...I figured that after 6 months of not saying anything, it was high time to put up a blog post.
Peru is lovely right now. That might simply owe to the fact that I'm on vacation and can do as much or as little as I want in a day. This will be changing soon, so there may be a sudden drop in the fuzzy feelings.
Awesomeness of living within the tropical zone of the world aside, I want to dedicate this blog entry to things that I miss like nobody's business. I'll be walking along on an average day here and suddenly get hit by an image or memory of home in a fashion similar to a metaphorical sledgehammer. Yeah.
-Pacific Northwest Fruit: This includes good, crisp apples, a nice variety of pears, berries of any type and quality whatsoever, lemons (because they don't believe in them in Lima). The tropics are nice for some exotic new and delicious ones, thousands of potatoes and sweet potatoes, purple corn, etc, but it'll be too long before I have a strawberry rhubarb pie.
-Dairy: See, the dairy here isn't half bad, but it's very different. It's not an average part of the diet, I don't think, and it costs more. Remember when Charlotte came out west in 2006 and you all brought gifts of dairy, a Christmas tree, a watermelon, and Ben got cured of paraplegic paralysis? Can at least the first part of that equation be revived when I arrive?
-Obsession with High Fructose Corn Syrup as Opposed to Sucrose: Gosh do they like sugar here. Everything is sweet. Everything. Empty carbs and sugar are a basic part of the average person's lifestyle here, whether it's by choice or by necessity of poverty or a combination of both. I don't like HFCS much, but I can avoid it in the states.
-Hugs: While the hugfest that was Christmas Eve left me aglow, 364 days is a long time to go without strong hugs. It's just not a part of the culture here. I'll just add that some handshakes are pretty weak, too. The dead fish phenomenon doesn't even seem to be something that people ridicule here.
-Music: There's this song "I Know You Want Me," and every time it comes on I want to destroy things. Unfortunately, it is a popular hit on the radio. I was lucky to meet a guy from NYC with a similar hatred. He joked, "Dude, something is wrong. I don't hate this song as fervently as I used to. I'm getting complacent." Please, please, please stop playing the same songs on the radio.
And this just has to do with me, I think, but as I'm not Peruvian, nor do I immediately hear and understand song lyrics, a great number of the songs by certain Peruvian groups all sound EXACTLY the same. If I found the arrangement they've decided to use pleasant, it would be one thing, but they have chosen what (for me, mind you) sounds just utterly grating and whiney. I'd like to think that this might just be culture versus culture, but they ADORE English and American music (at least my 15 year olds do). Maybe I am just a snob.
-Seasons: Lima's not exactly prone to variation, I'm afraid. Some sun, some clouds, and lots of humidity. It can get pretty chilly in winter, but not the kind of beautiful cold that we have in the States, where snow has artistic power and the mornings can be crisp.
-Friends: This is where I get to the point. The number of times that I've regaled my community (which is lovely) with anecdotes about adventures and misadventures and witticisms of the friends I've had since JHS and the amount of entertainment it has brought and the number of fond memories it's given me the excuse to revisit and treasure has been a bittersweet blessing.
In spite of what was a little bit more of a whiney post than I wanted, I want you to know that life down here is, in fact, good. I'm in great shape and speak Spanish at least proficiently and enjoy my farmer's tan (it's getting intense) and trying out foods that don't exist in the States, but every once in a while, things just aren't like home in a way that makes for a very bitter sting. Know that you're missed. My travel blog is http://miguelylima.blogspot.com and is more upbeat than this, usually, although with less point. Much love and missage from the Southern Hemisphere. Enjoy the rest of winter, because our summer's halfway through and gosh I can't believe that I'm missing my fifth Oregon spring in a row.
Keep in touch, por favor.
11 comments:
Dude, whats your address? I'll send you a lemon.
dude, I don't think your address works! Have you gotten anything I've sent you?
unfortunately, my not having received your mail doesn't mean that the address doesn't work. It just means that you've sent things to South America, and delivery works on a different level.
Example: I'm just now receiving a second wave of Christmas mail...some of it sent before the first wave. But what'd you send? Letters take longer, generally.
I sent a letter at HALLOWEEN and Christmas. I'll keep my fingers crossed you get the Christmas one.
ahh man! i sent mikey my screenplay...it was the only copy! goddamn it peru, get your act together
I feel like Ben is making fun of me...but I can't tell.
We should write a screenplay.
no i was making fun of the situation. i commend you for sending Colonel mail, I've been meaning to but now I figure it will probably be more effective to haunt his Lima blog.
i started our screenplay last night actually. the sidekick is named Pattycakes.
I sent you a postcard a couple weeks ago!
Pattycakes is a sidekick to no man.
only women.
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