So I Waited 3 Months to Update my Blog

Hi everybody!

I know, I know, I suck. I've been busy living my life, sue me. Here's an update about what's going on.

First, the point of doing this whole thing: my Spanish. It's better than ever and I'm very pleased with the progress I've made. It's even gotten to the point where - some days - I don't even want to speak the language anymore. I dream in Spanish, think in Spanish, speak in Spanish, do everything in Spanish. It's quite odd really because my English has definitely taken a huge hit, but I'm sure that will pass once I return to the United States.

That being said, I have about 2 months left in this marvelous country and I'm not sure where the time has gone. I've had so many different, unique experiences that going back to Madison - although I do miss my friends and family - will probably be a huge shock to me. On the one hand, I will be able to breathe clean air, not have to get up for class 3 hours early so I can make it on time, and to sit bored in a lecture hall...oh wait, I do that here, too. On the other hand, I will miss so many fascinating aspects of Peruvian life, such as haggling in the street with various merchants, finding ridiculously cheap and filling foods, having money that's worth 3 times as much as it is in the States, etc.

The lifestyle that I lead here is completely different from the one I have in Madison and I believe it's changed me for the better. I'm much more relaxed about many things (though I stress out about school - that's an inherent trait I have), I'm a lot more willing to go out on the weekends, and I've finally learned how to just enjoy something and not see everything in a purely academic lens. Furthermore, this experience has helped me to put many things into perspective; things that I thought were extremely important no longer hold such significance in my life, and I feel liberated. It's wonderful. :)

School sucks, as usual. I'm taking classes that are interesting, of course, but school is school. My class schedule is the following:

Gender and Politics
Poverty and Social Policies
Introduction to the Geo-environmental problems of Peru
Film
Senior Thesis

Obviously, the last two courses are super easy it's a bit laughable, but I need free time to work on my Senior Thesis, which is basically why I chose Peru in the first place. That, too, is also coming along, but I'm getting nervous because I need to turn something in by the end of the month to my thesis advisor! It's no longer just a concept - my thesis is becoming real!

Enough about school. How was my vacation? Great! I went to the Iquitos (the Amazon), Huaraz (part of the Andes), and Chile. I've never had a more relaxing and care-free time in my life. The best part of the whole thing was, however, was that my friend Lucy came to visit! It was great to see a familiar face and we had a great time in Huaraz. She also took care of me when I got super nauseous from the altitude. I went to Chile with some of my Peruvian friends, which was also fascinating because none of them speak English so it really forced me to express myself when I had a problem or a question. Below are some choice pictures from the various trips:


Lucy and I in Huaraz with Maggie (we printed out a picture of her to take with us since she couldn't make it to Peru)


I went skiing for the first time in Chile. It was awesome.


I also carried an adorable monkey - several, actually - in the Amazon. He tried to eat my sunglasses.


A view of the Amazon River.

There are so many other things to catch you all up on, but this is a good summary for now! Hope you're all doing well. Lots of love from Lima!

It's been a while

I know, I know, I know, I haven't updated my blog in several weeks. So sue me. I've been busy! Fortunately, however, I am on Winter Break (again) and now have a lot of spare time (theoretically) to fill you in on the happenings of my life. We'll follow this order: school, friends, travel.

My semester turned out really well (I think). I'm still waiting on two more grades, but I'm hoping I can knock it out of the park (corny, I know)! I managed to pull off an A in my political science class, which was I ecsatic about because that course was basically the bane of my existence for the past 4.5 months. We shall see how the rest of my courses turned out. Here's to hoping!

Can we also talk about how quickly this semester went by? It just seems like yesterday that I had arrived in Lima and didn't know anyone...now my exams are done and I'm spending time with and saying goodbye to people who seem to have been my friends for years, even though I've only known them for a few short months. Unfortunately, many of the international students I met this semester will be heading back to their home countries within the next month or so, leaving me....well, pretty much alone (except for the two guys on my program who are thankfully staying!). I do know, however, that more people will arrive for next semester and I will be able to begin my shenanigans once again! (Note: this post is getting hard for me to write because of the English, so please forgive any oddly-phrased sentences).

