Like a little Peruvian weed...

Being that it's November, our little puppy is now 4 months old. If she's a very, very, VERY good girl, we may let her live until 5...

On the eve of Thanksgiving

I know it isn't exactly Thanksgiving Eve, but I consider anything after the season change to fall as just moments away from my favorite day of the year. Thanksgiving is the only holiday devoted entirely to food and companionable relations with your family. And if you're away from home, as I am, it's the time of year that you collect all those American expats around you, and maybe even a few new friends who don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving (something about not having any reason to because they're not from the U.S.), to gorge yourselves on turkey and remember all those Thanksgivings of yore.

Ever since I flew the nest after high school, every November I return to MA to spend time with my family. Many of my friends do not understand why this would constitute my yearly trip home, rather than Christmas, but they must have missed that memo from my parents that read: Christmas sucks.

And anyway, I love to eat. In years gone by, my grandmother served as the matriarch to her three children, four grandchildren, her husband's two children from a previous marriage, and all the spouses, girlfriends, and boyfriends that that necessarily entailed. My grandmother took charge of the meal - the turkey, the veggies, the stuffing, and, most importantly, the stuffed artichokes - while my grandfather satisfied our sweet tooth with the desserts - pecan pie, apple pie, rhubbarb pie, rice pudding, bread pudding, the homemade whipped cream... My grandmother's house was never large, but it fit all of us, the adults at one table and us grandkids at the "kid's table." It was one of the few times of year that we saw all our relations on that side of the family.

I have happy memories of the holiday. Everything seems so much rosier, so much more bathed in that warm, yellow light of happiness when you're sitting around a table, sharing a meal so lovingly prepared.

Today I was reading a post about washing the dishes at Pilgramsteps and it reminded me of that one ritual of Thanksgiving that I remember most fondly: the end of the meal, with most of the family eating dessert, and my mom and I (usually by force) taking over the dish-washing duties from my grandmother. Nonnie would always fight us valiantly, even good-naturedly, but she always lost out to us in this battle of wills. We would invariably pack away excess food as she bossed us around her kitchen, telling us to open such-and-such drawer to find the plastic wrap, or go into that particular cupboard to find the right tupperware. She would also invariably try to get us to take home more food than we wanted, or to slip another baggie of loose change into my pocket. More than anything else, we would spend this time away from the rest of the family commiserating, chatting, and catching up.

I don't know why this memory of our post-Thanksgiving-dinner conversations is such a happy one. I cannot recall the specific contents of our talks and they weren't isolated - we lived only a block away from my grandmother, if you took into account the path through the neighbors' yards that we cut across. But the memory is special, comforting...happy.

Since Nonnie passed away, Thanksgiving moved locations. Somehow the tradition has been carried by my mother, and the family now travels to her home. Although there are a few changes. My mom remarried, so now our extended Nepali family is invited to share our traditional Thanksgiving meal - yet my sister (through marriage) is usually the only member present. Some members of my grandmother's family no longer participate and my mom also took to inviting her friends to join us. And, perhaps most importantly, there are no grandchildren to siphon off to a "kid's table" so we usually crowd around one very large table that my mom so ingeniously bought.

No matter the changes, it's a holiday I never miss.

Until this year. Now that we live in Lima, Peru, there is no easy jaunt back to the states for the holidays. Which will make it the first time in 29 years that I've celebrated Thanksgiving without my family.

So we've been busy cultivating our very own Peruvian family, and we're hosting our very first Thanksgiving. We've invited all the people we've met since we arrived a few short months ago and who have made our life here so much more full and rewarding. They are the people who make us laugh, with whom we share our everyday lives and worries, and with whom we are happy to share this happy tradition of coming together and eating far too much. Here's to an unforgettable Thanksgiving! (You know, the kind that forces you to unzip your pants because you've overindulged!)

5 days without internet

Last Friday, we lost the electricity in all the outlets on the second floor of our house, which incidentally is where we have to keep the internet connection, so we haven't had internet or electricity for the better part of a week.

This was compounded by the fact that there was some sort of miscommunication with our telephoone company (two bills weren't paid - one because the previous tenant didn't pay it yet, and the other because we never received the bill) so they turned off our telephone and internet service.

All that being said, I promise that there are more exciting things going on in my life here in Peru. This past Friday marked my final day at El Sol, the language school I've been attending for the past two months. That meant that Saturday students, teachers and friends of those at El Sol met for dinner and a late night of dancing - I still don't know how the Peruvians do it. I spent all day Sunday trying to catch up on my sleep. Needless to say, I had a wonderful time and feel so blessed to continue making friends with the expats and Peruvians here.

Last week, friends of mine and I also started a Ladies Lunch Club so we can meet up every two weeks and try new restaurants. Or at least those restaurants that are new to us. I feel very 1950s housewife-ish about it, but I like the idea of regularly meeting with friends and, well, eating. You all know how I like the food.

Although, perhaps the most important things that have happened to me lately are the following. One, last week I met with the President and Founder of DB Peru, a nonprofit organization that primarily works to provide villagers with quality healthcare. Diane is extremely warm and giving, and it appears that they need some help with their Caritas Felices project now that their French graduate student departed after working in-country with this program for 5 months. Caritas Felices is the only home in all of Peru for sexually abused girls who have been removed from their family home by the courts. I plan to travel out to the home for the first time tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

The other big news in my world is that I heard back about my first internship application and the news was positive. The State Department offered me a position at the embassy (although the specific office within the embassy is still a secret - even from me, apparently). While this is extremely good news because it means that I definitely have an internship, I also have several reservations, one of which is which office they are going to stick me in. I want to be sure that the internship is something that will be rewarding to me, other than just as credit for one of my final classes. The other reservation that I have relates to the fact that I've already interned with the State Department before, so I'm not really sure how good an idea this is. I don't know, we'll see. In the meantime, this is good, good, good news.

