Maybe I'll Stay Another Year Or Two...

Sadly, emphasize the sadly, my time her in Peru is almost over. As much as I want to stay here for another year, I can´t. I have really enjoyed my time here in Peru and feel extremely lucky that I have been fortunate enough to have experienced this. All that being said there are some things I am going to miss when I have to leave Peru:

1. The Comida:

The food here is amazing, hands down! There´s almost no dish that I haven't liked while here in Peru. The only one that I can think of is this mashed up pumpkin my host family serves every once and a while. Let's keep that one under wraps, I think they think I like it. One of my favorite dishes is ceviche, or basically raw fish. I even fell in love with rice here in Lima. We eat rice with everything! Even the ceviche! The whole time I've been here I have eaten rice every day except maybe three or four times. It's going to be hard having to give up all this awesome food. Looks like I'll be hitting up the Peruvian restaurant in Omaha a lot!

Ceviche

2. Street Performers:

This one may sound a little weird but I think I'll miss seeing the street performers while waiting at stop lights. People go out onto the street and turn tricks in hopes of getting money. Some people do boring things like juggle three balls at once, but some get as elaborate as twirling fire on a unicycle! It's always fun to see what people can come up with in order to impress people. I've seen dancers, twirlers, fire jugglers, whatever you name it. I know I'll never see this in Nebraska. They'd be hauled off to jail by the police without them even batting an eyelash in the US.

3. The Clubs:

I've never been to any clubs in America so I can't really compare, but the clubs here are always a blast. If you're bored on a Friday or Saturday night you can just go to the clubs! You can even take a group of twenty with no problems. The best part is they are free! They let you in expecting you'll blow a bunch of money on drinks, but jokes on them, I never drink while I'm there! So that's one free night full of fun. Not to mention all the music they play is a blast. This is where I have learned a good majority of the Spanish music that is popular down here, which is my fourth point...

At the club with some of our Peruvian friends

4.The Music:

I just love the music here! I even dedicated a whole blog to it, and I could've put about twenty more songs on it too! The music here is just sooo different. While there is a lot of American music here they place twice as much Spanish music. The songs don't consist of five words being repeated over and over again like in American music, don't get me wrong I still love American music though. A lot of my Peruvian and Nebraskan friends have even associated me with the song 'Tirate Un Paso' because I sing it all the time and love to dance to it! At least this is one thing I can take back with me when I have to return and can even ask my Peruvian friends to send me some new music, which brings me to my next point...

5. My Peruvian Friends:

I've made some really good friends while I've been down here and I always have fun with them. I hang out with my Peruvian friends practically every week. It's usually a mix of Americans and Peruvians which is always a blast. They love to hear how we do things differently and vise versa. I've also hung out with just Peruvians which is equally a blast. They love to heat how I speak ha. We've even gotten to the point where we can sarcastically make fun of each other; you know the things friends usually do. I've been told by my friend Hugo, on two separate occasions, that when I speak Spanish I sound like a little kid, and like Speedy Gonzales, don't know where that one came from.

Isabella, Emily, Hugo, Me, and Mary

They're all Peruvians, I swear

Me, and Hugo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AUZeF-gJDQ

Here's a link to hear how Speedy Gonzales speaks in case you were wondering. Skip to 1:20 to hear him

6. My Host Family:

Lastly I am going to miss my host family probably the most. They have truly made me feel a part of their family. I was very fortunate to have been placed with the family that I ended up with. We've done a lot of things together such as day trips, gone out to eat, and I have even met a lot of their relatives. My host family has even extended their kindness to my Nebraska and Peru friends. They've invited them over, had them stay for lunch, and even told me to invite some for my host dad's birthday party. They just loved that! I've really gotten close to them and it's going to suck when I have to leave.

Me and my host family

Max and Luzmila Patrucco

I sure am going to miss a lot when I have to return to Nebraska. I could honestly see myself living here for another four months or even returning to live here again in the future. I have just fallen in love with Lima and Peru. This experience has really shown me that I want to live abroad again. One thing is for sure though, I'll be coming back to visit in no time!

