Dear Peru

Dear Peru,
Remember when you gave me the first blister I have ever had on my cornea?

Remember when you gave me all those tummy aches?

Remember when that little cute random 80 year old man cheered me on when I was jogging that time? Remember 2 weeks when he creeped me out by saying he thinks of me when he eats and sleeps?

Remember when Abby and I had to hike down Colca canyon for 7 hours, 2 of them being in complete darkness? Remember when we hiked back up the canyon on mules?

Remember when I got bit 220 times by ravenous jungle mosquitoes?

Remember when I got to swim with wild pink dolphins in the Amazon river?

Remember when Abby and I discovered we had a bidet in our bathroom in Buenos Aires?
Why was that so funny?

Remember the first day I spent in Peru, and how surreal that was?

Remember when I first met my host family and how surreal that was?

Remember when I ate la abuela’s food for the first time, and how surreal that was?

Remember all those laughs and conversations I had with Paula in the kitchen about random life things?

Remember when I couldn’t speak Spanish?

Remember back in February when I had no idea what I was getting myself into?

Remember when I had my first churro? Asu!

Remember when I thought that my stay here would never come to an end?

Remember when I felt my first lil’ earthquake?

Remember when I got partnered up with the handsome german exchange student in my dance class? And how much harder that made it dance?

Remember when Kike, the dance instructor, called me ‘pan’ because he found that more amusing than my actually last name? Pancito con quesito…

Remember when I never got robbed?

Remember when the guy on the micro started chucking mints at everyone?

Remember when Abby got bit on the butt by a deer on campus?

Remember all those times when Mateo would sing Johnny Cash at the top of his lungs?

Remember all those jokes that Alejo would make and that I never understood?

Remember all those taxi rides with Erick to the airport talking about all the buenazo food I should eat during my travels?

Remember when I got called bonita or preciosa by random people…every day?

Remember when Alejo always called me Julita, so then I started calling him Pancho?

Remember when Alejo always gave me those weird recipes and food mixtures like jello and manjar blanco? Or Beans and sugar? Or Oatmeal with just salt?

Remember when Paula made gum flavored jello?

Remember when Kika got really excited during the World Cup and started crying after a goal was made?

Remember when Mateo became obsessed with making bread? And he made a different bread a day? Even mango bread?

Remember when it would take Alejo a good 7 seconds to successfully communicate with the person on the other end of the phone after answering said phone? Hola…hOla…HOLA…HOLA!!

Remember how I never died on the micros?

Remember when there was a rooster on the bus we took to Puno, and how it kept caw-cawing?

Remember when Alejo would ALWAYS ask me if I had socks on? And if I didn’t I was bound to resfriarme.

Remember when we went to Paula’s house in Villa Maria? And how we lunched on mango, pizza flavored macaroni, and sopa de choclo y frejoles?

Remember when I ran into that glass window my second day of being in the house?

Remember when Jonatan would always use the phrase "Fat Baby" in his little acento? HA!

Remember when we would always play banana grams after CBU meetings?

Remember when we found out Jonatan and Miki were really good dancers?

Remember when I got bit by that monkey?

Love,
Amelia

11 days! say what?!

In exactly 11 days I'll be on a plane flying home to Austin, to stay this time. Everyone has been asking me how I feel about going home and having to say goodbye to Peru. I'm actually not really sure how to answer that.

I'm excited of course. I have missed home. Being gone so long has even given the word home a new meaning.

Home is where my support system is, home is where most of my memories are, home is where the people I'm crazy about are, home is where I feel the most comfortable and free, home is where I've never laughed harder, home is where the little moments are the most valuable, home is where all my favorite foods are, home is where I feel known and feel like I know others.

I'm excited to be back to that :) Being away where you are out of your comfort zone, out of your element, where you are being defined and challenged daily, where you struggle with something so simple as the language, where you've never felt more out of control, where you have no choice but to just trust in God's hand and mercy is...

actually pretty epic.

And I might miss that even more. I've learned a lot here, I've grown a lot here, I've seen a lot here. I've met people who have shown me unconditional love, who have shown me fearlessness and freedom, who have shown me what it looks like to give constant thanks and praise to Christ, who have shown me the beauty of being honest and open and letting someone into your life.

And when I say people, I´m referring to but a handful. And my heart might just break upon having to say goodbye to life with them. It´s not like our relationship is over, of course. But there is a great difference between living life daily with someone and simply keeping up with them in cards or emails.

So I have to say goodbye to Peru soon. It'll be so hard. It's such a strange thing to have to say goodbye to such good friends without guarantee that you will see them again. But the adventure isn't over. One thing I've realized is that Peru isn't my only adventure. Life in general is something that should be seen as crazy, awesome, and one of a kind. So I'm excited for what comes after this. It'll be good :)

Some random photos of life here

These are coca leaves. Here, they have been used to help calm altitude sickness or fight fatigue. This is also where cocaine is derived from. So I can't bring any coca leaves back to the US. Darn. Why must good things like this be abused?
I like to drink coca tea here :)



These are some pieces of ancient pottery from the Lambayeque civilization.
They are so many pretty pieces like this in Peru.



This is also from the Lambayeque civilization. Cool design, no? Nice Lambayeque, nice.



This is Abby and me drinking something called Chicha de jora en poto. It's basically a drink made from fermented corn. Super good! And poto, refers to the bowl that it's drunken from, which is part of a dried and painted squash. Poto also means butt. Just sayin' :)



These are the wonderful people we met on our trip to Chiclayo/Lambayeque. Chiclayo's motto is 'la ciudad de la amistad' or 'the city of friendship' These people really lived up to that slogan. They were so sweet and loving towards us. I'll miss them :)



These are some cute lil' ugly baby birds from Alejo's collection of birdies.



These are one of the adult birds. Aren't they pretty? There are about 60 of them. And they chirp all day. It's beautiful. It adds another element to the environment of the house. Love it!



This is a stand in selling food in the park in Miraflores.



This is what I bought from said stand. It's a dessert here called 'Arroz con leche con mazamorra morada.' It's basically a rice and milk dessert accompanied with fruity goodness. So good! Possibly my favorite Peruvian dessert.



This is beauty in a pie pan. Also known as a pie I made from a pumpkin that I bought, because they don't sell pumpkin puree. My first legit pumpkin pie, and it was epically delicious. I was excited and my host family loved it!



This is a dish called 'Choritos a la chalaca' It's basically mussels, or maybe scallops? covered with lime, spices, tomato, onion, and a bunch of other veggies. Something like that. Since Lima is on the coast, there is a lot of seafood. Mmmm!



