I have become

a master chef! At least, I have in my imagination. Look at my wonderful porcupine meatballs and spaghetti. I hope you are proud of me mum! haha. Yesterday I made chicken in an awesome sauce which I will call a la Gemma because it involved anything I could find in the cupboards and was very tasty! But all this domesticity has bored me and I have agreed to take on a few private classes come February so things should get back to being busy soon :)

I wanted to chat to you about New Years in Peru. In Cajamarca (Andean region) they make dolls out of old clothes and bit and bobs that they don´t want and then they burn them. In Ecuador and along the coast of Peru they buy dolls- like Smurfs for example- and burn them. It reminds me of Bonfire Night in England actually. You can see some of them in the picture. I tried to get a picture of one burning but since I am such a brilliant photographer it turned out black and all you can see is that there is a fire. :( Another tradition- eat 12 grapes and make wishes, one for each month. And the most absurd (which I think I mentioned in a previous blog but here it is again) is walking around the streets with an empty suitcase. This means you will travel in the next year. Weird, right!

Carnival has begun here! You´ve probably heard of Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Rio right? Well Cajamarca is the capital of the Peruvian Carnival. That means that from now until MARCH the minute you step foot on the street you are at risk of being soaked with buckets of water and hit with water balloons. Luckily I haven´t been hit yet due to my ninja-like dodging tactics but I fear I am only delaying the inevitable. I wouldn´t have a problem with it on Sunday but if I am on my way to work I really don´t want to be soaked and spend the whole night shivering. Last week before I could catch them two boys hurled water balloons from the window of my THIRD FLOOR classroom at poor innocent girls passing by. I bet that stung! It is nice to hear people singing and dancing in the streets though! The key weekend is in February and we have the Monday off work. I have been told that it gets CRAZY so I am pretty excited about it :)

Mum and Dad are going to Jamaica to celebrate their 25th anniversary. How awesome is that! I hope to see lots of photos!

That´s all for now folks! Chau!