was taken, I was poked with the IV and was given three medications which made me feel much better in about 6 minutes. 5 hours later, I was walking out of the hospital with three different prescriptions and a 700PEN bill, not bad when that morning I thought I was going to die.
I am now physically healed but mentally terrified to eat. Pretty unfortunate.
Other than that little adventure, I haven't done too much since I was feeling so terrible. Pedro has been traveling out of town for the past week and finally got back yesterday evening after running a press conference in the town of Chimbote. I have a date this evening with an expat who I met very recently; her birthday was yesterday so we are going to grab a drink. I also had an exciting clubbing night week for a birthday party that turned out to be amazingly fun and very very drunk. This weekend we are trying to plan a camping trip. Things are picking up again.
Final bit of news is that I just got a promotion! Langrow is starting a Diploma program with their institute specializing in Business Professional Interaction and Management and after 40 applicants and a difficult interview process it looks like I am the new professor! I am about to start getting ready for a photoshoot for the brochure, which I think is absolutely hilarious. My boss on the phone told me to dress professionally because I am now the "new face of Langrow" which made me laugh out loud.
Let me know how you are doing! I have a cell phone now with 200 free world minutes and would love to hear from you/call you, so email me your cell phone and I will email/call you back!
Sending love, hugs and kisses
So let's start from the beginning. About three weeks ago, on a weekend, Pedro and I went on a eating spree of amazing good food all over the place . That meaning, I gave in and had every delicious thing I had been craving for weeks. It was amazing, delectable and something I thought was completely worth it. I tasted things I hadn't had before and absolutely fell in love with. All was well, I thought.
That Sunday night both Pedro and I began to feel a little sick to our stomachs. Nothing serious, a little bit of pain but nothing to really worry about. This lasted for about three days, after which Pedro got better. I, with my amazing immune system, got worse. This lasted for about three weeks, with escalating pain throughout my abdomen. Slowly I began eating less and less, as I was feeling more and more nauseous every time I put something in my mouth. I started feeling better by the beginning of the second week, which I solved by ordering pizza. That's right people, and not just any pizza, the worst: Pizza Hut. That night and the next day I was instantly twice as bad as when I started feeling sick. By the time it was nearing the end of the three weeks, I had severe difficulty smelling food cooking or sipping a glass of water without wanting to throw up and missed two days of work. This was last Monday.
Monday night I was up the entire night vomiting basically nothing since I had not eaten real food or drank water in about two days. For some stupid reason, I thought I would still be okay to teach my Tuesday morning class at 8am and had Pedro drop me off before work. I have never struggled as hard through another hour and a half in my life. My fake smile was permanently glued on my face until 9:30 when I took a cab home and collapsed in my bed. I had never felt such severe and intense pain in my life, and feared breathing By 11 I knew I needed help and called Pedro, who rushed home to take me to the hospital.
In Peru, there are two names for hospitals which virtually mean the same thing: hospital and clinica. He took me to the Clinica Americana, or American Hospital, where we hoped they would accept my travel insurance. Before leaving Canada, I had purchased three months travel insurance covering all expenses through Scotiabank at the advice of my mother, even though I was "sure I won't need it, mom" and wondered why I was "...spending extra money when I could be buying trips to Argentina and shit." I literally ate my words when Scotiabank covered everything that I needed. We walked in to the Emergency Room, which was incredibly clean and well-kept, and checked in for an appointment. I was seeing a doctor in under 45 minutes. By this time, Pedro was helping me walk.
The emergency appointment area was a huge all-white room separated into about 8 rooms by your standard blue linen curtains. Everything looked only slightly different than Scarborough Grace hospital in Toronto; I might even have said the Clinica was of better quality. The biggest difficulty I knew I would have would be understanding what the doctor was telling me. This proved more than true. Here is an example of the typical flow of the conversation while I was with the doctor:
Danielle: "Pedro, ask him what he thinks is wrong with me."
Pedro: Turns around to the doctor and asks him in Spanish.
Doctor: Speaks constantly for five minutes.
Pedro: Turns to me. "You're sick."
Before I continue, let me quickly inform you about my worst fear: needles. I have a severe and unwavering fear of injections to the point where I have refused necessary medical treatment to avoid a blood test or an injection. So here, I am, in a hospital where I can't speak to anyone, awaiting my fate to finally discover that I have a severe stomach infection and needed to supply a blood sample as well as receive a number of medications through IV to feel better. I pretty much freaked for a good five minutes. Eventually though, I gave in and these little Spanish nurses came in and got to work. My blood sample was taken, I was poked with the IV and was given three medications which made me feel much better in about 6 minutes. 5 hours later, I was walking out of the hospital with three different prescriptions and a 700PEN bill, not bad when that morning I thought I was going to die.
I am now physically healed but mentally terrified to eat. Pretty unfortunate.
Other than that little adventure, I haven't done too much since I was feeling so terrible. Pedro has been traveling out of town for the past week and finally got back yesterday evening after running a press conference in the town of Chimbote. I have a date this evening with an expat who I met very recently; her birthday was yesterday so we are going to grab a drink. I also had an exciting clubbing night week for a birthday party that turned out to be amazingly fun and very very drunk. This weekend we are trying to plan a camping trip. Things are picking up again.
Final bit of news is that I just got a promotion! Langrow is starting a Diploma program with their institute specializing in Business Professional Interaction and Management and after 40 applicants and a difficult interview process it looks like I am the new professor! I am about to start getting ready for a photoshoot for the brochure, which I think is absolutely hilarious. My boss on the phone told me to dress professionally because I am now the "new face of Langrow" which made me laugh out loud.
Let me know how you are doing! I have a cell phone now with 200 free world minutes and would love to hear from you/call you, so email me your cell phone and I will email/call you back!
