JajajaPón

So, it wasn't sunny at 8 a.m. today, but don't worry it was still sunny today.  I headed to school early today because my ballet class got moved up an hour.  Today, was a pretty relaxed class.  My professor is working on a piece that is for December so while she worked on that with five people in my class, the rest of us did regular ballet exercises.  She just kept going back and forth between the two groups.  It wasn't really helpful because she didn't criticize us a lot, but her choreography that she is creating is pretty, so I like watching that develop.

Anyway, after ballet, I ate lunch in the sun..yay.  Then, I took a walk around the new student union on campus.  Yep, that's right, I may have missed the opening of Carthage's new student union, but I didn't miss PUCP's.  Anyway, they just opened it yesterday.  It's not actually finished, but it still looks good.  Except, in my opinion, it's not very home-y.  The whole building is made of cement so it's so bland.  You walk around and all you see is cement...oh and a TON of hard tables and chairs!  There are tables and chairs everywhere!  And not comfy ones, but plastic ones. :(  Like I said, not home-y, but I guess you could say it's a pretty cool space.  I definitely got lost in it.  There's also a Domino's Pizza and a crepe place (I definitely rewarded myself with a manjarblanco crepe...I don't know exactly what I was rewarding myself for, but I'm sure I deserved it for some reason). :)  There are supposedly going to be other restaurants in there, too.  Anyway, here's a picture of the building...it's actually a cool looking building...

After exploring the new student union, I just laid in the sun some more.  It was wonderful!  I love the sun. :)  I mean I love snow, too, but since I missed the end of summer and since it's cloudly in Lima for 80% of the year, I'm pretty excited about it.  Actually, our director told us that it's usually not this sunny in November, so we're lucky. :)  After soaking in the sun, it was off to Deporte y Vida.

Deporte y Vida was fun as always.  Honestly, I really don't feel like I helped a lot today though.  A lot of the kids that I "helped" today seemed to have their homework under control on their own.  I guess I was their just to keep them focused on doing it.  These two girls kept getting distracted fairly easily by talking and telling jokes.  Of course, I think I was also encouraging them because I was laughing at their jokes.  Favorite joke of the day (Sorry in advance if you don't get it):  ¿Qué país es donde se cuentan chistes y después una bomba explota? (What country is it where they tell jokes and after a bomb explodes?)  Do you know?  Okay, the answer is:  JajajaPón (Japón = Japan).  Jaja in Spanish is haha and pón is boom.  So for all of you native English speakers, this joke would be funny if there was a country called Haboom. :P  Anyway, I also had to do some geometry today.  I don't remember formulas for the life of me so that was really difficult, but still fun.  And finally, at the end of today, we played soccer.  It was fun, I actually liked running around and playing soccer.  Unfortunately, my time lost, bu it was still a blast.  This poor kid though...I knocked him down at least four times and really I didn't knock him down, it's not like I pushed him or anything.  It's just that I'm so much bigger and everytime that I stuck out my foot to kick the ball, he would trip over it.  Whoops.  I felt really bad, but he was tough.

Also, I have a question for all of you.  I have been asked more than once, "What do you eat in the U.S.?" and still I don't know how to answer.  How would you answer?  It's really hard to answer that question here especially since Peruvians are very into their food.  Whenever I say "we don't have a typical plate," I always get funny looks.  I've given this question so much thought, but I still don't know.  Usually someone might say pizza and hamburgers, but if you really think about it, do you really eat that much pizza and hamburgers on a daily basis?  I don't.  Our food has so many different influences.  I can list off plates that I eat in my house, but still I wouldn't say that's a typical plate.  This question just baffles me.  I've tried listing off things before, but even then I'm just not sure.  For me, I would say spaghetti is a pretty typical plate or the BBQ is a pretty US American thing (steaks, hamburgers, pork chops, hotdogs).  I'm just not sure though.  Comment if you know how you would answer that question. :)