Musica

I've been writing so many blogs about my adventures in Peru I thought I'd take a minute and share some of the popular songs here. I can't gurantee you'll like any of them, or understand them, but these are some of my favorites.
Una Vaina Loca:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wanf-f1ao
Por Que Te Demoras:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMP6_H4yrC8
Luvumba:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10xOz8jQgk&ob=av3n
Ai Se Eu Te Pego:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm55lU9knw&ob=av2n
This one's in Portuguese and is played all the time! I don't understand anything but it has a nice rhythm and pretty fun dance.

Ella Se Arrebata:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQiWifbSVU&feature=related
Tirate Un Paso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uW9oiuaIyQ
Hands down this is my favorite one to dance too!!

What's sigh-rope?

Sadly my time here in Peru is starting to come to a close. I only have three weeks left exactly. That's too depressing to talk about so let's stop! I haven't done such exciting things as my last blog but there still interesting none the less, well that is to me. Two Wednesdays ago, as a part of my UNK class I'm taking down here, I started to go to a local high school to teach English with other students from UNK. All we basically do is brake off into groups and the students ask us questions in English. Sometimes they start speaking Spanish to us because it is easy for them which they're not supposed to but that's fine by me, more practice for me! The questions are pretty basic and can be about anything. Except one kid did ask me what I think of British boys, and when I asked him why he replied, 'just trying to keep up the conversation.' Haha ok at least he's trying! I was dreading going to these high schools to teach but all in all they're not that bad, I wouldn't do it voluntarily that's for sure, but they also give us food afterwards! Wherever there's free food that's where I am!

I have no more trips outside of Lima until I leave so I have just been hanging out. Two weekends we decided to have a good old fashioned bon fire at the beach with some Peruvian friends. First some of us went with our friend Hugo to drop his car off at his house by the beach then took a taxi the rest of the way there. We basically just chilled out at the beach the whole time and talked. I remember being promised smores and as I'm writing this blog I realize that I never got those smores!

I was attacked by the camera while napping on the beach

The following week was Semana Santa, or holy week. Lima celebrates Easter a little differently than America; they celebrate the whole week, mainly with mass every day. Because of this we have a four day weekend starting Thursday! Although because it was a holy week that meant that a lot of things were closed and not as many taxis, bummer, but that also meant less traffic, possibly my biggest gripe with Lima. That didn't matter though. On Thursday night we decided to make French toast at my house. This is the second time I've made French toast with Peruvians and I've some to the conclusion that no one knows what syrup is in this country! I tried explaining to in to my host family and even showed them a bottle. The acted as if I got the stuff from Mars, the prononced it like sigh-rope. Which begs the questions, since they don't eat French toast here how do they eat their pancakes?

Preparing the food

The feast!!

Enjoying the food with the 'exotic' syrup in the middle

Surviving The Rapids

This past weekend my and some 'compañeros' took a trip to Arequipa, Peru. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and is known as the white city for all of it's stone washed buildings. We started off the trip with another early morning. Our flight was at 530 in the morning and we got there at 7 and to the hostel at about 8. We started off the day with a nap of course and then hit the city. We walked to the Plaza de Armas which is basically the town square. We walked around there and decided to go get something to eat. We were told by alot of Limeños (People form Lima) that the food in Arequipa is the best in Peru. They weren't lying either. I got Rocotto Relleno which is basically a pepper stuffed with cheese, meat, and some egg, it was AMAZING!! After the meal we took a 4 hour tour around town for under seven bucks! On the tour we saw the Arequipan landscape, which was gorgeous, saw some historical sights and even rode some horses. My horse was so cranky, he bit any and every horse the tried to pass him. Good thing he couldn't reach me, he would have amputated my leg.

