Birthday, Karaoke, Cemetery Date!

Tuesday was Nichole's b-day, so we went to her house in the evening for a partaay! Her host mom went all out with mini sandwiches, alfajores, cookies, dips, chifles, chicha morada, tuna juice (more appetizing then it sounds - made from tuna fruit not fish and kind of tastes like watermelon), and hot chocolate. And of course delicious chocolate fudge birthday cake. Afterwards, a few of us went out to karaoke at Soprano's. Since it was a Tuesday night, it wasn't crowded at all. Which means we got to sing a lot. And we decided that dancing and singing in the middle of the room, by ourselves, was a pretty great idea. It was a good time.


Yesterday I went to my volunteer and attempted bingo with the kids. The teacher left me alone with them for a couple of hours again, which is beginning to be a problem. Maria Elena happened to have come though, and was out in the hall talking to Nichole so I asked her to come help. Now she see's first hand that her loving "Sit down, por favor, mi amorcito" lines won't work on this kids, and now she understands a little better what I'm dealing with. 


At night we went on the ISA activity to the cemetery Presbitero Maestro, which is a 200 year old cemetery full of beautiful sculpture (most of which I couldn't see that well, because it was dark out.) They do a special tour every full moon so we went for that. Last night's theme was Thriller. As you may have guessed, zombies came running out, and performed the Thriller dance for us.
After that we got a tour of some of the more important tombs in the cemetery. We couldn't see them all, because it's huge. There are about 200,000 people buried there. 

Jorge decided to crash our little ISA party, so I finally got my second date! At a cemetery! Unfortunately he didn't bring any beer :( He did engage me in delightful conversation, though. First about his intentions to surround his tomb with an electric fence to keep out the birds and bird poop, including the stipulation in his will which will require his descendants (all to be named Jorge Jr, III, IV, etc, or Jorgette in the case of daughters) to change the batteries on his electric fence regularly. (It's not everyday you see a battery-powered electric fence, is it? It must be a Swiss thing.)
Then we discussed our ingenious schemes to get rich. Sexy bird calendar. Sexy cat calendar. I can't go into full detail until we get it copyrighted, but let me tell you, it's gonna be big. 


After the cemetery visit Raquel, Zach, Jorge, Coleton, Dawn and I decided to get some Pizza Hut. Sangria and pizza. Good idea. Afterwards, Raquel went to Hensley's, Dawn went home, and the rest of us went on an ice cream mission. Unfortunately Bembo's was closed and KFC was taken over by a bunch of hoodlums. So we walked to the gas station where I had the best ice cream sandwich of my life. I'm not exaggerating. It was a limited edition and it was amazing. 
When we were done with our ice cream, we just sort of hung out outside the gas station for a really long time. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm gonna say it's probably just because we're really super cool, and we don't need to pay 30 soles to go to a discoteca like those other kids, we can just stand outside a Repsol until 1:00 in the morning and it'll be just as much fun.


This morning I went back to the school. I'm trying a new thing now. Splitting the class into 3 groups of 10 and teaching them one group at a time. The original plan was to take the group outside and work with them. That way they would actually be able to hear me telling them how to say words (a necessary aspect of language learning, I would say). And in smaller groups it would be easier for us to practice conversation and for me to give them individual attention without the other 29 kids getting bored and distracted. However, when I asked Profesora Delia if it was ok for me to take them outside, she said no, that she would put desks together in the middle of the classroom and the rest of the kids would just be quiet and do homework while I was working with the group. Ha, right. She of course left again. Which was the whole point of me staying in the room, I'm sure. So that she could leave. It did work better than usual, just working with the 10, but at the same time, I couldn't get the other 20 to shut up and sit down.
And she neglected to tell me that the whole rest of the school day after 9:30 would be spent watching the school Olympics instead of having class, so I only got through one group. 
They also had a parrillada (grilled meat) set up as a fundraiser, so Maria Elena came and bought me and Nichole some steak. 

Some of my 4th graders

After that I've just been preparing for my trip to Iquitos! We leave at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow. But I'm all ready to go. I even finally got my hair cut. I was really wanting it thinned because the humidity is so bad here my hair is a pain in the ass. So I went to the lady who did my manicure, and after about an hour and a half of waiting (she told me she could get me in at 6:30 and then actually started cutting my hair at 8) I finally got it done, and I like it. Bonus: only 15 soles or a little over 5 bucks!


Here's a little bit about Iquitos (copied from what they wrote on our itinerary):


Loreto is the biggest department (like a U.S. state) in Peru, but it is one of the least populated. It is covered by dense vegetation and two types of jungle. The department has little elevation and the ground is split by hundreds of rivers that make up the basin of the Amazon. 


