Thoughts, Revelations, and Happenings

Alright, so I feel like I should update. But the thing is that nothing very exciting or noteworthy is going on. I just go to school, come home, sleep, eat and repeat. But I do have some things I can share with you all:

*I learned something about the Spanish language that totally rocked my world. The letters ch, ll, and rr no longer exist in the spanish alphabet as of 1994. Wow. I definitely learned that they were letters and I held that idea until around 4 o'clock on Monday afternoon. I still don't know what I think. I feel like I've been deceived, but then again, it doesn't really matter. But they are different phonemes, obviously. I think that schools in the U.S. should really get on that and switch up the curriculum. But don't you worry, ñ is still standing strong as its own letter. More power to you, Ñ.

(lies, lies, lies)

*A thing that I've noticed and been curious about is, at what point do peruvian women stop wearing normal bras and decide to go with ones that look a bit lumpy instead? Is there an age cut-off or something? Or just personal preference?

*Monday night (well around 2:30 am Tuesday morning) I felt my first earthquake ever. I'll confess, it was a bit scary. But it was short and sweet. It woke me up, but I was so disoriented that I wasn't quite sure what was going on. After it was over I realized what had happened and went into the hall to see what was up. And Alfredo just told me to go back to bed. So please pray that we don't have any more, and that they don't get bigger. Thanks.

*I can't quite figure out why we aren't reading any works by female authors. Oh wait, machismo. I'm going to have a little chat with Julio.

*At the grocery story, they seem to think that it is a good plan to sell eggs in a bag. A nice little plastic bag. Strange. And its not like they've never heard of cartons, because I've seen cartons with eggs too. But for some reason they still put them in a bag. A little too risky for me.

*Tomorrow makes 2 months that I've been here in Lima. Thats crazy.

Thats all for now. Sorry I'm not more exciting tonight.

I miss Tijuana.

Disfrustrante

Thats right. I just pulled a César Vallejo (famous Peruvian poet) on you all , making up a new word when language failed to accurately describe my feelings.

Disfrustrante

disfrutar + frustrante

to enjoy + frustrating

Thats the best way that I can think to describe my feelings about Lima. I enjoy it, but it is terribly frustrating at times. I enjoy my friends, my family, traveling, being near the ocean, speaking Spanish, picarones, learning a lot, understanding, studying at la Católica, reading Latin American literature. I get frustrated by my lack of fluency, the sometimes overprotectiveness of my host mom, being over charged on the micro, traffic, verb conjugation, my pronunciation, the food situation, my always dirty feet, feeling like I sometimes don't fully understand.

Since I'm taking relatively easy classes I don't have a lot of homework to be doing. Which leaves me with a lot of free time. Which gets me thinking a lot. I emailed a good friend, sort of mentor although he'd prefer to be just called a friend so thats what we'll go with, of mine back at Gordon. I shared of my struggle to leave things from home behind and focus on the phrase "be here now". Its been a hard thing to do. I'm tired, frustrated and I miss my home. But I don't want to leave. Its this weird feeling. But my friend shared that its better to be in the middle of God's will and be having a difficult time than to be having a great time and be out of His will. So true. As hard as its been, I know that Lima is where I'm supposed to be right now. I'm not completely sure why, but I know God does. He's teaching me and growing me and preparing me. I'm not quite sure exactly how yet, but I'll just have to wait and see. Which reminds me of a song that I just discovered in my iTunes. Called "Wait and See" by Brandon Heath.

There is hope for me yet

Because God won't forget

All the plans He's mad for me

I have to wait and see

He's not finished with me yet

I know that this experience will become a part of me, a part of who He created me to be. I feel myself changing but I'm not exactly sure how.

Now on a less pensive note, I met up with Ms. Sano this morning. It was good to see a friendly face and get a hug. I miss hugs. And she had one for me from my mother. =) And guess who finally made it to Peru!?!?!

Mama Llama!! Along with some peppermint patties, a t-shirt from my Dad's last race, some microwave popcorn, hot chocolate packets, sunscreen and peanut butter. It was basically like Christmas.