Sending love, hugs and kisses
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Huayllay, Fiestas Patrias, and Everything Since
So I will admit it without embarrassment: I have gotten lazy at this blogging thing. Over the past couple of weeks I have been stuck between half my courses ending and the other half beginning, so most of my spare time has been spent marking students on their final papers and organizing my lesson plans. I have picked up some more hours, albeit at night, and one of my classes has decided they like my teaching enough that they wish to continue with me as their teacher and have convinced my employer to open up a new class with them for me to teach once their evening classes end tonight. There are seven of them and I am incredibly flattered. All of my other classes are going great and I am loving my schedule. I currently have classes every morning and every night, with almost all of my time during the day to go to the gym or run and prepare for my lessons. But enough of work, here are some of the exciting things I have done since my last update:
1. Huayllay
2. Fiestas Patrias
3. Barranco
On the 28th of July it was the Peruvian Independence Day, named Fiestas Patrias, when Peru became an independent nation and was no longer under Spanish rule. Whenever there is a holiday in Peru they always give you two days off of work, and try to place them close to the weekend so that you end up having a four-day holiday. The 28th was a Tuesday, and by default Wednesday also became a holiday with Monday as an optional holiday, making this a two-day work week and a five-day festival. It is traditional for Peruvians to travel around Peru during this time and we wasted no time booking a trip. Lucia and Raul organized a trip to Huayllay, an archaeologial wonder 4850m (15, 912f) above sea level famous for its 'rock forest', or natural rock tree-like formations, and ancient cave paintings. People attending: myself, Pedro, Lucia, Raul, Francesca and Stephanie (friend's of Raul and Lucia) and Roberto, who was in our car. After sleeping over in Pedro's family home Friday night, we left early Saturday morning for the almost 8 hour trip up the mountains. The drive alone was amazing and terrifying. The mountains and natural lakes were breathtaking and were present for almost 3/4ths of the drive. Many of the small towns we passed through were built right up to the edge of the winding main highway, meaning one side of the houses would face the road and the other half would be partially hanging off the mountainside. The road was a one-laned curvy nightmare, with Peruvian drivers who are already famous for their horrible driving weaving in and out between slow-crawling trucks. At one point there was a bit of a traffic buildup beside a gorgeous lake called "drunk lake" about 2500m up as a truck had flipped over going on a corner and was an inch away from sliding over the edge of the cliffs. Around lunchtime we stopped in a small town named 'St. Peter of the boxes' (can't remember the Spanish words right now) and had lunch, which consisted of soup, some meat with rice and creamed spinach, and rice pudding for 4soles ($1.50US). I also had my first taste of coca tea, a tea that they brew using coca leaves to help you with altitude sickness. That's right people, I basically drank the ingredients for crack. It both looked and tasted a little like green tea. At that point we were about 3000m up and I was starting to feel the effects of the height - shortness of breath, a little sick to the stomach, hard to climb stairs. After the tea we jumped back in the car where I decided I had seen enough mountains and promptly went to sleep.
We arrived in Huayllay as it was just starting to get a little dark. We were staying in a mining hotel where the public are usually not permitted to go but because Lucia and Raul's father is involved in the mining business he was able to pull some strings and get us some rooms. The hotel itself is usually reseved for the engineers of the hotel who have to travel back and forth from different parts of the country, but as it was a holiday we got the whole hotel to ourselves. It was quaint and cute, which a huge fireplace and chocolates on our pillows sort of deal. I loved it; I was under the impression that we would be staying in the mine in sleeping bags on some bunks so anything above that was a great suprise. That night we stayed in the foyer infront of the fire and relaxed, made some smores and talked into the night.
The next morning we were up early. The mining complex had a cafeteria where they made all of the meals for the employees while they stayed there, and they prepared all of our meals for us during our stay (which were really good!). We were then taken on a tour of the mine, which was pretty amazing. They showed us how the process worked, how they sifted the dirt from the zinc and other minerals. We then drove to the Huayllay rock forests, which were absolutely gorgeous and fascinating. If I recall correctly, they stretched as far as 280 miles across the area and were littered with ancient rock paintings of llamas and other animals. We only were able to see a small area with our guide, who showed us different animal formations people had identified in the rocks and some llama paintings that were thousands of years old. I was in awe half of the tour.
That Sunday night after the tour we celebrated Roberto's birthday with some serious drinking games and horrible karaoke in the mining pub. I learned a new game that they play with dice that if you lost, you were the one singing. I tried pretty hard not to loose. It was more than a riot and I had a good little headache the next morning. We packed up fairly early Monday morning and started on our drive back to Lima, where we stopped at Junin, a monument for the Battle of Junin where the Pervians first beat the Spanish and started their path to independence. We also stopped at a giant turnip one of the towns had built out of glass which was incredibly tacky and therefore hilarious. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful and tiring. We had to rush a little bit so that I could make it back to a class I had to teach that night. Somehow I made it through traffic and the long drive with 20 minutes to spare!
The next day was the actual day of celebration. Peruvian officials decided to alter one of the fountains in the main square that shoots water out of lions' heads into a fountain that shoots pisco, the national liquer. Safe to say the city was one big drunk mess that day! After sleeping in, Pedro and I went around the city and enjoyed the festivities. They had the President speak to to the people and everyone basically partied. That night some friends came over to our apartment and a number of drinks later, we were ready to head out but realized we had been having such a good time at home that it was already three am. We stayed in that night and continued drinking.
Since then I have spent most of my time teaching or preparing for teaching, exploring the city and making plans. This past Saturday we headed to Barranco, a part of the city known for its beautiful bridges and amazing night life. There are a number of bars and discotheques lining a number of streets there. We settled on an old mansion they had remodelled into a classy lounge where we met up with a number of Pedro's friends. I had a few of them, the girls named Erika, Pilar and Constanza, when I was here in April and really enjoy their company. We drank a whole lot, laughed and then headed back to our house in the wee hours of the morning for some after-drinking sheesha. All in all, a good night.
There are a number of things coming up over the next couple of weeks that I will have to report on, including my participation in the Lima 100 Half-Marathon at the end of August, the circus, casino-hopping, The Killers concert coming up and a few more weekend trips in the works. Things are getting busy!
