Monstruos, Inc.

First, I'm going to start off telling you something that I forgot to tell you yesterday.  I learn so many new things that I can't remember them all.  I try to jot them down as they happen so that I remember, but sometimes I still forget.  Anyway, interesting fact about Peruvian weddings.  When my host mom and I were looking through photo albums yesterday, we came across pictures of her daughter's "wedding."  I say "wedding" just because the first pictures were not like the traditional American wedding.  She told me a story about her daughter getting married at the courthouse.  She explained that they (her daughter and son-in-law) went to the courthouse to sign the papers and then a week later they had the religious ceremony.  I asked if that was a normal thing and she said yes.  Usually a couple is legally married at a courthouse and then soon after they have the religious ceremony.  I just thought that was interesting and I wanted to share. :)

Entonces..on to today...I made it to my 8 a.m. class today.  Unfortunately though I had my first quiz over the reading that I "read" yesterday.  The quiz wasn't too bad or it wouldn't have been had I actually throughly read through the article, but again I'm not worried about that class yet because I still might drop or audit it.  My second class Realidad Social Peruana was interesting, too.  We're still talking about the Andian people (people who live in the Andes mountains) and today we discussed some of their farming techniques and technology, like the terraces they build in the mountainsides to farm easily.  He showed us pictures of the Valle Sagrado (which I'm going to in two days!) and another place that is cerca de Cusco, so I hope to go there, too.  Also, we talked more about cuy (guinea pig).  Apparently there is a belief that cuy can help diagnose a person with an illness.  A person who is ill rubs a guinea pig over his/her body and then they cut the cuy open and supposedly the cuy will be infected in the same place that the person is.  Now I don't know what you guys think of that, but according to science the results of the cuy are over 95% right.  ¡Qué extraño!  There have been scientific articles written on it.  I guess I'll believe it when I see it. :)  Then, I had Living and Learning where we talked about miscommunications in language and culture.  I had Spanish writing workshop today, too.  Nothing exciting happened in that class, so moving on...Etnografía Amazónica..oh wait, nothing happened in that class either because it was cancelled..again!  The professor did at least send an e-mail this time, apparently he is really sick, which is unfortunate.  It sounds like he needs to get ahold of a cuy.

Anyway, since I didn't have that class, I happily came home and watched Monstruos, Inc. (Monsters, Inc.) on TV.  I don't know if you know this or not, but kids movies are always cuter in other languages (when you know the other language)!!  Also, tonight I had Pardos Chicken for dinner.  Which is the restaurant that my host mom took me to the first day that I met her.  I've been craving it for awhile now so I'm glad that I got to eat it again finally. :)  I leave for Cusco in the early early morning.  I was supposed to be at the airport at 5:15 a.m., but our flight got changed so now it's 4:30!  That's early.  That means I will be getting up around 3.  Good thing tomorrow is a rest day so that we get used to the altitude to avoid altitude sickness!  Hopefully that doesn't happen to me.  Anyway, I will blog when I get a chance to.  Hopefully, I'll have access to a computer just so that I can space out my experiences a little rather than having one HUGE blog again.  Buenas noches!!

Un día libre

Okay, so I guess I would say that I missed out on Lima today; however, the upside is that I didn't miss out on my host mom.  Since I didn't have class today I slept in a little bit and took my time get ready.  I then did some homework for my Living and Learning class.  I had to come up with three to five goals for the semester.  It was actually kind of difficult to come up with goals apart from improving my language skills, but I did it and I hope to meet those goals by the end of the semester.

I then sat down for an early lunch with my host mom.  It was funny, she said "Today, we're eating like gringos" because we were eating so early.  It made me laugh because it's so true.  Peruvian lunch is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. and today we ate at 12 p.m.  We definitely were eating like gringos. :)  I had a wonderful and long conversation with her.  We talked about different foods and everything that I like here so far and sometime next week (or in the coming semester) our empleada is going to teach me to cook the things I really like.  I blurted out "lomo saltado!"  Be ready Roseville and Kenosha, when I get back you'll be eating like Peruvians. :)  I also tried a fruit called a pepino.  It is a type of melon and it tastes a lot like other melons, except less crunchy.  It's soft and very water-y.

It was pretty good, but I'm not a melon fan so I'll stick with my piña y lúcuma, but if you like melon you would love the pepino.  After lunch she also got out three of her photo albums and we looked through all of them and she told me stories.  I got to see pictures of her kids growing up and everywhere she's been.  She has traveled a ton, it's very interesting and made me envious of me.  She's been to Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, France, Germany, Spain, New York, and I'm sure many other places that I have forgotten.  It was fun to here some of her travels and I also was able to tell her the places that I would like to go in Perú y en el mundo (and in the world).  I also got to meet her son (who lives in France) briefly on skype.

After lunch, her and I both got to "work."  I think she probably did more work than I did.  I have a huge packet to read for Comunicación Social, but I am still not even halfway through.  Oops..it's just so much more fun to listen to music in Spanish or watch TV shows in Spanish.  Plus, I don't even enjoy reading in English, why would I enjoy reading in Spanish?!  So rather than go out and about and avoid reading the packet, I stayed inside and avoided it.  It's kind of a bummer, I was supposed to go to Larcomar (a shopping center in the mountainside two blocks from my house) and to Polvos Azules (the black market center); However, somewhere in the middle of my long lunch I missed some texts and so my friends and I just never met up to go, but maybe next time!  But, I did have a good day regardless of the fact that I didn't leave the house.

One last thing for the day, we got our itinerary for our Cusco/Machu Picchu trip.  I am very excited!!  We leave early on Thursday morning and will be getting back on Sunday afternoon.  It's going to be a great weekend.  We are going on a tour of Valle Sagrado (a sacred Incan valley in the Andes) and to Aguas Calientes (the town closest to Machu Picchu) and then obviously to Machu Picchu and Cusco.  Buenas noches!

Este...

Just to warn you before reading this...this blog is going to be sooo boring compared to yesterday's!!  Anyway, remember how I said at the end of my last blog post that my 8 a.m. class was going to be rough..well it wasn't.  You want to know why?  Well, it's because somehow I slept through my alarm and missed it.  I don't exactly know what happened.  When my 5:50 a.m. alarm went off, I woke up and pushed snooze through my pillow (since I still keep my travel alarm clock in my pillow) :), and a couple of hours later I wake up and see it is light outside and know that I'm in trouble.  Too bad you weren't there to wake me up Taylor. :)  It was 7:20 a.m. and even if I would've headed straight to the bus stop from rolling out of bed (I don't actually roll out, I climb out, since it's a loft and I really don't want to hit the ground by rolling) I still would have been 20 to 25 minutes late-not worth it (to me anyway).  So instead I got up and started getting ready at my own pace.  Once my host mom realized I was still home she asked if I was okay (I'm sure she thought I was sick or something), but I informed her that I overslept and that I was missing class.  She seemed really worried by the fact that I was missing class so clearly she doesn't understand the life of an American college student.  I just kept saying "está bien, está bien" (it's fine, it's fine).  Also, it's the class that I don't really need so I am still considering dropping it or auditing it, but Tonisha might kill me if I drop it.  Plus, it truly is interesting.

