Sally spends January in Peru with her friend Erasmo

Sally has spent January in Lima with Erasmo and his family, and loved every minute of it. He celebrated his birthday on January 16th, and Sally was the very first person to wish him many happy returns. Here she is, the night before his birthday. She's admiring Erasmo's Pisco Sour; she would have liked to have one too, but Erasmo reminded her that she's much too young to have anything with alcohol in it. Sally had fruit juice instead.



Erasmo's mom and sisters have joined everybody in this photo - doesn't this look like a happy way to celebrate?

Here we see Sally with Erasmo's birthday cake the next day. It looks delicious! You can also see the rest of his birthday lunch, which featured duck and ceviche and a nice bottle of wine. (Again, Sally had a nice glass of fruit juice, but Erasmo let her have a sip out of his glass, just to try it. She liked the fruit juice better.)

Here are some more pictures of Erasmo's family during his birthday lunch. You can see his cousin Roberto and his Aunt Mary on the left. Aunt Mary is working on a new outfit for Sally; Sally is trying everything on to make sure it fits properly before Aunt Mary finishes hemming.

Here's a picture of everybody around the birthday table. You can see Erasmo's mom Lilia, his sister Liriola, his Aunt Mary, his sister Lucía, his aunt María Esther, his uncle and his cousin (both named Roberto).

Next, Erasmo took Sally to visit the Magic Circuit: a whole series of fountains, all lit up night so it looks like a fairy playground. Sally got soaking wet, of course, but had a wonderful time running through the spray. After that she was a little chilly, and had to put on her coat and hat to warm up a little.

The labrynth was her favourite place; from this picture it looks as if every kid in Lima is running through the spray!

The circuit is even mentioned in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Erasmo also took Sally to visit the main plaza in Lima. As you can see, Aunt Mary finished Sally's new outfit in time for the occasion. The little bag is exactly what she needed: she's carrying her sunblock in it, along with some emergency money. She also has some emergency phone numbers, some candies given to her by Erasmo's mom, and, most importantly, her passport.


The yellow building is the Presidential Palace, and you can see the cathedral as well. In Latin America, all the most important buildings are built around the edge of a plaza. Sometimes the plaza looks like a little park, and sometimes it is mostly paved or cobbled.

Now, Sally's getting ready to fly to Brazil to visit Vanda. She needs her yellow fever shot, but after that she's good to go. She's really going to miss Erasmo and his family, though!

We have heard very little from Sally since her departure from California. We know that she arrived safely in Ciudad Juarez, and that she briefly returned to the States to celebrate Christmas in Houston with Miss Gaby's family. A computer virus attacked Miss Gaby's computer and she lost all her photos, so we don't even have much evidence of Sally's stay or knowledge of her doings. I assume that she helped whack a few posadas, and perhaps she left her new flip-flops out for the Three Kings to fill on January 6th. Perhaps she even had a visit from Santa Claus, since she was in Texas instead of Mexico at Christmas.

After Christmas Sally spent a few days with our penpals, and then climbed into a new envelope for the long trip to Peru. We're looking forward to hearing about her time with Erasmo in Lima. I'm hoping that she'll get to try some ceviche and mote (raw fish and parched corn). Maybe she'll even try some barbecued cuy, another very typical Peruvian dish.

Here is what we've heard so far from Sally:

Hi friends!
Even though many pictures were lost, I still have some. Now that I've left for Peru I'll take the time to e-mail them. This is Daniel and me at a Christmas scene at a local mall. It was not as cold that day, especially since I had all of Daniel's chocolate milk :) It was goooood!
I miss you all,
Sally

Hi friends,

This is Mexican revolutionary figure Pancho Villa. He died sometime aroung 1914-1915, but he is a national hero over here.

XoXoXoXoSally

This was so muuuuch fun! Who looks more like an angel, them or me?

Sally hits the big time! Woo hoo!

Here are some sightings of Sally since she left California! It looks as if she´s becoming quite the fashionista!

California, continued - San Jose, Fisherman's Wharf and Santa Cruz

We didn't make it to San Francisco on Friday, but we did go shopping in San Jose with some friends (Nicole, Stefanie, and Rob). Saturday was a gorgeous day in Monterey, so we went to the wharf and the beach about 10 minutes away from my place. Sally donned a flattering green dress on Friday, and of course a bathing suit on Saturday (she ended up taking off her Mickey Mouse ears because she didn't want them to get wet; she wore a baseball cap instead).


On Sunday we went to Santa Cruz with some friends (Nicole, Shaneka, Sohee, Marie, Gabriela, and another Elias!). We went to the movies, had dinner at a pizza place, and went grocery shopping. Sally wore a brand new outfit, and changed her mind about wearing her Mickey Mouse ears her whole time here. She really likes that baseball cap.

Here is the full album of all of Sally's photos. If you'd just like to check out a quick sampling, scroll down instead.

