Nachi's pointless rants and recollections

So I wrote this big ass long post about Peruvian food and somehow it did not save. I'll just present you with what little did save and some pictures. Please forgive me, it was long and I even considered not posting this at all.

One of the biggest reasons to visit Peru has to be the food.
There is so much diversity, so much to choose from and not enough time to savor it all. I particularly have yearned to eat an authentic plate of ceviche for the longest time ever. Yes I have had some in NY, but my taste buds cannot be fooled. The real taste of a local ceviche has a kick to it, something that makes your mouth dance.
Today, I got to experience the biggest orgasm in my mouth thanks to the 1st Annual Fair of Gastronomy of Lima North.

This fair, first of its kind in that area was like a congregation of different restaurants that offered so many types of foods. There was rice, meats of all kids, pachamanca, rotisserie chicken, all kinds of potatoes, some delicious desserts, and my absolute favorite; ceviche!!

That's about all that got saved from the nearly ten paragraph post I made. Thankfully, I have some pictures to fill out the lack of reading material, enjoy!


Sign announcing the event


Chicharron (deep fried pork) served with Peruvian pop corn (cancha), mote, and an onion mini salad.


Chiffles (deep fried potato chip style banana) in a spiral fashion.


Succulent plate of Ceviche (marinated fish in lime juice and other spices) served with onions, cancha, mote and sweet potato.
I nearly cried when I tasted this, you cannot get it to taste like this in NY.


Savoring the heavenly taste of my ceviche.


Nice lady soaking my Picarones (Peruvian style doughnut made out of pumpkin and squash) in the delicious syrup.

I also had some Chicha Morada (purple corn drink) but I didn't get a chance to take a picture.
The food was amazing and it brought out in me such a great feeling of homesickness. I just wish we could make food as amazing as they make here. Sure we try our best, but lack of ingredients and spices do not make the finished product justice.
I've been promised to be taken to more amazing places to eat some more delicious food.
My tummy can't wait!

My oh my, so much stuff has happened since I boarded the plane to Peru.
First of all, as soon as I sat down on the seat my left arm broke out in a nasty rash.
Who knows why, but it hasn´t gone away since Friday.
Then we were delayed for about an hour, no big deal for me, but the baby was getting a bit impatient.
Things got better though, the air hostesses found a seat for Luka so I wouldn´t have to carry him on my lap. That was very nice of them.
The flight was calm, a little turbulence happened but nothing major.
Eventually we got to Peru, everything seemed fine until after we collected our baggage. We had to pass through customs because it is customary I think. They opened each of my three pieces of luggage and then took my passport. They informed me that I needed to pay $70 as a fine for brining used clothing as gifts.
They ended up lowering it to $60 which I told them I wouldn´t pay. I really wanted to make a big deal about it and refuse to pay, but even though it is my country, I do not know the laws very well so it wouldn´t have been productive for me to do it.
I ended up telling them that I only had $40 to spare and they accepted.
Seems to me that Peruvian customs only wanted to get some money from me no matter how small. I feel infuriated by this but whatever, I will deal with this later.

Anyway, I was about the last person to finally get out of the area, and as soon as I saw my family they squealed. My mom came and swept Luka away. My sisters came towards me first. Then my brother-in-law and his friend greeted us. I was so frazzled by then, I just wanted to rest. We sat down and started to chat. Afterwards we agreed to come back to my house to sort out the luggage since they had mixed everything up and I didn´t have the energy to do it at the airport.
We got home, chatted some more, they took their luggage and I was finally alone with my mother.
I´m not sure what´s going on but apparently I cannot stay with here for now.
She left me at my grandmother´s house but still won´t tell me why. My sisters hinted that their dad doesn´t want me to stay over there. That´s fine by me, but I wish my mom had the balls to tell me this before I arrived so that I could make alternate arrangements.
Now we are both sleeping in the same room as my aunt. I mean I love my aunt, but I want privacy. I need my own space and most importantly, internet!!
There is no wireless internet connection at home and I am forced to come to a public internet cafe type of thing. I hate this, I don´t like people looking over my shoulder while I check facebook or while I am blogging. They look at me strange because I am typing in English. Anyway, I am trying to be calm for the sake of my mother and my sisters.

Thankfully Luka is having a great time. He has adjustes well and loves everyone. He spends most of his time with my mother and my youngest sister. I couldn´t be happier about that. The food is delicious too, things taste different.

Ok then, I think that´s about it for my Peru report. Hopefully I will have time to update you guys with more info and have pictures to upload.
I miss NY so much, but I am glad we made this trip. It was the best decision we made even though we hit a few snags.

In exactly two days I will be boarding a plane that will take me and Luka to Peru.
For him is going to be this great new adventure where he will have a chance to meet the other half of his family.
For me is this bitter-sweet journey where I will reunite with my loved ones after an almost five year absence but at the same time I will be away from my beloved "yellow prince."