Anyway, tonight I went out to dinner with Tonisha.  We went to a sandwich place in Parque Kennedy and we just sat their and ate and chatted.  Then, of course, we moved to Café Z and sat there and chatted even longer.  It was a good night and we had fun laughing together.  Sorry that this blog is slightly late for some of you.  I got home last night and then waited to long to start and then got really tired halfway through writing it. :/  Anyway, it's up now.  That's all that matters.  I hope you all have wonderful 11/11/11s and a great Veteran's Day. :)

Also, don't forget to keep voting for ILS!!  We are currently ranking 33 and we only have to get down to top 15 and stay there for the rest of November!  Honestly, I think we can get down to #1!  We may not stay there, but ILS is a huge community, as you can see since we jumped 88 to 33 in a matter of two days!  Anyway, go and vote!  PLEASE! :) And tell your friends and family!
http://www.refresheverything.com/illinoisleadershipseminars

Me encanta el sol

So today I woke up and it was sunny!  At 8 a.m. the sun was shining bright!  It was beautiful!  Want to know something crazy, too.  Tonisha's mom sent her a picture today from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and there was snow on the ground!  Is there snow where you're at?  I can tell you that there is no snow and there won't be snow here in Lima.  Anyway, I keep forgetting that it's winter in the states now, because it's spring and beautiful here now.  Sorry to rub it in, winter can be beautiful, too!

Anyway, today in Peruvian Social Reality, our professor got the Fujimori DVD to work so we watched some of that, but we still didn't finish it, so we will next Monday.  In Living and Learning today, we had presentations on surveys that we gave.  We had to interview 10 Peruvians and 10 Americans for our surveys.  The topic that my group chose for the surveys was talkativeness vs. silence in both cultures.  Our results were actually really interesting.  The average of the Peruvians' scores actually ranked higher for both silence and talkativeness.  Our group decided that our scores weren't that accurate considering it was a small survey group, but it was still interesting and it makes you think.  What do you value more..silence or talking?

Anyway, next up on the list of classes was my Spanish Writing Workshop.  Today we learned some tips for writing papers.  We're getting ready to start researching for our final papers so our professor is getting a headstart on preparing us to write them.  Anyway, after that I had Ethnography and we learned about more myths from the Amazon.  Sorry that I don't have more interesting things to tell you.  I do have one interesting thing that was pointed out to me today.  On Wednesday, I have class from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with only one hour break.  That's a lot of class in one day.  It's like I'm back in grade school. :)

Tonight, another micro dream came true.  I got to sit in the front seat again, which is always fun, plus it was a really nice/clean micro, but that's not the exciting part.  The exciting part is that I got to use the passenger door to get out, rather than using the door that everyone else uses.  It was great!  I felt so special. :)  Other than that nothing else has really happened tonight.  I had Ají de Gallina for dinner, which was delicious.  Also, I watched Damas en Guerra (Bridesmaids), which was a good movie.  You should probably watch it if you haven't seen it yet, especially if you need a good laugh. :)

Okay, lastly I want to remind you to go to:
http://www.refresheverything.com/illinoisleadershipseminars
and vote for ILS!!  ILS is very important to me so I hope you help us out. :)  We were ranked 88 yesterday and now we're 54!!  Share it with your friends, too!!  You can vote twice-a-day (via the site and via text 109528 to Pepsi (73774)), EVERY day!  Thank you sooooo much!!

El niño tímido

So I have a cute micro story from today.  Yes, that's right, I said cute and micro in the same sentence.  For the second day in a row I've used an oxymoron.  Anyway, I was on the way to PUCP in the micro and a little boy and his mom got on.  Usually kids sit on their parents' laps on the micro, but this boy seemed to be pretty independent and he sat across the aisle from me.  Soon after though, he moved right next to me and we were sitting in front of his mom.  I looked over at him, smiled, and asked how he was doing and he said good.  He seemed pretty shy, but at the same time he was definitely trying to get close to me.  He kept scooting next to me and then I would look over and he would quickly move away.  It was so cute.  We had a short conversation, his name was James (I think..that's what it sounded like, but that's not a very Peruvian name-that's why I'm not sure) and he was 5 years old.  His mom told him to ask my name, but he never did.  He was definitely bashful. :)  Anyway, a street vendor came on the bus and he wanted toffee so his mom bought him some and guess what?...He gave a piece to me!  It was adorable and I was sad to see him get off the bus.

