keithtom.com

i found it pretty easy to jump back into peru life. surprisingly easy – pretty much like i never left. there is something about this place that resonates with me. it feels right just walking the streets, almost like the whole place just makes sense. its hard to describe.

although, i have to say, for good or bad, lima is becoming increasingly americanized at an astonishing rate. i don’t very much like it. in fact, i don’t think i have many pics of lima because all the big malls and fancy places just make me feel like i’m in a fancy place in north america. good for lima i guess. but it feels like its headed for a consumer craze and i just don’t believe that will be good in the long run.

at least i was still able to do what i wanted, we went to the beach, ate some really tasty ceviche and had a ton of fresh fruit drinks. saw some friends but mostly family on this trip. we had some things planned out that just didn’t seem to work out, but i guess next time. this trip was more like living in peru than being a tourist (i.e. no dancing in the streets – although i did dance at this other festival and get to take an axe to a tree as part of the tradition).

my spanish improved greatly during this trip. i’ve reached a critical mass of vocabulary where i can learn most words from my existing ones. i can even talk on my own with strangers. i’m pretty happy about that. i want to start really learning with classes or rosetta stone. up till now, its been pretty informal – but my french has helped. it’d be nice/fun if i could learn another language but i guess i shouldn’t think about that yet…

i dont think i’ve had time to fully digest what it is i like here. and unfortunately i dont think i will get much time. i had to put this post up quickly because tomorrow, i’m headed for lima in the morning and traveling back to columbus at night. and just for a short while, because i’m off to San Francisco! I’ll be hanging out with some other hackers (including Kevin!! wewt) and probably doing the exact opposite of this peru life – i’ll probably be online 24/7 and totally connected. quite a contrast i’ve set myself up for, maybe it’ll help highlight what i like and dont like…

horseback riding


more pics

i’ve been a running around a lot the past while but haven’t really made time to update this blog, sorry about that.

gaby returned to columbus yesterday =( and i’m going solo in peru now – nah, not really. i’m staying with her family so this is pretty mild adventure-wise. te quiero mucho mi gatita.

today
I played a pretty sad game of soccer. catastrophic actually. now, let me go through this slowly. I’m not that into soccer, and here in south america it’s kinda of a big deal – no wait, its a test of manliness, which is extremely important here. next, let me also say first, that in north america, I can run a mile in ten minutes and that’s nothing to brag about – but here, literally after 8 seconds of running, you can’t catch your breath because of the altitude (it would happen to you too!).

i dont need to go into the details too much but i can paint the picture that describes the next 30 pitiful minutes. it was a family game – which is another way of saying i was playing with 12 year olds. 12 year olds who live here and like soccer (just a reminder). the real cherry on top was their goalie was a 5 year old child. now let me elaborate on that last point for a bit, because it deceptively increases the difficulty of the game. for someone like me, who has no control over a soccer ball, having a 5 year old goalie is like being the tank driver at tiananmen square. sure i can launch the ball and let it fly in anyway, but I don’t really want to knock the 5 year old in the face. i can imagine myself apologizing in broken spanish to the whole family – it’d look like the stereotypical japanese business man saying ‘excuse me, excuse me’. needless to say, i was giving some pretty girly kicks whenever the opportunity came – not manly at all. our team lost in the end. but even after all that, it was still fun.

I went horseback riding for the second time! the first was last week (pictures coming up). and did a few laps around a track on a 4×4. really fun. now i’m relaxing, trying to kick the last bit of this cough and i’ve picked up the alchemist. i did a poor job of reading here, but i guess it was foolish of me to think i would. i have the feeling the alchemist is going to blow me away. just reading the back and the introduction fills me with excitement. i’ve also been rereading the start of hackers and painters which has been motivating, inspiring and thought-provoking each time (its not just for programmers btw, just anyone interested in technology, which should be everyone since its everywhere anyway). i still haven’t finished it though, i hope it keeps delivering. if i had a must-read-book-list, it’d be on it.

k i’ll start uploading photos of the past couple weeks. much to talk about too, so i’ll probably put them in another blog. but the short version – i really like it here… enough to entertain some thoughts that some would think drastic.

so today i’m off to peru – at the airport now, should arrive there at midnight. its been a bit hectic and i think its only starting to set in. i’m hoping it isn’t too hot.

so far the plans include lots of beach and seafood in lima. we’ll probably spend a decent amt of time in huancayo, which is a smaller town and i dont know if we’ll be able to visit the jungle since some recent floods destroyed the roads. i’m still not sure how my last week solo will go, but i imagine worst case i’ll be hanging out in lima with some of gaby’s family.

i’ll try to post more pics this time. ttyl.

You can grab the original file in its highest quality here. That’s thanks to Vimeo for the free file hosting.

Thanks to Viddler for also hosting free high quality videos; but I like vimeo’s embbeded player since they don’t force their logo.

okay this is my 8 minute video that took me about a day to edit. i wish youtube had better quality. maybe i’ll find a better video host another time.

i gotta say, this makes me want to buy a camcorder before i goto peru again. making some nice hd videos would be awesome and its so easy to edit with imovie.

after thinking for about a day, i bought a ticket for montreal. i’m heading back for about 2.5 weeks.

arrive: feb 24 depart: march 11

which is a week before peru (march 17).

i gotta get my shit in order… cya.

I couldn’t find out how to make the description appear in the embed slideshow, so you can click here if you want to see everything.