i dont have even a week here and already feel that i want a cebiche!!!!!!! i understand you oly, i had a maid all my life.... i worked since i was 17 and i dont know how to cook!!!!!! i wont starve to dead, i mean..... i wont burn water but dont aske me to do a lomo saltado or arroz con pollo or a cebiche..... but i used to do very good pisco sours.. hhhmmmm...... thanks god my honey cooks.... ja,ja,ja,ja yes i know it is funny but he spent the whole weekedn cooking so i will have food for the week when he is at work... that is so sweet....

i just arrived to texas, in a place autside austin, i was already 4 times here before this last time that is when i am getting married and i also wonder if i can get a place with peruvian food so if somebody knows about one.... i will be very happy

my best wishes to everybody!!!

I'm sorry but, I do not see what eveyone sees in cebiche!! My wife has lived in Buenos Aires for the last 5 years, but she is actually peruvian. Right next door to her apartment in Buenos Aires is a peruvian resurauant. So we eat there quite a bit. So one time, she had me try cebiche. I did not care for it very much.

But I guess that I better get used to peruvian food. She has told me that most of the dishes that she knows how to cook are peruvian dishes. But I have liked the rest of the peruvian food, just not the cebiche.

Welcome to the U.S.

I did a quick search and found a restaurant in Austin called Paila. Located at 5100 E. 7th Street. Phone number 512-386-5799

Hi Katiushka!

Looks like somebody already gave you an address for a Peruvian restaurant, but I've got a bunch of recipes if you are interested in making something. Just let me know. Lomo saltado, arroz verde con pollo.

David is a great cook! His cebiche is REALLY good, super spicy with leche del tigre. Mmmm....

Oh! Bienvenida a los EEUU!

Bienvenida a USA!

I feel you girl, a few of us had a maid in Peru a never had to "move a finger" o mover un dedo" as we say in Spanish. I was in the same situation, when I first move here I had to learn to do do everythig around the house, hubby helps but honestly I really enjoy to take care of my home sweet home. A maid here, specially in NYC where we live will charge us about $100 a day so no way we will hire one.
Before I moved here I got this awesome book named"QUE COCINARE HOY? by Nicolini I'm sure you heard about it and I'll recommend it a 100%.
There is a cool website with peruvian recipes in english and spansih www.yanuq.com.
Hope it helps.

MandyR, how was the cruise??


Saludos
Vi

Vi

Thanks for asking........

We had a GREAT time on the cruise..... Actually won money in the casino and had enough to pay for all onboard expenses and items we bought at the different Islands we were at.

I have to say that San Juan, Puerto Rico is ok..... I called it the Mini Miami. St. Thomas and St. Marteen, great islands to visit. Hope to get back there one day to sit back and relax on the beaches.

Rossy is home for about a month and is then headed to Lima with our little one for 2 weeks.

MandyR, you guys are really lucky, good for you!! how is Rosy doing? is she counting the days to go to Peru? is she going with you???.

Buen fin de semana people!

She can't wait to get back to see her Mom, family, friends and GREAT food.

We live just outside of Austin as well. What town do you live in exactly? Maybe we are neighbors!

gracias por el link a este sitio Vi!



Mini Miami? The Cubans wouldn't like that!

ya pues. no tenia el tiempo para VJ por muchas semanas. Mi esposo y yo hemos decidido a mudarnos a NY porque Florida es, como yo digo en ingles "a huge pile of suck" - no hay nada buena aca para nosotros. Entonces hace tres semanas mi esposo perdio la punta de su dedo en un accidente al trabajo

Yo salgo por NY en dos semanas - el va a juntar conmigo al principio de Septiembre. Su mama va a regresar a Peru yo creo. Ella dice que va a regresar a Peru, entonces no, entonces si, entonces no. No hay nada para ella aca no entiendo porque remanecer - pero yo creo que va a ir ahora. Ella tiene cuatro hijos alla y todos sus nietos. El hermano y la hermana de mi esposo que estan en los EEUU...a ellos no importa nada de su mama.

