Merry Christmas from Potato Land!

Feliz Navidad!  All the way from Peru.

How did Christmas arrive??? The weather and the strange decorations and the lack of Christmas preparedness have allowed Christmas to catch me unawares.  It doesn't help that Christmas isn't really a holiday this year, its more like a weekend, with overeating....hmm quite like many weekends.  All in all, it was quite a different experience, celebrating my first Christmas in Peru.

The differences start with work and Christmas here.  It is traditional to get something from the office where you work.  It varies from office to office, but usually you get something.  I got a free turkey which I got to change for a large piece of pork loin.  Carlos just got a paneton, but a good one and Carlos' dad got a large bin full of....groceries, and Carlos' brother got a turkey as well.  Its nice that companies do something like this.  I feel like its very appreciative and good willed of them.

Christmas in Peru should really be called Christmas Eve in Peru.  Christmas eve is a lot more important than Christmas Day.  On Christmas eve everyone stays up late and you spend time with family and ring in Christmas day with a toast, a large dinner, gifts and fireworks.  In Carlos' family dinner is usually around 10ish instead of midnight because midnight is too late to start things.  However dinner at 10 means starting to eat around 8.  Needless to say Christmas in Peru leaves me equally stuffed as in other countries.  Christmas day is a day of rest, because you spend all night and into the wee hours of the morning feasting/playing with your gifts/spending time with family.  Sometimes you will have another large meal of leftovers with more family, but most of the gift opening and stuff happens the night before.

Another strange Peruvian Christmas (eve) tradition is the setting off of fireworks.  I have no idea where this came from, but I like it a lot.  Probably just because I really like fireworks.  And they aren't the little piddly ones that we get in the states.  A lot of people shot off really big ones that you usually see in shows in the US, the ones that shoot high into the air and explode in bright colors.  There were noise makers and ones with various colors and ones that made big launching sounds and then had small explosions at the end.  People lit them from parking lots and from balconies and parks and the whole of Lima seemed like a war zone for about 2-3 hours while people were celebrating.  When we got home after the festivities, and the air was all smokey from fireworks Carlos took a deep breath and said, "ahhh...smells like Christmas"

Today we are enjoying Christmas in the sunshine with hot chocolate (in summer??) and leftover christmas goodies.  Merry Christmas from Peru!  I hope everyone has a great holiday wherever you are!

Serpost : The Peruvian Mail System

Ahhh the joys of living in a foreign country and learning about the different ways of doing things...

I am very intrigued by foreign post services.  I love getting mail from different places and sending postcards on my travels and seeing the different postage and trying to figure out the system.  However, using the mail system like a local and like a tourist are two completely different things.  As a tourist its all fun and games.  You see the cool stamps, marvel at how cheap or expensive it is, and laugh when you try to find the drop box or communicate with the post office people.  As a local, or someone living like a local, you see behind this fun part  to the exasperation of using the local mail service.  Usually this involves long lines and little communication.  I must admit that it is still very interesting, but a lot trying than being a tourist.

At first I was quite pleased with the Peruvian Postal Service, or the Serpost.  My friends sent me letters and my parents sent me some large envelopes with no problem.  My friend from Hong Kong even sucessfully sent me a small, squishy package.  It took around 10 days maximum to recieve things.  I think a birthday card got lost somewhere, but that can happen anyway, right?

For Thanksgiving my friend in PA sent me some maple syrup.  Because of the good track record, I was still wary, but hopeful that there would be no problems.  I guess I had had too much of a good thing.  Or maybe the syrup looked suspicious in its box.  Whatever it was, the box got thrown into customs and then into SUNAT, the entity that takes care of....taxes?  It arrived in Peru around November 20 and the notice arrived at the house around the second week of December.  I read the notice and it gave you several options to pick up the package.  You could go to the Serpost office and pick it up, or you could pay some one 25 soles and scan or email the sheet to Serpost and they would send it to you.  At first I was going to have the thing sent to me but then I thought that with the holidays it would take a really long time to arrive and might get more lost.  So, yesterday I went to the post office.

The office that my package was sent to was all the way across town in Lince.  At first I couldn´t read the adress and so I couldn´t find the office.  That got me a little scared, but when Carlos got home he read it for me.  It appeared pretty simple to get there so Carlos´ mom offered to go with me.  We departed at 10 am to avoid the traffic and forgot that it was the week before Christmas so there is a ton more traffic all the time.    We got lucky and parked right in front of the building, and in front of a very long line.  When we asked we were told that this was the line to pick up packages.  Great.  We stood in the line.  I got copies of my documents made and we waited, in the sun, outside, for an hour.

Every ten minutes someone else was let into the building.  If you were old or disabled, then you can walk right in. Or if you have to mail something.  We finally got into the gate and then had to wait in line to have our documents checked.  Carlos' mom went and found out what the next steps were.  Basically what amounted to another hour's worth of waiting in line.  You get your documents checked, then go stand in line where they give you another document.  Then you take this document to a window to pay and then they give you a receipt and you go turn it in somewhere and then you go to another window and pick up your package.

When I went to turn the papers in the woman took one look and said "go to the basement".  We found the stairs to the right and then descended into heaven.  It was nice and cool and there was NO line.  The most we had to wait was for the teller to come and check my papers and find my package.  It took a total of 5 minutes.  Amazing!  It could have been a lot worse.  I still have no idea why I got to go to the basement, but I think this is one of those times I'm glad I'm not Peruvian. Or maybe it has nothing to do with this.  Who knows, but I'm sure happy I finally got my maple syrup!  Time for some of dad's pancakes...

