Monday, April 23, 2012

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

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!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

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