Gringo In Peru

If you read this on Thursday, I’ll likely be in the air.

We leave just after 8 a.m. and we’ll be back in Minnesota after 10 p.m.

We are almost home.

I’ve spent the day running around and trying to put the finishing touches on our suitcases. It’s a lot of packing, weighing and packing again. It’s hard to put almost two years of stuff (plus stuff for a person who’s not here yet) in five boxes. There’s a lot of packing and purging.

It’s hard to believe this day we’ve been waiting for is almost here. I know I’ve changed. How? I’m not sure yet. If you’re looking for some deep introspection about my life in Peru, I’m sorry. I’m not ready for that yet. It will come later after we adjust to life in the U.S.A. I do worry about possible reverse culture shock. Let’s be honest, we haven’t been in the U.S. for almost two years. That’s a long time.

Peru, you’ve been great. We’ll be back someday.

Goodbye.

I’ve got to pack.

Saturday was baby shower day here in Peru.

A baby shower here really isn’t that much different than one back home. There’s food, there’s women and no men. In fact, I was the only guy there (besides the waiters, more on that in a minute) until I left to meet my old factory™ mates for lunch.

Shower time

There are some differences. After all, there were waiters hired to serve the food. The wait staff (two guys) walk around constantly offering finger food and drinks. Since this was a late morning, early afternoon affair juice and soda was served. There was a mimosa option, but the party planners decided against it. It is also common for people hosting these things to rent a toldo, which is like a big outdoor canopy.

This baby shower was more like a luncheon than a shower. There were 60 people invited and I’m told they all showed. The party started at 10:30, by the time I left at 11:30 about half of the guest list had arrived. That’s pretty good for Peruvians. They are always late. No, this isn’t stereotypical. Peruvians readily admit that they are never on time and it was a constant problem at the factory™.

Sandwich anyone?

People socialized, ate and watched V open her presents. I left before the present opening. I met my former co-workers at the mall for rotisserie chicken. You can’t get any more Peruvian than that. It was good to see those crazy kids again. It’s probably the last time I’ll see them. Who knows if our paths may cross in the future.

There was another significant last on Saturday. My last bus ride. Since I happened to have my camera with me I snapped a few pictures of the bus. It wasn’t the cleanest I’ve been on, but it wasn’t the worst. The bus was mostly empty when I started shooting. When I took the the first picture the flash caught a girl sitting a few seats ahead of me looked at me funny and started laughing. It’s good to know the gringo still has some entertainment value.

The clock is ticking. Just four more days and we’ll be back in the U.S.A.

Let the packing begin!

Since V and I are both done with work, we’ve been busy cleaning and packing.

It’s amazing how much crap (and I mean that in a nice way) two people can accumulate in almost two years.  We’ve given away four industrial-sized bags of clothing and shoes to Marcello, the security guard that works on our block. He was more than happy to take it all. What he’s going to do with size 40 (he  looks like 32, tops) Levi’s is beyond me. That’s not my business. I’m glad he took them. Honestly, I don’t see how we would be able to take it all home.

While we’ve been purging old clothes, we’re binging on baby clothes. Dresses, onesies, pajamas, tops and bibs are already piling up. Vanessa has a baby shower Saturday, meaning more baby swag is coming our way. People tell me collecting baby clothes can be an exercise in futility because baby can enter the world already be too big for her britches. This means plies of baby clothes are destine to never have their tags cut, forced into life in a drawer somewhere until garage sale season where they may have another chance. Thankfully, baby clothes are small and light. I don’t think getting them home will be much of a problem.

We plan to do more packing and possibly more purging this weekend.

Yesterday was our doctor day. Vanessa had her last pre-natal appointment in Peru, an appointment with the endocrinologist and I had an appointment with the cardiologist. We’re happy to report everything went well. Baby is fine. V is fine. My heart is good. Actually, I’ve lost almost 40 pounds since I started (18 kg to be exact) seeing the doctor. He says I could likely go off the low-grade high blood pressure pills I’ve been using if I drop another 15 kg. It’s amazing what eating fresh food and sleeping at night can do for you. I’m encouraged that we are moving back in spring/summer. That means many walks and hopefully bike rides for me. Those extra lbs. could disappear. Of course, I’ve got to eat well and stay away from America’s over-sized portions.

Today I’m off to the English Factory™ to get my last paycheck. Then its off to the bank to close my account and get my CTS money. CTS is like a Peruvian unemployment benefit. Companies create the CTS account in your name and deposit U.S. Dollars in it every time you get paid. When you leave a job you are entitled to this money, but you can’t access it until you get a letter from your employer stating you are no longer working. I figure there must be about $1000 there. It will be nice to have some traveling money. How long it will last, nobody knows.

One other note, somebody hacked into my Yahoo e-mail account and sent spam to everyone in my contact list. I’m told the link leads to a website with a Russian address touting cheap Viagra. If you get the message from me, DELETE IT. I’ve changed my password. Hopefully that will prevent this from happening again. Sorry.

Remember the apartment?

If you don’t want to click the link, here are the Cliff’s Notes. My father-in-law has an apartment in the business/entertainment district of Miraflores. Nobody had lived in the place for about a decade. We were supposed to live there, but the place was in shambles.

Things have changed.

After a year of on-again, off-again work, its done. Things are different from the floor to the ceiling. New tile and new furniture grace the small space. We were there to clean. Friends of my in-laws are coming to visit and they want to stay in the apartment for a few weeks.

My mother-in-law brought the our maid Maria with us. It was surprising to me that Maria had never been to Miraflores. I suppose she’s had no real reason to go. Still, Miraflores is one of Lima’s most popular places.

Literally next door to the apartment building is a branch of the English Factory’s™ biggest rival. We’ll call it the British English Manufactory®. While we were cleaning, I kept an eye on the classrooms. I had a pretty good view from our 8th floor perch. The teachers at the Manufactory® sat behind desks and never used a black or whiteboard. It’s a different world across the pond.

Anyways, here are some before and after pictures for your enjoyment.

Before - The Bathroom

Before - The living room

Before - The kitchen

Before - The bedroom

Today was the first day of classes at the English Factory™. I wasn’t there. I don’t work there anymore.

To celebrate this development a few colleagues and myself got together last weekend for a few drinks. Trust me, it didn’t get too wild at the American chain restaurant that shall remain unnamed. We sipped some adult beverages, swapped a few stories, shared a few appetizers and went our merry way. It was a small gathering of people whom I will genuinely miss. All the folks who were there I consider friends, I hope they feel the same way.

With all this free time I’ve been back on the job hunt. I’ve applied for three jobs over the past two days. Two of which, I feel I’ve got a legitimate chance to at least land an interview. Keep those virtual fingers crossed.

In the midst of applying for one of the above jobs, I got an e-mail from that particular company thanking me for applying. Thank you? Uh, I wasn’t finished. How can you thank me for something I haven’t done? Weird.

Searching for work is a bit more time consuming than one would think. When you find a job that seems worth applying for, the on-line application process takes about an hour. Every company seems to want different things with the application or has different forms to fill out.

This doesn’t even factor in the time it takes to find a job. That takes time. Job searching is like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of sand before reaching the nuggets. Communications is a broad area and the word is common in job listings. Hiring managers think retail clerks, military personnel, forklift drivers and IT specialists all need communication skills to do their jobs. Leaving me with piles of sand.

The countdown to the hometown is on. We are only 15 days away from our big return. Hopefully Lady Liberty can open her arms with a few job opportunities. The latest job loss numbers are encouraging, although the market is kind of getting battered by the now deadly European debt crisis.