It's nearly 11pm and I am sitting in a plush apartment in the Miraflores district in Lima, the capital city of Peru.
Even though my last post was about how happy I was being a Londoner, life changes I tell you!
This is what you get when you get married to a diplomat, you see yourself being whisked away to Lord Knows Where and you have to deal with it! Not that I'm complaining but you get to used it I suppose over time.
The jet lag hasn't been easy to overcome and acclimatising from 5 degrees C to 25 degrees C, it's quite a turn-around. I love the heat, always have and always will but I really wasn't prepared for the climate shock of that. And here we are, the start of a four year posting in a country of the Incas and other Peruvian civilisations who made their mark on humankind.
I honestly can't complain, I tell you! Our house is big....not just big, it actually comes with a swimming pool. Wow! Yes, I know, I shouldn't really complain. And the kitchen comes with two ovens and we have a great barbeque grill outside. So tough job, being a diplomatic spouse. Okay so we had to sacrifice a lot of things, our career, our families and even our body to have diplomatic children but at the end of the day, there is a whole world of good we can do.
It's just the right attitude.
AM, the predecessor's wife is a lovely person! Had it not been for emails back and forth London to Lima, I would have panicked! My husband wasn't ambitious but we were thrown in the deep-end about the planning and preparation to Peru. Moreover, my Spanish is not really good but I have hope and optimism....I hope I can crack it even though I know Sinhala, Malay, Quranic Arabic, some French and a hint of Hindi. It's just squeezing fluent Spanish somewhere down it which would be a real tester. Ah well, I am STILL optimistic!
Speaking about the right attitude, as a diplomatic spouse, the charities you can commit to are endless. Come on, you needn't do WAG coffee mornings and cookery classes....I mean all that is important and I hear there are loads of Americans here but on the bright side, it's up to you to lead the life.
Either you shut yourself out from the locals, culture and news and mingle with expats or immerse yourself in everything that your adopted-country-for-four-years has to offer. I would personally go for the latter but I am in my late twenties and I do have a sense of adventure so yes, I'm weird!
Also, Peru has so much to give! The food is fabulous, the seafood is amazing, the pisco sours are heavenly and the art and culture is so diverse, I mean it's like unlocking the key to a new world. I feel that by moving continents, I've gone where none most of my family would ever dream about except read it in their history books or if they see it advertised in some sort of travel package. Macchu Picchu! Now how awesome is that.....! Oh well, I better stop ranting..!
All the same, if you go on about setting a better example, joy will be yours forever. Maybe that's stretching optimism too far but at the end of the day, there is more to life than being a diplomat's wife!
Even though my last post was about how happy I was being a Londoner, life changes I tell you!
This is what you get when you get married to a diplomat, you see yourself being whisked away to Lord Knows Where and you have to deal with it! Not that I'm complaining but you get to used it I suppose over time.
The jet lag hasn't been easy to overcome and acclimatising from 5 degrees C to 25 degrees C, it's quite a turn-around. I love the heat, always have and always will but I really wasn't prepared for the climate shock of that. And here we are, the start of a four year posting in a country of the Incas and other Peruvian civilisations who made their mark on humankind.
I honestly can't complain, I tell you! Our house is big....not just big, it actually comes with a swimming pool. Wow! Yes, I know, I shouldn't really complain. And the kitchen comes with two ovens and we have a great barbeque grill outside. So tough job, being a diplomatic spouse. Okay so we had to sacrifice a lot of things, our career, our families and even our body to have diplomatic children but at the end of the day, there is a whole world of good we can do.
It's just the right attitude.
AM, the predecessor's wife is a lovely person! Had it not been for emails back and forth London to Lima, I would have panicked! My husband wasn't ambitious but we were thrown in the deep-end about the planning and preparation to Peru. Moreover, my Spanish is not really good but I have hope and optimism....I hope I can crack it even though I know Sinhala, Malay, Quranic Arabic, some French and a hint of Hindi. It's just squeezing fluent Spanish somewhere down it which would be a real tester. Ah well, I am STILL optimistic!
Speaking about the right attitude, as a diplomatic spouse, the charities you can commit to are endless. Come on, you needn't do WAG coffee mornings and cookery classes....I mean all that is important and I hear there are loads of Americans here but on the bright side, it's up to you to lead the life.
Either you shut yourself out from the locals, culture and news and mingle with expats or immerse yourself in everything that your adopted-country-for-four-years has to offer. I would personally go for the latter but I am in my late twenties and I do have a sense of adventure so yes, I'm weird!
Also, Peru has so much to give! The food is fabulous, the seafood is amazing, the pisco sours are heavenly and the art and culture is so diverse, I mean it's like unlocking the key to a new world. I feel that by moving continents, I've gone where none most of my family would ever dream about except read it in their history books or if they see it advertised in some sort of travel package. Macchu Picchu! Now how awesome is that.....! Oh well, I better stop ranting..!
All the same, if you go on about setting a better example, joy will be yours forever. Maybe that's stretching optimism too far but at the end of the day, there is more to life than being a diplomat's wife!
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