Life In Arequipa

We have been in Arequipa for about six weeks, two of which were with our new Peruvian family - Theresa, Nelson and company.  We have been in our lovely apartment for four weeks and have settled into a regular routine.  Everyone is loving our life in Peru so far.  Here is our take on it all.

Emma
Every year our family has "Do What You Want Day" and the kids get to do what they want.  We did not do this last year but we did this year.  I really liked it because we did lots of fun things like eating breakfast in a fort, watching the movie "Where the Red Fern Grows," eating whatever we wanted for lunch (tamales), going to the zoo and having Chicken Lo Mein for dinner.

When I got out of bed in the morning I found Hannah showing a fort to Mom and saying that we were going to eat breakfast in it and we did.  We ate tamales at lunch because Hannah loves them.  The zoo was not as exciting as I thought but it was still fun.  There were monkeys and lions and lots of other animals.  We ate Chicken Lo Mein because EVERYBODY loves it.  We also watched some of the appendices of Lord of the Rings because we all love those movies.  I read "Where the Red Fern Grows" so watching the movie was fun.

Now we are in school.  It is really fun and I have lots of friends.  Some of them are Camila, Fernando and lots of other ones.  Now I am also learning guitar at Espacio Taller.  I am in a group class and there are five people in the class more or less.  My class is Monday and Wednesday.  I also want to say I am having fun in Peru and I am happy in our house.  Bye bye!  (written by Emma, transcribed by Dad)

Hannah
In the morning we get up early and have breakfast.  We have bread and stuff from the bakery.  Sometimes I go with my Dad to get the bread.  My Dad makes juice and he always makes me drink it.  Before we went to school in a taxi.  Now we go with Camila's Dad and her brother.  School is fine.  I like my teacher very much.  We have cooking class called mini chef and I like it. I do not like Fabiana because she is mean and she ruined my glue.  After school I go to the ice cream place but sometimes we have snack at home.  I have tons of homework and sometimes Mommy and Daddy yell at me to do it.  I have gymnastic class and I like it there a lot.  I have glasses now but I cannot wear them at gymnastics.  My teacher is super-nice and super-strong.  I love you, bye.  (forced out of Hannah by asking her lots of questions she did not want to answer - she was too busy building another fort to be bothered)  Here is a link to a video Hannah's teacher made for the class.  Hannah's Class

Jeff
Life is good.  Every weekday I get up early and pretend to exercise while listening to NPR on our beloved IPad.  I wake up the ladies around 6am and prepare breakfast.  While Aileen is getting them ready for school, I usually walk to the bakery to get some freshly-baked bread.  I enjoy the walk in the crisp morning air under sunny skies with 6,000 meter peaks in the background.  I wind my way through cobblestone alleys, past old buildings made of white volcanic rock adorned with pots of geraniums.  Many of the buildings have modern houses built on the second floor and many of those houses have dogs on the roofs that bark as I walk by - I guess folks leave their dogs on the roof all night for security.  This explains why there are so many lost dog flyers in Arequipa.  Though this is a modern city with all the amenities you might want, I can still hear lambs and chickens in peoples' garages as I walk by.  Loving the urban agriculture!

Fortunately the animals in Arequipa are not crazy-loud like they were in San Ramon, Nicaragua. Unfortunately, Peruvians love fireworks even more than Nicaraguans so we sometimes have to contend with the bombs bursting in air. Speaking of noise, folks in Latin America do not seem to think much about privacy.  All the apartments on our street are packed in pretty close and not built accordingly.  I can hear our neighbors talking, cooking and farting, which makes me wonder what they hear coming out of our apartment!  I am sure our yelling at Hannah to do her homework is much more annoying then the old guy coughing up phlegm every morning.

Despite the closeness, our apartment is still plenty quiet and comfortable which is wonderful for me because I spend a good deal of time here.  After I do the breakfast dishes, I take a shower and go to the office, which is also known as our dining room table.  I work from about 8-3 with a nice long break for lunch with Aileen - which has been really nice).  I am currently working on 4 consulting project and I have plenty of work to do for the foreseeable future (thank goodness).  While I do not want to be a consultant for the rest of my career, I am doing some good work and have enjoyed reconnecting with some of my former colleagues.  After work I used to walk to school to pick up the girls but as Hannah mentioned they are now travelling with another family to whom we pay a nominal fee.  I miss the walks and plan to explore the city when work slows down a bit.

Once the kids get home we are plenty busy with homework, after school activities and of course playing.  Aileen has been cooking wonderful meals every night so we generally spend our evenings at home.  The weekends have been full and enjoyable.  Now that we are all settled in we have time to visit with friends, wander the city, attend concerts, go to book fairs, etc.  On Sundays everyone in Peru seems to go out for a big lunch which is where we are about to go.  I am planning to have some adobe, a pork soup dish which is really delicious and goes well with the  beer I am planning to drink.

Aileen
Like everyone else, I'm enjoying myself here in Arequipa.  A good deal  of my time, when the kids are at school, is spent taking care of our home.  Although our apartment is very nice, we don't have a dishwasher or a clothes dryer, so some of the chores take a little longer than usual.  Also, it tends to get pretty dusty because we are in the high desert and there is a construction boom in the city.  I've also been spending some time looking for and trying out new recipes.  I didn't realize it before, but I guess I kind of missed cooking last year, when I had a job and Jeff was in charge of the house.  I think I'm also more motivated because there are so many more ingredients (fruits, vegetables, spices, etc.) available here than there were in Nicaragua.  The only thing that's been a little frustrating is baking.  We're at almost 8,000 feet above sea level here, and even the "high altitude recipes" I've found online haven't come out too well, because they're designed for baking at about 5,000 ft.  This has made for some very interesting brownie and cake adventures with the girls.

Besides all of that, I've been busy researching the different after school opportunities available for the kids.  Exploring the different programs has actually been pretty interesting in terms of what they say about the culture here.  Most of the gymnastics and guitar programs I found are three days a week, usually around 5 to 7.  I've discovered that most kids Emma and Hannah's ages go to bed around 10 o'clock at night!  It is not that Peruvian kids are over scheduled like children in the USA, but it seems that people who do have hobbies are very serious about them.  The other interesting thing has been trying to communicate in Spanish.  Peruvians use lots of words I've never heard before and have different names for food than in Central America.  It has made grocery shopping a learning experience for me.  Anyhow, after lots of leg work, and as you read earlier, Hannah and Emma are now taking gymnastics and guitar and have very full lives (when they are not messing around with the "beloved" Ipad).