still in town

love these girls. period.

fresas

why hello fresh strawberry juice.

and new box of bananas straight from moyobamba...

its nice to see you in my kitchen.

strawberries are starting to show up in the markets... im trying not to get too carried away since they are still pretty expensive (compared to when they are in season season) but... i wont deny that they make a pretty good juice. and pretty much a good addition to any meal.

and since jultons family has been sending us boxes of jungle food lately... bananas bananas bananas have been our diet. and im more than okay with that. i realized that this morning when i was eating breakfast alone (free day!) and i was still eating and egg with some fried bananas....

a pyramid

i thought i should share this with you... apparently according to stumbleupon.com its a new harvard food pyramid.... i couldnt help but notice that white bread white rice and potatoes are in the top use sparingly triangle.... and thats.... well that makes up the majority of our diet. uh ohhh

they win!

sadly no one wond a crown this week... it was a little bitter sweet. but we had some runners up :) i specifically chose this picture although i have a better one of the little boy... because it looks like someone is mocking him and hes about to stomp off and shut them up. in a je...je... kind of way. i love that kid.

ps: today was the last friday of the month, which means its birthday friday which means everyone eats cake for all the birthdays that happened in the month... aaaand we get to wear ropa de calle (street clothes.) i finally caught up. here we are in our 4th birthday friday and its my first time to actually remember that i dont have to wear my uniform.

abuelita mamita part 2

when i said mamita sent us some food but more on that later... . heres the more on that later.

something i really like about living in peru... is that if you live... 15 hours away from your family over rivers and mountains... and your family decides they want to send you something... all they have to do is package it up and send it out on the next bus leaving town. bus transportation is more than common (some ratios right now would be pretty appropriate, sorry for that). and you can send anything from letters to things to be translated (which we had to do to be married) to well... boxes of food and im sure a whole list of things. and it gets there the next day usually.

so... this week are the festivals for san juan (saint john) in moyobamba (where julton is from, where his family lives, 15 hours away over rivers and mountains) its traditional to eat juane (a delicious mixture of green rice and chicken, cooked in a banana leaf) and to.... dance around a tree before you chop it down and collect the prizes on top.

well, we didnt get a tree topped with goodies.... BUT jultons grandma labored over some juanes in her kitchen this week... and we got sent juanes... chicha (a drink from the jungle made from fig leaves which ide never tried before... for me its a little like bear (but without alcohol) and fizzy and kind of like a juice, but its not a juice as julton reminds me ebcause i keep calling it that) and a big branch of green bananas. so what was our thursday lunch? yep... juanes and bananas and chicha! delicious.

the chicha fizzed and bubbles out of its bottle for a while... i guess a 15 hour ride in the belly of a bus can do that to you.

julton can never decide what he wants to do in pictures. its hard to get one of him just smiling. he is either goofy, or too sesrious, or just awkward. im not sure what this one is, other than the look of him telling me between fotos... julie just put the camera down... im hungry and weve got juanes and you are taking pictures!!!! we could be eating these right now!!!! thats what that face is saying.

if you live near a peruvian restaurant, i encourage you to go get some juane, but im sorry, im pretty sure its not going to taste as good as jultons grandmas. your just going to have to come to peru for that!

happy farmers day

bet you didnt know that in peru the 24th of June is el dia del campesino "farmers day" so.. what do you do when its farmers day? well some schools would have you draw pictures of horses or plants or maybe get all fancy and paint or cut something.... but our school takes things to a higher level so naturally we rounded up all the kids and took a trip to the farm.

so thursday morning instead of preparing for a day of classes, we were all rounding up kids and getting on buses to travel an hour outside the city to go visit one of the students parents farms. i didnt really know where to put myself. everyone, and by everyone i mean everyone in the school went, to take care of the kids. since i dont have my own permanent class, i just kind of float around. so thursday i stayed with some of my favorites :) shhhhh dont tell anyone.