Anyway, once I got off the micro I headed to ballet.  Ballet was the same as always:  enjoyable. :)  My instructor is actually starting to choreograph a dance, so at the end of class for the past couple times she has been working with some of the students on it.  It's really cool to see her choreography, it's so pretty.  Anyway, after ballet, I ate lunch and then I walked around campus.  And look what I found as I was walking...

Again, cute, huh?  There are so many deer on campus and I haven't taken pictures in awhile, so I couldn't pass up a photo op when there was a fawn. :)  By the way, it was beautiful outside, well during the afternoon anyway.  It still gets chilly every other time of the day.  I spent some time today looking into trips to Arequipa and Puno.  A group of us wants to go on one big seven day trip in December before we all leave.  After looking into both places, I'm actually pretty excited for it.  It's going to be fun planning it.

Tonight, I had Cine and we watched Los Cuatro Cortos by Gianfranco Annichini.  It was a group of four short films and they were actually really good.  The first one was about Maria Reiche, who dedicated her life to studying the Nazca lines.  The second was about an older man who pretty much did everything in his life.  He was in the theatre business, a boxer, an inventor, and he was in the Navy.  The third was about a man who lived in the Amazon and he actually had a good little saying in the movie.  "All's well that ends well, smile in spite of bad weather."  I just thought that was a nice little positivity quote.  The last one was about a radio station in the Amazon.  They were all really good.  Anyway, tonight all I did was work on a little homework and I watched the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. :)

Okay, now I have a favor to ask you.  Pepsi is sponsoring a project called the Pepsi Refresh Project and they are giving money "to fund great ideas that refresh the world."  Well, the Illinois Leadership Seminar is one of the projects that is trying to get funded.  To remind you what the Illinois Leadership Seminar is, I mentioned it in my very first blog post because the very name of this blog, Don't Miss Out, came from that seminar.  It is a seminar that I went to when I was a sophomore in High school and it teaches leadership skills to the youth of Illinois in a matter of one weekend.  It actually was an amazing seminar for me and I still return for some of the events/fundraisers that the organization holds.  If you want to look into the organization more you can go to http://www.illinoisleadershipseminar.org/AboutILS.html  Anyway, I guess I'll get to my point now.  I would love it if you go and create an account at http://www.refresheverything.com/illinoisleadershipseminars and vote for the Illinois Leadership Seminar so that we receive the funds to organize this year's seminar.  I really would like you to vote for ILS; however, there are a lot of other good causes that need funded, so I understand if you decide to vote for another cause. :)  Thank you, in advance, if you decide to take your next 5 minutes to vote for ILS.

Okay, finally...  It's Music Martes!  This week's song is La Despedida (The Goodbye) by Daddy Yankee.

Buenas noches y dulces sueños!

Lunes oximorónico

Today was an overall good Monday.  Kind of an oxymoron if you ask me:  Good Monday. :)  No, just kidding, I believe that Mondays can be good.  I started out the day in Peruvian Social Reality.  We started to watch a video on Alberto Fujimori.  Fujimori was the President of Peru between 1990 and 2000 and he is accredited with ending the terrorist organization, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), and restoring the economy, however he did this in a way that violated human rights.  He is now serving time in prison for a number of things including human rights violations, embezzlement, bribery, etc.  Fun fact:  He attended University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Anyway, so we were watching a video on him, but then the video stopped working.  Our professor tried cleaning the DVD, but that didn't work.  And then, he said something very funny.  He said, "That's what I get for buying a non-pirated DVD.  I'm never buying a real movie again." :)  It obviously made us all laugh.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch the rest of the movie, but we still had some good discussion for the rest of the class period.

