Back to the Desert

I may still be shakin' the dust outta my hair and blinking sand from my eyes, but man did I have a terrific time camping in the desert this weekend.

I rallied up a group of teachers and made it a plan to head out to the tallest dune in the UAE. Like many records kept, this is both official yet contested, some say the tallest dune is neighboring the one we were on, but for my books, I'm checking this destination off the list.

I tried to hike up the steep side of the dune, but I only made it 3/4 up, and then ran back down. However, there were a few that made it up all the way.  Here's Milad (foreground) and Sherah (back) conquering the one-step-forward-two-steps-back challenge up the hill.

Determined to get to the top, I thought of an alternative way by taking a cue from my momma. I chatted up one of the dudes in a dune buggy and made a friend. Wouldn't you know it, but Ahmed offered me a ride and we skirted around the dunes, up the back side over winding peaks, and popped up to the top!  It was quite the view and an excellent drive.

 

 

The sandy action didn't stop there, we caravaned back down the road (and it is the road as it's the only tarmac for miles and miles) and Blair staked out a spot to call home for the evening. After pitching our tents and getting the fire going, we climbed up a high dune and watched the last of the sun set.

Although I promised a peaceful evening away from city lights and traffic noise, my word was quickly made mud as a noisy four-wheeler spotted our fire and found us up on the dune. With a friendly wave and a smile, I hopped another ride and surfed over the sands again.  Our driver Mohammed was part mad-man part Formal One driver (maybe one in the same?) and showcased his manic moves on the sides of the dunes. We were at 60 degree angles and still on four wheels.  I'm not quite sure how those physics work out, but I'll just take it as a fun time.

Within thirty minutes of the sun setting behind the dunes, the stars were out and then suddenly a mess of ATVs were all around us. None of these stopped, but they too showed off their driving skills and popped wheelies and chased each other across the dunes.

Finally, we headed back to the fire, cooked some veggies and settled in for the night. Milad settled in a little more than others and snuggled his whole body into the warm sand.  Buried alive and loving it!

The next morning we woke to the sunrise and enjoyed the quiet. Then we piled back in the cars and hightailed back to showers and sand-free living.  What a relaxing weekend, and we're doing it again for the winter solstice in late December.

My First Visitors in Madinat Zayed

As you may know, Madinet Zayed is here. Jill and Molly get mad credit for coming ALL THE WAY from Abu Dhabi to visit me in the boonedocks of the UAE.

Photo by Molly

Being the fab hostess that I am, I took them on a tour of the town and I even saw some new sights. Including the bumper cars at the giant park in town.  Whoo, party city!

 Which also boasted some lovely flowers that matched Molly's outfit.  Perfect.

Later we skdaddled outta town and headed south to the real desert for sunset.

Jill had her camera ready in case any snakes were to attack, that way people would believe us (for the record, none did, bummer).

The sand is really soft and looks lovely in any light, but especially at dusk.

 

 

We found a spot that suited our fancy about 100 yards away from the tarmac, plopped down our chairs and called it home for the night.

 Photo by Jill, fire by me

 Thanks for coming out to see me girls!  We'll do it again this weekend!

Gifts

As it happens, people like to be my friend even in far away places like Abu Dhabi. Some woo me with just their company, and others like to throw in some presents. I'm not complaining, here are some of my favorites...

First up, Jill, my gal pal extraordinaire amazed me with this lovely hand-embrodiered dish towel. It's fantastic stuff, it's red too, to match my kitchen.


The script reads, "Insh'Allah", which means "God willing". To those of you that might not be familiar with Arabic language or Islamic culture, this is the tag-on phase to anything refered to in the future.

For example, during the teacher prep days at the beginning of school I ask my principal, "So the students come on Sunday?" She replies, "Yes Sunday, but Wednesday, ish'allah." Meaning, that hopefully none of the kids would show up for another week so we didn't have to start before the end of the Muslim holiday.

