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.