An American in Lima

Here’s an offbeat story from today’s El Comercio that just begged to be translated into English for this blog:
“Peruvian Hairless Dog Offered to Obama’s Family”
A Peruvian Tenant in the White House?
EFE: An offer of a Peruvian hairless dog has been made to the family of Barack Obama, whose daughter Malia suffers from pet allergies. 
 
A hairless Peruvian [...]

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President-elect Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to grant amnesty to the 12 million undocumented aliens living in the United States. Now many wonder if he will live up to that promise.
A recent news item from the Andina news agency, summarized by Living in Peru staffers, reports:
Peruvians living in the United States hope that America’s next president [...]

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Crowds at LAX, photo by Philip

Figures from Peru’s National Statistics Institute (INEI) show that increasing numbers of former expatriate Peruvians are returning to live again in Peru.
The immigration numbers from August 2008 alone show a signficant rise in Peruvians choosing to repatriate. About 12.7% more Peruvians (180,000 people) left other countries to return to Peru in [...]

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By Barbara R. Drake
On Sunday I posted Part I of “Should Americans Consider Moving to Peru?” (click here for link).
I floated the idea, proposed to me by a Scandinavian expat who’s lived in the United States as well, that because Peru and the United States are so dissimilar, it’s difficult to evaluate which country’s lifestyle [...]

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Today my opinion piece “Escaping the U.S. Credit Nightmare” appears in the Sunday Miami Herald, Money section (10/12/08).
The teaser reads: “An American who now lives in Peru finds that she no longer must fend off unwanted offers for credit cards and loans,” which highlights one of the unanticipated benefits I gained from our move to [...]

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For the last 14 months in Peru, the value of the U.S. dollar has been tanking. That trend really hurts when you’re an expat, like me, who still keeps a bank account in the U.S.
When El Fotógrafo and I arrived in Lima in July 2007, the dollar was trading at 3.3 Peruvian soles. We didn’t [...]

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Note to readers: My opinion piece “Escaping the American Credit Nightmare” appears in the Sunday (Oct. 12, 2008)  edition of the Miami Herald, in the “My View” column of the business section. Here’s my original piece below — Barbara Drake: 
One of the pleasures of moving to Peru last July (2007) was escaping the flurry of credit [...]

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Maple syrup.
You can’t buy it in Peru. If you want syrup for your pancakes, you have to go with the corn syrup blends they sell in the supermercado. It’s not the same.
Just looking at the picture on the right makes me salivate.
A cousin from Massachusetts sent me a jar of maple syrup two months ago. It [...]

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Joann wants to know what I miss about the United States.
Off the top of my head:
(1) Thomas’ English muffins;
(2) Being able to speak English whenever I feel like it;
(3) Friends who get me;
(4) Great big American drugstores full of every kind of product (shampoo, vitamins, makeup, BandAids) you can think of, with that clean “drugstore” smell;
(5) [...]

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