There comes a time in a person's life when the one you love becomes the one you cannot live without. You bond to such an extent that being apart for an X amount of times starts to physically hurt. Just the thought of being away from him for a month is causing me so much stress. I've been ignoring the feeling for a few weeks now but tonight I couldn't resist the need to cry and I started bawling my eyes out.
A feeling of desperation has filled me and I have serious doubts about going to Peru.
I know that this trip is good for both Luka and I. To some extent is also good for Ronald and I and our relationship. Taking time apart is actually really good. Still, I feel like half of me is being ripped apart, like if me going away symbolizes separation forever. I know this is not the case, but my heart doesn't understand that. All it understands is that I will not be with Ronald and that is enough to send it into panic mode.

Anyway, I needed to get this off my chest and try to calm down. Eventually I will cry some more, I'll probably do it on the airplane and the first week in Peru. As the days go by I'll feel better until I get to the point where I will be sad all over again but this time of leaving my mother and the rest of my family.
*sigh*
The heart wants what the heart wants, what can you do?

Well this post is long overdue.
My son will be two years old very soon and I have to admit, raising him was not as hard as everyone painted it.
I did experience tons of ups and downs, and there were arguments and fights, but nothing that would make me not want anymore kids in the future.
How did I do it?
Well it's simple really, I trusted my instincts.
Let me show you what I mean.

Breastfeeding.-
This was a no brainer for me. I've talked about this time and time again. I am very passionate about it and although I believe that breastfeeding is the best you can give your child, I understand that not everyone can/will do it and I respect that.
Well brestfeeding is such a big part of my parenting choices because everything revolves around it. The health of my child, his upbringing, our social standards. Everything roots from breastfeeding.
My mother did it, my grandmother did it, my aunts did it, almost every female in my family and extended family has breastfed all of their children. Naturally breastfeeding was something I was going to do.
This made things much easier if you ask me.
First of all, I did not need to buy any special equipment to breastfeed, all I needed were my breasts and a lot of patience.
Secondly, I could do it anywhere and anytime. No washing and preparing bottles, no carrying around a huge diaper bag filled with equipment. None of that.
It is as simple as bringing out a breast, latching on baby and relaxing when he feeds.
Most of you may not now this, but to this day I still breastfeed my son. I don't like to announce that I am breastfeeding a toddler because that will cause people to ask questions and they may become judgmental. So I kept it between my very supportive family members who understand what the benefits are. Most of them are encouraging and that helps a lot.

Co-sleeping.-
This one was obvious with a breastfeeding baby. I have to admit that at first I resisted to the idea. There is so much talk about SIDS, I was terrified that sleeping with my baby would cause his death. So, what's a mother to do? I sucked it up and woke up every two hours to breastfeed my newborn. His crib was situated right next to my bed, but I physically had to get up from my bed, bring him out to my bed, breastfeed him, put him back to sleep, then put him back in his crib. The whole ordeal took time, and before I knew it, I had to get up and do it all over again.
One night I was so tired that I decided to bring baby to bed. I pushed Ronald to the very edge of the bed, put a pillow next to him and then put baby to sleep between the pillow and I. Regardless of how safe I knew my baby was, I still had doubts, so to the internet I went. There were tons of studies showing how safe co-sleeping can be. There were so many tips on how to do it safely. What I found a lack of were studies saying that there was an increase risk of SIDS while safely co-sleeping like everyone said.
I studied this information for several days until I finally decided that I did meet the requirement to safely co-sleep with my son. I finally gave in to it, we experimented with different sleeping arrangements until we finally found one that worked for us.
My oh my, what a difference it made. Why didn't I do this from the beginning? Night feeding was so much easier when we slept together in the same bed. So many things clicked at that moment. My mother raised all three of her daughters this way, my memory finally showed me some sense and I remembered that we all shared one common bed. She had a king bed with an open sided crib where all four of us slept.
Anyway, since co-sleeping I have rarely had a bad night's sleep. I sleep the whole night through, baby would wake up and I instinctively knew to breastfeed him without fully waking up.

Discipline.-
This one was a bit more trickier.
How does one discipline their kids in a country where hitting your child is frowned upon. That's not to say that I agree with physically abusing a child, not at all, but in my country it is socially accepted to spank your kid as a form of discipline. I was spanked, my cousins were too, it is just the way it is.
I knew from the start that we would not hit a baby, infants do not know right from wrong, and smacking a baby because he is crying too much is not the way to go. This would change soon though as he got bigger. We teach our children right from wrong, we give them rules to live by and values that will carry them through adulthood. Still, sometimes they stray from what's right and they need to know when their behavior is not acceptable. Ronald and I decided that we would try to use our words as much as possible, we would give time-outs when he was old enough to understand and as he grew older we would ground him. Once in a while though spanking needed to be an open option, and we both agreed that we would either spank his bottom or slap his hand if he was going beyond his limits too many times in a row.
The first times we did it we felt awful. Hurting our child was the last thing we wanted to do, but there comes a time where we need to realize that raising a child who knows that bad actions will not go unpunished is important, hence why discipline is must. This is what works for us. We do not apologize after hitting him, we stand by our punishments and reward him when he corrects himself.