Statue in the Plaza de Armas

A hippie that sang in the restaurant we ate in

My cranky horse Pablo

Plaza de Armas

That next day we foung a really good deal for white water rafting. We paid around 25 dollars! We loaded up in a van and headed of to the River Chili. We put on all of our rafting gear, in which I felt like I was about to swim with Shamu, and got our quick lesson on rafting. I'm surprised the guide passed us after finding out our level of intelligence. He was giving commands like 'Forward' 'Back' which we passed with flying colors but then he yelled 'Left side forward, right side back', we all looked at him with a blank stare. This was in English by the way. We hit the river and it was a blast. The water level wasn´t very high so we were hitting rocks left and right, this made for a more fun/dangerous ride. My friend Emily and I even fell in at one point. She fleww of her side and flew in right after her. She thought I was trying to save her, I Should've just let her believe that. I did bang my thigh really bad and couldn't walk that night.

Before the rafting

After rafting, we lost alot of good men...

That next morning, I should say night, we got up at 2 am and drove three hours to go to Colca Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world. We drove three hours in the most uncomfortable seats in the world. The stayed at an 90 degree angle and felt like rock. Staying in them was a task also. Forget Abb RipperX, I have a 12 pack now from just trying to keep my self in my seat! We learned in class that the Sierra, the part od Peru up in the mountains, is lacking in infrastructure and the roads are very bumpy and sometimes dangerous. They lived up to this reputation. Instead of going through the mountains like in the US, we had to go around, sometimes teetering on a ledge.

On the bus to Colca Canyon!

Joke, just a joke...

But it was all woth it when we finally got there! We also learned in class that in the Sierra there are many small plots of farming lands that are built into the mountains by the Incas and even some that date before that, that's crazy how old they are! More than 500 years and they're still being used. We hiked throughout the canyon and stopped at many checkpoints. One of the big atractions to the canyon are the condors that frequent the canyon. We were told that they are rare to see, but guess what?? We saw not one but two! They must have heard we traveled so far to come to the canyon.

All of the farming plots

Colca Canyon

A Peruvian Style Party

This Saturday me host family, their family, a couple of my friends, and I all celebrated me host dad’s birthday. The party officially started at 830, but as in Peruvian fashion the guests didn’t arrive until at least 9, including the neighbor. But even then the bulk of the guests didn’t get there until 930. I and my friends were lucky we only had to greet everyone with the Peruvian kiss one at a time, while some people had to do it literally twenty times in a row. One guest even had to wipe his forehead from all the work. I think I think I like the wave and hello to everyone in the room American greeting more than the Peruvian greeting, a lot less work.

We sat around and talked to all of the family members about a variety of things. We talked to my ‘host aunt’ who seemed to be very interested in what we had to say. She sure did get a kick out of us when by accident my friend Mary said we live in the same room back in America. Luckily we got that misunderstanding all straightened out. While we talked we were served food and drinks. There were enough appetizers to feed an army but we downed them all. I thought that was all the food but oh now we still had the main courses to tackle. There were about thirty and we couldn’t finish all of the food! I ate so much I’m still full from Saturday night. And as in Peruvian fashion we didn't sing happy birthday or eat untill midnight, and we sang in English first then in Spanish, even though many of them didn't know English. Half way through 'Happy' as they call Happy Birthday, a plastic piece on the cake caught on fire. This seemed to phase no one but us Americans.

All the food, not including the appetizers!

After eating some of us managed to dance despite all of the food we just ate. We moved the dining room table and danced the night away, ok more like 20 minutes. We danced to all of the popular songs in Peru and did the dances. We even did some American dances, this made everybody laugh. We even sang along to some of the songs which impressed some people. We must have been quite the site, a couple of gringos singing, dancing in Spanish.

After the dancing I walked my friends home and my host sister tagged along as well. While walking to their houses we were lucky enough to experience a Lima rain shower. When I say rain shower don’t get images of heavy rain, thunder, and lightning, it was barely spitting out. But that didn’t stop my host sister from commenting on the huge amount of rain we were walking in. After getting back from walking my friends home I ate even more! I was offered cake. How could I, an American, so no to a dessert? I didn’t get to bed until a little after three and the next morning no one ate breakfast. We were still full from the previous night

Getting the party started!

