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The Last Hurrah, Part 1
Our friends threw a going away party for us a couple of weeks ago, before people got too busy with summer activities. It was a perfect send-off and reminded us how many great friends we have. Given...
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The Countdown Begins: 19 days
We leave July 15 for Cajamarca, Peru. In the past 2 months we have: sold our house moved into an awesome apartment on Milwaukee’s East Side with a great lake view disposed of 95% of our belongings...
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Saying Goodbye to My Childhood
We have said a lot of goodbyes during the past month. For the most part, they haven’t been too bad – I will be home in September for a wedding and both Matt and I will be home at Christmas. So most...
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One Week to Go!
Our first full week at the cottage was great. Getting here last Sunday was not- a full day of progressively more panicked packing, followed by a trip to Tommy’s to unload our boxes ready for retrieval...
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Homeless!
We ended our two week stay at the cottage with our annual visit with the Arpins. By great luck, Matt and his family were in Wisconsin from Spokane, WA, and they, along with Pat and Jackie and Tommy...
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Who-hoo!
First mission accomplished – our 13 bags are all checked to Lima! Everyone’s well wishes, prayers and good vibes worked wonders as the experience couldn’t have gone more smoothly. The baggage agent was...
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Hanging in Lima
We made it to Lima and so did our 13 checked bags! We were a little concerned about the bags when our flight out of Milwaukee was delayed, which reduced our connection time in Atlanta to about a half...
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Heading to Our New Home
We made it to Cajamarca yesterday around 4:30 and were met by Henry and Cruz from the school. Their vehicle wasn’t big enough for our baggage and the people in charge of the cargo were “working on the...
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Shop ‘Til You Drop
After three hectic days, we are finally relaxing on the couch watching TV. Yep, in our exciting new life we are watching 40 Year Old Virgin! We desperately need a mindless break after all the work and...
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Awkward
To quote my nephew Kieran, awkward! That is how I have been feeling the past few days when dealing with the service people coming to our home. First it was the Direct TV guys on Friday. They appeared...
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Out of Touch
Thank you all for the feedback and comments. While I continue to write blogs, I can’t post them until wifi is hooked up at home (Matt is handling this post for me from school). Unfortunately I used my...
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Food Part 1 – Cuy (Don’t read while eating. Really.)
On Day 12 I ate rat. Okay, it really was guinea pig, which is a Peruvian specialty called cuy, but it sure looked like a rat. The taste was fine, not like chicken as I expected and with some nice...
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Water, Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink
It is hard getting used to not drinking the water. While the water here is theoretically potable, it isn’t for us. And not drinking includes: not brushing your teeth with it, not opening your mouth...
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Food Part 2 – Dining Out (Safe for Reading)
Apart from the cuy (see Food Part 1) Peruvian food is delicious: many fruits and vegetables (more on those in another post coming soon), meats of all kinds, seafood, excellent chicken, the best French...
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The Walk to Matt’s School
It is hard to describe the 4-mile route to Matt’s school, which we walked a few times in anticipation of his daily “commute” in an effort to find the most direct route to a non-direct place. We found...
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Cuy update
Apparently, cuy is hung out with the laundry. Who knew! It also was served at the Last Supper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_Zapata I bet those guys went hungry!
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Peruvian Fiestas Patrias
Peruvian Independence day is July 28, and the related festivities in our area began on Thursday, July 25, with a parade Baños del Inca’s main square, which is about 3 blocks from our house. We were...
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A Visit From Alex
Within days of our arrival, before we understood that door-to-door salesmen are the norm here, we opened our door to Alex, the rug guy. We then let him in because he invoked the magical words “Shauna...
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Dog 2, Kerry 1 (sort of)
Ky I am afraid of dogs. I know, we had Ky and my family and friends have dogs and I am not afraid of them, but the sad truth is: I am afraid of dogs. And I now live in a place where stray dogs are...
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Picnic with Peruvians
I was invited by a teacher at Matt´s school to go on an outing last Sunday. As she graciously insisted on collecting me at our house despite needing to take a bus to do so, Matt and I prepared an...
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