After class, we all ate lunch and just hung out in the sun.  We also got the chance to work on a Living and Learning assignment, but you'll here more about that when I have class on Wednesday.  After lunch, I had my Spanish Writing class.  We usually write our essays on Wednesday, but we didn't write one last Wednesday, so we worked on it today.  Also, I don't remember if I told you all about this, but I had to make up comic strips in Spanish and I got those back today.  I actually did pretty well with them and my professor laughed at a few.  Although, I'm pretty sure he was laughing at how ridiculously dumb they were. :)  Either way, it still made me smile.  After that, I had Ethnography.  We finished off our lecture on gender since our paper on gender is due next week and then we started a discussion about the different myths and beliefs of people in the Amazon.  For example, there is a myth that the Amazon River originated from a tree.  It was pretty interesting and the class period went pretty fast, which is always nice!

On the way home, our micro decided to take a small detour in order to get in front of slow micros.  Surprisingly, that's the first time I've seen that happen.  It was comical because I was taking a nap on the micro and woke up to see houses and buildings that I was not used to.  Luckily, Jacey was on the micro with me and she told me that we moved to the next street over in order to pass people. :)

Anyway, once I got home, I started doing some homework and then I ate dinner.  As I was eating, my host mom told me that she was having friends over and if I wanted to join them I could.  Well, soon enough two of her friends came and we all sat down and chatted while eating all sorts of things: fruit, vegetables, cheese, bread, etc.  Later on, three more of her friends came.  I'm pretty sure I got scolded more than once for the trips I've been on.  They are all so worried about my safety, but the trips are over now and I'm safe, so I don't think they have to worry. :)  Anyway, I lost time pretty quickly, so then I had to leave the conversation early to finish up some homework.  I got it done and managed to watch the movie Armageddon.  Yay me! :)  And now, I'm about to go to bed!  I hope you all had oxymoronic amazing Mondays. :)  Buenas noches y dulces sueños!

Nike 10K

So, this morning I got up and ran a the Nike 10K race that is hosted here in Lima.  Just kidding, I didn't run.  However, I did go and watch.  It's supposedly one of the biggest (or the biggest) road race in Lima and it started and ended in Parque Kennedy, which is really close to my house, as you might know.  I got up in the morning and met Jacey, one of my friends, and we walked around the park to watch people finishing the race.  I really give all those people credit for running a 10K.  I don't think I could ever do it, but if I had run today, it was a beautiful morning to.  Jacey and I decided to take some pictures that we have been meaning to all semester, such as pictures of Café Z and obviously we stopped there too to get a cup of coffee.  Okay, you caught me...I didn't get coffee, I got a frozen de fresa.  We chilled there for a little bit and just talked and then we walked around more.  By the time that we walked around the park again, there was a band playing and everyone that had just ran a 10K was jumping up and down with the music..crazies, weren't their muscles sore?  Anyway, after the nice morning walk in the park, I went home and waited there until my host mom and I went on our regular Sunday lunch out.

The stage for the band in Óvalo Miraflores

The edge of Parque Kennedy

Parque Kennedy:  There's usually A LOT of cats around

We found some of them :)

Café Z

For lunch, we went to Club de Regatas, which is a well-known club here in Lima.  It's a pretty ritzy place and there's so much to do there.  My host mom and I ate chifa there today.  Chifa is Peruvian Chinese food.  If you ask me, it tastes the same as US American Chinese food.  It was just the usually Chinese buffet.  It was delicious.  After lunch, I got the chance to lay on one of three beaches at the club and soak up the sun for an hour.  Unfortunately, the Lima clouds and breeze rolled in as I was laying down, so I really didn't get that much sun, but it was still relaxing.  I read part of my Ethnography article and then of course decided to take a nap instead.  It was great!

View of part of Club de Regatas from the Chifa restaurant

I live behind the tall buildings

Pelicans

Beach

For the rest of tonight, I really haven't done too much.  I did a little bit of homework, but then I watched the movie Fight Club.  There's a cool website here in Peru (I'm not sure if it's available in the U.S.), called cuevana.com and it allows you to watch TV shows and movies online.  It's nice, too, because it shows the Spanish subtitles, although if it were dubbed, it would be better.  Anyway, it was a great movie. :)  I hope you all had wonderful weekends.  Have a great Monday.  Buenas noches y dulces sueños!