ps: i have no idea why a couple of the kids are tilting their heads like that... their funny like that sometimes... maybe thats why theyre my favorites :)

we arrived and had our loncheras, our snacks, and then headed out into the farm. all of the kids got a small pot which we went out into the asparagus field and dug up some dirt then put some seeds in. we wandered around for a long time, on a big farm. saw horses, chicken, fighting chicken... im still not sure if its legal legal here, or that its just overlooked but cocks are raised for fighting and its very very common. we were advised not to get too close to their cages..hmm

and, i also bet you didnt know that this little farm town outside of trujillo is one of the biggest exporters of asparagus. did you? well, now you know. green and white. the only difference? the white isnt allowed to get any sun.

all the kids wore hats and sunscreen.... i should ahve gotten that memo .... because i showed up at school today and alllll of the kids and alllll of the teachers asked my what was wrong with my sunkissed face. oh yes, your skin is more delicate they say... and i say yes.... i know... you have no idea how many times i get reminded of that! so..... on thursday past, happy farmers day to all you farmers :)

abuelita mamita

just for the record i have to say...

that it makes my heart smile to hear Julton talking with his grandma on the speaker phone... and to hear her say "uy Julton I want to talk to your love Julita, what can i say? can i talk to her? does she understand me?? i want to talk to her, can i talk to her?" and starts Julton saying.... yes yes just talk slowly slowly... mamita slowly... and she can understand you!

its funny because as long as his grandma and i have known each other, i havent been able to undertand her. her acent is jungle heavy, and she uses a log of jungle slang i dont hear on a coastly basis. my spanish has gotten better though and shes gotten better at explaining words to me that i dontknow. weve moved on from me just nodding my head to her conversation and she and i both knowing that i have no idea what she is saying. she sends me 'flowers' over the phone. and she sent us some food in the mail.... more on that later.

its really late. i had no idea. .... good night!

a walk down memory lane

im so excited to announce that one of my close friends is back visiting from spain!!!! alexandra.... oh alexandra..... she was one of my first students.... and we spent a lot of time together. i taught her class, plus a conversation class, plus we hung out and she taught me spanish. of course that was after a few months because i thought she didnt like me, turns out she was just shy.

alexandra moved to spain exactly a year ago... and ive missed her since. we get to talk occasionally but not enough. and shes here visiting for a while...

heres one of our first classes.... oh. memories.

and just recently with her new haircut and new style from spain. shes all spanish spanish now with her accent hip catalan words. (in spain they talk with a lisp.... and catalan is the language of barcelona, where she lives)

i had saved her certificate for her from sali... she left without it, so when sali closed i grabbed it for her intent on mailing it... but well... she got back to peru before i got to the post office... how about that.... hmmmm

im pretty excited thats shes here for a while.. even if it is just for a visit. when we said goodbye at the bus station when she left i thought for sure i was never going to see her again. that when she came back to peru i would be in the states. but thanks to julton.... im still here!! :)

sweaty fish

what do you do with a husband that wakes up and says i dont feel good... i think im pregnant? well... you take away the breakfast you just made because its too greasy, and you have banana juice for breakfast.

then for lunch you have sweaty fish. really. :)

meet sudado de pescado. sweaty fish.

(dont worry no real sweat goes into it... the fish sits in a pot of sauces and tomatoes "sweating" and thats how it cooks, thus its name. if theres a more formal word for that... i cant think of it right now and ive got an english block... sorry)

julton wasnt feeling well today ... one of those.. i dont really know whats wrong, but hide the mayo because it makes me feel worse. and sudado is the opposite of mayonnaise. its a typical dish (i smile every time i say/hear that.... its common for students to ask "and whats your typical dish of your city/state/country?" in a very serious voice. its because its a common question in spanish, typical just doesnt get translated into english in a way we are used to hearing it.) so anyway, its common to see it on restaurant menus. i had never made it before, but i was up for the challenge. im pretty excited that ive gotten pretty good at reading recipes in spanish without jultons help (cooking vocabulary is outside my daily spanish conversations). writing recipes in spanish? im getting there.

so... if you feel up to making some sudado, im going to give you what i used today which is taken from this websites recipe. i used it... but just like my crocheting i follow patterns or recipes to a certain extent then just do my own thing.... either because i dont know how to do the pattern, or im just still feel rebel-ish like i was 16.