Now for the real reason that está bien that I missed class.  Estaba bien because since I missed my class I took a later micro and I feel I was destined to take the micro that I took this morning because one of my dreams came true on it.  What was my dream you may ask?..to sit in the passenger seat of the micro!!  Yep, that's right!  I got to sit in the passenger seat of the micro.  It was pretty fun and that was definitely one of my goals before I left Perú.  It was kind of funny.  I climbed to the front seat and I was sitting there for a little bit.  The driver said something to me, but I couldn't hear/understand him so I asked him to repeat what he said twice before he and the guy sitting behind him both yelled "¡Cinturón!" (Seatbelt!).  I felt like an idiot, but at the same time I understand why I was so confused.  Who would think that you had to wear a seatbelt in a micro?  Well apparently if you sit in the front passenger seat, it's a necessity.  I don't think I would do it again.  I wanted to sleep in the micro, but I felt weird sleeping while in that seat, plus I was busy watching everything from a different perspective in the micro.  Oh and one last thing...I felt really uncomfortable because everytime the driver would look in the rearview mirror on my side I felt like he was staring at me. :)  I think the front seat was maybe a one time thing, unless it's my only option.

Now on to the classes I actually attended.  In Realidad Social Peruana again we talked about the Andian people and their ways of life.  It's a pretty interesting class and it goes by pretty fast.  Second class was my Spansih writing course.  We not only write, but we work on grammar things too so when we learn grammar we usually have to give examples.  Well, I'm really not creative when it comes to making up sentences so obviously I start all my sentences with "ummm..," well much to my surprise (not really a surprise) Peruvians don't say "um."  They use "este..." or "emm.." so that's one of my goals of the semester is to start saying "este" or "em" in replace of my "um's."  I know that this seems like a really odd goal, but honestly it makes sense (to me anyway).  Although I shouldn't be saying "um's" at all, fillers like this are ALWAYS used so I might as well learn them in Spanish, too.  Plus, even if I spoke the best Spanish in the world I'm sure as soon as I said the word "um" they would know that I'm not a native speaker.  So this is one of my goals among many.

So on to my 4 p.m. Etnografía Amazónica class.  I was supposed to go for 3 hours today, rather than 2 in order to make up for not having class last week.  Well, 4:30 rolled around and our professor still wasn't there.  One girl got up to check with the main office to see if we had class and we didn't, which is great, but hopefully we don't have to go for four hours next week. :)  I'm sure we won't, but it's kind of ridiculous/funny to think about.

Anyway, sorry for the boring post today.  It doesn't even compare to this past weekend, but anyway I have no class tomorrow because it's a feriado (holiday).  The holiday is to celebrate Lima's patron saint Santa Rosa.  I've been asking people all day how it's celebrated, but apparently nothing big happens.  Some people migrate to the Santa Rosa church or go to the convent to see her cell where she lived.  Also, apparently there is a well somewhere and people write their wishes on a piece of paper and throw it in the well.  Well, now that it's midnight I feel that people do "celebrate" Santa Rosa or maybe they just celebrate the no class/school part.  There is definitely a party going on upstairs and it has been all night.  They have been playing loud music (American old music).  For example, the song that is playing now is Billy Idol's "Dancing with Myself."  Also, I can hear tons of people in the street, about 5 minutes ago I heard fireworks going on at Larcomar, and about 2 minutes ago I heard sirens.  Everyone is definitely out and about tonight whether they are celebrating Lima's patron saint or just celebrating the fact that they don't have to work or go to school.  I am hoping the music dies down though soon so that I can sleep.  Buenas noches!

Ica y Nasca (In its entirety)

Where do I even start?!  I guess I'll start by saying that I'm really sorry that this is going to be a long post, but I hope that you don't get bored at all and I understand if you have to read part of it now and then come back (or not come back) to read the rest later!

Day 1 (of an amazing weekend):  Again, where do I even start!  I guess I'll start with Thursday night!  Thursday night we all went out on a mission for food and water for our 3:45 a.m. bus.  We then taxi-ed to the bus station and waited for our insuperable seats!  And guess what?!  They weren't bad seats at all!  The bus rides were literally better than my plane ride to Perú!!  When I got on the bus there was a pillow and blanket sitting on my seat and my feet and back reclined!  It was great..see doesn't that look cozy!!

It was literally better than the plane ride.  Not only did I get a drink, but I got an apple and sandwich for breakfast and they played the movie "The Ugly Truth."  Also, on the way home from Ica, we got a full meal (chicken, rice, potatoes, chocolate-covered strawberries, and drink) and then later on we got an apple and sandwich again!  Also, we watched two movies on that ride ("Never Let Me Go," "The Adjustment Bureau," and the beginning of "Red").  It was incredible.  I think the only reason they are the cheap seats is because they are by the bathroom and the food, but that didn't bother me at all!!  Cruz del Sur buses definitely rock!  Oh and they have the lowest records of breaking down and falling off cliffs.  (Bus ride = survival #1 of the weekend)

Once, we arrived to Ica, around 9 a.m., we found our hostel, which was pretty home-y and then we decided to walk around and get to know Ica a little bit.  We decided we wanted to go check out the airport in Ica since supposedly it is safer than the Nasca airport (which we have dubbed the 'crashport').  Once seeing the Ica airport we were convinced to fly over the lines and not from Ica, but the 'crashport.'  Ica was just too expensive and we were so close to Nasca we could taste it.  Plus, after seeing the Ica airport we definitely knew that there was NO way that Nasca's was that much worse.  We then went and found the Plaza del Armas (main square) and found a nice Peruvian place to eat.  I ate lomo saltado which is one of my favorite meals here so far (the one with the french fries).  I'm sorry that I haven't been taking pictures of my food.  I'll start doing that so you can see how delicious things are (or aren't :)).  We then went to our hostel and signed up for the Nasca lines flight tour and bought bus tickets to Nasca!  There was no turning back after that!  I was still very nervous about the whole thing and yet extremely excited!!  One of our goals for the weekend was to take a mototaxi so rather than take one for a couple of blocks we decided to take one to Huacachina for our sandboarding and buggy tour.  If you don't know what a mototaxi is...

...four people stuffed in that..not the most comforable thing and we definitely weighed it down (fun though).  (Mototaxi ride with four people to the next town over = survival #2)

Okay survival #3 and 4 coming up...

I really have no idea how to put the sandbuggy and boarding tour into words...let's just say I wouldn't do it again tomorrow.  Maybe ten years from now I would do it again.  The sandboarding wasn't even the most exciting part..it was the dune buggy.  I don't even know how to describe it.  Picture the longest, fastest, scariest rollercoaster you've ever been on, then add a driver rather than a person who pushes the Go button, then make it longer, faster, and scarier and you have the dune buggy!  I had no idea what I was really expecting getting on the buggy, but I seriously have never been so exhilerated and scared out of my mind all at the same time!  Here's a video of our first ride...