So after arriving home and checking out my "gifts" I decided to read for a bit and take a nap. I was abruptly woken up by men hammering and making very loud noises on the roof right outside my open window. Strange...I still don't know what they were doing, but they've gone now. I'll do some more homework this afternoon and hopefully get to read for pleasure. I'm reading "Redeeming Love" in spanish. I'm hooked. But first I have to finish "Aura" by Carlos Fuentes for my spanish class. And now its lunch time!!!

A Sunday in Chilca

So yesterday my parents and I headed about 70 km south of Lima to a town called Chilca. We went to the beach for a while in the morning. It was a bit breezy and super foggy when we got there so we just relaxed for most of the morning. I read some and took a little nap. We also got ice cream. YUM! Then we headed back into town and had lunch. We ordered arroz con pollo but they had run out of pollo (chicken) so we ended up with pato (duck) instead. It didn't taste very different from chicken, but I still wasn't a huge fan. Our waiter was a little 13 year-old boy named Facundo. He was nice, but I felt bad for him. The people in the restaurant were so demanding. Including my mom Ruth, she can be quite feisty. I guess because I work in a restaurant and have to deal with customers I tend to sympathize easily. Its hard work dealing with demanding customers who are picky and sometimes rude. And little Facundo was the only one serving. I totally understand that the customer should be satisfied, but I always appreciate it when someone is polite with me. It always turns me off when I see someone being rude to their server and treating them like less of a person. But anyways...I'm getting off track.

After lunch my mother and I went across the street to one of the mineral baths. It was like a huge pool of warm water. This particular one was high in sulfur so the water was green, like wicked green. It wasn't very deep, maybe like up to my hip at the deepest part. The water is also really dense so you float very easily. What you are supposed to do is rub the mud all over your body and its supposed to have medicinal powers and be good for the skin. So my host mom and I put some on our faces. It didn't smell good at all. But anyways, it was an experience.

Backing tracking a bit to Saturday, Amelia came over and spent most of the day with my family. We went to the market on a search for yeast and we found some! We even had a choice, fresh yeast or dry yeast. I had never heard of fresh yeast, so we went with dry. My mom even bought us some snacks to try. Some maní confitado (sugary coated peanuts) and some palitos de yuca (little white packing peanut-looking things made from yuca, they taste like packing peanuts as well). Then we did a few other errands with my parents and came home to have lunch. After lunch we made PRETZELS. We even had the help of Camila, the 3 1/2 year-old daughter of the empeada (maid). They turned out pretty good, not quite as tasty as when I make them at home, but not bad for not having actual measuring spoons, just regular spoons so we estimated quite a bit.

Started another week of school today. Mondays are hard because I have a four hour break between classes and I don't really have much to do. But Amelia and I kept busy and had a good chat with Marion. Then we got our new government issued carnets (ID cards) that give us a discount on the micros. I'm wicked excited.

Lima-Ica-Nasca-Pisco-Lima

Its Friday. How wonderful. No classes and I'm going to hang out with some girls tonight and get Bubble Tea. I'm not really sure what that is, but I'll let you know.

Sorry it has taken a while for me to write about my weekend. During the school week I get up early, get home late and usually all I do is eat and sleep. So here it goes...

THURSDAY morning I woke up wicked early. 5 am to be exact. My host uncle Panchi has a taxi service - sort of. He only does it for friends and family. So he picked me up, then we headed to Barranco to get Amelia and then to Parque Kennedy to pick up the Miraflores chicas. We then got dropped off at the Ormeño bus station and checked it. While we were waiting for the bus I'm facing the door and all of a sudden in walks our friend Chris. I pointed with a surprised look on my face and everyone else turned around to look. We had just been talking about him and how he had told us that he might meet up with us in Ica and then he just strolled right in. So he was able to get on a bus that left 2 hours after ours! Craziness. So we got onto this double-decker bus. Audrey, Amelia and I ended up sitting right in front. I was in the driver's spot on the second floor. So we had like a huge windshield in front of us and could see everything. It was so cool. The movies that played were the Blind Side and Ice Castles. I watched the first and then drifted in and out of sleep during the second. The seats were nice and comfortable and we even got a sandwich and juice. Pure luxury. When we arrived in Ica we took a taxi to our hotel to drop off our bags and wait for Chris. When we were checking in the Señora of the hotel realized that we were 5 girls and had reserved a room for 4 people. Oops, she figured us out. So instead of trying to sneak one of us and Chris in each night, we decided to be honest with her and tell her that we would be 6 people total. She then sat us down and explained that we would have to pay for the extra people. Alright. She was also upset because she was actually losing money because we weren't about to pay the rate for a holiday weekend. So it was a bit frusterating, but it all turned out ok. So we're up in our room chilling out and wondering when Chris is going to show up and if he'll even be able to find it. Then there is a knock on the door and guess who it is. Second time in one day. So we catch up and decide to go to the Plaza de Armas to walk around and get something to eat. We end up eating at a chifa (chinese restaurant) and drinking 3 liters of peach fruit juice. Delicious. We finished our food but spent a while hanging out in the restaurant playing marry-kiss-kill. A game that Lauren Imke taught me where you are given three options and you have to choose who you would marry, who you's kiss and who you're gonna kill. Its quite interesting and very funny. Then we walk around and head over to a travel agency and book some tours for the coming days. We then went back to the hotel and then headed to Plaza Vea (supermarket) to stock up on water and snacks. The Señora told us it was only 100 meters away. That was incorrect information. Oh well. Then we played the question game before going to sleep.