Another example, "So we get paid on the 28th of every month?" To which the payroll dude replies, "Ish'Allah."

Or, "Let's go camping this weekend!" "Ish'Allah!"

Everything gets its tag.

Another gift was some fish!
There's this guy that works at the travel agency at the mall across the street from my apartment building. He is quite taken with myself and another teacher, mostly in part because we are Western ladies, go figurah.

I get this call two weeks ago on Thursday (my last day of school for the week).
Hello?
"Hello! Miss Frances, how are you?!"
"I'm fine, thank you. Who's this?"
"Ali! Where are you, at home or at work?"
"I'm home now."
"Okay, you like fish? I bring you fish."
"Yeah, I like fish."
"Okay, five minutes, five minutes. I come."
"Ummmm, okay!"

So Ali comes by and pulls out about 15 pounds of baked and seasoned fish that he requested to be prepared for us at the fish market. It was delicious, if not boney. Mmm.


Then, it happened again last week. This time it was about three times as much, with crabs, shrimp, and calimari (not as good as my Aunt Maria's and Uncle Paul's at the Daily Catch in Boston though). Behold!


Photo courtesy of Blair Hoover, our host for the evening.

There was waaaaaaaay too much food. So the weekend goes by, and Blair and I spent the afternoon crackin' the shells open, pullin' the meaty bits out, and throwing it in a pot with lots of veggies. Two pints of cream and some salt and pepper later, we had delicious seafood stew. It was bangin'!

There are more presents, but I haven't taken pictures of those yet. As a teaser, I will mention that these include balloons, roses, tape, tires, motor oil, and grease. And no, it's not my debut as roller derby chicken car princess, you'll just have to wait and see.

Chez Moi

Finally, here is the most happenin' place in town, the New Teachers' Apartment Building behind City Mall. We're kinda a big deal around here.


I'm on the fourth floor to the left. When I ordered my dining room set from a local shop, the owner filled out a form for the delivery, so I asked, "Oh, you need my address still?!" "No," Omran replied, "You're new teacher. We know where you live." Such is life in a tiny town, it's toeing a skinny line between awesome and creepy.

I painted my apartment. I'm still waiting on a delivery of furniture to filly out the empty spaces, but it's starting to feel like my place.

My living room and dining room. I've had some dinner parties, but I can't really hang out just to watch the tv. Call me my mother's daughter, it's okay.


My bedroom in blue! I love it. Super serene and calming at the end or beginning of any day.
My office/guest room, it's my favorite room in the apartment. I think in part because it's my size (small) and it has a million colors in it, just like me! (erg, what?)


Now that I've got color, it's low lighting, plants, and wall interest up next on the decor list. Sway sway...little little as the locals say.

School

Despite my being quiet on the interwebs these last couple of weeks. I have been quite busy. I've finally started to feel like I'm settling into my classes and apartment, and now I'm on a plane leaving. Ha! Ain't it the way.

In any case, my classes are still ridiculous. My girls are wild, silly, frustrating, tyrants, but shoot, they're cute at least ten percent of the time. Which isn't much, but it's an ego trip way they tackle each other so they can hold my hand at the front of the line. Yeah, I'm pretty popular, and apparently pretty boring as evidenced here by this first grader:
We learned the names of our face bits. Once I taught the girls the Hokey Pokey, they like to include putting not only our right hands in, but also our noses, chins, mouths, and eyes. I'm still working on shakin' my ears all about.



We had S day for phonetics. Together we made snails, snakes, suns, and spiders. Check out their handy work:


I requested to get some boxes to organize our classroom supplies. A place for the pencils, erasers, glue, scissors, you get the idea. I was expecting some plastic tupperware style containers, but that's about the furtherest thing from what I received. This is Emiratie style right here folks:


Note the poem:

Sad love, it breaks my heart. I thought about covering it. But I think it might encourage the girls to learn English.