Ok look closely. On the statues head there is a small llama. See it? There is a funny story behind this. The sculptor of the statue, while he was in the process of sculpting, was told to put a 'llama' above the head of the statue. In Spanish 'llama' not only means llama, as in the animal, but it also means flame. So the sculptor, instead of interpreting 'llama' as flame, which was the desire of the designer, interpreted it as the animal. So know, in one of the major plazas of Lima, there is a statue with a llama on it's head, instead of a flame. Hehe.



These are churros. Sooo good. They are churros filled with manjar blanco(caramel milky saucy goodness), churros filled with chocolate, and churros filled with pastry cream.



This is one of my host dad's paintings that he sold at his art exhibition. Isn't it beautiful? My room is right beside his art studio, so I get to see him painting a lot. It's neat :)



This is the typical cocktail here, called Pisco sour. It's made from Pisco, which is Peru's typical liquor, lime, sugar and egg whites. I'm not a big fan of Pisco. It's reaaaaallly strong.




These are my beautiful friends from CBU! CBU is a christian group on campus. I've had a lot of fun with them :)



Look at all those potatoes! Did you know that the potato originated in southern Peru? Cool, right? There are sooo many different species of potatoes here, about 300 varieties of them.



I'm crazy about the yogurt here. There are so many flavors! Most of the yogurt here is drinkable, but it's really good!



These are anticuchos! Another awesome Peruvian dish. What are they, you ask? Oh, just pieces of beef hearts on a stick. Super good though, trust me ;)



Palta!! Or Avocado!!! The avocados here are amazing! They are always in season, always huge, and always really yummy. I eat avocado here a lot. yum :)




This is a Peruvian hairless dog. They're kind of cute. Maybe. Sometimes. Not really. Haha. They're neat though. Since they don't have hair, they make up for the lack of protection from the cold by giving off a lot of heat. So a lot of people claim that their heat can ease arthritis pain, if you let the dog sleep in the bed with you.



This is Chancho! He is my host family's dog. Chancho means pig. Haha. He's scared of the camera so I tried to trap him between myaelf and the door, but he still managed to run away. Silly Chanchito.

Buenos Aires and stuff

I´ve been in Peru for awhile now. At this point life here feels quite natural, at least compared to my first couple of months here. The language comes more naturally. I can actually relax and listen calmly to the lecture that my professors are giving this semester, instead of being on the edge of my seat, turning my head and making sure that every piece of hair that was formerly covering my ear is now pushed out of the way so as to allow for optimal sound wave perception.

The food is all so familiar. And I've even gotten used to not eating dinner, since the lunches are so big. I consistently see the same groups of people, instead of meeting someone different every day like it used to seem. The transportation even feels simpler. I remember when I got here I thought I would never figure out how to get around this huge, bustling city. And now I feel as if I could go anywhere. Nice!
Things just feel more familiar. I feel like I´m a part of this, whereas last semester I spent a lot of my time feeling like an outsider, intruder or gringa wherever I went.

It's been neat. I still learn things all the time that surprise me though. For instance last week I learned that the president, Alan Garcia slapped some guy in the face for calling him corrupt in the midst of a crowd of people. And that wasn't the first time he had done something like that. Apparently in the past he kicked some guy during a parade. I heard that that act is on youtube. Wow. haha. A little violent there, Alan. But upon hearing things like that the public just kinda shrugs it off. But imagine if something like that happened in the US.
Politics here are so fascinating.

There's a lot that's been going on lately, but of course, I can never blog it all. But one thing that heppened this past weekend was a trip to Buenos Aires that Abby and I got to take with Melvin, our program director. It was great! Buenos Aires is so different from Lima. The architecture is beautiful! It's all very European. Argentina experienced a lot of European, especially Italian, immigration way back when, therefore they eat a lot of Italian food, the people are more European looking, and the rhythm within the way they talk sounds Italian. It's really neat. They also eat a lot of meat. A lot! On the second day we were there, we went out to eat and ordered a meat dish to share. It was overwhelming the amount of meat that we consumed. My tummy wasn't happy. And I don't think I'll mind being vegetarian for the rest of the week.

Another thing we noticed about Buenos Aires was that the city was very quiet compared to Lima. There's no honking! Or cobradores screaming out the micros. Wow..
There's buses, and a subway, and taxis that you don't have to negotiate with for a decent price. Oh, and there was sunshine. Haha. Different from what we are used to by now.

There are also bookstores everywhere. Yay books! There is a bookstore called Ateneo that is located in one of the old theaters of Buenos Aires. So beautiful. So just imagine a giant old, 3 story theater filled with books. And they were all books in Spanish! Cool :)

I also registered for next semester at UT. whoa! I come home in less than a month in a half. Can you believe it? It's going to be ridiculously hard leaving Peru. Peru's been a dream come true. But Austin is home, and it will be good being back :) There really is no place like home.

Learning a few things.

Hey friends!


I thought that I would share with you all some things that I'm learning right now:


I'm learning what it means to share life with others.


I'm learning how important sunshine is for my serotonin levels.


I'm learning what it means to be authentic with others.


I'm learning what it means to respect myself. This has been huge.


I'm learning that jello is still very much in style. Even to the point of making a rainbow cake out of the stuff :O


I'm learning how much I enjoy hugs, and pats on the backs, and snuggling up on the couch to watch a movie. There isn't a lot of that here :/


I'm learning to cherish the ability to communicate, since I've been debilitated in that area here. Simply being able to fluidly and effortlessly communicate is quite nice.


I'm learning how big of a focus point the US is to other countries. I didn't realize before how much others listen to American music, watch American movies, or strive to learn English.


I'm learning the importance of decision making, and the power we have to change the course of the day, or the course of our life. The importance of getting up and taking action instead of waiting on change to mystically come. And the danger in believing in 'destiny'.

I learned that cheese with fried bananas is Fantasic!


I learned that cows can survive in the jungle.
I also learned that there are really big, steep hills in the jungle.
I also also learned that cows like to climb these really big, steep hills.
I also also also learned that sometimes cows trip and fall and die off of these really big, steep hills
:)


I'm learning what that phrase "you have your whole life ahead of you" means.


I'm learning that I don't like Pisco, but I do like beer ;)


I'm learning how important it is to have a sense of humor and lightheartedness


I'm learning to have an interest in my own family history and culture.


I'm learning that the food you grow up with holds a lot of memories and meaning.


I learned to always check print preview before printing. JUST in case you unnecessarily print out 49 power point slides and jam up the printer in a computer lab that has a line of students waiting to use said printer :O


I'm learning how much having an attitude of confidence can change the situation.


I'm learning how much the culture you grew up in affects your habits and view of the world.


I'm learning that exercise is always worth the effort.


I'm learning the importance of having boundaries, and knowing when to say no.


I'm learning that I'm a morning person.


I'm learning to live one moment at a time.


I'm learning the importance of seeking truth and living in reality. In finding the truth about this life and being passionate about it.


I'm learning that Peru has a time warp that always sucks me in!