FRIDAY we went on a tour of Nazca. We got picked up by the agency and then started a looooooooong drive. The tour guide was talking pretty much the whole time, but it was hard to not fall asleep. Our first stop was in some valley to appreciate something. Who knows what.

Then back in the van. Then we saw our first lines!! These are from the Paracas culture. Made about 2000 years ago. We climbed up this rickety tour to see them better. The we got to go and see the famous Nazca Lines. Not quite as impressive as I thought they would be. I guess because I thought they would be bigger. But I guess some others are more impressive. We only got to see two from the tower. There was no way that we were going to go up and fly over them in one of those little airplanes of death. So seeing them from the tower was sufficient for me.

The tree

The hands

Then we went to see lines made by the Incas. Not as creative or exciting as the previous cultures, but still impressive. Totally straight lines that seem to go on forever and ever. Bad news, before a lot of these things were even discovered they decided to build the Panamerican Highway right through them and ruin them without even knowing it. Oh well. Live and learn.

Me with some straight Incan Lines. Woohoo!!

Then we drove to the airport to drop off a man from our tour who was going to fly over them. While he was risking his life, we shopped around in the market and went to a ceramics place. This husband-wife-son team works and creates exact replicates of Nazcan pottery using the same ancient methods. It was pretty cool.

They even gave us a student discount and the wife introduced Laura and I to her son. Funny and awkward, but nice.

**Side note about the ceramics place, they included a little pamphlet about the shop in the bag when I bought something. And the English translations are hilarious. "We invite you to urs workshop that you will be to take care of with much cordiality and we watch it the process of the manufacture of the huacos, with origninals tools of the Nasca."**

Then we went and picked up the guy at the airport. He had survived. Then we continued on to various sites of ruins. Our guide kept using the word "appreciate" but to be honest the only thing I was appreciating at that point was shade and getting back into the van. We finished up the day at a restaurant with the tour group that had mediocre Italian food. Once again, live and learn. I'll wait for some Bertucci's. It'll be worth it. Then we went back to our hotel all hot, sweaty and tired. When we got back we were disappointed to find that the water in our bathroom was not functioning at all. So we let the Señora know and she had a bucket of water sent up to us. Just one. For 6 people. Haha. So a few of us washed our feet. Then we just sort of waited. Played some Uno. Then the water finally started working again. So some of us were able to get showers. Then before bed we had story time and I shared some funny stories from my family. The story about Pepper was a big hit. Especially with my Boston accent. =)

SATURDAY we got to sleep in a bit. But we were woken around 8 by the vendor walking up and down the street selling tamales. It made for a good joke the rest of the weekend though. So we got up and went downstairs to have breakfast that we were told was included. Turns out is was included, but at the price of 8 soles per person. Oh well. After that we watched some of Pocahontas and then had to leave right was Aladdin was starting. We went to the Regional Museum of Ica. Pretty interesting stuff. Except the mummies. Gross. I'm not a big fan. Amelia is though, so I'm glad we went. Everyone else thought it was cool. Then we headed to the Plaza de Armas for lunch. After lunch Laura and I hung out by one of the fountains and did some people watching. Around 4:30 we left with the travel agency again to head to Huacachina, an oasis just outside of Ica. There we were able to go for a ride through the dunes in a sand buggy and we also went sand boarding. It was wicked fun.

