Soy peruana? No.

So, actually a ton of things happened today.  I was writing things down left and right this morning so I would remember to tell you everything.  First thing that happened, as I was walking to the Suiza Lab to get my yellow fever vaccine, I called called muñeca (doll).  That was a first for me, Tonisha said that she had been called that before, but I hadn't heard it until this morning.  I've been called mi amor (my love) once, too.  That's always nice (not!).  Hey, you know that "Things I'll Miss" list that I told you about, well I have a "Things I Won't Miss" list, too, and "whistles from the streets" are on it!!  Also while I was walking, I had a woman ask me for directions and I told her I don't know then she said "Oh, you're not Peruvian."  Now, I don't know if she was a Peruvian herself or if she was foreign and didn't know any better, but it still felt good to know someone thought I was a Peruvian.  I felt bad that I couldn't help her though.

Anyway, then I got to Suiza Lab.  It was a pretty easy process.  I got in line, paid, and got my vaccine.  Easy enough.  However, in the states, whenever you get a shot, you get one of those information sheets and I didn't get one of those!  Haha, I haven't had a fever, dizziness, or redness at the injection site though so I think I'm set. ;)  After this quick visit to Suiza Lab, I got on a micro to school.  We had to take a small detour because the police had a block of the road closed because of a micro crash.  I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to snap a photo, but let's just say I'm glad I wasn't on the micro.  It was a one micro accident and I don't know what the driver was doing, but it appeared as if he just drove up onto the sidewalk and hit a crosswalk light.  It was quite strange.  Also, on the micro, an elderly man got off the micro for being overcharged by 20 centimos.  I know this isn't a big deal, but I was just happy to know that: 1. I'm not just overcharged because I'm foreign and 2. I'm not the only one who gets off micros for being overcharged!!

Once I got to school, I had another "You must be Peruvian" moment.  I was sitting in the dance studio getting ready for my ballet class and one of the girls from the class before me asked me what level of ballet the class was.  Well, here's the problem, I wasn't paying attention so she had to ask me more than once before I even knew she was talking to me and the other problem is that when people think you're Peruvian they talk super fast so I couldn't understand her.  I asked her to slow down and then her and her friend giggled and she repeated herself in English.  It made me really like an idiot.  I most likely would have understood her had she slowed down, but instead the conversation ended with me feeling dumb and her probably thinking that I'm a stupid American who doesn't know Spanish..fail.  It's okay though...positivity, right?!  Hopefully, someday maybe I'll get the Peruvian accent and understanding to match my maybe Peruvian look. :)  Ballet of course was great, too.  :)

Deporte y Vida was amazing today, too.  It's "Spring Week" so they've had activities going on all week and actually were making a special trip there tomorrow to finish out the week with them!!  I'm really excited to go there tomorrow, because today was really fun.  I did still help a few kids with there homework though.  But, besides the boring homework, let's talk about the fun stuff...I got to see the monkey again today and I got pictures this time...

 These are siblings and this girl, Margarita, followed me around most of today.  They are all adorable.  They loved the camera and they especially liked seeing their pictures and videos after they were taken.  Sorry, I had some problems uploading the videos, but I hope to show you them in tomorrow's post.

Playing checkers

 Also, I watched them play a couple games of chess and they definitely just make up the rules as they go.  It's pretty comical and it can cause some fights too, but I kind of started teaching them how to play, but in reality, I'm pretty sure they knew.  They were just trying to pull a fast one on me and their opponents.

Playing volleyball

Yep, I'm definitely a blanquita

One of the best memories from today will probably be me see-sawing though.  I don't remember the last time I was on a see-saw.  Honestly, it's so long since I've been on one that I couldn't even remember what it was called for a little bit.   Anyway, I wish I had a picture from today, but maybe this will occur again tomorrow, but if not, here's a mental picture:  Me and Margarita on one side and four kids on the other side!!  Hahaha...it was a sight to see!!  I loved every second of it.  I was also ordered to go down the slide, too.  I don't remember the last time I did that either.  Anyway, I'm really excited for tomorrow and I can't wait to share that day with you, too.  I hope you all had amazing days!! Buenas noches!

Hace dos meses

Whoa!  I have been here for two months now!!  I don't know about you, but I think that's crazy!  Time is flying by.  Pretty soon I will be on a plane home and freezing in the Illinois winter!!!  My time here so far has been amazing and I'm expecting the next two months to be amazing as well!  I hope you all continue to stick with me in reading my blogs because I'm excited to share them.

Well, moving on to my day, I started out in Peruvian Social Reality.  Today, we started to discuss Indigenismo and Hispanismo.  We didn't really get too far into talking about them, but Indigenismo is a movement supporting indigenous people and Hispanismo is kind of the opposite supporting the Spanish culture.  Then I had my Living and Learning, where some of got to share one curious photo and one obvious photo.  Some the curious photos that other people had were..a picture of dump trucks dumping something into the ocean.  Well, come to find out, they were dumping rubble from construction and sand.  And actually, another thing I learned is that the road that is next to ocean used to be the ocean, but it's been all built up to in that same way.  Another curious picture was a picture of a circle on the ground with an 'S' in it.  These are Zonas de Seguridades (Security Zones) for earthquakes.  After an earthquake occurs those are the meeting spots for people.  The last curious one that was shown today was a symbol in graffiti.  We talked a little bit about gangs and thieves and it was actually really interesting.  Before thieves go and rob a house there are people that mark the houses with graffiti to mean different things.  It's actually kind of creepy and scary, but still an interesting system.  Here are some of the symbol's meanings:  There's nothing here, on vacaction, single woman, careful police, it's already been robbed, use crowbar, really good etc.  Haha, scary, right?!  But still it's cool.  If I lived here I would just mark my house with a "there's nothing here" symbol or something. :)  Anyway, we didn't get through everyone's pictures because we had to move on and talk about the difference between stereotypes and generalizations, but I can't wait to see the other curious pictures that people have next week.

