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 :)

Week four is here

wow it's week four already!

Fact of the day: people eat fruity halls cough drops like candy here. It's literally in the check out line with the rest of the candies. And when I went to pizza hut. The 'mints' they gave us after the meal were cough drops. strange haha

So last night, Saturday night, was really amazing. Yesterday was the birthday of my host dad, so we had a party. A bunch of friends and family came over, about 20-25, and there was cake and happiness. The first thing that stuck out to me was that this party had only been planned a couple of days in advance, and yet all of his friends and family still came. I remember riding in the car with my host mom a couple of days before and she suddenly realized that Alejo's birthday was coming up. It's neat to me because I feel like in the states, things have to be planned so far in advance for people to 'fit you into their schedule' Pish posh. Schedules seem so much more relaxed here, and that allows for more time and opportunities to simply be with people. Anywho, an hour or two into the party one of Alejo's friends took down a guitar off the wall (we have a wall full of guitars) and started playing Peruvian folk songs. It was amazing. Everyone sang, and at my host mom busted out the cajon, yes the cajon!, and some wooden spoons. They sang and sang and it was so amazing to see people come together in community like this and sing beautiful peruvian music and just be together. Do they even know how precious and rare that is?

Later that night my host brother's friend invited me to a party in Barranco, Barranco being the bohemian artsy district of Lima(where I live). This was not just any party. So first of all the party was held at this beautiful old abandoned house. it was huge and kinda beaten up but that's ok! that only added to the fun atmosphere. Secondly, the theme of the party was music improv, i guess you could say. Basically there was a band set up, and people just kinda went up and played whatever they wanted and sang whatever they wanted. the drummer and guitarist and bass and pianists just kinda did whatever and people could go up and sing whatever they felt like. It was so amazing. There was freedom to do anything you wanted. You could bring your own instrument and just join in if you wanted. what amazed me the most was that people weren't necessarily good singers or players but they still played and sang because they wanted to. There was no shame. So much freedom! I love how unashamed people are here. Just be you and have fun and try stuff out. it's all just so amazing to me. They know i play clarinet so they want me to go improv on my clarinet one week. oh gosh! we'll see.

The morning before all of that my study abroad group took a tour of villa el salvador, which is one of the provinces of lima, or basically the poorer area. here are some pics






It's drastically different from what I see day to day in barranco and miraflores and such. My empleada said that she lived in Villa Maria which is close to Villa el Salvador. I wonder if it's the same kinda of conditions.

There's a lot of surprising things about Lima. One thing that's hard to see is the kids that go around begging on the street. They'll go up to you with a bucket, or selling gum or something and beg money from you. They are super persistent about it too. It's so hard to see because I wonder how they got there, and where there parents are, and what goes on at home. it's hard to know what to do. Do i give money? food? nothing? Is there a quota they have to fill? or else? This morning the doorbell rang and I went to answer it and there were 3 street kids asking for money. It was so surprising and I didn't know what to do. I closed the door... Life is confusing.

There have also been an attempted robbery and successful robbery within the people I know in my study abroad group. prayers for safety!

Besos :)
Amelia

oh goodness

It's been an interesting week

We started our first week of official classes at the PUCP. The study abroad people get to try out classes before we register, which is this coming monday. Ugh, it was tough.

It's tough because I have to strain my ear and mind to try and comprehend what the professors are saying. It's not easy learning a new subject in a new language. eek! So yeah, for instance i went to this one class that was titled Cine, or films and movies and all that fun stuff. It sounds pretty cool but the whole time i was in class i was on the edge of my seat, putting my hair behind my ear, and poking my ear out towards the professor while i concentrated really hard to understand him. oh goodness. It was a discussion class so the other students get to talk...which is even harder to understand because they either talk super fast, or super mumbly, or with slang that i don't know. By the end of yesterday I was craving me some english.

It's hard being 'that girl', the foreign kid. Sometimes I try way too hard to try to blend in and do a good job, but I have realized that I got to accept it. I got to embrace being the foreign, exchange-student kid. It's funner to embrace it anyways! There are so many mistakes that I make but that's ok! They make for some pretty hilarious stories.

