Berlin Reunion

While I was home, we had a mini Berlin Girls Reunion in Boston, which was a lot of fun. Karisti had only been to Boston for the job fairs and had never been to NH, so we made plans for her to visit and I would show her around. We spent 2 days in Boston, hanging out with Karen and Rosemary, then she came to NH for 4 days.

We met up with Karen and Rosemary for drinks Wednesday night after I picked Karisti up at the airport, then went to the North End for dinner. After cocktails and wine, we needed some good, heavy Italian food in our bellies. Rosemary drove us home in her convertible and we loved seeing all the sights of the city with the top down. Karisti and I spent the night at Rosemary's, then did some sightseeing in the morning before meeting up with Karen for the Edward Hopper exhibit at the MFA. We hoped to do some more sightseeing in Boston, but it poured rain all afternoon, so we ended up heading for NH.

I was very excited to show Karisti around NH and southern Maine. I took her to a lot of my favorite restaurants and showed her what I thought were the important things to see. It was "Michelle's Tour of NH/Southern Maine" - Nubble Light, Portsmouth, Kittery, Indian food and the Barley Pub in Dover, and Wanakee, of course. Oh, and don't forget Epping, the center of the universe. Our day at Nubble Light was beautiful and it was fun to spend some time in York. I loved being able to show Karisti all these places she had heard me talk about. I think she enjoyed her first foray into NH. :)

Wanakee

A trip home isn't home without going up to Wanakee. One of the hardest parts about living overseas has been having to miss spending a significant part of the summer up at camp. I went up for the Footnotes concert this year and had a great time hanging out with the Rudolfs and Nick and all my favorite Wanakee people. I've decided I can't stay away from camp any longer, so I am hoping to come back to volunteer for Footnotes for a week next summer. I love visiting camp and in some ways it is nice to not have responsibilities while I am there, but on the other hand, it feels weird to just be hanging out while everyone else is running around being useful. I'm ready to be useful again! :)

Jean and Mike are doing an amazing job as the directors of Wanakee. It makes me so happy to see them there, being so successful. They are both great at doing little things that make a big impact. They have planted flowers all over the place and really spruced up camp. Look how beautiful the farmhouse looks with new paint. It is so nice to see it in its original red, instead of the washed out pinkish red it was for so many years.

I managed to make it up to camp another day to say goodbye to Jean and Lisa. They were busy getting lunch ready for the volunteers, but I was able to distract them long enough for a quick picture. Look how happy we all are to be at camp!

Home

It is always so good to be home and this summer was no exception. The weather was nice (at least warmer than Lima) and it was great to be at the cottage at Hedding. I tried to pack seeing as many people as I could into 4 weeks and I think I did pretty well.

My beautiful, amazing goddaughter Christel was high on my list of people to spend as much time with as possible while I was home. She is a little over 2 years old and just so much fun. I've seen her every time I've been home, but I think after this visit she will really remember who I am. She is very vocal (complete sentences and inquisitive questions) and so smart. And hearing her say "Auntie Shell" all the time did my heart good. We went to Odiorne State Park one day and she came to play and swim at the cottage a couple of times. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with her and enjoy the incredible little person she has become. I wish she would stay this age forever.

Even though she had just spent a week hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine, my friend Nicole was still willing to come up to visit me. We have been friends since the 2nd day of first grade when she walked up to me on the playground and asked if I wanted to be her best friend. Of course I said yes and the rest is history. When she visited we spent the night drinking wine and eating pizza at Hedding, then drove through UNH the next day and were amazed with all the changes at our alma mater. And I promised her that our picture would end up on my blog page. :)

One of my favorite days at home was spent taking care of Ralph, my brother's one year old black lab. Ralph is a superstar and I love him to death. He is pretty needy and doesn't like to be left alone, but he is also very loving and loyal. Ralph spent the day with us while Marc and Megan worked and I had a great time taking him on tons of walks around Hedding. He especially loved going down Boy Scout Road where I let him off his leash and he could run and smell to his heart's content. I'll admit I'm a little jealous my brother has found such a great dog.

