My first month working at the Ministry of Environment

Hello again!

Well, as promised, here is part 2 of the long overdue on what I've been up since the New Year. Yesterday I wrote about my Christmas holidays, surprises upon returning to Huacho, and the move to Lima. Now I'll describe a little bit more about apartment hunting, the job, and my day to day life in Lima.

So I left you off at the end of my first day of work: thoroughly enjoying the colleagues that I am work, quite a few assignments to do, and by 9pm a place to stay for the night at a friend of a friend's place. Busy day, to say the least. A little bit about where I was staying - I had my own room (with ensuite bathroom, lucky me!) in Paola's apartment (she's a friend of Juan's, my old boss/counterpart from EMAPA Huacho). Paola lives with her husband, their 8-year old son, and a girl who helps them around the house. It was a really nice apartment, lots of windows, my room was spacious enough... but no internet (or not yet, at least - they said they would be getting a connection within the next 2 weeks). I was about a 20-30 bus ride away from work, which for Lima standards is really close. And finally happy to have a place to put my things done for more than one night - living out of a suitcase is not the most enjoyable. So since they were letting me stay rent-free at their apartment for two weeks out of the goodness of their hearts, I tried to be quiet and not disturb their daily activities too much by being there. I was at work all day every day anyways.

An update on life - about time!

Hello, hello!

I guess it's about time I update everyone with what has been going on recently in my life - first of all, sincere apologies for the delay (I've been busy). I kind of had a feeling this might happen (I definitely let my blog slide by the end of my time in France when I lived there 2 years ago), but not really by choice... anyways, since today is February 29th, I'm gaining an extra day, right? (Just kidding.) But seriously, things are finally calm enough for me to take the time to sit down and write a little update about my life, so here goes! (I've also update my itinerary page in case you are interested in following my travels over the past few months.)

Last time I really wrote to you was in December - how long ago 2011 now seems. We had a wonderful last week of work before the holidays, not accomplishing very much 'work' work but instead decorating the office, throwing a Christmas party for all of the employees' children, and having a Secret Santa party between a group of 20 colleagues. I finally got into the Christmas spirit even though it was well over 25 degrees each day, and had a wonderful time - I remember leaving for my vacation thinking that I never wanted to leave Peru, and was looking forward to returning to work on January 5th.