So that's my life in a nutshell. For the moment...

Thought things would be different without a full load of graduate courses

Since leaving my job in June, moving to Peru, and taking the semester off of my graduate studies so I can settle into the new place, many of you have been asking me, "Just what the heck are you doing in Peru?" So I figure it's a good time to talk about l'il ol' me. I'll try to keep it short and to the point, but I don't often get to ramble in English these days, so you may have to bear with verbosity for a moment or two (that is, if you want to get to the heart of the matter)...

When I started my graduate degree, I intended to spend 2 years abroad with the Peace Corps so I could rack up some experience points (very AD&D of me) living and working overseas. It helps that the Peace Corps has a loose affiliation with a number of colleges and universities across the U.S. for their Masters International Program (MIP). Under the aegis of the MIP, a student may volunteer with the Peace Corps as part of their undergraduate or graduate program. Each participating university offers different benefits (and responsibilities) to the student for completing those 27 months overseas. It just so happens that there are only a handful of schools in the DC Metro area that participate. George Mason is the only university in this small group that offers programs outside of nursing (or public health), education (i.e. teaching English as a second language), or biology. So now, if your math is up to par, A+B=C, or, in more relevant terms, I only applied to GMU for graduate school.

At the time of application, GMU was still offering in-state tuition and 6 free credits for those students who participated in MIP. However, as soon as I accepted the invitation to attend the university, I found out that they had recently dropped the in-state tuition benefit. That's been a pain in my pocketbook for 2 1/2 years now, but since I clearly haven't joined the Peace Corps, ultimately it's a moot point.

However, volunteering with the Peace Corps still counts as two classes: the Directed Readings and Research course (i.e. an independent study) and the Internship course. Since it so happens that it took the Peace Corps approximately 1 1/2 years to move through my application and near the point of offering me a position, those 2 elective courses are the only courses remaining in my degree program. And, in my mind, since there is a dearth of online course offerings at GMU and the university has no formal ties with any of the universities here in Lima, those exact same electives are the courses I intend to take while here.

So really, now the question becomes, "Why did I choose to go to Lima instead of to join the Peace Corps?" My Peace Corps' gals, Akoua and Stephanie, can probably already answer that question. My intention with the Peace Corps was to gain that ever-necessary overseas experience needed to obtain my dream job of working in USAID's foreign service (that's right kids, a cool job AND I still get to travel around the world with Anthony), BUT Peace Corps requires 27 months of dedication, potentially in isolation, and in a location that you do not get to choose. I am so proud of, and so awed by, those volunteers who devote so much of themselves and their lives to the work of the Peace Corps. However, I now feel that I am developing a family (yes, the furry creatures COUNT) and I thought it would be hard to live without Anthony, Grace, and Pookie (Maggie is new, so she didn't factor at the time). It really came down to asking myself, "What do I want out of life?" (The answer always is that I want my cake and I want to eat it, too.)

When Anthony got his forwarding assignment with the State Department, my application was still sitting in limbo at the Peace Corps office. After months and months of waiting, Anthony and I began making plans for living in Peru; and then, magically, one day the Peace Corps called me and it appeared they were ready to begin the nominating process. Yet I was already so comfortable with the idea of traveling abroad with my family. And the idea of being a maverick and saving the world as an army (albeit benevolent and peace-loving) of one appeared a little less shiny and bright.

And voila! The idea of acquiring the same experience (without all the support - only half the calories!) while still maintaining some sort of home life and connection to the people I know and love was born. I believe that I can gain valuable experience here in Peru, finish my masters, and still be home every day to rub Grace's belly (or Anthony's, really).

So you now have a basic outline of my first year in Lima: 1) learn Spanish, or at least gain enough fluency that I can be effective in an internship; 2) apply for internships; 3) obtain internship; 4) write proposal for independent study and develop syllabus with Dr. Benjamin; 5) intern; 6) write papers; 7) finish masters degree. Somewhere in there, I'd like to volunteer, too, but we'll see what kind of time I can manage to squeeze out of my schedule for that. (Something about taking on a puppy...)

The second year here is a bit more optional. Since my visa does not allow me to work on the local economy, and I never was going to make a great housewife, the second year all depends on what kind of employment I can acquire. I am only able to work embassy jobs here in Lima, but many of them are pretty basic and will not be particularly helpful in building my resume. (Although I did just apply for a 2-year contract position with USAID...wish me luck!) On the other hand, I may be able to gain some traction with a job in the States. For example, October 1st marks the opening day for Presidential Management Fellowship program applications. Guess who will be applying at 12:01AM that day?

And that, my friends, is my life in a nutshell. I'm not much of one for the 10-year plan, but I've got a heck of a one-year plan! It should be interesting and I'm glad that you're all here to enjoy the ride...

Vampire dog!

There is no question in my mind why Grace likes to sneak away to her loft sofa and bury her head in the pillows.

Fast food

In the states we have McDonalds and Burger King (technically, we have those here in Lima, too), but here in the lovely coastal city of Lima, we have Pardo's Chicken. And I finally got me some.

I have internet!

The internet technicians were here today and we are now connected to the rest of the world, without having to snag an unsecure signal. That's one huuuge, "Woot-woot!" from my corner of the world.