Being at Hedding means I get to spend a lot of time with the Clark kids, which is always nice. Their cottage is just down the hill and the kids love to ride their bikes up to our cottage and hang out. Ross (the only brother in a family of 4 sisters) rode his bike up most days just to say hi and see what he could scrounge for food. He and I spent a fun afternoon playing Go Fish, which I won, but just barely. Alyssa (in this picture) is the middle Clark child and my parents' godchild, which, according to her, makes her my godsister. She is a sweetie and I think this picture of the godsisters is cute.

Mirabus

For my birthday, Reada and Dave took me on a tour of Lima on the Mirabus. It was so much fun!! I'm a fan of bus tours - you get to see lots of places from a great vantage point and, usually, you get lots of information about the places you are seeing. Of course, all the information here was in Spanish, but it was still fun to see all the sights. It was a 3 hour tour and we went all over the city. It was a great birthday present and a great way to end my first year in Lima. I've been feeling a little anti-Lima lately (too much traffic, gross pollution, and little things that are frustrating about living here) and this tour made me like the city again. It was nice to see it looking so beautiful, especially since beautiful is not a word I would regularly use to describe Lima. It is nice to think I am leaving for break feeling good about the city and looking forward to coming back and exploring more of it.

Reada and I on the bus. We bundled up since it is winter and pretty chilly, but we still wanted to be able to sit on the top, open part of the bus.
This is a museum in Central Lima. All the buildings downtown are lit beautifully. My camera doesn't do well with night shots, but I got a few to come out.
The Plaza de Armas, the main square in Central Lima. There is a church in this square where Francisco Pizzarro is buried. And all the buildings along the square, except the church, are this beautiful dark yellow color, with dark wood balconies. It is gorgeous.
A building in Plaza San Martin, the other major square in Central Lima. We stopped in this square at the Hotel Bolivar to have coffee and sandwiches. It was a nice break in the tour.

Heart

Here is something I really love about my school: We have lots of Peruvian workers who do various job around campus such as bus driver, gardener, janitor, etc. They are some of the nicest, friendliest men I have ever met. Most of them are a little older and have been working here for a long time. They always say hello and are always willing to help. Our school wouldn't function without them and for them, it is a very good job, with health benefits and perks such as being able to send their kids to our school for free. Our administration is very good about acknowledging the workers as an integral part of our school community. The workers are invited to all the parties and most of them attend. The school even offers English classes for workers who want to learn how to speak English. It is just great to see our administration really treat people right. And this afternoon at the despedida was no exception. One of the workers had a stroke last semester and we have been supporting him with money and assistance since then. He has worked hard at recovery and he came to the despedida today. It was the first time we have seen him since his stroke and Carol, our superintendent, made a big deal about it. He received a standing ovation when he came in - it was really sweet. Then Carol acknowledged all the people who have worked at school for 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45 years (can you imagine working in the same school for 45 years?!) and gave them gifts. And she didn't just announce teachers, she announced 2 workers who have worked here for 25 and 30 years. It just does my heart good to see our school treating people right. These workers are great men with big hearts who take incredible care of our grounds, our students, and all the teachers and they work so hard. It makes me happy to see them get the recognition they deserve, especially in a culture where the upper class traditionally looks down on workers and doesn't treat them well. I am proud to work at a place that treats ALL it's employees well and with great heart.

Winter Birthday

I had my first winter birthday yesterday. I am used to my birthday being in the summer and it being warm. But it is currently winter in Lima, so it was a little chilly. Even with the cold, I had a great day. Dave, Reada, Ben and Tim took me out to dinner at La Trattoria, a very yummy restaurant in Lima. We enjoyed some good wine, good food, and amazing desserts. It was a nice way to spend my birthday.

Despedidas and Graduation

It was a busy couple of days in Lima this past weekend. Friday night was the despedida (going away party) for the teachers who are leaving. The despedida is a chance for everyone to say goodbye and for the departing teachers to enjoy mostly good-natured skits about their time in Peru, performed by other teachers. Everyone has warned me to be careful what I do in the company of other teachers, particularly at parties, since it will probably come back to haunt me in my despedida. I think I've done all right so far, at least I hope. The skits were incredibly funny and everyone had a great time. And I don't think there were any hurt feelings.