After my delicious lunch, I had a midterm in my Spanish Writing Workshop.  I actually had forgotten that it was today, but it wasn't a huge deal that I forgot because it was only writing two short essays.  It's not like I could really study for it.  It went well thought, I think.  Well see I guess.  Then, I had ethnography where we discussed a ton of different anthropologists that have studied the Amazon.  It's funny because I make a game out of note taking.  If I can get all the information written down before the professor switches the slide then I win and if I don't then I lose.  Let's just say I lose quite a bit.  The professor moves pretty quickly, but I try to write down as much as I can.  It's comical though because sometimes he only stays on one slide long enough to write down two words of it.  Tonisha even started taking notes on her computer and still sometimes she loses the game.  Again, like I said..it's comical. :)

Tonight, I have no homework because tomorrow all I have is ballet so I came home, ate dinner, and watched last night's episode of Glee.  That's so American of me. :)  I then went to Cafe Z with Tonisha and Mark.  I actually wrote some of this blog while I was there, but now I'm home again.  Anyway, we went there and all just worked out different things.  Also, I got pineapple juice and some waffles, they were great.  Cafe Z always has American music playing and we started with listening to it, but then Tonisha asked me to play a song in Spanish, so I did.  I then became the DJ for songs in Spanish on my computer.  It's funny, there we were, Americans sitting in a cafe where there is American music playing and we were playing Latin music from my computer.  I wonder what all the Peruvians were thinking about us. :)  I do like a lot of the songs here.  I was trying to pick my favorite song and I don't know if I could, but I have a few that are pretty high on the list. :)

Now, I am in the process of watching the first Criminal Minds episode from this season. :)  I probably won't make it through the whole thing because I am tired, but I hope all of you are having wonderful nights.  Buenas noches!!

Kindness can change the world

So this morning I took a little stroll before I got on the micro to head to school.  I went to the post office. :)  So some of you will be getting surprises soon.  I then went to the park because I wanted to take two more pictures for my Living and Learning assignment and then I walked to Suiza Lab.  Suiza Lab is a Swiss Lab and they have an International Vaccination clinic.  Before I came to Peru, I got all of the important vaccinations, but I didn't get the yellow fever one because I wasn't planning on going to the Amazon.  Well, now some of us want to go to the Amazon, therefore, I need the vaccination.  Actually, I'm kind of glad I waited because supposedly it's really cheap compared to the states.  I didn't end up getting the vaccination today because there were actually a lot of people there and I didn't know how long it would take, so I just left and jumped on a micro to PUCP.

I had ballet this morning and it was great of course.  Towards the end of class, we were working on turns and she actually included me in a group of people that she was saying good job to.  It felt great. :)  Compliments make me so cheerful and I'm sure they make all of you happy, too.  Make sure you give at least one person a compliment everyday!  After all, "Kindness can change the world."After ballet, I ate my delicious lunch (which of course I had for dinner last night, too).  It was actually my first time having it and it was like this pot roast/beef stew stuff.  It was really good!  I feel like I'm always talking about how good some of the food is here.  Well, you know me..I like to eat.  Plus, I am sure that Peruvians would be happy to know how much I talk about there food.  After devouring my lunch, in the sun might I add, I had to sit inside for a little bit and type a paper for my cine class. :(  With my motivation being the sun, I got it done fairly quickly and then I laid on a bench in the sun reading an article for a class.  It was beautiful.  I love that the sun comes out during the afternoons now.  It just puts a smile on my face everyday.

Then, in my cine class tonight we watched a English movie called Career Girls.  Funny story, so obviously it was in English, but I still ended up reading the Spanish subtitles because I couldn't understand the British accent or the lingo.  It was quite comical actually.  After the class was over, I found out that I wasn't the only one who had to read the subtitles.  We all wondered if we had watched the movie in the U.S. if we would have had to watch it with subtitles, too.  It was really that bad. :)  Anyway, the movie was about two women that met in college and they are reuniting after six years of not seeing each other.  During the visit, they come across other people from there past and there are many flashbacks that explain the people from their past.  Well, actually they are not "flashbacks," I learned that in class today.  They weren't "flashbacks" because it wasn't a "flash," it was more like an entire scene.  Anyway, the movie was good, but I think that about every movie.

Tonight, when I got home, my mom was in bed which was quite unusual.  Well, apparently she's not feeling well, I felt really bad for her.  She was talking about all the work she had to do. :( I told her to rest (like any mom would tell their child :)) and I told her that I hoped she would get better.  And she's wonderful, because despite not feeling well, she still helped me with my Living and Learning picture project and I'm glad she did because I learned some new things.  Like the people that scrub the sidewalks...  They do it because it doesn't rain here and, that's true, it really doesn't.  So yea, sidewalks are supposed to be dirty, they are dirty in the states, too, but it rains in the states.  Can you imagine all the crap (no pun intended) that would be on the sidewalks if it didn't rain in the U.S. or if people didn't wash the sidewalks here.  Interesting, huh?  That's just one of many things I learned tonight.  I'm sure I'll share more with you once we have our discussion in class tomorrow.  Also, my "cultural partner," Ccantu, was able to help answer my questions about the curious pictures as well.  I'm actually happy that I have those questions answered now.  I could have just let them be and never asked them, but now that I was forced to ask them, I'm glad I did.

Also, tonight, I watched Glee.  Yep, I like Glee, too.  I don't think I would consider myself a "Gleek," but I do enjoy watching the show. :)  Next on my list to try and find is Criminal Minds. :)  I'm sure some of you are thinking, why don't you watch Peruvian television.  I do occasionally watch the news (I haven't in a long time) and I often put on the music videos channel to listen to that (I really like doing that), but the actual telenovelas (soap operas) here don't interest me.  I don't even like soap operas in the states so I'm not going to like them here.  They are so cheesy.  Awhile ago, Tonisha and I turned on a soap opera and watched about ten minutes of it and then turned it off.  They are just so far-fetched.  Well, I guess so is every other TV show out there like Glee, Grey's, and Criminal Minds, but still, I just can't do it.