I miss you all and I hope everything is wonderful in Toronto. I tried to upload pictures but it's not working, so check them out on facebook if you have it.
All my hugs, kisses and love!
1. Huayllay
2. Fiestas Patrias
3. Barranco
On the 28th of July it was the Peruvian Independence Day, named Fiestas Patrias, when Peru became an independent nation and was no longer under Spanish rule. Whenever there is a holiday in Peru they always give you two days off of work, and try to place them close to the weekend so that you end up having a four-day holiday. The 28th was a Tuesday, and by default Wednesday also became a holiday with Monday as an optional holiday, making this a two-day work week and a five-day festival. It is traditional for Peruvians to travel around Peru during this time and we wasted no time booking a trip. Lucia and Raul organized a trip to Huayllay, an archaeologial wonder 4850m (15, 912f) above sea level famous for its 'rock forest', or natural rock tree-like formations, and ancient cave paintings. People attending: myself, Pedro, Lucia, Raul, Francesca and Stephanie (friend's of Raul and Lucia) and Roberto, who was in our car. After sleeping over in Pedro's family home Friday night, we left early Saturday morning for the almost 8 hour trip up the mountains. The drive alone was amazing and terrifying. The mountains and natural lakes were breathtaking and were present for almost 3/4ths of the drive. Many of the small towns we passed through were built right up to the edge of the winding main highway, meaning one side of the houses would face the road and the other half would be partially hanging off the mountainside. The road was a one-laned curvy nightmare, with Peruvian drivers who are already famous for their horrible driving weaving in and out between slow-crawling trucks. At one point there was a bit of a traffic buildup beside a gorgeous lake called "drunk lake" about 2500m up as a truck had flipped over going on a corner and was an inch away from sliding over the edge of the cliffs. Around lunchtime we stopped in a small town named 'St. Peter of the boxes' (can't remember the Spanish words right now) and had lunch, which consisted of soup, some meat with rice and creamed spinach, and rice pudding for 4soles ($1.50US). I also had my first taste of coca tea, a tea that they brew using coca leaves to help you with altitude sickness. That's right people, I basically drank the ingredients for crack. It both looked and tasted a little like green tea. At that point we were about 3000m up and I was starting to feel the effects of the height - shortness of breath, a little sick to the stomach, hard to climb stairs. After the tea we jumped back in the car where I decided I had seen enough mountains and promptly went to sleep.
We arrived in Huayllay as it was just starting to get a little dark. We were staying in a mining hotel where the public are usually not permitted to go but because Lucia and Raul's father is involved in the mining business he was able to pull some strings and get us some rooms. The hotel itself is usually reseved for the engineers of the hotel who have to travel back and forth from different parts of the country, but as it was a holiday we got the whole hotel to ourselves. It was quaint and cute, which a huge fireplace and chocolates on our pillows sort of deal. I loved it; I was under the impression that we would be staying in the mine in sleeping bags on some bunks so anything above that was a great suprise. That night we stayed in the foyer infront of the fire and relaxed, made some smores and talked into the night.
The next morning we were up early. The mining complex had a cafeteria where they made all of the meals for the employees while they stayed there, and they prepared all of our meals for us during our stay (which were really good!). We were then taken on a tour of the mine, which was pretty amazing. They showed us how the process worked, how they sifted the dirt from the zinc and other minerals. We then drove to the Huayllay rock forests, which were absolutely gorgeous and fascinating. If I recall correctly, they stretched as far as 280 miles across the area and were littered with ancient rock paintings of llamas and other animals. We only were able to see a small area with our guide, who showed us different animal formations people had identified in the rocks and some llama paintings that were thousands of years old. I was in awe half of the tour.
That Sunday night after the tour we celebrated Roberto's birthday with some serious drinking games and horrible karaoke in the mining pub. I learned a new game that they play with dice that if you lost, you were the one singing. I tried pretty hard not to loose. It was more than a riot and I had a good little headache the next morning. We packed up fairly early Monday morning and started on our drive back to Lima, where we stopped at Junin, a monument for the Battle of Junin where the Pervians first beat the Spanish and started their path to independence. We also stopped at a giant turnip one of the towns had built out of glass which was incredibly tacky and therefore hilarious. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful and tiring. We had to rush a little bit so that I could make it back to a class I had to teach that night. Somehow I made it through traffic and the long drive with 20 minutes to spare!
The next day was the actual day of celebration. Peruvian officials decided to alter one of the fountains in the main square that shoots water out of lions' heads into a fountain that shoots pisco, the national liquer. Safe to say the city was one big drunk mess that day! After sleeping in, Pedro and I went around the city and enjoyed the festivities. They had the President speak to to the people and everyone basically partied. That night some friends came over to our apartment and a number of drinks later, we were ready to head out but realized we had been having such a good time at home that it was already three am. We stayed in that night and continued drinking.
Since then I have spent most of my time teaching or preparing for teaching, exploring the city and making plans. This past Saturday we headed to Barranco, a part of the city known for its beautiful bridges and amazing night life. There are a number of bars and discotheques lining a number of streets there. We settled on an old mansion they had remodelled into a classy lounge where we met up with a number of Pedro's friends. I had a few of them, the girls named Erika, Pilar and Constanza, when I was here in April and really enjoy their company. We drank a whole lot, laughed and then headed back to our house in the wee hours of the morning for some after-drinking sheesha. All in all, a good night.
There are a number of things coming up over the next couple of weeks that I will have to report on, including my participation in the Lima 100 Half-Marathon at the end of August, the circus, casino-hopping, The Killers concert coming up and a few more weekend trips in the works. Things are getting busy!
I miss you all and I hope everything is wonderful in Toronto. I tried to upload pictures but it's not working, so check them out on facebook if you have it.
All my hugs, kisses and love!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A Little Relaxed
Hello everyone!
