I read three news websites religiously: CNN, BBC, and Aljazeera. The three typically have the same facts in the articles, but often the content of the article skew the reader one way or the other. CNN typically skews their stories towards “the U.S.A. new does wrong” bias, BBC skews the news towards “the U.S.A. messes things up sometimes, but let’s ( Read more... )

I had a few simple goals to complete while in Peru. Firstly, I wanted to see Machu Picchu. Done and done with Kelly and John. 2ndly… I wanted to get to the Amazon rain forest. My trip there has been in the planning stages for months, now Anjie and I are flying out there on Thursday. So as good as done ( Read more... )

Every day, my life is made slightly happier by the graffiti that angsty teenagers deface the walls surrounding my apartment with. I took a walk the other day (sunny day, a rarity here) to chronically the best street art ( Read more... )

John and Kelly arrived two Wednesdays ago. I gave them a brief tour of where I live, because there is very little to see in Lima, and flew off to Cusco. Kelly found us a hell of a hostel nestled in the hills, and we settled on in. The view was fantastic.


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Have you ever had a moment that is so surreal that you get confused, forget where you are, and struggle to regain your bearings? When something so odd and out of place happens that you swoon, almost collapsing? Peru is full of them ( Read more... )

A few weeks back I went back to the U.S. for an Anjie visit. The first thing that struck me about the U.S. was just how clean and well organized everything is. This is odd, since Baltimore is by no means clean or well-organized in comparison to the rest of the U.S. And I was freaked out by the ethnic diversity. After only living around Peruvians, ( Read more... )

I am a dripper. Whenever I get a cold, my nose starts pouring mucous. Not sticky mucus mind you. Just clear water. Were as other people get all coughy, fevery, or whatever else, I just drip drip drip. Colds never stop me from going out and about when I need to, because I don’t feel physically ill. The constant sniffes are a hassle, but I’m fine ( Read more... )

I think my string of different tummy aches comes from that fact that the food here rocks, making controlling ones self at times when food may be questionably sterile difficult ( Read more... )

This is the 8th or so “Tummy Ache” I have had since arriving in Peru, hopefully I am just working my way through the local intestinal flora. After spending a week in a parasitology lab staring at fecal samples and reading about intestinal bugs, I feel more comfortable with the pains. Really, cryptosporidia need a home too and I am very warm and ( Read more... )

I really enjoyed my short time in Cusco, and the expensive Spanish program saved my ass. My first two days in the country I could not understand anyone, and they could not understand me (even when I used my little translator to compose an entire, grammatically correct sentence). My accent was just that bad. The school set me off with a good basis ( Read more... )