Chris, Aprill and I in the back of the buggy

Laura, Amelia, me, Aprill and Chris in the dunes

Amelia and I looking a little windblown

The first dune we went down on the board. We laid on them

like sleds and flew down the dunes! Got sand everywhere!!

We ended back in the town of Huacachina with sand all over us. We did a little shopping and then hung out by the lake. We went to a hostal restaurant for dinner and had ice cream sundaes as our meal. Yum! Then we took a taxi back to the hotel, played some Uno, tried to get in some showers with the small trickle of water in the shower, played never-have-I-ever, and told some life stories before bed. (Reminded me of telling life stories during my Discovery trip. Good memories)

SUNDAY we had to get up super early because they were picking us up at 6:30 for a tour of las Islas Ballestas.

el Candelabro

So we got there and went on a boat tour around the islands. We saw lots of birds, some penguins and sea lions. It was nice. I really enjoyed the boat ride and it made me miss going out on my brothers' boats during the summer in Gloucester.

Gloucester? Nope, Pisco.

We got back from the tour and met up with Laura (who didn't go because she went last semester) at Plaza Vea. Everyone bought some food to share and we had a nice little picnic. Then Aprill, Chris and I headed over to the bus stations while Audrey, Amelia and Laura went to the Plaza de Armas to buy some chocolates. Chris got a bus ticket and left around 2:30. Aprill and I met up with the other girls at the Cruz del Sur station where we waited until 6:30 for our bus back to Lima. Christ texted me when he got back to Lima and we were still waiting in Ica. Little stinker. But we did watch Hook and some of Shrek while waiting in the bus station. The trip back was good, but the food was not. The movies were Nim's Island and UP! But I slept through most of them. Then Uncle Panchi picked us up and brought us all to our houses. Finally home. It was nice coming back to Lima, it felt like home. I like it.

Then it was up early for another week of school. So now we're pretty much caught up. But here are a few random thoughts:

*Ms. Sano is coming down next week with a group of adults. I'm going to meet up with her and she is bringing down a bag of goodies from my mom. I'm wicked excited.

*I went to the supermarket with my host mom last night and we bought ROSCA! The sweet bread that we always eat at la Casa for 3 Kings Day. It was yummy as ever.

*Amelia and I have been going to the CBU group and I'm really enjoying it a lot.

*I'm going to try and make pretzels tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be successful like with my chocolate chip cookies.

#21

So I turned 21. Not quite as exciting here in Lima as in the States. But birthdays are always fun. I got a package from my mom with a new scarf!! Yay!!

For dinner my family and I went over to this little restaurant near our house for anticucho (grilled cow's heart) and picarones (peruvian donuts - sort of). It was quite delicious.

L-R My brother Yuri (he really was having a good time, I promise), my father Alfredo, my mom Ruth, grandpa Mario, me and a good family friend who lives on the corner.

After dinner I came back and packed my bags while skyping with Kelly. Then I had to get up around 5 am to head over to the bus station. Ica was GREAT!! I had a wicked good time. I've found a good group of friends and we had so much fun together. I'll update about that later. But here is a link to the album that I put up on Facebook.

Lunahuaná

Taking a break in the heavenly shade

Recap of my weekend:

Friday I spent the whole day at home just lounging around, doing homework and skyping. I was able to video skype with my roommate Rebecca and my friend Amy. I am such a huge fan of Skype.

Saturday morning I woke up early because I was determined to get to the bus early/on time. I always seem to get stuck in what my friend Amelia and I refer to as the "Peruvian time warp". It sucks you in and you don't know where the time goes, but you're always late. Its strange because I'm the type of person who is always on time or often early for things, but here I always wind up being late. Although sometimes the time warp goes the other way and I'm 1/2 hour early for class. Well Saturday morning the time warp was not on my side and I arrived late. BUt good news is that I wasn't the last one! So we started our journey to Lunahuaná. It took a little over 3 hours driving along the coast. Most of the coast of Peru is desert but occasionally you'll come to some valleys that are green and luscious because they have a river flowing through. Lunahuaná is located in one of those valleys and the majority of the economy is based on tourism.