Pero me frustra porque ella siempre dice "lo que dios quiere" y yo querio decirle que NO, es que TU quieres y tienes que tomar una decision! Mi esposo ya esta cansado con "me voy...me quedo...me voy....me quedo" especialmente proque el tiene que comprar el bolleto y tiene miedo que va a comprarlo y ella va a decir "ok! he cambiado de opinion otra vez!"

Hi

Athena, haven't heard from you in a very long time, you are moving to NY? where and when? It's funny, I would love to move to Miami but I know that that is just a dream.
Good luck with your MIL, hope she makes a decision soon, is she living with you guys right now?

MandyR, I saw a few pixs of Rosy and your little boy in hi5, he's getting so big, enjoy him!

Saludos
Vi

Qué tal???

Athena ~ You're moving to NY? Whereabouts? I'm in Long Island, the most expensive, blood sucking place on earth LOL...

I can't wait for Luis to get here so he can see what I mean. I can't wait till I get the death stare from him when I spend 3.00 on an iced coffee. In Perú I bought one in Miraflores Starbucks and he was like "pero, muchacha, café con hielo???? cómo es eso????" And when he found out it was like dies soles, casi se murió HAHAHA he's gonna love it. (He is so stingy with money - in some respects, when I was in Peru he paid for everything but he's one of those people who hates parting with his money LOL, so a $3 coffee is gonna freak him out)

I don't know if his parents will ever come here to visit, they are afraid of planes. Theres more of a chance of his dad coming & his dad is the best and spoils me to death so I doubt I'd mind. Good luck with your suegra, I hate to say this, pero espero que se vaya pronto!!! Para que te relajes un poco.

Chau guys,

Suzy

Hello, I am newbie here... and I am from Perú too....

I hope we can keep in touch....

Ely and Michael...

WELCOME and best of luck with your visa process..............

Vi

He's definately getting bigger and developing his own little personality.

If you guys ever decide to move to Miami or visit....... let us know....... we live in Hollywood which is between Fort Lauderdale and Miami

MandyR
Thank you very much MandyR, but honestly I doubt that my hubby will want for us to move to Miami, he says that he is a New Yorker and he is afraid of Hurricanes (me too), plus he's italian and we have all the family living near us .

What about Rosy? is she attending the Big Party from our school in Lima? is going to be in August 9th with Joselito's Band, I' ve been to one with Sil and we had an AWESOME time.


Susita, Isn't the Upper East Side consider the most expensive area in New York ???? Don't worry about your fiance, he is going to get used to the expensive prices here (comparing to Lima, of course), I remember when I first moved here I used to bring my calculator with me everywhere.

We are hating the weather right now, I miss the time when we had 60 degrees!!!

Good weekend amigos
Saludos
Vi

Vi... Yeah, I think the Upper East Side is the most expensive but Long Island follows close behind. These are the most expensive "suburbs" to live in in the country, besides a lot of California suburbs. Property taxes are unreal and the dream of owning a home is far out of my reach, because home prices are rediculous too.

Let's put it into perspective. I have a studio apartment that I pay $900 a month for, but here's the catch, it's my mom's house. LOL. This apartment would go for at least $1200 a month if she rented it to anyone else.

A normal sized ranch house starts at about 350,000 and taxes at about 6,000 depending on where you live. Because I am lucky enough to live in a nice neighborhood (I don't know if I'm really lucky lol but) taxes are about $8500 a year here.

Sometimes I wonder why I didn't move to Peru with Luis, lol

How's everybody doing tonight?
Estoy tan cansada porque fui a un casamiento anoche y había open bar, entonces ya saben! De verdad era una ceremonia bonita y nos divertimos mucho pero wow....

me voy a dormir!

Cuidense

Hi Ely
Nice to know another Peruvian YEEEEHH
and thanks for the welcome

You live in the world we live in here in South Florida........ houses that are way beyond my reach, taxes that I could buy a new car with and as for Hurricane Insurance, that's if you can get any is a nice 2 or 3 ct. diamond ring......

Vi

Unfortunately Rossy won't make it to the BIG PARTY... she told me all about it and is sad she won't be there. She tried to get a flight around that time, but it was so expensive. She and little Sebastien will be leaving on August 20 and coming back on September 3.

