Arequipa

I feel like I start my blogs off the same way every time stating that I meant to post this a long time ago but it didn't happen... Two weekends ago (February 8-10) A group of us (9) flew to Arequipa and took a bus tour to Colca Valley. Our teacher, Marta, was supposed to go with us but she received food poisoning and wasn't able to go. So it was just us students, thank goodness we had our secret weapon, Maria. Maria is from UNK and studying with us but she is originally from Mexico so she is fluent. We had to wake up at 2am to get to the airport on time, and our flight out was at 6am. We arrived in Arequipa at 8am and on the plane instead of peanuts we received a box with our breakfast! It was great, we got the typical cup of juice, small ham sandwich, and a slice of cake. From the airport our guide picked us up and there were 17 of us on the trip. Our guide spoke English for us, but it was nice to hear both the Spanish and English to help with our listening skills. Almost right away the Nebraskans fell asleep and we felt bad that our guide was talking, but we were so tired. We drove into Colca Valley and our destination was the town of Chivay. We made several stops along the way, and the scenery was beautiful! We could not take a bad picture. Our guide was teaching us things about the valley and the differences between llamas and alpacas.

As we got higher in altitude we were getting a little sick from the altitude. At one of our stops they served coca tea, apparently coca is supposed to help with the altitude. Our cup of tea was hot water with coca leaves and other herbs in it, it tasted like green tea and I thought it was pretty good! Others weren't huge fans of it but since I was feeling a little sick I was finishing other peoples teas. They also sold coca candy so we were all eating candy hoping it would work, I'm not sure if it just made us "high" or actually helped... At the highest point we ended up going to the bathroom, but the bathroom hut was a small hike up the hill. Some of us got out of the bus and our first obstacle was to jump over a ditch, which is easy enough but doing it at a high altitude about knocked us on our butts. The guys in our group were helping us across though, such gentleman they are. And once we all reached the huts (AKA the bathrooms) we had to sit on rocks to recover. While sitting on the rock it started to snow, then I looked over and realized there was no door to the hut and not toilet... at least the floor was 2x4s and they just cut a hole in the floor and that was the bathroom. Once we got back to the bus we all passed out until we arrived in Chivay. We were very thankful that the altitude was much lower there so we could recover. Once there we ate lunch and the driver dropped us off at our hostel. I think we were most excited for the cooler weather, it was about 60 degrees, perfect weather for Nebraskans! (Is Nebraskans even a word...?) anyways for lunch we had a buffet and I tried alpaca. It was very chewy and salty, but I would eat some again. After lunch we changed and went to a hot spring. It was interesting because they pumped the water into a pool, but it was worth it. Very relaxing!

Later that night we went to supper in Chivay and the restaurant had a live band, during every song there were two dancers and they would dress up in different outfits for each song.  The next morning we had to be ready at 6:30 and my room woke up to Lanisa knocking on our door at 6:20... whoops! But of course that would be my room, I got dressed really fast and ran downstairs because we had complimentary breakfast and I couldn't miss that! Once on the bus we drove to Condor Cross. The morning was beautiful, cool and we could not take a bad picture. But as we kept climbing it got cloudier and cloudier and once we got to Condor Cross, all we could see was fog... 

 Most of our group

Can you see the condors?! ...Ya we couldn't either.

I ended up buying some alpaca gloves from some vendors for 7 soles, since there wasn't much else to do. It didn't take long though once we left the observation area to get out of the clouds, and at our next stop it was clear. Our guide was telling us some more history of of the valley and how we need to preserve it. Then all of the sudden a Condor flew by us!! Our guide said we were really lucky because most of the condors go to the Pacific during the rainy season for more food. So we were very excited to see one!

Condor! The biggest bird on earth...even though it looks fairly small here.

