My Very Own Diagon Alley

So it turns out when I venture out of my little TEFL bubble I can actually find cool things. Emily (my roommate) and I decided tonight we were sick of eating lentils and rice and bored of the chicken restaurants that we knew of in our two block vicinity. SO, we decided to make small step for us but a huge step for humanity and venture across the road! This was quite an epic adventure. First we had to walk up the stairs into the walking overpass. Then we had to walk A WHOLE 30 feet and THEN we had to walk DOWN the stairs. Whew, were we exhausted. We did find out that apparently the overpass is the new it place to be if you are a young couple that wants to make out in relative privacy. Anyways, we discovered A WHOLE NEW WORLD on the other side of the street (this is not just some little dinky street we are talking about here, I mean, 8 lanes of hardcore Latin American traffic going in all different directions). What do we discover in this whole new world you ask? Well I will tell you: PERU!

For the first time since I’ve been here I felt like I was in a bustling city of Peruvians completely unaware (or blissfully ignorant) of the many Gringos that parade around the higher parts of this city. I mean, obviously we knew we were in Peru, and we knew we lived in a fairly Peruvian neighborhood where we stand out as the silly mute Gringas, but this was different. There were restaurants other than pollerias (restaurants in which the only thing they serve is roast chicken and French fries, you just choose whether you want an eighth, a quarter, a half, or a whole chicken). So, we ended up postponing our hunt for food in favor of wandering the streets like true Peruanas. However, I’m sure we were quite conspicuous with our light skin and curly hair. Plus, our blatant English speaking and lack of awareness as to how restaurants work here were probably an even bigger tip off. In this epic adventure to the other side of the street, we also discovered the infamously sketchy El Molino Market in which you can get anything and everything at one low price! Well, I’m not sure about one low price, but anything and everything is for sure. We had heard of this market, and knew that it was hidden in a secret lair of unknown places that is our neighborhood, but neither of us had reported a sighting either from taxi or by foot. We had begun to assume that you needed a secret password and to tap a brick wall in a certain pattern, a la Diagon Alley, in order to reveal the passageway to this hidden market of treasures. Anyways, as we ventured forth past The River of Poop and into the heart of El Molino Market our bravery reserves were soon exhausted and we opted to settle in for dinner. We chose a very crowded Chifa restaurant (Peru’s version of Chinese food) and cautiously perused the menu unsure of what anything was until the waitress graciously pointed our attention to the pictures in the back of the menu. So we each chose our dish and settled in to a nice Chifa dinner. We wanted to eat some fried street food (some churro like desserts) but alas, we were sidetracked by our original second mission of finding toilet paper and bread (or really we just forgot and I’m blaming it on the TP).

So, while all of you are dressed in red and yellow with witches’ hats and sticks for wands waiting in line for that much anticipated movie, I was having my own adventure down my very own Diagon Alley. Now aren’t you jealous?