When we arrived we got into our hotel rooms and quickly changed to go white-water rafting. We all loaded into 2 vans and drove to where we were going to put in. We stopped along the way to load 2 rafts on each van along with lifevests, helmets and our guides. I was in a raft with 3 girls, our program director Melvin and 3 guides. There was one guy in the back who was in charge. When he shouted ¡Adelante! we paddled, and we stopped when he yelled ¡Alto! It was so much fun! During a calm section of the river we got to hop into the water and float along with the boat. When I jumped in I lost one of my flip-flops and I thought it was gone forever. Then it floated by and I grabbed it. During our rest we walked upstream a bit and then floated down to the boats. That was fun, except the river was pretty low so I kept bumping my bum on the rocks. Then we got back in and finished up. It was a pretty short adventure, maybe 20-30 minutes total. I wish it had been longer because it was a lot of fun. Then we got into the vans all sandy and sopping wet and headed back to the hotel to change.

We then headed down the road a little to our restaurant for lunch. After lunch we went to see some Incan ruins called IncaWasi (Incahuasi). It was pretty cool. Looked like most of the other ruins I've seen before. Unfortunately I left my camera at the hotel so I don't have any pictures from Saturday. We hiked up this HUGE hill and it was wicked windy up top. I almost got blown off a few times. No joke. Okay, well not blown off, but blown back a few times. After checking out the ruins we headed over to a bodega where they make wine the old-fashion way - no machines, no motors, no preservatives.

We even got to squish some grapes with our feet. It tickled a bit at first, then after a while it felt like a massage. Exfoliating. So cool. Then we did some wine and Pisco tasting and had the chance to buy some wine. They only sell it at the vineyard; they don't export to hotels or restaurants in order to preserve the quality. Pretty cool.

After that we took a short walk around the Plaza de Armas de Lunahuaná. There is a really pretty catholic church there. Then it was back tot he restaurant for dinner and then back to the hotel. A lot of people went swimming and did some karaoke by the pool. Amelia, Audrey and I decided to just chill out on their balcony, drink some wine and chat. So we just hung out and Chris joined us for a bit then decided to go swimming. After I finished my wine I headed back to my room, took a shower and fell right asleep.

Me chilling out on some pre-Incan ruins

Sunday morning we got up early to go for a hike/walk. First thing we had to do on the hike was cross the river. And this is how we did it, a cable going across the river with a wooden platform hanging from it. So we put on life jackets and helmets and rode across the river. It was probably the best part of the hike!

Don't mind my face here, I actually did enjoy this

After we had gotten everyone across we started our hike. It was pretty cool. Up and down hills, down by the river and everything. We even passed our hotel. We had a buffet breakfast waiting at the hotel for when we arrived. So when we passed the hotel I was thinking, Ok so we'll probably cross soon to head back for breakfast. Nope. And each step I took was another step farther away from the buffet. We walked for about another hour after passing our hotel. But on the plus side we did get to see some pre-Incan ruins. And just last year they discovered two mummies!! Super exciting. Unfortunately the cage where the mummies are is closed to the public on Sundays. Well that didn't stop our guide. He was determined to have us see those mummies. So he just took the door out of the hinges and we went in to check out the mummies. They were underground so you had to look through a little glass box thing to see them.

Here is Piggy chilling out on some pre-Incan ruins. He likes history. Moving on...after a total of 2 and a half hours of hiking we finally got to a bridge and thank the Lord there was a bus waiting to take us back to the hotel. Buffet has never tasted so good. Then we decided to have a little time of refreshment and go swimming in the pool.

Once refreshed we went to go and ride some horses! We got to the place, put on helmets and picked our horses. We then trotted off. I really had no say in what was going on, the horse was basically in charge. I was just along for the ride. Luckily there were no problems and we just followed the people in front of us. We went up a rocky hill and then came back down. It was pretty fun. Then back to the restaurant for lunch, and after lunch there was time for a nap. Heavenly.