I'm learning that I miss Austin and all of it's wackiness :P


I'm learning that I miss my friends from Texas and all of their wackiness :P


I'm learning how much of a blessing it is that I get to live life here in Lima, Peru :)

hmm

Life is full of difficult decisions.
Let's take the following for instance:

A couple of nights ago I woke up suddenly. This is rare. Once I'm out, I'm usually out cold. But anywho, I woke up. Yet while still half asleep, I realized that my bed was shaking, along with the rest of my room. "Hmmm, what does this mean?" I asked my sleepy self. Angry monster living under the bed? Someone's doing jumping jacks on the roof? Earthquake?
Earthquake!
Well, earth tremble.
My first thought was cool! But then I remembered how we are supposed to leave the house if that happens...Right?
Then i sat there for a good 7 seconds deciding if I should go downstairs or not.
But it's cold...
But there's like a thousand steps to go down...
But I'm so sleepy..

And then the trembling ended. And i went back to sleep.
The end.

I now sleep with my contact lens case next to the bed...ever since I lost my glasses. In case I ever do have to race out of the house, at least I'll leave with my vision.

I also think It would be more effective to install a parachute system in the case of an earthquake. I could just parachute out of the house. I think that would be safer then going down nteenth flights of stairs.

Open to suggestions.

;)

Ok. So I just want to tell you about my day. Here it goes.

Day starting at 12 am.

I went to a Beatles concert in Lima. No, they are not dead/dying. They just moved to Lima. The anthropology department at my school hosted a concert/party in Miraflores last night and the featured band does cover music for the Beatles. People here love the Beatles. During the whole concert, every single person was singing away. They know more words to the songs than I do. Nice.

I left around 2:30ish, which is considered quite early based on Peruvian party time. I then came to realize that the micros were no longer running. Dang it. I suppose they go to sleep sometime after midnight. I stood there contemplating on whether I should take a street taxi or call a taxi seguro(safe taxi). There were no micros, but a bajillion street taxis. BUT apparently the assault rate from street taxis has gone up in the past couple of month, and my superhero skills to fight off the bad guys were all pooped out from the concert, soooo taxi seguro it was.

Then i got up at 8! And guess what! The sun was out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is big news you guys. The sun has been taken captive by the giant gray cloud of Lima for quite a while. So yay sun!

This morning was going to be the first visit to see an artisan that I am researching. He has a workshop in the center of Lima where he makes embroidered items for festivals and celebrations. In one of my classes we are studying artisanship within the city of Lima as opposed to the rural areas of peru, since they are very distinctive. So we get to visit an artasin throughout the semester and get to know his work, and my group picked embroideries. Sweet!! I feel like such an anthropologist.

But guess what. After being in a micro AND taxi for a total of 1.5 hours, he wasn't there. Lima traffic is a life ruiner, lemme tell ya. And to top it off, my micro ride back to my house(after finding out he wasn't there) was another 1.5 hours.
But don't worry my friends. I've gotten used to it. I still really enjoy micro rides. There is always something that happens...whether a clown man gets on trying to sell vitamin candy, or a baby starts to have a non verbal conversation with you, or a lady gets dragged off the micro and robbed.

Finally i got home to Barranco. Yay Barranco :) Alejo and Paula were just finishing up lunch so i ate with them. Today's meal was....drum roll please....cau cau!
Cau cau is basically a mix of potatos, aji, and cow stomach. Yum ;) I tasted the mondongo(cow stomach) and it was grooosssss and slimy! sldfkjslfj So I ate cau cau with chicken instead. yum!

Lunch was fun, I got to vent to Alejo and Paula about my unnecessary morning micro trips. I love this family :) I've noticed lately that my Spanish is legit. I think I'm fluent. I mean, maybe? I can talk without much of a problem. yesss! And there are moments when I find my self blabbering away. I'm also in a creative writing class this semester, and I love it!! It's so fun! I also think my creative juices work better when i think in Spanish. So maybe I'll become a famous gringa author who writes novels in Spanish. Alright! Another life option.

After lunch i went to take a nappy nap before my next mission of the day: A trip to a Brasilian Pentacostal Church in Lima that I am studying for another anthropology class. This particular church is found throughout a lot of South America, and they are known for being VEERRYY charismatic. O mejor dicho, un poco loco...yo diría.
BUT, that was cancelled because some of my group members couldn't make it.

Learning to live life flexibly...and patiently.

Ok. That was my day.
Now I have a headache, and am quite casada.
night :)

Random updates

1) I´m taking a Marinera Norteña dance class at the University. It´s so fun!! Marinera Norteña is a really pretty peruvian dance. Check it out :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epYnC0RaULY&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-1-HM

So yes, one day I WILL be able to move my feet that rapidly and gracefully. Don´t worry friends, I took tap dance when i was 5. So I already got some good experience in.
;)

2) In Peru there are lots of myths about scary monster creatures. For instance, the Pishtaco is a creature from the Andes that kills it's victims and extracts their fat and uses it for various purposes. It also looks like a gringo. Ok, the end.

3) My host mom Kika, is still in the hospital recovering. It's different without her around. She really does light up the room. Paula and Nair have been around a lot more since she has been gone, to help around the house. It's been really fun getting to hang out with them more. I enjoy them :) Next weekend Paula and I are going to a flower exposition in Lima. She looooves flowers.

4) Last week there was a GIANT food festival in Lima called Mistura. I went and it was so great! It was like a giant amusement park, except with food. They had all the wonderful foods of Peru. I'll post pics on facebook so yall can see.

5) I get homesick sometimes. It's never horrible. But it happens.

6) I also still get those moments where I cant believe I'm here :)

7) I'm 21 now ;)

8) God is teaching me a lot. That should be coming in another post. But basically, I'm learning a lot about sin and addictions that I have and have been ok with for far too long...but that need to change, or else they will literally ruin my life, my relationship with Christ, and the plans that He wants to carry out through me. Lately, I have been able to see clearly how it is affecting me. And how deeply it cuts. And how much I need His strength to keep resisting. It's a struggle. But He heals :)

9) I feel a lot more confident this semester than I did the last. It simply has a lot to do with that fact that I have 4 months of this under my belt already, and I feel like I know this place pretty well. It also has to do with the fact that I´ve accepted that I am not Peruvian. I am a gringa and I am proud. And thus it´s OK to make mistakes, it´s OK to talk and know that I´ll mess up, it´s OK to ask questions. It´s OK to just be me, to be real, and to not try and be something else.

10) Texas fight :)

Authenticity

I’m learning what it means to be authentic.

Authentic. I used to ignore this word, and take it for granted as if it had little to no importance in my life.

But now this word has so much weight. I like the way it sounds, I appreciate what it means, I rejoice in what I’m learning about.