In spite of the arrival of new friends, I'm still really going to miss a lot of the friends I made here. Because of this, I am including some pictures in this post of some of the important people in my life who will be leaving me. If there's no picture included of you and you've left Peru as well, it doesn't mean I won't miss you, it just means I couldn't find an attractive picture of the two of us. (Yay vanity! Also, these are the most recent friend pictures I have, so come see me if you want a photo!)


Family photo


A goodbye lunch at Chili's!!! Don't worry, it's exactly the same as it is in the US.

Surprisingly enough, I have not yet lost my tendency to make friends with girls. What can I say? I'm a ladies man. I'm really thankful for all of the friendships I've made here and I'm very happy that I'm staying for another semester because...(this leads into my point about traveling)...

I'll be traveling with some of the friends I've made here! Who would have thought that my Spanish 325 professor last summer would be correct when she said that studying abroad for a year is a wonderful experience because you get to make plans and travel and do other amazing things with friends you make from the country you're studying in? I sure didn't. Now, however, I think I owe her an email because...well, she was right. My travel itinerary is the following:

Next week: Iquitos in the Amazon - I'll probably die from the heat/humidity/insects/lack of running water/2 hours of electricity a day/etc. I'm a city boy at heart, but i know this will be a once in a lifetime experience.

The week after: Fiestas Patrias, Peru's Independence Day celebration that's a week long. Independence Day is 28 July here, so I will be traveling with my friend Lucy who is coming to visit me from Argentina (!!!). We're headed to Huaraz, a mountain town, to take in the fresh mountain air and see some beautiful landscapes. We'll also be celebrating Fiestas Patrias (described above!). After that, we'll head back to Lima so I can show Lucy a good time before she heads back to Argentina. It will be great to see a friend from home, especially when everyone from Wisconsin is heading back to the States so soon!

The next week, I'll be heading to the south of Peru, the location to be determined, with my Peruvian friend Cynthia. We'll be going to a spot with lots of pools, thermal baths and other natural wonders that will relax us after a stressful semester!!

Finally, upon returning to Lima, I will be heading with some other Peruvian friends to Santiago, Chile for about a week (right before classes resume!). I'm really excited to be going, but I'm even more excited that I found such a cheap plane ticket! If the airlines here keep their prices low like that, I'll probably start hopping more around the continent like I had originally planned!

So, as you all can see, I have a long and hopefully exciting break planned. I will have lots of pictures to share and lots of wonderful stories, so stay posted! I will leave you now with some pictures from El Parque de las leyendas (the Park of Legends), a cool zoo-type park near my university that contains three areas: the Rainforest, the Mountains, and the Coast...that is, the three regions of Peru. I saw lots of interesting animals and it motivated me even more to travel! I miss you all! Besitos.


This is Timoteo, Peru's version of Barney. I think he looks like he may have snorted a line or something, but that's probably why he never made it to the US. I also took a picture with Barney, but then he sold me a sucker and ruined my childhood, so we're not posting said picture.


Ain't he cute? Sea lion.


Of course, no trip to Peru is complete without seeing llamas!!!


Finally,with Aleece, who has basically been my other half for the last 3 or so months. In the Parque de las leyendas.

Until next time!

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.

The World is Shrinking

After a long absence, I have returned with the very thing for which you have all been waiting: AN UPDATE.

Unfortunately, I have nothing extraordinarily exciting to report because I have not traveled, but I can tell you why said traveling has not occurred. If you all remember, I was set to go to Huaraz with a friend of mine, but we had yet to purchase the tickets because we assumed the Peruvian Megabus system worked the same way everything else does here: last minute. As such, we didn't plan on purchasing our tickets until about 5 hours before departure time. Sadly, upon arrival at the bus station, we were informed that all of the tickets had been sold out, forcing us to make a difficult decision: either pay another 5 dollars (currency converted) to go to another bus station where they had more buses or to spend the weekend in Lima. We chose the latter option, and let me tell you, it was FUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. After a weekend of shopping, dancing, good conversation, and general goodness, I can guarantee I do not regret that trip not happening. That being said, I still want to go to Huaraz.

