More culture babblings

So the entire reason I wrote the post about being Peruvian is because the other day I sat down to eat a chicken breast and, to cut it, I pulled out a butter knife instead of a steak knife. Now, here in Peru, you will be hard pressed to go to a restaurant and find a steak knife, even for the toughest of meats. They will ALWAYS give you a butter knife to cut your meat. So that thought process got me thinking of how much I've changed, especially since I sat down to cut my meat with a butter knife when there is a perfectly good knife in the drawer. But wouldn't you know it, I wrote the entire post and I forgot to include the defining moment:

I am officially Peruvian because I cut my meat with a butter knife!

And now I am Peruvian because instead of shopping at one store to by all of my stuff, John and I go from Mercado to Mercado, store to store wheeling and dealing to get the best prices. We spent all morning buying party supplies and boy was it difficult. It is nothing like walking into Wal-mart or Target, grabbing your stuff and going. You have to search for what you want by asking the woman behind the counter because you aren't allowed to touch anything, haggle prices, shop and compare, wait for them to confirm if they actually have the item or not, etc... And it's super hot, there are a lot of people and lots of words that we don't know the names for. I was SOOOO missing Wal-mart and Dollar Tree this morning. So what I could've done in 1 hour or less in Wal-Mart took us about 4 hours here. But the good news is that my Empleada is here to help me clean, cut veggies and fruits and get ready for the party. So even though so much time was wasted this morning, think of what I am saving with her valuable help! She is even going to come tomorrow, on her normal day off, to help before, during and after the fiesta. Normally a grandma, aunt or friend would help in this area, but since we are overseas, it's just Maria to the rescue and since I'm paying her, I don't need to feel guilty one bit.

The baby is now done nursing, so I am off to prepare for the FIESTA!!!