¿hace cuánto tiempo?

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Bueno. Estoy mucho mejor. Mi estomago y yo somos amigos otra vez gracias a Doctor Illescas y indirectamente gracias a Mr. Boddicker.

Other than the illness, things have been going well. I'm getting the hang of work. I've been sporadically reading the book from the 70s that the psychologist lent me. It's hard because it's in Spanish, but I read it with my dictionary next to me. Yo fui al lugar turistico al lado del oceáno pacífico lo que se llama Larcomar anoche. Allá encontré un Radioshack que se vende webcams por $10! está locura, ¿no? pero no sé si funciona bien. Quiero un webcam para llamadas de Skype.

In other news, I watched Desperate Housewives for the first time today. It’s funny that I saw it for the first time in Peru. And now I’m watching a French movie with Spanish subtitles on TV. Oh, and earlier today, because I didn’t go to work (more on that in a minute), I was hanging out with people, and we ended up watching a movie called “Che”. It was horrible. Bad acting, badly written, badly shot, everything. But it was something to do, eh? An Argentinian picked the movie. Figures. ha ha! It was so cool today...I really felt international. I ate lunch and hung out with five other people. The six of us each represented a different country. There was an Englishman, a Canadian, an American (me), a Bolivian, an Ecuadorian, and an Argentinian. So much fun!

So today was a “paro” which I understand to be something of a strike. Apparently, many workers were protesting the government today by not going to work, and that meant that buses weren’t going to run so I had the day off from work. I was told that it would be a big deal, and that if anyone drove in the streets, they would get rocks thrown at their windows because it means that they have enough money to own their own car. But when I got up this morning, there didn’t seem to be any difference in life outside the hotel other than less traffic which means less noise because people aren’t honking as much. So I took it easy today. It was nice.

I was mistaken for a local yesterday! Someone asked me for directions. Ya soy peruana. =P

You know, when people would ask me how long I'm staying in Peru and I would respond "dos meses y medio", I would always get the surprised response of "wow, that short of a time?!" And I would be shocked because to me, that's a crazy long time to be living in another country. But now that I'm almost three weeks into it, I realize how little time I have left. I don't want to leave. I hate always having to leave places. I hate goodbyes.

Sorry for not writing more often. Sorry to you guys and to me. I want to document absolutely everything that happens, but I can't. And my memory isn't that great. Pero supongo que si yo no recuerde, aún tendré la experiencia.

oh, have I mentioned that my parents came? They booked their trip for Fourth of July weekend because my dad had off from work. I just happened to get sick right before their trip. It was fortunate in a manner of speaking because it's always nice to have someone there to take care of you when you're not feeling well. And my family, although we may not have that same closeness as most, we function uniquely, but we know how we work. So it was very comforting to have them here with me.

It's funny, for those three days, I didn't speak much Spanish because my parents don't know any. So it was back to the mixture of Chinese and English that I adopt when with my parents. And once they left, I found that my Spanish skills had worsened! This is very worrying. Also, the whole time they were here, it was funny, I kept thinking of Ferdydurke because I definitely felt myself slip into baby Carolyn mode.

Time for bed. Even though I slept a lot last night and today, I still have work tomorrow! ::sigh:: this country is 20 years behind, in some aspects. But it's nice to get away from the U.S. for a bit. Although I still can't decide where I'd like to settle down. I wouldn't mind living outside the U.S. if I find the right country. We'll see.

g'night all.

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