paciencia
Sorry about not writing much lately, and thanks for not bothering me about updates.
I find it a bit difficult to be entertaining when the thing that takes up the majority of my day is something I`d rather not talk about. Work has been incredibly frustrating and I will refrain from ranting about it, but only because it wouldn`t be appropriate for me to do that publicly. Don`t get me wrong, I have no problems with Yachaywasi, the director and main archaeologist, and my internship in general, it`s awesome. It`s actually my coworkers that I am, shall we say, less than impressed with. But it`s only until next Wednesday and then I should be moving on to a different task, though I don`t know what it will be yet.
Regardless, I`ve still been having fun. The whole country is geared up for Fiestas Patrias (their Independence Day), which is tomorrow. There was a parade last weekend, and certainly will be more tomorrow and this whole weekend. Most people have the day off (though we`ll be working) and there should be some good artisans markets open. People here are really enthusiastic about their patriotism here, I think more so than the US. And the president will change, which will be interesting for gossip. Perú is divided about the election they had, it was a very close race although neither candidate was very good, in my opinion. So I guess the US isn`t the only one who has problems like that. But they had a much better voter turnout, and hopefully they`ll have better luck with their choice.
So I tend to meet some interesting people while here.
The first of note is this guy, probably mid 60s, who is retired and comes to the corner where I take the bus every morning. He gets his newspaper and some fresh bread from the local patisserie (which is delicious, by the way. Perú has a ton of fresh bread places). After the first week of seeing him every day, he came over and talked to me, and he`s a nice interesting guy. He wanted to practice his english--he lived for a while in the US and one of his children lives there now. He was some sort of diplomat`s son, I think, and worked in international business.
And now that he`s retired, he doesn`t have much to do with his time. So to make a little money, and because he had a job in his youth cooking, he decided he`d try to sell some food. He figured out a great way to make lasagna, of all things, one that you could actually cook in the microwave quickly. He thought that it`d be great to take orders from the local casinos to sell it in their restaurants--there are tons and tons of very small hotel casinos here. It usually takes forever to get lasagna at a restaurant because you usually have to wait the half-hour for it to cook. So he took a batch to one casino, asked to see the manager, and was told to leave 3 samples and they`d call him. He was a bit worried about that, considering if he had to leave that many samples at every casino he`d end up spending a lot just to catch interest. So he just tried the one to start with.
They call him back, the manager tells him it was fabulous lasagna, can he make 100 for their big party-giveaway they have every month? He was shocked because he`s just cooking this by himself in his kitchen! But he did the math, figured the profit and decided to try it (and didn`t go to other casinos for business, he can`t handle more than that!). The poor guy spent 3 days preparing it!! He had to buy the stuff, chop everything, and make the sauce, then assemble and cook them in batches. He said he barely slept. It was a huge success, though. And they want him to do it again. He`s talking to his son-in-law to get some advice on how to arrange things more easily for the next time; he doesn`t want to hire anyone because it`ll cut into the profits too much. The story just cracked me up because it`s totally a off-the-wall idea that sounds like something I would try to do. :)
The other people I`ve met have been Israelis--for some reason, lots of Israelis like to travel throughout South America. And apparently the hostel I`m staying at his really high on their recommended list--there are even some posted notices in the hostel that are in Hebrew (for temples etc, I`m assuming). I`ve actually been hanging out with some groups; there was this one group of guys who were hilarious and even taught me some Hebrew. Granted, most of it was numbers because we were playing pingpong, but it was interesting nonetheless. I enjoy the sounds the language has. :) I helped another pair of Israeli guys go shopping last weekend; the one was looking for jewelry for his girlfriend, and there is some awesome silverwork that is done in Perú, so I showed him the good shops. I`m actually learning quite a bit about Israel, and definitely have heard the inside scoop on what their opinion about the mess that`s going on right now over there.
So those are the stories for today. Now it`s dinner time! Man, I wish I had some lasagna now.
