Makin' friends, tra-la-la-la

Here's a quick shot of me (looking like a booger) n' my favorite El Sol students, Cathy and Phil. Cathy hails from Ireland (with a nice rich N. Ireland accent) and is the only girl I know whose daddy actually did buy her that pony. She's in Peru for approximately 6 months to volunteer with an organization that allows her to combine her education degree and Human Rights law degree; then she's off to Ghana for another six months to be a something-something-insert-fancy-human-rights-education-consultant-title here.

Phil, on the other hand, hails from Park City, Utah, where he manages a ski resort. Apparently his company hires a lot of kids from South America to work through the winter, as the local rich Utah (or is it Utahan?) kids can't be bothered to make $15 an hour. He's blessed with a spitfire Peruvian girlfriend, who tries to keep him in line, and an interesting lifeview as a reformed (i.e. excommunicated) Mormon.

This week, I'm off to meet a whole new group of students outside the hallowed walls of El Sol. One such gentleman hails from Japan and has been in the majority of my classes for the last couple of weeks (interesting factoid: as a result of a very nomadic childhood, at the ripe old age of 24, Rocky believes he's visited somewhere in the range of 60-70 foreign countries). Since several of his friends will be in town from Japan, we're hosting an El Sol dinner with the Japanese friends and have invited the students and teachers at El Sol: which includes people from China, Algeria, Canada (oh my!), France, and (obviously) Peru. Should be quite the international forum.

For Yael

When we lived in San Isidro, I walked past this building nearly every day. And it makes me think of you, Yael. Although, as far as I know, you didn't attending an engineering-specific high school and Penn's buildings are prettier (what can I say? I'm fond of the place)...

Shown: Colegio de Ingenieros del Peru

Moving!

We're packing up and moving to the new house in the morning...hope to be up and running again this weekend, but can't promise to post more news until da' Momma leaves! And I may not have internet (stolen or otherwise) for a little bit. But, in the famous words of Michele's former and Nicole's current governator, I'll be back!

Selling yourself in photographs

While reading other people's blogs, I came across the Mosaic Maker for Flickr. Now I'm very proud to present the outcome of a half-hour's search through other people's photos for my soul...

1. Ryan McGinness, 2. Garlic, 3. Baddesley Clinton, 4. Green Tea Sunset, 5. ryan, 6. coffee & the city, 7. Acrophobic mountain climber.., 8. mmmummm..mummm...mmmmummmmumumum, 9. Day 106 - I am a librarian, 10. Still in love? I think so ; ), 11. This is becoming a habit, 12. Sgt. Pookah Hodge

Basically, the outcome is a result of a meme from PilgrimGirl, the instructions of which are as follows:

"If you want to play too, type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Using only the first page, choose your favorite image, then copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows)."

And the questions are...

1. What is your first name? (Ryan)

2. What is your favorite food? (garlic)

3. What high school did you attend? (Clinton)

4. What is your favorite color? (orange)

5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Ryan Gosling)

6. Favorite drink? (tea)

7. Dream vacation? (hiking)

8. Favorite dessert? (ice cream)

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (writer)

10. What do you love most in life? (love)

11. One word to describe you. (driven)

12. Your Flickr name. (Pookah)

For your consideration

My friend, Akoua (see her Blog), is volunteering in Lesotho for the Peace Corps and I invite you to take a look at her Uncle Matt's charity webpage (Bike For Beds). He is attempting to raise money for hospital beds for the hospital with which Akoua works. I promise not to think you're a horrible person for not supporting his efforts, but it is a charity which will be donating ALL proceeds to the hospital. And it doesn't take much in this case to make a difference. Please consider donating.

Say what?

Setting:

El Parque Olivar, Sunday, August 4th (see post on La Vida Peruana)

Cast:

seemingly homeless man

seemingly drunk man

Aaaaaaaaand scene:

Seemingly drunk man wanders over to seemingly homeless man, who is sleeping under an olive tree in the grass. Seemingly drunk man unzips his pants, pulls out his weiner, and proceeds to pee on the leg of seemingly homeless man.

Seemingly homeless man shakes his pants leg, delivers a word or two to seemingly drunk man and then rollos over and returns to napping.

Seemingly drunk man walks away and continues his pee on an olive tree, close to the main path, and across the way from where young children are playing.

End scene.

*****

Unfortunately, I did not catch any photos of this happy occurrence, but I did witness it. Along with Anthony's exclamations of, "I would've kicked that guy's ass!"

However, I do have some very lovely shots of Grace: one is of her trying to will me to stop taking pictures and move forward, the other is of her newfound interest in coi fish.

To redeem myself in Nishchay's eyes

Since Nishchay called me out on my lack of culinary prowess (for which he can't be blamed, because I admitted to having been dragged to a Chilis (ugh!)), I am called upon to redeem myself by proclaiming all the Peruvian food I have eaten thus far.

In fact, I even made Anthony take me out on Saturday night so I could take pictures of Peruvian food I have eaten. I completely forgot to snag a quick pic of the sinfonia de causas, which was perhaps the most Peruvian thing I ate that evening, but at least I was not at an American fast food chain.

Nishchay, this is what I ate on Saturday (sea bass, papas amarillas, y arroz). So suck it (and I mean that with all possible love).

And I also wish it to be known that I have consumed a lot of ceviche, tried a pisco sour (tastes like tequila, only sweeter), eaten sushi, and tasted some other varieties of prepared fishes. My favorite still remains the ceviche, but I am working on it.

However, most nights, we do not go out. I still cook approximately five nights a week. Since we weren't feeling good when we first got here and we are sliding into winter here, I have made a lot of soup. I found a few Peruvian recipes (because, believe it or not, you can't find all the ingredients you need to make some basic American dishes) and tried them out. The most successful dish was a Peruvian chicken soup made with chicken breast, but I also tried a different sopa de pollo, plus a seco de res which is made with beef. The beef that I bought, however, was not all that tasty. It's a little difficult buying carne here, though, because their cuts of meat are completely different. And for those of you out there who really like hot, spicy food, Lima is not a great source of chili peppers. They have an aji amarillo, which is technically orange and is decently spicy, but nothing compares with the chipotle chilies at home.

Note to readers: this means that when you come visit, Anthony will not allow you in the door without an offering of IPA (beer) and chili peppers - dried or ground.