...Roll up to the club in a Navigator Truck

Inagural GossipGuy post

2008-05-13T01:22:00.001-07:00

Spotted..... Micah in Bio 150 sitting in front of Jordi, next to Cassidy.

Woah Micah, there is a limit of one study buddy in this class.

xoxo

GossipGuy

The Cleaver

2007-07-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

So that right there is my newest purchase. I spent the day in SF today and got alot done. In anticipation of my salsa class at 3 I was set to meet gerry at noon in chinatown so we could walk around and get some food. However, in classic gerry fashion, he didnt show until about 2 and so we just picked up a 7 dollar cleaver for my chopping needs and then headed to the class. Day 2 of salsa class was exciting, more of the same but I can feel the steps getting ingrained in my head and I can better connect different sequences now.

Additionally, Gerry being late to the city gave me the opportunity to study some GRE verbal for about an hour and a half (I hate analogies) and also the chance to read a paper about 3d representations of the fly antennal lobe.

It was also All-Star weekend in SF, so the Caltrain was full of baseball fans going to fanfest at Moscone West. Not being the biggest of baseball fans, I did not partake, though I hear the tickets are only 10 dollars for students which doesnt seem bad at all compared to the 1000+ that the tickets for the All-Star game are going for. You could also tell baseball fans were in town because the safeway across the street from Pac Bell had all of the beer in the fridge in the "impulse buy section" where they normally just have coke and mountain dew. There is something so patriotic about a baseball game and 24oz of pure heaven (i.e. bud light).

In other news, it looks like Frank (Lampard, for those of you not on a first name basis) was caught stepping out on the mrs in vegas ahead of crucial training for Chelsea's upcoming match in California. I remind all of you that The News of the World is a credible news source as anybody who reports on Joe Cole getting his ass beat and then hailing a cab with no shirt on... must be credible.

Link

Until next time, Cheers mates...

Just another BBQ

2007-07-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

So another party last night that proved to be alot of fun. Gerry's roommate in South San Francisco is this guy named Seaon. He is a nice dude who happens to be a salsa instructor and very good I might add, he even has his own instructional DVD. According th this japanese salsa aficionado we were talking to he is "one of top 5 best in the world". And also added that there are so many people who would choose to "lock themselves in a room with him and take private lessons from him". The man is very good not only from the video but from some of the dance I have seen him do.

Anyway, I had meet seaon back at this now infamous birthday party in EPA a while back and this time around he was having a "Salsa & BBQ" as the sign read at his house. I went with Rick and we got there about 6 o clock. The night was highlighted by copious amounts of bar (liquor and beer) and of course lots of food. They had everything from 4-5 different kinds of rice, some noodles, sweet and sour pork, carne asada (the real shit!), and then your traditional BBQ far w/ some burgers and hot dogs. So let me emphasize that I did not drink since it was my task to drive rick home, but of course Rick drank and was constantly walking around with a corona bottle which he would plug up with his thumb and then turn upside down. Mind you, he would do this in the man's house and on top of his carpet making me very nervous.

So, I spent most of the night half watching the BET awards and talking to a bunch of people at the party. I met a guy who is a police officer at Lake Merced and we talked about all the weird shit he sees such as the fact that last week he saw some guy should check a disabled woman. And then the real highlight of the night, the 87 year old Alzheimer's patient who myself and Darryl (the police officer) had to take turns listening to him since he imposed himself on us.

So first of all, 87 year old dude named santiago had about 6 or 7 storylines in his life that he needed to tell me and/or anyone about seven times to keep the conversation going. Some of the highlights (I don't remember them all!)

1) He was a great dancer and could do ballroom dancing. He would always follow this statement up w/ the question, "Do you know ballroom dancing?" At this point, regardless of your answer he would start listing off, "you know the jitterbug, the fox trot, etc... He would then segway into how every sunday he went dancing at the Del Rio (maybe? he was hard to understand) club and that I should go down there. From here the topic would segway.....

2) after talking about his dancing at the club on sundays he would make some comment along the lines of... "That's how I met saeon." He's a nice man, he gave me a ride home once. Then it would turn into him telling me about the del rio club and then saying something along the lines of, you know there are usually an equal number of guys and girls, but ill dance with anyone, even if their gay, they just have to let me lead. "I don't care if they are black, white, gay or straight, they just have to let me lead. So after telling me 5 times about how he loves everyone and has no problems with gay people (all the while putting his hand on my leg to demonstrate what a gay person does) he segways into his next topic which is his race.

Note: This was the only storyline that gerry encountered (knee touch and all) and so gerry thought the dude was like the creepy old guy in family guy

3) Santiago was born in New Mexico and moved to California at 4 months. He is of spanish and Navajo descent. He has won every fight in his life, though he will modestly say that this is a testament to his luck. He talks about one specific time where he "took no fucking shit" from 3 guys who called him a mexican. The hand gestures he would do to simulate fighting was the best part of this story. Also this was by far his most cussing intensive story since it was punctuated with lines such, "taking no shit" and my favorite "I am one mean motherfucker, dont fuck with me". You don't understand how funny it is to hear an 87 year old man say these things really is.

The rest of the stories: He also had a story about how his mother almost beat him up when he was 27, but he didn't allow it. And also how his wife left him and had a better voice than diana ross (who was receiving a BET award at the time). He says that one time his wife was singing in the pub and everyone got silent (which is kind of an endearing story). He also had other tidbits such as proclaiming that Diana Ross had the most beautiful, lush ass and then doing the hand motions of caressing it in midair and then doing a little growl (I am doing my best to explain this). He also followed this up with "I am 87, I am allowed to be a horny old man". This is true Santiago, this is true.

So Santiago aside, the party was really great even if I did listen to his stories about 20 times over over the course of slightly more than an hour. No worries, for the last 45 minutes I zoned out and watched the BET awards (lil' wayne is by far the dumbest of the lil artists). I dont think he noticed since he was pretty engrossed in his stories. Today I may go to one of saeon's salsa lessons in San Francisco, but we shall have to see if I actually make it out there, I hope I do. And anyone still reading this, if you havent already, please email me and update me on what you are doing this summer. I would love to hear from people and what they are up to this summer. I will leave you with a great reason to trash your computer.... because it's a homo devil machine. Hey, if this woman says it, it must be true she's holding the biggest sign.

Workout routine

2007-06-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

So I now have a workout routine on which to work on for the summer. Hopefully I will stick to it and be in better shape come the fall. However in trying to figure out what hammer curls are (a necessity for day 3) I came across this really funny video of a guy demonstrating the curls. I dont know why I find this video so funny, but I do and I have now watched it something like 3-4 times and find it just as hilarious.

Link

Amputee can compete!

2007-06-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

I think I may have told jeff about this, but that amputee with two artificial legs (or blades as they call them) has been allowed to compete in international running events as well as (I presume) the Olympics.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/06/22/disabled.runner.ap/

I just thought it was kind of interesting that this guy could somehow actually get an advantage from not having any legs. Irony at its best, thats for sure.

NLM

2007-06-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

So. I am pretty sure none of you know what these 3 letters stand for, nor did I until yesterday. NLM stands for National Library of Medicine and the reason this of interest to myself and you readers is that they are in the process of holding their 2007 medical informatics conference on the STanford Campus.

But Paco, medical informatics and mathematical models are so boring, why do you care about such a conference?

