Peru - Day One

So, we got a bunch of digital pictures from folks who spent a lot of time on the trip with us. Once our camera broke, they were so kind and took pictures of us with their cameras and e-mailed them to us. So, now I am ready to share.

We spent the first day in Lima. We started out in the most tourist-y place you can imagine because it was kind of close to our hotel. It was also close to the beach:

The place was called Larcomar, and it was basically a huge kitschy shopping mall. We got out of there as soon as possible and took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas in the center of town.

We ate lunch at a cute little cafe right off the main square, and unlike in Paris where you would pay almost twice as much for a meal by say, Notre Dame, than you would anywhere else in the city, this meal was just about the cheapest one we ate the whole time we were in Peru. We were also pretty much the only white tourists walking around.

We had heard before we went that Lima is a terrible city and we should leave as soon as we could. Our experience of it was completely different. I thought it was great! So, it's not incredibly tourist-y. People don't really speak English there. There are bad parts of town. That doesn't make it a horrible city! I don't know what people are talking about! We had a great day there!

Terrible Drug Name

I had the TV on the other day, and a drug commercial came on for Aciphex. I think it's a stomach acid drug. Anyway, I wasn't watching the TV, I was just listening to it, and it totally sounded like they were saying "Ass Effects." "If you have stomach acid, you should talk to your doctor about Ass Effects." Who let that through the marketing department?

And We're Back!

We got in yesterday after several flight delays and over 24 hours of sitting either on planes or in airports. We are lucky to have gotten back yesterday at all since DFW had been closed and everyone was trying to make up for their missed flights. American Airlines took really good care of us, so I don't really have much to complain about.

Our trip was great. We won't have pictures to show for a little while because a guy we asked to take our picture dropped our camera and broke it. Brand new camera finito. We are going to take it to a shop and see if they can repair it, but I think we will probably have to buy a new one. We'll see. We bought a disposable camera after that, and some people who ended up in almost every place we were in offered to take pictures and e-mail them. We took them up on it, but I don't know how long it will be before we hear from them.

All in all, Peru is just gorgeous. So lush and green, and the people we met were very friendly and happy we wanted to see their country. I would go back someday.

In grad school news, I got into UT Arlington. Yay! I actually got in somewhere. I don't know about financial packages yet. I'll keep you posted.

On Vacation

I couldn't resist checking my e-mail and finding that NYU sent me a letter. Result: wait list. At least it's not a rejection.

We are having a great time so far. Spent all day yesterday with a Peruvian cab driver in Lima, and we were pretty impressed at how well we communicated with him. We totally fooled our driver this morning into thinking we SPOKE SPANISH. Very fun.

Now we are in Cusco, which is a very pretty city. We are suffering from some mild altitude sickness, though, as it we are completely winded after climbing only two little flights of stairs to get to our room. Jonathan ordered guinea pig for dinner, and it came whole with its head - tiny fangs and all. Crazy. It tasted like duck.

Tomorrow we are off to Macchu Picchu. No strikes, so I guess we are going to get to see it! I am so excited.

Packing

We are packing to leave for Peru tomorrow. We both feel extremely unprepared for this trip. Two apartments were broken into in our complex about a week ago, so we have taken pictures of everything and made a list of "stuff that's expensive to replace" for our insurance company. We are also letting some friends of ours babysit our Wii so that if someone breaks in, they can't take that. Worrying about this sort of thing makes leaving for vacation a lot less fun.

I have not done my usual guidebook reading, so I have no idea what there is to do in the city of Lima. Some friends of ours told us to go to "the Cathedral." I imagine we'll go to it, but that's hardly going to take all day. I guess we'll just wander around town for a while - my least favorite thing to do on vacation, really. It stresses me out when I don't have a destination in mind.

I just re-read this, and I sound really negative. So here's a list of things I'm excited about and things I'm not. I like lists!

Excited: Food. I have no idea what kind of food they eat. I'm hoping to taste something really delicious I've never eaten before.

Not excited: Food poisoning. 3rd world country = contaminated water = sick intestines. Both Jon and I have been immunized for Hepatitis A and B, and we are taking typhoid meds. Also, our friends who were in Peru in October were like, "Oh, you'll get sick. Absolutely. We were sick the whole time." Fun.