Now although this video doesn't look scary at all you have to remember that this was our first time getting on it and I think our driver was just warming up.  We stopped several different times to actually do the sandboarding part and we were all scared to get on that buggy for the last time.  I wish that we had video of the last time through, but honestly that would have been impossible.  We all were holding on for dear life and we definitely caught air in the buggy!!  It was scary and towards the end I could've cried!  The actual sandboarding part was fun too and honestly it was a nice break from the buggy!  I thought our guide was crazy at first though when he said we were going down head first, but it turned out okay.  I was definitely too scared to try standing though, considering I've never snowboarded or anything and I saw two other girls topple over trying it.  Also, we met two girls from London and they were definitely entertaining during the tour!  More about the sandboarding...I'm pretty sure I am going to be finding sand everywhere for weeks!  My shoes are definitely still full of sand!  And the 6th and last time going down was super-fast and scary and I definitely got bruised up a little!

Oh, also, I should mention there was sun!!!!

After the amazing tour (dune buggy & sandboarding = survivals #3 & 4), we of course were craving pizza and ice cream.  Lucky for us, in Ica, we found a place that sold only pizza by the slice and ice cream!  And of course they had the good ole pizza americana.  We then went to sleep in our cozy hostel beds, ready to get up at 5:30 a.m. in order to catch our bus to Nasca.

Day #2:  Of course the Nasca bus was on Peruvian time so our 6:30 bus didn't leave until 7:20 and let's just say that the ride to Nasca and back from Nasca was survival #5 & 6.  We didn't take the Cruz del Sur bus, just a normal, uncomfortable, and hot bus that for some reason played movies from their "Black Comedy collection" (that's really what it was called), which included "Little Man," "College Road trip," and "Roscoe Jenkins."  I definitely didn't watch any of these and wouldn't recommended them. :)

We got to the airport and had to wait until around 12 p.m. to take our flight, but that was okay we just sat around, shopped, and watched plane after plane take off and land safely.  Honestly Nasca airport made me feel a lot better than Ica's.  There were so many people there (versus the completely deserted Ica airport) and they had one security metal detector. :)  Also, the London girls from the sandboarding tour told us they had just done the flight the day before out of Nasca and it was fine so that put me at ease too.  And clearly I'm still living so it's all good.  The flight was a little less than a half hour and good thing because I started feeling ill after about 10 minutes of it.  I had to close my eyes and breath in my nose and out my mouth and then I would just open my eyes to look and snap a picture. :)  I didn't get sick at all, but it definitely felt like I was on the octopus fair ride and for those that know me, I hate that ride!  I will say I've never been so happy to feel the ground again!  Here's a scene from "The Pacifier," watch the first 15 seconds of this..that's how I felt!

Also, after the flight, I was sooooo happy that we didn't fly from the "safer" airport of Ica!  That flight is an hour and a half!  By the time we would have gotten to Nasca, I wouldn't have even wanted to see the lines!!!  (Flight over the lines = survival #7)  Now for actual pictures of some of the lines!  Again, I probably wouldn't do this again tomorrow (give me another 10 years), but it was fun and I'm so happy we did it!  The lines we saw were the whale, parrot, monkey, trapezoids, triangles, astronaut, hummingbird, condor, dog, hands, tree, heron, and spider.

Astronaut

Hummingbird

I made this one huge so you could see it better.  The hands and tree along with the lame observation tower you can do rather than flying over them.

Monkey

After surviving the flight!

 Okay, so that was Saturday!  Again I had lomo saltado at a pretty sketchy place in Nasca (survival #8) and we also had the same pizza in Ica that we had on Friday!  It was delicious and cheap!  We also went to a famous chocolate place in Ica on Saturday night called Helena Chocolate & Tejas.  We bought some chocolates, which were delicious, but unfortunately we didn't get to see the process of the chocolate being made because it was pretty late, but come to find out there's a Helena's right here in Miraflores (where I live) so we can always go back!

Day #3:  This day is boring and short, but in the morning in Ica, we did go on a mission for bread and oranges (our cheap breakfast/lunch because we were realizing that we spent too much money on the weekend).  I bought bread, oranges, water, and a chocolate bar for 3 soles ($1.10).  I'd say that's a pretty good deal!  And come to find out, we really didn't have to spend that money since we got fed twice on the bus, but oh well it was worth it!  Anyway, now I'm home after this amazing weekend!  I have class tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. which may be a little rough, but Tuesday is a holiday so no class!  I'm so happy with this past weekend and this weekend from the 1st to the 4th our whole group is going to Cusco and Machu Picchu!  This has been such an adventure so far and I'm definitely not missing out!  Again, sorry that this post was so long, but thanks for sticking through it and reading it.  Hopefully you enjoyed reading about my weekend, but I will tell you that it was hard to put into words and if you ever get the chance to do any of this that I have explained..DO IT!! Buenas!

Ica y Nasca

¡Hola todos!  I have about 10 minutes at this Internet café in Ica, but I wanted to tell you all that I am having an AMAZING weekend so far!!  I´m just going to give you the highlights so far and you will hear all about it tomorrow or Monday.  We went sandboarding and sandbuggy-ing (scariest and most exhilerating time of my life) and today we did end up flying over the Nasca lines (AWESOME).  I can´t wait to tell you all about it and share pictures!!!!

Hace un mes

So, it's been a month already since I've been here!  That's crazy, isn't it?!!  I have a little over 4 months left and a lot still to learn and do!!

I'm going to start this blog by sharing something with you that I forgot to yesterday...a micro video!  This is at a paradero (bus stop) right outside of the university.  It's usually a lot more hectic than this, but you kind of get the point...

Okay, on to today...I got an e-mail back from the Nazca flights company and unfortunately they have no spots open on the airline.  That doens't really surprise me considering it's two days before, but that's okay.  Like I said, it is still going to be a great and SUNNY weekend!!  Also, we might go to the airport tomorrow just to see if we have any other options to see the lines.  I really am excited for the weekend though and excited to see the sun, although it was sunny and there were blue skies this morning in Lima.  Supposedly, August is the worst weather month, so hopefully the weather improves from here on out.  Also, we did get our sandboarding tour booked so I will be doing that tomorrow!!  I don't know if there will be a computer at my hostel or not, but if not than keep your eyes open for a blog/pictures on Sunday or Monday.

I had my second ballet class today and once again, it was a blast!!  It definitely feels great to be dancing again and I hope to improve a lot this semester.  Also, I went to Deporte y Vida today to volunteer.  The other girl I was supposed to go with today wasn't feeling well so I went alone.  Luckily, I didn't have to do anything as difficult as explaining fractions with uncommon denominators.  Things that I did today consisted of helping with English, Science, and Communication homework.  I really enjoy helping with the English especially because the other teachers and students are always so interested in it.  Also, I got to see/touch a monkey today.  His name is Martin and the guy who lives next door to the school owns him.  He was pretty rambunctious, he kept reaching through the cage and pulling the student's hair and arms or wrapping his tails around them.  I didn't get a picture of him today, but I'm sure I will sometime.