Taller de cocina

This morning/afternoon, we had our last taller (workshop) and it was a cooking workshop!!  We went to the a cooking institute called Expro and we had a wonderful chef instructor, Chef Jose Antonio.  We made four Peruvian dishes:  ají de gallina, ceviche de pescado, causa rellena de pulpo de olivo, and lomo saltado.  It was really fun!  We actually got to make some of the food rather than just standing there while the chef cooked it.  I squeezed limons and cut some sea bass for the ceviche, peeled potatoes for the causa, shredded chicken for the ají de gallina, and I got to help in cooking a batch of lomo saltado..yum!!

Eating the potato skin that was going to be thrown away

Causa

Ceviche (Cebiche)

Food, Pisco Sours, and Fun!

Plate #1:  Lomo saltado (duh!), Ají de gallina, and ceviche

Okay, so obviously after making it all we got to eat it!!  I decided to try ceviche again.  I had it the very first full day I was here and disliked it.  Well, I decided that it's been awhile so I wanted to try it (plus, I helped make it).  I actually did like it this time.  I still don't think I would choose to order it, especially over something like lomo saltado, but it was good!  So, I guess it's not as terrible as I originally thought, but the raw fish still freaks me out a little.  Causa is something I still don't like.  I don't mind the outside, which is made of potato, but the stuff that it's filled with usually doesn't interest me (avocado, olive pulp).  The lomo saltado was good as always!  They put pisco in it so of course it caught on fire, it was cool and scary (I let another girl take over pan when he added the pisco).  Okay, now for something that just might shock you...I can't decide now if lomo saltado is my favorite or ají de gallina!  I mean I guess technically I don't need to have a favorite, but I was just shocked that I found something that just might be better.  I don't remember trying ají de gallina at all since I've been here, but it was delicious today!  Anyway, either way the food was good and the taller was awesome!  This workshop and the cajón workshop are definitely up there on my favorites list. :)  Unfortunately, all I can make with confidence after today is lomo saltado, but I could probably give ají de gallina a shot.

Anyway, other than the cooking workshop, I really didn't do much again today. :/  Oh well! :)  It has been nice to have a relaxing weekend. :)  I hope you all are having nice and relaxing weekends, too.  And I hope you're time change goes well for you back in the states.  I, however, will not be gaining an hour.  Peru does not recognize daylight savings. :)  Sweet dreams.  Enjoy the extra hour!

Nada

So I did absolutely nothing today.  I can't even act like I did anything productive today!  I didn't even leave the house until 9:30 p.m., but when I did leave the house it was really fun!  I walked two blocks to Larcomar to meet Tonisha and her grandma for ice cream.  Yep, that's right, Tonisha's grandma is in town for a few days.  It was wonderful to meet her and it was nice to sit, talk, and eat ice cream with them both. :)  Like I said though, other than tonight, nothing exciting happened.  And since I can't let you down on my blog, I've decided to reveal some of my "Things I'll miss/Things I won't miss" list.  I've decided that I am way too into food considering half of the things on my list are food related.  Reminder:  These are not the complete lists, I just don't want to reveal them all right now!

Things I'll Miss in Peru
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Lomo saltado
Friends
Deporte y Vida
Taxes included on prices

Things I Won't Miss in Peru
Rice
Clouds
Whistles from guys on the street
The song "On the floor" by J.Lo

Things on the Fence
Micros

Now to add more entertainment, I've also started a U.S. list.  Again, a lot of the things I miss are food items.

Things I miss from the U.S.
Caramel Apples
Hugs
Cinnamon Toast Crunch (But guess what?!  Tonisha's grandma brought a HUGE box for Tonisha and I, so I'm sure within the next week you will be hearing all about how Tonisha and I demolished the box!)

Things I don't miss from the U.S.
This may be shocking but.... Cell phone

On the fence
Rain

Sorry that nothing exciting happened today, but I hope that you at least enjoyed my partial lists! :)  Have a good weekend!!!