Saturday night was graduation and my band provided the music. We've been working really hard on it and they played so well. I was incredibly pleased with their performance. I think I messed up more than they did! Graduation is held in the gym here at school, which is transformed into this fairly fancy hall. They put up a big tent inside for the stage to be set under and there are huge screens at the front so translations can be beamed up for everyone to see. Most of the ceremony was in Spanish, which was a bit frustrating for me. The common language here at school is English, but the majority of our kids are Peruvian, so they, of course, naturally default to speaking Spanish. And the students chosen to do speeches at graduation, as well as the teacher who was the graduation speaker. were Peruvian, so everything was in Spanish. It made me feel bad for those kids in the graduating class who are English speakers and are fairly new to school - they probably could only understand a fraction of their own graduation ceremony. But other than that, it went well and I'm glad I have experienced one graduation so that I know what to expect next year. And my kids know all the music now, so next year should be a piece of cake! :)

Reada's bridal shower

I hosted a bridal shower for Reada on Saturday night and it was so much fun! There were over 25 women there, all teacher friends from school, and we had a great time eating, drinking and playing games. After some fun at my house, we went bowling, which was great! Reada loves to bowl, so this made her very happy. And it was fun to see everyone showing off their bowling skills.

Here is Reada drinking wine from her special bride glass, courtesy of Celia.

Reada, answering the questions to see who knows her and Dave the best. Anne (in the black striped shirt) and I won, but we decided it wasn't really fair for us to have played since we know Reada so well, so we let someone else take the prize.

winter

Winter has arrived in Lima. The last few weeks it has been getting cool at night, but the days were still sunny and warm. Yesterday all of that changed. It was cloudy, grey and cool all day long, in fact, I think it got colder as the day progressed. So, while those of you in the States were enjoying a beautiful, warm Memorial Day, we were experiencing our first true day of winter. I'm currently bundled up in a sweater and jacket and contemplating putting on my scarf. It is amazing how quickly my body forgets how to deal with winter! Luckily I only have to put up with winter for a few weeks, then I'll be home to enjoy NH summer.

Update

Things have been really busy at school this past month, which is the excuse I am going to go with for not updating my blog in so long. Actually, there really has been a lot going on. My seniors finished classes and just completed their IB exams last week. My concert was a week and a half ago and it went well. The kids played great and I was pleased with all the performances. It feels good to have the concert done - the pressure is off and all we need to worry about now is playing at graduation in a few weeks. We have 5 weeks of school left, then I'll be home for a few weeks, which I am really looking forward to.

I had a new, unique experience in Lima yesterday that I figured I would share with all of you. My friend Angie and I went to Chinatown - who knew there was a Chinatown in Lima?? It is in Central Lima, which is the old part of town. Central Lima is where the city started, but then everyone began moving to the surrounding "suburb" areas, like Miraflores where I live, and now Central Lima is where all the government buildings are, as well as amazing old churches and examples of Spanish architecture, and lots of poor people living in very crowded conditions. The Chinatown area is fairly small, but very cool. We took a cab down there and just wandered through a bunch of markets. We were definitely the only gringa faces I saw all day long. As we walked along, the people around us would do double takes as they heard us chatting away in English. Luckily, Angie's Spanish is pretty good, so she took care of all our negotiations for the day. We both ended up buying some neat things - I got a great skirt and some fun paper lanterns and paper stars to decorate my apartment with for Reada's bridal shower.

Shopping in Lima, especially Central Lima, is a unique experience for someone from the States. Instead of having big stores with everything in them, there are tons of little specialty stores selling the same type of things. And all the stores selling the same things are on the same street. We walked along one street with tons of stores selling only party decorations, and another selling only plastic and styrofoam plates, cups and silverware. We drove past the street where stores sell electronic amplifiers and cords, and the street where they sell construction signs and orange cones. The only other place I have seen things set up like this is in Istanbul, where Kristin and I got lost on kitchen appliance street in our attempt to find the tram station. You would think no one would ever sell anything, with stores selling the exact same thing as you on either side of you and up and down the same street, but I guess the people who shop here must have stores they always go to and the shop owners must really rely on repeat customers. It is just an interesting concept. As for Angie and I, we just went into whatever store caught our eye and bought whatever we needed there, as opposed to shopping around. Every store carries essentially the exact same things and the prices are the same. It is really a weird idea of commerce, but it seems to work for Lima.