*another note... the origional recipe was for six servings, but i only made two... which means... my sudado was probably alot stronger or spicier than the origional because i always cut down on the main ingredient then forget to cut down the rest of the recipe.... oops!...also..... theres a lot of mixes that you can buy in the stores or markets, of pureed cilantro... or peppers... just lots of stuff... and sometimes a peruvian recipe will call for example "a spice mix for fish" so i went to the store and told them i what i was making and they threw a few sauces into a bag for me. but im going to tell separate that out for you as well as i can.

Sudado de Pescado

2 filets of white boneless fish

enough oil to saute some onions

1 large onion, sliced in quarters

2 pieces of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon of ginger, minced finely

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1/4 cup white wine

1 large tomato, peeled and quartered and quartered

the juice of one lime

salt and pepper

*a teaspoon of aji rojo (or im thinking paprika could work)

*a teaspoon of aji amarillo (or... another pepperlike spice)

(i think i used more than a teaspoon, but just add to taste for your spice level)

Saute the onion, garlic and ginger, but dont let it brown.

add the spices, lime, and wine, let the alcohol cook out

add the parsley and cilantro, and season with salt and pepper

(at this point i did a taste test to see how i felt about all the spices)

add the tomatoes... then add the fish

turn the flame down and cover the pot, let simmer until the fish is tender

(halfway through i flipped the fish to make sure the sauce covered all sides of it)

serve with a generous portion of white rice (that youve cooked with garlic of course)

and boiled potatoes or... like today we had boiled yuca... if you dont know what that is, its like a potato, looks like a root... becuase it is... and its delicous fried... but since Julton was saying no to all things with grease today, we stuck with boiled.

Torta de Galleta (cookie cake)

since he was sick and today was jultons day... as i was walking out the door to get the spices to make the sudado, he made a request for torta de galleta. so... you know i gave in.

torta de galleta is basically.... vanilla cookies in layers with chocolate and vanilla pudding.

pretty simple :)

i hope that youve enjoyed your sunday and relaxed like we have.... here comes monday! im actually looking a little bit forward to the morning since we made the trip to the market and got the fruits to make juice for breakfast :)

this fine saturday...

it was time.. high time to relax and get the heck out of the house and stop thinking about work and just have some fun.

so we did :)

julton revealed to me this week that the reason i stay stressed out is because i think about my work all the time. and when i have free time i dont take advantage of it. and i? agreed.

so our solution was to get up early (that didnt happen... its saturday.. WHAT were we thinking?) and get to the beach. we planned to read on the beach but that part didnt happen... it was actually cold. too cold to sit in one place long enough to read a sufficient amount of words. so we gave up that idea. but we did eat french toast and drink banana juice at a favorite cafe :)

we spent lots of time just walking around and enjoying being out of the city. and i got a new pair of earrings out of the deal :)

the micro we took was fun because it was a fixed up school bus... which by the way had a cabelas sign hanging in the front... weird.

and we watched the gray ocean come back and forth... and searched for lizards in the rocks near the pier.... can you find him? its like wheres waldo.... (now that i think of it... i need one of those books... i think its possible that everyone does...someone out there could send me a wheres waldo book if you want :D)

and we finished off the date in the center market buying up fresh fruits to make juice this week... strawberries are starting to make an appearance.. im getting pretty excited for that...

my favorite quote of the day?

"Julie... you know we are different sometimes... me... I'm more formal... and you... you are just an explosion of things"

-(said by my betrothed of course) :) happy saturday everyone :)

rain

today as we were discussing seasons in class and i asked the question as a review... so rain... whats rain?

one of my four year olds (while all the others are looking aimlessly about the room) innocently looks up and says "its like when the clouds are crying..."

i smiled in my heart and didnt have the nerve to correct him for not raising his hand to answer :)

ten paciencia

you know those times when you pray those prayers.... and you say those words.... and you are asking God to do something in your life, open a door or grant this or let you have that.....?

