Dinos, cafe, and SUN!

Lima's pretty solid- but the best part is the ready-made ex-pat community that's totally got my back. For example, Ladan helped me turn pretend to be a dinosaur!

(Okay, really she just took me to a salon where they could remove the gel manicure from the wedding, but tinfoil fingers are *just like* dino claws.) She's also helped me get my footing with grocery shopping and invited me to a girls movie night. It's really nice to feel like I fit and that people want me to be part of their friend circle. Today she's helping me with more shopping- my meager wardrobe needs supplemented (and soon!) with nice pants shoes that are 'rainy season' appropriate.

Another friendly face- Sarah lives downstairs and she introduced me to Lima cafes and massages- two things greatly appreciated after such a full week. She also organized a trip to find the SUN this past weekend! Winter in Lima is miserable- it's constantly foggy and the sun really does disappear for MONTHS! Coming from a beautiful, hot summer in DC that was nice for maybe a day but after 5, I was eager to see the sun again and my new Lima friends were desperate! So we drove out of the city to Mesa de Piedra with a couple other (super friendly) families for the day- and yes, they do have stone tables! (Pics are on Dave's camera so I'll have to add some later.)

Home in Lima

It's amazing how instantly things like checking email makes things back-to-normal. We got back to Lima late last night, Dave went back to work this morning, and I unpacked all day. I pretty much have it all done too! (At least for now- we'll have two more much more intensive unpacks when the various shipments arrive.) In that process I realized that, aside from 2 pairs of jeans, I somehow managed to forget to pack weather-appropriate pants and shoes... I might have to sort out Lima shopping quicker than I planned!

I don't have many pictures yet from the wedding yet, but the flowers were delightful:

And my mom's family's exuberance was caught on film (or pixels...):

It really was a perfect wedding-  not because the flowers were pretty, the weather was incredible, and we got the words out through the tears, but because it was totally a celebration of love and joy with friends and family. And we got a llama :)

And the Journey Begins!

Tomorrow, Dave and I are off to Lima and Dave's apartment becomes OUR home! Poor Riley won't know what to do with himself!

I've been moving myself slowly since mid-June (with the exception of sending a crockpot and rug back with Dave in April- priorities!), which has made for a relatively low stress move but also makes today's finally being here feel surreal. Tomorrow, it's back to winter and sweaters- Lima's incredibly foggy all winter long, central heat doesn't exist but the 50s are cold enough that you want it, and windows are sealed. I might just have to break out that crockpot...

-j'net