Well, the simple answer is that the NLM conference has given me free food for teh past two lunches. I have quicky come to realize that I can eat free food and better food over the summer if I just dig around for conferences that have lunch/dinner catered. I mean, they have so much food and it will probably go to waste anyway, so why nto feed a needy student such as myself. Today they have mediterranean wraps and a sort of rice pilaf w/ apricot. It was pretty good and best of all it was free. I am making this my new pasttime for the summer, find conferences on campus and find as many possible sources for free food around campus. Wish me luck in my cheap endeavors and if you have any useful tips to pass along just post a comment.

No comment necessary...

2007-06-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

http://stanford.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379844698&ref=nf

I hope that link works, if it doesn't, someone post a comment and I'll try to fix it.

The next doogie howser?

2007-06-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

I would just like to announce that today I met a 16 year old graduate neurobiology PhD student from Taiwan. What are we all doing with our lives? Though he still has alot to do before he becomes doogie MD, such as go on all night E binges where he has sex with clap ridden hookers in the back of harold's car. That would probably be a fun night.

Stocked (stoked?)

2007-06-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Wal-Mart is really very cheap. No matter what people say, there is little place else where I can get a 7 piece pot/pan set for under 20 bucks. This is a major accomplishment even if what they claim to be stainless steel feels like it's going to break at any minute. This is definitely not one of those pieces of cookware you could use to knock out a villain like in the movies. I also bought a 24 piece tupperware set (I am a genius...). The way I figure, I dont even really need plates as long as I have abundant Tupperware to eat out of. I have bowls for cereal and well who needs anything else. The most amazing thing about the tupperware purchase was that even though they were what you might call "conventional" tupperware, they cost the same as the "glad-ware". How's that for product marketing, GLAD inc thinks that because it gets all popular it can charge the same as regular tupperware, they need to really know their role.

I encourage those of you video game fans to check out a game called Manhunt 2 that is slated to be released next month. While I have never actually played this game and don't really know the plot, here is the gist of what I understand it to be...

You are this crazy dude in a mental asylum who is being brainwashed to just kill EVERYONE in whatever way possible by a dude who wants to make a sweet movie out of it.

So, thats what I got from the wikipedia article but you can see it for yourself (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_2). This game is being produced by rockstar, the same company producing the GTA series and pissing the hell out of Jack Thompson (See ) The most notable thing about this game is that it is the first game to be flat out banned in Ireland/UK/ and Australia. It will probably be banned in other countries as well because it is frankly just a "Parade of gore" as put by the Irish media minister (I think thats his title). I will leave you with an image of the frivolity that of the game; one of the smileys, one of about 10 gangs you kill in the game and this specific game is a bunch of escaped mental patients (like yourself) running around with knives. And they all wear those masks.

P.S. Someone PLEASE feed 2 bills, he says he is hovering dangerously below the threshold. Feed him some pasta for gods sake, just by ham a bag rotelli and put in a boiling pan and then add pesto.

The first week

2007-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

The first week has been kind of hectic but relaxing at the same time, hopefully in someway foreshadowing what the rest of my summer will be like. I moved into mirrielees on Tuesday and left behind the mundaneness of Burbank. It is now Friday and my roommates have still not moved in which leaves me with an entire apartment to really do whatever the hell I want. At first it was lonely, but now that I am getting used to it, Karma will have them arrive sometime tonight or tomorrow.

In much more important news, it seems as though Henry is set to play for the Catalans next season. I still can't believe that Barcelona only paid 24 million pounds and did not have to give up anybody else. This leaves Barcelona with 5 world class strikers and some of the best offensive mids in the game. Obviously something has got to give and I think it will be dealing of Eto so he can go play in England. I think Eto playing in England will be a disaster for him because he is too damn skinny and wouldn't hold up well in the Premiership with the other Meat and Potatoes "Dudes". I feel that Eto in England bears semblance to gerry trying to body up PJ in the post. Eto will get ruined by the likes of Gilberto or John Terry. And for those of you that dont understand my PJ/gerry analogy; thats two bills against a buck fifty. Until next time...

That time of year again

2007-06-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

So, summer seems to be upon us and with everyone having left on thursday/friday, I am left here with nothing to do but jump start my blog. This is not to say that I am only doing this because I am bored, because I fully intend to continue with the updates as the summer proceeds. Maybe this is is just a byproduct of the fact that I have no homework and would to some extent feel a void if I had nothing to do at night.

On thursday, rick left to go home for a week. Of course this meant that he needed to pack up all of his stuff and move it to a temporary location (Read: storage) since the room has to be vacated on Tuesday. In all honesty, he did a good job and really all that was left to do was rearrange the room which I can just do in the next few days. However, in classic Rick fashion, he did rebook his flight twice, nonetheless I feel this detracts little from his accomplishment. The next morning saw the departure of what was left of teh 1st floor crew and effectively left myself and Quinn to hold down the Burbank fort (not including gerry since he spends days here but doesnt sleep in the fort).

Friday night, after watching Hannibal rising with Quinn and Gerry walking in towards the end of the movie bellowing "SO COLD!" at the site of a young hannibal putting a katana through a guys head. All in all it was a good movie that I would highly recommend to fans of the series. The night progressed to gerry suggesting that we go to his landlord's boyfriend's roommate's birthday (thats 3 degrees of separation for gerry, 4 for me and quinn). So after a pitstop at taco bell for some grub we headed over to 1030 beech for the party. The place was a sausage fest, but really since about 90% of the people there were gay latinos, this was a good party. So, we mingled a bit (only after having this dude point out that we were the only non-latinos at the entire party). We met some cool people and gerry's landlord is actually kind of cool, especially now that the beef has been squashed

The music had to be shut off at about 1am when the cops claim to have gotten upwards of 10 complaints about the party (impressive, if you ask me). We left the party and stopped by jack in the box on the way home where this girl at the front of the line was yelling at the order screen and proclaiming that "the jack in the box guy is SOOOO stupid". She followed up that performance by getting out of the car and dancing in front of the es 330 in front of us. It was a pretty enjoyable experience to see this girl make an ass of herself. An eventful night to kick off what will hopefully be an eventful summer.

Sorry for the long absence

2006-08-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry I havent updated my blog in a while, it has been a combination of me being busy and also letting it slip my mind. For starters I went to Ica this weekend which is this desert region about 4 hours south of Lima. From there I went to the islas ballestas and saw tons of sea lions and penguins and also went down to see the Nazca lines. The nazca lines are these lines that are engraved into the crust of the desert. They arent deep engravings of any sort but they create enough of a contrast to distinguish certain figures that have been there for thousands of years. Nazca is about two hours south of Ica and the lines exist there only because there is a microclimate there that makes it the driest place on earth. It hasnt rained there in hundreds of years and it also is shielded from extreme winds by the surrounding mountains. All in all it is a perfect place for these lines to exist for so long.

I left Friday morning at 6 and went with a varied group of people (3 swiss, 1 italian, 2 poles, and 1 peruvian). We were quite the international group and spent the day friday enjoying the islas ballestas where we took a 2 hour boat tour to see some of the wildlife. We arrived at Ica that same day and walked around the sand dunes in the afternoon and then rested before seeing Ica at night. The night ended at a discoteca where at one point in the night they had a drink deal where you could get 10 beers for 1 sol, by far the cheapest beer Ive ever seen. Unfortunately Nadia (our best bet since shes the token blond girl) couldnt even get in on the deal. Martin spent the day testing out his newly acquired Canon lens from Polvos Azules. This story deserves a paragraph to itself.

