Maybe I was asking for it? Maybe God doesn’t want me to be so connected?

There was a power surge two nights ago which has left my trusty ASUS EeePC travel laptop in a state not so worthy of trust. In other words: It’s broken and won’t charge. There are no service centers for this particular brand anywhere in all of South America. I assume it will need to be sent to the States (and probably to Japan after that) for repair.

I had a blog post I’d been working on with some Lima observations, but until I can get this thing figured out, it’s a bit more complicated to upload pictures.

Bottom line: I’ll keep you posted.

In other news, I have spent the last two nights at a somewhat bizarre, somewhat crappy, but really awesome Peruvian karaoke bar. It is different from karaoke in the States and has proven to be quite hilarious on several different fronts. There is no stage. They just pass around a wireless microphone and you sit at your table and sing. I elected to stand while I sang Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina” and the Guns ‘N Roses rendition of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Everyone seemed to enjoy my Axyl voice quite a bit. In fact, any American rendition of a song in English, in-key or not, seems to draw quite a bit of love from the crowd. Nice.

Okay, time for a bit to eat and some more laptop option research. Keep your powder dry, people.

We’re a movin’ on up! (Movin’ on up)
To the East Side. (Movin’ on up)
To a de-luxe apartment,
In the skyyyyyyy!

Well, after much searching, many phone calls, and numerous visits, I found an apartment in Lima. It’s a small penthouse suite on the 17th floor of a building smack dab in the middle of the business of Lima. It costs about $9 more per night than staying in a hostel. It has a panoramic view of the city and the ocean. It is furnished. There is a kitchen. There is a DVD player. Wi-fi. Microwave. Stove. Rooftop pool. Rooftop racquetball court. 18s in the trunk. 24-inch rims. And 70′s wood paneling like a roundhouse kick to the head.

When the sweet little old grandma who manages renters of the property was showing me the apartment, I said “Que chevere!” which is the same as saying “how cool” in Spanish here. She said, in Spanish, “Oh, so you know some Spanish words! Do you know ‘puta madre’?” She then went on to rattle off a string of swear words that I will not repeat here. Needless to say, I was immediately enamored to her and we laughed the whole time I was there.

I will not lie. This is pretty ridiculous. It is, as the kids might say, sick. Care to see some pictures? Czech it out:

The Couch (next to the kitchen)

The Kitchen

The Bed

Roof-top Hang-out Area (Pool is up and to the right, Racquetball and BBQ is to the left)

The View of the City

The View of the Ocean

Roof-top Pool (with weird-o colors that are not my doing.)

I finally got a piece of the pie?

My next mission is to look for a cheap Spanish class or instructor and to find an English class that wants a native speaker to come yammer at them for a while. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.