Tour de Zayed: Dig my New Digs

Buckle your seat beats folks! I'm taking you on the whirl wind tour of my new home: Madinet Zayed.

Known to locals as Bida Zayed, it has it charms: desert, dunes, and camel farms hanging outside the city proper. But the attractions inside the city are on the list for today, and all the crazy times will keep you busy. For instance, Al Dharfar Co-Operative Society. I buy my peanut butter here.

And right across the street (and I do mean the street cuz there is only one main thoroughfare) I can get my money at National Bank of Abu Dhabi, aka NBAD, which is just a sweet acronym.

Neighboring the bank is the town clinic. Which also houses the fish market....I haven't figured that one out yet, but supposedly they carry a very fresh selection of prawns.

All that green stuff is maintained quite nicely by a host of immigrant workers. They work from about 4am break at about noon, then sit out until 8pm when they have at it again until 11 or 12. If someone doesn't water and plant, then the landscape is a little more like this:
And yes, that's fog.

Despite the lack of landscape interest, the sunrises are particularly beautiful. This really doesn't capture the sense of color or beauty the sun brings at 6:30am, but check it out all the same...

It's so refreshing to see the sun rise from the start. In New York I didn't get a glimpse until noon.

And on the flip side, sunset.

Next up, my school courtyard where the girls run crazy during snack break.

The black stone thingy in the foreground has a ton of sand in it. The workers spent about three days refinishing the stone work and then loading sand in it. They've been like that for about three weeks. It's been promised that there'll be plantings, but eh, sway sway as the locals say, "little, little!" Work happens in due time, if at all.

And my classroom where the girls run crazy during instruction time.

Note the bulletin board header in the background, "Look what we did!" Yes, that space is blank beneath it...eh, teaching and learning are not exactly happening all the time. It's mostly just classroom management, "Sit down! SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN NOOOOOOW!" I'm finding my big teacher voice more quickly than I'd like. Little steps.

Coming Along

Excitement of the day: I was the classroom hero because I caught the little lizard that leap from my bag. I think it wanted to know what that delicious American peanut was all about and had been hanging out just trying to get a taste of it. I didn't see any miniscule teeth marks on my pb lid, but hey, I bet its' tongue is pretty fierce combat, and busted that gecko up!

Lemme just say that despite my miraculous feat, I get no respect from those girls. Up until the they set foot in school (most not until the age of 6) they've had no discipline. I mean zero. They do what they want when they want and they want to keep it that way. The parents don't seem to care, and the nannies don't want to lose their job, so they don't say anything. I'm totally the bad guy now, because everything is "No! Sit down! Stop! Listen!" I feel absolutely wretched: for the first time in all my three(!) years of teaching, I raised my voice to a kid. And it wasn't just once, I was at the top of my threshold of patience and puttin' up with x y and zed all day long. Eh, nasty stuff.

Nonetheless, there were some highlights during the day. For instance, I got the girls rolling on some fun activities that they seemed to go for. Like reading books with me, mimicking movements and naming colors. Tomorrow we're going to do shapes, I'm hoping that they can figure out what a triangle is if I flip a right triangle on its side. Such anticipation as the adventure continues!!

In other news, I'm in my apartment, yay! Granted I am camping out on my lovely thermarest until my bed gets here (two weeks more!), but it feels good not to be shlepping my two years of baggage from five star hotel to four star back to five. Life gets rough without one's kitchen, and that beautiful breakfast buffet was doing a number on my hips... ha! I'm happy, and I'm working on settling in.

Teacher! Finsihed!

First Day of School

Well it was really the third, but it was the first with students, so I'll take it as the first day.

I'm trying to remember my first day of 2nd grade... I was living in the Florida Keys with my family. My brothers and I took the super sneaky backway (trudging through neighbors hydranga brushes primarily) to get to our bus stop. I had on my favorite hooded sweater, this nasty army paint shirt my mom used to wear. I thought that I was going to be teased on the bus because I wore glasses, but I wasn't. HOwever, someone could have told me that is wasn't cool to wear my glasses' sport band over my shoulder. It really wasn't fancy.