Iquitos is the capital of Loreto and is the principal port of the Amazon River. It is the biggest city in the Peruvian jungle. The zone was once populated by different indigenous groups such as the Cocama, the Huitoto, and the Bora. Jesuit missionaries founded the city. At the end of the 19th century, Iquitos experienced an economic boom due to the harvest of rubber. The boom is responsible for the luxurious buildings such as the Hotel Palace (art noveau) and la Casa de Fierro (the house of steel), designed by the famous French architect who designed the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel.


The rustic houses are constructed on poles above the river as a protection against the rising of the river during the rainy season. One of the greatest attractions is the navigation of rivers and lakes, beautiful beaches and the incredible


[here it cuts off, so I guess I will have to find out what's so incredible when I get there!]

Spring in October

This has been a very ISA-activity filled past few days.


On Thursday I went back to the elementary school after 2 weeks away (because I was in Trujillo). The kids came up and hugged me, and asked me if why I didn't come. I told them I was traveling, and they said "Oh, Profesora Delia said it was because you were mad at us. She said if we didn't behave for you today, you wouldn't come back anymore." Another girl, who's a particular trouble maker came up and gave me a big hug and asked if I would forgive her for behaving badly last time. I said yes, and she promised that she would be good today. Thank you Delia! They actually did behave a lot better!


On Friday I went to la Catolica for a yoga class. It was an ISA activity and there were 7 of us that did it. It was a lot of fun, and a tough workout. I'm still sore. Like every muscle in my body. 


Then that night, we went to the Buffet Show at the Sheraton. Another ISA activity. It was pretty cool. The buffet was intense. It had like 5 different salads, a bunch of cold appetizers, a cheese tray, a bunch of meats, chifa, about 10 different types of ceviche, and more seafood, and about 10 different delicious desserts. So I got to try a lot of new things. One of which almost made me want to throw up. It was seafood, but I don't exactly know what. It was orange, round and smooth. When I bit down it burst open and the inside was liquidy and disgusting. Unfortunately, the Sheraton is a nice place, so I wasn't about to spit it in my napkin, but I almost gagged. If anyone has any ideas about what this might have been, please tell me, so I can avoid every eating it again.


During the dinner, they had a show where a group of dancers came out and performed different Peruvian folkdances. It was pretty cool. 


Afterwards, a group of us headed to Barranco to a jungle-themed bar called Trapiche. It was a pretty good time. 


On Saturday, we had our first ELAP activity. It was me, Jessica, and Nichole. Maria Elena took us to the Palacio del Gobierno first, and we went inside and took a tour. It was really beautiful. Then we walked to the littlest church in the world (it was indeed quite small), and from there went to the Museum of the Inquisition. I was looking forward to it, but it was kind of a disappointment. It was really small and there were only about 3 displays. Afterwards, we walked to the churro stand and got some delicious churros, and then Maria Elena dropped us off in the taxi at Polvos Azules. I got some workout DVDs so that I will be able to fit into my bridesmaid dress when I get back home. 
I went home, napped, did some Turbo Fire, and then got ready to go out. A couple of the ISA girls who live together, Kristen and Carlin, hosted a fall festival. I'm surprised at how much I miss fall, so I was really excited. They had made cider, roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin bread, and we carved pumpkins and made caramel apples. It was a lot of fun. 

Macy's slideshow

I think Katie might have forwarded this to you guys, but in case anyone missed it. Looks like Macy's enjoying her vacation. :)

Beer-Date!

Dear faithful blog readers,

This is no ordinary blog post. This is the tale of the most magical date I've ever been on.

Who's this prince charming you're asking yourself? In order to protect his identity from the predators of the world wide web, he's asked me to refer to him only as Jorge M. But I'll tell you one thing, he's a combination of Swiss chocolate and Peruvian aji that makes the chicas melt! This is the story of our beer-date. 

At first, as we walked along the poopy, cat-infested streets of Jesus Maria, we were both feeling a little nervous. But luckily, Jorge knew how to break the ice. He began telling me all about his rabbit, Rabita (may she rest in peace), his history of misidentifying the gender of his guinea pigs, and the chaos that ensued as a result. Soon we were laughing and joking, and I felt my nervousness melt away. 

As we were strolling along in search of beer, he made a surprise stop at a children's costume shop. The women behind the counter looked somewhat perplexed as to why 2 adults were browsing for children's costumes at 8:00 at night, and I have to admit, I wondered the same thing. What a mysterious man!

Next, we popped around the corner and into a small, cozy restaurant. We began to browse through the menu under the blinding florescent lights, and soon came across a problem. "Senora," he said, "do you have beer here?"