Party at the Beach

My friend Giles, who teaches high school science at FDR, has bought a house at the beach about 20 minutes outside of Lima. He invited our newbie group over today and it is an amazing place. It was the first time I have been to the beach in Lima and it was so beautiful. Giles' house is gorgeous and I am so happy for him that he found it. It is literally right on the ocean and it was so nice to sit on the terrace and just hang out for the afternoon and evening. We had a great time!

This is the view of Giles's house from the front. It is really beautiful. The colors make it look like it should be in Greece or someplace on the Mediterranean. The terraces are great. We literally spent the entire day outside and it was so nice.

Here is everyone looking relaxed and enjoying the afternoon. The weather was perfect and we loved just sitting outside, eating food and drinking beer.

The view from every window and terrace was amazing. It was a relaxing, chilled out day and we had a fabulous time. It was wonderful to be at the ocean and to be away from downtown Lima for a while.

last day of IB class

Today was the last day of my 12th grade IB class. Here are my boys relaxing and listening to the review CD I made. They love being able to lay on the floor to listen to music. I'm sure they can't do that in their other classes! It was sad to see them leave today and know that I won't ever have them in class again. I worked my butt off preparing for their class all year long and I had a great time getting to know these amazing kids.

new bookcases

Check out my new bookcase. I actually had 2 made and I am really happy with them. There is no Ikea down here, much to my dismay, but luckily there are people who will build anything you want. My colleague's husband made these for me and I love them. Now I am looking forward to filling them up with more books!

Rock Opera

I was given free tickets to a rock opera and I took my 11th and 12th graders last night. It was the East Village Opera Company from New York City and they perform pieces from various operas in a rock style with a band and everything. It was quite an experience! It sort of felt like American Idol opera, which isn't really my thing, but my kids and I got a big kick out of it. It kept us entertained for a few hours and gave us lots to talk about on the bus ride back.

Here are my kids and I in my classroom before we left. For me, the best part was getting to spend some time with them outside of school. They are fabulous kids and I really like them a lot.

Lake Titicaca

Reada, Dave and I spent Easter weekend at Lake Titicaca, which sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is the highest elevation lake in the world at 12,500 feet and is absolutely beautiful. We flew into Puno, which sits on the Peruvian side, and spent a night there. We got up early the next morning and took a 3 hour bus ride across the border (we actually had to get out of the bus and walk across the border) into Bolivia and then got on a boat to go to Isla del Sol, the Island of the Sun, which is in the middle of the lake on the Bolivian side. We stayed at a beautiful ecolodge on top of a mountain on Isla del Sol.

We got off the boat on the island and had some confusion about where we needed to go. Someone said we needed to go to the north of the island, a 3 hour walk over mountains, but others said our hotel was on the south side of the island where we were. This young Bolivian boy took it upon himself to get us to our hotel, in exchange for 5 US dollars and a couple of soles to buy notebooks for school. We hiked up an incredibly long path that felt even longer and harder because of the altitude and the fact that we were carrying our own packs. It was rough, but we made it.

As you can see from these pictures, the hike was completely worth it. Our hotel, an ecolodge with cute bungalows, sat on top of a mountain and had incredible views from every direction. We were overwhelmed by beauty every time we stepped outside. It was very quiet and peaceful and just a perfect spot. I think it is the most beautiful place I have been to in South America so far.