30 Seconds Or Less

Last weekend we took our second trip around Peru. This time we went to Ica, it’s about 4 hours south of Lima by bus. Ica’s located in the desert so there wasn’t much to look at on the drive there. I mostly slept the whole way. We got to the resort we were staying at about one and almost everyone was hungry. We decided to go into town to go get food, I was not about to pay 50 soles for a meal at the resort, which in is only about 20 bucks, but the three dollar meal in town was just too good to pass up. We split into about four groups five for the taxi’s and headed for a shopping mall to eat. Too bad my group paid no attention to where we were supposed to go and ended up on the opposite side of town. We decided to just stay there and eat by ourselves. We went to a Chifa restaurant, which is basically Chinese food. We sat down, ordered our food and in maybe thirty seconds the food was already at our table. I don’t know if I should’ve been impressed or concerned that my rice and chicken was cooked in less than a minute. I ate it anyways and luckily I survived.

The restaurant we ended up at by accident

After having a bowl of mystery meat chifa we went back to the resort and all of us went to the pool. Instead of relaxing by the pool we decided to play water polo. Let me tell ya’, it got intense. I was told I went wild while playing and earned the title ‘the animal’, ‘The animal’s out of his cage’ I heard a couple of times. After the game of water polo I went sand boarding for the first time ever with a group of friends and it was a blast! The only thing that sucked is we had to climb up a huge sand dune to get to the top and by the time you were done climbing you were so worn out. But it was all worth it, the view was amazing, who knew sand could be so beautiful?? To top it all of I actually made it all the way down the dune without falling. After sand boarding we played soccer, our level of physical activity has surprised many Peruvians. Again, I heard ‘The animal’s out of his cage’, maybe that’s a sign to be a little less aggressive, nah.

Water Polo at the resort

The Animal

The next day we all went sightseeing to some islands in Paracas, which is about 1 hour away from Ica. It was another 40 minutes in boat to get to the islands, but it was worth it. We had to stay in the boat because there was nowhere to dock but the islands were amazing, every inch of the island was covered in birds, penguins, sea lions, and guana, which could be smelled a good distance away. There were so many sea lions and their babies, I thought we were going to crash into one! Like all of our tours it was multilingual. Before we got to the islands the guide went down the row asking everyone what they spoke. When he finally got to me, I was sitting by other americans, he looked at us and said ‘English?’, and in my best Peruvian accent I said in Spanish ‘No, I don’t know English’ to which he replied in Spanish ‘Me neither’ as serious as can be. I guess my accent is better than I thought. Although he even heard me speaking English. One we got back to the resort me and some friends went on a dune buggy ride. It was intense! It felt exactly like a roller coaster. At some points I honestly thought the dune buggy was going to tip over. It was well worth the money I paid, it even came with all the sand you could eat. After the ride I could fell sand in my mouth for hours. They need to start making scarves mandatory on this rides along with the goggles.

The island in Paracas

All those black dots are birds!

On the sand dunes

On the last day a big group of us went to a lagoon in town to go and check it out. We didn’t know it until we got there but they had row boats we could rent and take out on the lagoon. It was sweet! The boats fit four, and had space for two people to row with a grass roof. While rowing I kept feeling like I was in Egypt rowing down the Nile for the pharaoh, I even felt like a slave with all the work my friends were making me do. The landscape looked just like it. Our row boat was called the Titanic. I was a little skeptical about taking that one at first; I didn’t want to sink into the green water. Luckily we didn’t crash into any icebergs but it was the biggest coincidence while we were rowing, off in the distance we could hear somebody playing ‘My Heart Will Go On’ out of a radio, what are the odds of that!