So as of the last post not too many different things have occurred but I will entertain you anyways. As reported, I have been teaching at an institute close to my home in Miraflores. So far I have about 18 hours a week teaching adults and I am really enjoying it! My students are incredibly enthusiastic and excited about learning, which makes my job much easier. I spent most of my days during the week running home between classes and preparing. The first week I found fairly overwhelming as I didn't feel I had any idea what I was doing. That Monday I had a teacher's meeting with three other teachers at Langrow Institute where I found out that they had all gone through weeks of training before being allowed to pick up only five hours a week until passing a review. On one hand, I was flattered that Langrow was impressed with me enough to make me a teacher without training. On the other hand, I really would have appreciated knowing what the heck I was doing. I still have trouble with the administration part of the classes, such as timesheets and canceling classes, but I'm slowly figuring that out with time. The actual teaching part of my job is fantastic; I have never felt so respected as an intellectual in a working position before. People really listen to me here and are appreciative of the language and where I come from. I wish the hours were a little different (i.e. I do not always enjoy waking up at 6am for a class at 7am) but I love the flexibility. Eighteen hours a week is also enough to pay my bills as well as have a little spending money on the side which is an extra bonus. I enjoy my Speaking and Listening class during Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings the most, as it is a class of about 7 people who just love to chat and gives me a chance to hear English in a casual situation. Also, they all enjoy talking, meaning less preparation on my end :)
This past weekend (July 17th-19th) was fairly lazy. I went out to lunch with Lucia on Friday to San Antonio, a great little place with amazing salads. I dropped off the laundry to be picked up later that day and while I waited for it I walked around the city for almost three hours just discovering parts I had not seen before. There are some amazing bars and clubs walking distance from our house, one of which is a wine bar that we are planning on going to tonight. I haven't been feeling too great lately having a bit of a cough and stuffed nose from the change in the humidity that I am not used to, so I did not teach my Friday night class that day. Unfortunately, the secretaries at Langrow do not speak excellent English so I had Pedro call them for me to let them know I headed to the clinic. People are absolutely terrified of swine flu here, with good reason, so when Pedro told them I was tested for swine flu and was told I was negative, all they heard was the word "swine flu." That single conversation created quite the legend at Langrow over the weekend. When I headed into work on Monday, they had already replaced my morning classes with alternate teachers and everyone who saw me was gasping and covering their mouths while they scurried away. After quite a long meeting with some of the staff it was finally understood that no, I do not have swine flu and yes, I am okay to work. You should have seen me trying to explain to the administrative staff in choppy Spanish mixed with English that I am not possessed with "el gripe de cerdo" and can work that day.
Saturday morning I headed to spinning class and met up with the nutritionalist at the gym to work out my personal training and nutrition schedule they offer as a part of my membership package. Afterwards, I headed home and proceeded to watch as many Harry Potters movies as I could before 11pm that nigth when Pedro and I planned on going to the late show. We made popcorn the old fashioned way, with oil at the bottom of the pan, putting the kernels in and watching them explode over the kitchen until we found the lid. Our fridge is broken, and continues to be broken, so most of the weekend we ate at restaurants. Chifa, or Chinese food, is cheap and good here and arroz chifa, or fried rice, is now a Peruvian staple. We ate Chinese food for dinner and walked around the city and through the parks until about 9:30pm. Parque Kennedy always has interesting shows or art sales going on at all hours of the day, with Saturday being no exception. After arriving home, we passed out before ever making it to the movie at 11pm.
When we woke up super early the next morning and realized we missed the movie, we ran to Jockey Plaza, one of the malls, and caught the 11:30am show. Meh, wasn't missing too much if we didn't see it. We also dropped off my ipod touch at the istore, which wouldn't turn on after a water bottle spilled in my purse on it, before heading to his Uncle Raul and Aunt Lucia's house for an amazing lunch. Their cook is ridiculously good: they sent her to culinary school to learn their favourites so I don't understand how they aren't huge by now. Dessert? Brownies with ice cream, I was in heaven. After lunch, which was really around dinnertime, we headed back to the mall to pick up my ipod and go home. Somehow they were able to turn it on and it worked, but when we brought it home it refused to charge so since then Pedro has brought it back to the store and they have shipped it off to be fixed. It is still under warranty so I am crossing my fingers for a new one! Brand new Ipod Touch 32g... come on, don't fix it!
Since the weekend I have been pretty relaxed. Almost all of my teaching shifts are cancelled for the next two weeks because of Fiestas Patrias, or the Peruvian Independence Holidays, next week on Monday and Tuesday, the 27th and 28th respectively. It is traditional for people to travel for these holidays and so no one is around for me to teach. We are also travelling this weekend to a place called Huayllay (Why-eye), a little mining town five hours drive from Lima. It is renouned for its 'rock forests', natural rock formations covering miles, and impeccable hiking and rock climbing. There is a big group of us going: me, Pedro, Lucia and a friend, Raul and a couple of friends and Roberto, Pedro's best friend from highschool. I'm pretty excited! We are staying in a mine; how amazing is that?!
I will update when I return. I hope you all are doing well. Sending my love from South America!