After spending the night at our ecolodge, we hiked back to the boat for the trip back to Copacabana where we picked up the bus back to Puno. This picture was taken on the boat back from the island and it shows how beautiful Lake Titicaca is. Everything about it is so dramatic - tall snow-capped mountains, blue, blue water, and picturesque little islands.

tofu

Apparantly it is very difficult to get tofu in Lima. I've been asking Vilma, my wonderful maid who takes great care of me, to make me food with tofu in it for weeks and she always apologizes that she can't find it. Well today, in the middle of my Spanish lesson, Reada's maid Lupe showed up at my apartment with the biggest block of tofu I have ever seen. Lupe and Vilma are friends and, from what I could get of Lupe explaining to me in Spanish, Lupe was able to find some tofu somewhere, but it is very hard to get and she can't get it all the time. So, at least for this week, I will have tofu to my heart's content. I can't wait for Vilma to come on Friday and make me something yummy with it!

lovely weekend

Eric's parents were in town again this weekend and I saw them yesterday afternoon. They had a wonderful trip to Machu Picchu and it was fun to see their pictures and hear all their stories. It made me ready to go to Machu Picchu again, so if you are interested in coming down and checking it out, let me know! :)
We went to lunch at the Park Hotel, which is the swankiest hotel in the city. It was nice to sit out on the terrace and enjoy a little luxury. It is always a fun little break from the craziness of Lima. I only go to the Park Hotel when I have visitors and it is a nice way to show people another side of the city.

We spent the afternoon in the area around my apartment, just walking around, checking things out. I took them to Larcomar and we watched the paragliders for a while. Even though I am afraid of heights, I still think I want to try paragliding while I am here. It would be fun to do it over a city that I actually know well.

After I dropped Mary and Phil off, I met some friends and we went bowling. I haven't been bowling since Karen's birthday party in Berlin and I am pretty bad at it - I can't seem to make the ball go straight!
I'm off to a movie with Reada and Dave this afternoon, then Indian food and Scrabble with some friends tonight. This Indian place just opened up - it is the only one in the city. They only do delivery and they cook everything in their house. You have to place the order hours and hours, or even days, in advance, but the food is as close to good Indian food as I am going to get down here, so it is worth it. Nothing will ever beat Amrit in Berlin, but at least I can finally get some Indian food in Lima.
I hope you are all having a happy weekend!

Visitors!!

Eric's parents, Phil and Mary, are doing a Machu Picchu/Galapagos Island tour for two weeks and they were in Lima for the weekend. It was SO great to see them and be able to show them around the city. I took them out to school this morning, then we walked to Barranco this afternoon. The weather was beautiful and Lima always looks pretty charming in the sunshine. I loved spending time with Phil and Mary and I'm looking forward to seeing them again next weekend, when they are back in town before they go to Ecuador.

St. Patty's Day

Tim, Reada, Dave and I went out to Murphy's, an Irish pub, to celebrate St. Patty's Day. There were 2 live bands, tons of people speaking English, and lots of good beer. It seemed like every American in Lima was at the bar, so we ended up meeting a bunch of people. I actually met a guy who graduated from Central High School in Manchester! I couldn't believe I was talking to someone from NH at an Irish bar in Peru.

Overall, we had a great night, which actually ended at 4 this morning. We ended up back at my apartment, after deciding we needed pizza. Reada and I went to get pizza and left the boys to sober up a bit. By the time we got back, Tim was passed out on my couch. By the way, yes, that is a mullet he is sporting. For some reason, he thought growing a mullet would be a good idea. I don't know what he was thinking...

Guitar Festival

Reada, Dave and I decided to be cultural last night and check out the International Guitar Festival here in Lima. It has been going on all week and has had people on the program from the US, Finland, Spain and Peru. Last night was a Peruvian musician and a Spanish musician. They have been starting out each concert with a local kid playing as the "opening act", which I think it great. The boy last night was maybe 15 and was really nervous, but he did a great job. The Peruvian guy was pretty amazing - lots of energy and passion. We were looking forward to the Spanish guy, but he ended up being kind of a dud. He played well, but the music had no emotion and got a little long to listen to. Overall, it was great to hear some live, acoustic guitar and do something that felt "cultural". I feel like I used to do tons of cultural things when I lived in Berlin - opera, Philharmonic, museums - and that just doesn't happen here. It is a little more difficult to find out about things and everything isn't quite as easily accessible as it was in Berlin. But last night was nice. It is an annual event, so it will be fun to check out more of it next year.