Well, if you guys ever come down here on vacation, let us know. We would love to meet you guys and have dinner.

I have been through 2 hurricanes, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
I think the worst part of it is after the storm. Dealing with all the devestation, no power with over 90 degree heat. No Water. Cooking on a grill every day. Food going bad.......... NO FUN

But as we say down here.... "You want to live in paradise, you have to pay the price"

MandR ~ Yeah, everything is rediculously expensive up here. I don't know what I'm going to do... I am in college to be a teacher, but I highly doubt that income will be sufficient to buy a home, we'll see what job Luis gets when he moves here.

As for a diamond ring or an expensive wedding, LOL that's way out of the picture. I was thinking a nice reception maybe in a hall or maybe in a friend's yard (which is gorgeous) and we'll do all the decorating and cooking. The diamond ring will be on my wish list, lol.

MandyR
I'm really sad too, I won't be able to attend the party and this is a special year for my class, we graduated from HS 10 YEARS AGO!! I'll have to enjoy the pictures that my friends send me through email. We are flying to Peru the same date, August 20th via LanChile and we are coming back on the 31st, just a few days but we are planing to enjoy as much as we can plus we are going to celebrate my b-day there, party time .
Funny that you mention diamonds 'cause I work in the diamond industry nothing related to my career that is Tourism and Hospitality but I'm very happy with my job, can't complain, I see hundreds of diamonds everyday and I have to say that I'm not into diamonds - anymore.
I promise that if someday we go to Florida we'll visit you and if you plan to come to NYC let us know we'll be more than happy to meet you guys.

Susita
My hubby is a HS teacher, he loves it I have to say that we have a decent life here but the salary is not WOW, he loves all the vacation time he gets and the impact he makes on tke kids lives I'm more than proud of him, he puts alot of dedication preparing his lessons and he is very creative too.
What about Luis? Does he know what would he like to do when he moves to the States? I remember Sil used to tell me to start looking for jobs when I was still living in Lima, just to have an idea.

Well guys hope you had a great weekend
Take care!
Vi

Vi ~ He has to continue going to school for English because his English isn't that great. Basically, his family has a business in Lima so he's been doing that his whole life so we'll have to see what he wants to do when he gets here. He's most likely going to go to community college which I think is a great idea.

I agree with your husband, I'd rather have a job I love than a lot of money. We may suffer for a while not being able to afford a house, but later on we'll make it work.

My wife and I live in a 3 bed-1 bath here in little ol' Kansas and our total payment (mortgage, taxes, and insurance) is less than what the monthly tax payment alone would be on a house like that!

I know is a little late : FELIZ 28 A TODOS MIS COMPATRIOTAS Y PERUANOS DE CORAZON !!!

I know OMG it is late pero, bueno, mejor que sea tarde, al menos lo digo .....

FELIZ 28 DE JULIO!!! Sorry that I didn't post anything yesterday I was too busy messing with Luis on the phone, he was partying and a lil' tipsy haha. Always fun.

SKTEAMO ~ I would love to live somewhere cheap. The fact of the matter is, I can't. My mom would kill me if I left Long Island, hell she'd kill me if I left this county. I wanted to move to Perú for a few years but I'm afraid she'd send the national guard after me. That's why she's so OK with Luis coming here. That means I can't leave, LOL.

A good friend of mine is moving to Kansas, he lived there before and says he can't stand the cost of things here. I however, have known nothing else (other than Puerto Rico, and honestly, that's an option if I ever do move) and I love it here, and I guess I'm willing to suffer through it for the time being. Starting teacher's salary here is in the high 40's and low 50's so I won't be dirt poor, I just will have to rent for a while. Luis is going to work too, not sure what he wants to do yet, but as he told me "a mi no me importa que haga, puedo hacer lo que sea" so basically he'll do whatever job he can get at first and he's going to go to community college.

Right now he's in el Britanico instituto learning English. He picks it up really quick I'm proud of him. There's a community college program here in NY (our colleges are part of the state university system, they're excellent. I did my 2-year degree at community college and transfered to the State University of NY at Stony Brook, I saved soooo much money doing it that way). So first he has to take a year of intensive english classes (college level) and then he takes the TOEFL and if he passes, he just starts a course of study there.

