Feliz New Year!

For New Years in Peru the thing to do is wear yellow underwear. Apparently it brings good luck if you wear some especially while the clock is ticking down to midnight. Everything is yellow, not just underwear.. there were yellow balloons, yellow stuffed animals, yellow food, (this is where the Peruvian Inca Kola... the soda pop of Peru... is handy because of it's trademark bright yellow shade) yellow TODO. :) Another Peruvian tradition is to eat 12 grapes at midnight.. thinking of a wish as you eat each one.. that's 12 wishes people. I couldn't even think of that many so I just basically said the same couple of wishes over and over again. For our Peruvian Peacecordian New Years we had the company of some of our fellow 13ers who live in different departments.. and it was simply amazing, spectacular and fun! We had some hiking adventuras, made some delicious dinners, saw some beautiful Ancash lakes and even got to go.. horseback riding! That's right! :) That must have been the highlight of our couple of days ringin' in 2010.. for me anyways. It reminded me of Riverside.. except with greenery and stunning views of huge snowcapped mountains... pretty much the same, no? :)

It's recently the start of vacaciones for the jovenes (youth) here in Peru. (They get January and February off for their summer vacation)... we'll be doing an art class and some jewelry making and I'm planning on planning for the library projects I'd love to do, some Vocational orientation classes for the high school kids and planning an Environment Club with one of the primary school profesoras. Since things are flexible in terms of my time now and the craziness of December has come to a close I'll have more time to go hiking around my town and explore mas as well... we Ancashinos voluntarios also get to have some Quechua classes during these months which will be.. EXTREMELY helpful in my learning of this idioma that I never even knew existed 8 months ago... we shall see if I even get to become at least to a conversational level knowledge. That's my goal anyway.

In other noticias, I'd just like to say that I can't believe it's already been 7 months in Peru and every day I'm learning something new about this country, Spanish, Americans, how to cook, culture... the list keeps going. I look forward to this new year knowing that by the end of 2010 I will have learned so many more things that I can't even fathom right now even if I tried. So, happy new years to todos! I hope it's going to be a great one.

abrazos fuertes,

Em