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!

Two Months

I can't believe I have been in Peru for two months. Paraphrasing my host sister, time really does seem to move faster in this country.

It's kind of surreal to think about how much my life has changed in the last two months, but I believe I have the perfect story to share that will put it into perspective. With exactly one week until I left for Lima, I was making a late-night walk towards the Lakeshore area on campus when I got a phone call from one of my friends. I remember telling her that in seven days' time I would be walking the exact same way in an entirely different country. New buildings, new neighborhoods, new people. Now, two months later as I sit in my bedroom writing this post as a way to not study for my looming Literature and Linguistics midterms, I get the feeling that I've finally become a part of Lima. As I walk through my neighborhood, I see the same people going about their lives. I see the guy who cuts my hair every now and again, and we always stop to chit chat between haircuts. When I go running, I pass the same neighborhood watchmen (called watchiman here). I guess what I'm trying to say is that Lima has now become familiar to me and I'm prepared to see what else it has to offer.

That being said, I offer my loyal readers some updates regarding life here. First, I have decided not to move out of my current homestay. It's really odd, but ever since this past Wednesday, everyone has been a lot more social, a lot more inclusive, and a lot more conversational. Last night, I went to Jockey Plaza, the nice mall here, to go to Pizza Hut with two new students who are moving into our house, their Peruvian friend, and my host sister. The company was great, but let me tell you about this Pizza Hut. It was the classiest Pizza Hut I've ever seen in my life. Nicely decorated, well-lit, LCD televisions. It served red or white wine, beers, more traditional alcoholic drinks, sodas, and delicious appetizers. I was really taken aback by its beauty. Also, the pizza was a lot less greasy (yet still equally delicious!) than the Pizza Hut pizza in the US.

As far as my Spanish-speaking goes, I'm not sure what to say. My host sister told me yesterday that my Spanish has improved a lot - I'm using expressions that are common in Peru, my fluidity has increased, and I'm a lot more confident and natural when I speak. I'm still not sure if I believe her, but I think that's probably just me being hard on myself. Regardless, I have seven more months to accomplish my goal, and I am confident that I will do just that.

I haven't any new pictures to share. After exams, a couple of friends from the UW Program and I are planning on going to Trujillo, a town in the north of Peru that has a lot of ancient ruins and other fun things to see. Although I only have two midterms and an essay, there still seems to be a lot standing between me and my mini-vacation. I guess I should get crackin'. Send me some love and luck, I could really use it.

The Post I've Been Dying to Write

As you all know, I am a critic of everything fashion-related. What people are wearing, how they're wearing it, and what they're wearing it with. That is why I've decided to dedicate an entire blog post to what I've observed in my almost two (!!!) months here in Lima.

Now let me start off with a disclaimer: there are some very well-dressed, "in-style" Peruvians, but the operative word here is "some." The clothes here aren't super expensive (depending on where you shop), and one can buy Hollister, Armani Exchange, and other expensive brands that are found in the US for dirt-cheap prices. That being said, there are still a plethora of notable fashion no-nos to point out.

First, the freshmen on campus. Oh how it is to be young. Generally, students who start college after high school enter at the age of 16-17. This is fine with me (except for the occasional jail-baits) because they keep me fun and youthful, but a lot of them are still at the age where they don't know who they are and, as such, dress how many students did when I was in middle school. Remember those goth kids? The baggy black cargo pants with the heavy eye liner and the chains? The pants that have silver zippers that turn into shorts? Those studded bracelets? Yeah, that's all still "in" here. My oddly-specific description above is based off of my memory of a 17 year old freshman girl at the cafeteria. (I literally stopped eating when I saw what she was wearing and said "what the $#@( is that?!)

Second, my professors. I will start with the three professors I have that are men because they all tend to dress the same: ill-fitting jeans or dress pants topped with a baggy collared shirt of some sort. Nothing really special. As for my female professor (and many women I've seen here in general), the standard outfit is a pair of baggy slacks with an ill-fitting (i.e. too tight) shirt of some sort. Friday (yesterday) is the perfect example of this. My literature professor is not fat by any sense of the term, but the way she dressed herself added at least 40 pounds to her body. The baggy pants combined with the tight shirt, which kept exposing the not-so-toned parts of her body made it a spectacle to behold as this 5'2'' woman taught us about the works of Peruvian author José María Arguedas. (And yes, I did pay attention to more than just her clothes).

A note about these small shirts (and this post in general): I've been informed by friends I've made here that it's especially difficult to dress bigger women in Peru because of the lack of plus-size stores. That is, companies mass-produce clothing in smaller sizes to conform to some standard of beauty that all women should apparently be held to. Please understand that this post is merely descriptive of what people are wearing (with a little advice thrown in). Also note that I'm not saying people have to be skinny, rather that they need to understand how to dress their bodies.

Fortunately, the style issue tends to be less of an issue when people dress up to go out on the weekends, though there are still many flagrant fashion errors. What I do love, however, is that the women here almost all wear high heels and, more importantly, can WALK in them. There is no greater turn on than a woman who can stomp down Lima's uneven sidewalks in a pair of 4-inch stiletto heels without missing a beat. Love it.

Last thing, random thought: Halls, the popular cough drops we use in the United States, are popular here as well...but as candy. The favorites are the "extra strong" variety. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm going to stick to my 6th grade homeroom teacher's advice: if you're eating a cough drop and not coughing, that better be one damn good cough drop.