So we will hopefully both have a college education in a few years and be able to do things with it, so living here might not be impossible. Both of us are not big spenders, we like to save money, so we should be OK I hope.

I will def. keep Kansas in mind though!

~ Suzy

Feliz 28 de Julio.

Don't get me wrong, you can definitely spend a lot of money on a house here in Kansas. But I imagine you'd get a LOT more than what you would get in NY. There's just not the big city life here. At my job we do a lot of work with multi-million dollar custom home builders. The last house I went out to look at was $2.2 million. But I think it was around 8,000-10,000 square feet, in a very nice part of town on a wooded lot, and right on a very nice golf course. From what I hear, something like that in NY would probably cost a bit more. A friend and his wife just recently bought a house for about $350k...4 beds, 3.5 baths, full finished walkout basement, 3-car garage, with a nice view. The house we're living in now is quite a downgrade from the last house we lived in that we sold. We moved into a rental house that I was trying to sell for about 6 months...didn't even get one showing. It was either let it go into foreclosure or make the most of the situation. So now we're fixing it all up, waiting for the market to turn around, and enjoying the $435/month payment for now. Plus, it's in a pretty "Latin" area, so it's good for Erika. In about three or four years, the loan should be paid off, house fixed up, and we should be able to get about $70k-$80k for a down payment on a nice cozy home in the suburbs.

My ideal situation though, would be to be frugal enough so that by about early- to mid-50's, we would be able to retire and live in Peru...maybe some place in Miraflores....and spend all of our time traveling around Peru and the rest of South America. I get excited just thinking about it!

SKTEAMO ~

You have an awesome plan. My plan was to basically save up, buy a house here and then at some point get a house in Peru. I will have every summer off because I'm going to be a teacher, so in that case, will be able to travel quite a bit. Luis is also thinking about teaching phys ed. He's an awesome soccer player and enjoys every kind of sport. Not to mention, he loves kids. So hopefully, in a few years, we may both be teachers and that would be awesome for traveling.

New York is expensive. It's a hard knock life as Jay-Z (or Annie, depending on who you like better) says it.

It's really interesting that you have everything planned, our plan is much easier and cheaper, we are getting my In Law's house!!!
They live in a house and they rent the second floor. The family that lives there is planning to move soon and they offered us that place for free! My hubby was really excited in the beginning but he knows that I can't stand his dad so he had to say : THANK YOU BUT WE ARE NOT INTERESTED.
I know alot of people are thinking that I'm nuts but living with my father in law would be a complete nightmare.

We have a few friends that moved outside of NYC, they bought beautiful houses in Cortland Manor- Westchester, huge houses with huge land in a very quiet,safe and clean area and two of them payed about $350 000 not bad right? the only bad thing is that they work in the City and it takes them about 1hr 1/2 to get to Grand Central.

I would love to move to Peru someday but first Sil has to learn to speak perfect spanish so my "paisanos" will stop taking advantage of him. As a teacher he can work in one of the many american schools we have in Lima, they offer awesome benefits for the american teachers. Another thing is that after three years of living here and after being homesick for a long period of time I start to like NYC, I feel so much safer than in Peru and there are so many things to do here.


Gotta go
Saludos
Vi

In what sense would they take advantage of him? I'm curious because I was in a couple of curious situations when I was in Peru as well. And I speak perfect Spanish! haha

I remember that even after I spoke in Spanish, everyone would still not look directly at me and ask questions to Luis, like "de donde es" and he would say "preguntale!" and then I would say "soy de nueva york" or something like that and then the next question would be directed at Luis again!?!? Isn't that weird. I had a couple people think I was wealthy and try to aprovecharse de mi! well, I'll explain better some other time, but cuentame la historia mija!

Wow, I have been wondering if there was a place for Peruvians and bam here it is!! Well I am the new kid on the block!! I just married a Peruvian in May in Lima and am starting the long long visa process!!

Can anyone recommend a good airline to Peru or a good phone company for calling Peru? thanks!!