Accompanied by a blatantly judgmental look, the senora, replied "No, only soda."

"Thanks, but we'll be going." And out we went, back into the night.

We walked on, to the next restaurant we saw. However, there were a couple of indicators that it wasn't actually a restaurant. My first clue was the fact that they sold cigarettes. They did have food, but it included whole loaves of ham and 5-lb bags of sugar. But he decided it would do!

First, he bought some toilet paper to take back to his apartment. It was the soft, double-ply kind, so I knew right away that he wasn't cheap! However, I was a little confused as to why he then bought us the cheap brand of beer. But I was reassured again when I found out that he had splurged to buy the big cans! He's definitely a keeper!

Me and Mr. M

We sat down at the table. I say the table because it was the only one there. We sipped our lukewarm beers as we talked and got to know each other better. He began to tell me about his past romances, especially about a particularly recent one that was fresh in his mind. It involved a make-out session with a giant guinea pig (he thinks it might have been male, but like I said, he doesn't have a great track record when it comes to identifying the gender of guinea pigs). 

As the night went on, our romance began to blossom. We even planned our future wedding! Let's just say it involves gas station sushi and Brahma beer (the big cans!) so make sure you clear your calendar because you're going to want to be there!

Unfortunately, the beer and the night all had to come to an end. My life almost came to an end with it, as he pulled me across the street into oncoming traffic and I nearly got hit by a speeding taxi! I like to think that he didn't do it on purpose, though. 

I can tell this is going to be the beginning of a great relationship! I'll keep you all posted! For our second date he's planning on taking me to the movie, but in order to save a little money (he's very smart with his finances) we're just going to stand outside the theater door and ask the people coming out what the movie was about and whether they liked it. Maybe we'll even be able to snag some leftover popcorn and gummi bears! 

Stay tuned to find out!

Report card!

I'm finally starting to get papers and tests back and guess what...I'm not failing! 
Not saying that my GPA's not gonna take a bit of a hit, but so far I've gotten A's and B's, and got an 18/20 on my Linguistica Amazonica midterm which I'm pretty sure transfers back as like an A+ or something!
But best of all, is that the stinking pile of crap that I tried to pass off as an essay for my Etnografia Amazonica class actually got a 15/20! That transfers back as a B+! I'm lucky he's a nice guy.

Chiclayo

Sunday:
We left the hotel at 8:00 and took a cab to the Plaza de Armas. We stopped in the tourist information desk, and the lady said she would be able to get a tour for us at 9 and get us back to the bus station by 5 (our Chiclayo to Trujillo bus left at 5:30). 
This being Peru, it was not surprising that our tour didn't actually end up hitting the road until about 10:30. It was just us and an older French couple. 
First they took us to the Museo Nacional Sican in the city of Ferrenafe. It was really cool. My favorite part was the recreation of 2 of the tombs that they found in the area. In the first, the nobleman was buried upside down in the fetal position, with all of his valuable possessions to take with him to the afterlife. Two women were sacrificed to be buried with him. One was put in the position of giving birth and the other in the position of the midwife, and this is believed to be for the purpose of aiding him in being reborn on the other side. 

The other tomb they discovered was of a relative of the first guy (uncle maybe? I can't remember). Twenty-two women and one child were sacrificed to be buried with him.
After we were done at that museum, we drove to the Santuario Historico Bosque de Pomac. It's a forest full of mesquite trees. We stopped at one called the 'millenium tree,' which isn't 1000 years old, unlike the name implies, but which is hundereds of years old and is worshipped by some people because it's thought to give good energy.

