Some Lighter Observations

1. Ronald McDonald gets around. I saw the fast food clown the other day giving a presentation to children on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Right after handing out Happy Meals to the crowd, he said,¨and remember children, we are not defined by what we eat. We´re defined by what we do.¨ In addition to this poignant insight I also learned that Ronald MacDonald only speaks Spanish and has the voice of a heavy smoker. Maybe that´s why he never talks in the US.

2. The look people often give me when I try to speak to them in Spanish is remarkably similar to the look Jeopardy contestants give when they don´t know the Daily Double question (complete with eyebrow scrunching and head shaking).

3. Saint Judas in Spanish actually refers to Saint Jude, not the disciple who betrayed Christ. In light of this new information, the massive procession in his honor last Friday seems a lot less creepy.

4. I´m not very good at soccer. I sometimes play with guys from work on Thursday afternoons and there´s a father-son duo that joins us. The son is 11 years old and schools me pretty much every time. For a while people thought I was being gracious by letting him score a few goals and steal the ball from me, but I think they´re catching on.

5. Military time can make for long afternoons. I got back from lunch the other day a little past one and to my horror realized that I had to work until 17 o´clock. I can handle an 8-5 no problem, but with this 8-17 stuff, I gotta be in bed by 23 at the latest.

6. There is a subtle but very important difference between a tomato and a Peruvian hot red pepper. Also, embarrassing stories travel around the office incredibly quickly.

7. I´m taller than most Peruvians. I discovered this when trying to sit down on a bus and discovering I am in fact capable of touching my knees to my shoulders. When I enter houses with small children, the mothers often tell their children that I must have drank a lot of milk growing up. Because I don´t know how to say ¨lactose intolerant¨ in Spanish and because I want to counteract the troubling public health message propogated by Ronald McDonald, I go along with it.