I find it a bit difficult to be entertaining when the thing that takes up the majority of my day is something I`d rather not talk about. Work has been incredibly frustrating and I will refrain from ranting about it, but only because it wouldn`t be appropriate for me to do that publicly. Don`t get me wrong, I have no problems with Yachaywasi, the director and main archaeologist, and my internship in general, it`s awesome. It`s actually my coworkers that I am, shall we say, less than impressed with. But it`s only until next Wednesday and then I should be moving on to a different task, though I don`t know what it will be yet.
Regardless, I`ve still been having fun. The whole country is geared up for Fiestas Patrias (their Independence Day), which is tomorrow. There was a parade last weekend, and certainly will be more tomorrow and this whole weekend. Most people have the day off (though we`ll be working) and there should be some good artisans markets open. People here are really enthusiastic about their patriotism here, I think more so than the US. And the president will change, which will be interesting for gossip. Perú is divided about the election they had, it was a very close race although neither candidate was very good, in my opinion. So I guess the US isn`t the only one who has problems like that. But they had a much better voter turnout, and hopefully they`ll have better luck with their choice.
So I tend to meet some interesting people while here.
The first of note is this guy, probably mid 60s, who is retired and comes to the corner where I take the bus every morning. He gets his newspaper and some fresh bread from the local patisserie (which is delicious, by the way. Perú has a ton of fresh bread places). After the first week of seeing him every day, he came over and talked to me, and he`s a nice interesting guy. He wanted to practice his english--he lived for a while in the US and one of his children lives there now. He was some sort of diplomat`s son, I think, and worked in international business.
And now that he`s retired, he doesn`t have much to do with his time. So to make a little money, and because he had a job in his youth cooking, he decided he`d try to sell some food. He figured out a great way to make lasagna, of all things, one that you could actually cook in the microwave quickly. He thought that it`d be great to take orders from the local casinos to sell it in their restaurants--there are tons and tons of very small hotel casinos here. It usually takes forever to get lasagna at a restaurant because you usually have to wait the half-hour for it to cook. So he took a batch to one casino, asked to see the manager, and was told to leave 3 samples and they`d call him. He was a bit worried about that, considering if he had to leave that many samples at every casino he`d end up spending a lot just to catch interest. So he just tried the one to start with.
They call him back, the manager tells him it was fabulous lasagna, can he make 100 for their big party-giveaway they have every month? He was shocked because he`s just cooking this by himself in his kitchen! But he did the math, figured the profit and decided to try it (and didn`t go to other casinos for business, he can`t handle more than that!). The poor guy spent 3 days preparing it!! He had to buy the stuff, chop everything, and make the sauce, then assemble and cook them in batches. He said he barely slept. It was a huge success, though. And they want him to do it again. He`s talking to his son-in-law to get some advice on how to arrange things more easily for the next time; he doesn`t want to hire anyone because it`ll cut into the profits too much. The story just cracked me up because it`s totally a off-the-wall idea that sounds like something I would try to do. :)
The other people I`ve met have been Israelis--for some reason, lots of Israelis like to travel throughout South America. And apparently the hostel I`m staying at his really high on their recommended list--there are even some posted notices in the hostel that are in Hebrew (for temples etc, I`m assuming). I`ve actually been hanging out with some groups; there was this one group of guys who were hilarious and even taught me some Hebrew. Granted, most of it was numbers because we were playing pingpong, but it was interesting nonetheless. I enjoy the sounds the language has. :) I helped another pair of Israeli guys go shopping last weekend; the one was looking for jewelry for his girlfriend, and there is some awesome silverwork that is done in Perú, so I showed him the good shops. I`m actually learning quite a bit about Israel, and definitely have heard the inside scoop on what their opinion about the mess that`s going on right now over there.
So those are the stories for today. Now it`s dinner time! Man, I wish I had some lasagna now.
posted by archaesmd at 4:14 PM
2 Comments:
Fantastic post - even though I'm biased. You made up for not writing all week!!
LKD
It is my understanding that one of the early proposed locations for a Jewish homeland (we're talking late 19th century) was Argentina. South America got a lot of European immigrants at that time, so it isn't as goofy as it sounds.
On the other hand, the two candidates for the El Salvadoran presidency in 2004 were of Palestinian descent.
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