It's also difficult trying to communicate with other adults and college students when you have the vocabulary and speech facilities of a 5 year old. Wha!? I'm trying to convey who i am, my thoughts, my passions, and trying to relate to others BUT I can't always do that. It's so strange. It's such a helpless feeling. I want to get to know them so bad but I'm chained by my minimal skills! It's such a new experience. It makes me appreciate communication so much. But yeah it can get frustrating but what's so great is that I have my group of "US american" friends (american is incorrect when referring to people from the US because south america is technically american too. fact of the day!). So it's neat to be able to relate with them about all the funny or frustrating or silly things that we do because of our non-spanish speaking ways. Lol.

So yeah spanish is tough. I appreciate knowing english so much now. I have gotten pretty descent at comprehending but there are still those times when i have no idea what that person just said to me. I have found out that when in doubt, just nod your head, smile, and say 'si'. I think this works about 74% of the time. And the other 26% could potentially lead to dangerous situations, or severe mocking. ha. anywho.

Oh yeah! another thing about being a 'foreigner' So people here greet each other by a kiss on the cheek. WELL in the US, of course, we shake hands. SO, I have found out that it upsets me when people come up to me and shake my hand just because they know I am from the US. I didn't fly all the way out here for you to shake my hand, give me my kiss! But yeah, I want to be treated like they naturally would treat others. Not with an awkward handshake. I also dislike it when people automatically try to speak english with me. Maybe they are trying to be nice? but it comes off as really condescending, and it feels really exclusive.

So on one hand, it's tough communicating with people, but on the other hand I'm here to learn the language and culture, so of course I want to be treated with it. It's a hard life but good life.

Alrighty, well now I am going to go eat lunch with my host mom, audrey and laura. Then we are going to Polvos Azules...the other black market! What adventures will we behold today?!

Fun fun fun

hey friends! :D

It's been quite an eventful week! I feel like I'm still in the 'honeymoon stage' of the trip because everyday has been a new adventure. Prayers that the honeymoon stage could last forever! In some way or another :D

A couple of days ago I got to talk to one of the empleadas, or maids, that works for my family. I've been told and noticed that the empleadas are usually the peruvians with the more indiginous background, or darker skin. So yeah, one way you can still see the affects of race vs. social status is through the maid system. Interesting. They are very respectful of everyone in the house. They even call me, someone way younger then them, senorita, or basically 'm'am'. So I finally got home from school early one day last week and Paula was still at the house. I said hi, well hola, and asked her how her day was. She talked about how it was the same routine as it has always been. She has known the family for 22 years and has worked for them for most of those years as the maid. She does the same thing everyday, cook, clean, take out the dog, etc. wow. she said that she was born in Cajamarca, which is way up north, but moved to Lima, the big city, when she was 15 in hope to get an education and live a better life. But reality isn't like that, she said. She said her life has never been great...yet it has never been awful. It was hard to hear that because she seemed sad and disappointed with life. Another interesting thing about the empleadas is that they are never greeted the same as the rest. Everyone else in the house gets a kiss goodbye when they leave or come, but not the empleadas. Hmm. I really want to get to know her more.

Last week, on a different day, I was on my way home when I bumped into my host brother and his friends outside of their art studio. Its a little house a couple of houses down from my house where 6 artists work on their art all day. I went in and checked it out. It was AMAZING. I don't understand that kind of talent. There were beautiful works on the walls. One that my brother had done, and some others that his friends had done. I'll try to get some pics of them up. So amazing. One of his friends invited me to come over and chill with them whenever I wanted. awesome!