So martin, much like I is now obsessed with polvos azules. After purchasing what we firmly believe to be a stolen Suunto watch complete with altimeter and heart rate monitor for 50 dollars, he proceeds to buy a camera lens of questionable origin. I dont know that much about lenses, but from what little I do know, I know that 2.8 Aperture lenses are not cheap. He ended up paying 800 dollars for the lens which he inists was a steal (it very well my be stolen). Martin now has a very expensive camera setup and my hope is that it doesnt get stolen at any point during his journey through Peru.

Saturday was spent taking the trip to Nazca. I went with Mark (Swiss dude) and Margherita (Italian girl). We took the bus down at 7am, got there by 10 and were in the air at 12 30 to see the lines. This plane ride was absolutely one of teh most nauseating things I have ever done. The entire trip consisted of sitting in this plane for 30 minutes where for every figure, the plane would turn 90 degrees and put you parallel to the ground and then proceed to do it quickly again for those on the other side of the plane (much easier to explain with your hands). After the trip we headed back to Ica and were back around 5 where we had a late lunch at a local winery and then did some rushed wine and pisco tasting. That night we went out to eat a small dinner around 8 and then headed out to teh discoteca at 11. Now the night went great and we were joined by one of Suzanna's (peruvian) friends at the discoteca. We ended up leaving around 4 30 and got back just in time to climb up one of the sand dunes outside our hostel and see the sun rise. At one point I fell fast asleep but luckily I was woken up by Nadia in time to see the bulk of the sunrise.

Sunday saw us going to a much better vineyard even though it was out in the middle of nowhere. We took a tour, did some win/pisco tasting and I bought 3 bottles of Pisco which I intend to bring back and save for some special occasion. One of these days we are going to have to try to make some real pisco sours, the official drink of peru.

Got back home at around 1 30 am and went to work that morning at around 9 00, needless to say I was exhausted. These next two weeks I am going to be on the grind for real and next week I have a 30 min powerpoint presentation in spanish. After 3 months in Peru and especially now with no americans, my spanish is absolutely legit. Back in July with Team America I would only speak english but now my european comrades dont like to speak english and in fact some of them dont speak english (actually kind of surprising, I wonder how they read papers). Hell, some of them dont even speak spanish which makes communication tough.

On another note, somehow my battery does not qualify for a recall which is too bad because I was looking forward to getting a new battery, but alas it was not meant to be.

P.S. Pictures have been uploaded including those from this trip, my chanchamayo trip, and my cusco trip.

picasaweb.google.com/fluongo

Chanchamayo trip - a retrospective

2006-08-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was spent in the area east of Lima known as Chancamayo. It is one of the hungle regions of Peru that produced amazing weather and great scenery. It was certainly very nice to finally get out of Lima not only because I took a full 2 day weekend but also because there was beautiful weather and I could walk around all day in shorts. I went with this polish friend named Martin who is staying at the same house as me. A self proclaimed "trekkker," he is the epitomy of the neo liberal off beat traveler. Dont get me wrong, he is a very nice person and a trusty travel partner but he wont let slip by an opportunity to either drop the name of some location hes been or drop knowledge about "trekking gear" that he owns.

So I headed out with Martin on Friday night from Lima on a Bus-Cama or basically a pretty comfortable bus. The bus ride was about 9 hours and was really great. The bus was very comfortable and the scenery was amazing. Imagine a 9 hour bus ride where you start 5 minutes from the coast, drive about an hour out of Lima seeing progressively sparse housing and the ascend through the mountains for the next 3-4 hours to about 13000 feet or so (it was snowing pretty heavily at about 3am) and then ascending into a 100% humidity rainforest region. The bus ride was worth the trip in itself.

The trip around the region saw us going to a waterfall, a botanical garden, and also seeing a native tribe (this was not nearly as cool as it sounds). All in all we spent the day saturday being driven around by our panson guide Arturo whose car looked like it had been hit in a drive by. Definitely the higlight of the day was swimming in this waterfall though no doubt at great risk of getting strongyloides. At night it was quickly determined that there is nothing to do in La Merced except go to the discoteca (this was pointed out to me on 5 seperate occasions, the first was the lady in Lima before we left, then Arturo, then the girl who gave us the tour of the coffee plantation, then the lady who runs the hotel where we stayed, and finally a group of germans who I met and ended up heading out to the discoteca with).

So the 3 germans Philip, Tine, and Till were relaly nice and we just spent the night having conversation at the discoteca. If you happen to read german you can check out their web blog at till.info . Anyways, the most interesting part of the whole encounter was all the stories that Philip would tell me about the brazilian national team. It turns out he works at the hotel where the brazilian team stayed during the world cup and told me all sorts of stories about how he would drive ronaldo and ronaldinho out to the club and how ronaldo would be drinking whiskey at 10 in the morning and also how they really are very nice dudes. It was fun to talk to him about that and other soccer stuff (He was a big Dortmund fan).

Oh, and another note, the next few weeks I will be eating alot of pineapple and banana. See, Chanchamayo is a region known for producing the vast majority of Peru and South America´s fruit. So basically in the region there was tons of coffee, bananas, pineapples, oranges, Tangelos, and many other fruits. This obviously means very cheap prices. I ended up buying a box of 12 pineapples for 3 soles and I bought an entire bushel of bananas (40 or so still attached to the trunk) for about 5 soles. Needless to say the cheapest fruit I will ever by. As soon as I can find a solid internet connection. Also, please write me with movie os TV series recommendations. Warmest of regards to all.

Maurice is a failure

2006-08-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

I was just reading this article about maurice clarret that I will pass on to all of you..

Now, a few of the things that you should gather from this article..

1. Maurice Clarett is now the biggest failure in the history of modern sport
2. He was driving at 2:30am with a bullet proof vest, half full bottle of vodka, and four loaded guns (try to picture this in your head)
3. Its comical how he is calling the manager of the football team he wants to play for at 1 o clock in the morning and then again at 2 30.

Web Album

2006-08-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am going to start uploading pictures en masse at another website known as picasa web which is in beta testing right now but its great because it doesnt require any login information or anything like that. The website is

and I will upload at some point tomorrow when I finally bring my computer into work. Expect a nice mass email to go out at some point today regarding my new internet escapade.

I found Mac programs!!

2006-08-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

So I apologize for not updating in a while I am not going to claim that I have been more busy than usual but frankly I have just forgotten to do it. So this weekend was when Team America (What all of the americans here are referred to) had a mass exodus. Emily left early last week and then Javier and Nina both left on sunday night. The goodbyes actually started on Friday night where dinner involved sandwiches and then sandwiches only an hour later. We had some butifarras in Parque Kennedy (So good) at about 8 and at 9 after a walk that seemed like it lasted forever, we had more sanwiches at Pascuales. We capped the night with milkshakes at the "Uber trendy" Urban Cafe. Thats one of the ways ot tell if a place is really trendy, is if the name is in english.