Flay Sally enjoys Thanksgiving in Monterey (as told by Elias)

Flat Sally arrived in Monterey on Tuesday. She was pretty worn out from the overnight FedEx trip, so she took it easy and went to bed early that night. She was so excited about her Mickey Mouse ears, though, that she didn't take them off when she went to bed, and in fact, she told me she wanted to wear them her whole time here. She's still in California, after all.

Yesterday (Wednesday), she made a new friend, Nicole, and the three of us watched a movie together. She also hit it off with our friend the (stuffed) seal. The two of them hung out on my lap after the movie.




















Today, we celebrated Thanksgiving! I was invited for dinner by a friend of mine who lives with a family in the area. There were people there from all over the world, and Sally was really happy to meet everyone.
















She was excited about the food, but didn't think she could have a whole plate herself, so we shared. The meal was delicious.

Afterwards, we played Guesstures,
which Sally enjoyed. Our team won.















Here is Sally with our hostess Lillie, and here is a picture of some of the guests (far left, looking asleep: Gerardo from Mexico; girl with glasses: Gabriela from Guatemala; holding Sally: Elena from Russia; bottom right: Tigist, Ethiopian who grew up in Russia; girl in gray: Olga from Russia; girl in purple: Ling Ling from China; (standing behind Ling Ling: some weird guy who was there).

















When we got home, Sally took a nap; a good thing, because tomorrow's going to be a busy day: we're spending the day in San Jose and San Francisco. We're hoping to go to the beach on Saturday if the weather is nice. And on Sunday we're going to Santa Cruz. It's going to be a busy weekend!

It's Thanksgiving break, so she hasn't experienced much of student life yet, but I'll take her to school with me on Monday and Tuesday.

Sally in Santa Barbara ... continued.

Sally has had a wonderful time visiting James, Loris and Colin in Santa Barbara. Colin's girlfriend, Kelly, even made some new clothes for Sally. Look at her Mickey Mouse ears and her fancy new flip-flops in the above picture on the boat in "It's a Small World" in Disneyland.

Sally lost one of her boots at the supermarket, so Kelly made her a replacement boot while she was working on Sally's wardrobe. Thank you, Kelly! (If Sally hadn't been running through the avocados, perhaps she wouldn't have lost that boot ....)

Anyway, once Sally had her ears and flip-flops, she was ready for anything. She had a wonderful time exploring Disneyland, especially meeting so many very famous personalities. Here are two of the people Sally met there. Do you recognize them?

Yes, Sally got to meet Minnie and Mickey. Does that make her a mouseketeer?

Over on the left, you can see Sally with her whole family at the big C in California. From left to right: Loris, James, Sally, Colin and Kelly.

You can also see the clock in "It's a Small World" and the Christmas tree on Main Street.

Sally even went to see two plays: 15-Minute Hamlet and Rosecrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. She said that she enjoyed them, but James says ,"To tell you the truth, she was asleep under the chair before Act I of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" was over, but she thought the "15-Minute Hamlet" was pretty funny and she loved getting her picture taken with the cast in the dressing room before the show started (see picture below.) Besides, it was pretty late for her to be up. ".

When she and her family weren't out and about, Sally hung out in the backyard and enjoyed the California climate. Most of all, she wanted to touch a palm tree, so that was one of the very first things she did when she climbed out of her envelope in Santa Barbara. She also climbed into a planter to check out the bird-of-paradise plants, and puttered in the back garden.

Sally finds it impossible to believe that back home in Mallorytown the temperature has been -12 degrees Celcius for the past week!

Sally is now taking the overnight mail to San Francisco to visit Elias and his friends. She's crawled into her sleeping bag to keep warm on the highway, and has her teddy bear snuggled up beside her. She's tired out from all her travels around Santa Barbara, and the mail truck's engine is very soporific .... so I suspect that in five minutes Sally will be sound asleep.

Sleep tight, Sally! Bon voyage, Sally!

Sally in Santa Barbara

Sally is now visiting James and Loris in Santa Barbara, California. Here is what James has to say so far about her visit:

Well, I didn't do such a great job with the timer function on my camera so I'm the cut-off person on the left here, but below is a picture of Flat Sally at Palazzio in Santa Barbara, having dinner with two new (to her) Canadian friends from Victoria, BC, who are staying in Santa Barbara for a few days.

Here's the link to the restaurant:http://www.palazzio.com/

Here's a satellite map of the location (1026 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA):http://maps.live.com/#JnE9eXAuMTAyNi...MTU4LjIwMzEyNQ==

Here's a street view (I think - I'm not sure the street view links automatically, but if you can click on Street View you should be able to see it.)http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...31517100760017 .

After dinner we drove up through the hills of Montecito and took some pictures of the city and the bay. There's a horrible fire there tonight. I guess we saw it just in time. We also walked out on the long pier (known as Stearns Wharf) into the bay. It was a beautiful night with a full moon. Sally wanted to play on the beach but we told her it was a little late at night for that. She'll get another chance this Sunday as we drive through Santa Barbara up to Lompoc, our hometown.

It's sunny and 77 degrees (F) here right now. I think she has taken to our back patio, although she has to share it with two cats who have declared themselves Queens of the Backyard.