So, I’m learning what it means to be authentic…in other words. I’m learning what it means to be REAL with people. This comes in a variety of forms…not lying, not being fake, not putting on a mask, not faking your words or emotions to woo others, not trying to fill awkward silences with small talk. But for me, this has mostly come in the form of choosing to not stay silent. I’m understanding the importance of speaking up instead of shutting up, of confronting someone instead of being afraid of looking like the bad guy, of being honest with my feelings instead of ashamed of them, of telling others how I feel about them instead of avoiding vulnerability, of asking questions instead of fearing rejection, of being honest with what’s going on in my life instead of assuming no one wants to know, of stepping up instead of avoiding awkwardness or failure, of apologizing instead of thinking it’s unnecessary, of saying no instead of not wanting to hurt their feelings, of telling someone they have hurt you instead of brushing it off and keeping a fake smile on.

Of simply being raw and honest and vulnerable with others.

Maybe to an 8 year old not being Real means lying to others, but at this point in life, it no longer means hiding honesty with lies…it means hiding honesty with silence and fear.

Maybe it’s just the simple fact that life is richer when we share it with others…including sharing our hearts, our thoughts, our fears, our beliefs..things we normally try to tone down.

Stop the constant small talk. Be real with people.

So yeah, I’m on a journey to be more authentic. I feel like I’ve got the concept down, but putting it into action is about 5 bajillion times harder than it seems. There’s a lot of fear going into it. Like I said..vulnerability, looking like the bad guy, awkwardness, being too heavy, scaring people away, rejection, failure, not knowing what to say next, etc…no one enjoys that. And most of us spend our lives trying our best to avoid those areas. But it’s not worth it anymore. The avoidance of these obstacles isn’t worth forgoing the richness of being authentic with others.

What do you think? What do you think it means to be real with people? this isn’t rhetorical by the way, I’m actually really curious :)

i love

I love it.

I love Lima.

I love this life here.

I love Kika.

I love Alejo.

I love Gabo.

I love Mateo.

I love Paula.

I love Chancho.

I love Abby.

I love Melvin and Marion, my CIEE directors

I love the way the cobrador says ´sube, sube, sube´

I love this food.

I love la Catolica, my school.

I love this language.

I love the way I feel when i speak it.

I love how this place feels like home.

I love the tetanus containing peaces of metal that scratch me on the micros.

I love this opportunity.



I´m here, and I´m lovin´ it all over again.

:)

One moment at a time.

Airports

2:08pm at the Miami terminal

So I’m sitting in the Miami terminal waiting for my flight to Lima, eating some gummy worms, and about to start reading that book that everyone is going crazy about: Eat, Pray, Love. Except I get an extra gold star because I’m reading it Spanish! Yeah! Come Reza Ama! I can’t tell if I bought it in Spanish because there were no more English copies, or if it was because I feel I should to further soak my mind in Spanish while I’m in Lima.

Anywho, should be interesting.

I decided today that airports are pretty extreme places. They are either wonderful, or scary as heck.

Why are they scary as heck, you would ask? Well, lemme tell you. The following shall explain:

•TSA

•Being stared at by TSA

•Going through immigrations in the Miami airport

•Being harshly questioned by the mean immigrations man

•Being chased by the other mean immigrations man because I am going the wrong way
down the labyrinth which they call an airport

•Not knowing what to do when the customs man asks me if I have alcohol in my bag, when indeed there is quite a bit of Peruvian wine

•Freaking out when I admit that there is

•Freaking out more when he asks me if I’m underage

•Being underage

•Hoping he doesn’t drag me away and arrest me forever

•He doesn’t

•Anyway

•Carrying 5 bottles of aerosol mosquito repellent spray in your suitcase and forgetting that aerosol = explosive. You might as well have put an atom bomb in there.

•Holding up the whole security line because my power rangers’ beeper went off in my bag…and apparently that means danger. (ok so that was when I was 5, but still)

•Realizing you forgot your neck pillow, which means awkwardly trying to snuggle with the airplane window and developing a neck cramp in the process. Dang it!

•But overall, going off alone and leaving your comfort zone. And knowing that the next 4 months will be lived in pure uncertainty.

Ok so let’s balance that out. Now you ask, what makes airports such wonderful places? Lemme tell ya.

•The fact that ‘Airport’ is just another name for ‘Giant Food Court’, with a few airplanes around it.

•The cool little lady behind the counter that starts talking to me in Spanish and reminds me of how much I miss the language, and the little old ladies that speak it.

•Discovering that Swedish Fish now come in a variety of colors. Thanks airport bookstore/candy place.

•Laughing while you watch people hover impatiently around the boarding terminal and wondering why there is a strange need to get on the plane as fast as you can.

•Watching people try to stuff a mattress and a dead yak into the overhead compartments (name that reference)

•Knowing that everyone around you is going on, or coming from some kind of adventure.

•Realizing that you are one of those people who are going on or coming from some kind of adventure.

:)

Leaving Austin again

So I’m sitting here at midnight, hours before my flight back to Lima. I’m afraid to go to sleep. Leaving is going to be hard. I asked myself if I thought it would be harder to leave Austin this time around, as opposed to when I first left back in February. I do think this time will be harder. In February I had so much adrenaline and excitement running through my veins that leaving felt like nothing other than the start of an incredible adventure…which it was :)

But now there isn’t the same adrenaline. I’m going back to a place that is familiar. A place that I have already gotten to know. There is nothing new..…or so I tell myself. And all I can think about right now is how much I’m going to miss my family and friends, and how good it feels to be home. love you guys

I’ve had a wonderful break. I got to just be, and live, and laugh, and reminisce with the people I love so much. And I got to hug and touch them. I know that sounds weird and creeperish. But it sucks not being able to hug your friends and family, or not simply being able to BE with them, physically. Phone calls, and skype and email are nice, but nothing beats being in the same room with someone.

Anywho, I love and will miss you guys…again.

And yet, here comes another semester. Another adventure. Another era in life to embrace. What will a semester in Lima bring this time?

I’m not sure what mindset I should have coming in to it this time. I keep picturing the experience as if I know what to expect…my host home, my family, daily life in lime, the micros, the same ol’ stuff from last semester, la de dah.

But I have no idea, do i? From what I recall about life, things never turn out quite how I expect…it’s always crazier, harder, rougher, better :)

I’m not sure how to react yet to this trip. But I do have one theme, if nothing else, coming into it:

BE BOLD.

Ok let’s see where this takes me.

