here in the beginning we're going to get a little mushy... so if you're not interested in hearing about that you might just want to skip on down a paragraph or two :)

this week has been great. just great. julton has had some more free time and we've been able to do more things together and just spend more time together in general and i have been ever so greatful for it. this week are the elections.. on Sunday. And the government has a law that there can be no meetings of any sort of that day so that the people have the freedom to vote and also travel back to their towns to vote. although this means that we can't have church on Sunday, don't get me wrong that I'm just excited for that, you are misunderstanding me. Throughout the week Julton has lots of meetings for lots of different things preparing for the weekend. And this week... he hasn't had quite so many meetings. That has certainly been a blessing. Since I have been feeling like I saw him more often when he was in his internship as opposed to now that we are married.

So we were reminiscing over one of the first times that we spent much time at all around each other... back a long long time ago, before I knew much Spanish at all. Actually that was one of the reasons we started talking. I remember that we were out with a big group of friends for lunch. It might have been a Sunday now that I think about it. Becuase we had gone out for jungle food and we usually did that on Sundays. So after lunch we all walked over to the mall to cool of the hot afternoon with an oreo mcflurry. And after spending a lunch trying to understand all the spanish conversation going on around me, i was a little tired. (my spanish skills were zilch when i first came, its still not perfect but im improving) so as we were all walking over to meet our ice cream needs our friends said hey julie you should talk to julton, he knows some English. we both kind of looked at each other a little like hmm conversation? and i learned all about his trip to seattle when he was 15. and remember thinking wow i wish i could say i have been to seattle! (many times peruvians are surprised that you haven't been to every city in the states, but it's the same for them not having traveled to eachpart of their country either) it was a pretty great day that day, neither of us had any idea what would be in store for us a couple years later. God is great.

okay, mushy portions over. jeje

randomly... last week as i was rubbing my very sleepy eyes awake in the early morning as Julton was leaving for work... i was walking by the window when i stopped and had to take a second look, rubbing my eyes all the more trying to figure out if they were playing tricks on me...

because there was a hot air balloon outside! i just kind of stood there staring. i was used to seeing hot air balloons in anderson sc... but here in Trujillo... i can't say that i have ever seen one. i couldn't figure out if it was just an advertisement or.. if they were practicing for the parade a few days later ( last sunday was the spring parade... sorry we didn't go, even though it was just a couple blocks away, so i don't have any pictures) people camp out all night before to save their seat to watch the parade... and there are so many.... SO many people, neither of us had the desire to go out in the crowd.

student turned architect

it seems to be the season of becoming a professional these days. recently i got to go see julton's sisters give their thesis and be approved for their degrees.... then this week i was able to do the same for very good friend katy! katy was architecture student, now architect. she and her classmate spent, a very long time, preparing their presentation with speech, powerpoint and the plans. and we spent a very very long time in their presentation. it was a pretty exciting moment when the 'judges' (three of their professors) called everyone back into the room to say they were approved :) rounds of empanadas (pastries with meat inside) and sprite for all.

i have lawyers, a doctor, and an architect all within very close reach now. :D

a saturday morning

this morning i was a little forgotten... or stood up... or ignored... or overlooked... any of those. but despite all those gloomy words the fact that i was a little forgotten turned my morning right around.

lately ive been avoiding starbucks... or not so much avoiding it as much as replacing it with trying to drink the ton of coffee we have stored up in our house instead. we have a lot. i spent a lot of time not drinking coffee while my mom spent a lot of time still sending it to me *(thanks mom!)* (dont get me wrong - i am completely in agreement with a houseful of coffee. there are worse places to be)

so starbucks trips have been limited to meetings or friend outings. and most recently... classes. i was caught off guard when my most recent student wanted to have classes on skype, and starbucks. two unconventional ways to have an esl class. but hes a pretty unconventional kind of guy. so it fits.

so this morning i made my way through the neighborhoods to the mall where starbucks is... said hello to the one barrista whom no matter how long its been since my last visit, always remembers my name and how to spell it. i get really embarrassed every time i see him because i can't remember his name. from two years ago when we first met and he told me. maybe most people don't take the time to remember the names of the people that made their coffee in a cafe... but when its the only person in an establishment that remembers who you are... it tends to be a little significant. i wonder if its an inner frustration for them to have people ignore their names when they remember theirs... it probably would be for me if i worked there. ...i have got to figure out the name.

well, after nestling into a table and getting myself organized i waited... and waited some more... quite patiently since when you teach private english classes to business men you tend to get used to it. after sufficient waiting time had passed i decided to give him a call. thinking, that like last time, he wouldnt actually answer it but see my number and remember the class and come on over.

but to my surprise my student did answer! and also to my surprise... he was still traveling and still very far away from my corner in starbucks to even think about having class. he had forgotten to let me know he missed his bus. oops. but hes so nice he made sure to remind me to count it as a class anyway since it was his mistake.

so. there i was still with a hot coffee and comfortably settled at my table. i looked around... apparently saturday mornings are for 60+ men reading newspapers or gathered together gossiping. and not about the weather.

i looked down at what i had... no paper to journal with... a starbucks receipt i could make a list on... (im a list maker, very much a list maker)... and my esl books. i could plan some more lessons. bwahahahh. no. as i was about to call it a day, i reached for my bag and found a book i had been reading lately. and so i spent my morning. just reading, in a crowd of older men who were also reading, with my coffee. it was good to change settings for my coffee time, and to zone out for a while imagining i was in the shoes of those in my book. i read obsessively when i was younger. but im just now getting back into books after all my psychology reading in college.

the book ive been reading. By the Seat of My Pants which is a book i found in the missions library. its got lots of fun stories from travelers about their experiences abroad. makes me itch to travel some more.. for the first time in a while since ive been content with my adventures here. julton and i are trying to plan something... we have to take advantage of being so close to so many other countries. and other parts of peru for that matter. im thinking the end of the world. or the middle. hmmm

Roger de T.

lunch: chicken soup w/dumplings that my grandma would be proud of. except that i never get the baking powder ratio right and we almost had chicken soup w/dumplings a la stovetop. still tasty. and julton loved it, although i cant get him to like sweet tea. i guess its a good thing i dont drink it that often either.

white shirts not pre-coordinate. promise. repeated photo taking until Julton smiled, required.

all my life i imagined that one day when i got married... my name would change. i think every little girl in the united states has probably imagined her name sounding one way or another. i never imagined my name eventually being "rogers de tomanguillo" or rogers de anything for that matter. but here we are and my name... has not. technically. changed. and it in a weird way makes me feel like we aren't married. so we've been going through offices and government officials trying to figure things out. i think i just naivly thought that we'd sign the marriage certificate and wah la! name changed. wrooong. so wrong. and everyone has a different story and a different price for how to change it. so officially my name is still as it always was. but im going to be holding onto this recent letter from our church for quite a while since they thought it appropriate to say "de T." even if rogers is spelled wrong. so unofficially im julie ann rogers de tomanguillo. but according to the peruvian government, they dont even know she exists.

the letter, by the way, was about deacon nominations for the church. the nominees are going to go through 14 weeks of once a week meetings to prepare, then the church votes. julton is excited (hes one of the nominees).

i have an idea.

i wish i had pictures for this. i wish i could (did) carry my camera with me all the time.

since i started the other teaching job my hours have been random and sometimes super busy other times not so much. ive been teaching familys/individuals/businessmen in their homes or offices. most recently ive been teaching a group of engineers. their company has generators which supplies energy to an electric company here in trujillo when it needs a little extra.

last week as i was standing in the bosses office, on my way out. i spot it. a huge, bigger than ive ever seen or believed to be in existence, light bulb. after a 3 minute conversation with one of the engineers over whether or not it was real, and him trying to point one out through the window... to no avail. the three of us (two students that day) passed around the huge lightbulb all the while practicing "ive got an idea" quotes with the lightbulb held up high beside us. jejejejeje i really wish i had had my camera. or a video camera. priceless.

these classes are growing on me. i was a little weary to start, their company is a little farther than where julton works, on the outskirts of town. but i dont leave too late, and usually an engineer is coming back into town, having finished a shift when im leaving, so they give me a ride back. any opportunity to practice english you know.