So as of the last post not too many different things have occurred but I will entertain you anyways. As reported, I have been teaching at an institute close to my home in Miraflores. So far I have about 18 hours a week teaching adults and I am really enjoying it! My students are incredibly enthusiastic and excited about learning, which makes my job much easier. I spent most of my days during the week running home between classes and preparing. The first week I found fairly overwhelming as I didn't feel I had any idea what I was doing. That Monday I had a teacher's meeting with three other teachers at Langrow Institute where I found out that they had all gone through weeks of training before being allowed to pick up only five hours a week until passing a review. On one hand, I was flattered that Langrow was impressed with me enough to make me a teacher without training. On the other hand, I really would have appreciated knowing what the heck I was doing. I still have trouble with the administration part of the classes, such as timesheets and canceling classes, but I'm slowly figuring that out with time. The actual teaching part of my job is fantastic; I have never felt so respected as an intellectual in a working position before. People really listen to me here and are appreciative of the language and where I come from. I wish the hours were a little different (i.e. I do not always enjoy waking up at 6am for a class at 7am) but I love the flexibility. Eighteen hours a week is also enough to pay my bills as well as have a little spending money on the side which is an extra bonus. I enjoy my Speaking and Listening class during Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings the most, as it is a class of about 7 people who just love to chat and gives me a chance to hear English in a casual situation. Also, they all enjoy talking, meaning less preparation on my end :)
This past weekend (July 17th-19th) was fairly lazy. I went out to lunch with Lucia on Friday to San Antonio, a great little place with amazing salads. I dropped off the laundry to be picked up later that day and while I waited for it I walked around the city for almost three hours just discovering parts I had not seen before. There are some amazing bars and clubs walking distance from our house, one of which is a wine bar that we are planning on going to tonight. I haven't been feeling too great lately having a bit of a cough and stuffed nose from the change in the humidity that I am not used to, so I did not teach my Friday night class that day. Unfortunately, the secretaries at Langrow do not speak excellent English so I had Pedro call them for me to let them know I headed to the clinic. People are absolutely terrified of swine flu here, with good reason, so when Pedro told them I was tested for swine flu and was told I was negative, all they heard was the word "swine flu." That single conversation created quite the legend at Langrow over the weekend. When I headed into work on Monday, they had already replaced my morning classes with alternate teachers and everyone who saw me was gasping and covering their mouths while they scurried away. After quite a long meeting with some of the staff it was finally understood that no, I do not have swine flu and yes, I am okay to work. You should have seen me trying to explain to the administrative staff in choppy Spanish mixed with English that I am not possessed with "el gripe de cerdo" and can work that day.
Saturday morning I headed to spinning class and met up with the nutritionalist at the gym to work out my personal training and nutrition schedule they offer as a part of my membership package. Afterwards, I headed home and proceeded to watch as many Harry Potters movies as I could before 11pm that nigth when Pedro and I planned on going to the late show. We made popcorn the old fashioned way, with oil at the bottom of the pan, putting the kernels in and watching them explode over the kitchen until we found the lid. Our fridge is broken, and continues to be broken, so most of the weekend we ate at restaurants. Chifa, or Chinese food, is cheap and good here and arroz chifa, or fried rice, is now a Peruvian staple. We ate Chinese food for dinner and walked around the city and through the parks until about 9:30pm. Parque Kennedy always has interesting shows or art sales going on at all hours of the day, with Saturday being no exception. After arriving home, we passed out before ever making it to the movie at 11pm.
When we woke up super early the next morning and realized we missed the movie, we ran to Jockey Plaza, one of the malls, and caught the 11:30am show. Meh, wasn't missing too much if we didn't see it. We also dropped off my ipod touch at the istore, which wouldn't turn on after a water bottle spilled in my purse on it, before heading to his Uncle Raul and Aunt Lucia's house for an amazing lunch. Their cook is ridiculously good: they sent her to culinary school to learn their favourites so I don't understand how they aren't huge by now. Dessert? Brownies with ice cream, I was in heaven. After lunch, which was really around dinnertime, we headed back to the mall to pick up my ipod and go home. Somehow they were able to turn it on and it worked, but when we brought it home it refused to charge so since then Pedro has brought it back to the store and they have shipped it off to be fixed. It is still under warranty so I am crossing my fingers for a new one! Brand new Ipod Touch 32g... come on, don't fix it!
Since the weekend I have been pretty relaxed. Almost all of my teaching shifts are cancelled for the next two weeks because of Fiestas Patrias, or the Peruvian Independence Holidays, next week on Monday and Tuesday, the 27th and 28th respectively. It is traditional for people to travel for these holidays and so no one is around for me to teach. We are also travelling this weekend to a place called Huayllay (Why-eye), a little mining town five hours drive from Lima. It is renouned for its 'rock forests', natural rock formations covering miles, and impeccable hiking and rock climbing. There is a big group of us going: me, Pedro, Lucia and a friend, Raul and a couple of friends and Roberto, Pedro's best friend from highschool. I'm pretty excited! We are staying in a mine; how amazing is that?!
I will update when I return. I hope you all are doing well. Sending my love from South America!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Alot Happens in a Week
It has been a very busy week! I am going to try and update this at least weekly if not more.
Let's start with the weather, which has been surprisingly great. I had braced myself for the worst but in this past week it has been sunny half the days that I've been here. It's about 20 degrees but the humidity makes it feel about 15. I don't wear my coat unless it's at night. I've gone about half of Miraflores on my own now, and I'm finally comfortable ordering at restaurants and going shopping without help. A couple of times I've gotten a little tongue-tied but when that happens, usually someone around me just comes over, tells the person what I want in Spanish and then turns to me as says something along the lines of, "It's okay, dear, you'll get the language soon enough" with a pat on the back. It's kind of funny. I call it "Secret English": everyone here speaks it, but nobody knows that everyone else does. Even our doormen possess secret English, two native Peruvian-looking tough guys speak it with me, both of whom have asked me out (to Pedro's dismay). One wanted to give me a "private tour of Miraflores when I get off work at 8" until he found out I wasn't living on my own ;)
I haven't been able to update you wonderful people until now because I've been running all over the place. Thursday was our anniversary, which we celebrated by eating both lunch and dinner at some swanky restaurants. Pedro took me out to lunch to this restaurant called Tanta, owned by a world-famous Peruvian chef named Gaston Asturian. We shared three appetizers which were the sizes of main courses and had a dessert each for $30 canadian. I'm geting fat. For dinner we went to La Rosa Nautica, a Peruvian style restaurant which is situated on this little outcrop that extends into the ocean. Two things I have realized about the food here: I love their fish and I love their corn. Every restaurant I go to I am trying a new type of fish and eating a new type of corn. They have purple corn here that they even make into a drink; how weird is that?! I don't crave chips anymore, I crave fried corn kernels that haven't popped with salt. Dinner was amazing: cebiche, seared tuna, veggies, and pecan pie for dessert. It's a little ridiculous as to how well you can eat here for the price, even when you are on a budget. "Expensive" here is about $40 for two people. The only thing we are having trouble finding for a reasonable price is sushi but I'm willing to pay the little extra when I crave it.