In any case, I got to my class, and when roll was called, I didn't know what to do. So I stood up and walked over to my teacher's desk to ask her why she called me. She looked at me funny, and told just to say "here!" I felt dumb.

Today was my first day of second grade again. And it was rough. The girls were super unruly (it's not me, I swear!) and I had come short on my patience by the fourth hour. Luckily, I only had one more to go, and so I set us to the great task of coloring birds to decorate the class. The students have a horrible habit of raising their hands and shouting, "TEACHER! FINISHED!!" Which is my cue to come over, praise their beautiful choice of colors, and tell them what to do next. They have a hard time of just sitting still and waiting. I'm gonna have to get this kiddoes into shape.

So I stayed 6 hours after the final bell to plan for the next day. Although I was able to put up calendars, helpers chart, a behavior system, and a class promise....I hardly planned for the next day. Consequently, I think I'm just gonna drill on the rules, expected behavior, and if any one of them yells TEACHER FINISHED! I'm gonna take their clothespin off the green smiley and onto the yellow serious face. Then they'll know I mean business.

FINISHED!!

out West for the first time

Hi again! I'm still alive and doing well in the UAE. And I have BIG news: I worked!

For real!

Haha, just kidding. Well, not entirely. Here's the scoop.

I went to my school today! Yay! After a lovely and adventurous two hour bus ride from Abu Dhabi to Midanet Zayed (whur? google earth: Liwa and then look about 30 miles north, that's me), I was greeted by my advisor, Anne, and she took me round town and introduced me to my principal. I'm pumped to meet the people I'm going to be working with. Everyone has just been lovely. However, I'm sure many Westerns would think the same as I because the first half hour was just niceties. Even after that, we didn't "get down to business, nah, instead I sat, chatted, and stared at the timetable of the next eight months of my life.

My schedule is pretty demanding. I am going to be teaching 24 one-hour periods a week. Half are first grade, the other half second. Plus, I'm assigned a planning hour at the end of the week. And...well...but...actually, that's it! That's the extent of my work day. Let's do the math together class:
24x1+1=25
Good! So that's my work week. Five hours a day, Sunday through Thursday. And I get paid full time for it. Believe it or not, my skeptical American companions, I'm working double amount of many of the other teachers. So I'll be slaving away while they play table tennis, or drink coffee, or don't bother to come to work because their cousin is getting married next month. I am the new high standard folks. People are looking up to my example. Crazy I know.

Despite the light hours in class, I'm expecting that I'll actually be doing a lot and taking a lot of out of class time to prepare my classroom, create lessons, and make supports for the chil'rens. My school is pretty well equipped compared to most others. Al Drafrah can pride itself on furniture, like desks(!), for the students, a library with English books (appropriate for young Muslim girls, including the absence of any books showing boys and girls playing together, or aliens), there are computers (internets too!), a play area minus the play ground equipment, and somewhere in there, I think there are plans for smartboards for the fine staff.

My newly painted sky blue classroom will be cleaned this weekend and the furniture will be installed, as well as some bulletin boards. I'm really excited for the bulletin boards, especially I found out that I'll be able to take pictures of my students and post them in the school. For awhile I didn't think it would be allowed, but my principal Salama says that she likes this and it is, "No problem!"

From what I understand, there aren't any photocopies in place besides the ones purchased two years ago aren't very nice anymore. So the school just bought some new ones. However, there are several lovely women who are happy to make me coffee or tea should I like it. Apparently, if I make coffee for myself it would be very insulting because I would be stepping on the toes of their job.

So my work today, was really just a tour of my school, meeting my principal, and getting a disorientation about the whole gig. Oh, and after that, my advisor and her colleauges treated us to a terrific lunch at one of the teacher's villas. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with these slightly-older-than-me-expat-ladies.

