My 2nd First Impressions

14:53 Sunday, March 29, 2009
My house in Lima

I am still overwhelmed, but instead of with confusion like my first arrival, I am overwhelmed with happiness. Last night I spent in a wonderfully peaceful fashion. While Austry was at work, I made a scrapbook out of all my ticket stubs and maps from Buenos Aires. I didn’t even realize it was 3 am (5 am BsAs time) when she came home. This morning I woke up and had a piece of bread (odd to have sliced bread like in the US again) with jamon y queso (so I didn’t escape Argentina!) and this interesting combination of drinkable peach yogurt mixed with something that looked like some sort of spice or ground oatmeal. The texture was a little out there for me, but it wasn’t that bad.

After showering and unpacking a bit, Austry and I took a taxi past the school and ISA office (conveniently right across the street from the school) to another grocery store that was much larger and probably a lot cheaper than the one we went to yesterday. It was so awesome, I can already tell I’m going to love eating in Peru. There were different sections for the breads, the fruits, the veggies, the raw foods. I guess that's the layout in the US as well, but it felt a lot different. Maybe this was because of the fresh fish laying out on counter while the butcher set to work skinning a raw fish with the head still on, or the yellow lines on the floor designated for shopping cart parking while you went to food counters. We got lots of fresh greenry, and I got a handle of the routine: put the fresh vegetables and fruits in a plastic bag, take the bag to a little counter to tie the bag with a sticker contraption, and then head to the weighing station where the attendant measures the bag to compute the price.

There were a lot of unique produce that I had never seen before, and a lot of differences in the ones that I had. The lemons were barely larger than gum balls, while the cucumbers were probably twice the width than those I normally buy in Florida. There was even purple corn. In Argentina, it was hard to find salt and almost impossible to find pepper – here they have every spice imaginable. I also loved all the free samples they had- the pineapple was amazing and my mouth did a little dance and went to heaven after trying dried banana chips dipped in guacamole. They even had a table with a bunch of free samples of liquor in the drink section. Speaking of, yesterday on the bus, María Elena was telling us how different the drinking culture is here. Usually the Peruvians only drink at night, and women rarely drink. If they do, there are specific beers and drinks for women. How different!

Well, I’m soon off to the welcome lunch and dance with ISA!
Coli