 Our next stop was the Pyramids of Tucume, the site of adobe pyramids constructed by the Chimu culture and used later by the Incas. (Not the Cusco Incans, but a smaller, less powerful group in the area). We climbed the Cerro Purgatorio (Purgatory Hill) and had a beautiful view of the area from up high. I would also like to mention that it was actually sunny all day. All day. And I wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt because I was expecting shitty weather like the last 3 days. 
After the pyramids, she took us to the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan. I was really excited for that one, because my guidebook made it sound really cool. But I was kind of pooped by that point, and hungry, since she decided to delay lunch til 3:30 since the restaurant was busy. But it was still cool! The museum is dedicated to the Lord of Sipan, whose tomb they discovered, and it's a relatively new and nice museum. There was a lot a lot of gold that they took from the tombs, and we got to see his bones, so that was exciting :) but they didn't allow pics, so I have no documentation of this one. 
Afterwards, we went to the restaurant, then they drove us back to our hotel to pick up our bags, and then to the bus station. 
We had an uncomfortable 3 hour bus ride back to Trujillo. First we watched a Spanish dubbed biopic with Cuba Gooding Jr. playing a pediatric brain surgeon who separated conjoined twins. I would recommend it! Then we watched a movie with the guy from Growing Pains playing an angry fireman with an internet porn addiction, who's marriage is dissolving. But luckily his father is around to lead him back to Jesus, as his wife is drifting away from him and into the arms of a baby-faced nerdy doctor. We didn't get to see the end but sources tell me that all turned out well. However, I have to give this one 2 thumbs down. I'm disappointed in the way your career has turned out, Kirk Cameron, and I'm sure you are, too. The one redeeming quality is that at one point, they put Jesus' face in a tree stump. I think they were trying to do one of those tricky Disney things, but it was a Christian production company, so instead of doing something dirty, they just Jesus' face in a tree stump. If you ever have to suffer through this movie, watch for it!
We got to Trujillo, walked a couple blocks to the other bus station, and waited for 2 hours for our bus to Lima to leave. The food stand was selling candy toys that had balloons that you blow up and then let the air squeak out of them. Remember doing that with balloons as kids? I sure do. And now I would like to apologize to anyone who was ever in the vicinity when I did. One kid bought the toy and immediately every small child in the bus station ran to their parents and demanded one of their own. Luckily, a year of employment at Christ Kid's Child Care has given me the ability to take a few deep breaths, go to my happy place, and tune out the noise of a large group of obnoxiously loud children.
I popped my dramamine an hour before our bus left, so as soon as I reclined my bus seat, I was out like a light. And delighted to be back in my own house (or the closest thing to my own house on this side of the equator) at 8:30 the next morning!

Friday:
We got up, grabbed some fruit from the fruit wagon down the street, and headed to the tour agency. Then we waited. And waited. After almost half an hour, we were ready to get our money back, but that's when the van showed up.
They took us first to the Huaca del Sol y Huaca de la Luna. (Huaca means ruins, sol = sun, luna = moon) The Huaca del Sol is not open to tourists, we could only see the outside, but we visited the Huaca de la Luna. 

It is a huge adobe structure that was probably used for religious purposes, including human sacrifices, by the elite. A lot of the murals were still in tact, including the huge wall in the photo. 

Peruvian Hairless Dog hanging out outside the Moche ruins

Afterwards they took us to El Sombrero, a "tourist restaurant." I tried out the cabrito, or baby goat. They had a dance show during lunch, where they danced the Marinera, Tondero and Huayno, which are the regional dances. It was pretty fun to watch.

The next stop was the ruins of Chan Chan, built by the Chimu, who came after the Moche culture. First we went to the Huaca Arco Iris (rainbow), and next drove out of the city, where all of the palaces were located. Unfortunately, most of them have been destroyed by weather, but there's one that is still pretty well in tact that we visited. It covered a pretty large area and a lot of the carvings of fish, pelicans, fish nets, and geometric shapes were still there. I'm pretty sure the were mostly original, however, after a whole weekend of visiting ruins and museums, all the info that the tour guides told us started to blend together a little bit. 

There was also a big lake and a burial tomb that we visited on the site. And a guy and a girl dressed up like Chimu royalty that you could take your picture with for 2 soles. Which I did. 

The final stop on the tour was Huanchaco, which is a little beach town about 15-20 minutes outside of Trujillo. It was kind of cloudy and chilly, but it was a cute town. It's famous for it's caballitos de totora (which literally translates to little reed horses). They are the reed boats that have been used there for thousands of years. 

Caballitos de totora

Then the van took us back to the hotel. The rest of the girls went out for dinner, but I had had a stomach ache all day, so I stayed in and watched a program about the Stasi in East Germany, and fell asleep. 

Friday:

Friday was designated as beach day. Unfortunately it was also really shitty weather. We checked out of the hostel, left our bags with the front desk, and headed to Huanchaco in our swimsuits and shorts. Not necessary at all. We walked around some of the tourist shops, which look like every other tourist shop in Peru with the addition of mini caballitos de totora. We got bombarded by restaurants handing us flyers and trying to get us to eat lunch at their place, and then we reached the end of our walk down the beach, and decided to go eat lunch and see if the sun was out when we were done. 

We got some ceviche and chicharrones de pescado at one of the restaurants, and then walked out to still gray skies and a chilly wind. We decided to bag it, and grabbed a combi back to Trujillo. We picked up our stuff and headed to the bus station to grab a bus to Chiclayo. We had to wait about an hour but then we hopped on a bus, and 3 long hours later, were in Chiclayo. 

Maria Elena had given us the name of a hostel, so we went there and got a couple of rooms. 