After the milkshakes, Nina and I headed to a bar in Barranco with the intention of finding a ride for the hash the next day. There was a gathering of the "drinking club with a running problem" and we finally found a ride with miguel. After securig transportation for the next day and listening to teh cover band playing 80s rock which everybody in Peru seems to be completely obsessed with, we headed home. The next day Nina and I did the hash in the afternoon and it was at this beautiful place called the laderas de California which is about 45 minutes outside of Lima. The run was nice as it sent you through a bunch of woods and then culminated with a beer stop atop this giant cerro. The view was amazing but the run down was treacherous to say the least. At one point I fell and scraped my knee but it felt fine though everyone thought I was really raw after that because I just kept running with it. After introductions, some mingling, some pisco, and some dinner, we headed out around 7 and made it back home by about 8. I have pictures to accompany every part of this story but Nina had them all and as you will soon find out she neglected to give them to me. If or when they get posted online somewhere, I will be sure to either post links or just download the pictures and post them to the blog. The night was once again pretty much the same as most nights as we just barhopped around Barranco and talked about all sorts of ridiculous topics including a long debate over whether this large group of guys were a bunch of high schoolers trying to get laid or whether they were gay (it turns out that they were celebrating one of their birthdays and contrary to popular belief only one of them spoke english which was another source of debate.

Sunday I went back to the Museo de la nacion and walked my way from there to downtown. I later found out that I am not supposed to do that walk because it is dangerous but luckily I am still alive. That is one thing about Lima that I will save for another day, but people here are completely paranoid. I would say that it is probably justified but some people to such complete extremes. A french couple was beaten last week just a few blocks from where I am staying but yet for some reason I usually feel safe. Maybe it is a result of 2 decades of actual and real terrorist threat unlike the sort of stuff that most people in Kansas are scared of.

On an interesting note, I found this bootleg computer market that had all sorts of programs and low and behold I found Mac programs. It was pretty amazing and they are in fact mac disk images as I tried them that night. I picked up a copy of Adobe CS2 and Final Cut Pro HD they had some other mac programs like QuarkXpress and tiger and a bunch of sound editing programs as well. I told my Gonzalo to call me if he could get his hand on Aperture so well see how that pans out. Apparently there is a mac only guy that is there only during the week so I may end up going back at some point this week to try and track him down. Though Im not gonna lie, the whole way the deals went down was kind of unsettling at times especially when guys are pulling you into these shady back rooms but thats the price you pay for doing business with the black market. I have my fair share of shady bootleg markets but this one definately takes the cake. The plan is to go somewhere in Peru this weekend and this time I genuinely mean it. I also bought about 25 movies this weekend so I will be watching those as well. If anybody wants any TV seasons, movies, or programs let me know and Ill see what I can do. This other place I found in Lima even has DVDs of seasons that arent even out yet. Case in point I have the first season of prison break but it is the DVDs with the downloaded episodes that have the little fox icon in the corner. When I get back Ill be sure to give it to Gu and Wilberforce so we can discuss how raw Michael Scofield is.

Fruity salad

2006-08-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of being near the rainforest is the insane amount of fruit that is available. Fruit here is not only cheap, but there are just so many different varieties of fruits that I had never tried before. Since coming to Peru I have a new found affinity for pineapple. I have also discovered Lucuma, which is coined "the fruit of the inkas" and it is very good. It has this taste that reminds you of pecans and is used in so many desert dishes. There are also tons of bananas and some of the juiciest tangelos I have ever had. Basically, I am in a fruit paradise. The other day I decided to make a fruit salad so I went out and bought a whoel pineapple, melon, honeydew melon, batch of strawberries, some lucumas, papaya, and some bananas de isla (they sell about 4 different types of bananas here). Cut it all up into nice pieces and ended up with a HUGE bowl of fruit. I had so much fruit and still have so much that I have no idea what to do with it. SO pretty much for the past 3 days, I have been eating nonstop fruit salad with vanilla yogurt, raisins, and granola sprinkled on top. This will likely be what I eat for the next few days so I can go through the insane amounts of fruit that I bought, but you wont see me complaining.

Sencillo wars

2006-08-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Sencillo in spanish means simple, or in Peru it means change. I have heard this word so many times since coming here and appropriately so as every day is a battle in what I call the sencillo war. The currency in Peru is el Nuevo Sol which comes in denominations of 1,5,10,20,50 centimo coins, 1,2,5 sol coins, and then 10,20,50,100,200 sol bills. Now as you can see, most all transactions can thus be done in coins, since you have a 5 sol coins, and a good meal here will only cost you 4 soles. The thing that makes my life a living hell is that everybody thinks they are entitled to hold on to their change and since ATMs only disperse 50s and 100s, I am always battling to hold on to my sencillo. Its such a strategic thing because even paying with a 20 sol bill for a 4 sol meal is sometimes considered out of line. I cant tell you the number of times that I have offered to pay for a meal with some bill only to get the response, "sencillo, senor" now imagine the way a 5 year old asks her daddy for some candy and thats the tone that this plea usually comes in. Hell, even in supermarkets where you would think it wouldnt be a problem I have been sencillo slapped. The other day I tried to pay with a 100 at Wong (the local supermarket) for about a 12 sol purchase and I was flat out rejected, she sent me to another register. Not to mention, dont even try to pay anything but exact change with a taxi because not only do they usually only manage to have 1 oe 2 soles on them, but also if they do manage to give you change it is very likely to be fake sencillo. Yes ladies and gentelman I have run into fake one sol coins, which as you may have figured is the equivalent of going through the trouble of making a fake quarter. Alas, I have gotten better at fighting the sencillo war and have learned to stockpile my sencillo like ammunition, because it is essentially priceless. I have also learned to do things like taxi drivers do to get change for my 100s, which is get the goods first and then pull out that staggering 100 bill. The other day I had a taxi driver buy 6 sol of gas and pay with my 100 so he could get change. The gast attendant, obviously not amused retaliated with a stern look and 96 sol in change in COINS. Its a bitter war that I and all other residents of Peru fight each and every day with no end in sight.

Facebook madness

2006-07-31T09:12:00.000-07:00

So I just went to check my stanford email account which I dont check very often (write to fluongo@gmail.com) and I had something like 8 things written on my wall in the past 3 days. I had almost completely forgotten facebook existed. So different my life is when I dont have constant access to a compuer and internet.

Feliz Cumpleanos

2006-07-31T07:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday this weekend. It was kind of nice to have my first real legitimate weekend though I ended up working on saturday but I still had Friday and Sunday off. I spent friday downtown with emily, patrick, and james (3 friends from the institute) and we made our way to the plaza de las armas to see President Garcia get inagurated. However, we soon found out that you needed a ticket to get in but as with most things, there are exceptions, and having a blond american with you is one such exception. So we were at the plaza de las armas, living it up with mostly Garcia supporters but all of whom shared a general disidain for peruvian politics. Anyways, it turns out there is no piblic speech and in fact all we really saw him do was walk to his residence, though that turned out to be no easy task. What James called "Organized Chaos" I call a fight between 30 of Garcia´s security personnel. Basically in the rush to make a little passage way lined by rock hard dudes so as to protect the president, they looked as though they were in the mosh pit of a metallica concert. I would later find out that they were actually protecting him from an imminent threat in the form of a scrawny peruvian trying to give Garcia a "Homenaje a Jesus" DVD. I kid you not, that is what he wsa trying to give the president and he chose to run at him during his inaguration to give it to him.

