Yay for September! That is the first time I have EVER said that...

Good morning lovelies!  So as the title of this blog states, YAY September!  And I guarantee this is the first time I have ever said this.  Not only because it meant the start of school for 15 years of my life, but because I hate winter.  I really do.  I have had people tell me that I feel that way because Saskatchewan winters are a whole other level of winter.  When September hits, it could be pretty with colorful leaves for two weeks and then we could have a foot of snow and -40.  You just never know!  Some years we have no snow and not horribly cold weather until Christmas.  But when that happens, it usually means we will have horrible stormy, cold weather until June.  Other years we have snow and horrible weather by (Canadian) Thanksgiving in the middle of October.  In any case I hate winter.  I can enjoy winter activities (skiing, sledding, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, skating) in small doses when the weather is just below freezing.  So that brings me back to YAY September... September is the start of spring in Peru!  The weather has slightly improved, it is not horrible and rainy everyday, there is sun every so often and I can wear less than 5 layers to go out.  So, yes, for the first time in my life, September, bring it on!

This weekend didn't bring the best weather, but it was a lovely weekend.  Josh had the whole thing off because of another delay at the plant so we got to enjoy some time together.  

First of all, Look at this!  Not my Green Card, but the letter saying I officially have one!  

So, I started the weekend with some morning yoga with Mariya.  Its a great way to get the body ready for the day.  I snapped some photos of the studio.  It is really cute. An old building with 3 floors fixed up with several apartments and the studio on the first floor.  

After yoga, Josh and I walked down to the Bioferia for some eggs, veggies and marmalade.   Since Josh was headed to Jui Jitsu, I thought I would take a little wander around the streets in our neighbourhood.  It really is beautiful.  I took some pictures of a few interesting and fun things to share.

I love this dog!  He belongs to the doorman of an apartment a few blocks down.  He is always either laying like this on the sidewalk or wandering around patrolling the streets.  

Found this van on a side street.  Fauna Is Fun!

all buildings here have some sort of protection on top of their  high walls.  Most in our area are  either electric fence, or spikey iron bars.  In the poorer areas, and a few buildings around here, it is just broken bottles!  Innovative!

Some colorful homes.

                                     

This is our building.  We have the top 2 floors on the right side.  Our balcony has the black BBQ and some flowers.

A huge building mural by the Bioferia.

On my way back I came across this guy right next to our building!  He is the largest spider I have ever seen in person.  At least 2 inches long, maybe longer.  I did some research and I "think" he is pretty harmless and just eats bugs.  Possibly a Writing Spider AKA banana spider.  Every now and then at home on the news, you will see a story of someone getting a big spider in a bunch of bananas.  This is him!  I really should have kept the research to a minimum as I found out there there are actually very deadly spiders right in Lima!  Now I am paranoid.

Later in the day, we headed over to Mel and Jason's place for a birthday party for Mr. Myles!  He turned 2!  It was Thomas themed and a lot of fun.

One of these wrapping jobs is not like the other... For anyone that knows Zach, you will understand... haha

                                     

The guest of honor!  So cute!

Myles and Lily playing with the new loot.

Once the party was done, we headed out with Brian and Mariya to Mozza Pizza next door to our apartment for a drink while we waited for some pizza to take back to their place.  We watched the UFC there, which was a welcome change from sitting at the expensive Corner Bar a couple blocks away.  We had a great time!

Sunday was another pretty quiet day.  We relaxed in the morning and then made our way to Jockey Plaza for lunch and to look for a shirt that both Mariya and I wanted and had been kicking ourselves for not getting since our last trip there.  Josh and I sat down for lunch at Tanta, which is a fantastic Peruvian restaurant with several locations near us.  I got the Lomo Saltado, which is my favorite Peruvian dish and Josh got the Tanta Saltado, a spin on Lomo Saltado with another favorite, tacu tacu.

DELICIOUS!

As we were finishing up, Bryan and Mariya came and we visited with them while they had their lunch too.  Once we were done we headed to Zara to look for our shirts... they were done, we were sad...  But then we headed to the puppy store.  SOOOO cute, I wanted to take them all home.  We went to the Converse store to once again look for my American Flag Chuck Taylors.  I figured, maybe they might be on sale??  And they were!  40% off, but of course none anywhere near my size :(  We pretty much headed home after that, and stopped at Larcomar, the mall by our place on the cliffs to check the Converse store there.  They had them and they were regular S./255 and were on for S./112!  So here are my new Green Card shoes!

Josh and I decided to stop at TGI Fridays for an appy and I got a really cool drink, the Pink Punk Cosmo.  The glass came filled with Cotton Candy and the waiter poured the martini over top.  It was fun.  The Cotton Candy totally dissolved leaving me with a Delicious drink.

When we walked out, there was a gorgeous sunset...  

So that was our weekend!  Hope everyone else's was great as well!  Have a great week!  Oh and Jinx says hi from his favorite spot to try to attack me when I walk by.