Mom and Dad in Lima

My parents arrived Wednesday night for a 2 week trip to Peru. They got in really, really late Wednesday night, then came to school Thursday afternoon to spend some time with me before my concert. Here they are in my classroom. Aren't they cute? We had a nice afternoon just hanging out at school. My students were all excited to meet my parents, so they all kept stopping in to introduce themselves. They were so great. And my parents loved meeting all of them.

My concert at school was Thursday night and it featured the jazz band, orchestra and symphonic band. Here I am conducting the symphonic band. The concert went really well. I was very pleased with all the performances and it was so nice to have Mom and Dad sitting in the audience again. They sat in the same spot in the auditorium that they always sat in when I conducted in Manchester so it was fun to see them there. There was a decent crowd at the concert and it was nice to be able to introduce my parents to some of the music parents that I have gotten to know.

I had to teach all day Friday, so Mom and Dad spent the day walking along the Malecon and checking out a little bit of Miraflores, the district where I live. I sent them to lunch at the Park Hotel, since it was the one spot where I could guarantee they would have an English menu and a waitress that spoke English. They said it was really good and they had a nice time sitting out on the terrace.

Mom and Dad are off to Cusco and Machu Picchu this morning. I just got a phone call from my driver guy who had taken them to the airport and he said they have boarded the plane, so they are off. I know they were a bit nervous about traveling without me, but hopefully they will be fine. There is a tour guide who will be meeting them at the airport in Cusco and will be with them for their whole time in Cusco/Machu Picchu. I wish I could have gone with them, but I have to teach this week and it would be crazy for them to come to Peru and not get to see Machu Picchu. I really hope they have fun and don't get too stressed. Keep them in your thoughts and hope that they have a good trip. They return to Lima on Tuesday afternoon and we fly to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday night. I haven't been to Santiago and I hear it is really nice, so I figured it would be good for Mom and Dad to have a chance to see somewhere else in South America. I'll let you know how it goes...

Mi Casa

I decided that since I am staying in Lima at least another year and my parents were coming to visit, it was time to do some home improvements. When I moved in, my apartment had been painted an off white, yellow-ish color that was fine, but a little bright. I was ready for a change, so I had my living room and my bedroom painted.

It was interesting to pick out paint colors here in Peru. I went to Ace Hardware and looked through these books that showed the paint colors they have. After much deliberation, and input from Judy and Ben, I decided on a light tan for the living room and a dark green/brown and a darker cream for the bedroom.

Reada's maid's son was hired to paint and over the course of a few days, he had it finished. And the cost for two large rooms to be painted - $80. Sometimes I love Peru! I'm really happy with how it came out. I think it makes my apartment look much more cozy and warm.

Don Juan

I had a really interesting experience last night - my Spanish teacher, Silvia, invited me to a play "Don Juan Tenorio", the story of the famous lover and heartbreaker. They do it every year around the time of Halloween and All Souls Day, since it involves love, betrayal, death, and spirits returning from the grave. And it was held in a cemetery. Yes, a cemetery!! At first I thought it would be kind of creepy, but it ended up being so neat. There is a huge, beautiful cemetery in Central Lima where a lot of famous Peruvians are buried. As a side note, cemeteries in South America are much different than in the US. Lots of people are buried above ground in these elaborate tombs that look like little buildings. And the ones that are buried underground are buried in crypts where you have to go down a set of stairs to get to it, and there is usually an elaborate marble statue or some sort of marker on it above ground. I didn't bring my camera last night and I know my descriptions aren't great, but hopefully you can sort of picture what I am talking about. So this cemetery has tons of these very large, fancy, beautiful tombs and crypts and they use them basically as the staging for this play. The play has 3 parts and each part takes place in a different area of the cemetery. They use some flat tombs as stages and put candles everywhere to light it. It was really incredible. The entire play was in Spanish, of course, but Silvia was there translating for me, and she had given me a printout of the story in English to read ahead of time. I thought I would be freaked out by being in a cemetery at night, but it was really beautiful. The actors were amazing, they wore gorgeous costumes, and it was so cool to see how they used the setting in the play. It was really clever. Definitely an interesting, Lima-only experience.