After watching Glee (yes, after) I read the rest of an article on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination for Living and Learning.  You can see where my priorities lie:  Glee first, homework later. :)  Anyway, besides the fact that the article was kind of lengthy it was actually very interesting.  It discussed a ton of studies that have been done on a variety of different people concerning stereotypes and such.  And it addressed a variety of different types of stereotypes.  For example, one study dealt with a thing called "stereotype threats" among children and this is what it found:  "When Asian girls were made aware of their ethnicity (by coloring a picture of Asian children eating with chopsticks),
their math performance improved, but when they were made aware of their gender (by
coloring a picture of a girl with a doll), their math performance declined" (Ambady, Shih,
Kim, & Pittinsky, 2001).  This was because they were linked with the stereotypes that they have grown up knowing, like "Asians are good at math."  Again, interesting, right?

Anyway, now I am going to climb into my warm bed (yes, it's finally warming up here.woo!) and go to sleep.  I hope you all are having dulces sueños and I will talk to you tomorrow. :)  Buenas noches!

Okay, so I was going to go to bed, but I just checked my Stats and I HAD to edit this post to tell you all that I got a hit from India!  Haha, now I'm up to 9 from Russia, 4 from Germany, 1 from Brazil, 1 from Spain, and 1 from India! :)  Thank you all for sticking with my blog and thank you to those who are joining!  Don't forget to keep passing it on to your friends!

El número de teléfono del cobrador

Can I say that I love eating breakfast in the morning!  In the U.S. I almost never eat breakfast and if I do it consists of two or more Chewy granola bars, right Taylor?  (Which by the way, I've been craving, but I can't afford a lot of imported stuff here :))  Anyway, I love my usual cereal, scrambled eggs, and freshly squeezed orange juice.  It's delicious  The freshly squeezed orange juice is on my "Things I will miss" list.  Yes, I actually do have this list, but you won't see it until December.  So if you're curious, you should probably keep reading this blog until then!!  Anyway, I don't know exactly why I'm talking about my breakfast..este...I guess I'll tell you to eat it, it's good for you!!

On to a micro story...this is a good one!!

So I was on the micro quietly minding my own business when the cobrador came up to me asking for the pasaje (money).  I showed him my carne (student ID) and gave him a Peruvian sol and he obviously told me that I owed more because the carnes for foreigners don't look the same so we get turned down a lot.  I obviously explained this to him and he was nice and accepted it.  Later in the ride he came back up to me and asked again if I had another carne and I said "no" once again.  I thought for sure that he was going to turn around and make me pay more (which I wouldn't have), but he didn't and he awkwardly went back to the door to do his cobrador duties.  I kept shifting in my seat because I was sitting in that seat over the wheel well - you know that seat you always hated sitting in on the school bus when you're growing up.  Anyway, the cobrador then motioned (more than once) to a seat right in front of him pretty much saying it would be more comfortable.  And it was then that I knew for sure what was occurring.  The micro started to empty and the less people on the micro the more anxious I became.  Then, the inevitable happened, the cobrador sat across the aisle from me and started talking to me.  At first it was the usual questions "Where are you from?," "Why are you here?," "What are you studying?," and "Do you like Perú?," but then he remembered where I got on and what my name was from my carne.  He then boldly asked for my number and I told him "Sorry, I don't know it," which is true!  He didn't have to know that my number is written on the back of my phone which was in my bookbag.  He then told me to write down his number and I said that I wasn't interested and that I had a boyfriend.  And here's where I tell you about the two types of guys in Perú.  #1. When you say you have a boyfriend, they stop talking to you.  #2. When you say you have a boyfriend they proceed to ask if he's here or in the U.S.  Well, I need to start saying that he's here because then they should leave me alone, but when I answer in the U.S. the majority of people here say it doesn't matter.  It's the weirdest thing.  That's just the attitude of a lot of the people here.  I'm glad I have different values in that sense.  Anyway, the guy didn't care and still wanted to give me his number.  I obviously didn't get out my phone or he would have easily seen my number on the back of and I would've been busted, but I hadnded him a pencil and he wrote it on the back of a micro ticket (I'm going to keep that as a souvenir..haha).  Anyway, as I left the micro he said, "Me llames" (Call me).  Little does he know, I was thinking in my head "Yeah, right!"  Hopefully, I don't ever have him as a cobrador again because then I'll have to explain why I didn't call him  I'm sure you're thinking "You'll never see him again" and honestly, one month ago, I would have believed you, but actually, I ahve had a few repeat cobradores.  So I guess I'll just cross my fingers that I don't have him again.

Okay, on to the rest of my school day, it's nothing special so I understand if you stop reading here.

I had Peruvian Social Reality, where we discussed more of the Chinese migration as well as the Japanese migration.  The numbers are actually really interesting: in 1908 the population of Lima was 100,000; in 1940, 400,000; in 1970, 4 million; and in 1990, 9 million.  Crazy, huh?  We also discussed the reason why there is no discrimination anymore when, in reality, it used to be very bad.  The mass migration actually is one of the factors that helped rid of the discrimination, which I find interesting.  After, I ate lunch with Tonisha and we sat in the grass in the nice hot sun!  It was beautiful and I loved every second of it.  Plus, I had some amazing pasta with huancaína sauce, which I have become quite fond of.  Anyway, I had Spanish, too, where we learned the difference between por qué, porque, por que, and porqué.  Confusing, huh?  Well, actually it wasn't too bad.  Also, my writing is improving I think.  Well, at least my papers are having less and less corrections on them. :)  After, I printed my Ethnography paper and headed to class.  In class, we discussed a lot of different things, but we started with the missions, which was what my paper was on so that was nothing new to learn about and then we talked about the education in the Amazon.  This also had my interest considering I want to be a teacher.  He said that on Wednesday, we're talking about some wildlife, so I'm excited for that!  And next week is midterms so we don't have class!  It's going to be wonderful!  I don't know what I'll do with my spare time!

Anyway, tonight when I got home I had a really good beef stew of some sort that I have never had before and it was of course amazing.  Then, I proceeded to find Grey's Anatomy online in order to watch it, since I have an addiction to the show. :)  Also, I obviously worked on these blogs and a little bit of some homework.  I hope you all had amazing days today and I wish you an amazing day tomorrow!  Buenas noches!

Control de lectura

Again, I apologize for my tardiness with this post, but I hope you enjoyed watching the videos that I posted yesterday.  Also, I'm going to thank Mark again for the videos because he deserves it. :)  Thanks Mark!!!  Anyway now let's talk about yesterday...

I woke up early (not really early, but early enough) and headed to meet Tonisha in Parque Kennedy.  When I got there the aerobics class hadn't started yet, but they were warming up.  I'm sure I'll end up doing that by the end of the semester, but yesterday was not that day.  Tonisha and I ahd the plan to go biking while doing our homewokr for Living and Learning.  We rented these nice yellow bikes for 6 soles ($2.18) for one hour and rode down Arequipa (the road that is closed on Sundays).  Unfortunately, we didn't make it down the whole road, but we made it farther than what we walked last Sunday.  The whole strip is 6 km (3.73 miles) and we did about 4.4 km so in total we biked 8.8 km (5.46 miles).  I don't do too well on bikes in case you didn't know.  The only time when I'm good on a bike is when noone is around me and when I have a lot of road to ride down.  I have this small fear about biking, like I think it's crazy when people bike without holding the handlebars.  Anyway, biking was a small challenge for me yesterday, especially when there are other bikers, runners, dogs, etc. and the fact that we rode on a bike path where other bikers were passing me.  It freaks me out a little.  Besides scaring Tonisha by almost getting hit by a car and besides an almost crash when Tonisha and I swerved towards each other the ride went well.  We were able to do part of our Living and Learning homework while we biked, too.  Our homework consists of taking pictures around the neighborhood of both curious and obvious things.  We were instructed to take five pictures of things we understood immediately and five pictures of things that puzzled us or made us wonder.  We were then supposed to ask people on the street about the picture in order to spark conversation I acutally attempted this, but it was a fail.  I asked an elderly man about a sign, but unfortunately I couldn't understand his answers. :(  However, I plan on asking my host mom and my cultural partner about the pictures.  On Wednesday we get to show and talk about our pictures in class so that should be interesting.  Here are a few of mine...

Pearl Jam posters

This is actually Tonisha's picture, but I took it for her.
It's the seat belt of the micro driver.  A lot of micro drivers do this! 

Okay, the next one makes me laugh.  As you can see there are two Peruvians walking across the street when the light is red for pedestrians.  This is a VERY common thing here.  I do it now, too.  It really is safe as long as you still look both ways.  It's the most hilarious thing though to watch the tourists.  I can point out right away who the tourists are at a crosswalk.  The tourists literally stand there for the whole red light until it turns green.  It's comical.





This is a group of Miraflores district workers cleaning the sidewalks.
They do this a lot.  They just take buckets of water and then scrub.
It's quite odd because sidewalks are supposed to be dirty.

After our hour bike ride, I went to Tonisha's house where I was attacked by her dog as always.  Well actually before we went there, we went to Plaza Vea first in order to get some food because we were hungry after biking.  I got trail mix and bought M&Ms to add to it.  It made the perfect snack for the thing we did next...We watched the movie La Misión (The Mission) with Robert DeNiro.  We had to watch it for our Ethnography class.  It was a little slow and Tonisha and I pretty much had to bold our eyes open to watch the whole thing because we were exhausted, but it was an okay movie.  It was about the missions that were formed in the Amazon during the 17th century.  After the movie was done, I headed home just in time to turn around and leave for lunch with my host mom.  We went to a place called Crepes & Waffles and it was delicious!  I had a really good pita with ice cream for dessert.  I can't wait to go there again sometime.

When we got home I "dedicated" my afternoon and evening to writing a paper, which they call control de lecturas here, that was due today in Ethnography.  It's basically a paper that is based on assigned readings.  This paper focused on the characteristics of the missions of the Jesuits and Franciscans in the Amazon and it also compared this information with the information in the movie.  Writing it took longer than it should ahve, but I couldn't focus, but as long as I finished it (which I did) then it doesn't matter.

Also, my mom went to a birthday party for one of her relatives and brought back chicken salad sandwiches and a nice piece of chocolate cake.  Boy, am I glad she was thinking of me at the party because it was all delicious and it was another good break from my paper. :)

So minus the paper and my almost bike wrecks, my day was wonderful.  I hope yours was, too!

Unseen Videos

So it's really late and I'm still in the middle (well not in the middle more towards the end) of writing a paper that is due tomorrow, so I don't have the time to write a blog on today's adventures.  However, my amigo Mark put up new videos from the past two months.  I'd like to thank him for documenting some of the good times all of us have had here!!

Okay, first up, two videos from the Nazca flight...

Next up, some videos from Lomas de Lachay, where we visited last Friday.

I hope you enjoyed them.  Sorry if some of these videos cause you to be worried about my safety; if so, I promise I am okay and nothing has harmed me thus far. :)  I promise I am using the best of my judgment here.  And again, thanks Mark!!!

El Rey León

I started out my day going to the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú in the nearby district of Pueblo Libre.  It was pretty good.  For some reason I feel I have become less and less fascinated by museums, but it was still a good time and I learned some new things....

Such as..different tribes used to shape their heads so they were easily distinguishable from other tribes.  Also, they would do surgeries on people by cutting part of their skull out to release spirits and then they would fill it in with fabric and it would just grow over.  Obviously, some people died from this, but it had a success rate of two thirds.  I'd say that's pretty good for cutting a part of the skull out.




Llama pottery

Replica of Machu Picchu

Painting of the Last Supper with cuy as the meal

A deep well

 Of course, I was semi-bored at a museum so what else do you do when you see a deep well like this...  I insisted we drop a penny down it to see how deep it was.  I asked our professor if we could and, to my surprise, he said "yes."  Now obviously nobody had a penny, but our professor gave us 5 centimos (2 US cents) to drop down.  Well, I know you don't know this, but the 5 cent piece here is literally like plastic toy money and before we dropped it down I questioned whether it would make a noise...and of course it didn't!  It pretty much floated down the well like a piece of paper, so obviously we couldn't give up there and we decided to use a sol, which is more like a quarter, and it worked!  The well was actually not as deep as I thought it would be, but it was definitely deep enough that I wouldn't have wanted to fall down it. :)

Anyway, another thing... This museum was much more quaint than the Museo de la Nación last weekend.  And also, the sun came out and it was beautiful.  Oh, I forgot to tell you that yesterday was the first day of spring!!!  How exciting is that?!  I don't know about you, but that's exciting!  I love spring!  Anyway, here's a picture of a plaza inside the museum.  See how spring-y it is out!

Also, for some reason there was a famous actor at the museum.  Our professor was a little giddy about it.  We obviously didn't really know him, but our professor explained that he is pretty well-known, so obviously we got a picture with him, but sadly, the picture is not on my camera so I can't show you right now.  Anyway, I'll tell you who the actor is since I know now.  It was Reynaldo Arenas, who apparently played Túpac Amaru in the movie Túpac Amaru.  Well, the only Tupac I know is the singer so then obviously I had to look up who Túpac Amaru was.  Well, he was the last leader of the Incas here in Peru, so I thought that was interesting.  Some US American movies that he has been in are Fire on the Amazon (with Sandra Bullock), Sniper (with Tom Berenger), and Hour of the Assassin (with Erik Estrada).  I personally haven't heard of those movies, but it's still pretty cool.

Anyway, after the museum I went back home, opened my window, sat in my bean bag chair in the sun, and did some reading for my Ethnography paper that is due on Monday.  Then, a group of students and I went to see El Rey León 3D in the theater!!  Translation:  We saw The Lion King in 3D.  Nothing beats seeing the classic Lion King in 3D and in Spanish!  See it's awesome...

If that's not good enough for you, check this out...

If you still don't understand the excitement of Spanish Disney movies, here's one last clip...

Haha, you get the point.  Anyway, I had a good day and I hope you did, too.  Now, I have to get back to a montaña de homework.  Buenas noches!  Dulces sueños!

Lomas de Lachay

So it's 11 p.m. at night and I am just getting home from a long day that started at 5:45 a.m. this morning when I woke up.  I'm completely exhausted right now, but the day was great.  I met up with Mark and Sheila at 7 a.m. at Parque Kennedy where we then walked to the nearest Metro (grocery store) and bought some snacks for the day.  I bought some oranges and cereal bars, which would be my snacks/lunch throughout the day until I ate dinner tonight (healthy, right?).  We then micro-ed to a bus station and got on an 8:40 bus to Lomas de Lachay which is a national reserve outside of the town of Chancay.  And actually we didn't really take a bus there, but rather the bus dropped us off on the Pan-American highway and we proceeded to walk 3-4 km (it's in debate how far we actually walked) to the reserve entrance...

This is what we saw as we were walking to the reserve..promising, huh?

 But, then we started to see some flowers and it made it better.

And then it turned into this!

And this...

 Then we finally made it into the reserve and it was gorgeous!  There was sooo much green everywhere!!  It's weird apparently this place is green and beautful in the winter (summer in the U.S.), but it's all dead and gross in the summer (winter in the U.S).  It's kind of opposite, because usually plants die in the winter.  Anyway, it was gorgeous and with all the green valleys I wanted to see cows or something of that sort...buffalo, deer, gazelles, antelope, horses, wildebeest...something :)  Apparently there are foxes there, but Mark, Sheila, and I didn't see any. :(  Also, I should say that all the green wasn't grass, it was like this vine-y plant ALL over and it was misty for the majority of the time that we were there, but as we were getting ready to leave, there were blue skies and the sun!!


Green!!  Also, I don't know if you can see,
but in the background there is the contrasting desert.

 We walked around for awhile and actually (not purposefully) we ended up on the trail that went ALL the way around the mountain again.  I don't know if you remember or not, but Mark and I went all the way around the mountain at Wayna Picchu.   Anyway, we actually didn't end up going around the mountain, we started up that way, but then saw a huge line of high school or middle school students coming down and we really did NOT want to pass them all because we had already gotten way too much attention from them earlier in the morning.  So we ended up wandering off the trail a little to get to another trail to avoid the screaming school kids.  This was actually a very good thing, because we came across a map and had we decided to go around the mountain we would have been there longer than we wanted to.  Anyway, like I said the sky was clear when we went to leave...

Blue and beautiful skies!!!

Green and gorgeous!

 We then left the park and started walking the 3 or 4 kilometers back to the Pan-American highway.  Once we got there, we didn't really have a plan except for hitch-hiking our bus back to Chancay and then eventually back to Lima.  Well, once we got to the Pan-American highway, we were greeted by some police officers that were sitting with a broken down micro full of kids.


Walking back to the Pan-American highway.  What a difference in scenery!

 Anyway, these police officers, obviously could tell we were white American tourists and said that although Peruvians hitch rides all the time that it wouldn't be safe for us to do it.  Although it would have been easy to hitch our bus, they informed us that anybody could be armed and force us into their vehicle.  Well, we obviously had no other options except to maybe call a cab or to ask the police officers for a ride.  So obviously we asked the police officers for a ride!!  It was still kind of sketchy though because supposedly people really don't trust the police here in Peru either, but we really didn't have a choice.  Anyway, it ended up being fine and it turned into quite a comical event.  We got to see the two police officers pushing a micro down the highway and then we were joined by two other officers who insisted that we take a picture with them, so of course that's what we did...

Needless to say, it was an interesting adventure!!  This probably is going to be one of those "Remember when..." stories.  Anyway, we got to Chancay (safely) and we were hoping to go to a castle that is there, but we were running out of daylight and we wanted to make sure we were back on a bus to Lima in the day.  I kind of want to go back at sometime though to see the difference in the reserve in the summer and also to see the castle.  Obviously, we didn't see the reserve in the summer today, but here's a picture off the internet so you can see the major difference in the lack of (non-existent) vegetation...

So not as pretty!!

Anyway, once we got back to Lima safe and sound, we finally sat down for a halfway decent meal at a pizzeria on La Calle de Pizzas (Pizza Street) in Miraflores.  Pizza Street literally consists of a ton of pizzerias.  As you walk down the street you get bombared by the hosts trying to get you to come to THEIR pizzeria rather than another one.  Mark and I were literally standing there talking to each other (trying to figure out where to go) and we had three hosts around us telling us to go to theirs (we were obviously ignoring them).  We decided that there is really no way to choose correctly where to go, so we walked a little bit further and went to a place that didn't have a host who bombared us!  And it was pretty good pizza and a great deal!!  I am now extremely excited to go to bed!  I'm tired and my legs hurt even more than they did before, but that's okay.  It was another great workout today.  I hope you all are sleeping well right now and if you aren't sleeping right now then you should go to bed like I'm about to.  :)

Hoy

So I got up earlier than I had to this morning just to write my blog that I wasn't able to write last night.  I don't know what you think about that, but I'd call that commitment. :)  After not sleeping in ;) I headed to ballet class.  I know I say this every week, but I really do love it and I'm so happy and blessed that I have been able to take it while here.  There's new challenges every week, but I can also tell that I am improving.  I'm so jealous of my instructor, though.  Hopefully, if I stick with dancing, I will be at least half as good as she is.

After dance, I ate lunch in one of the cafeterias where I was entertained by a traditional dancer and some music.  La PUCP always has a lot of cultural events going on like this.  I'm sure I'll see more as the semester continues.  Also, some interesting news about PUCP...  Tomorrow there is a protest occurring  at the front entrance of PUCP (I'm not attending though).  I don't really understand the full details of the protest, but here's the jist of it...  PUCP is a Catholic private university, but they have not received funds from the Vatican and have operated independently for 20 years.  Well, the Archbishop of Lima is now saying that he has the right to be on or appoint someone to be on some kind of administration at PUCP and that he also has the right to decide the President of the institution.  So what it boils down to is that people opposed this and the assembly meeting on this issue is tomorrow, therefore, there is a protest occurring.  Sorry that was kind of vague.

Anyway, I went to Deporte y Vida today as well.  Surprisingly, it was kind of a let down today.  Apparently, this week is a low homework week in schools so when the kids don't have homework, they don't come.  Therefore, there were very few children today compared to usual.  I did help a few children with their math homework, but nobody had English today.  The most exciting (bad exciting) thing that happened there today was that a kid accidentally stabbed another kid with a pencil in the face and a little bit of the lead broke off.  So we had a minor surgery which consisted of cotton balls, alcohol, tweezers, and a needle to get out the lead.  I still don't think they got all the lead out, but he'll be fine.  Now had it happened about an inch and a half to the right (where his eye was) it could've been VERY bad.  It's funny the poor kid who got stabbed is the first one who asked me for my mechanical pencil last week.  I was already planning on giving it to him once I left, but now he definitely deserves it. :)

Well, I'm about to go and do some homework.  I have some articles to read and a five-page paper that is due on Monday for Ethnography.  I realized that Monday is far away and technically I have time to do everything, but really I don't.  I have a long weekend ahead of me.  I'm pretty sure I'm taking a day trip tomorrow to a national reserve called Lomas de Lachay, I'm going to a museum on Saturday, and on Sunday I'm pretty sure I'm walking with Tonisha again.  It should be a great weekend minus all the homework I have.  I'm ready to tackle some of it right now though!  I hope you all have amazing nights tonight and days tomorrow! :)

The Decalogue

Okay, I'm sorry for the late post, there was event last night that the university put on so I got home late and didn't feel like writing my blog so here's my blog from yesterday (Wednesday), but also a little from Tuesday.

Here's some from Tuesday:

Okay, so the Polish movie we watched Tuesday was The Decalogue.  Apparently it was a mini series and each episode was loosely based on one of the ten commandments, I'm slightly more interested in the movie now.  I'll have to go back and pay more attention next time.  We obviously only watched one episode and from the episode I'm pretty sure we watched the "Thou shall not kill."  Now, the second thing from Tuesday, I didn't write this in my blog that night because it hadn't happened yet, but when I went to see my host mom's apartment building that she is building, she told me that there was an apartment in our building that she is renting/hoping to sell right now so I asked to see it.  Well I got to see it last night and it's so cool!!  It's perfect for one or two people.  It's pretty small and she's worried that she won't sell it, but I told her that I would buy it if I could.  It's sooo nice and home-y.  I also learned that our apartment building was the first that she built and it's sitting on top of right where her actual home used to be - cool, right?

Anyway, on to yesterday (Wednesday)... I had Peruvian Social Reality and we did indeed continue to discuss the migration of the Chinese into the country and all the discriminations that they went through.  After, I had my Living and Learning class.  We talked about social mapping and how Peruvians usually try and make connections with other Peruvians.  The three main ways of this are family, friends, and schools.  By schools, it's not their universities, but their High schools.  When Peruvians meet other Peruvians one of the first questions asked is "What High school did you go to?"  This can say a lot about a person here in Peru.  We also discussed "optical illusions" in the Peruvian culture and steps to help figure them out.  The steps include:  Stay curious, Stay open, Seek context, Seek patterns, and Ask questions.  We were given an interesting assignment, but I'll wait to tell you more about that when I do it.

At lunch, I indulged in this delicious chocolate cake that I have had WAY too many times at the university, but it's soo good, I can't help myself.  Plus, I'm getting my exercise with walking and ballet so I figure it's okay.  In Spanish Writing Workshop, we learned how to write a letter in Peru.  Apparently, it's a pretty standard format that is used.  We also had a practice midterm just to show us what the midterm will be like.  I actually don't know when midterms week is, but it's definitely coming up.  Finally, in Ethnography, we talked about the effects that flights and highways had on the Amazon.  Obviously, one of the effects was a migration to the Amazon so that was interesting to hear - I think there were 64% more people after one of the major migrations.

Okay, on to last night..After dinner and a little bit of homework, I went to a place called the English Pub that is right here in Miraflores.  Four universities here in Lima (including PUCP, the one I attend) put on this event for all foreign exchange students.  It was pretty much an event to just go meet and mingle with all foreign students that are in Peru.  I didn't expand my horizons too much (meaning meeting people from outside the U.S.), however I did meet a girl from Germany and a girl from France.  Other than that, I met so many people from Wisconsin that go to UW-Madison.  I swear half of the foreigners at PUCP have some kind of association with Wisconsin.  Anyway it was really fun and we got free food (and beer, but I don't care about that).  The food was papas fritas (french fries), tequeños (which are these fried tortillas with ham and cheese in them), and chicharrones (it's fried pork - I think). :)  Anyway, it was delicious and a good time, and that's why I am late writing this blog.  My apologies.  I hope you all have wonderful days and I will catch you later.  I heading to ballet now!  Yay! :)

Ouch.

So I was running a little late this morning to my ballet class.  I was a tad late to begin with just because I took my time eating breakfast, but the fact that I got off one micro and onto another one didn't help my time issue.  The first cobrador tried charging me extra again.  I feel like this is going to become a regular occurrance.  Good thing that there are good cobradores out there that don't try to overcharge people.  It was pretty easy to get off the micro and walk three micros back and get on that, but I was still late to class.  But you should know that when I say late, I mean late by my standards (not Peruvian ones).  It's weird, for my dance classes at Carthage, when you're ten minutes late, you don't dance that day.  But,  when you're ten minutes late here, you're actually on time.  I showed up when everyone else usually does.  So I guess when I say I was late this morning, I really wasn't at all.  Anyway, ballet was challenging as always and I'm definitely sore.  All the walking from this weekend made my legs hurt so ballet didn't help either (ouch!), but I love it so much so that's okay.

In between my ballet and cine class, I ate lunch.  And because I ate lomo saltado for dinner last night that meant that I had it for lunch today, too.  How lucky am I?! :)  Also, I got a significant amount of homework done so it was perfect!!  In cine tonight we watched a Polish movie.  I actually don't know what the title was and it really didn't hold my attention that well, but it essentially had the theme of justice and injustice.  The movie was probably my least favorite of the class so far, but that's okay because it was a short movie and we got out of class an hour early.

When I got home, of course I watched two more movies.  One was Julie & Julia, which was a good movie.  The movie is about a girl named Julie who decides to blog her way through Julia Child's cookbook.  As a new blogger myself, it was fun to watch a movie about another person who is new to the blogging craze.  However, one difference between Julie and I:  Her blog at one point was the third most read blog and mine will never be that popular, but really who cares about popularity, as long as my few readers enjoy reading my blogs that's all that matters to me.  My second movie that I watched was Dirty Dancing:  Havana Nights.  Tonisha let me borrow it because she was shocked that I hadn't seen it before.  It was a good movie and I was able to put it on Spanish subtitles to get some practice in. :)  Overall, the night was good, I'm going to read a little bit for my ethnography class then I'm going to go to bed.  Oh and the most popular way to say "Sweet Dreams" here is "Dulces Sueños."  Buenas noches!

The little things can bring smiles, too!

So up until about 8 p.m. tonight, I was worried about what I would include on my blog.  Usually, certain exciting things happen during the day and I write them down so that I remember to include them on my blog, but tonight I while I was sitting in my Ethnography class, I was trying to think of things that had happened and I couldn't think of anything!!

The only thing that was semi-exciting about today was the fact that Lima traffic is crazy and people turn right from the left lanes.  This morning this occurred and my micro slammed on it's breaks and I was greeted by a young woman who feel into my lap.  After this, during the day nothing happened until this evening, but we'll get to that later.  Right now, I am going to talk about my not-so-exciting day...

I had Peruvian Social Reality, where we discussed the different views that people have concerning the indigenous (I had to look up how to spell this word because I'm used to indígenas :)) people.  We then briefly started a lecture on the immigration from China, but, by that time, class was over so I am sure we'll continue talking about that on Wednesday.  I then had lunch which consisted of a papa rellena and rice.  The only reason that I am telling you this is because I don't think that I have talked about papa rellena yet and I feel like you should know what it is.  It is essentially mashed potatoes stuffed with meat and a few other things, then it is shaped back into the form of a potato and fried.  Sorry, no picture!  Maybe next time!  But, they are pretty good, and I bet they are fun to make because you pretty much get to play with your food.  After lunch, I had to go return some books because the library system here is odd, but that's a different story.  Luckily, I still have a month to read those books, so no worries.  Then, I had my Spanish writing class, which consisted of learning a bunch of prepositions, which we have been doing every Monday since it started.  There are soo many prepositions and so many different ways to say the same thing.  I feel like I will never have them all down!  And then for Ethnography, we had our class for three hours today, rather than two because were in the process of making up for the days he was sick.  So for the next couple Mondays class will be for three hours!  It actually wasn't so bad today, we continued learning about rubber production.  We got to watch a short video in class, too, rather than just looking at pictures so that helped us understand the process better.  I know it doesn't sound too exciting, but it's not so bad.

Anyway, now for the exciting part of the night!  When I got home, another letter was awaiting my arrival equipped with cute drawings of a cuy and a llama. :)  It was sooo cute and I loved it!!  Thank you to the best roommate ever for sending it!!  Also, since I was pretty late getting home, my dinner was heated up for me as soon as I walked into the door.  When I walked to the kitchen table, much to my surprise, it was lomo saltado!!!  And this delicious asparagus soup that I had never had before tonight!!  It's funny, I was just telling people earlier today that I hadn't had a really good soup since I've been here.  Well, apparently the universe heard and was like "Your wish is our command."  It was soo good and, of course, lomo saltado is just always delicious!!

Okay, what I'm getting at with this story from today is that even the smallest things can bring excitement or happiness to your life.  I'm sure many of you have had bad uneventful days before, but really..exactly how bad can one day be?  I bet during every "bad" day you've had at least one exciting or happy thing has happened.  For me, I really believe it's impossible to go a day without smiling.  Even a boring uneventful day, like today, can contain many smiles.  Smiles that come from friends/family, that come from seeing a drawing of a cuy in a letter, or from seeing your favorite meal sitting on the kitchen table!  I hope that all of your days contain smiles as well, whether the smiles are big or small, it doesn't matter.  Whenever you're having a bad day, I challenge you to find one thing that will make you smile.  I bet it will be easier than you think!

Lastly, I learned two new phrases thanks to my sister.  The phrases are "Sweet Dreams."  One is Que duermas bien (literally translated, I hope you sleep well) and the second is Que sueñes con los angelitos (literally translated, I hope you dream with the little angels).  ¡Entonces, que duermas bien!  ¡Buenas noches!