since February Ive been praying a lot for patience. Actually, more than prayer it's been the topic of just about any conversation, when someone hears that I am teaching in a kindergarten... ohhh you must have a lot of patience they say. or wow you must love kids... i really feel like a hypocrite when i slightly smile as a response. because the truth is that i havent spent that much time with kids. i grew up in a church where i, myself, and maybe 5 others were the kids... and there werent many after that. i went to college and spent some time around little cousins... but other than that.. my experience with small children has been quite limited. im not trying to say i dont like kids, im just explaining that my experience with them hasnt been that deep.

so. as you can imagine... since February ive been asking God for just a little more patience... just a little more....

just a little more.

and today... today i did the same thing... before i even lifted my head off of my pillow i whispered a prayer for my day that involved being more patient.

and today.... i nearly choked on that word as i said it -more- than 30 times in one 45 minute class period. because all the little boogers were getting up out of their seats and running to me to check every small detail of their work.. and i mean every small detail... and jumping in front of each other and tackling me and throwing papers in my face. and i nearly knelt down on my knees when i realized that i was telling them... be patient! be paitent! make a line and be patient! cant you see im talking to andrea right now? then why did you put the paper in my face? be patient!

oh.. patience.

he wins!

remember my semáforo post? about trying to get the kids to behave better?

well.. its working little by little.. and last night julton and i stayed up late last night making "medals" for about 7 kids whom i was positive were going to win today. sadly.... four of them got yellows today so the 7 dwindled down to 3. which is fine for me.... less i have ot make next week... but ... andré.... andré had greens all week! and he won the big prize :)

he got to wear a crown all day. and it wasnt even his birthday.

ps since last night we stayed up late making paper medals... and this morning julton had to wake up early to see the beginnings of the world cup.... if you know me well you know it takes me an hour to get fully awake.... today i think it took more than that... since after my hour i very chaotically and very loudly and very .... idiodially because i just dont know how it happen, fell down the stairs at work today. luckily only one child saw. and hes not one of my students. i quickly stood back up to act like nothing was wrong, only to find myself on the floor again because my knees... my knees!! i have two huge blue and red centered bruises, one for each knee that cracked the stairs. ouch.

thanks for getting here friday :) you hurt me but i wont let that hurt our relationship.

and by the way there were lots of games set up in the school today for each age, for the parents to play with their kids when they came to pick them up. i suppose thats something positive to picking your kids up from school, or waiting for them to step off a bus. hey.. come on in and put together a puzzle.... or jump through this game!

remember that im not forgetting you

sorry for the lack of posts.... ive been busy busy busy this week.... teaching kids... teaching adults... ive been getting through the days dreaming of sleeping more. (which i did a few days ago, i HIGHLY reccomend ten hours of sleep, espeically if you are used to 6 a night) but other than that day... ive been feeling a little like this...:

but... there are those moments when you know its worth it :)

(that one went up on the fridge)

hope to post more soon... im looking forward to friday tomorrow... and spending some time with jultons sisters whom are even busier than i. but they are so on top of things they make it look easy to be in class sometimes until 10 pm... work... and still have time to study. im looking forward to making some chocolate chip cookies with them :) aaannnddd finally Julton has a saturday free!!! (he usually works saturdays too) so... huanchaco here we come! im excited for this weekend to get here!

what ive been listening to

I have been listening to The Riverside Worship Project alot lately. I found them through noisetrade. Oh noisetrade, my friend. And this band, a new favorite. Below is their bio from their website.

It has been our experience that by stepping out the front door, we face the possibility of the greatest joy and the deepest pain. We can deny neither the beauty nor the brokenness that we have seen and felt in our world. And yet, in both, we have encountered the living and working God. We have felt redemption and accepted grace, and it is this truth which informs our response to the aforementioned experiences. The Riverside Worship Project is that response.

The “we” mentioned above refers to Brian Alpizar, Ryan Campagna, Steven Hale, Jason Hermansdorfer, Thomas Harbin and Andrew McQuaig. We write songs and sing them with a community of fellow college students at First Baptist Church of Opelika in Opelika, Alabama. Our songs reflect the conversations, struggles, and experiences that we have shared with that community. In this way, The Riverside Worship Project is made up of more than just those holding instruments.