The day ended on a high note with Chifa (peruvian version of chinese food) in chinatown and a soccer game in the park with my new kicks. I really will upload a picture of my new soccer shoes, they are no vapors but nice nonetheless. Later went out to eat with a couple friends and then watched a peruvian movie before going to sleep. I should elaborate that my actually birthday celebration was Thursday night as there was one person leaving that night. It was at this middle eastern place and we feasted on baclawa and shwerma to our hearts content.

Saturday went into work in the morning and then headed out to the Museo de la Nacion in the afternoon. They had a photography exhibit on the Senderoso movement there that was really good and I managed to stay there until it closed at six. I am going to have to go back to that museum because I only managed to see one exhibit and it is actually more well known for its inca exhibit. Then I walked around Barranco for a bit, Barranco is pretty much the equivalent of the Mission in San Francisco kind of an artsy sort of place with lots of displaced artists. This is where this awesome theater is at. That night I saw the movie "sick" which is the story of Bob Flanagan a Cystic Fibrosis survivor who lived until the ager of 45 or so and basically to deal with the pain of the disease became a professional masequist. One of the most graphic movies Ive ever seen, I dont know if Ill ever be able to get out of my head, the image of a nail being hammered into a penis.

Sunday was also rather subdued, went for a run in the morning and went out with Patrick and James to have brunch at Mango´s a local restaurant with a renowned Buffet. Though a bit pricy for peruvian standards (35 soles or 10 bucks), it was worth every penny. We got there at 10:20 and didnt leave until 1:30. The meal was absolutely amazing and even better was the view. They had a patio that overlooked the pacific ocean and it was up on a cliff so you had an amazing view of everything. To top it off, it was a beautiful day and I just sat outside with a T shirt. The buffet was absolutely amazing with all sorts of juices and foods such as torta de papa, Lomo Saltado, Chicharron, and even Tamales. I ended up stealing a few yogurts and tamales on top of the 7 or 8 plates that I ate. It was amazing. Later went to the art museum which yielded one of the worst cultural tours I think Ive ever taken, but then again what can you expect when entry and a tour costs you 30 cents. Topped the day off with a soccer game at CLub deportivo San Borja where I managed to rediscover form and score a few and also stayed and juggled with some dudes who were much better then me. The day wound down with another peruvian movie (Dias de Santiago) and then here I am today, supposedly working. I need to start planning how I am gonna revisit all my houses so they can sign HIPPA (thank you UAB). Warm wishes to all.

Victim of circumstances

2006-07-26T12:05:00.000-07:00

So last night I had my cell phone stolen, snatched right out of my fingers as I was using it on a corner in Miraflores, the safest district in Lima. Now one of the things to understand about Lima is that the city is very dangerous and so the answer to this obvious impediment to tourism is to have a safe touristy district which is Miraflores. Even with the presence of police on virtually every corner and patrolling Miraflores Seguridad vehicles it is by no means crime free. My net loss for the night proved to be none as I eventually recovered it but the whole experience has left me a little depressed and ever more aware of the political and social circumstances that define our lives.

At about 8:45 as I was waiting on the corner of Angamos and Arequipa, Sebastian Cristian Fabian (You'll later find out why I know his name) ran by and snatched my phone as I was in the middle of a text message. Sebastian ran by and grabbed my phone proceeding to run into the street, immediately I give chase. He runs into the street and then down the block only to turn around and run back on the other side. Bear in mind I am maybe 15 yards behind him the whole time. He proceeds to turn into a residential neighborhood and run for another 3 blocks or so thinking hes lost me when he finally stops next to a car and takes off his sweater. He then just kind of stands there expecting me to not recognize him as I catch up within 10 seconds. I proceed to offer him 100 soles to give me the phone back and Ill let him go on his way, he already shows some signs of fatigue. He refuses my offer and takes off again, which was his second dumbest move of the night, the first was fucking with me. To make a long story short, I chase him for about 3 more blocks but stay low to make him think hes lost me, though I can tell hes never run a solid mile in his life and is completely out of air. As he turns a corner I follow closely behind and watch as he tries to hide in the front yard of a house. It was a yard with a wall in front that was maybe 3 feet tall and to one side has a giant restaurant. I see him go in there and then about 5 seconds later I turn the corner and see him there sitting down, completely exhausted, and very very scared. Most of you know that I am a pacifist person and it takes alot to get me to the point where I could hurt somebody but I definitely could have kicked his ass right then and there, he would have stood no chance. I approached him, grabbed his collar and demanded my phone, he proceeds to lie to me and tell me he dumped it only that it rang two seconds later and was in his jacket. Now he knows he can see that I am pissed and starts crying. I didnt touch him and he completely broke down crying, I have never felt so confused in my life. I mean, we are talking about a kid, he turned out to be 15 years old. So, I now have my phone back, Esteban is crying his eyes out feeding me some story about how his mom is disabled and he was stealing it for his brother, etc. And you know what? I felt bad for him, I really did and this is where I became so torn. In a country such as Peru, where 50% of the people live in poverty another 15% live in extreme poverty, many of these people have no choice. There are no jobs available as evidenced by the ridiculous number of street vendors, so what choice do they really have?

The main thing that came over me was guilt. To be honest, I felt guilty that I had a privileged upbringing with parents who afforded me opportunities. And here we were, two people form completely different worlds that had at once collided in this whole incident. I mean, whether or not the story about his mother and brother was true, I still felt bad for him. For those of you wondering, the several rent a cops that patrol miraflores had seen me chase this guy since angamos and by the time I had my 3 minute chat with Esteban they had arrived. Under any other circumstance, or hell even under these circumstances I would have gladly helped him out. At first I didnt want to press any charges, I had the phone and I was fine, but then I realized what good would that do? It isnt even an issue of deterrence because I realize that the chances that Esteban will magically clean up his act are slim to none. But at the same time, I cant have it on my conscience that this may be the same kid who knocks over old women for their purses. I dont know Esteban, but in the 3 minutes that I spoke to him I couldnt help but feel bad for him. Because, I really dont think it was all his fault but rather he was a victim of circumstance. That is something that really hit home last night, which is the fact that our lives are too often dictated by circumstances completely beyond our control. Would have a record by the age of 15 had he been born in Palo Alto to college educated parents, absolutely not.

I ended up filing a report against him but not before trying to talk to find out his story. It was weird, by the time the whole ordeal was over I wasnt mad, I didnt really feel inconvenienced, I didnt feel anything except pity and guilt. Pity that through circumstances beyond his control he was being booked at 15 and guilty that it wasnt me who was being booked at the age of 15. So thats why Ive been kind of depressed today and that is why I feel a need to express my feelings on the matter. Ths most tragic thing is when a person is capable of making a difference but choose not to. I hope to not be that person.

Lets go to the movies

2006-07-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this weekend I was super productive. Now considering when I say weekend I only mean sunday that makes the feat somewhat less impressive but still amazing nonetheless. On Saturday I was so exhausted from work that I fell asleep a few hours after getting home and was out by 8 o clock. I woke up at 7 the next day and went for a run along the beach. It really is nice to be up early on the weekends because teh streets are still somewhat empty. Instead of my run being like a lifesize game of frogger, I was able to focus on my pace as opposed to staying alive. Walked around Miraflores for a bit and saw a Fiestas Patrias (independence day) parade that was HORRIBLY managed. They somehow forgot that some people need to cross the damn street and so I had to walk down like two miles just to cross the stupid parade. Anyway, I went to this really awesome theater in Barranco for a movie that night (www.elcinematografo.com) which is a great theater. It costs about 2 bucks and it has maybe 30-40 seats and is basically just a projector. They show all sorts of old movies from around the world and last night they showed this movie Il Sorpasso (http://imdb.com/title/tt0056512/) which was pretty funny though it had one of the wierdest endings I think Ive ever seen, email me if you want to know the ending because I dont want to spoil it for all. The other good movie that I saw was a movie called Paradise now (http://imdb.com/title/tt0445620/) which is the story of two guys recruited for palestinian suicide bombings. I was impressed with the movie and even more happy about the fact that I own the dvd for about 90 cents. I am seeing alot of movies here and its fun because I can see all these movies ive never heard of and it also really helps my spanish (since some movies only have spanish subtitles or are in spanish). If you would like some more good movie suggestions, especially for those of you that want to improve spanish skills, let me know and I can recommend some good ones. Ciao.

