Independence Day

Peru celebrated its Independence Day (Fiestas Patrias) earlier this week-July 28th and 29th-and, since Independence Day at home is celebrated with some specific food, I thought this would be a good time to talk about the traditional foods that I have sampled here.

As expected in the coastal region here, we eat a lot of fish-grilled, fried, etc.  But one of the most famous ways to eat it here is in ceviche, raw fish that is marinated in lemon juice.  I love ceviche and when I spend time in Lima, I try to eat at any opportunity.   

Ceviche is typically served with corn and camote, sweet potato.

A typical festival food here is anticuchos, kabobs made from beef hearts.  They are delicious.

These are typically served with boiled potatoes and corn.

In my first post, I mentioned not enjoying my first experience with causa; however, I've had it since and it's actually quiet tasty.  Causa is cold, mashed yellow potatoes, most typically layered with tuna and avocado and often topped with eggs and olives.

This weekend, I also had my first experience with grilled cuy, Guinea pig. I'm not sure that I'll seek it out in the future, but it wasn't bad.

This cuy is accompanied by papa a la huancaina, boiled potatoes covered in a spicy cheese sauce

And if the food wasn't decadent enough, they can be followed up by these heavenly desserts:

After you finish your anticuchos, you can pick up fresh picarones in the next festival booth.  Picarones are the love child of a funnel cake and a doughnut-fried dough drizzled with a clove-infused honey sauce.  When served piping hot, they are amazing!

If something sweeter is more your style, you can tickle your taste buds with Suspiro a la Limeña (literally, the sigh of a woman from Lima).

This custard is made with evaporated milk, so you can imagine how rich and creamy it is.

But what I eat more frequently at the plant are alfajores, cookies filled with manjar blanco, a caramel-like filling.  Decadent!

And with all these sweets, you, of course, need something to wash it down with:

If you are looking for something nationalistic and alcoholic, your best bet is a pisco sour.  Pisco is a grape brandy that can be paired with a variety of mixers.

If you want something family-friendly, you can try chicha morada, a beverage made by adding cloves and other spices to a base made from purple maize.

Also popular here is Inca Kola, a fluorescent yellow soda that tastes like bubble gum.  Personally, it's not my cup of tea, but it is popular.

With all of these being just a sampling of the food here, I now understand why USA Today predicted that Peruvian food will become a trend in the US.

At the jetty

One of the things we are working on here is helping the workers prepare for some upcoming training on the loading arms that load the LNG onto the ships for transport.  One of our students made all the arrangements so that we could take a tour of the jetty where the loading arms are located.  Going to the jetty-specifically where the loading arms is-requires two extra levels of security, so we were very excited to be able to go.

The loading arms are the 4 towers in the background

One of the first things that I noticed when I got there was the smell-it smelled like the aviary.  Strongly. When they first built the jetty, they had a lot of problems with the sea birds.  The bird poo is a big problem because it is corrosive to the pipes.  As a natural solution to the problem, they have these hawks that scare away the birds from perching near the pipes.

The hawks were watching us, well, like a hawk as we posed for this picture

It was really helpful to be able to see the arms up close and personal and they promise to invite us back when they are in action, which I am really excited about.

Our guide even took us under the jetty to take special pictures to remember the tour.

Plant Life

I know that it has been a while, but I have been busy settling into my job and getting to know my students here at the plant.  Instead of having to remember whether it is Mohammed, Mohammed Q (new or original), Mohammed K, Mohammed T, Mohammed A or Mohammed W, I am now spending my days sorting out the Jose's-Jose', Jose' Carlos, Jossimar, and so on.  It was difficult in the beginning, but I think I've got it down now and I'm really starting to enjoy the students in my classes.

I am teaching English to workers in a plant that converts natural gas to liquid natural gas (LNG) and loads it on ships for transport to other countries around the world.  (I actually understand this process thanks to the presentations one of my classes did for me in the beginning.)  There are workers from all over the world here, so it is important that the workers speak a common language-English-which is where I come in.  The students see the English lessons as a benefit from the company and are really motivated to learn and practice their English, so it's a great place to be a teacher.

Despite being a bit isolated (it's a 3 hour drive from Lima), plant life is pretty good.  We live in long trailers that are cleaned for us everyday.  [There are some rules about taking pictures here, so I am not able to post anything yet.]  The company provides us with meals, gyms, recreation facilities and laundry services, so it's almost like staying in a hotel.  I even have direct TV and an internet connection in my room.  It's great!

All in all I'm really happy I came.  I'm excited to be started in this new adventure and I can't wait to start seeing even more of Peru!  

Central Lima at Night

Last weekend I was really able to relax and start to see more of Lima.  First, I went with some co-workers to La Plaza de Armas, which is also called La Plaza Mayor:

On one side of the plaza is La Catedral de Lima next to the Archbishop's house.  This cathedral is built on land designated for the city's first church by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro and now houses his remains.

