Lima Blowing my Mind

I've been in Lima since Monday and it's totally blowing my mind. I'm sitting in a McDonald's eating a S/. 2.50 cheeseburger and posting on my blog. I haven't seen a donkey cart in nearly a week and I have showered every day for 4 days in a row! I haven't smelled this good in months. I also stay up way past my 9pm bedtime to drink wine, eat at Italian restaurants, and go out on the town to listen to live Latin jazz.

I'm staying at this hostel that's like being in a fraternity house. I was talking to a friend on the phone from the rooftop terrace and a group of not-all-that-sober guys were hanging out when one of them put on a gnome hat, took off his shirt and started jumping up and down like a monkey. I think it might be a bad sign that the funny smelling, straggly haired Spanish guy on the top bunk has become really, really hot. We're not in the campo anymore Toto.

Today I'm going to a training with an international non-profit organization called CARE so that I can go down to Ica in a couple of months and help with the earthquake relief effort. I'm excited about being able to help and learning what it is to do emergency relief work, but I'm having a hard time really being here mentally. I'm going back to the US for Christmas and New Year's and I'm so anxious and excited to go I cannot concentrate on work at all. I'm going to visit my grandparents, be the godmother for my dearest friend's baby at her baptism, and party it up on New Year's Eve with my girls from New York. Blowing my mind.