Also another thing I learned today...I've noticed that the students all write with blue and red ink and their assignments are always colorful with blue and red.  They hold both pens in their hand (kind of like chopsticks) and switch in between the colors.  It's actually quite impressive and it looks like it takes talent.  The color red is used for titles, capital letters, punctuation, or important phrases/words in a sentence and blue is used for the rest.  I asked if they always write like that and they told me "Yes."  I asked "Why?" and apparently its just one of their costumbres (customs), also "it just looks better."

I feel like I'm forgeting something else that I found interesting today to tell you, but hopefully I'm not, and if I am hopefully I remember it.  Anyway, at 3:45 a.m. I will be on a bus to Ica in my "impossible to overcome" seats!  Hopefully tonight I can defeat the impossible!!! :)  I hope you all have enjoyable weekends, I know I will!  Can't wait for the sun!!

Hey, this is me editing my blog post to tell you that I remembered the other thing!  A girl at Deporte y Vida asked me if I knew the alfabeto para el lenguaje por señas (the alphabet for sign language).  I told her "sí" and she asked me to show her.  I started to show her ours and she asked where the "ñ" was, so then I explained to her that American Sign Language is different.  She then told me she knew the alphabet in sign language too and she showed me!  It was the coolest thing seeing the Spanish version of sign language!!  It is surprisingly pretty different than the alphabet in ASL.  Their alphabet cannot be done on only one hand..some of the letters require both.  It was interesting to see!  Sorry, if that's not exciting for you, but I'm glad I remember for my sake. :)

Temblor

So I guess I should start this blog talking about the terremoto (earthquake) because I'm assuming that many of you are curious.  As you may have seen on TV there was indeed a terremoto in northeastern Peru today.  It hit a little before 12 p.m. and it was a 6.8-magnitude terremoto.  I was sitting in my Living and Learning in Peru Seminar class (I know that's a long and interesting title for a class) and I felt my chair shaking.  I just thought someone was shaking their legs next to my chair and then someone said "Is that an earthquake?" and yep! it sure was..or a tremor at least.  It didn't last very long, but it was kind of strong (in comparison to the very very mild one I felt in Costa Rica last year).  It was funny, well not funny, but kind of... once I got out of class I got on my e-mail and I had three people asking me if I was okay.  I was clueless to why people were asking me this.  I told people around me, "Something must have happened because I just had three people ask if I was okay," then of course it hit me..oh, the tremor! The earthquake must have been bad.  Clearly the United States was more worried about it then all of Peru.  From what I understand it's a pretty normal thing here.  Plus, no worries the buildings are built pretty well here.  I would like to thank everyone for caring about me though.  I definitely felt loved today.  I had a few e-mails asking if I was okay and I know several family members called my parents.  I have such a great group of loving family members and friends!!!

Now onto the rest of my day...

I had four classes today.  I am supposed to have five classes on Wednesday, however, the professor was out of town, so no Etnografía Amazónica! Yay!! Wrong...not so yay!  Lucky for me, the professor must really value education because now for the next two Mondays we have to stay three hours rather than two,in order to make up for the time lost today.  I hope that class gets more interesting as the semester goes on because right now it is definitely my least favorite class.  Comunicación Social is still very interesting for me (even though I don't need to take it) and my Realidad Social Peruana class is also interesting.  I like talking about different aspects of Peru in every class.  Today we talked about agriculture and society in the Andes.  We talked about the bond between people and from what I gathered from the lecture the people in the Andes are very respectful to one another.  In the Living and Learning class, we discussed and found out our different learning styles.  Apparently, I'm a do-er, I like to learn by doing it and from what I could tell on the graph I don't really like to think much.  I don't think (haha) that's a good thing... Anyway, finally in my Spanish Writing class we had to write some form of literary work for like 45 minutes.  Shout out to Taylor, I chose to write a letter to you!!  I might send it to you, but you might have difficulty reading it considering it's in Spanish.

After class, I went to Starbucks (Yea, sorry professors, I know I'm supposed to stay away from American things, but they have amazing Té Chai Lattes!) with Tonisha and we tried figuring out what we're doing this weekend.  It has been really interesting trying to plan this weekend and so many things would be easier if the airport in Nazca was safe or if the flights from Ica weren't ridiculously priced!  However, we were able to decide on a sandboarding and sand buggy tour on Friday so that should be AMAZINGLY amazing!!  Also, I have e-mailed two cheaper flight tours for the Nazca lines from the safer airport in Ica so I would love it if you all prayed that I get an e-mail back tomorrow with good news!  However, if we don't end up going to the lines, we do have alternate plans and no matter what it is going to be an awesome weekend!!! Hasta manaña!

Cena? (Lightbulb) Oh..Escena

So, ballet this morning was amazing! (of course)  It's funny, when I was packing to come here I thought it was kind of crazy that I was packing my leotard, tights, and slippers, but now I'm happy I did!!  There are 7 other people in my class and the instructor is great!!  The class is definitely going to be a challenge, but I'm extremely excited for the rest of the semester.  It's definitely a great way to start out my Tuesdays and Thursdays!!  I have a feeling I'm going to live for Tuesdays and Thursdays here!  I have ballet and cine on Tuesdays and ballet and volunteering on Thursdays!  It's going to be great!  When I first walked into ballet this morning, I was given a boost of confidence because I met the instructor and she said I spoke Spanish pretty well.  That's the first time I've heard it while here and it made me really happy.  I can't wait to be speaking very well by December.  Also, I met two girls in the class who are very talented and nice so I'm excited to get to know them more as well.  (So much excitement here :))  Anyway the class was just like any other ballet class, for those of you who know the structure of a ballet class.  Also, I'm extremely happy that all of the ballet terms (which are French) are the same.  Can you imagine if I had to learn all those new terms?  I guess it would be fairly easy, I would just have to look at the move to know the translation, but luckily I don't have to do that.

For my Cine class tonight we watched a North American movie (a.k.a. one in English) that is called Far from Heaven (Lejos del Cielo).  It stars Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore and I would highly recommend this movie to see.  (For future reference, I will probably recommend every single movie I watch in this class)  Anyway, the movie is set in the 1950s and deals with love, homosexuality, and race.  It really was a great movie.  One thing that is really going to challenge me about this class is my listening skills.  After the movie, we had a discussion and it was hard to understand all of the students.  Sometimes I just couldn't hear them because it's a big room or sometimes they just speak so fast that I can't catch up or sometimes I just simply don't know whats going on.  For example, I understood the first part of the discussion más o menos and then I caught the word cena in the discussion and everybody keep talking about cena.  At this point, I stopped listening and I was trying to work out in my mind why everyone was talking about dinner (cena).  I kept thinking, 'yea, that part was kind of significant, but I don't know why we're talking so much about that one scene when so much other stuff happened.'  Then, I heard the word again and it hit me!  And I felt really dumb!!  The word they kept saying was escena, not cena.  Makes so much more sense!!  Escena is scene!! They kept talking about the scenes!  I just rolled my eyes at myself and kept listening after that.  I think next week I'm going to sit in the front of the classroom though so everyone is talking towards me so I can hear better.  Sounds like a plan, huh?!

I'm also in the process of figuring out what to do this weekend in Ica.  I am going with 3 other people, we already have our hostel booked, but we don't really have other plans than that.  I want to go sandboarding on Friday and fly over the Nazca lines on Saturday, but we'll see..there are so many options!  I'm sure you guys will be excited next week to find out what I did.

