After three hectic days, we are finally relaxing on the couch watching TV. Yep, in our exciting new life we are watching 40 Year Old Virgin! We desperately need a mindless break after all the work and running around we’ve done. Some of the shopping highlights…

We did marathon shopping with (saint) Cruz on Wednesday. We spent hours at the mall, in the center city looking for deals (which we didn’t really find) and back to the mall. Ugh. Consider having virtually nothing in your house- no pots, pans, utensils, plates, glasses, coffee pot, tea kettle, rugs, toothbrush holders, toilet paper, cleaning supplies… you get the idea. Where do you begin? It is very overwhelming, to say the least.

Shopping here is just odd. What I would give for a Target! While most things are available, the selection is very limited. Take hangers – bet you didn’t think about buying those- and finding out there is one kind in all of Cajamarca, and they are just slightly bigger than a kid’s hanger. End of the world? No. Frustrating to spend $30 on a bunch of hangers that don’t really fit your clothes? Yes. Irritating to consider that we recycled/donated/threw out probably 200 hangers? You bet.

And then there are the things we can’t find – the elusive kitchen garbage can (for which the stores have bags), dish pan or kitchen rug. We finally found a dish pan, or close enough, today at a hole in the wall “hardware” store, which means we no longer have to wash dishes in a bucket! Still no luck on the rug or garbage can. By the time we were done shopping on Wednesday, every inch of Cruz’s Toyota Tercel was packed and we were all exhausted!

We got home around 5:30 and Matt and I set up the kitchen, our bedroom and one bathroom. We had brought one set of linens from home for our bedroom and bath and it was nice to have some of our own things in the house to make it feel more like ours. We took a break for a quick picnic dinner at our bar and finished up around 10:30.

Thursday felt like Christmas morning – we unpacked our luggage. Overall, we packed well; we have yet to find something we wished we didn’t bring, except maybe some clothes. (Less clothes and some hangers, next time!) While it feels like we have too many clothes here, we remind ourselves that this isn’t a vacation and we are living here now. I’m guessing that fact will sink in eventually!

We went back to the mall Thursday afternoon to do more shopping and to meet Cruz to set up my cell phone, direct tv and Internet. We shopped very efficiently this time and did so before we met Cruz as he had been patient enough the day before! Because we are currently on tourist visas, we are not able to buy any services. So Cruz has to enter into the contracts for us. We weren’t able to set up Internet because we need a utility bill to prove we possess the premises or something. The funny part is that the bills will be in the landlord’s name and not ours anyhow. So different from the US where you can walk in and buy anything. Once again, Cruz’s Toyota Tercel was filled when we were done.

Matt and I finished unpacking last night and celebrated at a local restaurant we ate at when we visited in April. Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, our wedding song, was playing as we sat down and we considered it a good sign! We toasted with a Pisco Sour for me and a Chilcano de Pisco for Matt (note the flag!)

We still have some odds and ends to buy and eventually will get some bigger items we need, like furniture and rugs, but we are settled in. Thank goodness!

Note: As these posts are from my phone, I am limited when adding photos and the quality seems poor.