Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

From Lima I wish you all a good holiday season.

I am finally feeling like I am on vacation as my mom and I have travelled to Arica and Lima post-Christmas and enjoyed the beach and the big city. Yesterday, while my mom was resting I just walked around a bit in Lima and all the people and life and energy reminded me how much I love big cities.

Of course, for all their good points, there are also the negatives. As we walked across the river from the center and into an area called Rimac, we were actually approached by a police officer who asked us if we were American and then told us that it was too dangerous to continue walking in that area and we should turn around. Imagine that happening in any American city! Then later, I took my mom back to the area that I had been walking around by myself because it was so full of energy and life (and good street food like choclo con queso - corn with cheese - and papa rellena - stuffed potato), and we suffered the consequences. As we were just walking down the street, someone came up from behind my mom and just grabbed her earings out of her ears and ran off with them. Not too much to do, and my mom handled it well, but it definitely clued us both in to the fact that we need to pay more attention.


We also walked around the center a lot, saw an interesting display of nacimientos in the national palace, bought a whole bunch of odds and ends as gifts for the states, and took a ride at night up to the giant cross on the sand dune right near the center. It was quite stunning to look out over all of Lima, and there was definitely a sense of peace and order on seeing it from so high up. But try to imagine a city of 9 million (bigger than New York), but not build vertically at all. Lima is just a sprawling, giant metropolis. And I think for that reason I really love it.

So, plans from here are to say goodbye to my mom tomorrow and fly back to Tacna to rest up before jumping in to Mes de Mision in Ite (if you can read Spanish: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distrito_de_Ite). Hope everyone is enjoying the mid winter´s rest and the cold wintry weather!

Happy Holidays!

Even though there has been tons of holiday cheer down here lately (I have been teaching Christmas vocabulary, all the classes have put up their manger scenes - which are the big Christmas decoration down here and they are quite elaborate with all the animals, random buildings, and painted paper for the earth and sky in the background - we had a Christmas mass, caroling session, and paneton - which is like fruit cake - celebration amongst a number of the Catholic schools, etc) it definitely does not feel like holiday season.

I was thinking about it the other day and I think that the mix of warm weather (it is very sunny and warm here around mid day) and the end of the school year (which for my entire life has fallen in June) leaves me feeling very strange about the whole Christmas spirit. That being said, I am not Grinch and am as into it as anyone else. Shoot, I almost ate a full paneton (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0QGbP0pErKWS0-RdXGtCexmPNX7cN9rcbeIVSmPKm9dXYpA7FbLFkVACleoXof4h7UrfctECqPIi-rxWbXCdqKEnfG9WS5grNQy5g0OMVfPWgNx2IcPeesVvSdZOzsRYoIjEVO9ms3IY/s400/paneton.jpg)
by myself the other night.

Last week I also celebrated my quarter of a century on this Earth. The fact that I was turning 25 - halfway done with my 20s - struck me more in the lead up to the actual day. The day itself I passed in really good spirits and with just a general appreciation for life and this experience.

The night before, my host family threw me a little party with cuy (guinea pig) that was cooked how I like it (in this tasty red sauce instead of spread eagle and fried). The day of, I had my favorite breakfast of a yogurt fruit salad, and then went to school where they sung happy birthday, we played games, and I let the kids throw water on me (which they claimed was a Peruvian tradition, but I am a little suspect. It is a tradition to break an egg on the head of the birthday girl or boy, but they did not even suggest doing that). After school, I went to the house of one of the families of my students (actually my two best students) and they had a little birthday lunch for me. Later at night, we bought some beers and invited over neighborhood friends for just a little get together to sit and chat. It was a nice calm ending - exactly what I wanted - to a good birthday that was filled with eating good food. I may have had more picante (the typical Tacna dish made with cow´s stomach) than at any other point in the year down here.

Otherwise, like I said, the end of the school year is coming, so I am planning all my final tests, getting ready for my mom to come down and visit and trying to make sure the transition of Christa and Chelsea leaving and Seamus and Maureen moving in goes smoothly. We are working hard on the preparations for the going away party this Sunday, which will cap a busy weekend as I also will become a godfather of confirmation for one of my students this Saturday morning.

Hope everyone is having a happy (and most likely cold) holiday season in the states!