The Lagoon

A World Of Difference

After living her in Lima for two months (I remember when one month was long) now I’ve learned to do a couple of things correctly that I was doing wrong in the beginning, and have noticed a few differences here also. 1.The first thing I’ve learned is that everything that is polite in English is basically rude in Spanish. When asked a question in Spanish it’s rude to say ‘Que’ (what). They take as if you were yelling at them, instead it’s better to say ‘Díme’ which is like saying ‘tell me!’ in English, those are fighting words. No one corrected me on that for the longest time. I must have fit the typical rude American every time I said ‘Que’ to a stranger!
2. Another thing I’ve learned to do her is bargain. I’ve learned to bargain, with the taxis, small stands, and at the Indian markets. With all of these you have to try to get them to lower their prices or else they take you for a fool. At first they tell you a price and then they tell you yes or no. If no you have to keep going at it. I’m still working at my bargaining skills though; I’m still too easy of a sell.
3. One thing I have noticed is the lack if clocks in this country. In every class room, every building, and a lot of houses there are almost no clocks. It didn’t take me very long to realize this because I always want to know what the time is, and this lack of clocks really bugs me, sometimes this drives me up the wall! It seemed strange to me at first but I soon started to realize it makes sense. To Peruvians the concept of time is not that important. If they have to be somewhere at one that means they leave at 1:10, and that’s being early. Once, me and my friends told even our Peruvians friends to meet at 10 but we planned on being there at 10:30 knowing they’d be late, but what do you know, that was the one time they showed up on time!
4. The last thing I’ve noticed is that our perceptions of things are way different than those of a Peruvian. During the day my host family says it’s hot, which I have to agree with them but still doesn’t compare to a Nebraska summer, but at night oh boy are we thinking different things. At night it probably dips below 65  or 60, I’m not really sure, but that might as well be a winter storm to my family. They always mention how cold it as a night, I just sit there and laugh to myself. I’ve even told them they need to experience a Nebraska winter, they declined and said the summer would be better, I don’t know which one is worst! Another thing we think differently on is time and distance. My friend from Peru once told me ‘Oh it’s really close, maybe like 50 minutes top’. 50 minutes! When he said close I thought 5 ten minutes. 50 minutes could get me to Lincoln and some. I guess your concept of time and distance is different when living in a city of 9 million.

Cusco & Machu Picchu

Last weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had in Peru yet! Cuzco, Incan Ruins, and Machu Picchu in one weekend were a blast! We started of the weekend by flying out to Cusco on Thursday and taking it easy for the morning because of the altitude difference, we went from basically 0-1400ft. After taking a much needed nap we went to tour Cusco. We first went to the Cusco Cathedral, that place was ginormous. The cathedral had at least ten sanctuaries, a court yard, a choir room, and on top of all that it was attached to Incan ruins. We toured all of it, but let me tell ya’, the tour guide was a ‘tad’ bland. I am now an expert on all of the different shades of red that were used to paint the cathedral. We then went to out to eat to a pretty bomb pizza place. After we just toured the streets of Cusco, and they were beautiful! It felt like I was in Europe. They were all made out of brick and super old. On the way back to our hotel we almost got pick pocketed by some 15 y old girl! Luckily we noticed that she was creepin’ on us and came up with a system. We’d say ‘Goons be lurkin’ whenever there was a sketch person around, and oh boy did it come in handy. That creeper was all over us for a good ten minutes.
 The next day we toured all around Cusco and the surrounding towns. We saw more Incan ruins Saqsywaman, to which the tour guide said sounded like Sexy Women (She ruined that name for me), Qorikancha, and Ollantaytambo. All these places were magnificent and made completely out of stone. Ollantaytambo was the most impressive, it was a giant fortress built right into the mountains, you could see for miles at the top. After Ollantaytambo we headed back to the bus to head home. But me and a friend decided to go to one of the shops quickly and ended up getting lost.

Finally it was Saturday, Machu Picchu! Machu Picchu was amazing, everything was made out of perfectly placed and cut stone. I was surprised at how enormous it was. There was also a lot to do around the city also, walking paths, lookout points etc. A group of about ten of us decided to go hiking to the Sun temple (Not quite sure if that’s its name) and that was the greatest decision I made all day. I could see all of Machu Picchu from this point and beyond, and a got a really sweet looking stamp in my passport.
After seeing all of Machu Picchu it amazes me that a civilization was able to do all of that so long ago. To think they didn’t have any tools, machines, or previous knowledge of what they were doing. They were such an advanced society, they even had a plumbing system to get waste out of the city, some modern cities still lack that. I still wonder how the Spanish were able to conquer the Incans when they were less modernized than them at the time.