Now to the main point of this blog post: THE WORLD IS SO SMALL. In the last several weeks, I have had multiple experiences that support this statement. I will share the most appropriate and the most recent story. Last night, Thursday, we received word that one of the British men we met in Trujillo during our mini-vacation was in town, so we decided we would meet up with him for conversations and drinks. We walked into his hostel and waited in the lobby for a little bit while the receptionist went to find our Briton, when I suddenly see a really tall man walk down the stairs. Nope, it wasn't the British guy. It was Jason, a classmate from high school who I have not seen for three years. I was shocked. Of all of the hostels in all of Lima, we happen to be in the same one at the same time? Impossible. But true! I love this city - it never ceases to amaze me.

Academic update: Exams went well. So well, in fact, that some of my friends in my Structure of Language course called me a "nerd" because my grade was higher than all of theirs. What's my native language? Oh right, English. Holla at yo' boy!

My memory card for my camera is broken, so I'm going to have to purchase a new one from Radioshack...so no pictures in this post!

Much love from Lima.

A quick update

I just ate cow hearts (anticuchos) and they were delicious. This is the most interesting thing I can share with you for the moment. :)

Busy week, update next weekend, I promise!

Trujillo y Huanchaco (True-he-yo and Wan-cha-ko)

At long last I got the vacation for which I have been pining. That is, of course, after a long week of midterms and essays. Let me tell you, I definitely think they should readjust the way our grades transfer because the classes here are definitely more difficult than they are at the UW (though that's probably mostly due to the language difference). Nevertheless, I believe my exams went decently, but I'm not going to even guess my grades for fear that my thoughts and reality turn out to be two different things. (Can we sense the stress? If not, you should now.)

On a more relaxing note, I had a marvelous time in Trujillo. For those of you who don't know, Trujillo is a town on Peru's northern coast (I can't recall if I've explained this already) and had an important role in Peru's independence movements during the age of colonialism in Latin America. The town itself is fairly small, but is well-known for a nearby (and very touristy) beach town called Huanchaco. Huanchaco is a premier surfing spot in Peru and surfers from all over the world frequent its beaches - it is, after all, the land of the eternal spring. Spring, however, was not with us, as much of the days were overcast, making it a bit colder than usual. The sun, however, did make several appearances, making our trips to various ruins and the beach enjoyable.

To provide a quick summary of the places we visited:

First, we went to Huaca de la luna and Huaca del sol, which are ruins of the ancient Moche tribe of Peru. Huaca is an indigenous word (of the tribe, I assume), meaning "temple," so we saw the temples of the moon and the sun. Huaca del sol, however, was closed while archeologists continued excavating artifacts.

Second, we stopped for lunch at a touristy restaurant that also featured Marinera dancing. Marinera is traditional dancing from the coast of Peru that is based, as you could probably guess from the name, on the ocean and generally tells a story. In this case, the dance was between a man and a woman, and the man attempted to win the affection of his female dance partner. The food was also delicious. I had an avocado salad, which was literally a plate of the biggest avocado I've ever seen, a piece of lettuce, two slices of tomato, and dressing. No complaints here. Below you will see a photo of the dancers. Note my amazing photography skills.




Afterwards, we went to Chan Chan, more ancient ruins of Peru. The architecture was amazing and our tour guide was very knowledgeable, which made the experience a lot more interesting than just looking at an ancient pile of rocks.

The next day, the girls I traveled with met some Englishmen and we ended up tagging along with them to the beach and around the town. They were quite fun and I loved mimicking their accents. Turns out British people also like imitating the American accent. Who knew? After a wonderful lunch of ceviche (raw fish cured with lime juice so we don't get sick) and other dishes, we headed back to Trujillo to go see the Plaza de Armas, which gets illuminated at night and is really a beautiful sight.

Most of us ended up coming home a day earlier than anticipated simply because we had accomplished so much sight-seeing in such a short time. The 9.5 hour bus ride passed quickly, however, as I was unconscious from exhaustion. I did, however, remain awake long enough to watch the bus company's safety video, which was sure to emphasize that we were not allowed to defecate in the bus' facilities - we could only do number 1. I thought it was HILARIOUS. :)

Here are some additional photos from the weekend:

This is a colorful photo I snapped as our tour van was driving by the neighborhood. There are lots of old-fashioned VW Bugs in this country.



And this is a photo of the gorgeous sunset we saw on our first night in Huanchaco. Please be jealous.



Finally, I leave you with the public link to my album on Facebook so that even those of you without this cursed social media tool may partake in photo-viewing.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036436&id=1599810067&l=10a2bbb969

Until my next post!