This past week was full of interviews and applications. I had three job interviews and was hired! Langrow, a well-respected business institute in Peru, has given me a couple of classes. My hours are sporatic; I had my first class this morning from 7-8:30am which runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have another class Monday-Thursday from 1:30 until 3:00pm. Both classes I have mentioned are private lessons a little way away from my house so unfortunately I have to take a semi-sketchy bus. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I also have evening classes from 8:00 until 9:30pm at the main headquarters (short walk) with 3-4 people in my class. I work 15 hours a week and its enough to cover the bills! Kind of relaxing I must say. This morning I came back from teaching an Operations Manager for an Oil Tools company. He's incredibly enthuiastic about learning which helped me alot considering I had no idea what I was doing there. This afternoon it was a banking exec who is an incredibly fast learner. I'm excited I am finally making some money and feel a little more secure. Soon I can open my own bank account and be a real person.
I also joined a gym, which doesn't seem like a huge venture unless you know me well. I went a couple of times last week but nothing to scream about. The gym itself is huge but really badly ventilated so I end up walking home drenched. Yes, I did say walk, another one of the many perks of my neighbourhood. I also signed up for my first official half marathon so I really need to start training again. We'll see how I survive it, its been incredibly hard getting used to running here because of the elevation.
Friday was Pedro's mother's birthday and there was a huge shindig at her house. About thirty people were there, friends and family, drinking and eating tons of food and some delicious sushi. After having a late and semi-drunk evening the night before Pedro and I stuffed our faces and headed home. We found out the next day that they party continued until 4am that night and felt a little old.
Saturday we relaxed for a bit before heading out to Lima's Chinatown. It is a main strip of Chinese restaurants and stores close to the center of Lima. Pedro took me to a restaurant he used to go to back when he was in highschool with some of his friends, which had amazing Chinese wontons that I definitely consumed at a rapid rate. We then walked around the city center for a bit and went for some late night ice cream at my favourite ice cream parlour in Parque Kennedy. It's an old school parlour where you can get your ice cream made into random designs, like Micky which is two scoops with oreos for ears in a waffle cone cup, or a little skier make out of licorice on top of your ice cream. It's crazy and delicious. Ice cream here is a little different than anywhere I've tasted as it is actually really icy, kind of with little icy pieces in it. Not the consistency that I like the most but yummy nonetheless.
Saturday night we were supposed to have a 'little get together' with some friends which turned into an all-out massive party in our apartment. We had about 20 or so people altogether but moving in and out of the apartment so it worked out okay. A number of vodka shots, vodka rebulls and pisco sours later I ended up a mess at 5am eating sandwichon and fries covered in mayo to mask the spicy ass aji sauce I originally covered them in. The next morning I woke up with a terrible terrible hangover at 9am because we still have no damn curtains and the light just loves staring me in the face. An hour and a bit later I decided I was mad at Pedro for sleeping through the sun so I woke him up and made him go get ceviche and corn with me. Pedro's cousins, Lucia, Raul and Blanca, had invited us to a soccer, ahem futbol game Sunday afternoon between two rivaling Limean teams so right after lunch we headed over to the stadium. To 80,000 screaming Peruvian fans and a private booth to watch the game. It was absolutely mindblowing, terrifying and amazing all at once. I've included some pictures. After that we grabbed a pizza and went home to our discusting apartment. Every single glass was used and all over the place, so gross!
It is now almost 5pm and I am absolutely exhausted from my morning classes and staying up late preparing lesson plans for my classes last night. I am going to nap, so enjoy these pictures and I'll write again soon. Still so much to tell!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Pictures of My Neighbourhood
Some pictures of the walk I took yesterday while applying for schools. The ones close to the ocean are of a sort of boardwalk area that lines the cliffs. In a couple of the pictures you can see Larcomar, a mall that sticks out from the mountains. The ones in the pretty park and the colonial building are Parque Kennedy, the center of the district. The first picture is the sidewalk (in the middle of the street) of Av. Jose Pardo, which connects to our street.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Settling In
So I have arrived in Peru and I miss you all already! The plane ride was awesome, 8 hours and actually good food. Our apartment is fantastic, I love it and now that we're getting all set up it's getting better each day. It is literally, and I'm not kidding, five minute walk to the waterfront, 10 minute walk to the center of the district called Parque Kennedy, and 10 minutes in another direction to every single restaurant you can imagine and 2 grocery stores, one of which is 24hours. Oh, its even 10 minutes walk from the Canadian Embassy!