Yeah, I know what you mean, it's so funny when they see me with him they always try to overcharge us, when we went to the Indian Markets he had to wait for me outside or when we tried to take taxis forget it!

During his first trip, before he met me,somebody stole his camera in a market, well that one was his fault, the guide told him and his friends not to go inside of the market but he wanted to experience it and see real peruanos, a bunch of people followed him and keep saying "Hello my friend" poor Silvio felt good and when he checks his pocket the camera was gone! he alwasy teases about that one.

A few times he got fake Nuevos Soles or fake coins, things like that you know? That's why I always have to watch his back, I'm sure I 'll have more to tell after our next trip.

See Ya
Vi

I lived for two months in San Juan de Lurigancho with my husband and spent alot of time in El Agustino and never had any problems with theft or being charged to much. I guess I was lucky or that no one wanted to mess with my husband

No offense to anyone here, but I had a hard time with the Peruvian women. They were constantly starring, winking, and grabbing my husband. Even with me standing right there!! We had a couple situations a little worse. Just wondering did anyone else have these problems?

I used LAN when I went to Peru, but prices are going up. I heard a few people used Spirit and got low fares, but the service was questionable.

I call Luis with Vonage. Does your husband have a land line / telefono fijo? If he lives in Lima and has a telefono fijo you can call him for free unlimited with the world plan on Vonage. It's 40 dollars a month. To cellular phones its expensive. But you can tell him, if he has a cell phone (Luis has one from the company Claro) he can have one international number "triado" in his plan where it's only .30 centimos to call you every minute, that's like 10 cents. That's what Luis has, and he calls me on the cell when we're not home.

Hope that helps,
Chau,
Suzy

I didn't, everyone was pretty respectful to me there. Do you speak Spanish?

There were a couple of women (mostly family members and friends) that criticized US women a lot right in front of my face. They weren't being rude, they were just repeating stereotypes that they heard. They said we don't cook or clean and we have machines that do everything... but me with my sarcasm said,

"ahaaaa pero ustedes estan olvidando una cosa importantisima! nosotras trabajamos, no quedamos todo el dia en casa viendo telenovelas / ahaaa but you guys are forgetting a very important thing! us women work, we dont stay at home all day watching soap operas"

Of course that was a joke. I don't really mean that. Lots of Peruvian women work....but it made everybody laugh, just to flip the stereotype on them like they were doing to me. I had them believing for a minute that I also had a robot that cleaned my whole house for me and stuff. Some people really believe EVERYTHING they see on TV. hahaha

Peruvian women are strong women, I have a lot of respect for them.

The only problem I had with men was with some men trying to hit on me when we went out at night. They usually were drinking quite a bit and I honestly don't blame them for hitting on me (LOL just kidding). Luis almost got into some fights because of it though.

susita83 Thanks for the great advice I will check out Vonage and Spirit. As far as Spanish goes, I don't speak any at all. So if anything was said about American women, I didn't hear it. I too have alot of respect for Peruvian women, just not the ones who are hitting on my husband

Girl If I'm you I won't mess with peruvian women, don't forget that not all peruvian women are the same, same thing with american women, I have alot of repect for them. I have to say that you are brave, you lived in San Juan de Lurigancho??? Mis respetos chica.

Good night
Vi

Vi... where did you live in Perú? in Lima?

I don't know much about San Juan de Lurigancho only that there's a big jail there. I saw it on the news while I was in Peru. Luis is from San Bartolo but he works and stays in Ate Vitarte. His brother owns a business there. He goes home every Saturday & Sunday. I have to say I loved San Bartolo it was such a nice town with wonderful people. We also went to Santa Maria, Punta Hermosa, Punta Negra, Lurin (to go shopping they have a pretty big market there) and we visited Lima. We went to Miraflores & I made Luis go to Starbucks with me and he almost had a heart attack #1 because I was drinking cold coffee, and he thought that was weird and #2 because it was really expensive like 12 soles or something like that. He's just going to love the USA, haha, iced coffee and expensive stuff everywhere.