Worship is not a skill bestowed upon a special few, but the natural response of those who have encountered Christ. While The Riverside Worship Project is an experiment in engaging life and God through music, we believe that our whole lives should be consumed by the pursuit of worship. It is our hope that God would use our songs and the corporate worship experience to inspire the church to be his healing and redemptive element in the world.

We pray that when we gather and sing we are teaching the world something about hope. That we are showing the world what it is to be redeemed. We pray that our lives would do the same. By living in response to what he has done, we are singing a song to him and before the world.

There is hope…so sing.

makes me happy

although ive gotten lots of other more things done today that were perhaps more housewifeish, on this saturday i also got a lot of web surfing in... and through browsing craftgawker i found a blog that made a post about things that made her happy and at the end wrote for others to do the same. usually i dont participate in those things... but since i like to randomly make lists like that for myself anyway, i took it on. so here's my list, a random, this week list, because i just might decide to do it every week :)

one: my husband!

and his ability to let me take a million pictures of him

that we are just the right kind of weird for each other

and that he doesnt bring me flowers.... he brings me bubbles! :)

(although i do like the occasional flower.....dont want to give that wrong impression)

two: that i put this song on a playlist that i play for my 5 year olds as they are working on their english work at school.... jejejeje.... and that it was the song we walked into our reception with.

three: homemade hand ground peanut butter. with garlic. and the company kept in the process.

four: the fact that we have a blender now and i can grind up my favorite coffee that i have been hoarding for an embarrassing amount of time... french presses... and my favorite mug from cajamarca.
five: the origami heart that julton made for me (from a video off you tube, and took him 45 minutes...) while we were dating that he wrote Jeremiah 29:11 on with a note inside too. (that parts a secret of course!)

well, there are five things that bring a smile to my face this week :)

papaya

meet papaya.

the papaya was something i was not aware i would have such a roller coaster relationship among the things i expected upon moving to peru.

i think that before i met the real papaya... i imagined it this exotic fruit which made me cool to have papaya guava mango sorbet in my fridge instead of ice cream. i had no idea what it looked like, and i had no idea what the actual fruit tasted like.

i moved to peru... and actually lived several months without much knowledge about this oh so close fruit. i noticed in markets and supermarkets this huge orange melon looking stuff with all these interesting black seeds. but i never asked what it was, there were lots of other things going on so new and bright in my life, who had time to ask what that big fruit was? which one? theres so many!

then i met jugo de papaya. papaya juice. and well... we didnt have a very good first impression of each other, at least i can say that on my part. its thick.... this is a juice? are you sure? and i wasnt so convinced of the flavor. new flavor + new texture for a girl thats not all that into the texture thing... = bad news and avoidance. i quickly learned to ask in restaurants for no papaya in my fruit salad and tried to avoid it at all costs.

might i also add a special note: of a time when i met with a friend to go get a special breakfast in the market early one morning... i was super excited... waiting on my juice and sandwich. until i recieved two glasses so big i didint even know that size of a glass existed in peru (we drink from small glasses) and both were for me... one serving was two glasses... and both were full of... random fruits also but the main ingredients? papaya and egg. ...yeah. blend it up and drink it down! fast......

but we cannot avoid things forever can we?

several months ago i was spending a lot of time at a friends house with her family, going to a bible study with them and since it was late and i lived farther away from them i stayed the night. and... her mom always made breakfast... and.... it was always... you guessed it... jugo de papaya. now, imagine yourself in my position. youve spent months ... more than a year avoiding this fruit. but here you are and the hospitality of your friends mom offers it to you. you cant say no. you just dont. unless you are allergic you just dont say no. i tried to say that i dont usually eat breakfast (which was true) but that was just not acceptable. so... for several weeks i drank papaya juice once a week.

im not sure exactly when it started... but not long after those series of weeks... i started forgetting to ask for no papaya in my fruit salad.

