The Daily Life

Hola, this post would be more as an update and a look into my daily-life routine in Peru.  The city has now reached 39 C so going out is not very recommended during the day.  Most days in the morning (or evening we switch off) I go swim laps with my brother.Recently I returned from an outdoor pool after forgetting to put on sunscreen, I still look like a lobster.  After in the evenings or nights of the weekdays I usually go out and grab a bite to eat in the street.  Most of the time at night we watch a movie with the family.  So all in all in the week it is nice and relaxing, only really crazy in the weekends :)  Unfortunately there has been a little problem, when this week after having had to much pain that i could deal with, I went to the dentist to have a look at something that had been bothering me.  It turned out to be rather serious, I have another appointment tomorrow and they seem to be considering a root canal surgery.  So, we shall see how that goes.In other news, I start school the 3rd of March, and travel around Peru in Febuary.  This Sunday with AFS we will be returning to the beach of Mancora for some fun:)  Thats about it for now on life in Peru!

Tumbes y Ano Nuevo

Hola, I'm going to try and write a bit more from now on at request of my father:)  This Monday I returned from my weekend trip to the city of Tumbes, around 5 hours north of Piura.  I went with Simon and my brother (same as the Trujillo group,) and other friends from my brothers Derechos (rights) class at the University.  We had all be invited to travel to Tumbes on behalf of Sr. Luis Guerrero, a friend and fellow student of Gabriel's.  The reason for the invitation was that Luis is in the military of Piura and was being promoted for Comandante to Coronel, an extremely illustrious post.  We arrived early in the morning on Friday, went to our hotel, and slept until it was a fit time to walk about.  We did the usual tourist things, e.g., walk around the Plaza de Armas, snap photos of everything, and eat at the local restaurants.  Around 1 we returned to our hotel to prepare ourselves for a former lunch with Luis, his family, and guests.  I threw on a nice button up shirt (compliments of my brother as I have none to call my own) and nice black pants.  The restaurant was extremely large, with a stage, live band, and dance floor.  Now as eating goes in Tumbes it was extremely hard for me as Tumbes es la Casa del Pescado (the house of fish) or El Infierno de Cedric.  With my allergy and having forgot my medication (oops) I was forced to stay away from most of the food.  Fortunately, Luis upon seeing I was not eating (he had ordered humongous amounts of fish and seafood platters for his 50+ guests) asked, and was explained of my predicament.  Luis, being an exceptionally nice man, immediately ordered an enormous chicken plate with a large side of Papas Fritas.  Then came the beer.  What was a formal dinner, turned into a new toast every twenty minutes with an unending supply of beer, and the entire table going to the dance floor.  Around 11:30pm we had all gotten our fill (some more than recommended) of Cristal and began departing to our hotel.  The next day was especially exciting as it was the day of the ceremony, at 11pm we went to the military base, sat in chairs under 38 C weather and hoped for the best.  It ended up being an extremely long (sometimes boring yet extremely interesting) military promotion.  We ended taking many wonderful photos with Luis and others in the crowd.  The fun part was when Luis gave his speech to the crowd (300 guests + personnel) he mentioned Simon and I, "Thank you for my friend Cedric and Simon who have traveled from France and Belgium to see me."  Exaggeration...yes.. Extremely thoughtful...ABSOLUTELY.  After the ceremony we relaxed and slept till we were ready to board the truck to the beach for our New Years Celebrations.  What I had presumed would be a "short" ride turned out to be 45 minutes in the bed of a speeding pickup.  Once we arrived we pitched tents made a huge fire and kicked back with beers, music, and fireworks.  When the clock struck the new year the fireworks went off and the hugs went all around as is customary in most cultures.  After midnight we left our area on the beach and went and found a bunch of other wild beach parties (the memory blurry form here ;) .)  Although, the night took an alarming turn as the General of the Navy contacted Luis and told him beached had to be evacuated as an underwater earthquake had stuck in Japan and there was a possibility of a tsunami on our coast.  We packed in less than 15 minutes and I found myself sailing to my hotel bed (again in the back of the pickup.)  Even though it was a wild night, it turned out to be the earliest I've ever been to bed on New Years.  The next day around 6 we made our way home, the city of Piura.  Although I enjoyed Tumbes I will not be missing the land of fish anytime soon.