For now, I'm just waiting to move into my new apartment on Monday. I have the keys, just no furniture, and that's my job. I'm just gonna camp out there until I'm ready to get the work crew together to doll up my white walls in ridiculous colors. I dunno, I have too much creativity considering interior decorating, especially for a two bed, two bath, living rm/dining rm, and kitchen. That's more space than I've ever had, and it's gonna get crazy! Especially because out west where I'll be, there isn't a lotta life outside my apartment. So whatever I make of it, is what I get. And I'm doing my best to make it fantastic.

Finally, it almost goes without saying, I'm looking forward to meeting my students. School might start on Wednesday, but if the moon isn't quite right, we might hold off until next Sunday. Oh, the mysteries of the lunar calendar.

First of all, I made it to the UAE for those of you who didn't get the word that I am still alive. Better yet, I'm happy here and I'm really digging the place, my colleagues, and looking forward to more!

My Hotel: A Top Floor Room with a Majestic View

So what's going on. Well, it seems as though the government here in Abu Dhabi takes much better care of its employees than what I would expect in the US. Granted, the Navy did a fine job shipping my family around the world when I was a kid and has been taking care of my pop for quite some time, but let's face it, it hasn't been five star. But here, it's like, six.

My hotel, The Intercontinental, is ridiculous, and I'm excited every time the cheap-o taxi (most expensive ride was three bucks for about a 20 minute drive) drops me off at the front. I'm a little embarrassed that someone is there to open my door, greet me, wish me well, and then escort me to the revolving door. If I have a bag with me, that's the end of me carrying it because a porter delivers it to my room for me. Lovely stuff for my over weight suitcases.

Housekeeping comes every morning to straighten my shoes, arrange my cosmetics on the bathroom sink, and restock my tea station with extra peppermint tea because they know I like that one. In the evenings I have been delighted to find chocolates, bath salts, lavender pillow spray, and refreshing face masks on my pillow.


When I go to the pool, the temperature is a cool 29 degrees Celsius even though it should be bath water temperature in this hot sun, but it's controlled to stay refreshing. The gym has fantastic equipment (yes, I know this from experience, thank you very much), and a lovely view of the hotel's private harbor and white sand beach, which are delightful themselves. Breakfast takes the meaning of continental to a truer meaning than any other place I've been. Think of all the countries you've visited, and there is a selection of delicious food from that region. Pretty awesome, especially during Ramadan because their still serving food (even pork!).

Everything here is just gorgeous, lovely, beautiful. The lobby is decked out in marble and crystal, while the rooms are trimmed dark woods and luxury fabrics. I'm just amazed, and even though I don't know when I'm going to start work, I really can't find a reason to complain. So what do I have to say about all this royal treatment? Shoot, this is my first all-inclusive vacation on United Arab Emirates, and it doesn't take too much time to settle in with beautiful treatment like this. I don't know how long la vie est luxe, but for now, I like it.

And I'm Off! (But I'm Leaving All My Stuff Here for You)

Dear Fam and Friends,

In case my mother or facebook didn't give you the heads up, I'm on my way to Abu Dhabi! The UAE is calling me to teach and has offered me a position as a public school instructor. Last year the Abu Dhabi Ministry of Education (ADEC) declared that all first and second graders will receive instruction in English for al their core classes. This top down approach has led to the hiring of about 400 native English speaking elementary school teachers from all over the world, and I'm one of the lucky crowd! The beginning of September will be the start of my two years in Al Ain teaching Emiratee girls English, Math, and Science; I really couldn't be more psyched to start.