Orchestra

The second semester is off to a great start at school. It feels so nice to be back at school and to be with my kids again. Though some of them are still in summer beach mode, the majority of them came back ready to work. I've started new music with the symphonic band and the jazz band that I am very excited about - the music is stuff I ordered in August and it just arrived in February. Got to love Peruvian customs!

The exciting news this week is that I found out I will be teaching high school orchestra next year, in addition to my 2 bands and my 2 IB music classes. The orchestra is currently taught by a Peruvian who also teaches elementary strings. The orchestra is small and he chooses music that isn't appropriate for their size or ability level. The concerts can be a little painful. I had mentioned to my principal that I would be interested in doing the orchestra in the future, if the opportunity ever presented itself, and he followed up on it and made it happen this week. I am so excited! I loved teaching orchestra at West and missed working with string kids in Berlin. I think this group has a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do together.

I feel like things are really coming together here. I love the classes I am teaching and taking on the orchestra is another really positive step. It is nice to have the support of my principal and to know that changes can be made when they need to be. They keep making this job sweeter and sweeter - I may never want to leave!

Beautiful Lima

I never thought I would say these words, but Lima is truly beautiful right now. Summer definitely agrees with this city. It was so nice to come back to blue, sunny skies and warm temperatures. I think it also helped that Marc was with me and I had someone to show around Lima. It is a big deal to have my first visitor and show him my life here. We were only in Lima for a total of 4 days, between our trip to the jungle and Marc's trip to Machu Picchu, but we walked around and saw as much of the city as possible.


These photos are from our walk from Miraflores to Barranco. Miraflores is the district I live in, which is right on the ocean, and Barranco is the district directly to the north, also on the coast. The walk along the bluff from Miraflores to Barranco is really nice. We had fun looking at all the apartment buildings and pointing out the ones that were for rent or sale. I'd love to live directly on the coast at some point and Barranco would be a fun place to live. Who knows...
Barranco is the former beach town where all the wealthy Limeans would go during the summer. They built beautiful houses and took trams from Lima to the ocean. It still has an old beach town feel. And lots of people still spend time at the ocean there. We watched people walking up from the beach as we crossed the Bridge of Sighs.








The main square in Barranco is really beautiful. There is a lovely church and lots of neat buildings surrounding it. It appears that the square is the place to be on summer afternoons and evenings. It was packed with people when we were there. It is fun to see everyone just hanging around, enjoying the summer.


I could definitely get used to summer in February. It has been so nice to wear sandals and skirts and just be outside as much as possible. The whole feeling in Lima is different in the summer. Everyone seems really carefree and laid-back. They spend the days at the beach, then come back into the city at night to enjoy the restaurants and bars. It is a great vibe!

Welcome to the jungle...

My friend Marc and I spent 5 days in the Amazon jungle and had an amazing time. We flew to Iquitos, which is in the heart of the jungle, in the north of Peru, then got on a boat and went down the Amazon to the Explorama Lodge. This lodge is where my school takes the entire 8th grade for a class trip in December and I had heard great things about it. The lodge was fabulous!! We had the same guide, Orlando, with us the entire week and he was great! We spent 2 nights at the lodge, then went to another lodge the company runs, Ceiba Tops. Ceiba Tops is essentially the Disney version of the jungle. Our first lodge had no electricity, no flush toilets and only cold water showers. Ceiba Tops had all the amenities, including air conditioning, and a pool and jacuzzi. By the end of the week, it was actually really nice to just hang out in the pool and jacuzzi after being sweaty and hot for 4 days.
As much as we enjoyed Ceiba Tops, both Marc and I liked the lodge better. It just had a great vibe to it. I felt like I was at Wanakee, but in the middle of the jungle. We met some interesting people and hung out with a really fun couple our age from Wisconsin. Everyone else was much, much older - lots of retired people on a South American adventure. The grounds at the lodge were absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. Amazingly enough, it didn't rain in the rain forest. We had sunny, hot, humid weather the entire time - it rained for about 10 minutes while we were on a covered boat coming back from the Canopy Walkway.


