This blog would be less boring if my life was

I skipped Spanish class the other day and went to the big Tourist Artisan market near where we live. There's nothing like being in a market the size of a football field surrounded by tens of thousands of handmade products and not being able to find a single thing you would like to buy. Everyone sells the exact same tourist junk, stall after stall, you'd think someone would come up with something more interesting than an alpaca hat, a poncho and a reed flute. I mean the cheap labor is there, the materials are there, there just needs to be someone with some new ideas. I guess the tourist industry as a whole just breeds tacky junk wherever it is in the world.

Alexa is growing and speaking more and more and has developed her own mini-language. It takes time to understand, but it has a system and it's own rudimentary grammar. It's a mixture of Spanish and English, so every noun takes the definite marker "la", as in "la papa" and "la mama". "ayi" (a derivative of the Spanish for "there") is the action verb, as in "la fishy ayi" = I want to see the fishes, or "ayi la mama" = take me to mom. As far as I can tell it's both a SOV (Subjet Object Verb) language as well as a VOS. "tu" (spanish for "you") is the question marker, as in "a umm tu" (umm is food) = will you give me something to eat?, and "tu ayi" = will you pick me up? "all done" as well as "no" are the negative markers, as in "mama adone" = mom is gone. She also mixes in the baby sign language we taught her, making the language very advanced indeed, a downward motion of the hand over the face while putting the fingers together (the sign for "tired") combined with "la book" = I'm tired, read me a book and put me to sleep. Then when she puts her finger up her nose and says "mas la cabeza" = I have a lot to think about right now, let me contemplate my existence.

My entire family is at a reunion on the Oregon coast that I wish I could be at, but the financial situation on a Peruvian income is tight and airline prices are ridiculous. To get the whole family up there would have cost 3k, which is like 6 months income in Lima.

I am itching to get out of Lima and see the amazing countryside - I'm dying to just get out of the apartment most days, the only thing there is to do is: go to the park and see the goldfish pond on the way, then run around the park with the dogs, especially these four little white poodles that are always there that Alexa walks, or is walked by. Then we walk down to this mall on the side of the cliff that has those creepy oversized cars and horses that move around when you put money in them.

I thought the sign to the left was funny - you usually name streets after something you are proud of, but then maybe Peru is proud of the Inquisition.

I'm a Weiner

There is a small university near our house that I pass on my way to Spanish class every morning called "Weiner University" and I can't help think that the alumni are called Weiners. Speaking of funny names, there's also a casino a few blocks from where we live called "Premie's", and I don't know if that means something special in Spanish or the owner is just a really small guy.

One cool thing here that I think the US should adopt is grass advertising. Most public spaces with grass, like parks, the grass on the side of the highway, etc, advertise using different colored plants and grass to make company logos and spell out thier slogans. What better way of making useless public space pay for itself? And the cost of planting a few shrubs is cheaper and prettier than a big metal sign. Speaking of public spaces, the air pollution here makes walking in them prohibitive - even in the house a fine layer of black soot-like dust settles on everything every day. After a week or two the floor below the windows have black ash on them like somebody poured their ashtray out onto the floor. Luckily we're right on the coast and get a fresh seabreeze for most of the day, but walking around is harder on your lungs than Damascus.

Speaking of walking around, we have found some great markets for both fruits and vegetables, a healthy/hippy market, and markets that sell computer junk and handicrafts etc. One dissapointing thing is that in the handicraft markets I've found a lot of "handmade" items that are exactly, not just similar, but exactly the same as what they have in Syria, except stiched or painted on them it says "Peru" instead of "Syria". I have a sneaky feeling the worldwide handicraft markets import most of thier stuff straight from China and then do after-market localizing.

For the 4th of July we went to a gringofest out in the desert put on by an American/Canadian association where there was a petting zoo for the kids, some bar-b-eque, a campaign booth for Obama, and some horrible American rock cover bands. Alexa loved feeding the animals, I liked watching her feed them, and Vanessa won a silent auction for a 3-day trip to Cuzco. Hopefully one of these days we'll actually get out of Lima and get to use it and see the real Peru, which looks great in the pictures.

Milk in a bag

What's up with milk in a bag? Can't someone just make some milk in a carton? What are you supposed to do once you open it when you can't even set it down? Vanessa tells me you're supposed to place it upright in a tea saucer, everybody knows that. But it still seems like an unnecessary extra step if you'd just put it in something that stands itself up to begin with. Bagged milk is the only way to get fresh milk though, otherwise you have to drink that di-sgusting UHT milk from a box, and any milk that can sit un-refrigerated for 6 months just isn't right.

But enough complaining. I've started Spanish classes in the mornings while Alexa is at nursery in a class of three Japanese, one Italian and a Russian. I've also been initiated into the mothers group that meets every week at someone's house where everyone brings a food dish and stands around and chats while their kids make each other cry. I met some interesting people but most of them look at me a bit weird when I say that I don't work and stay home with the baby. But then I met a woman whose husband does the same thing and agreed we're probably the only two in Peru.

I've joined the local climbing gym and have gotten to know a few people who will take me climbing in a few weeks once it's warmer. It's a small gym with a bunch of regulars. The thing I like about climbers is that they're the same everywhere you go and I tend to get along with them from the first moment I meet them. They all have funny nicknames and were all surprised to learn that I went by my actual name.

On the baby front, I've accomplished something completely amazing - tonight I put Alexa in bed, read to her the four books we have to read before bed, and then turned out the light and left. Why this may not sound amazing to some, she has slept in bed with us from the moment she was born until I arrived in Peru three weeks ago, and in those three weeks I have step by step weaned her away from our bed, her mother's milk at bedtime, and sleeping next to someone. There were a few rough nights, but as I sit and read in total silence at 10Pm and stretch out in my now-roomy bed it was all worth it.

Vanessa is working from home now, which is nice - taking me from total isolation in Syria to family overload. This week we went to Vanessa's grandmothers birthday party and spent the evening with all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins which was a good time as well as some good food. The first week of August I'll be going back to Salt Lake for my brother Clay's wedding and hope to see some friends there if the time permits.