I'm incredibly excited to be experiencing the Middle East as a teacher in Abu Dhabi. I think the international mindset of the UAE is a great channel for me to ease into the culture and Culture of the Muslim world, as well as witness the rapid growth of this booming nation. Yes, it's going to be incredibly different from any other place I've visited so far in my few travels, but that's part of the reason why I want to go. Furthermore, I think it's going to be a terrific challenge to be on a team of founding teachers forming the new educational program. I'm hoping that my training will give me the know-how and guts needed to start up this pilot program. Furthermore, as I am new to teaching myself, I'm going to rely that my lack of rigid standards will allow me the flexibility necessary to try out novel tactics to instruction and developing curriculum. The job itself is going to be a fantastic adventure!

Alongside this news, I'm sorting through my small pile of worldly goods. You are welcome to anything I'm not taking with me or setting aside for storage. Also, if you happened to give me any of these fine treasures, please let me know if you'd prefer me to return them to you! Read on below if you'd like to know what's up for grabs; if any of it appeals, please just let me know to put your name on it.

Thank you all for your encouragement, advice, and lovin' over my last couple of years of teaching training here in NYC. I couldn't have done it without you and I appreciate all your effort to make my budding aspirations bloom into a reality. You are welcome to join me through my trials and adventures in the classroom and in the MIddle East through my to-be-irregularly-updated travel blog at bloopbloopblipbloop.blogspot.com

Take care,

Frances
_______ =^..^= __________

Here it is! My stuff that I can't fit into my suitcase and my mom can't keep in her garage until my emanate return.

From my garage:
My faithful 1994 Honda Civic: very reliable, very beat up, very loved
a Huffy mountain bike
a blue cooler
a two-man tent
extension cords galore
random tools
milkcrates, great for storage

From my bedroom:
a full sized bed with a gentle dip in the middle (boxspring, mattress, and stand)
pillows in various stages of squished and squishy
throw pillows all handsewn and down-stuffed
two large drawers
many table lamps (i'll even give you the bulbs)
a pretty red throw rug with white tasels
a couple of nightstands
a pretty oval mirror in a decorative gold frame
bedside alarm clock
a great laundry basket, tall with striped cloth liner

From my living room:
a window unit style AC
a couple of freestanding coat racks
over the door style coat racks
well behaved water frogs, tiny aquarium, and food pellets
well behaved house plants with various light source needs
a much slept and sat on futon with rather attractive arm rests
a well-worn throw carpet with some happy wine stains
picture frames

From my office:
a secretarial desk with one long drawer
a faux-leather desk chair, very studious looking
a bookcase of solid wood with five sturdy shelves
a Wi-Fi router with tons of cable and stuff
books! cookbooks, fiction, and some random stuff
CDs, loads and loads and loads, all in alphabetical order

From my kitchen:
A few plates, a few mis-matched wine glasses, some mugs
a microwave and toaster that are starting to lose their pep but still gets the job done
kitchen chairs in need of fresh seat covers
Swiffer mop thingy

From my boudoir:
vintage clothes, shoes, and costume jewelry
purses, totes, and hand bags
oodles of beauty supplies
costume supplies (face paint, and fun things to wear)
posters
linens (towels and full-sized bed sheets)
blankets
curtains, some in pairs, all homemade with love

From my craft box:
a plastic tower of pull out drawers with skinny and deep storage
loads of colored paper, like random printed materials for collage
glitter!
water colors, acrylic paints, and house paints
a variety of paint brushes
fabric scraps
charcoals
yarn, knitting needles

There will probably be more as I pack and pile everything. It'd be nice to get a couple of bucks for my junk, but for the most part, just come by and pick anything up in Brooklyn during the last week of August.

As Promised: Not Cake, but our Peruvian Named Willy

An Open Letter to Willy, the Best Guide Ever.

Dear Willy,

Remember when we first met, and Dan and I immediatly liked you? Yeah, I think it was your teeth, you have an awesome smile. Or maybe it was your voice, you have most sonorous pipes. No no, it was the way you are just easy going and definitly trust worthy. You were the best guide our (little) money could buy. }And that was the best thing for sure, you didn´t feel like a paid for companion, ho, ho! no hustler here!, you just fit into our company like a pro.