Anyway, again thank you so much for reading my blogs.  It makes me happy to know that people are reading and (sometimes) enjoying it!!  Make sure you pass it on to some of your friends and family!  I don't want them to miss out on all the fun and adventure!!! 

ÁáÉéÍíÓóÚú

Sorry for the obnoxious title but I just learned how to make accents on my keyboard so it made me happy. :)

Anyway, on to my day.  First of all, because I know some of you are curious, I will start out saying that I got all my classes that I wanted: Comunicación Social, Etnografía Amazónica, and Cine.  And actually, being the over-achiever that I am, I learned that I signed up for one extra class that I don't need.  I'm going to try it out for a couple more weeks, but if the workload is too much or if I decide an 8 a.m. class is not for me, than I will end up dropping Comunicación Social, but so far I enjoy that class, so we'll see!  Now let me start from the beginning..you're not going to believe this, but I got up at 5:10, was at the bus stop at 5:47, and on a micro at 5:50.  There was absolutely noone out!!  Well, not noone, but the streets were empty.  I got on the first micro that came (which was the one that takes the long way)because I was afraid of how long I would have to wait in the cold and dark for the next one, plus I wasn't worried about getting there quickly considering the driver could just fly down the streets.  I still got to school at 6:25!!  Can you imagine if I had taken the faster micro?!  It was so early that there was no officer directing traffic and the old man that sells picarones was out yet. :(  When I walked into the room, where I was going to wait for the next 3 hours before I register, there were already 31 people ahead of me.  Can you believe it?  I wonder what time the first person got to the university.  I know that I was pretty proud of myself being number 32 out of 300 something.  So what did I do for the next 3 hours, you ask?  I facebooked, napped, played solitaire, flipped through the school newspaper, ate lucuma cookies, and watched this video....I hope you find it as amusing as I did, but it's possible you won't...

Now, I want to explain why I love this so much!!  The reasons why I love it are...I live in a small town of 1100 people so I can relate to the small town atmosphere and I've experienced a majority of the things so far in Peru that are in this video.  For example, the food, chicha morada, Inca Kola (I love that it's blurred out by the way), Peruvian hairless dogs, posters on the wall (they literally are everywhere..same sign one after the other), pisco, and chullos (hats that are extremely popular, I will end up with one by the end of this semester).  Also, my favorite part of this video is the scene with the cop!!  It makes me laugh EVERY single time!!!  Plus, picarones are truly wonderful!!  If you don't remember what they are they are similar to funnel cake.  I get them occasionally from the guy outside of La Católica!

Which brings me to my next point!  I start ballet tomorrow so I will finally have a regular workout therefore I can eat all the picarones I want, right?!!  I can't wait to start dancing again.  I'm going to be so sore these next couple weeks because I haven't danced since school, but I'm ready for the challenge!!!  I can't wait to tell you about my first ballet class tomorrow and my cine class!  Buenas noches!!

Que es la cultura americana?

So last night I met up with my friend Tonisha and our mutual Peruvian friend Indy.  We went to the district of Rimac for a graduation party for one of Indy's friends.  She just graduated from the Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega for ortodoncia (orthodontics).  It was nice to go to a graduation party and compare it to the graduation parties in the United States.  It was pretty similar to the graduation house parties that I have to in the states however there were some different aspects.  Like the fact that rather than being a buffet of food the empleada brought around drinks, appetizers, and the meal.  Oh and of course the main plate of food wasn't served until midnight.  Also, the father of the girl gave a toast which I thought was very special and cute.  One thing I learned last night..Peru is pretty lax with their attitude of alcohol and the drinking age.  Apparently, it's normal if you have your first sip of alcohol when you're one year old.  There was definitely a younger child there taking sips of some Pisco sour (a traditional drink in Peru).  I was sitting there thinking how in the United States that could turn into some kind of lawsuit, like child endangerment or something.

Another thing I learned last night.  Nobody ever assumes that Tonisha and I are from the United States.  Just last night we had one older lady ask if we were from Spain and another guy asked if we were Italian.  We asked Indy why this would be and she said it was possibly because we have the same coloring as Italians or Spanish, but still I wonder why they didn't guess the U.S.  I guess it's a wake-up call to me that the world doesn't revolve around the United States and that there are other foreigners here besides those from the U.S.

Which brings me to my next point.  It's very interesting to hear people's views on the United States.  Some people who have visited, love it and some who have not, have no desire to.  It really has made me think of reasons why I'm proud to be an American, but at the same time I have begun to question what American "culture" is and what does American have to offer.  It's nice to hear when people have loved America.  I met a few people last night that have visited and studied in America and they have enjoyed themselves a lot, but Indy made me start to question what's in America.  I asked her if she would ever want to visiting the U.S. and she quickly replied with a "no."  It kind of took me aback for a second so I asked her why.  She explained that there were other places to go besides the United States and other countries have more to offer.  "Peru has it's food and people, Egypt the pyramids, China it's food, Brazil it's boys."  I can't remember other examples that she listed, but I wanted to tell her that America has so much to offer, too, but in the moment, I couldn't think of much.  I know that America is the "melting pot" so we have a mixture of other cultures, but what do we have of our own.  I thought of baseball, football, the cities, and fast food.  It really made me sad to know that that's all I could think of.  To me, America has a lot to offer, but I just can't put my finger on a lot.  So if you would, I would love for you to comment and say what you think American culture is.  I feel Peru has a definite culture with their food, drinks, traditional dance, etc. so what do you think?  What are some other examples that I can tell people while I'm here?

Anyway, on to my day today...I did absolutely nothing!  I slept in and I ate breakfast while having a nice conversation with my host mom.  I searched the internet for a song that I keep hearing and really like.  Turns out it's a song by Marc Anthony (I figured it would be someone that I had never heard of)...

Then, I ate lunch/dinner with my host mom at a restaurant called San Antonio.  It's a nice pastery/bakery similar to a Panera Bread and the food was excellent!!  I then went to mass for the second time since I've been here and again it went well and my comprehension was fairly good.  Other than that nothing exciting happened and I plan to go to bed super early tonight so that I can get to La Catolica early in order to get in line for registration.  Wish me luck!!

La danza peruana

Today, CIEE had a cultural activity which consisted of two hours of learning the basic steps to traditional Afro-Peruvian dances and also some other Latin American dances.  The first dance we learned was the Festejo.  I don't really know how to explain the dances so I'm deciding to show you.  Obviously I don't expect you to watch ever video all the way through, but you can get a taste of what they are like...

This next one does need some explanation...The Alcatraz is a dance where the dancers hold candles and also wear a piece of paper on their backside like a tail.  The partners take turns light the other's "tail" on fire and the dancer's must move fast enough to put the fire out...see for yourself...

Next, is the Carnaval.  I couldn't find a good example video to show the style of Carnaval we learn, however I will say it was the easiest and probably my favorite of the day.  It is a high energy group dance and all the dancers form a circle and hold hands and just travel around the circle or everyone goes in the middle and back out, etc.