So what's my conclusion in this funny parenting style?
We do what's right for us. We threw away the rule-book, we dismissed the judgmental comments, and we followed our instincts. You may not believe it but every person has that paternal/maternal instinct that kicks in when you have a child. Some of us choose to ignore it and fear that what they do is not enough because they let themselves be guided by what others think about them. We don't let others dictate how we raise our kid. Yes we listen to the advice of our elders and fellow young parents, but their word is not our final word. We are the ones raising this kid and we want our kid to be the best he can be. He has the freedom to explore himself and his surroundings. He plays with what he wants as long as it is safe. He learned to crawl, walk, and talk at his own pace even though his grandparents were eager to push him every step of the way. He will wean himself from breatsfeeding whenever he is ready and he will continue to sleep with us for as long as we are all comfortable because it doesn't last long. Before we know it he will no longer be a baby and we will miss these days where we get to snuggle with him and where he will always ask for our help.
Enjoy your kid, they aren't babies forever, carry him as much as he wants, yes your arms will get tired, but soon he will be too heavy to do so.
I have no regrets, everything I've done for him and with him has been done to the best of my abilities. I've raised in my eyes and independent loving, healthy, strong child who will one day raise his own little children the same way.
That's something I am proud about and for that reason I feel that my parenting choices have been the best I could have chosen and I would not have it any other way.

Well his was very interesting. Being a vegetarian for five days turned out to be quite the challenge for someone like me.
My family eats meat every single day, so the challenge was trying to resist temptation.
Nevertheless, I tried my best to stick to my commitment and follow through with it.

So here is the menu for the last day of being a vegetarian:

Midnight Snack - leftover Pasta
Breakfast - chocolate chip muffin
Lunch - Mac and cheese
Dinner - white rice and fried egg
Snack - one monster marshmallow

Overall the day wasn't bad. I spent the day in CT with family who also cooked some yummy meat but I was alright.
So what is my verdict on being a vegetarian?
Well, it was hard but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
Something good that I definitely noticed is the fact that I less. Being aware of what I put in my plate made a huge difference in the portions I was consuming.
What I can take from this experience is that I can maybe cut back on what I eat specially meat. I don't think I can go full vegetarian but I can certainly try cutting back my meat intake and replace it with more greens.

Another day went by and I am very surprised I haven't gone mad.
Yesterday was the hardest by far of being a vegetarian, only because my father in law has officially decided to torture me with food, or so I think...
Let me show you what I mean:

Midnight Snack - Cheese Quesadilla, Coke
Breakfast - Cheese and butter roll, fresh squeezed limeade
Lunch - Greek pasta salad
Snack - Chocolate cereal balls
Dinner - Same as lunch
Snack - Jell-o parfait

Ok, so that wasn't so bad, the torture I was talking about is that what the rest of my family had for lunch were ribs. RIBS!!!
I had such a hard time resisting, I wanted to eat them so bad. I smelled them as soon as they went into the oven. It was pure, pure torture!
I did not cave nonetheless but it was very sad seeing that last rib being eaten.
I was glad though, I made it through four days of being a vegetarian and I couldn't be more proud of myself. One more day to go!

Well I am not really starving, but there are periods of times when I don't feel quite full. I feel like something is missing.
My body seems to be reacting very well to the vegetarian lifestyle though, I feel light, fresh, clean perhaps?
I don't know how these things work, but I feel healthy. I know, I know, three days isn't enough to see a huge difference, but I feel it.

Ok, lets get to the good stuff, menu of the day:

Midnight Snack - Avocado, and some nibbles of leftover torreja.
Breakfast - Fried eggs, and bread, fresh squeezed limeade
Lunch - Green rice with onion and avocado salad
Snack - Can't remember, but I ate something I'm sure of that
Dinner - Same as Lunch

So as you can see, avocado and eggs have been my best friends lately. They provide me what protein I may be lacking and they fill me up.
I know it's not very creative, but I'm working with what I have.
Two more days of this madness and I'm done. I can't say it's bad though, I like how this is going, may have to go vegetarian again sometime. XD

So I made it through day 2 of this crazy thing I'm doing; being vegeterian for five days!
It was a little more difficult, I had so many plans on what I was going to eat, but I failed at executing any of them. I just didn't have the energy or the motivation to do them.
So did I cave? Did I eat meat? No!
Here's my menu for the day:

Midnight Snack - Slice of home-made Lemon Raspberry Pie
Breakfast - Bagel with Viajero cheese, some butter, orange juice
Lunch - Potato and onion torreja (Peruvian omelette), white rice, tomato salad, water
Snack - Same as midnight snack
Dinner - Same thing as lunch
More snack - Avocado with a little salt.

So, there isn't much to it. I felt tempted to make myself a turkey and salami sandwich, I also felt the need to gobble up the stew my father in law made.
Thankfully my boyfriend made me three torrejas to last me through the day.
Hopefully day 3 comes with more options, I'm starting to miss meat, not as bad as I thought I would, but I do miss it. Being vegetarian for 2 days wasn't easy.

Wish me luck!!