On another side sits El Palacio del Gobierno, the house of the President of Lima.  I'll have to come back here during the day sometime to see the changing of the guard ceremony.

The plaza is flanked on the other sides by various governmental buildings.  I love the enclosed balconies!

Huaca Pucllana

Since I got here, I've been thinking that Peru reminds me of India.  I think one of the reasons it does is because of the juxtaposition of modernity and traditional culture.  A great example of this here in Lima is the Huaca Pucllana-an archaeological dig right in downtown Miraflores.

It was first used as a place of worship and sacrifice by the Lima culture-a matriarchal group that worshiped the sea and inhabited the area from 200-700 A.D.

(They used this bookshelf technique to build the walls of the temple to withstand earthquakes.)


The Lima were conquered by the Wari empire, who ruled from 700-900 A.D.  The Wari used the temple as a burial ground for their governors.  The on-site archaeologists are working to excavate several tombs that were recently discovered.

Like the Egyptian pharoahs, they were buried with the supplies they would need in the next world...and a child sacrifice (the white cloth bundle near the body).


The Wari were succeeded by the Ychsma culture (900-1533 A.D.), who again used the temple of a place of worship.

As far as the archaeologists can tell, the Incas did not use this site after conquering the Ychsma.

I just met you and this is crazy...

...but I think I might love this place already.  I've been staying in Miraflores, which appears to be a hip, upscale area of Lima.  Yesterday, I did some shopping and tried some typical Peruvian food-ceviche, which is raw fish in lemon juice (good) and causa, which is mashed potatoes filled with avocado, crab, or other things (not my favorite).  I am really enjoying the abundance of seafood dishes to try.

Today I wandered around visiting several of the parques (parks) in the area.  My first stop was Parque Kennedy:

This park is FULL of cats!  There is an organization here that takes care of these cats, so the cats hang out in the park and interact with the people visiting the park.  I spent quite a while here today, sitting on a park bench with a cat in my lap-so relaxing!

I then walked down to see the Pacific Ocean:

I can't wait to see it in the summer, when the sky isn't overcast and grey.

Along the oceanfront, there are many more parks, including the Parque del Amor (Park of Love):

And, the Parque El Faro de la Marina:

I also tried the national drink of Peru: pisco, a strong grape brandy.  I enjoyed it in the form of a pisco sour. MMM!

Teaching Baseball in Pittsburgh

I've come to the conclusion that baseball might be the hardest sport to teach internationals in the US.  I taught American football to my Chinese students in Rochester. I taught ice hockey to my Bhutanese students here (and I don't even like ice hockey!)  But, I've been trying to teach baseball now for two weeks and I haven't yet seen that gleam of understanding in their eyes.  Part of it might be that they are trying to understand it through the lens of cricket-as evidenced when one of my students asked, three days into the topic, how many balls each person pitches.  (Granted, my understanding of cricket comes mainly through the Bollywood movie Lagaan and a few all-night cricket tournaments at RIT, but at least I was able to recognize where that discrepancy came from and re-route them by explaining that, in baseball, the pitcher is always the pitcher-the role of pitching doesn't rotate from player to player.)  I guess I should recognize as progress that they have stopped calling the pitcher a bowler and be happy with small steps in the right direction. 

I think what is confusing them the most right now is understanding when a base runner has to run to the next base-so we haven't even started talking about leading off the base or stealing bases!  But, when I think about it all, I can understand how it can be confusing.  I mean, think about-why is a foul ball a strike when the count is 2-1, but not when it's 2-2?  And the terminology-the 'batter' changes to the 'runner' after he hits the ball.  It makes sense once you understand the game but getting to that point is a different story. 

But, why is it important enough for me to dedicate time to this topic?  In class, we have actually used baseball to talk about many aspects of American culture.  Whether you think baseball is still America's national pastime or not, it is likely that you can see its impact in everyday life.  Let's start with idioms-baseball, far more than any other professional sport, has added idioms into everyday conversation-and not just in the business world!  Even the most anti-sports person will probably refer to the three strike rule.  And did you know that baseball was the first professional sport to sing the National Anthem before the start of each and every game?  Yup, since World War II.

And speaking of WWII, let's not forget baseball's impact on history with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 and the start of the All American Girl's Professional Baseball League in 1943 (most notably portrayed in A League of Their Own, which we also watched in class.) For us, baseball became a jumping off point for us to talk about this history of discrimination in this country-and what people have done to prevent it. 

I'm actually sad that we've finished the movie and this topic in class-it led to some great discussions comparing discrimination and rights in the two countries and reminded me again why America still is a country that people want to come to to better their lives.  And learning baseball?  They'll get it-eventually.