Still a sol

I'm going to teach again in Peru. In fact, I'm here now, and will get my teaching schedule next week. Saw some of the old gang, and renewed acquaintances. Good stuff. I'm here again, really, because timing seems to be everything. The day after I committed to return to Arequipa, I got an email to interview for a teaching job in Turkey that I had applied for a couple of weeks before. It was in a town called Gaziantep, one of the oldest cities in the world located fairly close to the Syrian border. I had to tell them I had taken a job in Peru. On my way down here, a friend texts me with a strong lead on a job in the Delaware public school system. I had to tell him I was on my way to Peru (actually I got the message while hanging around the Miami airport). My trip here started with a very pleasant train ride from Wilmington, Del., to Baltimore. The flight from BWI to Miami was smooth, as was the flight from Miami to Lima. But I was just a bit tardy for my Lima to Arequipa flight and had to hang around the Lima airport for 12 hours until the next flight. That flight got delayed an hour, just for spite I think, but I made it to Arequipa 6 p.m. Wednesday. I left Delaware 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. I arrived at Juan's house where I'll be living again, but he wasn't home yet, so I wandered down to the Puente Grau and saw the anticuchos lady and young Guadalupe. Smiles and high-fives all the way around. And four anticuchos sticks as well. A man's got to eat. Went back to Juan's and got settled in my room (it's not the same room I had, which is fine. My old room bordered the street and the action sometimes got a little noisy). Today, I had lunch (beef soup, cow stomach, rice with potatoes) with landlord Juan at a lunch-only place on our street, and Juan even picked up the 7-sol tab. We're going to have lunch at a new place tomorrow. Saw the guy who owns the little shop on the corner, and he joked that I'm losing my fluency in English. Not much has really changed in the six months I've been away. Six pieces of very good pan de tres puntos (a kind of roll) is still a sol. Anticuchos is still a sol a stick. Juan still plays opera, and the trash truck still rings its bells loudly at 7 a.m. It's great to be back. Weather is great, of course. Needed a light jacket last night. Sunny and pleasant today. It'll be that way until the rainy season starts late December. Did I mention it's great to be back? I've posted a picture of a Hamilton (made only in Peru) cigarette pack cover to shock all of my young readers into never smoking. They're on all the brands here and some are pretty graphic and nasty.