And end and a beginning

We are nearing the end of the year and a lot of change is in the air. Last week I finished working at my full time job and we are preparing for a wedding, of sorts.

Its always sad when something comes to an end.  I wrote to all of my participants to tell them that I wouldn't be working any more and some of them wrote me really nice things back.  Its nice to know that the work that you did is appreciated- and that the kids aren't as self-centered as you thought.

All in all, I'm impressed/proud of myself with this job.  When I moved to Peru I was looking for jobs, but kind of resigned to the fact that I would be teaching English again.  I sent out tons of letters and resumes to anyone and anything that I thought would be helpful.  I ended up having three interviews before I left for Peru and two lined up for when I got there.  This was all in addition to Carlos saying that he would talk to his highly influential uncle. I wanted something else besides teaching English.  I already had experience in it and while its a good job, it doesn't help me with my Spanish.  Since I my second year in Spain I had been interested in working in some type of international education.  I figured it would work with my experience in teaching and living abroad, so I mostly focused on study abroad agencies and anything that had to do with language and travel.  My goals for working in Peru were to work in Spanish, to have a full time non-ESL teaching job, and work in international education.  I fulfilled all of these goals and then some.  I found the job on my own, without relying on Carlos' uncle or anyone else.

I know that my Spanish has improved because of this job, and I know I made a good impression on my bosses because they told me that if I wanted to work another year, they would like to have me back, illegal status and not perfect Spanish included. I learned a lot about the student exchange industry and about what I want in a career.  It was a very productive 9 months in Peru.

Now that this experience is over, I have some time to focus on the other task at hand.  Getting married! The next great adventure.  There are a lot of hoops do jump through and a lot of things to plan and coordinate, apart from the normal flowers, dress, location stuff.  These last months in Peru will be dedicated to English teaching and Peruvian and American bureaucracy deciphering.  Follow along the marrying a Peruvian adventure here.

I don't know if this is a door closing and a new one opening, or its more the end of a chapter and the start of a new one, on various levels. Whatever it is, its change, but change is good, right?

Smells like Christmas, ie. Paneton

Its Christmastime in Peru!!!  This means a couple things.  The most important ones are : summer is coming and its paneton season.

First off, Christmas in the summer is downright strange.  It is even stranger because apart from it being summer, people do the same thing and decorate in the same manner as in the Northern Hemisphere.  The Santa Clauses and snowmen decorations were out the first week in November.  People have decorated their houses with lights and reindeer and sleighs.  They want pictures with Santa Claus at the mall and they hang snowflakes in the windows and put (fake) pine trees up.  It just doesn't fit.  In summer you don't display snowmen and snowflakes.  Maybe sandmen and palm decorated cactus would be better.

Christmas in Peru is not complete without Panettone, or as they call it in Peru, "Panetón".  Forget the santa clauses and the reindeer and the trees.  For most Peruvians, paneton IS christmas.  People are obsessed with it and it is everywhere during the Christmas season in its classic box, or in the more convenient bag.  It only comes out in force between November and January, but you can always find a few store brands that have it year around.

These are just a few of the myriad brands of Paneton

 There are ads for it everywhere.  A lot of time its a picture of a happy child biting into a paneton like its a slice of watermelon with a mug of hot chocolate.  Yes, it can be horridly hot outside and people eat their paneton with hot chocolate.  And enjoy it.

one of the more famous brands.

Everyone takes part in the Paneton madness, including the mall.  They have transformed the ticket booth where you pay parking into gigantic paneton boxes!  Its amazing and funny and disturbing all at once.  It just goes to show you how much people are obsessed with it here.

The paneton ticket booth

As a result of Peruvians being obsessed with Paneton, I am obsessed with finding out why they are obsessed with it.  To my rescue came the weekly magazine that comes in the Saturday paper.  They wrote an entire article about paneton!  While it ended up not being too informative as to the "why", it did give me a better background about the Peruvian Paneton.  I learned that :

• Paneton was first sold in Peru around 1900.
• The ice cream lord, D'anofrio bought the recipe for paneton to amplify their market and is the market leader now in selling paneton.
• 19,000 tons of paneton were eaten in 2010
• On average 3.5 panetons are eaten per family a year (I would have thought a lot more)
• There are 110 brands of paneton in Peru
• You have normal versions and you have the healthy versions made with just raisins and whole wheat flour and you have chocolate ones and "Incan" ones that are made with quinoa flour and other types of "Incan" flour.
• The candied fruits on the inside are often made with candied watermelon peel and dyed to appear like different fruits.
• Paneton is so loved that there is an essence of Paneton, that is sprayed in the box or bag before sealing it to intensify the smell of the paneton.  When you open the box or bag your nose is greeted with the Christmas smell. Of paneton, not pine trees.

I must admit that Paneton is quite tasty.  I don't really like the top part because it can be kinda burned tasting, and I don't see the point in eating it with butter, but it has a nice sweet flavor.  At the supermarket you can have a paneton taste test because they give you samples to get you to buy them.  One really bad one reminded me of acetone and one was really gummy, but the rest were not too sweet, with a nice softness.   I still don't get the obsession, but I least I know more about paneton and I can pick out the brands that I like.  I guess its a process.  One cannot fully adjust to Peruvian Christmas the first time around...