I find you to be a stellar example of your countrymen. Peruvians all groove with goodness: laughing hearts and hearty handshakes have convinced me of the human-ness that befits this culture. Have I ever met someone so humble and still so full of machismo? You wait on us at table, conceed to our tourist schedule, give in to our offers of alcohol, and blush at our compliments. Yet you hit on women with no avail, call us babies (jokingly) as we acsend mountain tops, and wear the same clothes for four days! Such duality intrigues me!

Thank you for leading the way as we pedaled up and down the unpaved mountain side of Cusco. I gotta say, that bike ride was amazing! I can´t belive how quickly we decended thousands of meters. I felt like we ravaged enough squawking country chickens, dirt dusty pigs, wool wrapped children to last a lifetime. Never have they seen such speed and agility on two wheels! Wee! Gnats in my eyes, wind in my ears, dust in my mouth, nothing has ever felt so fully fantastic with grimmy goodness!

Onto paths and byways, our boots and sneakers hit the rocky roads with certainity behind your led. From one Peruvian tourist to another, I was awed at your certainly of direction. Tourism is graced with your knowledge of the hidden streets, goat paths, and sweet shortcuts. Plus you know everything! How high? How long? What is? What was? Even if you made it all up, it doesn´t matter, you convinced me!

Plus you promised us a monkey. Just one. And Martine was there, riding the back of a Peruvian women: You dubbed him our mascot. His little monkey fingers were so curious and felt like little rubber vices around our arms. And his teeth! They were so jarring to my ear! Ah! BE WARNED OF BITING MONKEYS! But he was so cute, just a baby, aww, nibble my ear and have half my Snickers, it´s okay!

More trekking showed us our best day: face paint with orange berries and frisbee in natural hot springs. It felt soooo good to get the day off our skin and our pack´s weight off our backs. Geez, what´s better than sipping cold beer in hot water after a sweaty day of climbing, clamoring, and chugging? Nothing! Well, except dinner, that was pretty good.

Up next, a bus ride to hurry us to Aquas Calitanas; a faked passport number to cross the bridge, and a steep ascend to view Machu Picchu from a neighboring mountain. I wish you could have gone with us to Machu Picchu. We really wanted you to, especially after we met our ¨specialized¨guide, Ricado. No candor, no wit, just a canned exposé on one of the Wonders of the World. He was a jerk, I didn´t like him, Dan didn´t dig him, so we dashed for the heights of Huanu Picchu. Higher than the day before, my legs ached a little, but not as much, as we steped up ancient pathways to view the miraculous city of 1532.

Willy, you promised that climb to be more trechorous than the one before. Perhaps I was just so scared of the oncoming pain, that I just didn´t feel it because I psyched myself out. Or maybe I got stronger over the night! Or maybe, does it mean you´ve never actually climbed Hauno Picchu. It´s a trip for the body as well as the pocket. It´s expensive to get there, and you don´t get a discount. It´s 45 bucks no matter which way you nationality slices it. I love you country. It´s poor, I´m rich. I´m sorry, I feel bad. Am I keeping you from your nation´s treasures because of my seeming affluency? Ah Christo, I´d sponser you to see such a majestic treasure!

I was disheartened to say goodbye. Man, you are a great guy. Let´s meet again, okay? Really, I meant it when I said to come visit me in New York. We can trek the crazyness of Manhattan on sidewalks; scale the heights of its towers via elevators; and eat the really expensive street food!

Willy you are the master mechanic of bikes (you fixed my snagged derailed, no sweat!), sage leader of Incan trails (we never got lost on any foot path!) and great forger of fruit (I didn´t know oranges, mandrians, mangos, pineapples, paypaas, and cocoa grew in such abundance!), and by the end, you were our friend. Certainly a gem in any Incan trove, your kind nature has compelled me to savor this country a little longer. So I´ll stay!

Besoes,

Frances, the American girl whose name sounds like a country you´ve never been to.