Aftermath

Must. Finish. Blog. With. Appropriate. And. Happy. Ending!

So those of you who made it this far are clearly all avid readers (thank you parents, Courtney, Chandni, Karin, Libs, Grandparents and what I understand to be an on/off commitment from Lizzie, Laura and Heather - anyone I've left out, leave a comment and you will be duly included in the hardback edition. No comment and flattery, no inclusion.) and will probably be aware that I am now home and have pretty much forgotten the last few days of my trip in the excitement of snow and Christmas and clothes that are not made from alpaca.

During my last three days in Lima I went to the beach, ate at a very expensive restaurant because they looked at me in a way that said 'We don't like your kind here. You clearly can't afford it.' Little did they know that I was a GRINGA EUROPEAN and one of my pennies was worth a million and three of their soles. Or at least that's what I thought until I looked at my bank balance. I also checked into a Loki which was nowhere near as party party as Cusco, but was pretty posh. I sought funs elsewhere at the apartment of a Swiss-Peruvian girl who was friends with the Swiss girl who was friends with the American, Karen, who had befriended me in the hostel. Now, when your Daddy is Swiss and works in something important and Swiss, then his money goes a long, long way in Peru. The apartment was AMAZING. I got nervous, and then I got drunk and revealed my grubby working middle class roots somewhat over-enthusiastically by going on and on about how amazing everything was. She humoured me though and let me get lost in the house before coming to find me and giving me another glass of expensive wine.

I then shopped for pretties and then, when the money ran out, just took photos of pretties to look at later and wish I'd bought. Then I read the whole of 'Catcher in the Rye' in a day, packed and took a taxi to the airport. The taxi driver was super chatty. I was not. The flights were DESPERATELY BORING apart from maybe the second where I tried to do a movie marathon. I got through three. Has anyone ever seen 'Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution'? Quite amusing.

I'm pretty sure that mine was the last flight to land in the whole of the UK before the snow hit properly. Emotional, Love Actually, reunion with family which involved a very large bar of cadburys, and then home for the first, blissful cup of Earl Grey in four months. Five have since been consumed and everyone has been like heaven in a cup.

However, I am still having difficulty adapting to a lifestyle that involves throwing loo paper down the toilet and drinking out of the tap without contracting dysentry, but other than that, the reverse culture shock is minimal. I also have not adapted to the British pound and am still dividing all prices by four and thinking 'huh, not bad.' I went into Fortnum and Masons and did this. RECIPE FOR FINANCIAL DISASTER.

Thank you all for following and encouraging. I promise to do it again next time I run away to foreign lands.

Adios y gracias para todos x