Good News

2006-07-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well, after trying well over half a dozen internet cafes, I have finally managed to find one that doesnt have an idiot for a network administrator. What this means is that I now have internet access on my own computer and thus have just signed on to skype with 10 dollars of credit. This means that for those of you in the states, I may be making some calls from now on. So stay on your toes people. Today was one of my most productive days here mainly because I went to sleep at 8 o clock last night. I got up this morning at 7 and then went for a run, came back and had breakfast while I watched a movie (Paradise now or something like that). It was a movie about 24 hours in the life of two palestinian suicide bombers. A very good movie and especially great considering that the DVD cost me about 90 cents. Oh and last thing is my skype name is fluongo20, so be on the lookout for me, though to be honest I wont be on that often since my computer isnt often online.

Puerto Bermudez

2006-07-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

That is where I have decided I want to go. Granted it is about a 15 hr bus ride outside of lima, but frankly it looks amazing and its pretty damn cheap. I would love to go their with a whole week of time so I could just trek around the jungle the whole time. The place I want to go to has a website www.geocities.com/puerto_bermudez . I still have nobody to go with but I figure Ill just go on my own and surely I can find some people to go hiking with so I dont get left for dead when my legs give out.

I have joined this gym on the corner of the street I am staying on. It is quie possibly one of the shadiest gyms I have ever seen and I am convinced its a known hangout for juice dealers. I always see the same 3 guys in there, of course they are all completely jacked. The gym itself is one room thats maybe 10 meters by 10 meters that has just weights in it. Not to mention that the whole thing is lit by 2 halogen lights which givs it a very dark and musty feel. But whatever, its a gym and it gets the job done.

I slept in this morning (7:30) and then headed out but only went to one house. I was looking for one house for about an hour and a half before I finally gave up. People kept pointing me in all different directions whenever I asked them where Manzana B was. This was made worse by the fact that I was on a cerro with no stairs and literally climbed to the top 3 times before I finally gave up. The way the houses are numbered and organized in San Juan de Lurigancho is pretty idiotic. I also almost got killed by a dog on two seperate occasions. There are so many dogs running around and they are usually peaceful but today was particularly bad. I also saw one a fight between two groups of teenagers which was so stupid because the shit resorted to them throwing rocks at each other. So ya, not the best of days but hopefully it will get better.

San Juan de Lurigancho

2006-07-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my field site. Sorry I have been kind of slow to get these but its kind of a process to get them from my computer to the USB to the work computer to the internet. I know it sounds alot easier when I say it, but its hard. Today is my break day as I dont go out and do field work so I casually rolled in here (On the 2 bus.. not a navigator truck) about 10:30 or so. Last night a bolivian friend of mine, Higenio, turned in his thesis and so we went out to celebrate. We ended up at this shady Karaoke bar and he sang his heart out to all these songs I had never heard of. I had never been to a karaoke bar before but people that go really love their karaoke. And yes, I did partake in the activities with my rendition of R Kelly´s "I believe I can fly". It was kind of intimidating, everybody knew their songs inside out. Anyway, on to the pictures and so I guess the next set of pictures will be of where I am living.

Allow me to preface these pictures a bit to explain where it is I am working and also for you new readers what my project. First off, Lima is seperated into 13 municipal "districts" each of which has their own mayor. I am working in the largest district called San Juan de Lurigancho with a population of about 900,000. Aside from being the largest district, it is also the district with the highest incidence of TB in all of Peru and one of the highest in the world. My work is to go around and track down patients that underwent treatment for Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB in 2003 an do a contact study, that is to say see how many of their contacts have since developed the disease and then identify factors that lend themselves to infection. One last thing to understand about San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima is a very hilly city and as you will see, houses are often built on these "cerros" and some of them have stairs that you can climb up to the top while others dont. Now on to the pictures...

This is a view from on one of the cerros in San Juan de Lurigancho. Nothing really interesting except that you may notice how foggy the day is and well, most days are like that. It seems to work in the two extremes, either the day is really gray or the day can be really nice. In the background you can see just how many houses they fit onto the cerros. Most houses on cerros do not have running water or electricity.

This is what one of the cerros looks like as you climb up. I would say about half of them have nice stairs that go all the way up, but the other half dont yet have stairs. I say not yet because that is one of the initiatives they are undertaking right now because this makes for pretty grueling conditions if you are an 80 yr old woman. Needless to say mudslides are somewhat common and many people die when those happen. Also, Lima is on a fault line so it is prone to earthquakes but hasnt had a major one since 1970. If an earthquake were to hit, most of these houses would most surely collapse.

I really like this picture. I think it is well framed and the lighting gives it a very mystic feel. There are soccer fields like this one all over San Juan de Lurigancho. People here dont really play with full fields but rather play futbolito which is just football on a basketball court with goals.

Ill get some more pictures of stuff up very soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their northern hemisphere summer. Until next time.

AP article

2006-07-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15055869.htm

The above is a link to an AP article about traffic cops in Lima. Lima is known for its horrible drivers and I guess their solution to this problem is to use female traffic cops. Needless to say this one of many peruvian mistakes. Its kind of amusing actually, at major intersections during rush hour, they dont use stoplights and instead have these Inka Cola booths where a traffic cop stands and literally directs all of the traffic. Of course taxi drivers usually dont pay any attention whatsoever and thus at manyplaces there is no control. I have never been in a country with a more aggressive driving situation. Lanes are completely nonexistent and this is made even more interesting by that fact that the roads are in such horrible condition that everyone has to weave through sometimes foot deep potholes. Combine ths with the fact that 1 in 7 cars is a taxi and buses are independent so there are tons of those too, and you get the worlds most chaotic driving situation. Its amusing at times but I swear I just dont hear honking anymore. I probably heard more honks in my first two days in Lima than I did in my entire life. Conclusion: Lima is not the most peaceful of cities.

Sunday and some more pictures

2006-07-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, sorry I havent updated in a while. I promise these are the last pictures of my trip to cusco and pretty soon Ill start getting some cool pictures up of Lima. My field site where I work at is pretty dirty and Im sure I can get some good shots in every few days and load them up for all to see. Anyway, even if nobody is reading this, its nonetheless a good release and a great way to practice my english.

Yesterday I finally got to play some futbolito which is just soccer on a blacktop with goals. I was a lot of fun, you play a6v6 game and its pretty technical which I like. They dont really do the full field thing here. I also bought a pair of cheap indoor shoes. I couldnt get any of the fake sambas that everybody has since those only come in small sizes. Instead I bought a pair of these kappas that were like 20 bucks. I had to get them a little small due to availability but they look cool and feel comfortable. Ill have to start playing regularly in them to see if they work. If not, I can always go to Polvos Azules and by some indoor vapors.