We walked around the Plaza de Armas for a while, looking for somewhere to eat and have a beer. We stopped in at a pharmacy so I could get some dramamine for the bus ride home, and asked the worker which way to go to find bars. One of the ladies that was in there too said that there were a bunch on the way to her house, and she would walk us there. She was super nice and when I asked her about taking taxis to all the stuff we wanted to visit the next day, she told us we should definitely book a tour, because it would be a lot more practical than trying to do it on our own. She also told us all about Chiclayo and everything we needed to know, and dropped us off in the bar district. 

We were looking around for places to eat and by the time we got food, it was already 11ish, so we decided to just go back to the hotel and get some sleep so we could get up early the next day and book a tour.

Back from Vacation!

I just got back from a 4-day trip to Trujillo and Chiclayo on the northern coast, so I'm super behind on blogging, but I'll try to recount my adventures little by little.

Tuesday:
Class from 1-3, then Girl's Day Out with my friend Mary. We walked from campus to Plaza San Miguel and had some delicious gelato at Laritza. Then we took a taxi to Miraflores to watch the soccer game. It was Peru vs. Chile, so I figured it was going to get crazy! (Peruvians haven't been big fans of Chile ever since the War of the Pacific) We met up with Andy, Hannah, and Hugo at Parque Kennedy and got some sandwiches, then headed over to the Calle de las Pizzas (Pizza Street) to find a bar to watch the game at. 

Calle de las Pizzas

We were a little late. Everything was packed, and people were standing on the street looking into the bars to watch the game. 
So we left Calle de las Pizzas and walked around looking for something else. We found a bar that was able to scooch some chairs into a corner for us (and they had 2 for 10 soles drinks, Bonus!)

Unfortunately, history repeated itself, and Chile once again conquered Peru, 4-2. 
Afterwards, we met up with a couple of Mary's friends for drinks, then we went to the grocery store to buy stuff to make Bloody Mary's for horror movie night at Jorge's. 
We headed over, and hung out for awhile, but Raquel and I were both feeling kind of sick, so we went home before we actually watched the movie. 
I had horrible muscled aches and Raquel had been sick for awhile, so I really hoped I wasn't coming down with anything before the trip!


Wednesday:
Classes all day. At 9:00 I went home, mama called me a taxi right away, I got all my stuff ready and headed to the Cruz del Sur bus station. Hannah, Nichole, Ashley and Ashley's new housemate from the multi-country program, Karalyn, met me there. Our bus left at 10:45. The seats were actually really comfy, but we were on the bottom deck, and it was completely walled off in front, which made me feel a little car sick, but luckily I was able to sleep the whole way. 


Thursday: 
I woke up to the sound of orchestral music blaring out of the speaker right above my head on the bus. It was really unnecessarily loud and continued for about 15 minutes until they finally let us out at Trujillo. 
We walked to the Plaza de Armas and started looking for a cheap hostel. We finally found the hostel district and got a room at the Hotel Korona that would hold all 5 of us for 90 soles a night, or about $7 per person. It wasn't the Hilton, but it wasn't bad. 
A block down, we found a little restaurant and we got some breakfast. Bread with avocado, coffee, and papaya juice, all for about $2. 
Then we walked to the Plaza de Armas to try to find some tour companies. One found us right away, and we booked one for Friday. Then we walked around to look at the casonas. These are old mansions that are open to the public for free to look around. Both of the ones we saw are now owned by banks. They were pretty cool though, and usually had art or pottery on display. 
After going back to the hotel, we consulted my guidebook and decided to visit the Museo Arqueologico de Jose Cassinelli Mazzei. It said it was a museum in the back of a gas station that was Cassinelli's personal collection, and that he usually personally gave tours to visitors. Sounded interesting. 
We took a taxi and were surprised when he stopped and said we were there. It really was hidden behind a gas station, with just a little sign to indicate that there was a museum there. 
There were only 2 other people there, an older French couple. It was basically one large room lined with shelves and shelves of ceramic artifacts from the different cultures of the area: Moche, Chimu, Vicus, etc.
He took us around and explained all the interesting facts about all of them. It was crazy, because in most museums, you can't touch anything, and he would just grab stuff off the shelf to show us, or play the ancient musical instruments for us, and offer to let us try it, too. It was really cool. 

From there we walked around trying to find a restaurant that would serve lunch at 4 in the afternoon. Not easy to find in Peru. We ended up going to one where we waited for about an hour for our food and had some really shitty service (tips aren't a thing here, so waiters don't really care about doing a good job), but at least it was good food. I had some crab chowder. 
Afterwards we walked around a little bit, then headed to our hotel to relax for a while. My guidebook said that the Chelsea Pub had a piano bar on Thursday nights and was a great place to go for music and dancing. We got there and it was completely empty. No piano bar (apparently my guidebook's a little outdated). So we had dessert and a drink, sat and chatted, then called it a night.