One of the highlights of the trip for me was the second to last day when we saw tons of animals. We had been seeing different birds and bugs throughout the week and our guide was great about pointing things out. But at the end of the week we went looking for pink dolphins. They are all over the Amazon and are pink because of all the shrimp they eat. We found a bunch of them and sat in the boat for almost an hour watching them play and jump around. It was so amazing. Then we went to see a sloth and an anaconda, which were both pretty cool. And we finished out the day by going to Monkey Island , where we got to play with the monkeys. There were tons of monkeys running around and they were very friendly. We had fun holding them and just watching them play. It was great to be able to have such close contact with the animals.

Overall, it was a fabulous trip. Orlando was a great guide and Marc and I had a lot of fun. It was a trip I never expected I would take. Who knew I would ever be living in South America and be able to go to the rain forest and see the Amazon. How crazy!! I'm so lucky. It is really
amazing to be able to see the different parts of Peru - Lima in the desert and on the coast, Machu Picchu in the middle of the Andes, and now the jungle and the Amazon. This is an amazing country!

The rest of vacation...

The rest of my time home in the States was wonderful. I had every intention of doing individual posts about the last few weeks, but it just isn't going to happen. So here is a brief overview. I spent a few days with Sarah and Reg and had a great time. Sarah treated me to a spa day that was heavenly. We have decided we are going to go to this spa, in Concord, twice a year as our birthday and Christmas presents to each other. I am already looking forward to our return to the spa in July!


I went up to Wanakee and spent 4 days with Jean and Mike and the kids and that was wonderful. I was lucky enough to be there for Eloise's first birthday and we had a lovely little party. Emerson, Alex and Eloise are fabulous kids and I had so much fun hanging out with them. Alex and I became good buddies and I can't wait to see them all again at camp in July. Jean and I got to spend some good time together, catching up and helping to get her life organized. Jean and Mike are working so hard at Wanakee and with their kids and they are truly amazing. My time with them was just so nice. Check out all the fabulous things they are doing at camp: http://www.wanakee.org/



I flew down to South Carolina the last weekend in January and spent 2 days with Eric. We hadn't seen each other since he was in Berlin last Christmas and I have only been down to his place in SC once, so it was nice to be down there for a few days. I got to meet his girlfriend Emily, who is very nice, and Eric and I just spent some good time together. We took a long, long walk along the river Saturday morning, then Eric made eggplant parmesan (his specialty, and my favorite - it is a little tradition we have to make eggplant when we are together - he cooks and I clean up since we all know I am such a fabulous chef!) and then we went to the South Carolina symphony. It was a quick trip, but so great to see him and to catch up.

The first weekend in February, I spent the night in Boston and went to a Josh Ritter concert with Karen, which was great. If you have never heard him, you should check him out. http://www.joshritter.com/ We saw him in Berlin last year and loved him, so I was pretty excited to see that he was playing in Boston while I was home. The concert was great and it was fun to see Karen again before I left. Saturday morning I got up and drove to New York to see Nathan and Jennifer. They have bought a house outside of Albany and I really wanted to see it, and them, before I left. Their new house is wonderful - it has tons of character and cute little features. And it was so great to see them! Nathan and I have been friends basically our entire lives and it is always great to hear how they are doing. We went out for yummy Indian food (Jennifer was very brave and actually liked her chicken curry dish) and just hung out with the dogs on Saturday. Sunday was the Superbowl, so Nathan made a big pot of chili with tofu (what a good friend!) and some of their friends came over. It was great to just chill out and be with them. I left Monday morning and drove 7 hours back to Maine, which felt like it took forever, but I finally made it. I spent my last week and a half with Mom and Dad, relaxing, writing papers for grad school, making plans for Marc and I's jungle trip and finishing up last minute shopping.

It was wonderful to be home for such a long time and I am so glad I got to see everyone. Home is very nice!! I always enjoyed coming home from Berlin, but this trip home felt even better. I'm looking forward to being back in NH in July and seeing everyone again!