Then it was on to 4-wheeling. Emmett, another kid from my program, and I shared an ATV. The front left wheel looked a little wobbly, but the guide didn't seem too concerned so we just continued. It lasted the whole trip, so whatever. We did however run into a few herds of goats. Which was pretty funny to see. After 4-wheeling we went back to the hotel, packed up and headed back to Lima. So it was an adventure-packed weekend and I had a blast.

In less adventurous, but still very exciting news I successfully made chocolate chip cookies today. And tomorrow is my birthday.

One Down

As of today I have been in Peru for a whole month!! Wow. That is pretty much unbelievable. It doesn't feel like a month. Sometimes it feels like I just flew in a few days ago and sometimes it seems like an eternity. It really depends. Weird how time passes here. Maybe I'm like in some sort of time portal where nothing every feels or seems like what it really is. Maybe...

In other news, I finally registered for classes on Monday. I got up wicked early (5:30) to shower and then leave at 6:30 to head to school. I arrived a little after seven. There isn't much traffic so early in the morning, but the micro was still very very full.

While I'm on the subject of full micros, I'd like to give a shout out to the guy on the micro that always lets me have a seat when there is an empty one. I've been on the micro with him a few times and whenever a seat opens up, he always taps me and lets me know so that I can sit down. How nice of him. So thank you, whoever you may be. I've found both ends of the spectrum, there was a little punk who snuck into a seat that I was going for, and I've had a man actually give up his seat for me.

Ok, back to registration. So I arrived at la Católica and was number 38. Not bad, considering there were over 200 exchange students. So I waited in a classroom until around 9:15 then I was able to go in and register. I had no problem getting into the classes that I wanted, for which I am very thankful. Some others weren't so lucky. So now I'm officially a student and I've even got a student ID to prove it.

Here I am with my registration card. The stamp says: MATRICULA COMPLETA. And I am overjoyed. So no more stress about getting into classes and not having a schedule.

I'm taking Current Literature and Musical Appreciation. My professors are pretty much polar opposites of each other. My music teacher is very free spirited and just wants us to learn to appreciate and enjoy music without judgements or prejudices. He's pretty chill about people arriving late and usually gets there late himself. He is probably in his 50s or 60s and has the biggest eyebrows and nose and you can always see some gray chest hair peeking out of the top of his shirt. My lit professor is on the younger side, maybe in his 30s. He is wicked strict about being on time. The first day of class two of my friends from the program and I had trouble finding the classroom so we arrived about 10 minutes late. (Mind you, things in Peru almost never start on time) We walked in and he looked at us with a very stern look on his face and said "última vez" which translates to "last time". It was intense. He's pretty serious and closes and locks the door when class starts so no one else can enter. His theory is if your late you need to take responsibility for your error, wake up earlier and get to class on time. End of story. Which I can see where he's coming from, but its still intimidating.

So classes are going well. I haven't been late to my lit class yet, but there have been a few close calls. I've also been able to check out the two christian groups on campus. I don't quite understand the division between the two. Apparently they used to be one, but there was a split a while back. So Amelia and I went to one the first week with our friend Catalina. Then this week we decided to check out the other one. Shhh don't tell anyone. They meet at the same time in the same building. So we were afraid that people from the other group would see us. But we got away with it. I really liked the one that we went to today. The people are really friendly and we had lunch with some of them and chatted for a while. I mentioned that next Wednesday is my birthday and they all got excited and insisted that we go out. I've kind of got plans for next weekend (Ica), so I think they decided to wait until the following weekend. We'll see. Best part = they told us that our Spanish was very good and that we spoke well. Hallelujah.

I just got back from a night out with some of my girl friends. We went to Crepes & Waffles for dinner and then went over to my friend Laura's house to watch a movie. We watched "Did you hear about the Morgans?" Which I'm pretty sure is still in theaters in the states, but Laura bought it for 2 soles here in Peru. We only watched half of the movie because it was getting late and I wanted to make sure that I was safe coming home on the micros. And I was. I'm starting to feel relatively comfortable with the transportation.

I'm currently done with classes for the weekend. Tomorrow I'll sleep in and do some homework for Monday. Then on Saturday we (CIEE) are going to Lunahuaná. I'm pumped.

Alright, its almost 1 am, so bed time.

Buenas noches (Señor Jesús)

ps-sorry no exicting pictures. I promise I'll have some after this weekend.