More to come!

Mid-Semester Crisis

I arrived in Lima on August 7th. Today is October 11th. I will be leaving Lima in exactly 2 months. Which means I've already passed the halfway point.
On the one hand, I feel like I just got here. There's still so much of Lima (and Peru) that I haven't seen and so much I haven't done! I still need to hit up about 5 museums, 10 new bars and discos, go surfing, lay on the beach, do a couple day trips outside the city, the list goes on and on...
On the other hand, I've definitely been Peruvianized. My first weeks back in America, I'll probably end up throwing my toilet paper in the trash can out of habit, or trying to kiss my friends on the cheek when I see them. Riding the tranquil, spacious UNL bus in the light law-abiding Lincoln traffic is going to seem so boring! It will take me a while to get used to the fact that I don't have to worry about getting mugged walking around downtown. Not to mention the fact that I will have to do my own laundry and make my own food again, and eat at a regular American time instead of lunch at 2:00 or 3:00 and supper at 8:00 or 9:00. I'll definitely miss having my sista from another mista, Raquel only a hallway away. Oh yeah, and Lima will just be settling into summer when I head back to another one of those fun Nebraska winters. 
But I can't change it now, so I guess I'll have to make the most of this last 2 months. 


Saturday cont'd:
Mom's friends from college showed up and surprised her, so we had some cake and chilcano's (pisco, lime and ginger ale) with them. Then Raquel and I went to Aura until an ungodly hour. 


Sunday: I slept until about 12:30, then I hung out, ate some lunch, did homework, and then took a nap. Not very productive. 


Monday: I stayed on campus for lunch after class. The dining hall's are nice, because I got a plate of food, a roll and a drink for S./ 3.60, or about $1.25. I was sitting at a table by the grass, and got about halfway through my food before one of the deer joined me and decided to eat the rest. He was one of the ones with antlers, so I just let him have it and moved to the other side of the table while he devoured my rice and soy meat. Then one of the ladies that cleans the table came up and shooed him off and grabbed my plate. Oops. I guess you're not supposed to feed them, but I wasn't about to get in a fight with a deer. 
The reason I stayed on campus is because at 2:30 we were supposed to have a meeting with some professors from the U.S. so we could talk about the program and they could decide whether to recommend it to their students at home. When I got to the office Joel said he was trying to call me (on my old cell number) to tell me it was moved to 3:30. So I just hung out there until 3:30, when we walked over to where we were supposed to meet. Seeing as how we're in Peru, of course no one was there yet. So Carlin, Kristen, Ashley and I played a couple rounds of Sporcle, and people started trickling in a few minutes before 4:00. I had to be at class at 4:15 so I answered a few questions then jetted. 

Feliz Cumpe, Mama!

Thursday night we went to Hensley's again. That's the punk bar in La Molina. It was a pretty fun night. The owner was drunk when we got there and ended up passing out on the couch, and as the night went on it basically ended up just being us and all our friends. I went with Raquel, Nichole, and Hannah. Jimmy, Dawn, Susanna, and Jose met us there, and a little while later the basketball players came. We ended up staying til 4 or 5ish. 
Which means I stayed in my bed yesterday until 12:30ish. We went down for some lunch in our pjs, then laid around til 3:30, when we finally started getting ready for the ISA "Latin Music" activity that started at 4. We showed up 20 minutes late, but what do you know, in Peru that's early and nothing had even started yet. The teacher showed up almost an hour late because his car broke down or something. He was hilarious though, and it ended up being really fun. 
Peru played Paraguay yesterday and won 2-0. I was gonna watch the game, but plans kept getting changed, and finally I ended up going to the movies with Hannah and Nichole to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. It was depressing at times, funny at other times, and overall a good movie that I would recommend. 


Today is our host mom's 36th birthday. In anticipation for the large amounts of cake that were sure to be involved, I went for a jog and then did some hip hop abs with Raquel. 
The whole family went out for lunch at a seafood restaurant. We ordered some ceviche (famous peruvian dish: fish, shellfish, and squid "cooked" by soaking it in lemon juice with onions) and tiraditos (same thing minus the onions and with cream-based sauces) for appetizers. It was sooo delicious. Then we got our plates. I had grilled tuna and vegetables, which was delicious. Raquel had another typical Peruvian dish, tacu tacu (a sort of mashed beans and rice) with lomo saltado (steak tossed with onions, peppers, and potatoes). 