Smile

Things that make me smile in Lima:

When Paula makes apple pie, cheesy quinoa, seco, or her famous choclo con pollo dish :)

When Alejo cracks a joke at me and starts laughing hysterically, although i have no idea what he just said :)

Waking up to a mixture of Footloose blasting from the school down the street and Alejo´s birds singing in the room across mine :)

Kika´s contagious joy, free spirit, full heart, and bottomless knowledge of Peru :)

Never knowing what´s for lunch. I love surprises :)

Walking down a dark shady street by myself at 1 in the morning and realizing that I feel safe :)

Getting my favorite seat on the micro :)

Realizing that I’m no longer a tourist here, I live here, I know this place :)

When Alejo pulls out the 5 pound box of manjar blanca after lunch because he knows how much I love sweets :)

Finding moments when I’m actually having a legit conversation with someone in Spanish, and loving it because it means so much to be able to just talk to people :)

My awesome gringo accent :)

Meeting someone new everyday :)

When I can go more than a month without stomach issues :)

Getting emails and messages from friends back home :)

When random micro tickets fall out of my wallet, passport, pants, books, bible, etc :)

Sundays. Which always mean that aleja and abuela gringa come over with abuela´s amazing food and we have a cozy family luncheon :)

Taking long walks along the malecon :)

Abby, Audrey, Catalina y Laura :)

Talking to Paula about random life things and getting to know her while she cooks lunch :)

My friends from CBU :)

Giving micro directions to a Peruvian :)

Getting kisses everyday :)

Chancho, our dog, and his lion/teddy bear/poofy creature-self :)

When Mateo breaks out his bag pipe and starts jamming out :)

Watching telanovelas with Alejo :)

Realizing that I´m going to see my family and friends whom I love and have missed so much in less than a week :)

Random realizations that I’m in Lima, I’m blessed, God is ridiculously merciful, and this life is surreal :)

To be continued :)

homesick

This morning, as I was wandering around Miraflores looking for a place to study and grab a warm drink, I decided to wander into Starbucks. I had yet to go into a Starbucks in Lima before today, but that white mocha was calling my name. After ordering that, I found a place to sit down and read. About an hour in a became ridiculously overwhelmed with homesickness. I have been feeling homesick for the past week and a half but this morning just intensified everything. It was hard. And it still is hard.

The starbucks was filled with gringos. Makes sense. Gringos speaking english. And the place was playing typical starbucks music. you know what music I'm talking about, right? Starbucks music. Those soft and calming yet funky tunes. All in english. It felt just like I was at the starbucks at UT. It was all way too familiar. (Except for that fact that my white mocha was waaayyyy too sweet, tsk tsk)

I miss home. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my dogs. I miss my car. I miss the overbearing hot Texas sun. I miss having an extreme sense of belonging somewhere. I miss having a conversation with someone without fear of not being able to communicate well. I miss english. I miss you.
The strange thing is that there are only ten days between me and home, but for some reason it feels like forever. I have so much to do between now and then...final project, final exam, blogs to write for class...but I have no motivation to do it. I keep getting flashbacks of moments from home.

So yeah, I'm officially homesick. Took awhile to get here, but it's finally here.

It's not that I'm sick of Lima, cause I know I'll fall in love with Lima again, and my life here, and all that I'm learning and becoming. But right now all i want is home.

Dang you, Starbucks.

This past week i took a trip to Iquitos, in northern Peru, in order to take a 4 day 3 night trip to the jungle. We took a plane to Iquitos. From Iquitos we drove to a village called Nauta, and from Nauta we took a wooden boat with a little motor(or as they call it a peque peque) two hours down the river to a little lodge in the jungle.
It was wonderful :)

Highlights:

* listening to Michael Jackson in the taxi on the way to Nauta. love it.

* monkeys!! so many monkeys!
we got to see 5 different species. they are so hilarious. For instance, we went out fishing on the river one day, and this monkey was on the bank of the river just looking at us. He ended up hanging out there for the next 45 minutes. Just chillin' under the tree. looking at some humans. being a monkey.

* fishing next to some boys from the nearby village. one caught a sting ray!

* finally catching a piranha after an hour of trying. victory.

* eating piranha. yumm!

* tasting sting ray. not so yumm.

* seeing a sloth. jeje.

* simply going down the river and enjoying the view. so beautiful :)

* tasting a worm(suri). tasted like coconut.

* climbing a gigantic tree. ok, so i only climbed like 10 feet up. but it was still an accomplishment!

*using smashed up termites as repelent. it works!

*giant beautiful butterflies..blue, orange, turquoise.

*wrestling with a 15 foot anaconda and almost losing.

just kidding jaja

*camping for a night in the jungle with just a hammock and mosquito net. hard core.

*swimming with pink dolphins in the amazon river while the sun was setting :) unforgettable.

not kidding on that one.

Lowlights

* finding a 4 inch spider near the sink while brushing my teeth

* mud. LOTS of mud.

* feeling dirtier than i have ever felt in my life.

* coming out with 220 mosquito bites. feeling like a leper.

:)

Tuesdays

A day in the life and mind of Amelia, in Peru:

6:30 wake up, ugh sleepy, exercise?, nahhh, ok ok fine, take a walk around the malecon, mmm pretty ocean :), shower, avocado for breakfast, chao todos!, ride with alejo to school while attempting to read, almost crash, get to school after 45 minutes, coffee!, students shouting at the tv, world cup?, art class, finished my collage!, beautiful, starving!, 1 o clock lunch time!, ´crepes and waffles´ with francesca and audrey :), such a wonderful crepe, 3 o clock anthropology class, cool movie about dialects of castellano!, movie ends..dang, listen to teacher?, nah, day dream, yes, three hours later...regrets not listening, time to go home!, rush hour :(, wave down micro, hop on micro, stand for 20 minutes, finally got a seat!, I'm starving again!, do i have a peruvian tapeworm?, dang tapeworm, 20 minutes later..lallaa, 20 more minutes later..lala, finally in barranco!, off the micro, walk to house, pass creepy guy that i pass EVERY night, maybe he's not creepy?, nah...whispering while i pass by = creepy, oh lima, get home, walk in, greeted by Chancho, so cute, hola kika! buenas noches!, watch videos about spanish/arab music with kika, interesting!,yes..paula made noodles!, nom nom nom, now videos on andaluz, hmm, alejo´s home, hola alejo!, get my computer, do hw downstairs while kika continues watching cultural videos, alejo puts three chocolate bars in front of me, no no no no los quiero, ´si si si´says alejo, ok, brothers get home, hola mateo, hola gabo, hola copello, gabo tries to steal my chocolate, no son mis tesores! i mean tesoros!, boys leave,
and here i am, still at the table with alejo while kika watches her cultural videos, now alejo is falling asleep, but wakes up whenever he snores. Oh and now Kika is watching videos on how to make celtic knots.

jajaja i love it

asi es la vida.

Story time

This made my day.

A few mornings ago I was leaving my house to catch a micro to school. I was on my way to the micro stop, which is about three blocks away, when a group of guys started walking toward me. This is always a lil' nerve racking, because about 95.6% of the time some awkward comment gets directed at me. Not to mention that 2 seconds earlier, a guy decided to whisper toward me about my 'bonita sonrisa'

As I was passing them, one of the guys looks at me, stops suddenly, drops his bag dramatically, and grabs his chest. Obviously my overwhelming beauty was responsible for giving him a heart attack.