Thursday I ran a ton of errands with Pedro, who took the day off to get me settled. Somehow I managed to get pounds of sheesha and my hookah across airport security without them even batting an eyelash, but unfortunately one of the tubs spilled in my toiletries bag, so I washed those off as we got our internet and phone installed. We went to two different banks who downright refused to give me the money for my bank draft, so I am literally without money. I have 50 soles in cash, so like a twenty. I've been using my visa everywhere but it kind of sucks because the exchange rate from CAN to SOL is so much more than US to SOL and I have all of my money in a US bank account in Canada. Oh well. My mom is going to wire me my money over these next couple of weeks so I'll live. We did a big grocery trip but still managed to forget to buy salt and pepper (we bought shakers, but not S&P). I think we took two an a half hours there because I made Pedro read every nutritional label for me. My house is a haven of healthy goods :) After that we went to this gigantic Bed, Bath and Beyond sort of place in one of the main malls and bought things for the house we were missing i.e. dish rack, garbage cans, pots and pans, shower curtain and a pen shaped as an eggplant with a magnet for the fridge which I deemed absolutely essential. We need curtains for both the balcony and the bedroom window which I am regretting not purchasing as I have the side of the bed close to the window and that shit is bright at 7am. It's not sunny but its not overcast like it gets in Toronto; its kind of like what the city looks like sometimes when it's covered in mist that is really high up, so like a light grey brightness. It's not depressing at all, which is what I was actually afraid of. After that we headed over to his parents' house to steal, ahem, pick up a few more items and say hello. His parents have been incredibly inviting to me: when I got here Wednesday night there was a little gift wrapped up on my bed from his mom with some cute stuff for the house, and his dad bought me some flowers to say hello. It's nice to know that they already feel a connection with me like I feel with them; they treat me like I'm a part of the family. After that, it was about 10pm and I was feeling the hunger as they had some delicious Chinese dumplings and wine on the table that I somehow withheld from eating, so we went home and I cooked some tilapia we picked up that day. Without salt and pepper. Somehow still delicious! Then passed out. We are an hour behind Toronto here and I was exhausted.
Friday morning we headed to the Peruvian Immigration office (damn early) to get my visa stuff settled. It didn't take very long at all, despite getting a little lost on the way. Pedro having a car is fantastic, and each part of the city is just that much different than the other that I get excited every time we drive through a new roundabout and see some palm trees and statues in the middle of the street, or a massive colonial Spanish building or chapel with a olive tree park in front of it. For my visa, I got a stamp on my passport that gives me until August 30th to get a job. Once I get a contract for the job, I can legally sign it without consequence, bring it to the office, and they give me a Peruvian identification card that says I am a legal worker in Peru. Then I can open my own bank accounts and finally be completely settled.
After our Visa adventure, Pedro dropped me off at home and went to work while I got ready and went for a jog. I ran about 30 seconds to reach the waterfront parks, which are actually a line of parks all connected on the edge of cliffs that overlook the ocean. You can see the beach down at the bottom and all of the Limean coastline as you are running along paths they have made for bikers and runners. It is absolutely breathtaking. They also have a huge running community in Lima; Pedro and I are about to walk down to the Adidas store (about three blocks away) and sign up for the Lima Half-Marathon in a couple of minutes. Having completed my jog, I walked to two different grocery stores and picked up a few things. I wanted to go to the Canadian Embassy and check out any programs or classes they offer for Canadians but for some reason every governmental office in Peru has ridiculous hours and it was closed by one o'clock. Came home, fixed up the house a bit, walked around a bit more and attempted to make dinner. I say attempted because I had put all the ingredients together for a great sheppard's pie when we realized the oven was broken. We called the landlord to come down and fix it but didn't expect him to arrive in half an hour, otherwise we would have waited instead of eating everything. Of course, my not-so-superior cooking skills and Pedro's not-so-superior knowledge of the kitchen meant that we just didn't know how to turn it on. Ha!
I went a little crazy at the duty free in Canada.. two litres of vodka and a litre of coconut rum for 50$. I actually pumped my fist in exhaltation in the grocery store when I saw that 750mL of vodka here is 62soles (20 bucks) and I saved some cash. So last night we definitely had to celebrate this money-saving discovery and took advantage of my purchases.. which I am slightly regretting this morning. We walked to Pedro's favourite bar called Huaringas that specializes in pisco sours, the traditional drink of Peru. It's made with pisco, an incredibly strong liquer distilled from grapes, egg white, a simple syrup, limes and a little cinnamon they sprinkle on top. This place made them in all different flavours - mango, berries, grape, coconut - delicious. Instead of peanuts at the bar they have these huge corn kernels covered in salt and I am absolutely addicted. Bars are open and serve drinks until the last person leaves at night, and grocery stores sell liquer. Fair to say it was a pretty late night.
After a nice hungover breakfast I am now getting ready to walk to a number of gyms in our area and possibly sign up for a membership as I am itching to get back on the fitness routine. I may go to a 4th of July BBQ being thrown by the American and Canadian Association of Peru this afternoon to meet up with some English-speaking expats. Tonight we are going to dinner with Pedro's cousin Miguel and his girlfriend Pia who I met when I was in Peru earlier this year. Hopefully I can get some good Peruvian food as I haven't had the chance yet to go to a restaurant. Sunday we are heading to Pedro's aunt and uncle's house (Tia Lucia and Tio Raul) for some deliciously unhealthy food and good company. People throw huge get-togethers here every weekend it seems, with alot of food and alot of booze. Next week I already have an interview lined up for a school to pick up some hours and today on my walk I will be writing down school names close to me so I can apply to them. Pretty busy!
I'll try and update this weekly. Keep in touch and tell me how you're doing at home!
Thursday I ran a ton of errands with Pedro, who took the day off to get me settled. Somehow I managed to get pounds of sheesha and my hookah across airport security without them even batting an eyelash, but unfortunately one of the tubs spilled in my toiletries bag, so I washed those off as we got our internet and phone installed. We went to two different banks who downright refused to give me the money for my bank draft, so I am literally without money. I have 50 soles in cash, so like a twenty. I've been using my visa everywhere but it kind of sucks because the exchange rate from CAN to SOL is so much more than US to SOL and I have all of my money in a US bank account in Canada. Oh well. My mom is going to wire me my money over these next couple of weeks so I'll live. We did a big grocery trip but still managed to forget to buy salt and pepper (we bought shakers, but not S&P). I think we took two an a half hours there because I made Pedro read every nutritional label for me. My house is a haven of healthy goods :) After that we went to this gigantic Bed, Bath and Beyond sort of place in one of the main malls and bought things for the house we were missing i.e. dish rack, garbage cans, pots and pans, shower curtain and a pen shaped as an eggplant with a magnet for the fridge which I deemed absolutely essential. We need curtains for both the balcony and the bedroom window which I am regretting not purchasing as I have the side of the bed close to the window and that shit is bright at 7am. It's not sunny but its not overcast like it gets in Toronto; its kind of like what the city looks like sometimes when it's covered in mist that is really high up, so like a light grey brightness. It's not depressing at all, which is what I was actually afraid of. After that we headed over to his parents' house to steal, ahem, pick up a few more items and say hello. His parents have been incredibly inviting to me: when I got here Wednesday night there was a little gift wrapped up on my bed from his mom with some cute stuff for the house, and his dad bought me some flowers to say hello. It's nice to know that they already feel a connection with me like I feel with them; they treat me like I'm a part of the family. After that, it was about 10pm and I was feeling the hunger as they had some delicious Chinese dumplings and wine on the table that I somehow withheld from eating, so we went home and I cooked some tilapia we picked up that day. Without salt and pepper. Somehow still delicious! Then passed out. We are an hour behind Toronto here and I was exhausted.