Boston

The week after Christmas I headed down to Boston to visit everyone. I basically saw friends from all aspects of my life, with the exception of Wanakee. I spent my first day in the city hanging out with Reada and Dave, which was so much fun. It was a little crazy to be hanging out with my Lima friends in Boston! But it was so great to see them. I had dinner Thursday night with Karen and Rosemary, my friends from Berlin. It was fun to catch up with them and just be reminded how lucky I was to make such fabulous friends while I was in Berlin. I also had dinner one night with my friend Marc, who is originally from Manchester. He and I met at music camp in high school (he is a percussionist too) and we've known each other for something like 15 years. We've kept in touch all these years and it is always great to see him. And he usually takes me to yummy Thai restaurants, so that makes me very happy! I spent the rest of the weekend with Nicole and her husband Joshua. Nicole and I have been friends since first grade and have kept in touch through years of living in different places. She is a wonderful friend and I love that we can always just pick up wherever we are, regardless of how much time has gone by.

However, I was having such a good time with everyone that I didn't take very many pictures. Reada, Dave and I played tourist on Thursday afternoon, so here are some pictures from our day of wandering around Boston.


Wagamama is coming to Boston!! I am so excited. I love this restaurant - it is a great noodle place that I've only seen in Europe.







Reada and Dave, looking cute in Boston.


We checked out the cemetery where Sam Adams is buried. I love old New England cemeteries.


Reada and I made Dave go into Victoria's Secret so we could shop their sale. It was Dave and about 25 women fighting over low price underwear and bras. He was a good sport.

New Years Eve

I spent New Years Eve in Epping with my brother Marc and his girlfriend Megan. Our favorite restaurant in town is called Zampas and they had an amazing dinner on New Years. It was just one seating, so there were about 35 of us at the restaurant, and the food was amazing. Good food and good wine makes me very happy! After the dinner, we went to the house of the owners of the restaurant (they are from town and have a huge house with apartments where Marc used to live) and had some drinks and hung out, then set off fireworks in the field at midnight. It was a pretty low-key night, but I had a great time.

My piano

When I was 5 years old, my parents bought me a piano so I could start taking lessons. They bought my piano from this old man who owned a piano barn in Wells, Maine and the piano they ended up getting was an old player piano. The piano guy gave them the old player part, which wasn't actually inside the piano at this point. For years and years the player piece sat in our attic and was never put back into the piano. My parents even moved the player piece when we left the house in Epping, though my dad and my brother were tempted to get rid of it at many points. When Mom and Dad got to Maine, a man in Mom's church told her about a piano restorer who could restore the piano AND put the player part back in AND get it to work. Two years ago, he took the piano and we just got it back 2 days after Christmas. It was the best Christmas gift I received! My piano was originally black and in okay shape, but nothing fabulous. Little did we know that under the black lacquer there was mahogoney! This piano is now absolutely gorgeous. And the player piece is back in int for the first time in who knows how many years and it works perfectly. It was so neat to hear and see it playing on its own for the first time. You have to move pedals at the bottom of the piano to get the roll going so it can play and it is really a lot of work to get it going. It is so amazing!


The inside of the piano with all the player parts in it. How neat is that?

The piano in all it's beautiful glory. I can't believe this is my piano! I think I am going to have a hard time getting it back from Mom when I am ready to have it in my own house. :) She loves it now.

Christmas

After an insanely long day of traveling from Lima (23 hours!!), I arrived at my parents house in Maine and spent the week around Christmas hanging out with them and enjoying the quiet Maine life.


My adorable parents - Mom wanted me to take some pictures for them to possibly use for Christmas cards next year. This one is just too cute. My parents have been married for 36 years and it is nice to see how much they still love each other.


On the Wednesday after Christmas we went to Bar Harbor for the day. It is always fun to be there in the winter and see how different it is from the Bar Harbor I am used to in the summer. And only in Maine would you see a Christmas tree made out of lobster traps. This one is put up every year at this lobster shack right before the brige to Mount Desert Island. I love it!