Jaime ... maybe your husband was just extraordinarily hot (LOL) and these girls couldn't help themselves, haha. I haven't seen a picture of him, so I'm not sure but, nobody ever did that to Luis so I'm thinking maybe you just had some bad luck (or good luck depending on how you look at it).

????? I'm from Lima and yes, that big jail is "San Juan de Lurigancho's jail".

Vi... I really liked Lima. We went to el centro de Lima, Miraflores, Ate, and it was really nice. We ate in a Cevicheria that was out of this world (in Ate). I liked it so much we went back again. My favorite is jalea!

ohhhh y Choritos a la Chalaca.
Wow ahora tengo hambre!!!

My first or second day in Peru I saw a fight between two Peruvian women in a restaurant, so I know they are not afraid of fighting I only had problems with girls in the late teens and early 20's the rest of the Peruvian women where very nice and friendly even though I don't speak Spanish! But there was no chance to even confront these women because they would do it when I was not looking so I didn't even know anything happened until the woman was gone! But it happened so much!! I asked my Peruvian relatives if it happens to them and they said that they kick the girls and then their husbands!! Haha

And as far as living in San Juan de Lurigancho it really wasn't that bad. There were a lot of piranas but we had no problems with them. The only problem I had in San Juan de Lurigancho was that it was sooo noisy!!! I had a hard time sleeping!!



Oh he is!!

Welcome........... Congratulations on your recent marriage.........

Best airline to Peru is LAN....... depending on where you live they fly from either Miami, New York, or Los Angeles.

Delta flies from Atlanta, American from Miami and if memory is correct Continental from Houston.

Spirit flies from Fort Lauderdale and New York.... but I've heard nothing but bad things about their flights to Peru.

Vi

You guys must be getting excited, only 19 days to go. You leave the same day as Rossy and on the same airline (LAN) but from different parts of the country.

MandyR
Oh yes, I'm more than excited, it's funny I tell everybody how many days left before I go home, my home in Peru. We have already plenty of plans.

LaN is definitely the best airline to go to Peru, prices for Christmas still the same so we are happy that we are going this August.

Peter'n Jamie I think you are generalizing, not all teenagers and girls in the mid 20's are the same, there are cheap women everywhere, I can say the same thing about american women specially when I have to take the train to go to work (I live in NYC). Sorry it might sound that I'm taking it a little personal, maybe I am. I had similar experiences with my hubby, girls trying to hit on him when we go clubbing but I'll never hit them just give them a dirty look and say "LARGUENSE!"

Susita Sil's favorite dish is Jalea!!!!! he loves it too, same thing with choritos a la chalaca, he doesn't know how to pronounce it, he sounds so cute. Sorry for not writing to you on the hi5, we have been a little busy, I'll try to write to you tomorrow, we are planning to go to the beach, we go to Robert Moses, hopefully we'll have a beautiful day.

Good night amigos
Vi

Vi ~ I love Robert Moses Beach, we usually go there! Cuando Luis este aca, tenemos que planear algo, a el le encanta la playa, he's a surfer, haha. claro pues, es de San Bartolo, que mas puede ser? jaja

I have been stressing out because I got a RFE which they are going to mail to me and I don't know what it's for, so I am kind of nervous. Plus, somebody stole Luis's phone when he was on the combi yesterday on the way to San Bartolo, so I have been pretty worried about him.

Have a great weekend! I hope you have a great time on your trip too!

Jaime ~ I told you your husband is just too good looking. Take Vi's advice, put your foot down. I don't know what I would have done if anyone would have disrespected like that. I'm a NewYorker you know, things might have gotten ugly. LOL

Vi,
No offense was intentional, just wondering if anyone else had the same experience and how they dealt with it. And the comment about hitting them was a joke by my Peruvian family and I was never in any fights.



susita,
What part of New York are you from? I used to live in New York state but have since moved to North Carolina.

I live on Long Island. How do you like NC? I heard it's pretty nice there.

I was born in Riverhead and lived in East Moriches till I was 10. I love it there but its soo expensive to live!!! NC is great because its one of the fastest growing areas in the country so there is alot of opportunities for working and going to school. The weather is also very nice. NO SNOW