Go Big or Go Home... literally

Well, this past weekend was our final weekend in Peru as a class. We definitely went big this weekend. We went out to the discos on Thursday night, Lanisa's family had a party for us at her house on Friday night and some of her brother's and sister's friends came, then on Saturday Luke's brother and sister had a party for us at their apartment. Its safe to say not many things got done during the day...

On Friday, the high school that we have been volunteering at for a couple of weeks, made us lunch. They were put into pairs and they all made a popular type of Peruvian food. We went around to all of the stations and they explained to us how to make their food in English. There was a ton of food, but it was all really good!! Before we left they gave us all a card. All of the kids were really nice, and their English was really good!

On Saturday my mom and sister took me shopping at Tottus (Lima's Walmart) and we bought Cuy (Guinea Pig)! It came in a vacuumed bag which was odd. For some reason I thought we would be going to something like a fish market where they have a pile of guinea pigs and you can take your pick. But I was thankfully wrong! I also got to try some different fruits, Chirimoya Cumbe and Granada, and my mom bought me an ice cream sandwich :)

Sunday my mom cooked us Guinea Pig and it was rico!! I thought it tasted really good. One of my pieces had a lot of fat on it and I was surprised by that; since it's such a small animal... It was also a lot of work for a small amount of meat. But I'm glad I got to try it before I leave Peru and I'm glad my mom made it for me, since everything she makes is yummy! After lunch, Sunday was literally a day of rest for us. We were all tired for some reason and nothing too exciting happened.

This week is our finals week!! I'm excited for classes to be over, but since it's finals week I have a lot of homework and studying to do. I had one final last week, and tomorrow I have Grammar which will be a written test with listening, Wednesday I have my Literature final and I have to write a theme/thesis over one of the stories we read (in Spanish) and on Thursday I have my Conversation final where I have to write and give a speech over a problem the world is facing and I need a video to show during class, her example was that in Lima they don't have enough water for everyone but yet they have so much green space and won't fix their pipes. Whenever Monday comes around I think, why did I not do any homework this weekend?! But then I do the same exact thing the next weekend. At least this will be my final week to procrastinate!

I'm starting to realize and get really sad that this is my final weekend with my host family and living in Peru. I'm thankful to have some time with my parents and get to travel more with them before I go back to NE. I'm excited to go back home, but I know once I get there I'm going to miss Peru. So if any one wants to take a trip to Peru, let me know! I'll definitely come with you!

Cuy and Potatoes with a spaghetti meat type sauce on top.

So much to do, so little time...

This past weekend was once again, pretty laid back. We didn't have class Wednesday because we had a class field trip on Saturday. On Wednesday I tried purchasing plane tickets for my parents and I when we travel around Peru. I thought it would be a simple process.... ha boy was I wrong! I wasn't able to pay online after trying three different credit cards, so I had my sister Liseth call into the airline company. They said I could pay with either credit card or cash, so we drove to their office which was about 20 min. or more away. We get there and the lady brings up my confirmation number and then said if I wanted to pay with credit card I needed to show her my Passport... The embassy has our passports right now because we need new visas (ours expired after 60 days) I told her I had a copy but she wouldn't take that, and since I have a limit on how much cash I can take out a day our trip was a fail. My mom had to make some legal errands so she came with us and we did it all in one trip. A trip that lasted 5 hours... I definitely wasn't a happy camper, but thankful I had brought my iPhone so I could listen to music and play some solitaire. At the end of the day though my mom bought me an ice cream cone so that made up for the long day! Thursday we were able to figure out how to pay for the plane tickets. Since I couldn't pay with credit card and it would take me about a week to get enough cash to pay, my family lent me the money and I paid them back day by day. When we went to pay for the plane tickets we also ran some quick errands for Liseth and Maria. One highlight was I tried my first churro!! It was really good, and only 1 sole (about $0.40)! How do you say no to that?

In the middle it had a carmel like cream!

After we went to the grocery store and I saw some bread with sprinkles. I was intrigued since I LOVE sprinkles.

Pan Guagua (Pronounced Wawa)

My sister said I could get one if I wanted to try it. She explained to me that in Quechua (the Incan Language) that Guagua means baby. That's why it's in the shape of a baby, one of the eyes sank, but it had two chocolate chips for the eyes and sprinkles on top! I told Liseth that sprinkles are for any age... She also told me in Cusco they make the bread a lot bigger and decorate it fancier with frosting. 

On Friday I worked on homework since we didn't have class and I also worked on planning my parents and my trips in Peru. In the afternoon Mariah and I went shopping at a market close to the grocery store, about a 30 minute walk from my condo. I bought some crazy printed pants. They are really popular here and probably the comfiest thing I have ever bought... along with being the ugliest things I have every bought. They almost look like MC Hammer pants, but they are really soft and stretchy, with pockets! I might go buy a plane pair this weekend so I can have a pair to wear in public... After I came home I was Skyping with my parents about details of our trip and our power went out... It was ok though since the sun was out, and I got a lot of homework done since I didn't have internet. But the sun set pretty fast, so we had to light candles. I told my family that as a child I had always wanted the power to go out so we could walk around the house with candles. So my childhood dream came true! Later that night we lost power again, but I was watching a movie on my computer and it had already buffered so it didn't bother me! 