After we saw the Condor we were content and went on our way, we stopped in Chivay for lunch and had a little bit of time to look in the markets, then we were on our way back to Arequipa. We all slept the entire way back to Arequipa and when we got there it was raining!! And not just a sprinkle it was raining pretty good! We were very excited for some more weather change, since it never changes in Lima. But then one of the girls had 14 missed calls from people, her host mom thought she had died. We thought this was a very strange assumption, then we learned that a couple hours before we got to town people had died from the rain! Apparently part of a road collapsed and people fell in. They had never received that much rain in one amount of time before and the streets were apparently acting like waterfalls. I'm glad we missed it. Our hostel in Arequipa was really nice and 33 soles a night per person and we had 3 person rooms with our own bathroom and TV. They had a big kitchen so to save money we decided to go to the grocery store and buy some food. We bought three boxes of mac&cheese, bread, sliced chicken, mayonnaise, fruit and 2 bottles of Rum and Coke once we divided the cost it was only 14 soles a person! After eating we decided to go to the discos (bars) in Arequipa because a lot of people said we had to go out while in Arequipa. We had really fun! And we were glad we could sleep in finally the next day. On Sunday we checked out at 11am and walked around town to the shops and ate at a pizzeria then returned to the hotel because they had taxis for us at 4 to take us to the airport. They have some really good chocolates from Arequipa so we bought some in the airport and it was my Valentine's present to myself. The chocolates were really good! We got back to Lima safe and sound after an interesting plane ride back and once I got back home I went right to bed.

Birthday Wishes from Afar

Once again I meant to blog on Monday or Tuesday, but that did not happen... Plus I can already tell that my English skills have gone down the drain. It's harder for me to think of words, spelling, and English grammar doesn't really exist. We have had a lot of homework due this week, along with our first grammar test today!

Thursday night a group of us went to TGIFriday's (or just Friday's here in Perú) and I thought I was in heaven!! I found the man I want to marry, Jack Daniel!

I got a Jack Daniel's burger and it was the best thing I have eaten for a very, very long time! AND if that wasn't enough they also had HEINZ ketchup, not Peruvian ketchup. And the Mojito for a drink was pretty dang good too! After eating it I thought I was going to puke because it was so much food, but I think it was worth it. After we ate we went to Whitney's house to go swimming, but when we got there the pool was closed... we were disappointed because some of us haven't gone swimming yet in Peru. So we just hang out in her apartment. Last Friday was a lot more laid back that usual and I'm ok with that. It's always nice to get some R&R. I should have done some homework... but I will never learn.

On Saturday I got a wake up call from Luke around 9:30 telling me they were ready to go to the beach to go surfing. I packed a bag and hiked down my mountain when I got to the main street I attempted to get a cab, since it's a long walk to Sam's and they were ready to leave. The 1st taxi driver I spoke to said it would be better for me to get a minibus/large taxi so he drove off, the 2nd taxi driver had no idea what I was talking about, and just like Goldie Locks the 3rd was was Juuusssttt Right! It worried me a little bit that it was a black car and not a traditional marked taxi. But he was very nice and knew where I was trying to go, he later gave me his number saying if I ever need a ride somewhere or me and my friends need to be picked up to call him. I'm sure I'll get on that... After I got to Sam's house safe and sound we left for the beach! It was a little late for surfing, but oh well. Whitney, Haley, Luke, Sam, Sam's two host brothers, David and Kevin, and I went to the beach near MiraFlores which isn't far away. We had to get a taxi and we drove by a lot of cops so the taxi driver was freaking out because it's illegal to have seven people in the car so we were all trying to hide the people sitting on laps and the Kevin sitting in the back area of the car, but we made it! After driving right by a cop, but he luckily looked the other way when we drove past. At the beach we were able to rent a wetsuit and surfboard for 20 soles and with 5 more soles a guide would come with us. Less than $10 to go surfing isn't bad!! I ended up getting a bad headache and sea sick so I had to go in early, but it was a lot of fun!!! The best part was coming into shore because the waves broke more there.

I took a small nap on the beach and after everyone came to shore we walked to MiraFlores and ate at a famous sandwich shop that had really yummy smoothies, La Lucha Sangucheria. David said the smoothies were expensive, around 7 or 8 soles (about $3) we told him we can't get smoothies that cheap in the US. We were all exhausted after that and went to our houses, took showers and naps. Later that night we went out to the discos! 

Sunday was my Dad's birthday!!! And it's the first birthday of his I have missed in 21 years, but I was at least able to call him. Thank goodness for Skype so I can talk to my parent's and see them. I'm starting to miss them and friends more now that it's been a month away from NE. The rest of the day Sunday I didn't do too much until 5:45 pm. Danielle, Whitney and I tried to find a taxi, but that was easier said than done. On Sunday's Lima is fairly quiet and we were also competing with Peru soccer game that started at 5:30 so there was nobody on the road. We got the taxi to take us to a casino to watch the Superbowl! We met Sam and his two host brothers there. They got there early to watch the soccer game. The girls were rooting for the 49ers to win and the boys wanted the Ravens to win, I think watching Beyonce was big enough of a win for them though! Most of the commentators spoke English but during half time we listened to Spanish though. And ESPN Español didn't show any Superbowl Commercials... a definite let down. Instead they played the same two commercials over and over and they weren't even funny. At the end of the night we didn't care if we saw a funny commercial, we just wanted a new commercial! With the delay of the game it was pretty late and all six of us piled into a cab. We are getting really good at fighting everyone in the taxi, 1 on in the front seat and 2 girls sitting on 3 guys laps in the back seat. We dropped off the boys first but since it was late the girls decided to drop me off first so I wouldn't have to be the only one in a taxi and then they got dropped off together. I stayed busy this weekend, but it was relaxing to! Next weekend will be very busy since some of our class is traveling to Arequipa!