We then learned the Marinera and to be specific it was the Marinera Norteña.  The Marinera is the national dance of Peru.

Then the Huancayo...These little kids look better than I did.

We also did the Salsa, which originated in Cuba, and the Merengue, which started in La Republica Dominicana.  I'm not going to show videos of these because you've all probably heard of them, plus I think there are already enough videos on my blog.  :)  Overall, the whole dance workshop was a blast and I look forward to the next CIEE cultural activity, which is visiting the Museo de la Nacion in a couple of weeks.

Fracciones heterogeneos

Pues, hoy fui al Deporte y Vida.  Deporte y Vida is the place that I will be volunteering this semester.  It is located in in a very poor (but new) neighborhood in the district of Salvador and it's about 45 minutes from where I live.  I wish it was closer because then I would be there all the time when I was free.  It was a blast today and I look forward to going back there next week!  At Deporte y Vida children come to play, learn, do homework, eat, etc.  When we (four other girls from my program who decided to volunteer there and I) got there we met two of the head women of the project and we went through every room.  There are four rooms total.  Each room is a different age group.  There's 3, 4, and 5 year olds, plus the room for kids in elementary school.

I started out the morning helping a boy do his homework, which consisted of cutting letters out of a newspaper to form different words.  Also, he was practicing his cursive.  It seems like so long ago that I learned how to write in cursive.  After this I started helping a girl with her English homework.  Again, that was fairly easy.  She is learning basic nouns and adjectives so she had to make basic pharses like "The big house...The red apple, etc."  And then...and then she whipped out the math.  At first I was like "Okay, I can do this" and then she handed me her assignment and (insert duh-duh-duuhh cliffhanger sound effect here) ...FRACTIONS!!!  I haven't done fractions forever so first I had to remember and then I had to explain them in Spanish!  I don't even know how to explain them in English!!  Also, it was adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators!  So I had to try and explain why you have to find a common denominator.  I gave it my best shot and the girl was looking at me like I was crazy.  Two other girls joined me in trying to explain it, but we had no luck.  I would have to say after 3 weeks of being here, this event was the most challenging thing for me so far.  We turned to the Resident Coordinator of CIEE for help, who joined us for the day to introduce us to Deporte y Vida, and she did a way better job then we did!  She of course did something that we should've done from the get-go!  Draw pictures of pie!!  Duh!  That's what you do when you're learning fractions!  Anyway, she was a lot more successful at it then we were and we moved on to helping other chicos.  It was kind of sad to leave even after one day!  One girl I swear thought we were never coming back.  You can tell that they love having people there and I am sooo excited to spend this upcoming semester volunteering there!

Deporte y Vida is up on that hill :)



Houses in the district of Salvador or Chorrillos

 After we came back to Miraflores (where I live), Tonisha and I took a little trip to the Cruz del Sur bus station because rather than going to Nazca next weekend we are going to Ica so we had to switch our bus tickets!  What's the reason for the change you ask?  Well our Resident Coordinator told us about a States warning about the airport in Nazca and that 17 people have died in the past few years while on flights over the Nazca lines, however Ica is a safer place to fly out of to see the Nazca lines.  Therefore, rather than risk our lives we decided to change our tickets to Ica instead.  I figured all of you would be happy to know that we switched destinations, too!  Also, we walked A LOT today.  And the nerd that I am Google-mapped it and I'd say we walked around 5 miles today!  I'd say that's great.  Definitely makes up for the Canelitas y frosting from yesterday!!

Walking over a main street (Javier Prado) in Lima
on the way to the bus station.



This was a sign on the highway.  Care for your life.  What a good message
for life, in general, not just for crossing the street.

Buenas noches!!!  Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Canelitas y Frosting

Today was an overall great day!  I didn't have any classes and if I get all the classes I want next Monday, when we register, I won't have ANY classes on Thursday or Friday, except for one.  Which brings me to exciting news!!  I met with the head of the School of Contemporary Dance today and I will be starting ballet classes next Tuesday!!  So the only class I'll have on Thursday is Ballet!!  Sounds like a dream schedule to me!!

Let me explain a little bit of the registering process just so you understand what I will be doing on Monday.  Registration starts at 9 a.m. on Monday for all of the 300+ foreign exchange students and it's on a first come first serve basis so people show up around 7 to get in line.  Honestly, I kind of want to be there before that to be almost guaranteed my classes. :)  Which means I have to get on the micro pretty early.  It should be a fun little adventure!!

After the exciting news about the ballet class Tonisha (a girl from the CIEE program, you'll probably hear her name a lot) and I went on a mission!  What was the mission for you may ask?  Well, what else would girls want?!  Food, of course!!  We were determined to get Lucuma (a fruit native to Peru) wafer cookies and I was determined to get Canelitas and frosting.  Canelitas are cookies that taste like Teddy Grahams.  I've had them once before and after that point I knew they would taste good with frosting so I was on a mission to find both!  We went to Wong (a store) and were able to get the Lucuma wafers, but we had no luck with the Canelitas.  I had given up for the day until Tonisha and I were walking to her house and we passed Plaza Vea (another store).  We went inside and guess what we found..Canelitas and Betty Crocker frosting!!  Once we got to her house we tried watching some telenovelas and happily ate our Canelitas dipped in frosting!  I'd say it was a success!  Too bad that it's not too healthy, but it's okay because I'm starting ballet next week!!!

Last exciting thing for the day!!  When I got home the doorman handed me a letter!!  Yep, I got my first letter today from my sister and brother-in-law!!  Everyone should send me mail because it feels great to get it!

Sorry nothing exciting happened today.  Well, I mean, it was exciting for me, but maybe not too exciting for you!!!!

Manifestaciones

Day three classes today.  I attended Comunicacion Social again.  I'm kind of enjoying that class, even though it's at 8 a.m.  I feel like it's a good way to start out my day.  After that I went to Realidad Social Peruana and during this class we actually got to "experience" Peruvian social reality.  As the professor was talking we heard a bunch of chanting.  To me, it sounded like a riot.  The professor stopped in the middle of class and said, "Do you know what that is?  It's a manifestacion (protest)."  So obviously since we're learning about Peru we left the class for a couple of minutes to check it out, then we went back to class and talked about it.  The protest was for the recent rise in tuition at PUCP.  It was pretty interesting to witness a small protest on campus because protests/strikes are pretty common in Peru.  I'm happy I got to see that part of the culture on a small scale though rather than in an uncontrolled environment.

I also went to a new class today called Living and Learning.  It's a course offered by CIEE and its purpose is to help students learn how to development interculturally and reflect on new experiences.  It was really interesting today.  We played the "Name Game" which consisted of us talking about where our names come from and what significance or stereotype is attached to a name.  For example, the name Gertrude carries the perception of an elderly woman.  This then lead to the discussion of how Peru obviously is culturally different and a name like Gertrude may mean something completely different here.  This discussion can then be translated to any aspect of life.  We grow up with our own cultural perceptions, but these concepts are different in the eyes of a different culture.  Another example...

Guinea pig in the United States = Pet
Guinea pig in Peru = Food, delicacy, Religious value

Which brings me to share a fun little commercial that the Banco de Credito put out this past year.

