Hello friends,
I’ll start by talking a bit my first steps into applying to graduate school and a trip to the mountains.

I’ve finally decided to apply to Public Policy Programs at UC Berkeley, UCLA, UT Austin and American. I definitely feel good about the programs and am keeping my fingers crossed. But for now, the work has officially begun. I have my spreadsheet of requirements for each program and have started getting prepped. I’m asking my professors if they are still willing to write me recommendations, getting started on my essays and trying to figure out finances. I want my focus to be in education development in developing countries, especially after my experiences in Peru. I’m really excited about potentially being able to study this and being back in school doing something that I’m truly interested in. Basically, I’m teaching fewer classes than before and focusing my weekends on applications. I’ve also started to read some scholarship on Peruvian education and getting back into the academic world.

Sooo, my birthday passed a few weeks ago and it was a fun, two-part celebration. I had dinner with some friends at this delicious Indian restaurant called Guru and highly improved last year’s situation (which I won’t go into, but, basically, since I had just arrived, it was quite lonely). Alvaro and I also went with another couple, Andres and Miriam, to Canta which is a small mountain town just a few hours west of Lima. It was gorgeous, had tons of dishes including trout (a popular river fish in the Peruvian mountains) and, most importantly SUN! While every week there’s maybe an afternoon of sun in Lima, I dearly miss it and was glad to have sun all weekend. We got to ride horses, eat good food, go on little walks and just enjoy a relaxing time.

I’ve been doing a month of intensive yoga (ideally going every day, but ends up being 5 days a week) and loving it. I’ve never joined a gym before and wasn’t too keen on the concept, but I’ve really enjoyed this month of yoga. I’ve been mostly doing hot yoga, which makes me sweat like I’ve never sweat before, and also feels really relaxing. I’ve started to do a little bit of yoga at home and hopefully when my time at the yoga center is up I can keep it going.

It’s starting to get warmer here now, more sunny days in Lima are more than welcome. I’ve also been baking and cooking a lot more and have made some bomb coffee cake, scones, lemon pie, baked tilapia, enchiladas (thanks to Flee bringing me back some tortillas from the US!) and generally yummy things. My friend Jacquie (who is unfortunately back in Switzerland….sad times) gave me a great book of postres peruanos for my birthday and I’m excited to start exploring some recipes from there, too.

Ooohh, I helped a friend out the other day with a Spelling Bee. She works at a colegio and the primary students were having a spelling bee competition and a friend and I were asked to help read the words out to them. It was really cute to see these kids so excited, ANNDD they had INCREDIBLE spelling abilities (in English….which is why I was asked to help pronounce the words clearly). It was a fun little morning excursion, just thought I’d share, hehe.

Again, things are great here, hoping to do some more travelling before the year finishes up (I’ve got Arequipa high on my list) and getting this grad school business finished up. Keep in touch friends!