Then we went shopping in the Jesus Maria shopping center with our mom and her sister and niece. I got a cute watch and a shirt. 
Now we're back at home and just finished making mom a card. We got her a mani-pedi at the salon down the street and are going to take her out for cake and coffee sometime this week. 

New month, new phone, new camera!

Yesterday was another cookie baking day. We were having movie night again, so I was prepared this time and made a batch of bars and a batch of cookies. Enough for the fam AND the friends. However, I burnt the edges on my bars, and all my cookies stuck to the pan. But it was all salvageable, if not pretty.
We went over to Jorge's apartment a couple blocks away for movie night. It was Jorge, Raquel, me, Zach, and Zach's new roommate from the multi-country program, Colton. 
The multi-country people have been in Buenos Aires for about 7 or 8 weeks, and just got to Lima last week. I thought about that program, but I'm glad I didn't. I've been in Lima 2 months and feel like I've still barely seen half of it. Plus they all take classes together and I think I would get really annoyed being with the same 16 people all the time for 4 months. 
We had some pizza and watched a movie called Diosas. It's a Peruvian movie starring one of the actresses from La Perricholi.


Today I slept in, then diagnosed myself with ringworm. Yes, I know it's disgusting. It makes me feel like a nasty wrestler. Mom thinks I got it from the baby llama I held in Cusco. I thought it was a bugbite, but it never went away. So I'm now on anti-fungal meds. 
Mama took us out for ice cream today (deliiicious) and then took me to Ripley's so I could get a new camera. The one I originally wanted was sold out, so I ended up getting a Nikon coolpix, which I hadn't researched. When I looked up reviews when I got home, they all said it was basically a piece of shit, but I'm crossing my fingers. I've been taking some pics, and there's a few bad ones but the other ones turned out alright. 
I also got a new cell from Maria Elena because I couldn't receive calls on my other one. 
I headed to campus to get some books from the library and to talk to Maria Elena about our trip to Trujillo. We now have our bus tickets bought, so we'll have 4 days in Trujillo and Chiclayo next weekend!
After that, Raquel, Nichole, Hannah, and I went to a sushi bar called Edo. Yum!

Now I'm just hanging out until we head to Hensley's.


Oh yeah, I also took my last midterm yesterday. It was Amazonian Linguistics. It was pretty easy and he even let us use some of our readings, so I think I did alright on it. 

Que suerte!

Last night, Hannah and I walked over to the military base to meet the basketball players that we were going out with. They play for the military's team. 
We took a couple taxis to Soprano's, the karaoke bar. In the taxi that we were in, we found a little wallet when we were getting out. It was actually more like one of those plastic things that flips open and you put your ID in it. The driver said that it belonged to the passenger that was just in there. We kept it and when we looked at it, it had a few receipts and a bunch of bills. S/. 300 in all, a little over $100. There was a debit card inside, too, but in Peru debit cards don't have names on them, so Hannah kept it so she could cut it up, and we kept the money since there was no way to get it back to her. 
So we got a night out on the town for free. We left Soprano's after a little while, because it was taking forever for them to call our songs, and we took taxis to Larcomar, to a club called Aura. Hannah and I looked a little out of place in the throng of girls in short, tight dresses and 6 inch heels, but I'd rather not dress like a hooker anyways. We danced there for a while and then Hannah and I took a cab home. It was a pretty fun night!
Today I've just been hanging out and finding excuses to not start studying for my midterm on Wednesday. 

I haven't had time to write in a while, so I'll try to catch you up. 

First of all, Raquel got jumped the other day. She was walking home from Dawn's house around 4 p.m. with a German exchange student. The street was pretty deserted and all of a sudden she saw these 2 or 3 guys behind her and there was one in front. One of the guys behind her had a chain, and they all started yelling so Raquel bolted across the street and started looking for people to help but the street was basically deserted and all the stores were closed. They slammed her friend up against the wall and took his backpack and his jacket and ran off. The thing about this incident is 1) she was with a guy, which I thought meant you were pretty safe (granted he was tall and blonde), 2) it was broad daylight, and 3) me and her have walked home from Dawn's house like 3 times at night and this happened 2 blocks away from Dawn's house. Which seems like a relatively safe neighborhood.

But luckily they weren't hurt and Raquel didn't get anything robbed. We're definitely going to be more alert though. 