La Vida es Loca en Perú (Life is Crazy in Perú)

This past week we finally got out to see some sights, and not just the night life of Peru. Classes are still going well, I keep having to remind myself to do my homework as the Peruvians have gotten me to think its summer and who wants to go to summer school?! This past week I have been sick, but only with a cold, which is bad enough. On Friday we went to La Iglesia de San Francisco (The Church of San Francisco) in the Center of Lima. Our Grammar teacher, Roberto, took us there and showed us the Metro system they have. It was a lot cheaper than a taxi, but it took about twice the time and we were packed inside next to some interesting people. Needless to say I think of all of girls were happy to keep at least on eye on the guys in our group, just in case. After the Metro we had to walk aways through some shops, but the buildings/architecture was pretty and reminded me of New Orleans, LA. When we got to the church it was huge! We couldn't take any pictures of the inside, but we got plenty on the outside.

They had a Library (still stocked with old books), garden, beautiful sanctuary, and catacombs... This was the only cemetery for a while in the city, so there are over 127,000 bodies below the church. We were able to walk down into the catacombs, if it wasn't so cool I probably would have been a little more scared... They had bones on display everywhere. They sorted out like bones, so there were piles of femurs, pelvises, and... skulls. In some of the rooms they even put the bones in patterns to make a design. Other than that creepy part it was a very beautiful church! Then we got to see The Governor's Castle right next to the church.

Saturday we had to meet at UPC at 7am to leave for our hiking trip in Matucana. It was a tad bit early for all of us... but definitely worth it. Matucana is about two hours from Lima so we were able to get some sleep in on the bus/combi ride there. We all woke up though when our bus got pulled over by the police. Apparently we didn't have permission to be driving on that road, so our driver paid-off the policeman with 10 soles and we went on our way! Our driver was happy he didn't get a ticket, and the cop was happy he had 10 more soles in his pocket! (I wish I could pay the police $4 every time I got pulled over...) But we got to Matucana safe and sound, picked up our tour guide in the town square and  drove to the trail. The hike ended up being a total of 14 miles and it was worth it! We had two dogs follow us to the Waterfall, and they were probably thinking, "Why did I want to follow those humans?". We had to cross a big rope bridge to get across to the waterfall, and of course we were all jumping on it! When we got to the waterfall we all took off our shoes and walked across the stream, and the water was freezing! There is a lagoon at the top in the Andes' Mountains that feeds the waterfall. There is also a myth about the waterfall that we discussed in class, so it was interesting to get to see it in person. The walk back was almost as hard as the hike up (honestly not even close...) but the path was gravel and we were slipping everywhere. We didn't know if it was easier to run down, but then when you got to a turn you had to slow down and when you slowed down almost every time you would fall. When we got back to town we met the Mayor of the district. She gave us free books about the history of Matucana and basically told us that Cusco and other famous places in Perú are nothing compared to Matucana... We will see about that. We ate in the town and then went home! We realized while driving through Lima that we all might die from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It was nice to finally get some fresh air while hiking and see some real grass.

Sunday was the day to recuperate, and I didn't do too much (definitely should have done some homework). But instead I watched the season finale of Downton Abbey and was slightly depressed for the rest of the night. I'm glad I watched it though because apparently that's when it played in the states on pbs and facebook would have ruined the ending for me. Well, that is all for now! We just planned our trip to Arequipa for Feb. 8-10 I'm really excited for that! It will definitely be a tiring trip since our flight out of Lima is at 6am then we go straight to our 2 day tour. But I know it will be worth it! Chao for now!