and here we are .... a lot of time has passed.... im married.... we are buying kitchen appliances... a blender! we got a blender this month! a normal person would think of smoothies and i dont know what more... i got excited about buying my first papaya. (and of grinding up my whole bean coffee ive had for an embarrassingly long time thats been waiting to be ground and enjoyed...but thats not a part of the papaya story)

so as part of our first grocery store visit this month, we bought a blender... and a papaya. or half a papaya rather, those suckers are big! and here i am... drinking my papaya juice for breakfast as though ive done it all my life.

oh the irony.

oh the papaya.

recycling

a HUGE truck showed up at school today to collect plastic paper cardboard glass magazines old shampoo bottles, a computer.... just about anything... to take away and make into new things. it was really interesting. all the kids spent all morning sorting all the things they brought in, into different colored bags (like yellow for the glass... and so on) to give to these guys. they made a speech and said that they take everything, anything, and recycle it to give it to children that dont have those kind of things.... im not really sure what kind of things they make, but they told all the kids that if they had a bed or an oven they didnt want anymore to call them.

another day i wished i had taken my camera.... where is that fanny pack?!

sit down

after a hard long... long week. im finally sitting down in satisfaction that its done. actually, i think that long hard week started last thursday, so today is long overdue. God is teaching me SO much patience in my job. and in the moment when i think ive learned enough, he piles it on thicker. from the child thats like the little leader of the class whom leads the class into chaos to printer issues that meant handwriting new materials for the week for 70 kids.... amongst other random things coming up, i was really trying to reassure God that i knew the definition of patience and i was really trying to employ it. i heard? ...try harder. every time i feel like i am just about to step foot on top of the mountain that is being on top of my work.... something else gets unexpectedly thrown at me and pushes me down a few feet. bah. but God never gives us more than we can handle. and thankfully i have a really great and understanding husband to help me out. from helping out designing homework for kids to being my counselor, to washing dishes and getting excited about having a vacuum to finally clean our carpet...to knowing when to tell me to rest when i refuse to, hes been there for me this week and i have greatly, oh so greatly appreciated it. i have only been able to think that the timing God gave us for our wedding was oh so perfect, i dont think i could have handled this week as sanely unmarried. the big guy knows what hes doing :D

theres a little boy at school... not one of my students too old (hes 6) that well, hes havig a hard time. weve been in school since april, and he still crys and crys and doesnt want to leave his mom or dads side, wants them to go to class with him. and its not just in the morning, he continues asking for them all day. i sat with him for a little while today, still crying at 2 oclock. i wanted to say you know what? my week was bad too... lets just go find our mommies. but instead we talked about our parents and he couldnt believe that i was okay with mine being so far away even though i miss them. and he tried to understand when i was explaining to him that it was a good thing that his parents could go to work so that they could take care of him. i cant help but think the words 'bless his heart'

well, after that week... here i am at almost 5 pm and ive finally finished everything to sit down and take some comfort in relaxing on a couch... eating an embarrassingly large bowl of comfort food (pasta + butter + garlic... you cant go wrong) for lunch, letting felicity load on surfthechannel (i never watched that show when it was actually airing on tv i have no idea why its been so appealing to me recently) and listening to a mix that goes from vertical herizon to john mayer to jack johnson to sugar ray to oar to panic at the disco ? well, its my comfort mix.

doing all that while i wait for that great husband to come home from his day so that we can start our weekend!!!

i hope that you too are sitting down to something comforting on this friday afternoon. be it whatever it be, i hope you enjoy it and know that God never leads us or gives us too much. He always gives us just enough to keep us on our toes. And keep us calling his name. I'm sure that after a week of 'help me' hes ready to hear a 'thank you'

Thank You God, for a hard but accomplished week. For loving me and taking care of me, and for listening to me complain in the midst of it even when you know its for my good but I dont see the good. I will praise your name.

I will praise your name, forever.

Alabaré tu nombre por siempre.

July. with a heart.

no matter where i go or who i tell or how many notes i write or how many times i just plain write/spell it out.

my name will probably always be JULY.... and usually pronounced like the month.

eh, its okay. at least here my J got a heart... thats just cute. i so never drew hearts for my dotted i's.... wait... did i? maybe for a few months when i was 12.