I couldn't help but break out laughing.

Oh goodness.

Another story:

Today I went down to the center of Lima with my host mom and we were walking to the micro stop when all of a sudden our bus arrived. So after running to the bus, we attempted to get on it. The problem? The bus was moving. Ugh. So the way things work here is that the micros don't keep up with you, they expect you to keep up with them. i have seen old men having to be pulled onto the bus by the cobrador because the bus driver decides to book it before people are completely on. Anywho, Kika successfully gets on the bus, but i'm still behind her. Then the bus decides to officially start driving away. So i hop on, all squished up against kika, becuase she can't get on completely since there are 2 people in front of her hogging up the aisle. Ok, i thought, at least i'm on the bus...despite the fact that i'm hanging out the door. Next issue? The bus doors close automatically once the bus starts moving...and in case you don't remember, I'm hanging out the door, and I'm small and fragile. Ok, I thought, I guess I'll just get crushed by them and accept my death, that's cool.
But then, Kika moved up, and just as the doors were closing, I hopped up on the next step and escaped death.
Or at least a severe pinching.

Asi es la vida.

:)

Picchu

If you had asked me 6 months ago about what I would be doing in Peru, one of the first things I would have told you is "I'm going to machu picchu, baby!"
Actually, coming into this study abroad program one of my primary goals was to travel. Duh. Isn't that what you do in a study abroad trip?
But after three months here in Peru, my experiences are starting to change my perspective on 'traveling.'

So I went to Cusco and Machu Picchu this weekend. It was incredible. Breath taking (literally because of the high altitude jaja) Glorious. Fantastic. Mysterious. The most beautiful place I have ever been.
But I left feeling empty.
Y sabes por que?
It was hard to be in a place without having the privilege to know it. I was there for three days, and in three days I got the tourist version of everything...tour guides, hikes, nice hotel, bus rides, buying souvenirs at the market, taking fotos like crazy. All that was super fun, don't get me wrong, but at the same time it was such a tease because there is so much that I wanted to soak in and understand about Cusco. I want to know the people. I want to understand their life. I want to live what they live. I want to experience what they experience. I want to have a good conversation with them. But I knew I couldn't. Being a tourist is so exclusive. You are physically submerging yourself in a new place...but you aren't actually experiencing the culture...o sea...you aren't actually getting to know the place. You are physically there, but still socially separated by your bubble of tourism.

Thus...it was so hard to be physically near a people, yet so far away because I'm a foreigner.
Cusco's number one industry is tourism, because it's beautiful, historic and is home to one of the great wonders of the world. So therefore, everyone and their mom wants to go there. Economically, the people in Cusco make a living off of tourism. There are markets EVERYWHERE, geared to sell souvenirs to foreigners. Passing through them, the vendors are desperate to have you buy something from them. It's interesting how they talk to me, or us, or you. They almost beg. And if not that, they sweet talk you. They´ll ask where you are from, and act interested in you, but are they really? Am i just a dollar sign?
I just want to sit and have a conversation with them. I just want to get to know them and understand them.
I want more than the pretty tourist-version of things. I want more than just skimming the surface of things. I want more than pictures and souvenirs. I want relationships, and conversations, and authenticity, the good AND the ugly. Too much to ask? I think not.
The reason I have come to think this way is because of my life here in Lima. I love Lima. When I flew in to Lima this morning from Cusco, I felt like I was coming home. I love it because I have come to know it, and live it. I have a life here, I'm not just breezing through. I have gotten to know it deeper than a typical outsiders point of view. I also really like the fact that the city doesn't consist of a lot of foreigners. It's not like Spain or Buenos Aires, where there are a mega ton of gringos. There are very few for a city with 9 million folks in it. I was talking to a traveler from canada when I was in colca canyon. She was traveling around peru for a couple of weeks and I had asked her if she had been to Lima. She said yes. I asked her how she liked it. She said 'ehhh'. Lima is a pretty ugly city to most people. I mean, when you see specials on Peru, they are usually about the jungle or Machu Picchu, or the Andes, or some beautiful place...but never Lima. It's ugly, and loud and polluted.
But at the same time, there is so much to be learned from it! The people, the economy, the traffic, the social life, the history, the processes, the poverty, the wealth, the injustice. It's mesmerizing.

I have come to value the art of staying in one place and knowing it deeply. I no longer have the goal of traveling a bunch while I'm here. I would much rather live in one place for 6 months and know it well, then have the opportunity to travel to 10 beautiful places for short periods of time.

Not to say I don't like to travel. I am just in the midst of changing my opinions on traveling.

I think I´m becoming an anthropologist...good! It's about time I found a major.



Anywho, I'll have Machu Picchu pics up sometime this week on facebook :)

So I get on the micro this morning and 15 minutes in this guy gets on to sell some mints. This is normal. What wasn't normal was when he decided to throw the mints at the passengers and start screaming. I think this was a new way to get people to give money. well it worked. i bought mints. i hope you're happy screaming-mint man.

It's getting colder and colder. the sky has officially greyed over. Which means no more sun until summer.yum. yesterday at the breakfast table my host family was talking about how it was so hard to get out of bed because of the bad weather. Then Kika, my host mom(who is the happiest lady on the planet) was like 'you know what i tell myself in the mornings? if the sun wont shine, then I'LL just have to be the light of the day!' I think that phrase changed my life. jaja.

Did you know they don't have frozen foods here? Nope, that means no bagel bites. jaja

So mother's day was this past weekend and my host family had two get togethers. First, all of my family on my host mom's side came over for lunch. We had a BUNCH of food. We set up this long table and set up a pasta lunch, where people brought different kinds of sauces and salads for the pasts. So good. There were about twenty people total. I got to meet most of Kika's siblings and nephews and such, including Enrique, who writes the script for some of the telenovelas in Lima(including the one Alejo watches every evening at 9, jaja) THEN, that night there was a reunion at Alejo's(my host dad) brothers house. And i thought twenty was a lot...there were like 30, 40 people! I was kissing people left and right(except for this one guy who gave me the awkward "oh look, your from the US" handshake) not cool. So people just kinda talked and hung out and ate. I ended up talking with kika and carlos, who is alejos nephew. He is a news anchor in Lima on channel 14!

I love the family dynamic of these people. My family was born and raised in Lima, and all of their family is located in Lima. Which isn't unusual for families here. In the US people move all over the place(like my family). But here, Lima is the hot spot of Peru, economically. So people don't often have to move away, because all the jobs are here. It was so awesome to see family come together and be with each other. And not just some of the family. But the whole dang thing. That's so rare to me.