Cusco

La Catedral de Cusco

Streets of Cusco

Ollantaytambo

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu From Above

What I've Learned So Far...

Peru is a pretty awesome country that is drastically different from the US, go figure, so I figured I'll talk about some of the things I've learned/noticed while living in Peru these past two months or so.

One thing I have noticed is the differences that there are in speaking here. I guess I just assumed everyone speaks the same here, but being the untraveled foreigner I am I was totally wrong. There are three distinct regions in Peru, the Coast, the Sierra, and the Selva, and you better bet they speak very distinctively! They all have their own words that aren’t used in the other regions and to top it all off a lot of the people from the Sierra have thick accents that my host family even has trouble understanding, this is a lot for a gringo to handle! There is an interesting, well at least to me, reason for the thick accents these learned an indigenous language, called Quechua, first and Spanish second. There are a lot of people from the Sierra with these accents, and when I say a lot of people I’m not kidding, which leads me to me second point…

Since the late 70’s early 80’s Lima has experienced a HUGE influx of migrants from the rest of Peru due to the intense violence in the Sierra, mainly in Ayucucho. The violence has since greatly diminished. In the 60’s the population of Lima was around 2 million but has grown to 9 million as of today due to all of the people that sought refuge from the fighting and better job opportunities. One of my teachers even said that only about 10% of the people living in Lima were born here. A lot of these people are indigenous or practice some of the traditions or simply come from indigenous descent. It is hard to tell who is indigenous and who’s not though because some of them no longer where the clothing which is a big indicator. It reminds me of the book I’m reading for class, I, Rigoberta Menchu, when she mentions that she is sad she can’t identify every indigenous person because they don’t wear the traditional clothing like her. Makes me wonder the same thing and how many of them speak no Spanish at all like Rigoberta, which is crazy to me because I had no idea about these indigenous languages before coming here.  I’m glad I’m learning about the history and Peru itself along with Spanish.

I think I’ll mention one more not as important, but equally as interesting, observation I’ve encountered before this post becomes a novel, they eat Halls cough drops as if they were candies here! The other week a girl in the English class I help out in offered me one and I was so caught off guard when she gave it to me so I didn’t say anything and quickly threw it away before she could notice. My throat felt fine! But the next day at Pizza Hut, very Peruvian I know, they gave us Halls too after our meal and it all made sense. I don’t remember seeing those in Willy Wonka.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos, just imagine an indigenous person holding a pack of Halls, that should sum up the post

Pancakes and Cuy

Two Saturdays ago, it's been awhile since I've blogged sorry, I took a class trip, my first field trips in ages by the way, to another district in Lima called Miraflores. It was quite the adventure getting there. About 12 of us piled onto a combi, one of the mini buses, and headed off to Miraflores. We took up the whole combi, a combi full of gringos must have been quite the site, we were getting looks left and right. We were even asked to take a picture with some Columbian tourists once we arrived in Miraflores; I wonder how they could tell we were foreigners? We toured all throughout Miraflores and learned all about the history of Lima, it was actually quite interesting. We ended our tour at Huaca Pucllana, which are ancient ruins. We had a tour throughout the ruins and learned all about the history. There were tourists from all over in our group at this tour, including some from France. I decided to try to talk to one in French and I actually ended up having a legit conversation with him. I had finally shaken the feeling of feeling dumb every time I spoke, but it came all came flooding back after I spoke French, my French is nowhere close to my Spanish. 

That following week I finally became a true Peruvian, I had Guinea Pig for dinner, and it was really good! The saying 'Tastes like chicken' could not have been any truer. Guinea Pig, or as it's known here cuy, tasted just like chicken with BBQ sauce. The only thing that concerned me about it was that there was no sauce on the Guinea Pig, well that and that the fact that I ate something dark grey and hard also, too late to worry now!