Domingos

So Domingo might turn into one of my favorite days, too, besides Tuesdays and Thursdays.  After seeing everybody in Parque Kennedy last week, Tonisha and I decided we would take a stroll this week.  I think I've mentioned this before, but a road that is really close to both Tonisha and I is closed on Sundays until 1 p.m. so that people can walk, bike, skate, etc. so Tonisha and I thought we would give it a shot today.  As I was walking to pick up Tonisha, again I saw people doing aerobics in the park as well as some badminton and soccer.  I know this is sappy, too, but tears were also brought to my eyes because I saw a dad holding and running alongside his son's bike for him because he was teaching him how to ride it.  It was a scene straight out of a movie and it just reminded me of all the things that parents teach us how to do because their parents and that's what they do. :)  Parents are truly amazing and I wouldn't be the person I am today without mine!

Once I got to Tonisha's house, I leashed her up and we left..  Haha, just kidding, I didn't put a leash on Tonisha, but we did put a leash on Tonisha's host dog, Onyx.  I don't think it would be appropriate to write how I really feel about that dog, but let's just say he's not trained.  Luckily, Tonisha is the one who held the leash the whole time, so I didn't have to worry about him.  We walked a lot of Arequipa (that's the street's name) and then walked back.  Once we got back to Tonisha's, she realized that she forgot her key and noone was home.  Her host mom, sister, and nephew are currently out of town, her host dad was at his club swimming, and her host brother and empleada were at her host brother's new apartment he just bought.  Needless to say, we were locked out, getting tired of the untrained dog, waiting...  I don't know exactly how long we waited (it wasn't a bad wait) and her brother and empleada showed up to let us in.  We sat down for a few minutes and then I headed home.  Oh, by the way, it was sooo sunny and beautiful today!!!  It was a great walk..about 7 miles today.  Next week, Tonisha and I might join in on the aerobics and then rent bikes and ride those.  We saw a tandem bike and neither of us have riden one of those so we might have to try that. ;)

When I got home, I went out to lunch with my host mom to the bakery place that I now know so well.  We chilled there for awhile and when we left, she had to check on a building that she is in the process of constructing.  As I said before (I think) she is in charge of the construction of various apartment buildings and right now she is building one that has to be done by January, so I got to see it so far.  I got to put on a hard hat and everything to go in.  It's definitely still in it's beginning stages, but it's going to be very nice and spacious.  We then stopped at the grocery store for a few things and we got home later than expected.  I still have pretty much all my homework to do and I'm hoping to refrain myself from watching another movie.  Also, I'm really looking forward to dinner because I'm on my own and I'm definitely going to make some plain spaghetti noodles!  If you know me, then you know I love pasta, and I've been looking forward to this for awhile now! :)  I hope you all have greats cenas, too!!  Buenas noches!

Sendero Luminoso

So before I tell you about yesterday, I have to show you something that I forgot to show you on Friday from the markets!  This is probably the best thing I've ever seen...

Aren't those the coolest outfits ever?!  I want one! :)  Not only is the Cookie Monster costume awesome, but look..it's a Cuy costume, too!!  Now, I really need to find room in my suitcase for that on the way home!  Just kidding..kind of

Yesterday morning, I walked to Tonisha's to meet her so that we could micro together to El Museo de la Nación.  The museum (the actual building) was different then what I museums are usually like.  It actually used to be a Ministry of Fishery (or something like that), but then there were problems with over-fishing so they didn't need a ministry anymore and the building was turned into a museum.

Pottery

Ponchos

This was part of a painting that was at the Museo,
clearly the traffic in Lima has always been crazy!!!!

Some of the next pictures are from the part of the museum that gets the most attention.  It contains a series of photographs from what is known as the "Years of Terrorism" in Peru.  The Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path) is a communist organization (or to the government it is known as a terrorist organization) which was lead by Abimael Guzmán, a professor from a university.  For 20 years, the Shining Path tried to scare their beliefs into people with brutal violence.  The killed thousands of innocent people who chose to not follow the Shining Path.  The whole time I was looking at the pictures from these years, they reminded me of pictures from the Holocaust as well.





For the first time in history the Peruvian government distributed
guns to the people of the highlands so that they could
defend themselves against the people of the Shining Path.

This boy was a member of the Shining Path and he is seen here
celebrating the birthday of their leader, Guzmán.  It really makes me
wonder where this man is now because he would only
be in his thirties right now, which just kind of scares me.
I wonder what his beliefs are now.

 Since the government distributed weapons, the Shining Path was driven out of the highlands and they headed for Lima.  The next picture is from a bombing that happened on Tarata Street in Miraflores, Lima (close to where I live).  It happened on July 16, 1992 and it was one of the last attacks of the Shining Path because Guzmán was captured in September of that year.  Today, there is still violence which occurs that is related to this organization, but not near as severe as the two decades of terrorism.  There were many gruesome pictures in the museum that just turned my and all my classmates' stomachs. It was definitely a shoking thing to learn about, but I'm glad I did.

This was a cool view out of one of the windows of the museum.
I'm pretty sure it is the district of San Luis.

 After the museum Tonisha and I decided to walk home...

On a path walking home.

 Let's just say, it wasn't close..and we knew that going into it!  It took us about two hours and it was a 6.5 mile walk!  It was great!  It was kind of chilly out, though, it would have been even better had it been a little warmer. 

Tarata Street bombing memorial

On the walk home, once I had dropped Tonisha off at her house, I stopped by the Tarata Street bombing memorial, since I had just seen pictures from the actual event.  There's usually water in it and it is well lit at night, and as you can see behind it, right now there are flowers sitting on the memorial.

When I got home, I "started" to do my homework, but remember I just bought nine movies so to add on to the two I watched last night, I watched three more!  Whoops!  I would probably suggest all the movies I've watched which include..Agua para Elefantes, Se dice de mí, El Cisne Negro, No me quites a mi novio, and La última canción...in other words..Water for Elephants, Easy A, Black Swan, Something Borrowed, and The Last Song.

After my ridiculous movie watching afternoon/evening, I met up with four people from my program at Café Z and we just sat there and chatted.  I had some amazing panqueques (pancakes) and chocolate caliente (hot chocolate).  The good food and good conversation was the perfect way to end my night, but of course I still have homework..but none of it is for Monday, so no worries!