This is a play on the fact that in some places guinea pigs hold a certain religious value and are seen as "magic or healing."  So this cuy magico can also make money appear. :)  Number one reason why this is funny though...this dance and song became popular in Peru.  People would do it in clubs (I imagine it as the Peruvian dougie).

Other classes I went to were Spanish writing workshop and Amazonic Ethnography.  I am not going to go into detail on these classes, but I will say #1 The writing workshop is really forcing me to get in touch with my creative writing side (something I don't have) and #2 Two hour classes in a different language are hard to pay attention to after about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Well since this whole blog was pretty boring aside from the AMAZING magical cuy video I will leave you with this funny image to picture.  This has happened more than once so I feel like now it is a must to share and guess what it has to do with....MICROS!!  Okay, so sometimes in the mornings the cobradors buy a newspaper from off the street and give it to the driver.  Now, I don't know where in their right minds the drivers think they will have time to read the paper, but they still attempt to.  I just don't get it, but it makes me chuckle everytime.  Picture it...The cobrador buys a paper hands it to the driver, the driver unfolds the front cover, maybe reads half the headline, and has to put it down because the light is green.  Then the next red light comes..the driver picks up the paper again, unfolds it, maybe reads the whole headline this time, and puts it back down.  It really blows my mind.  I mean the stoplights here have countdowns on them!  The driver knows he only has 30 seconds to pick up the paper, unfold it, barely read, fold it back up, and set it back down.  What's the point?  I guess after a day of work and many red lights he could probably get through part of an article, right?

Well, I hope you have a wonderful night/day (depending on when you read this)!!  Don't forget to share my blog with your friends and family!!  Thanks again for reading!!!

Das Leben der Anderen

I had two more classes today.  One I am definitely not taking and the other I am definitely taking.  The one I am not taking is Literatura Hispanoamerica del siglo XIX (Hispanoamerican Literature of the 19th century).  I really don't enjoy reading all that much, but I knew a class like this would help me expand my vocabulary so I figured I would give it a shot.  Well, I went to the class today and the professor seems nice, but the class overall was just too overwhelming.  I think I would need a lower level literature class in order to benefit from it.  Plus there's other ways to gain vocabulary, like reading on your own, rather than being forced to read and understand a text in the matter of a few days.  I actually started a short Spanish play last week on the micro ride.  I haven't got very far at all, but I'll probably finish it in four months. :)

My second class today was Cine (cinema).  For those of you who know me well, then you know that I absolutely love everything about the movies.  I love going to the movies, I love renting movies,  and I love spending my weekends at school watching movie after movie on TV.  Problem is that I like all movies, there's no movie really that I hate.  This doesn't seem like to big of a problem, but my professor is an ex-movie critic so I am assuming at some point were going to have to critic the movies in depth.  I don't think I will be able to just write "Me gustó esa pelicula." :)  Anyway, the class is three hours long once a week, so we watched our first movie today called Das Leben der Anderen.  Wait, it was called what?  That's not Spanish!  Yep, you're right, it's not Spanish, it's German.  It's Spanish title is La Vida de los Otros.  Let me tell you, it was really weird watching a movie in German with Spanish subtitles.  :)  It was a pretty good movie about a spy from the East Germany police spying on a writer and his actress wife.  I'm sure well discuss the movie next week.  It was funny, our professor just started the movie and left.  I will say that a classroom isn't the best place for movie watching, but that's okay, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the class a lot.

I bought my first bus ticket today in order to travel!!  In less than two weeks I will be going to Nazca.  I haven't really planned anything yet (and am not going to until we get there), but I know we are going to fly over the Nazca Lines (obviously) and possibly go sandboarding (snowboarding/sledding except on sand dunes).  It should be the perfect first trip and it definitely should be an adventure considering were taking the 7 1/2 hour bus trip at 3:45 a.m. :)  We figured this would give us the most time in Nazca for the weekend.  Plus people stay out that late all the time so we'll probably still be up and well sleep on the bus.  However, I did get the cheapest seats on the bus which were titled asientos insuperables (yes, insuperable meaning impossible to overcome!), so that will be fun...maybe.  It's okay though because I am excited for Nazca!!

Finally, I want to say Happy 25th Anniversary to my parents.  I wish I could be there to celebrate with you both.  Thank you for loving and caring for each other, and for Kayla and I, for 25 years. :)

¿Por qué Perú?

Today was my first day of my trial week of classes.  I woke up at 5:50 a.m. in order to get ready, eat breakfast, and head off to the university for my 8 a.m. class.  First of all let me say, that all my classes were good today and there weren't any that I absolutely hated.  My first class was Comunicacion Social.  The class is mostly about different forms of communication and how they relate to society.  Today we talked about what communication is and the different types (oral, symbolic, etc.)  The professor was pretty nice and funny and she made the whole class laugh with me.  Turns out I am the only foreign student in the class and my name wasn't on the attendance sheet because the exchange students don't register until next week.  So when the professor asked if she was missing anyone I raised my hand and told her my name and explained that I wouldn't be on the list.  She asked my last name and she gave me a funny look (as always, even in the states :)) and I started to spell it for her and then she said "Okay, just Andrea."  The whole class laughed, including myself.  It was great!  I also spoke up once in class, too, which felt pretty good. :)

My second class was a required CIEE class Realidad Social Peruana, which I don't really know how to explain, but it's mostly just learning about all different aspects of Peru.  We really didn't do too much learning today, but I can tell that I am already going to like the professor a lot!  After this class,I had my first school lunch rather than lunch from home.  I had chicharrones which is just fried pork or chicken or something. :)  They were good.  Also, I spent my lunch period trying to figure out where to travel.  I think in two weeks I am going to go to Nazca, but we'll see!  Hopefully!!  After lunch, I had another required class, which is just a Spanish writing workshop.  We will mostly just be writing and working on grammer in this class.  Today we wrote about why our majors are important in the world.

Finally, my last class was Etnografia Amazonica.  This class is about the Amazon as well as the people and cultures that exist in the Amazon.  Today was a little boring because we just talked about the different parts of the Amazon, climate, etc., but I'm sure once we start talking about the cultures it will get a lot more interesing!

Now for a few interesting things.  The regular paper here is larger than 8 1/2 by 11.  Now you wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but all of my papers that I got today stick out the top of my spiral and it's kind of annoying. :)  What a silly thing to be annoyed by I know, but I just found it interesting.  So rather than actually asking someone (which I should've done, I know, I still can) I "googled" it.  Come to find out the majority of the world uses this paper size expect for the United States, Canada, and a few other countries here and there.  Apparently the U.S. isn't trying to conform with their paper standards. :)

Next fun fact, there are no clocks in the classrooms, luckily I have a watch, but what if I didn't.  Three of my classes today were two hours long.  That's a long class time to not know what time it is.  I guess the fact that there's no wall clock has it's advantages and disadvantages though.