Also, because of the fact that my family has been here for their whole lives, they have SO many connections with other people. For instance we'll be flipping through the tv channels, and kika will mention that the girl on the tv was her student, or the guy next to her is her nephew. I'll bring home readings from my Spanish class and ask Kika if she has ever read the book. "Of course, and oh yeah, i had lunch with him once" We are talking about really famous latinamerican artists too...Julio cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges..Basically, they just know a lotta people.

If i get fat here, it's not my fault. Promise. They just REALLY like to feed me here. the other day we were at the grocery store checking out and kika leans over and tells me to go grab 8 chocolate bars. I thought 'ok cool, a lil' for the whole family.' Then we get home and kika hands me the bag of chocolate and tells me to go hide them in my room, because they are my own lil' treasures. lol.
Even when i'm sick on my stomach they don't cease to offer me food.
good thing i like food. or maybe not, once my pants stop fitting.

So i got sick last saturday and i was in bed sleeping half the day. When i finally decided to come downstairs, i was all nastified, in my sweat pants, with crazy hair, and a shiny face. and what do you know? there's a handsome lad sitting at the kitchen table. i hope i smelled ok. end of story.

My friend Abby got nipped in the butt by a deer last week. Haha. We were in the grass at school eating fruit. And this deer comes up to us, so i thought "hey, maybe it'll eat this orange peel" Bad decision. After it finished that it wouldn't leave us alone. So i got up and walked away and it started chasing me, but then it stopped and decided to pursue Abby, because she still had an apple. So then it chased her and nipped her butt. jeje. deers are vicious. deer jerky is not.

So overall, life is good. I feel at home here, which says a lot because I haven't heard the same from others. But most of that has to do with my host family. They are fascnating, loving, humorous people and I love spending time with them. I feel like Kika genuinely loves sharing her life with me, which is perfect, that's why i came here. I still wish i could have an intelligent conversation with them, besides my baby babbling, because they have so much to say and I wish i could respond how i wanted, but we'll get there. I have made good friends in my CIEE group. I enjoy them :) a lot. I have also made some good peruvian buddies whom i have already grown to love! So yeah, i'm excited for the relationships here and for whatever more may come.

Ok i'm going to go chill with the fam now. maybe watch some telenovelas :)


pictures of:
deer and me at the PUCP(my school)
Center plaza de Lima
The view of the beach near my house
a micro, from far away

Two months! what?!

I love Lima.

Period.

I love it in all of it's craziness, 'ugliness', beauty, weird smells, unbreathable air, foggy mornings, life threatening micro rides.

It's always so hard writing this dang blog, because I never know how to justify my experiences with words. I wish I could just send yall a telepathic email.

Ok, so my host family is pretty much the bomb.com. My friends and I here are coming our with an episode of MTV Cribs: Amelia's Host Family, cause my house is that crazy cool. I can't believe I live here sometimes. Besides the fact that this house is amazingly beautiful, I absolutely love this family! Kika, my host mom, has been so much inspiration to me. She knows everything a person could possibly know about culture, history, art, music, poetry...and she loves to talk about it, and I love listening to her! I love that she loves beautiful things. She is so free-spirited and loving. She just genuinely lives and loves and enjoys life.

I love coming home from school because i never know what to expect. Maybe I'll walk in the door and she'll be singing along to celtic music, or I might come home and there is a 'lonche'(or tea, coffee and snacks) set up because a Brazilian nun who works with dying AIDS patients is coming over to visit. Ha. What!? Or perhaps I might meet the mother of the guitarist in Cobra starship, who is apparently colombian? Yeah, that happened last night. lol. This house is always filled with people. I love it. They know what it's likes to live in community and simply be with people. Last night after the guests went home, we sat around listening to a bunch of different beautiful music...folk music from Peru, Argentina, Chile..criolla limena music, some opera, andean music..i don't even know what else. It was such a nice time :)

There's so many beautiful moments here, and I still don't understand how this came to be. It's funny looking back over the past two and a half years and seeing how God has blessed and confirmed this trip. He's definitely romancing me, and it's definitely working.
I'm learning a lot about myself. Who I am and who I'm not. The fears that I've been living in, and how strong of a hold they've had on my life. Where the heck did they come from? It's ridiculous the depth of fear, shame, and intimidation I've been walking in and how much that is affecting me, and the freedom that I have been given in Christ. What does it really look like to be free? On a day to day basis? One of my goals here is to learn how to offer my beauty to others...instead of hiding myself, my thoughts, my passions, my heart...or being convinced that I have nothing to offer. I mean I never thought it was severe, but when I compare it to the freedom that I could be living in, it's pretty bad.
Like I mentioned, my family here has been a lot of inspiration to me concerning this. I see the freedom that they live in and it's beautiful.

Ok random thoughts:

I also started running two weeks ago. And i love it! I've never been a runner. But the whole weight gain thing was buggin me so I decided that physical activity was necessary in my life. So I've been running three times a week, and these endorphins are amazing! Maybe I'll be a pro by the time I leave this place. Marathon? :D

I'm actually average height here...and sometimes i even feel tall. jaja. yay! People are tiny here, like me!

Speaking of measurements. I really need to get this metric system down. Why do we even use something else in the US? How many meters tall am I? And how much do I weight in kilos? If I buy 5 kilos of mangos, is that too many mangos for me to handle?

My school here has a guinea pig farm. haha.

I never realized how important it is to learn the slang and colloquialisms of a place. No matter how much I study proper Spanish, there's still so much that I won't understand unless I learn the slang and such.

I have really weird tan lines, and more freckles.

BUT

It's getting cold here. I had to break out the jacket this week for the first time since i've been here.

I should put more pics up, shouldn't I? Spice things up a bit. Ok fine, i'll take more pics this week. So demanding.

I miss you guys :)
Hows life up there going?

week 6? i think?

So the past week has been really great. I still find myself loving Lima. I'm so content and amused here and each day still has something fresh to offer. Whether it's taking random walks with my host mom around Barranco to go visit some retired mimes, eating beef hearts on a stick, sitting at the beachfront admiring the ocean, listening to musicians trying to earn money off the street, drinking a a liter of the most awesomest pineapple juice, having my shoulder be used as a pillow by a sleepy old lady on the micro, getting to walk through my host dad's studio everyday on the way to my room and seeing how his paintings progress, finding myself picking up on the slang better, making pretzels with abby while her host parents stare in awe, or busting my lip while sand boarding...oh so refreshing.

But of course there is the tough stuff. Feeling invisible and inadequate because I can't communicate well with the people here, feeling disconnected with people at home, the cat calls which have become annoying, gaining weight because my host family doesn't understand that my body can only handle so much food, getting lost on the micros, not being able to watch any of the Office episodes that I've missed because Hulu doesn't work here. Tragic.

