Me using public transport - a bright red and blue bus!Last week was mostly spent buying a laptop for Michael that he can use for his PhD. This turned out to be an enterprise and a half, involving plutoons of incompetent sales staff. They were barely able to read their own (misspelled) specifications signs, and turned out completely incapable of understanding what Michael wanted. What with him incorporating the term "last minute" and his company needing an invoice and him paying in cash in US$, there simply was no end to the letdowns and frustration. At one point, Iain (my favourite computer geek) suggested he'd buy a computer in Germany and send it, but that would have taken too long, unfortunately.
The computer is now sitting in our flat, nice and silvery with a big IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le développement) sticker on it.
On Friday I went to San Marcos and listened to another excellent class of political parties. The lecturer is a diplomat working for the Foreign Ministry. Two weeks ago he was in Bolivia, observing the happenings in Santa Cruz, a region in political upheaval. I'm still struggling to understand, but I got little bits of information. It's all very interesting.
After that I went for an iced cappuccino with Norman, one of the students of the class. He's planning to do a BA in business in Dublin next year. Since the university was closing at 12.30 to prepare for regional municipal elections, it turned out that I was the only student who appeared for "Humanos Derechos" at 11.15, and class was cancelled. So Norman took me to Parque de leyendas, a zoo and historical park in San Miguel. They had LOTS of animals, especially from the jungle, but unfortunately many of them looked miserable. There were different cats, rodents and monkeys, jaguars, crocodiles, parrots, snakes and fish. The smalles monkeys would have fitted in my hand, and are called tamarins - soooo cute!
Friday evening we were too tired to do much.
On Saturday, however, I had my first encounter with the Peruvian rugby girls! I met with Angela in McDonald's in Miraflores, but then went to sit and chat in café Zeta. Angela has been to Germany, and knows people in the St Pauli girls team. She's now doing a hardcore French course at Alliance Française, to be able to go to Paris and study. After a cappuccino and lots of information at break-neck speed, we took a taxi to Surquillos, to see Chiara, another rugby player. A student in Minnesota, she's come home to buy her wedding dress - she's getting married to a Peruvian, but over there. I was shown lots of photos of rugby players, and then we went shopping for the bbq - at just after 9 pm (I had lunch at 2)...the supermarket was very crowded, which is still strange for someone who comes from a country where the shops close around 9...we bought meat, potatoes, mayonnaise, ketchup, ají sauce and coke. Alcohol had been purchased previously, as there was a temporary ban on alcohol from Thursday at midnight until Sunday, due to the elections. Noone is really sure about the thinking behind this ban, but there it was. I'd told Michael to pick me up around 11 pm, so I didn't have to get a taxi alone, but at that point there were only three girls and me; the others arrived just before midnight, at which point the charcoal was still resisting our efforts. Dinner was served at 1.30 am(!): Delicious sausages, bits of chicken and baked potatoes. There were mini sausages made from blood, but I'm not a big fan of them, as a rule. Still, they didn't taste bad, especially with some black rum and coke. The girls and boys were very nice, and I look forward to travelling about an hour on a mini bus on Tuesday to get to practice. I'm very scared of the physical workout coach, who is apparently ruthless, but we will have to see with my ankle still slightly sore.
Yesterday Michael couldn't find his ID card, so he couldn't vote, which was quite a disappointment. Now he will have to pay a fine. Instead we went to the market, and I took lots of photos.
Mmm, the afternoon snack waiting for the bbq!
Michael and his mum
The evening was spent watching a poorly dubbed strange movie (Children of men) with even worse subtitles, and eating mango ceviche, mmmm.
Today there is a meeting for people wanting to do the Spanish course in San Marcos Facultad de Letras. We'll see.