Thursday:

Went to volunteer in the morning, and afterwards I met up with Maria Elena, Mary and Jessica so we could have an ELAP meeting. Maria Elena loaded us into a cab to go to dinner. It was by far the most entertaining cab ride of my life. The driver was hilarious. He kept telling us jokes stories. He has the same last name as a famous Peruvian writer and he told us that he was his son (I think he was messing with us), and that he liked to write too. He said he writes down a lot of his philosophies of life. He shared one with us and then said that if we liked it he had a lot more, and he would email them to us if we wanted. So he gave us his email address. It was quepasacarajopitufo@..... Which cracked me up. Because carajo is a cuss word with various translations, and pitufo means smurf. Which is apparently his nickname because he's short (unlike other Peruvians...?)

We went to a restaurant that used to be a mansion and now they serve food during the day, and all the money they make, they use to buy food and feed the poor at night. All the servers are church volunteers, as well. It's a really cool idea and we had a really nice lunch. Avocado salad, fish in a really yummy eggplant sauce, and lucuma and mocha ice cream for dessert. 

Then we went back to campus and I hung out in the ISA office for a while before going home. 

Thursday night = Help! night and I decided that this week I would go again, despite my early morning. So Zach, Cristina and Jorge came over around 9:30 and we had some drinks, then called a cab. Help! was fun as usual. It was reggae night. After dancing til about 3, we got our delicious chorizos and called some cabs. I got to bed at 3:45 and got about 3 hours of shut-eye before I was up again trying to cover up the stench of cigarettes in my hair so I could go teach 4th graders English.

Friday:

It was kind of a chaotic day at the school. They had P.E. and 3 student teachers come in, so I only ended up teaching about an hour of English, and then sitting there doing nothing for the rest of the day. One of the biggest troublemakers is suspended for a week, though, so the classroom is slightly calmer.

I got home at one, ate, showered, and then headed to the UP ISA office to go on our activity to Barranco. Barranco is a district by the beach (barranco means cliff in Spanish). It's really touristy but it's really pretty and is the place to go if you want to go clubbing. 

First we went to the Museo Pedro de Osma. This guy Pedro used to live in this huge beach house and he was loaded, so he bought tons of art. He never got married, nor did his sister, so after they died, their collection got passed down to their nephew and now it's a foundation that made the house a museum that displays their art collection and uses the proceeds and some of their huge fortune to support charity organizations in Lima. It was a really cool museum with a lot of paintings from the Cusco School, a room full of silver and a collection of old Inca coins, each one worth more than my life. We saw a lot of stuff, but apparently it was only 40% of the collection. We had a tour guide, which was nice, so we knew what we were looking at. 

After the museum, we walked to the Puente de los Suspiros, or Bridge of Sighs. It looked over the cliff out on the ocean and it was gorgeous. The tradition is, that if you can walk across the whole bridge holding your breath, your wish will come true. I was almost to the end, but unfortunately the old man wearing a wig and a dress with balloons under it to make it look like he had big boobs and a big butt, who was strutting around trying to sell candy made me laugh when I was like 2 steps away. 

We went to a restaurant up on the cliff and ate on the patio outside with a view of the ocean. It was so awesome! They brought us some pisco sours, anticuchos and picarones. Anticuchos are grilled cow heart on a stick. I hadn't tried them yet, but I loved them. Probably one of my favorite things I've had so far. It tasted like steak, but really delicious, tender steak. We were at a nice restaurant though, so I'm sure the ones from the street vendors aren't quite as good. Some Peruvians from La Catolica went with us on the activity, and they all said they were going to salsa night at a discoteca called Sargento Pimienta (Sergeant Pepper in English), so we decided to meet up with them. 

We went back home first and Mary came over to get ready with us. They picked us up and we drove back to Barranco. Sargento was fun, but I was definitely ready to crash around 2:00. Which unfortunately didn't happen because there was a miscommunication and they apparently left without us after they told us they'd take us home, because they thought we had already left. So we called a taxi and Mary and I went back. Asleep at 4, up at 8.

Saturday:

I got up at 8:00 this morning because I had to be on campus at 9:00 for another one of the outings for Activity in Anthropology. 

This time we took taxis to the Parque Universitario, past the street where they sell forged documents, to the Plaza San Martin, down the Calle Quilca where the underground poets and writers hang out, past the book stores selling pirated books, to the Plaza Francia, down the street where the transvestite hookers hang out at night, past the place where you can buy pirated software and stolen hardware, to the Parque de la Exposicion, where we weren't allowed in for some reason, down the Paseo Colon, where all the mansions are where the wealthy limenos used to live, and finally to the Plaza Bolognesi, where we ended our tour and I caught a combi home. 

Still don't have a camera, so no pics of all of that, but I'm going to get one soon. 

Then I came home and hung out and ran and slept til now. Hannah's coming over pretty soon and we're going to go sing some karaoke with the basketball players that we met in the bakery.