On another note, my study is off to a good start, I have thus far enrolled 17 patients which is a good number though still short of my goal of 120 (no way!). My birthday is coming up (July 28) so all of you should at least send your regards (hint hint) then. It is actually a very important day as it coincides with Peruvian independence day which basically means I dont work on my birthday. This also means another long weekend and a trip to somewhere cool. I really want to go into the jungle, Peru is actually 90% jungle so there are plenty of options. The only problem is that any cool hike into the jungle would require more time than I have. The only bad thing is that for parts of the counry this is curently the rainy season which means that I will get soaked. Though this doesnt matter that much because its supposed to be pretty warm even though we are in the middle of winter. The other options are Paracas where I can swim with a bunch of seals in freezing cold water (think Lake Washington) or Ica and the Nazca lines which are these lines that are carved into the crust underneath the sand and look like cartoon figures. They were created by the incas and you can only see them from the air since they are so massive. It is pretty amazing to see some of the stuff the Incas managed to do. Ica is just north of there and has a bunch of sand dunes which makes it a hotspot for sandboarding and riding around in dunebuggies.

Some Pictures:

Some more low light action from macchu picchu. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly suggest not going for the day from cusco and instead staying in aguas calientes. If you go from cusco the earliest you can possibly get there is 10am and thats just no fun because you bring about 500 people with you.

Here it is, the stereotypical tourist shot of the ruins. I had to take it or else my mom would probably kill me. Hell, if it were up to me I wouldnt show up in any of these pictures, the scenery is nice enough.

If you guys have any suggestions for what I should do with my long weekend please drop me a line. I will do my best to get on skype in the next few days and hopefully talk to some of you people who I havent spoken to in a while. Also, I know this is a serious long shot, but if any of you happen to know anybody who is headed down to Lima in the near future, please let me know as I need a new pair of legit running shoes.

Sacred Valley (the rest of the trip)

2006-07-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

So, the much anticipated day two entry of my trip to the sacred valley. I have been pretty busy this week working on my project so this is kind of the first real free time that I have to spare. Now back to the story...

Getting some low light action in on my camera. As many of you can tell, I am completely excited to be awake at the hour of the day when the bakery produces its best work. I am well aware that you can see shit, but this is living proof that I was up.

On Friday of that weekend, my day got off to a VERY early start at about 4 o clock when I woke up got myself packed and got into some warm clothes because it was probably about 30 degrees outside. Yes, I am well aware that as Jefferson and Charles have pointed out to me on several occasions, I am a huge wuss when it comes to the cold weather. So at 4 30, with two flashlights for the group of 5 (Christina slept in) we headed out. We very soon split into two groups because there was a clear difference in pace; Group 1 comprised myself, patrick, and James, Group 2 was Kara and Nina. Now let me say that I am not a mountain man, I jog every once in a while but not in consistent fashion and I most certainly do not hike up thousands of feet on a regular basis. James and Patrick on the other hand, are true mountain men and both of whom do endurance sports (Patrick ran cross country in college and James bikes)., They were going at a pretty fast pace and we ended up making it to the top at 5:50, 10 minutes before the ruins opened. Got up there and walked around the ruins for an hour with very few people there (by few people I mean maybe 75 as opposed to the Hundreds that generally arrive by mid morning). I got some great pictures in of the ridgeline and the ruins and also got a nice video clip of this Alpaca (llama) chewing. There is another hike that you can do once you are up at macchu picchu and its called Waina Picchu (sp?), the hike opens at 7 and its about an hour up from Macchu Picchu and provides an absolutely amazing view of the ruins. We made it up to Waina Picchu at about 7 45 (Which is also blisteringly fast), and just sat and had some breakfast there with the most amazing view. It was really an amazing experience as we were the first ones up there and you can sit on these rocks where you are literally on the very peak of the mountain. The whole experience has made me want to do more hikes. Anyway, took some pictures flaunted my Argentina Jersey and started to head back down and made it back down to Macchu Picchu making it back at about 9, by which time 150 people had already signed in for the hike up to Waina Picchu (First in, First out, the way to do it).

Made it back down and stuck around the ruins for another hour or so and then headed down at about a quarter to 11 and made it back to watch the Argentina game (We wont talk about that). Caught the train for cusco at 3 and fell asleep for most of the 4 hour train ride that was rather erratic snice everytime the conductor missed a turn off, he would stop, go in reverse, and then start going again. This actually ended up happening much more often than you would think. Made it to Cusco and found a place to stay, this hostel where me, james, and patrick stayed cost us each 3 bucks a night and was right off the Plaza de las Armas which is the main square. That night I had Alpaca for dinner which was surprisingly really good and then called it a night as I was exhausted.

The Next day I woke up at about 7 and went to this awesome food market had everything. The funniest thing about this market was the juice aisle. One of the important things to understand about peru, there is TONS of fruit and so people love to make juices. ANyway, the aisle consisted of dozens of tiny women standing on pedastals beckoning you to their juicer so youll buy juice. There are all sorts from organe to guava to papaya to watermelon, etc.. the list goes on and on and its all fresh. After that went and had some breakfast and then settled into this place to watch the England portugal game. I then went to la Catedral and toured in there, it was really interesting to see the way in which the catholic church in Peru has heavy Inca and Spanish influence. Luckily, James, Patrick, and I got our own tour guide since we spoke spanish and its the english speaking ones that are in high demand. After La Catedral and some more strolls around cusco we settled in to eat lunch and watch the secon half of Brazil France with Zidane playing at his finest. Zidane really did play a great world cup and he was really the reason they beat brazil.

After the game I walked around cusco with the guys looking for this bus station as they were contniuing to lake titicaca the next day. This was actually the most genuine experience I had in cusco since we got completely lost and saw what the city was actually like. I am very much tempted to go back down south because there are so many places you can go for cheap. From cusco you can go to BOlivia for about 10 bucks in a "Bus Cama" the trip takes about 10 hours. To pUno (lake titicaca) is about 5 dollars for an 8 hour ride.

The day kind fo wound down from there and the rest of my stay was basically pent wandering around Cusco as I was leaving the next morning. I went to a mueseum of Peruvian History and folkloric dance show which was interesting. The dance show especially was really entertaining but all in all I was completely exhausted by saturday night.

I will put up the pictures that go along with the story very soon. But until then, in other news I just recieved my copy of the Alphabet of Manliness which I will start reading tonight. Other than that, I will probably put thepictures up at some point today or tomorrow, sorry about the length of this entry. Also, I know people are reading so leave some comments.

Sacred Valley Day 1

2006-07-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I finally got around to loading my pictures onto the USB drive and can now post some of the ones from my trip to the Sacred Valley. Just to preface this entry a bit for those that do not know, 2 weeks ago there was no work on thursday so I decided to go on a little trip with some friends I met here. I spent thursday through sunday wandering through the sacred valley and observing amazing inca ruins as well as some cool plants and animals. I went with a group of 6 people; Two girls that rent rooms at the same house I am at (Nina and Kara), Two UVA Med Students that work at the same hospital (James and Patrick), and one of Nina´s friends from the states who was a royal pain in the ass, but thats another entry in itself. Here is an itinerary of the first day of the trip, (Ill do the whole trip in installments):

Thursday 6:50 am - Arrive in Cusco and make my way to the local bus station to catch a bus to Pisac, a town about an hour away that has some nice ruins

A view from the back of the taxi that took us up to the ruins at Pisac. I was sitting in the trunk of the stationwagon taxi because we convinced the driver that he could take all 6 of us in one ride.