This past weekend was pretty epic, too. On saturday I went out with two friends, Audrey and Caitlyn to this place called Crepes and Waffles. Oh. my. goodness. So amazing. I don't think I can go back to kerbey or ihop after this. haha. It is this really nice chain restaurant that is only in latin america. They basically have any crepe or waffle that you could ever imagine. I had a crepe with all these yummy berries and ice cream and whipped cream. yum! Then we met up with Laura and Abby to go shopping at the inca market, a place where they sell a bunch peruvianish things: bags, jewellry, stuff made from alpaca fur, rugs. It all has indiginous style art. Pretty nifty. Any gift requests? After that Audrey and I went to the black market. Muahaha. It was this giant warehouse building with a bunch of different vendors selling whatever. There were especially a lot of pirated DVDs and CDs. You can get a DVD for 5 soles, which is like 1.50! And they have EVERYTHING. I really struggled with the temptation of buying every season of The Office. So difficult. But yeah, movie requests?! haha.
After that, Audrey and went back to miraflores and went to the grocery store to buy...drum roll please....Besos de moza!!!! Oh goodness! These things are life changing. Seriously. They are these awesome chocolate covered marshmallowness with graham cracker goodness on the bottom. believe me...amazing. After that radical moment, which we thought couldn't be topped, we went to pizza hut!!! Ok, please bear with me. This is not just ANY pizza hut. In Lima, the pizza hut is practically this 5 star restaurant. It's SO nice. We walked in and got a pretty booth table and ordered some sangria. ha. yes sangria. And it even had chunks of fruit goodness in it! THEN we ordered this appetizer called Nuditos de Queso. They are these delightful pastry puffs with gooey cheese on the inside. So amazing. Life had been so empty until I had these. I was lost, but now I am found. Thank you nuditos.
so basically saturday was filled with way too many amazing moments! it was an amazing day with some amazing people :)

Lima has been fun and beautiful so far. But I'm wondering what the dirty side looks like. For example, I live in the upper class...Look at this home. wow. But on the outskirts of the city there are shanty towns of impoverished people living on hills. What's it like there? I want to see the ugly side. I'm also, like I said in the honeymoon stage of the trip. But when will the hard times come? And what will they look like? How homesick will i get?

This is a picture of one of the Plazas in the center of Lima:



This is Audrey and me!:



This is the crepe I got from crepes and waffles:



This is Abby and me!:



These are the magical besos de moza:

school, beach, discoteca

Alrighty. So I always feel like I have so much to say! But here I go...(here's what's new, to answer your question on your letter today, jojo :D )

So last week I started an intensive Spanish class to boost my mad spanish skills. It's pretty nifty i guess. We are basically learning alot about the culture of Peru and the class is completely in Spanish. It's uber long...from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. How did I survive this kind of schedule in high school? Ick! Anywho, So last week was basically wake up, take an hour ride to school on the micro, school, come back on the micro, eat more food than i can handle, sleep. wow that doesn't sound too impressive. But there ware still nifty moments in between!! I live in Barranco which is an hour away from school. It sounds gross but I actually have come to like the rides a lot. The micros, as i talked about before, are crazy! I wish you guys could get on a virtual micro ride and see what i'm talking about. So hear is a typical micro ride:

Flag down my micro

hop on while the cobrador is shouting 'sube sube sube!' (get on...basically).

Either find a seat, or stand, or stand while being squished by 12 other people who are trying to not sling forward every time the driver stops and goes. which is alot.

Get stared at because I'm the only gringa in there. (although i think i got a tan at the beach today...maybe that will help :D ... nah )

people watch out the window, or read

hear the constant noise of beeping cars and taxis, cobradores continuously shouting things out the door to try to get more passengers, the radio on the micro playing various spanish tunes(btw they prefer to call the spanish language castellano, because technically spain has a lot of different languages), the wind coming in through the windows,

pay the cobrador

find my stop and tell the cobrador 'baja la catolica(the school)' and get off while he keeps shouting 'baja baja baja'

try to cross the street without dying

So yeah interesting stuff. I like them though :D They are different and interesting and adventurous. Although, not always a good adventure. The other day i got on the wrong micro and luckily i figured it out before it drove into some part of lima that i didn't know. scary!

Ok so onward with the week.
Last night my friend Teela, who is one of the girls in the CIEE group, had a night out for her birthday. a bunch of us met up at larcomar, which is this cool little mall thing on the beach. And then we saw Alice in wonderland. Trippy. THEN we went to a discoteca. Basically a club. It was in the district I live in, Barranco! people really like discotecas here. I guess people from the US do too. But yeah they really like them. We went in and it was so loud...it was basically just dancing, loud music, smoke, drinking, screaming in eachother's ear to try to communicate, watching drunk people get on stage and get all emotional when this song about rainbows came on. By the middle of it I realized that this was my first time in a club ever...other than midnight rodeo...ha. the drinking age here is 18 so yeah, that's why. It was an interesting experience.

