ONE MORE WEEK (get ready for a whole bunch of insecure)

Hey everyone! Happy Father's Day!

So I know I have a journal for this, but I felt like I would give you all an update about where I am at this point in my study abroad experience.

I've been in Peru for a little more than 3.5 months and have been in class for about 3 of those months. Once the semester is over, many of the friends that I've made while here that are also exchange students will travel a bit and then head to their respective homes, at which point I will probably have mixed emotions: on the one hand, I will be sad to see my friends go and extremely jealous that they get to go home to their friends and family; on the other hand, I think about all of the things I want to do and see in my time left here, so I'm thankful I have another 6 months to get that done.

Language-wise, this past week or so has been a bit rough for me - more of a roller coaster, really. During the course of a day, I can go from speaking perfectly (to the point where the Peruvians I'm speaking with tell me as such) to where I can't even pronounce a simple word and have to think about the conjugation for an entire minute in my head before saying anything (that's really embarrassing). Not sure what's going on, but it's getting to me (you all know what a perfectionist I am). Send encouragement. :)

Insecurities aside, I had a pretty relaxing weekend...that is, I didn't really do much homework. I studied a little bit, but the last couple of weeks have been so work-filled that I just wanted a BREAK. So, after spending some time studying for my final exams (IN 8 DAYS), I went out with some of my gringas for sushi, dessert, and movies! Banana Maki was by far my favorite - it's sushi (I think) wrapped in fried banana. See the pictures below for some tasty highlights:

Banana maki!


My date for the evening.




We also had a big father's day breakfast with my host family today. Below is a picture of the food (not the family! haha).



This week will be mostly work and little play, but I do intend to have a dinner and a movie night on Thursday before I receive an exam on Friday (it's take home, but I have to do it in about 48 hours, which is no good). When exams are done, I will (finally!) be able to take the trip to Huaraz I've been wanting to go on! Hopefully I won't have to go alone...haha.

se acercan los exámenes finales!!!

You read it right, people. Final exams are coming! So what better way to procrastinate than to fill you in on my life?

First and foremost, we must talk about the most important thing in the world: me. On 5 June, I turned 21 and decided to to turn the celebration into a weekend affair. As such, on 4 June (the Friday before), my friends and I went out dancing. It was quite a good time and so many people came - I really felt the love! Unfortunately, I have no photos from Friday during the dancing because the clubs does not permit anyone to enter with flash photography...not entirely sure why. I do, however, have a delicious picture of the cookies my friend Carissa made for me to celebrate! 21 delicious sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles!



On Saturday, the day of my birth (also known as the most important day of the year), my friends and I went out to celebrate at a karaoke bar. I´m positive that most of you are wondering why I would want to do such a thing for my birthday. Well, da ansuh is: BECAUSE IT´S SO MUCH FUN IN PERU! Seriously. Peruvians take their karaoke so seriously and most of them sing pretty well, although they have the tendency to pick extremely depressing ballads. Most of us gringos/Peruvians, however, cannot sing, so we decided to be better performers, selecting high-energy and joyous songs, rounding the night off with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." It was a wonderful time, although there were so many of us that the bar was pretty full. Below you will see some highlight photographs:

With my friends Nube, Mercedes and Jennifer (aren't they gorgeous?):



My host parents also got me a birthday cake. Tito, the host father, didn't really take a good picture. Nancy, the mother, looks good (especially for a woman of her age!). Below is the best shot:


As you can tell, it was a wonderful birthday. I have made so many new friends here from different countries and it's quite inspiring to see that young people are the same no matter what language they speak: we all say the same things, just in our own languages.

What's not wonderful, however, is the amount of work standing between me and my Winter Break (that's not a typo). I will survive, however, and hope to spend at least a week of my break traveling (when I'm not starting work on my thesis). Next semester, I hope to take courses that will be less demanding so I can focus on my thesis work, which is really the most important thing at this point.

As far as my Spanish goes, the fluency really comes and goes depending on with whom I'm speaking and whether I'm intimidated by them or not. For example, the other day, I saw a Peruvian friend I hadn't seen for about a month and a half who had to interrupt me and tell me that I had improved so much and was literally speaking perfectly to her. The next day, I spoke with another friend who I see regularly, but was nervous so I kept tripping up. I need to work on this confidence thing, I think. I know it's there, I just need to push through my insecurities. A funny anecdote on the subject: another friend told me he speaks English, but is afraid to do it in front of me because I'm a native speaker. I told him, "How do you think I feel when I speak your language?" I'm glad that I'm not alone in my feelings.

I'm starting to miss my friends and family a whole bunch, but hopefully a trip to Argentina in August will satisfy some of that craving if/when I go visit my friend Lucy!!! I'm excited, but must find a ticket.

Lastly, the traffic here this week was AWFUL. I mean, normally it's bad, but this week was worse because of a super-important business conference taking place about 300 yards from my house at the National Museum. Lima closed Javier Prado, one of the principal avenues in the city to curtail traffic around the museum for security reasons, which made getting to school and life in general excruciatingly difficult. This traffic was also compounded by the construction of an electric train track on Aviacion, another principal avenue here. Pardon my French, but it was a shitshow. I blame Hillary Clinton.

I unfortunately have not had the opportunity (nor the desire really) to travel too much in the past couple of weeks. I've made such good friends that leaving Lima now seems like it'll be less fun than if I would just stay and spend time with my good friends. I love this experience and I'm really happy I chose to say for two semesters - I'm not sure what I'd do if I had to go home in July.

Until next time! Besitos.