apart from getting the ride back... i take a bus out there. its the cheapest way. a taxi would be expensive there and back three times a week. and i could take two different cars but instead i save a little money and take only one bus, which takes longer since it gives you a tour of half the city. i really dont mind. i like taking the buses because you get to see places you dont see on a regular basis. outside the windows, and sitting right next to you. my trips are usually pretty uneventful. until a few days ago when the buses sound system was pumping so loud i couldnt even hear the baby behind me crying. some teenage boys got on and continued yelling at each other competing with the volume of the music, and to top it off a man sat down in front of me (and behind an open window) that reeked of more liquor than i do believe i have every smelled.

but really, usually its not that bad. :) i do however go through a hassle to get OFF the bus. its the same routine every time. since the company is a little far out, and just after where most people get off the bus, and just before another neighborhood where people start to get on, the driver looks at me like im crazy when i tell them where i want to get off. it doesnt help that its a huge white wall with a white door and the only thing distinguishing it is a peruvian flag. so one afternoon when i told the driver let me off near the flag, for whatever reason he didnt understand me and asked me again and i repeated... and repeated and repeated... thinking to myself i know i am pronouncing this right, the rest of the country understands me when i say bandera (flag). the whole bus had stopped all conversation to watch my situation with the driver. and finally when he stopped (at the flag) the bus didnt go anywhere but instead everyone watched me as i walked away as though they were waiting on me to walk back and say it was all a grand mistake! weird.

ive been trying to work on how to make myself less noticeable, blend in, so that its not so easy to tell im a foreigner. but with winter still around... my skins so pale i just dont have a chance.

thus far

It could be said that I stalk noisetrade.com and that would be very well true. I probably spend too much time browsing music and trying to listen to clips of every possible band there for the chance that I might want to download their freebies and listen to it endlessly. Sometimes I dont have that luck.. but sometimes I find something I love. LOVE. that happen yesterday. meet Thus Far

(from their website)

aaand check out their music: (my new favorite song)

i like this group a lot, their voices the music the lyrics. their music makes me want to grab up some blankets and books and fruit and go sit in a very grassy park and read in the sunshine. well, thats how most things i like make me feel. when something makes me start thinking about parks... i know its a keeper jeje. its going to be playing on repeat at our house for a while :) and so it should be at your house to, especially because you can go to noise trade and download one of their albums, or you can go straight to their website (thusfarmusic.com) and download it there.

tomatoes coffee and reggae = a friday night.

i think that recently weve gotten swooped into a cycle of work and being tired from working and getting used to schedules and marriage and a new life. and we havent been going out and just having fun :) sooo yesterday we had fun :)

its been the season of soups around here lately for us... so yesterday some friends came over for... naturally some soup :) but its perfect because the weather has still been so cold. like ive mentioned before i get a little bit nervous to try out new foods on julton or his family or peruvian friends in general. foods that maybe im used to eating but they arent familiar with. in the past couple of weeks weve all tried potato soup, chicken soup with dumplings, and last night's tomato soup. i had been craving tomato soup for a while, and kty brought it up the other day soo.. after checking out my trustworthy foodgawker (ive never made tomato soup before myself... other than campbells. campbells isnt really an option around here... which is beneficial because situations like these make me learn to make more home made food, aka healthier and oh so delicious.) im not sure what i will do one day when we are in the states and there are so many already made options around... will i give in and buy the cans or will i go the extra mile in the produce department.hhhhmmm...

so, i found this great recipe... which since we curently dont have an oven i couldnt 'roast' the veggies, so they were sauteed. but it still turned out well. and as i nervously sat down pilar reassured with a 'hey this is great' and julton and kenedy quickly went back for seconds. when i know for a fact that julton wont if he doesnt like something... like the incident over the sushi. jeje

chocolate covered coffee beans yuuum... that i hide from julton because he likes to eat the chocolate... and leave the coffee bean. not cool. go buy a chocolate bar! i always plead.

later on we went out to huanchaco to check out the reggae music that they have each friday night. i was pretty excited about this... since ive been trying to go for about a year now with jamesson, it always fell through. sadly he couldnt go with us. but theres always next time.. :)

beach, bonfires, and live music... a perfect combination.