This woman was selling belts up at the ruins, I ended up buying one because I was grateful that she let me take a picture of her. However, to be honest the belt is really useless (it was about a dollar) and I still need to get a good leather belt which I am hoping to do sometime soon.
8:00 - 12:00 - Stroll around Pisac a bit, tour some of the ruins, visit the famous Pisac market and eat some bomb ass empanadas for lunch before departing for a town called Urubamba
1:00 Arrive in Urubamba (sp?) and board a comvi (basically dave´s car but as public transportation) headed to Olayantambo (sp?) where there is this wierd sort of game going on at one of the ruins. It basically entailed a bunch of people dressed in different colors waving flags at each other. Hell, I dont even know that it was a game, but for now we can just make that asusmption.

These are two brothers that we met on the comvi on the way to Olayantambo (sp?). They were basically surprised to see all the gringos since no gringos ever take the public transportation and instead just take tour buses staright to aguas calientes. Anyway, they practiced their english with us and then got off somewhere before Olayantambo.

Note: You cant really tell from this picture but there were probably about 13 or so people in this Comvi (i.e. it was SO packed)

3:00 - board this train to Aguas Calientes which is the nearest town to Macchu Picchu. Its basically a backpacker town that has tons of hostels and dudes with dreads. Its really wierd, the closer you get to macchu picchu the more people with dreads you see. There are so many people with dreads in aguas calientes and I really have no idea why. Someone pointed out that there were just flat out alot of hippies there, but I think theres something else going on.
6:00 - Arrive in aguas calientes and find a hostel, we ended up staying in this really nice hostel that was priced at $10 per night (I found this to be expensive and you would too after living in Peru for a few weeks). It was a nice place and to be honest I would probably stay there again as it was owned by a Spaniard who had moved there a few years back and just opened a hostel.

Note: There really isnt much to do in aguas Calientes since it is basically just a pit stop for macchu picchu. You might be thinking to yourself, oh so surely there must be all sorts of nice hotels there and stuff.... Not true. Those people that travel in those arranged tours or whatever stay at this hotel that is at macchu picchu which is also something like $400 dollars a night.Aguas Calientes is as Checkmate would put it, Grimy.

Rest of the Night: For the rest of the night Myself, James, and Patrick went on a short hike up the mountain just to figure out kind of where we would be going the next morning since at 4:30 it would surely be pitch black. Had a Menu dinner and called it a night at around 10 after walking around aguas calientes and getting our tickets to macchu picchu (yes, you need a ticket). The plan was to get up the next morning and hike up to macchu picchu at 4:30. Next installment to come soon... Please leave comments..

Forza Azzurri!!

2006-07-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

As most should definately know, the world cup came to a close yesterday with Italy coming out victorious. The game was very enjoyable to watch as it showcased some good play and vapors in several different colors. At the end of the day I was happy to see Italy win since I feel they really deserved it. It is also very fotunate that they won because Italians are going to need alot of good news following the events that should unfold next week which could see Juventus demoted to Serie C and Milan, Fiorentina, and/or lazio demoted to Serie B. I will be very interested to see how that whole thing works out.

On another note, I can proudly say that this victory only further adds to my footballing pedigree. I now have 6 world titles between my various countries and when I saw Italy win I did feel a sense of national pride for the azzurri. Some other interesting non-football notes:

I see tons of wierd animals at my field site everyday and added to the list today was a monkey (it was just hanging on this window) and a goat (just chilling in this dudes house).
I also inerviewed the sweetest 85 year old couple who were both shorter than 5 feet and so deaf that I spent the whole time yelling. I am still not even sure if they spoke spanish.

I apologize for the whole pictures situation, I know they are more fun to look at and I promise I will get around to it very very soon.

Hashing...

2006-07-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, So I had actually already written another entry but then the stupid browser erased it and so now I have to write it all over again, which really sucks.

Anyway, my study started up for real this week and I have been pretty busy with that, I average about 3 households a day and I just go to the houses and ask questions about the close contacts of MultiDrug resistant TB patients. In other words, I am looking to see what is the incidence of TB among close contacts of MDR TB patients. I really enoy the work that I am doing because I get to see a part of Lima that nobody ever really visits and the people I talk to all have really interesting stories. At times it is very tiring simply because it is hard to get information out of people. Case in point an exchange I had with a man the other day (I translated to english for everyones sake..)

Me: When was your nephew born?
Man: Sometime in the summer.
Me: How old is he?
Man: 12 years old.

2 minutes later in conversation after I ask him who was living with him in 1999...

Me: So your nephew was not living with you in 1999?
Man: no, he wasnt born yet.
Me: So your nephew is not 10 years old, how old is he?
Man: I dont know.

The man was very nice, but needless to say these exchanges are all too common and get to be very frustrating. I also interviewed a 16 year old girl who is currently on her 2nd TB treatment and shes only 16! She first got it at 12, did a 2 year treatment and was fine by 14, then she relapsed at 15 and now shes is back on treatment. TB is a very serious issue here in Peru and they have a nationalized system for dealing with it that actually works pretty well, but nonetheless there are just too many cases to deal with. Its frustrating to hear about people who die from TB when the disease is almost always not fatal. Case in point, I spoke to a woman whose son has just died a month before and that interview took a while because there was so much drama before he died. But, in his case, his case worker lapsed a few days in the medication and that gave him a chance to develop resistance and then he died (thats my theory, but well take it as fact for the time being).

Sorry that I have been really slow with the pictures, Im gonna do my best to organize that stuff tomorrow when I have time and hopefully post a few pictures up. On sunday I may go play some futbolito down by the beach with one of my peruvian friends and his cousins, it is kind of an interfamily game i.e. two sets of cousins facing off in a futbolito match. This means that I need to get some fake vapors ASAP or some other sort of indoor shoe for that matter. It should be fun to play some soccer since I havent played in such a long time.

Also, today at 2 I am going to a hash run which is this run where you try to deduce a trail using pace setters that lead another group. It should be alot of fun and its a really great mix of people. It is mostly peruvians, but there are also a fair number of foreigners such as a suprising amount of british ex pats. They also split the run in half with a beer stop and then feed you at the end. The meal today is going to be pacha which is food cooked in the ground. I am really looking forward to it. Anyway, I updated the comments so anybody can leave comments now and please do so. I dont know how many of you will read this, but I promise to update frequently for those regular readers. Until next time, Adios.

Welcome

2006-07-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

So this will be my medium for recording any and all experiences that I may have in Lima over the next few months. I have already been here for 3 weeks, but it wasnt until now that I decided to get on the ball and get a blog to write on. This is not to say that I want people to stop emailing me, in fact I enjoy reading the emails and will happily respond to all emails I may get.

I will do my best to keep this as up to date as possible with not only experiences but also some photos and maybe some random thoughts. My study started earlier this week and I have been gathering data and today will be my day to work on the access database, which is why I have some time to set this whole thing up. I look forward to hearing from all of you, and please feel free to post comments and spread the web adress. Also, if you have a better title, please make suggestions, I am well aware that this title is lacking.