At last -- tofu!

Slowly, routines are being established...and it feels really nice. I have a regular taxista (taxi driver) taking me to school in the mornings. I take Spanish lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays. We joined the the gym and started going this past week. We've been cooking at home (I finally found tofu!) and sit down together each night for dinner. It's been busy, but relaxing at the same time.

This week was especially fun, though. November 1st, All Saints' Day, was a holiday so we forged new friendships and went out the night before, on Halloween. Instead of dressing up and gorging on candy, we shared several bottles of wine with my new friend Kim, an American, and her husband Hugo, a Peruvian. I was connected to Kim through a friend in NY and she has been a tremendous help. It is through Kim that I found out about the job at Newton and she patiently answered numerous questions before and after I arrived in Peru. However, due to schedules, this was the first time we were all able to get together. It was so much fun that it will definitely not be the last. In fact, we already got together this morning to go walking together...

Note on Halloween: here it's a mix of the commercial Halloween, criolla traditions and a religious holiday. The younger kids do the 'usual' custom we are used to in the U.S. of dressing up in costumes and going around trick or treating. While many stores have Halloween sections, but it's refreshingly less commercial than I am used to. The only thing I missed was candy corn - I couldn't find it anywhere!

However, despite a lovely week, reality has hit home: I have a lot of work to do. My Fodor's work is not finished. There are still two places to visit and all of the updating to type into a very specific Word document, filled with codes and queries. After five hours of work, I have only finished one page. Like we keep saying to each other, this has been a great experience, but I don't think I'd repeat it. The oh-so-romantic-sounding travel writer idea? Checked off my to do list.

p.s. Despite the odd-looking picture my rice, tofu and vegetable dish makes, it was a thrill to eat the combination once again. For some reason, this culture which eats tons of beans, has not embraced (or, it seems, know about) tofu. Luckily, I found it in a nearby grocery store. Mmm...mmm...good!