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.