Viva Friday!

Today I had my security briefing, which I have to admit, I was quite disappointed by. Everybody told me that they were going to scare the daylights out of me so that I wouldn't even step out the door but alas, it had no such effect.

I also had a little meeting with the DCM, the Deputy Chief of Mission, who is second in command to the Ambassador and runs the Embassy while Ambassador Struble is away. She is very nice and I was impressed that she took the time to met with a lowly intern like myself.

A few days ago I met Ambassador Struble. I went to an economic strategy meeting. Did you know that you must stand when an Ambassador steps into the room and wait until they invite you to sit down? Learn something new everyday! He advised me that I should change my name to 'La Cruz" while I am here. (Cruz and Croix is cross in Spanish and French, respectively.)

The Embassy has summer hours so on Friday we are off at 12:30 PM! Nice set up. Gabe and I went down to central Lima and walked around the Plaza de Armas and the area surrounding. We also went to Cathedral San Francisco, which was fascinating because of its ancient library with books from 1450 and its catacombs. The picture is of a little happy bird in the fountain in the Plaza de Armas. Below is a little video of the same local.



Beneath the church, two and three levels beneath the ground through little musty and damp passage ways are huge receptacles of the bones of over 70,000 humans. Skulls, legs, arms, hip bones, etc. Some arranged in circular patterns going 90 feet deep. Very creepy and very claustrophobic at the same time.

After our tour at the church we wandered around a bit and Gabe befriended some security guards who took this very blurry picture of us.