Friday morning we headed to the Peruvian Immigration office (damn early) to get my visa stuff settled. It didn't take very long at all, despite getting a little lost on the way. Pedro having a car is fantastic, and each part of the city is just that much different than the other that I get excited every time we drive through a new roundabout and see some palm trees and statues in the middle of the street, or a massive colonial Spanish building or chapel with a olive tree park in front of it. For my visa, I got a stamp on my passport that gives me until August 30th to get a job. Once I get a contract for the job, I can legally sign it without consequence, bring it to the office, and they give me a Peruvian identification card that says I am a legal worker in Peru. Then I can open my own bank accounts and finally be completely settled.
After our Visa adventure, Pedro dropped me off at home and went to work while I got ready and went for a jog. I ran about 30 seconds to reach the waterfront parks, which are actually a line of parks all connected on the edge of cliffs that overlook the ocean. You can see the beach down at the bottom and all of the Limean coastline as you are running along paths they have made for bikers and runners. It is absolutely breathtaking. They also have a huge running community in Lima; Pedro and I are about to walk down to the Adidas store (about three blocks away) and sign up for the Lima Half-Marathon in a couple of minutes. Having completed my jog, I walked to two different grocery stores and picked up a few things. I wanted to go to the Canadian Embassy and check out any programs or classes they offer for Canadians but for some reason every governmental office in Peru has ridiculous hours and it was closed by one o'clock. Came home, fixed up the house a bit, walked around a bit more and attempted to make dinner. I say attempted because I had put all the ingredients together for a great sheppard's pie when we realized the oven was broken. We called the landlord to come down and fix it but didn't expect him to arrive in half an hour, otherwise we would have waited instead of eating everything. Of course, my not-so-superior cooking skills and Pedro's not-so-superior knowledge of the kitchen meant that we just didn't know how to turn it on. Ha!
I went a little crazy at the duty free in Canada.. two litres of vodka and a litre of coconut rum for 50$. I actually pumped my fist in exhaltation in the grocery store when I saw that 750mL of vodka here is 62soles (20 bucks) and I saved some cash. So last night we definitely had to celebrate this money-saving discovery and took advantage of my purchases.. which I am slightly regretting this morning. We walked to Pedro's favourite bar called Huaringas that specializes in pisco sours, the traditional drink of Peru. It's made with pisco, an incredibly strong liquer distilled from grapes, egg white, a simple syrup, limes and a little cinnamon they sprinkle on top. This place made them in all different flavours - mango, berries, grape, coconut - delicious. Instead of peanuts at the bar they have these huge corn kernels covered in salt and I am absolutely addicted. Bars are open and serve drinks until the last person leaves at night, and grocery stores sell liquer. Fair to say it was a pretty late night.
After a nice hungover breakfast I am now getting ready to walk to a number of gyms in our area and possibly sign up for a membership as I am itching to get back on the fitness routine. I may go to a 4th of July BBQ being thrown by the American and Canadian Association of Peru this afternoon to meet up with some English-speaking expats. Tonight we are going to dinner with Pedro's cousin Miguel and his girlfriend Pia who I met when I was in Peru earlier this year. Hopefully I can get some good Peruvian food as I haven't had the chance yet to go to a restaurant. Sunday we are heading to Pedro's aunt and uncle's house (Tia Lucia and Tio Raul) for some deliciously unhealthy food and good company. People throw huge get-togethers here every weekend it seems, with alot of food and alot of booze. Next week I already have an interview lined up for a school to pick up some hours and today on my walk I will be writing down school names close to me so I can apply to them. Pretty busy!
I'll try and update this weekly. Keep in touch and tell me how you're doing at home!
Monday, June 29, 2009
My Life on a Website
Bridget suggested I start this blog off by mentioning the trips I've taken over the years so the people who don't know about many of them realize me moving to Peru isn't that crazy after all. I agreed with her. My little list, minus the family trips.
Synopsis of my Travelling Career:
March 2002 - Paris, France; Nice, France; Avnignon, France; Milan, Italy
June 2003 - Cayo Coco, Cuba
June - July 2003 - (backpacking) Edinburgh and surrounding areas, Scotland; London, England; Paris, France; Italy
March 2004 - Panama City, Panama; San Jose and surrounding areas, Costa Rica; Bogota, Colombia
July 2004 - Varadero, Cuba
August 2004 - Portland, Maine
February 2005 - Varadero, Cuba
February 2006 - Mont Tremblant, Quebec; Varadero, Cuba
February 2008 - Huatulco, Mexico
April 2009 - Lima, Peru
I think the list is correct but in all honesty I can't remember some of the dates. See, I've got a history of the travel bug! Maybe I'll put up some pictures if I can dig them out of 'the box' containing all evidence of these trips made before the era of digital photography.
Also, since the request has gone out to see my apartment in Peru, here is a picture of the living room from the kitchen. Everything is set up and ready to go, so I cannot wait to move in! I should be scared I guess, I mean I'm moving 6000 miles away from everything I've ever known, but I'm just excited.
I'll miss you all! Keep in touch or I'll hunt you down when I come to visit :)
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