Our Apartment!

Wahoo! We just got an email telling us that our apartment lease has been signed and will be ready for us when we get to Lima next month. The flat is in San Isidro, across from a golf course. We had originally hoped to be near the school so we wouldn't have to drive, but it turns out that taxis will be cheap in the morning, and there is a bus that takes teachers home in the afternoon. For now, since there's no need to drive, we'll skip the car and live a little further (15 minutes) from school.

San Isidro is quite a nice area of Lima. We are about 2 blocks from a wonderful street of shops and a huge variety of restaurants. We discovered that we could, if we wouldn't mind eating delicious sushi every day, get by on Japanese if our Spanish never takes off . Having 20 embassies within a mile means that the area is heavily secured. The side-effect (or positive externality says the economics teacher) is that walking around is really pleasant with wide sidewalks and loads of little parks and trees. It is really beautiful, and we can't wait to move in!

Even though our building is not going to win any awards for exterior
architecture, we love the inside. It is a brick building with a tiny lobby. When we first visited, the doorman escorted us up to the seventh floor in the mini-elevator (capacity - 4 people!). When the elevator doors opened, there was another closed door for which he had a key. That door opens right into our apartment. Pretty neat! It is a 2 bedroom flat with a living room, office/TV room, kitchen, and 2.5 bathrooms in the living area. Three of the rooms look out onto the Lima Golf Course - what a view! It's hard to believe we can look at that much green grass in a metropolitan area of 9 million people!

There is another bathroom and a small bedroom past the kitchen. This is Ana's area, who I mentioned in the last blog. She worked for another teaching couple for the past few years, and will cook, clean, do laundry and take care of grocery shopping on the days she is there. She'll work at the apartment of another teacher the other two days each week. We're expected to hire a helper so that we can contribute back to the economy. Unlike some of our US politicians, we will pay into the national retirement and healthcare system on her behalf.

We're in Phoenix for the next month, packing and selling our worldly possessions. We'll head back to Lima mid-July, so look for more posts then. Thanks for visiting our blog!

June: Our First Trip

We just got back from Lima yesterday. We spent 4 days getting the hang of things - visiting the school, learning the roads, checking out stores, getting ourselves fingerprinted at Interpol, and finding an apartment. Wow! We are so impressed with everything. There is so much more than either of us expected.

SCHOOL
FDR is a beautiful school. There are several buildings on campus, and several up for renovation in the next few years. The buildings are earmarked for each age group. There is a school for pre-school, another for elementary (K-5), one for middle school, and the last for HS. There are additional buildings for admin, the swimming pool, the library (awesome!), the elementary gym, the high school gym, and for facilities and HR. Instead of a cafeteria, there are a couple of food stands where you can purchase snacks, but most people bring their lunches. Everyone eats outside, where there are tables, lots of green areas, soccer fields, a track, tennis courts, and basketball courts.



FOOD
The food at restaurants is also fantastic. We indulged...the seafood is stellar, and the mix of cuisines is unbelievable. There are Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, African, and indigenous ingredients and influences, tons of fruits and veggies, European breads and cheeses. We can't wait - but we will have to get serious about exercising!The grocery stores have everything you could possibly need or want. The restaurants are plentiful and there are so many varieties. The fruit/veggie/fish/meat market we visited was full of fresh foods and so much color. It was, in addition to mouth-watering, photogenic.

HOME
The apartment we found needs a coat of paint, but is going to be perfect. We looked at several in an area called San Isidro, where you can walk around and visit lots of boutique shops and restaurants. I think there are about 20 embassies in the neighborhood, so there is an abundance of security. We're waiting to hear on lease confirmation, so more on the apartment once we get the green light.

We met our empleada, Ana, and it sounds like we will have her three days a week to cook, do laundry, shop and clean. Does life get any better than that? If we had kids, we would have a full-time nanny! We will be so spoiled!


We have a month or so before we leave. Now we have to buckle down and get serious about our Spanish for a month, pack up and ship/store/sell the rest of our stuff, and get our cars sold & house rented out. This is so exciting and we are thrilled with our decision. We'll update our blog again when we hear about the apartment, so you can check out those pictures later this week.