So more specifically, here are some things that have happened in the past week or so:

ICA! For semana santa, or easter week, I took a trip to Ica Peru with Laura, Abby, Audrey, Aprill, and Chris. I had a great time with them! We went sand buggying and sand boarding in Huacachina, which is a desert with a cute little oasis. The sand dunes were beautiful! I felt like I was in Aladdin. Another day we went to Nasca and saw some of the mysterious Nazca lines and Inca lines. My favorite part of that day ended up being when we went to a ceramic place in Nazca that taught us how the Nascans used to make their pottery. It was awesome! They used paint brushes made out of childrens hair! The ceramic place makes replicas of the pottery in the exact same way that the nascans did, and with the same designs. Did you know...that Pablo Picasso's art was influenced by the art of the Nazcans? Well know you do.
Another one of my favorite parts of the trip was when we went to a museum that had mummies!! They were soooooooo cool! They had this room full of mummies behind glass cases. I could see there dried up skin, fingernails, eyeballs, tongues, teeth, hair, everything! it was amazing! They had old trophy heads that had been decapitaded and kept as prizes, they had a mummy of an 8 year old boy, they had skulls of people who's heads had been purposely deformed from birth via headboards..for beauty purposes? They had one skull that had dread locks about 4 feet long. haha. I was quite amused.
On the final day we went to some islands called Islas Ballestas on a boat tour. I decided that i really like boats! But anywho, on these islands there live birds, penguins and sea lions! hundreds of sea lions! with babies! so cute. but it smelled like guano. like big time.


This morning I got to talk to Paula, the empleada, or maid. She basically told me her life story. So awesome! She grew up in cajamarca which is located in the sierra of peru, and she came to Lima when she was 15 because she was basically looking for a better life and opportunities to go to school and live a glorious life. She didn't want to stay in cajamarca because it's typical for the people in the sierra to marry early and have kinds by the time they are 16. And she had other plans. She said that before she came, she pictured Lima as this beautiful place where one's dreams could come true, and where everyone earned a bunch of money. But when she came it wasn't like that. She immediately started working, went to school a couple of years later during the night, fell in love with a man, had a daughter, got seperated from him, raised her kid, and now works in our house(like she has for the past 20 something years) so that she can pay for her daughter's college. It was hard hearing it, because her dreams never came true. She mentioned how she never really got to find 'herself' because she fell in love and had a kid and had to commit her life to her child. She said her life has never really been fun, but eh. It was really neat to here.

I've found myself getting frustrated over things that didn't bug me the first couple of weeks. It's mostly a matter of not being able to control where I am going, where I want to go, how i get there, what my schedule looks like. I really do just have to go with the flow. For instance tonight I really wanted to check out this youth group at a church in Miraflores, about 12 minute micro ride. It started at 830 and i left my house at 8:15(bad first step) knowing i would get there a little bit late. But I ended up waiting at the micro stop for 25 minutes unable to find a micro that would get me to where I needed to go,while about 27.000 people decided to throw out cat calls, whistles and kissy faces. Pretty frustrating. So i just resigned and ate croissants filled with manjar blanco and peruvian cheesecake with Audrey instead. Btw, cheesecake here is pretty nasty. And people here eat manjar blanco, which is kinda like dulce de leche, the way we eat peanut butter. It's in everything! Oh lima.
So basically, it can be hard when you have very little control over where you want to go, how you get there, how well you can blend in, whether you get a seat, what time you arrive...me and my friend Abby like to call it the Peruvian time warp. you never know what the time warp is gonna suck you into one day. oh well 'asi es la vida', jaja as Abby's host dad apparently likes to say.

I feel like i really do have to live life one day at a time here. Anything more than that is too much. I can't think about the future, I can't look back, I can only live step by step. If I don't there is so much to miss out on, so many new and exciting and sometimes frustrating things(which are some of the best learning experiences), I can't make a schedule because it's just going to get lost in the peruvian time warp anyway...not matter how hard I try. So just live moment by moment, Amelia. It's funny because life should be like that all the time, not just in new, or 'special' occasions. So yeah, for now on, let's just wake up in the morning and live out one moment at a time.


Some pics from ica:

It's been more than a month

Hey friends!

I like lists, so i'm gonna try listing my experiences this time.

1) waitresses here don't come to the table unless you wave them down, cause they don't work for tips.

2)the yogurt here is really liquidy, and most of it comes in drinkable form. they come in so many flavors, blackberry, pineapple, lucuma(peruvian fruit), strawberry, grape, tutti frutti, everything. it's so good!

3)there is no fresh milk here. it's either powdered or it comes in a sealed carton, unrefrigerated. so milk isn't a big deal here. strange. i think that's why people eat their cereal with yogurt instead of milk.

4) we went to a vineyard this weekend and i tried a pisco that contained 48% alcohol. It burned. A lot.

5)Last week I took a walk and sat on the cliffs off the coast with my sketch pad. I felt like Lena from "The Sisterhood of the traveling Pants" I was sitting on a beautiful hill, by the beach, in a foreign land, drawing. It feels good to be here :)

6) I thought that I would get really frustrated with all the cat calls but they are so bizarre that they are actually kinda hilarious. I went to the center of Lima with my friend Teela and we were the only two gringas around. We attracted so much attention. Guys were whistling and shouting things every minute. It seems really gross and weird, but I couldn't help but laugh because it was so ridiculous. that's just how it is here.

7) I went to a place called Lunahuana this past weekend with the CIEE group. It was beautiful! It's in a rural area with beautiful hills and a giant river. We saw a mummy, went hiking, went white water rafting, got stampeded by goats...The coolest part was when we got stampeded by goats. We were 4 wheeling down this dirt path in Lunahuana and all of a sudden we came across this giant herd of 50 something goats being herded by this nomad looking lady. It was so neat to see :) At one point they stampeded us because there were a bunch of old grapes on the ground in front of us and they got really excited to eat them. haha.

8)my host mom took me to a market in Lima. Not a supermarket, but a market, which is basically a bunch of venders selling fruits, veggies, meats, spices, etc. It was packed with people! The craziest thing, to me, was when we went by the area selling chicken. All the chickens had been recently killed and plucked and the venders were just chopping away at the chicken. It was cool because i got to see how the butchering process goes. Well, actually, it was pretty gross...really gross. There were piles of chickens and meats and heads and hearts and livers. lovely. My host mom ended up buying a bunch of fillets and I watched the guy cut it off the bone. The grossest thing is that it wasn't a sanitary process at all. yum. Then we went by the beef section and I saw the biggest slab of meat i've ever seen in my life. there was basically a cow thigh hanging up while they butcher was cutting away at it. Ugh. I found myself sympathizing with vegetarians.

9) I'm really tired so sorry if this blog isn't as spicy as usual. I am taking a trip to Ica tomorrow with some friends for Semana Santa, or Holy week. Should be fun :)