Excited: Learning about a different culture and history than my own. While I'm not really interested in learning about the native cultures of my own homeland, I am for some reason very interested in South American native cultures. Maybe because they seem more civilized? Or at least more centralized? I don't know. They had enormous cities and left amazing ruins. I can't wait to see them and learn about their history.

Not excited: Being unable to communicate effectively. I've been spoiled by living in countries where I actually speak the language. And vacationing in them too. It's been like 10 years since I've been somewhere really "foreign." And while I love visiting foreign places, it's a little scary, too!

Excited: Having fun stories to tell about quirky things that happened.

Not excited: Being mugged and/or kidnapped. While I think the likelihood of this happening is pretty low, the State Dept. has me totally freaked out. My advice to anyone travelling to Peru is "Stay Away from the State Department Website." It will make you want to stay home.

Excited: Using my new digital camera and having amazing pictures to show.

Not excited: Strikes in Cuzco may have shut down the train to Macchu Picchu which is the WHOLE reason we are going to Peru in the first place. J and I have already said that if we end up not being able to go to Macchu Picchu, we will just plan on going back to Peru. Our typhoid meds are good for 7 years, so that gives us a time limit. Ha ha.

Anyway, I am sure we'll have a great trip. We nearly always do. One of the reasons our marriage works so well is that we really like each other, and we really like to spend time together. So, at least, if it's crappy, and we're sick, and there are strikes, and our hotels smell bad or whatever, we'll be together having a little adventure. I have nothing bad to say about that!

3 Things to Talk About...Inconceivable!

1) The weather in Dallas is awful. Jonathan just called to tell me he is coming home to work so he doesn't have to deal with icy roads. 5 minutes later my mother-in-law called to say she is stuck at the Dallas airport until Saturday. So, instead of saying "sucks for you," I called my husband, and he rescued her. So, we are having a spontaneous houseguest which makes me really happy I did the dishes and cleared off all the surfaces today.

2) I did our taxes today, and thanks to my status as a full-time student, plus the student loan interest we paid, plus my tuition deductions, we are getting a huge refund. Yay! Maybe I should never go back to work. Ha ha. I am one of those very strange people who actually LIKES doing their taxes. Even the year we ended up owing like $2,000, I still had fun with the actual process. Weird.

3) My professor sent me a very sweet e-mail apologizing for the accepted grad students coming into our class on Monday. She apologized if I felt awkward or embarrassed, and she was so nice about it. I was actually not all that upset, and I certainly didn't blame her for any weird feelings I did have, but it was nice that she thought of me at all.

3 1/2 Down, 4 1/2 to Go...plus a kissing list

SMU put me on a waiting list. But considering that all of the students who were accepted for the fall semester showed up to my Malory class yesterday, and I wasn't invited, I am assuming a position will not open up.

On a more positive note, I got a letter from Penn State telling me that I have made the first cut, and they will be re-viewing my application to see if they can offer me a financial package. In other words, a whole bunch of people have already received flat out rejection letters from them, and I am not one of those people. However, as with most PhD programs, if you don't get funding, you don't get to go at all. So, I'm still waiting on them.

I watched the movie "Proof" last night. It was better than I expected it to be, especially considering I really don't like Anthony Hopkins. He was good, though. And Hope Davis makes every movie better. While I'd heard that Gwyneth Paltrow uglifies herself, I wasn't that impressed by the uglification. I was expecting something more along the lines of Cameron Diaz in "Being John Malkovich." No, they just kind of ratted up her hair a little and gave her minimal makeup. She was still gorgeous. And she gave a great performance. I think what impressed me most in the movie, though, was the kissing. Good kissing, Proof! Jake Gyllenhall = good kisser (at least on-screen). So, it inspired me to make a little "Best Movie Kisses" list, but instead I got extremely sidetracked into thinking of the worst movie kisses I've ever seen. I have only come up with two that deserve the title "Worst Movie Kiss Ever," but here they are:

1) Klaus Maria Brandauer and Kim Basinger in "Never Say Never Again." The thin line of saliva connecting their lips as they pull away makes me gag every time.

2) Richard Gere and Julia Ormond in "First Knight." Swallow her entire face, why don't you?

Maybe I will edit the list as I think of more movies. I have vague images of my mind of terrible kisses, but I can't remember which movies they are in. Expect a more polished list later on.