Back in the Swing...

Contrary to my stated intentions, I have been a long time posting... again.

I just haven't being doing anything particularly interesting lately... I go to work, go to meetings, I come home at night, sometimes I hang out with friends, experiment with cooking (the latest experiment was cinnamon buns.... more like cinnamon turds, but there you have it... it was an experiment), I get cold, I try to warm up, I go to the market on sundays to buy my veggies for the week, visit my favorite vendors who now know me, continue to dodge the roaming dogs and giant potholes in town, visit with the other gringo, sometimes buy a pirated movie to watch, etc....

So, as life has been pretty routine (well, Huancavelica routine) lately, I have been putting off posting until I had something interesting to say.

But I still don't really have anything interesting to say.

So here is a list of random stuff:

1. Bands. So many bands. They play all the time. ALL THE TIME. I thought it was for particular festivals, as I posted last time. But they are still playing day and night, and I can't figure out what they are playing for, and no one seems to be able to tell me. There is one playing somewhere close by right now. I can hear it as I am typing this. They are everywhere. All the time. Are they following me? It is crazy!! How do these guys play so much and still have lips??? :)

2. While papayas and other tropical fruits have gotten (relatively) expensive at the market due to the floods in the northern part of Peru, things like green beans are cheap and plentiful and delicious. I was never a huge fan to be honest, but i can get a kilo for 2 soles (less than a dollar) so, for that price, I have been learning to love them... yum!

3. I started teaching some English classes (sigh), and have gotten a taste of how bad english lessons can be here. One woman in my class was confused about the sequence of "Thank You" and "You're Welcome". She was taught that it was "Thank you" and "Be thanked you". Wow....

4. Receiving stuff by mail is relatively painless (THANK YOU to all who continue to send stuff!! I love it!!), but sending is BRUTALLY expensive. It cost me almost 20 dollars to send a book on in a bookring I was participating in. No more of that, I guess...

5. We are in the rainy season here, and it has been raining a lot. But one has to pay attention if it hasn't rained much for a few days, because when that happens, you know there is going to be a HUGE storm, usually with lots of electrical activity. We had a crazy hail storm last week that was truely amazing--- it looked like it had snowed when it was all done, but everything was actually covered in giant ice pellets. Glad i was home at the time!! Ouch!

So that is about all I have to say right now. Sad, I know. Not much going on. I need to get out and go on a trip and take some pictures. I haven't left Huancavelica for almost 6 weeks which is a bit cabin-fever-ish. It just costs money and I don't really want to go on my own as it is not the safest thing to do, frankly. Plus, Huancavelica is so far from anywhere, a weekend isn't really enough time to go anywhere cool. Am planning on going to Macchu Picchu with Dave and his volunteer posse in May, which is nice to look forward to--- his org is so much more organized as far as getting people together to share and compare. Must write a letter to that effect to CUSO. Send me on trips to get me out and have some good posts. Please. :)

Hope all is well with everyone, and I will endeavour to spice up my life to have something to write...