After trying some authentic Peruvian cuisine me and some other students from UNK decided to make French toast and scrambled eggs for some of the Peruvians we've met down here. We tried to come up with a new Spanish word for French toast but that was a fail, the best we came up with was pan suave, or smooth bread. We spent the whole dinner talking, in Spanish of course, and as one of my friends put it 'You know your Spanish is improving when you can add sass.' While my delivering jokes in Spanish needs some improvement I'd say the sass part is up to par with the natives here! The whole meal consisted of everyone giving everyone friendly sarcasm, well and pretty much this whole trip too. Now I just need to learn the word for sass...

The next morning we made pancakes and scrambled eggs again for someone's host family and it was another success despite the lack of utensils. I was forced to use a cheese grater instead of a spatula. By the time we got around to making the eggs one of the Peruvians walked in and asked us 'Sopa de huevos?' She thought we were making egg soup; she had a good laugh at that and at our lack of utensils. The host family liked the pancakes so much one of the girls nicknamed them 'Panqueques Nebraskeanos'.

                                      Miraflores, after taking a picture with random Columbians

Group French toast dinner.

                                                                         Where's the beef?

The Time's Flying By...

I've already been in Peru for three weeks, crazy I know, and I'm still having new experiences. Last Saturday I went to a beach club, which happened to be my first time ever at a club. Not only was it my first club experience but I got to go in the VIP section! I knew a girl, who knew a girl, who knew a guy, who knew a guy. I guess that six degrees of seperation has some truth to it! On top of getting into the VIP section we were filmed while dancing. I felt like I was at MTV spring break.

Another thing I've learned while down here is that Peruvians love Peru, NE. Everytime I mention I'm from Nebraska the next thing I hear is, 'From Peru, NE'!? Or, 'Have you ever been there before'!? I can't even count how many times I've been asked this question. The reason Peru, NE is so well known here is that a group of famous Peruvian chefs, singers, entertainers, etc. visited Peru, NE and shared their Peruvian culture with them and made a video of the experience. Who would have ever thought Peru, NE would rise to international fame like that. It's so popular that we even discussed it in my coversation class here in Lima. I was even given the task of researching the huyaño, a dance that is featured in the video. The huyaño is a traditional native dance that is popular in the andean region. It has some pretty sweet music also!

A small, but noteworthy, event happened to me the other day as well. I was crossing the street and was passing an elderly lady when I heard 'Joven, dáme brazo' which means Young man, can you give me a hand. I told her of course and she grabbed my elbow, which was quite a stretch for her, and walked her across the street. I felt like I was trying to earn a cubscout badge or something!

Here's the link to the Peru video. It´s mainly in Spanish but entertaining none the less:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8joXlwKMkrk

The First Week

It's been a week since I first arrived in Lima, and boy has it been an eventful one! Monday was the first days of classes and there was a short orientation before. This was also the first day that I would be reunited with all of the students from UNK. Before the orientation I agreed with a friend to speak Spanish when we saw each other, but that pact went right out the window the second we saw each other. It was a weird feeling to be with only my host family who know very little about American cultural, not see a familiar face, and speak only Spanish for two days. I never knew how comforting it is to speak in your native tongue. I know understand why the international students speak their native tongue instead of English at UNK. After the orientation I had my first class in Peru. This is the only class that is spoken in English.

The next couple of days my classes were all in Spanish, which meant I wasn't speaking/hearing English as much. This is still taking some getting used too! It takes a lot of concentration to make myself pay attention for the three hours of class we have in Spanish. I've found that I have a tendency to zone out during long lectures. It's been a struggle, but it has helped my Spanish immensely.

In addition to the schooling I have also experienced some of the culture. On Tuesday I went to a birthday party with my host family. It was basically the same as it is here, dancing, music, food, people, but it is run differently. I must have misunderstood when my host family asked me if I wanted to go because I thought we would leave by 11 PM, we didn't leave until 12:45! If I had known the customs here I would’ve known that I had indeed misunderstood. I was told that in Peru you don't sing happy birthday, which was sung in English at this party, until 12 AM, so technically the day after your birthday. Also the food isn't served until after you sing happy birthday also.

