Getting An Apartment

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Hello from Peru!!!

Time is flying by down here in Peru! Six days after our arrival (Aug. 10th), Peru was shaken up a bit with a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. We were on the ninth floor of an 11 story apartment building at our friend Dave's apartment. It sure felt as if the building was made of rubber as we swayed back and forth for about 3 minutes. Lima was not really affected by quake but the Pisco region sure was. Melanie and the other two medical fellowship recipients volunteered to help out with the relief effort down in Pisco for about a week. They assisted U.S. doctors with data collection and translating.

At the time of the quake, Melanie and I had found an apartment and set an appointment to sign the lease. When we went into the apartment to sign the lease 3 days after the quake, there were long cracks on 4 walls in the apartment. We did not feel good about it. We then started over and continued to look for another apartment. It took a few weeks, but we finally signed a lease for an apartment close to our friends and the coast. If you are down in the area, we would love to see you.

At the moment, Melanie is in the process of getting her project all figured out. She spent some time in Arequipa last week meeting with doctors who work in the field she has been interested in. While Melanie is working on her project, I am currently taking a Spanish class five days a week, two hours a day for the month of September. I know I said I would always speak Spanish with Melanie but sometimes it is easy to see yourself go back to the defalt language.

Even though we are at 12 degrees South latitude, it is an interesting climate here in the winter. It is cold here in Lima with average highs during the day being with highs around 65 and lows around 55. I know that does not seem very cold but the humidity is quite high so it seems much colder. It reminds me of visiting San Francisco on a foggy day. I did a little reseach and Lima receives only about an inch of rain a year. This is pretty obvious when you travel out of Lima along the coast and you basically only see sand.

I hope everyone is well. Have a great week!
Bill

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Photos

View of Pacific Ocean
This is a view from Dave's apartment.

Coastal Flooding
This is a picture of the coast the day after the earthquake. Notice the coast flooding clean-up at the bottom of the picture.

1st Day in Lima - Surfing
The first day in Lima was spent in the ocean surfing. Photo of Bailey, Dave, Melanie and Bill

Off To Pisco
Sural, Marie, and Melanie before heading down to Pisco, Peru to help out in the earthquake relief effort.

Comments

[masa]

amazing
amazing! you are in Peru! i hope you could travel to Japan. enjoy your exciting travel and take care. masa.

[Brett]

Beavers
I can't believe you are in Peru. Long way from Corvallis. That is great of you guys down there. For Bill, I just got back from the ASU/OSU game. We need some help at quaterback, Bill you still have your cleats? Brett

[Kristi Bezik]

hi
Hi Bill, Not that I have much time to peruse your website, but I did anyways. So you are learning Spanish! Great! When you come back, perhaps I can rely on you to be my Spanish interpreter at IEP meetings when necessary! I stayed at Buchser, obviously, and with the exception of 2, there is a great bunch of kids on my caseload this year. Even those two are not horribly bad. Manageable. It's a good year, just very very busy. I finished my credential this summer...yahoo!! Kristi Bezik

[Nelson]

Donde esta el playa?
Hey Bill and Mel!!! Sounds like you're both making the best out of your time down there. Everything is a.o.k. up here. Surf has been FLAT, absolutely nothing so you're not missing much. School year has been great, Missy's loving the 2nd grade. Spartans are off to a rough start (lost the first 3 games, but won the last 2). Pac 10 is doing well (USC #1, Cal #3, Oregon #14, ASU #18) Haven't heard much from the Beav's though. The blog thing looks good. Keep updating with pics of surf (how many times have you been out so far? how's it compare to norcal? looks pretty similar). Bill keep up with your spanish. Mel, atta-way with volunteering, that was very nobel of you to do so.

[Eric Nesset]

Nesset Pissed
Mel and Bill: man am I pissed. I miss traveling so much and am super excited that you guys are doing a travelblog. The surf here in Iowa has also been flat...you are never missing anything here. I've been helping Kirk alot at night and on the weekends and when we were out last weekend we were thinking about Aaaron and the harvest. I called him a few weeks ago with Kirk and mentioned if he was interested in any Iowa home games. He said then that he hoped to come visit the two of you so that would be really cool. In the comments you didn't mention if you guys are in a high rise and have 1 bedroom or 2....the reason I ask is that you know how I snore horribly (for when I come visit with Allie ;-).... Anyway, I would also like to see more photos. Have fun, be safe and share some stories. -- Eric

[melanie bill]

Maybe Japan is Next?
Masa, it is great to hear from you! I hope you are doing well! Melanie will continue with medical school when we return to Stanford in June 2008. Thanks for the message!