More "Firsts"

I meant to blog last Sunday or Monday, but with homework, spending time with friends and my new family I end up running out of daylight. I have had a lot of "firsts" over the past week. My first week of classes and I think of it as my first weekend here. Classes went well, especially my English class... I have three Spanish classes and they are challenging but I think so far I am keeping up with them! (only 2  classes down...) but I can tell that the classes are helping my Spanish. The only thing is I don't like the classes and English so taking them in Spanish is not any better... The Spanish classes I am taking are Grammar, Literature, and Advanced Conversation. Today for my Advanced Conversation class I had to write two stories and memorize them then stand in front of the class and give a speech. Last weekend was my "first" weekend here, at least my first weekend going out on the town. On Thursday most of our Nebraska group went out to a "Disco" we first went to a pizzeria and watched some of the Perú vs. Uruguay soccer game, ate some pizza then when left to go find a disco or bar and we found a guy who said he would get us in for free and give us a free drink. So of course we went there! We all had a blast! We danced all night long, and the Peruvians loved us!! We were so popular. Then during the day we didn't really do much, I procrastinated doing homework and on Saturday night we went out again. This time it was only Luke, Same and me along with Sam's host brother and his friends. It is custom when you see someone or meet someone you know here to kiss them on the cheek, and I love it! In total there were about 5 Peruvians with us that I met that night so I got a lot of kisses. We went to a club and we ended up leaving after 4 and I got home around 4:30ish. It was a lot of fun! And I would much dance here in Perú than in the USA. We all had a blast. This weekend I hope/think our group will be doing more durning the day. During the week though I stay pretty busy, I don't wake up until about 10 then I'll take a shower or watch TV with my cousin Fanny, finish my homework for the day and eat lunch at about 1 then head to my class that starts at two. Yesterday I walked out to eat lunch and this was there on my plate...

If you know me, I love to fish especially with my grandma. But I hate fish, for some reason I have like a fear of fish and I blame it on my Uncle Randy from when I was little. I will eat fish and I love my grandma's fried fish but I need ketchup (so I'm glad they bought me a bottle of ketchup!). But having the entire fish on my plate, eyeballs and all creeped me out! I also hate dead things so even though it's obviously dead I thought it was going to flop off my plate onto the floor. Ridiculous I know... But I kept laughing at the situation because I knew my family and Randy especially would be giving me a hard time about the situation. After watching María eat it I figured out how to start eating it and was good from there. I folded the skin over the head and that helped a lot. It tasted good! I definitely did not clean it as much as María did but at least I ate most of it... I also like their coffee here! My Mom's side of the family would be so proud :) But I still won't drink coffee at the farm when I come home. The coffee smells the same here but tastes totally different! It's more sweet, then some times María will put milk in it and it's really yummy. I now need to go practice my speech in front of Fanny before class. Chao!

First Day of Classes

I've been meaning to blog for a couple days now, but at night I get busy so it ends up not happening... I have had two classes so far. On Monday our class had orientation at 10:00 there we got our syllabuses for our classes and our UPC (the Univsity) ID's. Apparently my new name is Marie Harper, I was very confused when they were calling my "name" but they said they would change it. Then we got a tour of the campus and after some of us stayed on campus to eat instead of going back to our houses since my walk is pretty far up a "mountain" (to them it's just a hill, but to a Nebraskan it's a mountain). So Mariah, our Professor Marta and I stayed and ate in a snack shop on campus. I got Salchi Papas, not knowing what I was getting and figured I could remember that name when I got to the register and it sounded authentic. It cost me 5 soles (about $2.30) and then I also bought an Inka Kola for 2 soles (about $0.75 the exchange rate is 2.5/$1) Here is what I got:

A plate full of french fries with hot dogs on top! After squirting lots of ketchup on top it was pretty good! Then we went to our English class and just recapped what has happened to us so far and what they talked to us about at orientation. After orientation they said they would only speak Spanish to us, and if we went into their office that they would say they don't understand English. Which is similar to my house because they literally don't understand English. Liseth my sister is pretty good at teaching me, and understanding me, Fanny my cousin who is staying with us for about two-three months doesn't know much English at all (I asked how much English she has had in school and she said a couple months), and my mom María doesn't speak any English. A misconception that a lot of us had going down was that they taught the kids English at an early age in Elementary school, but nope! Fanny is 18 and doesn't know much so I think it is something they start teaching in college. So if you are not in college or didn't go to college, you don't speak English. But because of this it has helped me with my Spanish. I think I'm getting more confident and learning a lot too at the same time. After our English class we got on a Combi and went to Jockey Mall. Here is a picture of a Combi:

They literally hang out the door like that and jump off to get people to get on, then as the Combi drives off they jump back on. Depending on how far you go, it's .50 soles or 1 sole (super cheap!!) I'm learning things are cheaper here. Oh and the cars are crazy and do not stop for you... So you have to run like a mad man across the busy streets. And the other day I was running but my water bottle fell out of my purse as I jumped onto the sidewalk and I stopped so I could grab it before the cars came, but their sidewalks are really slick b/c they finish them more than we do in the USA so I fell right on my butt! It was not very attractive at all and I was scrambling on the ground to get my water bottle back. But I got my bottle back just as the car drove past and all was good! We spent some time at the mall then took combi's back to UPC and we walked home from there. That night I Skyped with my parent's, which was great! It was good to see them and talk to them. I had a lot to do that night and said I'd only talk a little bit... ha we Skyped for about 45 min. and after that I had to go to bed. I get tired earlier here, but end up staying up late. Since my mom is a doctor, she works three day shifts. Very strange! So Fanny cooked for me on Tuesday she cooked me rice, chicken, papaya, and salad; a basic meal here. The salad was a lot different that what we have in the USA but it was good! I was trying to tell Fanny the night before how much I love ketchup, and so for lunch she gave me some ketchup! She is so sweet. But I told her that the chicken was so good that I didn't need the ketchup...

Oh and the first day I was there they had orange juice and I told them it was really good! What have I gotten every day since then? Orange Juice :) For breakfast they give me toast, but I found out that the toast is store bought, they don't toast the bread themselves. Also, yesterday I had my first Spanish class. It's a grammar class, which I know will help me a lot! We have quite a bit of homework to do for that, so I might have to start waking up earlier than 10 so I can get everything done. Last night since María was working the three of us went out to eat. We left around 8:30 to eat supper, very strange for me to eat so late! We ate at a Korean restaurant, and it was really yummy!! But I think Liseth ordered way too much food. We ended up eating it all though. They had a TV playing Korean Music Videos and I was like a little kid staring at it cuz the videos were so weird. Here is a picture of our food:

There was more of it, but since they bring it in stages not everything got in the picture. We also had Egg Soup as an offering then for dessert it was like a fried crepe with some zucchini in it. It was super good! But what isn't good when you fry it? I am loving Peru so far! It's great, and I know it will be really hard to leave in May. I'm glad that I am loving it already. Chao!

The first day

So, to start off I have never blogged before and Math was my subject in school... not English. So excuse all the lovely grammar and spelling mistakes you will see and excuse the rambling I tend to do that... a lot.
I made it to Peru safe and sound! I was originally supposed to leave on Thursday, January 3rd but at 11:15pm I found out that my flight from Omaha to Houston was cancelled. They switched me to fly out of Omaha on the 4th instead. This worked out fine, it was just a hassle trying to get everything figured out. On the plus side I got a lot of things done that I wouldn't have gotten done, got to eat at Olive Garden for the first time with my mom, and I got to sleep in longer since my flight was supposed to be at 10:10 from Omaha and on the 4th it was at noon! When we got to Houston we had 15 minutes to get to our plane, which of course was on the other side of the airport... All in all it was  good flight, got good food, and I had three seats to myself! My new sister, Liseth picked me up from the airport and we took the hour drive home together.  We didn't talk a lot since I don't speak Spanish very well and we were both really tired. We got home around 1:30 and these lovely flowers were waiting for me!

The next morning I woke up at 7:30 am. If you know me, that never happens... City life is much louder than what I'm used to! I live in a condo and I can hear all the other families close to me. I keep my window open since we don't have air-conditioning and love fresh air. I decided to go back to bed and woke up around 10:00 and unpacked my stuff. I was able to fit my entire life for the next four months into two suitcases. Liseth went to work and the mom, Maria, made us lunch and it was fabulous! She made rice, fried chicken, potatoes and papaya. It was all so yummy!! We did not talk much since I speak hardly any Spanish and she speaks zero English. We could keep a small conversation though but after a sentence or two we both had confused faces towards one another.  Later in the day, Liseth, her cousin and I went to the mall to get me a cell phone. It's really top notch... but at least it's Husker Red! It only cost me $24 so I can't expect too much. While at the mall we ate at pinkberry, it is the exact equivalent to redmango and fairly sure it's the same owners. After driving around town we came home! I'm excited to see what the next couple days, weeks and months will bring me! I'm interested to see how classes go, they start on Monday and orientation is that morning. My classes are from 2-5 every day. One class a day and no class on Friday. I haven't had a freak out session yet, so I'm very excited about that! And so glad that as long as the router is plugged in my internet is reliable. That's all I have for now! If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!