The following Thursday me and some classmates from UNK played soccer at a sports arena not far from the University with some students from UPC. It was all guys that came to play with us from the Peruvian University and were a little surprised to see girls playing too. In Peru, and many other Hispanic countries, girls don't really play sports. I was surprised to hear that as they were to see girls playing. After the game some of the Peruvians gave me a notebook to write my name on so they could contact me later. When they handed me the notebook I looked at with and turned it from side to side as if I've never seen paper before. It was grid paper and it caught me of guard. In Peru, and many other countries around the world, the use graph paper to write of instead of lined paper. They must have thought I was an idiot.

Friday and Saturday were also full of new experiences. On Friday me and some friends went to a local shopping mall. To get there we had to take the combi, or bus. These are nothing like the busses in the US. They don't run on a schedule and have almost no rules. They'd fit 100 people in a combi built for 15 if they could. Most of the time you have to stand, which is painful considering I don't fit standing. The shopping mall had new adventures also. One of the stores had an escalator for the carts! I think I had a tad too much fun on that for a guy my age.

The next day I went to the beach for the first time. It was awesome, so much sun, sand and people. I knew beforehand that the ocean is salt water, but I never realized how easy it is for water to get into your mouth, it tasted awful and burned on my bruises! The only down side is that I came back redder than a tomato. We were there for 7 hours! After the beach we played Wii at a friend’s house. Almost the whole time I held the remote backwards, right was left and left was right. Finally someone corrected me and I told them I just thought it was different in Peru; they all had a good laugh at that!

El Combi

My first Peruvian weekend

It's been a crazy first couple of days here in Lima! When we first arrived in the airport no one knew what to do. First we went through immigration and I thought for a second that they weren't going to let us into the country. They were so strict! We finally got through and it was off to baggage claim. Once we got or bags we were once again confused. We thought our host families would be waiting for us there. Once we figured out they were waiting in another part of the airport we rushed off to go meet them. When we entered there were people everywhere with signs with people's names. I quickly found my host family and we greeted. In Peru you great girls with a kiss on the cheek. This really threw me off. I thought they were getting fresh with me. We left the airport and went home and pretty much straight to bed. It was almost three in the morning.

The next morning I ate breakfast with my host family and then I went with Max, the dad, and he showed me around Lima, mainly the district I live in, Surco. We got in the car and he turned on the radio and Britney Spears was playing! They listen to a lot of American music here like, Katy Perry, Adele, and Bruno Mars. We went to markets, stores, the school I'm going to and past the American Embassy, where Max works. The first thing I noticed was how people drive. It was nuts! We got cut off every second. As long as there was an inch of space a car would cut right in front of you. The markets were very different also. There were fish stands next to flower stands next to stands of pirated American movies.

The next day I went with the daughter, Fiorella, and her friends to go swimming at one of her friends' house. It was an hour away from where I live so I got to see a lot of Lima. Some parts were nicer than others to say the least. We got to the house and the first thing we did was play soccer of course. I was awful compared to the Peruvians but my team did manage to win. We didn't swim much, the water was freezing! We did play a lot of cards though. They sure do like their cards. I taught them BS and they loved it. But instead of saying BS we said mentiroso, which means liar. Afterwards they taught me Peruvian slang. Paja, Mostruo, chereve, which all mean cool. I learned some others but aren't that appropriate.

So far I'm loving it here. I've probably made a fool of myself one to many times with the language and the customs but that's alright. Everyone here is really nice and cool about it. For example I was trying to say 'oh doesn't matter to me' but instead was saying I don't care about you guys, ahh!! They just laughed and corrected me. I also didn't know guys don't shake hands and instead just slide their hands together. That's probably why I was getting so many weird looks!

Anticipation

I can't believe that in 5 days I'll be in Peru!! I've recently heard from my host family which has helped ease my nerves alot. Now I know they didn't forget about me and I won't be left at the Peruvian airport. I'm still nervous to go though, I've never been to a city that's anywhere close to the size of Lima. There's almost 9 million people, that's insane! There's so many things I need to de before I leave, I just know I'm going to forget to do or bring something important, like my passport! All of my worries aside I can't wait to leave for what I know is going to an amazing trip.