Then this morning, we went to the playa!! (the beach :D) we drove down to a beach that was an hour south from here. It was neat! Whenever we got there and got off the bus, sellers automatically came up to us and tried to get us to eat at there little restaurant hut on the beach. After that we found a spot on the beach. There were a good amount of other people there. then we did the fun swimming stuff and ladeda, but the neat part was that the beach was a big place where sellers would come to sell there things. People selling ice cream, beautiful body wraps, beautiful clothing, beautiful jewelry(i got suckered into buying some earrings :D), movies...mostly pirated, books, cigarretes, gum, snacks, etc. All these people were walking along the beach and would come up to people to try to sell things. I thought it was so awesome because the things they were selling were beautiful and it was like going shopping without having to move. ha.
I'll post some pics


So overall I am slowly starting to get the rhythm of things. The rhythm of my family here, of the micros, of the food, of the language, of the people that I'm around. It hit me earlier this week that I don't have those people here that encourage me and love me well and that cheer me on and that i can share my heart with. At least not yet! I'm praying that i can find those people here. And I'm also praying for a heart to love people in general. To be genuinely interested in them, get to know them, and be with them.

Chao :D

(pics of my home, and the beach)

Random cositas

Hello friends!

*BIG HUGS*

Ok so here are a bunch of random things that are different between Lima and, let's say, Austin...

The crazy combi, or transportation system, is there anything else like it?

The manner of driving in general, people come within inches away from each other at 'intersections', they are constantly honking, and it's almost like a game of push and shove...except with cars, combis and taxis.

The lack of rain. It doesn't rain here! awesome, the most precipitation we get is a mist.

But it's humid, year around

The bright colors of the city. A lot of the buildings and houses are painted in bright colors. My host mom told me it was because the sky in the winter time is always gray. Therefore, the bright buildings help brighten things up. Pretty colors!

Greeting people with a kiss on the cheek. Even when it is the first time you have met them. Still trying to perfect my salutations!

The money, el nuevo sol, which is about 2.9 per US dollar. Here you can get a meal for 1 or 2 dollars. woot! AND there is a salon where you can get a manicure for 10 soles...$3/4 :D

They REALLY like rice, and potatoes

The suns rays are stronger because we are nearer to the equator...so I'm getting tan :D and burnt :(

Lima is a really big city, about 10 million. Lots o' people!

People write notes on graph paper, not lined paper...apparently lined paper is just a US thing? haha

Most homes have maids. Here it's cheaper and creates more jobs for people, so it's a lot more common. Interesting!

They have really tasty fruit! and they drink a lot of freshly made juices, like papaya, pineapple, orange, mango..yum!

The most popular crime in Lima is pickpocketing. So I gotta be careful with my pockets and bags and such!

It seems like lunch is the most important part of the day, where we eat the most. and the typical lunch hour is about 1 or 2. My family cooks such good food! Espero que no me engorde!

The beach :D

there is a large chinese population. It's funny coming across Chinese people who speak perfect spanish. It seems so strange to me. haha. So there is really good chinese food here too, with a peruvian twist.

The telephone numbers can be up to nine letters long because they were running out of seven letter numbers haha.

can't put the toilet paper in the toilet!

the drinking water has to be boiled

the water pressure is very little, so it takes awhile to shower.

in restaurants you have to ask for water 'sin gas' or without gas, because apparently they enjoy fizzy water?!

The language, of course, but it's cool to learn about the different words that are different between peru and the rest of latinamerica. Like calato means naked instead of 'desnudo' because calato is a Quechua word. And cano with the tilde(~) means faucet but apperantly that is a really gross word in other countries. Or, avacado is 'palta' not aguacate. :P

People live at home with their parents for a lot longer. Until they are married? But yeah, people don't commonly just 'live on their own'

People say 'que tal' a lot more than 'como estas' and they say 'chao' a lot more than 'adios' they also use the word 'bastante' alot, instead of 'mucho' Hmm!


But anyways, still loving Lima! The only real culture shock I have experienced has been all the fun and excitement. Does that count? They call this the 'honey moon' period because after all the excitement other realities start to kick in. But we'll see!

It's also hard not to embarrass myself, like everyday. Like saying the wrong word, or not understanding someone, or not understanding how things run, or running into a glass window o_O

ok so sorry for no pics this time. I wish I could take pics of the city, but I might get jumped because for want of my fancy shmanshy camera. But I still need to show yall more pics of the beautiful house! Ok now for bed! :D