Also, many of the streets in Peru have different names!  It used to be that each avenue had it's own name and each block on that avenue had a name as well depending on what was on that block.  If fishermen lived on the block then the street would be La avenida de pescadores or something like that and it would change if those fishermen moved away.  Then, finally the streets were given actual names, but at some point in time (Sorry, I don't remember the year) a majority of the street names were changed, so some people call them by there old names and some by there new names.  For example, one president named a street Wilson, after Woodrow Wilson, but the next president didn't like it so he changed it to Garcilaso de la Vega.  It's funny because our professor was explaining that the street is known by both names, but Peruvians don't know who either of the people are. ;)

Lastly, one thing that I need to continue thinking about.  Ever since I arrived here I've heard the question "¿Por qué Perú?" (Why Peru?) more than once.  I really haven't been able to answer that completely since I've been here.  All I can really say is "well, I didn't really want to go to Spain."  Or maybe, "Well, the dates of the program were perfect so that I didn't miss my sister's wedding."  I wish I could better answer this question for the Peruvians.  Although I may not be able to answer this question right now, I do know that in four months from now I will be able to answer the question "Are you happy that you chose Peru?"  I can kind of already answer that question now, "Yes!" :)  Sometimes you just have to go with your gut and hope for the best or if you don't "get the best" than what you do is be positive about every situation that comes you're way.  Stay positive, don't miss out, and remember to smile!

Pedro y el Lobo

Where to start?  Last night didn't turn out exactly as planned, but it was still fun.  Unfortunately the nights are so long so today definitely called for a nap.  :)  The night started at a little cafe called Cafe Z (pronounced Cafe Zeta).  It's the usual little cafe..obviously there was cafe (coffee), but also tea, sandwiches, breakfast, cookies,... and tragos (shots)?  Okay, well maybe it wasn't the usually cafe, but it had character.  So another girl and I started out the night there at 8 p.m. and I don't drink coffee, but I thought I would give it a go.  Yep..still not a coffee person, but that's okay, I'd rather not be addicted to coffee anyway.  I tried the Moka (Mocha), the mix of coffee and chocolate was just not right.  I did however try the other girl's Cafe Hawai and it was great, so maybe I'll probably try that next time I go.  Apparently coffee and chocolate isn't right for me, but coffee and coco (coconut) is?  Que extraño!  Anyway, guess how long we were there for?  Nope, longer...no, 3 hours!  We were just relaxing there on the patio waiting for everyone to meet up.  Apparently some of us gringos are learning what Peruvian time is. :)  Our "guide"/new Peruvian friend, Indira, and her friend Daniel came out, too.  They both attend PUCP also and obviously we get to practice our Spanish with them!  It's the perfect match!  They lead us to a pretty popular discoteca, but there was a huge line and past a certain time you have to pay a cover so we decided to go to a different one.  It was a pretty small discoteca, but was still fun.  Obviously I got tired as the night went on, but it's safer to leave when everyone else leaves rather than leaving alone, so you just have to stick the night out (hence starting the night with coffee).  After some dancing and a trip to McDonald's (the McNuggets taste the same) I arrived home at around 4:30 a.m.  I don't know about you, but that is a late night for me.  It's crazy though, on the way home there were still SEVERAL people out and about. 

Me with 3 other CIEE students (Tonisha, Steven, & Jacey)
& our new friends Indy and Daniel

Moving on to today.  Today was pretty long and eventful as well.  I started the morning out going to see Pedro y el Lobo (Peter and the Wolf) at El Museo de la Nacion.  I didn't get to see any of the actual museum, but that's okay because I am going there with the program at some point in time.  I went with my host mom as well as her daughter (Vanessa), her daughter's husband (Melvin, the CIEE Resident director), and her two grandchildren, Tomas y Paula.  Pedro y el Lobo, for those of you who don't is a children's story written and composed by Sergei Prokofiev.  It consists of a narrador and an orchestra.  Each caracter in the story is represented by a different instrument, like the bird is a flute.  It was pretty enjoyable and the music was wonderful.  Also, the orchestra was the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional Juvenil, which means the National Youth Symphony Orchestra so it was a bunch of talented high school and college students!

After the concert, I went to el campo of Peru.  Which is still a part of Lima, but it is closer to the mountatins and there's sun!!!!  I was so excited!  I like Lima, but if I ever actually lived here I would without a doubt live in the outskirts of the city.  Everything is just so much better when the sun is out.  I felt like it was summer again.  I met several family members and we relaxed on the patio just eating and talking.  The whole visit was actually much needed.  Although it wasn't my family, it was still nice to visit, laugh, and sit in the sun.  I have realized though that children and the elderly are hard to understand in Spanish. :)  After the great family gathering, I successfully took a much needed nap and just relaxed the rest of the day.

I start classes tomorrow and let's just say I'm excited about them but at the same time I am NOT ready for school/homework at all!!  It is way too early to be starting school, but it's okay because I'm ready to take on tomorrow at full speed!  Wish me luck!  Buenas noches!!

*Sidenote:  I just read through this again and noticed some mispellings in English (but not in Spanish).  I was going to change them (y, narrador, caracter) to English, but then I thought they added character.  Plus, it has to be a good sign that I am halfway thinking in Spanish, right?

La Huaca Pucllana

Starting with last night, a group of us went to el Parque del Amor (Park of Love) which is located on top of the cliff with a view of the ocean.  We pretty much just hung out and talked for awhile.  It was a pretty park and I hope to get better pictures during the day at some point, but here is a picture of a mosaic wall that is in the park.  It's pretty incredible.

I cashed out early in the night because I have a slight cold and wanted to sleep, but tonight a Peruvian girl is taking us all to a very nice club in my district.  We had to be put on a list and there's a dress-code so it should be a pretty nice discoteca.  And I'm sure it will be fun.

This morning we went on a tour of Huaca Pucllana, which is a pre-Incan pyramid/village.  Here are some pictures from there!!

La Huaca Pucllana

Human pyramid in front of an actual pyramid :)

City view from the top of the platform



Archaeologists and students excavating the Huaca

 

This is an entire part that has not been excavated.  So far it has taken
30 years for the excavation & it should take another 30 years for the rest.
Supposedly they should find important artifacts on the end that they
have not dug out because you can see the ocean from that end
and obviously the water would have been an important religious aspect for them.

This is a part that has been excavated but not restored.

We got to see a Peruvian hairless dog!  He was wearing a Lacoste shirt. :)

Llamas

Cuy (Guinea Pigs)
Poor little guys don't even stand a chance.

A pot that was found and restored.
You can see all the cracks in it where they put it back together.

What else did I learn/do today?  I learned that in the pre-Incan times the people would only sacrifice women so that's good (not!).  Although our tour guide was pretty smooth and said it was because the women were the only ones worthy for the gods.  I'm not sure about that, but I'll go with it!  Also, I thought the fact that it has taken 30 years so far to uncover the Huaca is amazing and it's crazy that it's going to take at least another 30 years!!  Also, after our tour 3 other girls and I decided to check out Starbucks of Lima.  It is a pretty nice place and I was able to still get my Chai Latte there.  I can definitely see me going there sometimes to do homework or what not when school starts, which is on Monday by the way.  It's so early to be starting school!  I can't believe it, but my classes should be interesting and this time really is going to fly.  Well, I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend so far. Remember to smile!!