Thursday, June 17, 2010

First Impressions of Lima

I'm so glad to be back in a place where the sun sets around 6:00 every day!  Yesterday's travel was exhausting (thanks so, so much, American Airlines and your plane that looks and feels like you haven't updated it since 1990), but I'm excited to be back in South America.  Honestly, I feel more comfortable here in Lima than I have all year in Ahoskie, and it's not just because I'm staying at the Radisson and the Pacific is a couple of blocks away!  Tomorrow and the day after I'll have workshops with the teachers I've been working with online, as well as many others from pedagogicos all around the country.  It will be nice to finally meet the faces behind all the forum postings and comments.  It is, however, much more expensive than I expected.  I went out to the pharmacy to pick up some of the things you can't get in the US without a prescription, and found the prices to be even worse than a dollarized place like San Sal.  I'm just happy to be out of the swamp and back into what feels like "real" life.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Peru & El Salvador, Summer of Conferences

After almost a year of living in the US again and 10 months since I had traveled out of the country, it's time to leave again.  I'll be headed to Peru in June to serve as an English Language Specialist and to present at various conferences.  Even though I won't get to play tourist this time like I wanted, I'll have time to explore Lima, as well as Tacna and Iquitos, with a little Amazon trip planned on the side.  Then again, in July, I'll be headed back to San Salvador for a month to present the BNC's biannual conference and to help write up some research.  I can't wait to be back in Latin America!