On Saturday we went to on a class field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art with my Literature class in Lima. The museum showed a lot of Lima's history, the terrorists in the 80's and about the people that live here today. After touring the museum we did an activity with the workers. The museum had a little park attached to it where kids were playing and having a birthday party. We did a strange activity where we had long strips of cloth and we had to spin in circles really fast and meet the person on the other end in the middle... it was kind of fun, it made you extremely dizzy though, and non of us understood the meaning of it so we were very confused. After I worked on homework since we had a lot due this week! But I got bored with my homework and helped Liseth with her Architecture model that she was making. It was a lot more fun that my homework. Especially since she had already done all the cutting, so I just glued the landscape together. She said that it was the easier part of the project, but to get to that point was a lot of work and hard. My mom also gave me some cooking lessons that night! She had to work in the morning so she was making lunch for Sunday. I'm learning that all of their recipes are very tasty and very simple. I keep asking my mom how she makes food and she always says oh a little of this and this, it's easy!! So hopefully it's as easy as she describes when I get back to the states!

This room had pictures of different lifestyles in the town of Lima. The town is very diverse and this showed a little bit of where people came from, what they do now and their traditions.

This is a picture from the 80's. There was a little girl and the terrorists burned her house down and the only thing she was able to grab before she escaped was this picture of Jesus.

On Sunday I finally finished most of my homework for the week! Now that the semester is coming to an end we have a lot of things due. They haven't heard about "Dead Week" here in Peru... I had my first final on Monday and I think it went well. I was thankful that our teacher moved our final to last week so we wouldn't have four finals in a row next week!

I'm getting excited to have school over with and I get to see my parents in a little over a week!!!! But at the same time I am going to miss Peru sooo much! I'm both excited to come home and see all my friends that I miss deeply and family, but extremely sad to be leaving Peru. I feel like I'm finally getting a grip on the language and now it's time to leave... Hopefully I can find someone in the states to practice my Spanish with!

Easter Weekend

Things are finally getting back to normal for me in Lima. It was my first weekend in Lima after all of our amazing trips. Since it was Holy Week the University and most businesses closed down on Thursday and Friday. It was nice to have a four day weekend, but not so much fun that we will have to make up two weeks of our Conversation class. On Thursday night I went to a movie, Silver Linings Playbook, with my sister, Liseth, and two of her friends. We got to the theater early and bought our tickets then walked around the mall and ate some ice cream. I was surprised that the movie was in English and only had Spanish subtitles. I suppose it's the same as watching a foreign film for us in the states, but I'm not sure if I would want to go to a movie and pay 20 soles to read it. If it were a really good movie I would go to read it, but I wouldn't want to have to read most of the movies I watch. Some of their movies have dubbed over voices but some do not. After the movie Griselda told me that she would rather watch movies in their native language. I've never had the dilemma of watching all foreign films so it's an interesting aspect for me. I really liked the movie though, and it was nice to hear it in English and read the subtitles to see how they translate. Afterwards I told my sister that after reading the subtitles, Spanish was easy, but when I speak it it's not so easy. Friday I just hung out at home, did some homework and watched TV. Saturday my sister and I ate at a Chifa, a Peruvian Chinese restaurant, with four of her friends and it was really good!

After eating at the Chifa we went to TGIFriday's and had some drinks and ordered desert! We ordered a brownie with ice cream and an ice cream sundae. It was really good! Especially since I never eat ice cream or brownies here. On Sunday I woke up early walked to church. Church started at 7:30 so I had to wake up early since the walk is about 30-40 minutes. But it was nice since I got to see the sun rise over the "mountains" and the temperature was perfect for a morning walk.

I live in the condos in the far left of the picture... If you can see them. 

Selfie of me on Easter Morning!

The Catholic Church that Marta (my UNK teacher) and I attended.  Once church started it was packed and we had 5 people in every pew. 

 Church service was really nice and only about an hour long. The man I sat next to was really nice and we talked while others went to communion. After service I walked to the grocery store to buy a mango, a chocolate bar for my "Easter Candy" and grenadilla (passion fruit) and ended up seeing my new "friend" again which was a little creepy and we talked some more. After shopping I was going to find a Collectivo (a taxi that is shared with other people) to take me home, but I saw my "friend" once again and he said he had a car to take me home and I told him I liked to walk; so I made the 40 minute trek up my "mountain". But it was a good walk and I'm glad I made it.

On Thursday night (Maundy Thursday) when Liseth and I were walking down the mountain to meet her friends there was a church service going on in a park near by. Over the past several weeks I have watched them build this monument in the park. Generally on the inside of them is a statue of Mary and Jesus. On Thursday when we walked by, on our way to the movie, there was a sheet covering the opening to the cave. On Sunday when I walked by, the sheet was gone and Mary was outside and Jesus was above the Alter. I thought it was a pretty cool way to present their new monument.

You can see Jesus above the Alter and Mary kneeling outside the cave.

The rest of the day Sunday I did some homework and took a nap. Later that day I was able to Skype with my family as they were all celebrating Easter at my house in Lincoln. In was good to Skype with them and the first time I've been able to see by Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle since I left in January. The nice thing about Skype is you can buy "Skype minutes" and they allow you to call any phone in the world for a cheap price so I have been able to talk to my grandparents.

Monday was my first day of going to a local high school to help girls practice their English. It's a Catholic High School and their 11th grade is only girls. One of the girls in my group was very fluent in English so it was fun to talk to her. Our subject to talk about was the differences of schools in Peru and Nebraska. After class the school gave us a snack of chocolate eggs and Inca Kola! I was happy to get a chocolate egg for Easter, and ice for my pop!