A Refreshing Break

I had a wonderful 5 day break between classes and I took advantage of my time to explore Miraflores. I found the South American Explorers Club in Miraflores and then had lunch with Eric, a fellow club member, who is doing his masters thesis regarding anthropology specifically focusing on a tribe in the jungle of Peru. He was a nice companion for lunch and I found out he goes to UIC in Chicago. He's is definitely happy to be in Peru instead of freezing in Chicago, however, I hear that the weather there right now is ridiculously warm for January. It's in the 50s. That's crazy!

Suzanne and I went out to dinner on Saturday night at a restaurant called La Preferida. We had Causa, which is like a potato lasagna and ceviche, lemon cooked fish with onion and sweet potato, and a salad. We also had delicious maracuya chilcanos and maracuya sours, a variation of pisco sours. Mmmm delicious! It was a fun night.

On Sunday I did almost nothing other than run and practice my violin. I also went to Teletickets and bought the tickets for the Second Symphony Latino that included Suzuki students from 12 latin american countries.

On Monday Suzanne and I made our way to Punta Hermosa to the south of Lima. It was beautiful and we enjoyed the water which was actually quite warm. I got a little burned in places that I didn't get with my cunblock. Thank GOD for sunblock. I would be a horrible red color all over. I like getting some sun but I am definitely not a worshipper and I would love to have nice skin in my old age so I have to protect it now. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the beach because neither Suzanne nor myself wanted to risk our cameras getting stolen or ruined by sand.

On Monday night we went to the concert and it was really cute. All the students wore traditional clothing from their countries and the music they played were arrangements from the different countries as well. The show was great but when it came to the end it never happened. Well, Suzanne and I left before the end because it was getting ridiculous with the encores. One or two songs after the program is over is fine but 5?? We practically watched the show in its entirety again. There is only so much encoring they can do before it gets to be too much. We did enjoy the music though and it was great to see 5 Cusco students in the orchestra, three guitarists and two recorder players.

Classes have started for book 1 and I am pumped. We have 5 more days of class and then back to Cusco I go to my wonderful amorsote! I am super excited to implement what I have learned and am learning at the festival. It's going to be a great year!



Gotta love dinner and drinks!!