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: