Thanksgiving in Peru!

I was so blessed to be invited by Jessa’s family friend to their house for Thanksgiving on Thursday! They are both workers for the US government who are living in Lima and the moment we stepped in the door the atmosphere was extremely welcoming and warm. Leah and I came a little bit late because we had our last Spanish class (yay I am done with classes!) so we arrived just as the final touches were getting put together. Luis, the father of the household poured me a glass of wine and we sat down to enjoy the first course of pumpkin soup (delicious).



 Then, we ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce (from crate and barrel) green beans wrapped in bacon and a delicious salad. Needless to say, it was fabulous. Everything was delicious and the environment was just lovely. The family consists of Luis, Kathy and their 13 year old daughter Tori, who is mature well beyond her age and a joy to talk to. We were also joined by Kathy’s friend and her daughter who is 11, also Americans. 


For dessert, we had pumpkin roll and chocolate covered strawberries that Jessa and I prepared and apple pie and vanilla ice cream prepared by them. Also was delicious. Great conversation, such a nice family, delicious food. I could not have been more happy and feel more lucky!

I do miss my family quite a bit and am really excited to see everyone for Christmas when I get home.

Happy Holiday Season everyone!

Arequipa!

This weekend we took a little trip to Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. On Wednesday evening, we boarded a cruz del sur suite bus, which had large leather seats that folded all the way down. We got served a meal that was pretty tasty (chicken and rice, surprise surprise) watched Happy Gilmore then pushed our seats back and went to sleep at around midnight. The sleep was not perfect and it was fragmented, but it was sufficient. In the morning, we were served breakfast and they showed the movie August Rush and we arrived in Arequipa around noon, 16 hours later! We took a taxi into the center of the city and found a hostel that was recommended to us. We checked in, dropped our stuff and headed out to check out the town. Arequipa is a beautiful city. It was very sunny and warm. All the buildings are beautiful. The city is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that can be seen from almost anywhere, and there is a beautiful river streaming just a few blocks away from the plaza de armas. The cathedral and plaza are the most beautiful I have seen in Peru. The plaza has a lot of greenery and the façade of the cathedral was just beautiful. I took a million and one pictures.

The four of us traveling were me, Leah, Jessa and Zach and we met up with our half Peruvian and half Swiss friend Jorge who is also studying abroad in Lima at Zach’s university for most of our time in Arequipa. Jorge gave us a little feel of the nightlife but we still ended up headin to bed fairly early.

Friday

We got up the next morning to go rafting! We were all a little nervous and not sure what to expect, but at the end of the trip, we all concluded that it was easily our favorite thing we did in Arequipa! It was a ton of fun, and a lot less frightening than I thought. Our guide really knew his stuff and I was never worried once we started going down river. We also got out and got to jump into the river from the top of this giant rock. That was quite scary, but once I jumped, I just wanted to keep jumping! He let me and leah go twice, but then we had to continue the rafting! Once we finished and got home and showered and rested up a bit, we went grocery shopping to buy ingredients to cook some traditional Arequipena food! Lucky for us, Jorge is an awesome host, and invited us to his home to make rocoto relleno, papas en ocopa sauce and cheese fondue (which really is his Switzerland half coming out but we enjoyed it anyways!) His aunt, uncle and cousin joined us for dinner and helped us realize that our rocoto relleno was far too spicy, but I think the experience was still a ton of fun for everyone!

Saturday

The next day I got to visit the cathedral. Inside was nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary besides the beautiful organ. During the tour, I learned that this cathedral has been damaged by three major earthquakes and one major fire. That was enough of an explication to me why it was a little more simple inside! There were a few little museum rooms as well that had some really beautiful artifacts from the cathedral. The museum rooms, the organ and the view from the roof of the cathedral were plenty to make this my favorite cathedral visit in Peru!

That afternoon, Jorge took me to eat at his favorite traditional restaurant while the others wanted some down time and we ate chupe de camarones (soup with crawfish) and rocoto relleno (because the ones we cooked were basically inedible) and of course, we had a pisco sour. The meal was delicious and it was great to get to talk to Jorge some more. He is a pretty interesting guy and makes all of us feel bad about ourselves with his multi-language abilities!

Sunday

We decided we wanted to take advantage of all the sunshine, so the girls headed to the pool. Jorge got us into the club where his family had membership, and we spent a few hours reading and talking and lounging in the sunshine.

We had a splendid lunch, spent some more time exploring the city then headed to the train station around 7pm to head home for another along nighttime bus ride!

I am running out of weekends in Peru…

Friday was a successful day. Worked at the hospital in the morning and worked in Medicina, which is one of my favorites now, mostly just because I have worked there a lot and am really close with a lot of the kids. We worked on writing thank you notes to another group of women who do volunteer work at the hospitals. I believe they deliver meals and diapers to the rooms, however I do not see them much so I am really not 100% sure. After the kids finished their cards, I hopped from room to room, teaching Anthony his random English words of the day, chatting with Claudia, Jennifer and Leidy about daily life, chasing around Mario and he caused chaos with the nurses and just enjoying the hectic morning.

After the hospital, I met up with Kyle, Jessa and Leah and we headed to Barranco to try this restarautn called “Burrito Bar” that I had read about in an article. It sounded to me just like chipotle. GUESS WHAT? It is just like Chipotle!!!! The owner of the store is British and has been living in Peru for about a year and a half. He needed to start working to make some money so he opened this little hole in the wall! The words out of his mouth were literally, “just like chipotle right?” It was delicioussss! So good just to have a fresh, spicy burrito with guacamole! Then, we ditched Kyle and went shopping at the Inca Market in Miraflores near Parque Kennedy and made some quality purchases, INCLUDING ugly pants, which is by far the greatest thing I will bring home with me from Peru. Pictures to come one day when I wear them and the you will all be able to understand the beauty that is ugly pants. Picture to come NOW is the last bites of my semi-chipotle burrito bar burrito!

By the evening, my brain was tired from the shopping and constant Spanish speaking combo, so I rested a bit before going out for the night.

Saturdays at the hospital feel almost like a completely different place. There are no homeworks, no rules, no checking things out, it’s just, what can we do to have fun with these kids?? And then we go do it! The theme this weekend was animals, so I brought a bunch of arts and crafts stuff to make masks and fun animal like thingys. However, much to my surprise, the room I entered had about 10 children under the age of 4, and only two kids who were old enough to appreciate an art activity. So, needless to say I spent a good 20 minutes running around the hospital to the other salas looking for my coworkers to steal a toy from each of them so that my little kiddies could have something to do! After things finally settled down, I set up one little boy with stuff to make a mask and he worked with his mom on it the whole time. Everytime I poked my head into his room, he would frantically and excitedly call me in to show me his progress. I spent a good half hour with Arecely teaching her new English phrases. She already knew a large chunk of vocabulary. She was able to count to 40, knew colors, a handful of animals, and a few important phrases such as how are you, what is your name, I am nine years old. However, we worked on some more stuff and she was absolutely delighted to learn. I failed in calming Denise, a 3 year old girl who had to get blood drawn, but I did my best and held her in my lap while the nurses poked her teeny tiny arms with a much to large needle (for my liking anyways). I wanted to tell her that it doesn’t get any less scary when you are older, but I didn’t think that would help at the time. It made me remember getting woken up in the hospital at 6:30 every morning for a good week to get blood drawn. I could sympathize with the poor girl. One minute, she is just relaxing playing blocks with this white girl who speaks Spanish funny, and the next, she is being stabbed! Unfair…

At 12 I packed up my stuff, recapped and cleaned up with the others in the volunteer house/office and hopped on the bus to go home. I decided to hop on a different bus this time that I knew would take me close enough to my house. It ended up working out really well as I got off close to Wong, where Jessa, Zach, Katy and Mikayla were shoppin so I was able to enjoy the beautiful sunny day with them and walk a few blocks home!

Zach hung out for a while, we planned a trip for next weekend then Jessa and I chilled for the rest of the day!

Today was business as usual. Run, family lunch, chill time.

Que buena vida, no?

Weekend in the Amazon!

Thursday night Jessa and I decided to get into bed as early as possible as we were to leave to our final ISA excursion at 4 am sharp Friday morning! Much to my surprise, I did not sleep a wink that night. I seemed to have developed some sort of insomnia the past week or so. What was good is I did a lot of thinking about what things I want to do in my time left here. So, when Jessa’s alarm went off at 3:30 and she slept right through it, I hopped out of bed and was ready for the trip.

It was an hour and a half flight to land in the City of Iquitos, which is located in the department of Loreto. Iquitos is the biggest city in the world that can only be accessed by air or boat. When we landed and got off the plane, all of us were waked in the face with heat and humidity, like I have never felt before. It reminded me of a hot hot day in Hawaii, except way way more uncomfortable. After we gathered in the airport, we met our guides for the weekend: Rey, Rudy and Daniel. We got in a bus and traveled to Nauta which took about an hour, but was a very interesting ride because we got to see some scenery that was so different than Lima and all the other places we visited. It did remind me of Kauai in a lot of ways. Very lush and green. Although, still different in a lot of ways. After riding on the boat for a while, and getting the feel for the Amazon river, we headed to the lodge which our guides work for, the Pacaya Samiria Lodge. We had a tasty buffet lunch and got ready for our first Amazon jungle hike through the Restinga forest which was the area directly surrounding our lodge. After covering up with layers of buq spray, I put on high socks, pants, a long sleeve shirt and a hat. Remember the thing I said earlier about it being extremely hot? Still true. It was definitely uncomfortable but I was NOT going to get eaten alive by the bugs. Needless to say I did my fair share of sweating this weekend. After the hike we showered, relaxed, swung on the hammocks on our porches and enjoyed the sudden downpour and thunder and lightining. The rain helped cool us down significantly and it was pretty fun to be in the rain, considering I probably haven’t been in the rain since April or so. Sleeping the first night was a little challenging. I think I had the creeps from the amount of bugs I could hear and see, but I woke up the next morning excited to keep seeing more of the Jungle.

We woke up and enjoyed a nice breakfast, then got on the boats to do a hike in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in the Nauta Caño zone. It was about 9:30 when we started the hike and this was more of a walk than a hike, so it was not as hot. After that, we got back on the boats and spent the rest of the day on the water. For lunch we ate Juane, which is a rice ball with chicken, olive and egg wrapped in a large banana leave. We drank fresh juice, we fished for piranhas and cooked a few for dinner back at the lodge later. We swam in the river, which was probably my favorite activity of the day because it was so fun and refreshing, and we saw some wildlife, such as monkeys, dolphins, sloths, and lots of pretty birds. ALSO, Jessa got bit by a piranha, which is definitely an experience and a good story, although I really would not use the word “exciting”. She is a okay, they really are just little animals with scary teeth. Check out my pictures for a better idea. As night fell, we went down a smaller river to try and find some spotted caymans by shining flashlights and looking for their red eyes. One of our guides caught one and passed it around so that people could see and hold it. It was a baby one so it was smaller and apparently a little easier to catch because they are more innocent. After that, we slowly made our way back down the narrower river to the big river, using out little flashlights to help guide the driver of the boat. Needless to say, it was a slow journey and we still ran into a handful of logs. It was definitely one of those “this would never be legal in the US” kind of things, and of course, I loved it. After we got back to the main river, I sat and enjoyed the beautiful sky we could see out there with no natural light. It’s been 3 months since I have seen the stars and I do not know if I have ever seen them that bright. It was so calming just to be out on the boat, going fast with the cool air rushing by. That was my favorite experience of the day.

The next morning we went to a nearby village and got to shop at a little arts and crafts market and play soccer with a bunch of the boys from the village. I had so much fun! I was slightly concerned I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion or get schooled by a 9 year old on the court, but in the end, I was extremely glad I did it and had a blast. We played for about 40 minutes till I needed a break and ended up playing volleyball with some of the young girls. I also chatted with some of the young girls, a young mom and a teenage boy. It was so interesting to think about how these people live. The lifestyle is just incomparable to anything I could ever imagine. After sweating enough for an entire lifetime, we returned to the lodge and me and 3 of my friends decided to utilize this outside shower spout thingy to rinse off in our swimsuits. It was quite refreshing and if I could have, I would have stayed under that water all day. But eventually, we had to pack up, eat lunch and head back into the city of Iquitos to do a few minutes of sightseeing, grab some dinner, ice cream, and head to the airport.

Overall, it was a very nice weekend. It was relaxing and warm and different and fun. I am really glad I went and really glad for the experience.

Daily Life

Last weekend a few of my American friends through a little Fall party where we had pumpkin bread and apple cider and pumpkin carving and it was a great time! I am definitely missing Fall and lots of things about Fall. Such as candy corn! But this little get together definitely made me feel a little better and was also a great time to catch up with some of the other people in my program who do not go to USIL with me because I do not see them very often! Also, on Tuesday night, I went to Karaoke with some of the same people and had a blast singing old 90s songs in English, and attempting to sing radio hits here in Peru in Spanish!

Speaking of school, I will write a little about my classes here in Peru since I have yet to do that. First, I am taking Introduction to Gastronomy. This class is fairly interesting, although pretty basic, general and it often feels like our professor copy and pastes info from Wikipedia and puts it on slides then continues to make generalizations about food, culture and history. However he is an entertaining guy, and his English is decent which makes the 2 hour class (that usually gets cut to about an hour and 20 minutes) bearable. There is about 12 of us in the classroom, me, Leah and other Peruvian students. All of the classes here are generally small, although this one is particularly small, probably because the first project and test we had were both pretty hard. I cannot even imagine taking this class if English was your second language! I have gastronomy 2 times a week.

On Tuesday s, Wednesdays and Thursdays, I have Advanced Spanish class which is probably the easiest Spanish class I have ever taken. The teacher is an oddball and very nice, but he is just too nice and wastes so much time. Last week, he spent at least 30 minutes trying to get the movie ‘The Incredibles’ in Spanish to play on the projector, while we sat and just talked to each other, most likely in English the whole time, since the class is almost completely composed of American students. There are 3 girls from other countries as well, but their English is pretty darn good. Makes me realize how dumb it is that a can only speak a language and a half while these girls speak at least 3 languages. Darn.

Then, on Wednesday mornings, I have History of Contemporary Peru. I still am unsure about how I feel about this class, because I am interested in the topic, however the readings have generally been dry and the teacher’s English is horrific. Which, is sometimes entertaining, and she flip slops back and forth between Spanish and English or some sort of combination of the two. Again, I am in that class with a large group of American students, but I have made friends with the Peruvians in that class as well. History is probably the class I like the least.

The best, but also busiest day of the week is Thursday, when I have bar tending class, which has turned out to be even more fun than I originally imagined it would be. Every day, a group does set up, squeezing fresh orange or lime juice, cleaning classes, slicing fruit, etc. Then, our professor shows us how to make 4-7 drinks as we take notes, and passes each one around for us to try after he makes them. Then, for the next two hours, we practice making the drinks ourselves! It is very interesting because I am in this class with a lot of Peruvians who are studying hotel management, tourism and gastronomy and many of them plan to own or run their own restaurant or hotel one day, so the skills they are learning in this class are really important. Obviously, it is more just a fun class for me, but I have learned a lot and maybe will be able to get myself at a bar sometime in the future! Is anyone looking to hire a Spanish speaking American bartender in California???

tequila sunrise

bloody mary

Overall, my day to day school schedule is fairly boring but I am trying to make the best of it by making friends with the people in my class, and just enjoying being here as a break from real life school. Part of me is really looking forward to going back to UCSD and working hard and learning a lot, but the other part of me really is enjoying these mind numbing classes.

UPDATE: JUST GOT CANDY CORN IN THE MAIL FROM MY PARENTS. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

This week at the Hospital del Nino

I work at a children’s hospital 2 or 3 times a week and so far on this trip, these days have been some of my favorite. Today was definitely one of the days I am going to remember. The thing I struggle with the most at the hospital is language. Not in terms of helping the kids with their homework or holding simple conversations, but really being able to express properly how much I care about them. Last week when my mom was here she told me not to worry about it. She said that when she watched me, how I acted, smiled and treated the kids truly showed I cared for them (and I believed her because she doesn’t speak a word of Spanish and therefore understood nothing I said to those children). Today, with that in mind, I turned on some music for the kids and danced with those who were able to. One little boy, Mauricio, was reluctant to dance, he seemed to think he was too cool for school. Mauricio is 8 years old. However, after a few minutes, he runs over to me, grabs my hands and starts dancing. After A few minutes, I had to go do some rounds and check on some other kids, but he did not want me to leave. He wrapped his hands around my waist and would not let go. For the next hour I had little Mauricio wrapped around my waist like a sweatshirt and I could not stop smiling. They know I care about them, and that is really the only goal I need to accomplish.

Parents in Lima

My parents came this weekend and I have been looking forward to it for such a long time, I can't believe it here! This also led me to realize that my trip here is halfway over. Which was extremely sad...but, back to the happy: Parents are here! They arrived late Thursday night so I first met them early Friday morning at their hotel about a 15 minute bus ride/walk from my house. We spent the morning walking around the coast and visiting Larcomar, the upscale mall right near their hotel. Maybe, the Santana Row of Lima? We then walked to meet Leah and Jessa and we all took a cab to La Bistecca, a buffet that Jessa and I ate at with our family a few weeks ago and LOVED. The food is spectacular, with all kinds of stations including a giant meat grill, fresh pastas, a wok, ceviche and pizzas. Do not forget the chocolate fountain for dessert! Needless to say, we were happy and far too full when we left the restaurant 3 hours later...

Jessa and Leah had to take off but mom and I decided to walk around for a while and we ended up walking all the way back to the hotel which ended up being about 3 miles. After that, we went back to my house to drop off some stuff then took a taxi to central Lima to go to the water park and see the fountains! I enjoyed seeing them again and I think they had fun too! It was not as cold as the last time I went, so I was thankful for that! We returned back to the mall, got gelato and headed back to the hotel for the night!

Saturday we woke up and Dad and I went for a run along the coast which was great. I have not had a chance to head down there yet for a run and the air felt significantly better. Afterwards we ate a hotel breakfast and then headed over to visit Huaca Pucllana, which is a pre Incan ruin site in Lima, very close to my house. It was pretty interesting to learn and the weather was great! Lots of sun for the day. I then took my parents on their first Peru bus adventure! It was not all that adventurous, but we took a bus to Parque Kennedy then got off to eat lunch at Astrid and Gaston, one of the world’s top restaurants. I believe it lived up to my expectations. I had a delicious cocktail, I had a delicious meal. I will post pictures later. Eventually… I hope.

Sunday, we met with my Peruvian family for yet another, buffet lunch. We had a nice time, finished around five then went to see a movie! Just me, mom and dad. We saw Friends with Benefits, and it was pretty entertaining, and the most interesting thing was how I completely forgot what country I was in. Sitting in a theater with my parents watching a movie in English… At the end, when we were walking out and I heard people speaking Spanish, I finally remembered where I was…

Afterwards, we went home, my parents got packed, and I said goodbye to them for they took an early flight to Cusco! Speaking of which, I now have to go pack! I am going to meet them there tomorrow! YAY.

Ica y Paracas

This weekend’s trip was another great one filled with sunshine and exciting adventures. Once again, I only wish we had more time! About a four hour bus ride took us from Lima to the department of Ica, which is a desert coastal department in Southern Peru. We arrived at the Huacachina Oasis to ride dune buggies and sand board which at first I was not all that excited about for whatever reason. However, when we got off the bus and I felt the perfectly sunny 75 degree weather, I decided it didn’t really matter what we did that day, I was going to love it. We were told “no need to bring anything!” as we all jumped into dune buggies, buckled our seat belts and were excited about doing whatever it was we were doing even though I think few of us even had a clue… We started driving and I was almost instantly reminded of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. With the sound of the cutting engines and then the jostling of the buggy that turned into an all-out insane adventure ride brought to us by our awesome driver. It was soooo much fun. I was in the back with Kyle and Kristen and we were just laughing, laughing and laughing our heads off, with others screaming and some waving their hands in the air, when really all I wanted to do was hold on for dear life! It was pretty crazy. We eventually stopped, hopped out at the top of a giant sand hill, and were handed boards. They said, lay down, elbows in, legs apart and pushed us down the hill. It reminded me a lot of sledding except dirtier (covered in sand…) but slightly less dangerous feeling. I don’t think wiping out in sand would hurt as much as snow or worse, ice. It was really fun the only disappointing thing was we only did three sand hills… so I didn’t get to do it very many times, but I think I enjoyed the buggy ride the most anyways!

We got back to the oasis entrance area and had lunch, I tried a little bit of everything we had, chicha morada for drinking, appetizers and arroz con pollo and sopa seca. After we ate, we got on the bus to return to our hotel where we were to have free time for the rest of the day. We arrived at the hotel around 3pm and I am thinking “what on earth are we going to do all day?” but, upon entering the grounds, we discovered there was a TON to do. I swam in the pool, went on the water slide and then did some more sand boarding on the hotels giant sand dune in the back   of their lot! We also went on the playground and enjoyed some extremely comfortable swings! There was a gold course, horseback riding, karaoke, and tons more to do. It was a really pretty hotel. When dinner time rolled around, a few of us grabbed a taxi and said, “take us to somewhere good to eat” which he did, but we pretty quickly concluded was too expensive. We then spotted a place called ‘Mango’, which looked like a fruit stand with a little more to offer. We ate some delicious sandwiches and I had my first chicharrón sandwich in Peru and I was in heaven! After that we meandered and purchased some dessert and sweet wine and headed back to the hotel for a relaxing night.

Sunday morning we awoke to an amazing hotel breakfast buffet. A chef at the grill to make to order omlettes, there was also maybe 10 different types of bread including chocolate croissants, there was French toast, tamales, an array of meats and cheeses, a cauldron of delicious hot chocolate and many more things. The hot chocolate here is so interesting. It has this slight hint of chai every time I drink it, but whenever I ask how it is made, they always tell me “chocolate and milk”. So I think I have concluded that the type of chocolate they use for hot chocolate must just be slightly different then whatever we use at home but I just cant place it yet. Its chai-esqe…

Anyways… after that paragraph on food… we got on the bus to go to Paracas, a coastal town where we boarded large motor boats to head out to see the Islas Ballestas. These islands had lots of sea lions, lots of penguins. Lots of birds and mostly importantly-lots of bird poop! It was really interesting to see these guano islands after I and a few other of my friends in the program, have learned about the guano boom in Peru in our History of Peru class. The use of this bird poop as a fertilizer and economic stimulus for the Peruvian economy in the middle of the 19^th century is a very important piece of Peruvian history but was also just very, very smelly. After taking way too many pictures of sea lions and birds, we headed back to shore to have a delicious lunch and do some shopping in the outside markets. We then took the bus back to cloudy Lima to continue our lives here!


Pictures can be found in my Facebook album here:Pictures of Ica y Paracas!

Machu Picchu

We started our day early in order to be one of the 400 visitors of the day to climb Huayna Picchu which means “smaller mountain” in Quechua. And by smaller, it does not mean small… The sun was out bright and early and five minutes into the hike, everyone in our group had stripped to their last layer of clothing, which luckily for me was workout pants and a tank top, in comparison to some who were in jeans. No matter what outfit you were wearing, that hike worked up a sweat! It was 45 minutes more or less up, up, up the mountain with lots of stairs, and lots of precarious edges and one very small, very dark cave. I struggled to get through that little cave, and there are many people on that trip taller than myself. I was quite impressed! Once we got to the top there was an amazing view. I don’t know if I have ever hiked to the tippy top of a mountain before and it’s really awesome to look at all the pictures of Machu Picchu now and say hey, see that really tall mountain up there? I was on the top of it. After taking copious amounts of pictures at the top, we started the hike back down. That was the part that got me. It was definitely difficult, it was definitely hard. Probably the second hardest thing I have done in the past year after racing an 800 on my home track. Finishing that hike with no falls, cuts or bruises, was enough for me to pack up and go home 100% rewarded and thrilled beyond imagination. But don’t worry, I didn’t go home yet. We then got a tour with our same guides we have had all weekend in Cusco and Ollantaytambo and we learned about various myths, facts, assumptions and knowledge they had about this ancient Incan city. It was really interesting to hear about and we did tons more walking. After that, we had about two hours of free time to just walk around and explore. That time was fabulous as well. We took pictures, sat on ledges and enjoyed the view, talked, met other travelers from all over the world and ate some snacks that we brought for the day (obviously). The scenery was just amazing and I wish I could express it in words but I just can’t. Look at the pictures, go visit yourself. I highly recommend it. I am so excited for my parents to come and see it.


I have now seen 2 of the 7 wonders of the world and that’s so exciting to me! That was never a goal of mine in life but, I might make it be. After being there, after being here, I just feel like there are so many things in the world that I still need to see and still need to visit. I have always loved to travel and I have always wanted to go all over the world but the longer I stay here the more I realize how much I have to learn and how much I have to see.

In addition to my own amazement and enjoyment of the day, being around my new friends and seeing the wonder on their faces after every turn or climb made me so happy. We have such a diverse group of people here. Some people have traveled all over, some people have never left the U.S, some people are 19, some are 28 and I loved the clashing of experiences and watching everyone go through the day. Leah’s voice was in the back of my head all day, or wait, Leah was probably just right behind me all day which is why her voice was around all day and it was amazing because every few minutes would just come a deep breath and a “wow” or a “holy crap” or “check this view” and I loved it. I loved enjoying it and feeling other people enjoy it and just feeling magnificently high.

Speaking of high: Here is a fun Peru facts paragraph about the coca plant and coca leaves. Coca is the plant that cocaine is made from. Here, it has a deep history and was used by the ancient civilizations as a multi-purpose plant. It curbed hunger, it gave you energy and for those of us who are not accustomed to altitude, we drink mate de coca tea like cocaine addicts (which maybe is a small possibility), we suck on coca candies, or chew on coca leaves to help prevent altitude sickness. We used the leaves as a remedy for our train trip to Junin a few weeks back as well and the tea is served at all the hotels, planes, trains and whenever we are traveling to somewhere with altitude. Some people thought the flavor was really bad but I thought it was pretty good. It was definitely a different flavor than I have tasted before but it’s something I will never have in the states so might as well have it here!

After Machu Picchu everything just seemed a little better. We did some more shopping at a market full of alpaca fur things, held some baby llamas, fed some alpacas and vicuñas at a little petting zoo/animal park thing and we returned home to cloudy cold Lima late Monday evening. But even the lack of sun didn’t damped my spirits because even as I write this now, I feel slightly warmer and can get butterflies in my stomach when I remember jumping into the air with the most beautiful backdrop in the world behind me.

*All Machu Picchu pictures can be found in my Cusco and Machu Picchu album as well as on my Facebook!*

Cusco and Ollantaytambo

We started our weekend arriving to Cusco in the beautiful sunshine! We checked into our hotel, walking slowly everywhere as most of us felt the altitude whack us in the face… We then got a city walking/bus tour and saw Sacsaywaman, the Cathedral in Cusco and Qoricancha. Qoricancha was a religious temple built to worship the Inca’s more important God, Inti, the Sun God. Sacsaywaman was the former capital of the Incan Empire. There was a lot of walking, a lot of stairs and one very small, pitch black cave that we walked through. Still feeling the altitude, it was definitely a lot of work to get around. The Cathedral was beautiful and we spent a ton of time listening to the guide talk about different paintings and statues and walking around inside. I love visiting churches so much more now than I did when I was young. These cathedrals in themselves are works of art and are filled with history and even more art! I also love the blending of cultures that can be seen in the religion and the churches here. For example, in a giant portrait of the Last Supper in the Cathedral, the food in the center piece of the table is a cuy (guinea pig) which is a traditional Peruvian meal, and not so traditional in other Catholic countries… After that we grabbed dinner and I crashed from exhaustion in the hotel to prepare for the next day!

Saturday, we bused to and through the Sacred Valley watched a wool dying and weaving presentation, walking through the Ollantaytambo Ruins and eating a tasty lunch buffet. The walk through the ruins of this Incan city was like a mini warm up for Machu Picchu! There was a plethora of stairs and beautiful mountains to be seen and more interesting facts to be learned about from our awesome tour guides. After lunch we went to a bar where we learned about a common drink in the Cusco region called Chicha, which is a fermented corn beer. It tasted okay but the Chicha with strawberries and sugar that they drink at parties, birthdays and special occasions was much more delicious. We then hung out playing this bar game where you try to throw a coin into the mouth of this frog mouth (not a live frog) although, it was pretty hard. We ended our day in the Sacred Valley by getting on the train to Aguas Calientes, the city of Machu Picchu, where we checked into our hotel and slept, again in preparation for our next big day to come!

Water parks in the winter

This weekend we went on a Mirabus (one of those double decker buses with a loud lady talking about everything that you pass by) and we were the funny people on top taking pictures of everything from the Cathedral to adorable small dogs. Or wait, maybe that was just me taking those pictures.... ANYWAY. It was quite fun, but pretty darn cold up on that bus zooming around Lima at night. We saw Central Lima in the night time and it was very pretty and there were lots of people. I am looking forward to going back sometime soon in the daylight and to walk around and see more things and take more pictures. We saw about 5 different weddings/wedding pictures take place that night, so obviously, its a great place for pictures!

Our final arrival destination on the bus before we headed back was this water park called Parque de la Reserva and it was so much fun! There are fountains all over the place! Some you can run through, some are colored, some move with music! It was like Disneyland in fountain form. All I kept thinking was how much fun this would be on a hot summer evening! A few people went through a fountain and got themselves wet, I decided against that but they looked like they had fun!

After we finished the Mirabus and got dropped off at Parque Kennedy, a group of us grabbed some Pinkberry (naturally) and then stayed out for the evening dancing and hanging out! It was quite a fun time!

On Sunday, our family lunch was at a Chifa restaurant! Now, these Peruvians are very proud of their Chifa. They tell us all the time, it is like your Chinese food, but with a Peruvian twist! Now, it was delicious and i enjoyed it very much, however...it pretty much just tasted like Chinese food... In my opinion. Its possible that the dishes we ordered were not some of the more Peruvian influenced, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless! We had wontons, chicken dumplings, fried rice and more! Then, after, we went to a tea/gelato place and i had some AMAZZZZING ice cream and hot tea. It was fabulous. And of course, always a good time to hang out with the three brothers, mom and dad, because there is never a dull moment... This Sunday, Jessa and I "learned" that there is some sort of phrase that Pochy translated to us as "being a finger" that means "being annoying". We cannot quite figure out how she came about this translation, but we are big fans of the phrase. Now, whenever any of the boys are being dumb, we just say "Stop being a finger!!"

Also, just today, I learned in my History of Contemporary Peru class that the name "chifa" comes from the Chinese words "Chi fan" which mean to eat! I hope that's right or else I look dumb... but that's what my teacher said!

That is all for now folks!

Dear Blog World:

My parents are the most wonderful people in the world for making this trip possible. I am so lucky.

Thank you.

Back to school!

Depending on the time of day (heavy traffic around 8am and 6pm) it takes 40-80 minutes on the bus to get to my school a couple towns over. Upon leaving the house, I walk just about a block and around the corner to Benevides, the large street, maybe 3 lanes each way and cross the street to catch the bus going the correct direction. The bus I want is one of the larger ones, not the smaller, minivan sized combis, which are very squishy and small, and in my opinion, better for trips a little shorter than my daily commute to school. The bus is brown and yellow and says “La Molina” on the front somewhere usually. But the color is the way to catch it. There is always a bus driver (usually male) and a cobradora (male, female and maybe even kid/teen).

The cobradora is like the circus ring man. as the bus drives, he is hanging from the bus door, waving his hands and appears to yell “come one come all, the greatest bus on earth right here, get on!!” and the funny thing is, I don’t know why they need to sell the bus. It’s a bus, people either need to take that bus, or not. I don’t really believe it’s much of an option. But, at the same time, they are directing people in a sense, yelling where they are going in the middle of some whistles and ‘get on!’s. Once I am on, maybe sitting, or maybe standing, gripping the yellow handrails for dear life, the cobradora eventually comes through with their handful of coins, ‘shake shake shake’ all down the aisle till they get to you. “Where are you going?” “La Molina” I answer, and sometimes I add “Universidad de San Ignacio de Loyola” but they tend to not care about that. I give them my 2 soles, wait for my 50 centimos change and try to get comfy in my seat or wedged between whomever I happen to be standing next to. The ride isn’t too bad already; I think I got used to it fast, although I will never be 100% secure with the insanity that is driving in Lima. When the bus driver is going to stop at a bus stop, he honks. When he wants to leave the bus stop, he honks, when he wants to change lanes, he honks, when the light turns green, he honks. Basically, all means of communication is through honking. I sure hope all the other drivers on the road know the difference between the “I’m stopping” honk and the “I’m changing 5 lines” honk. Ha…..ha…..

When it’s time to get off, you make your way to a door, front or back, and say “baja” until the door is opened. Once I am off it’s a short walk across the street and then I am at school! Yay!

Taxis are also a pretty convenient way to get around and cheap if you have a car full of people, which we usually do. Taxis here are not set prices if you get them off the street. You bargain your price before you get in. for most of the trips we take, we are able to bargain it from 10 to 8, or from 8 to 6. I think we always aim at least one sol less than they originally propose. Once we agree, we pile in, and split the pay when we arrive at our destination. It’s quite nice for going to dinner or going out on in the evenings because it’s easier and more convenient than the buses, and sometimes just as cheap.

The traffic and transportation is just another part of the culture that I am slowly learning! There are a lot more interesting things that happen and have happened on these trips and I will write as funny things happen but for now, this is a good glimpse at what my daily commute is like.

Ciao : )

Junín

This weekend we went on our first group trip. It started with a train ride on “The Ferrocarril Central Andino joining Lima to Huancayo (The capital city of the department of Junín). This is the second highest railway in the world and the highest passenger train in the world. Thejourney through the heart of Peru is simply breathtaking. It is an 11 hour experience where the train reaches an altitude of 15,681ft and goes through 69 tunnels, 58 bridges and makes 6 zigzags.” It was a pretty cool experience to look back on, but in all honesty, painfully long, and the altitude was pretty difficult as well. A few people got really sick, and I just felt pretty crappy for a majority of the trip… Some people were fine, and I do envy them, because I just did not enjoy the day much. After the train ride we stayed at a hotel in Huancayo.

The next day we took a bus into the jungle, hiked a beautiful trail, swam in a waterfall, danced with a native tribe, toured and taste tested coffee, jams and fruits at a coffee plantation and after a long day of amazingness, ended up at a beautiful hotel. The view from our room was spectacular. We were all in bungalows up a mountain side overlooking a valley with a river and mountains across from us. I did not wake up to see the sun rise, but luckily my friend Zach has some pictures and it was beautiful! When I got up at 7 I sat out on the balcony with the sun pouring in and just stared at the blue sky and the nature that I will not get again for a while. There was a pool and sunshine to be enjoyed, what more could we ask for in the middle of winter!? I wish we could have stayed there for a week. It was so beautiful and warm and sunny. I should elaborate more on every single aspect of what I saw during the day, but this entry would be pages long. Hopefully the pictures will be enough! There is so much to this country and it is so beautiful!

Pictures will be posted in my Picasa Album soon!!

Pizza and Pinkberry!

Arriving to the hospital on Tuesday morning I was really excited to see the girls because I had spent some time thinking about what other stuff I could bring to their room for us to play with but was extremely sad/happy to see that Estefani had left to go home.  She, like the other girls in the unit I was working in had some type of lower body trauma injury. In the time I was working there, she did not have on a cast or anything but from the looks of it is was a problem with her leg. I am glad she was doing well enough to go home but so sad to see her go because I found a puzzle about different countries and I was so excited to teach her! But it was a great day with the three girls nonetheless. The oldest girl is starting rehab for her leg and is up and about on a walker sometimes. One of the other girls, Britany, has a cast all the way around her hip/waist area and cannot really sit up very well. They all progress at different rates and starting next week I think I will be working with different rooms and different units.

We decided to eat dinner at La Calle de Las Pizzas (Pizza Street) in Miraflores and we had a great time. This is a touristy spot in my opinion and when we arrived out of the taxi, and met up with a few other friends making us about 8 American students, we were immediately followed by waiters and waitresses from every restaurant promising us free drinks! Two free drinks! You like wine? We have beer! And it was very entertaining. We finally picked a place, and got our free pisco sours. They were quite…sour… But it was quite exciting to have my first pisco sour! We ordered a few pizzas to share and just had a really fun dinner. Afterwards we walked around, got some frozen yogurt at Pinkberry (yay globalization!) and perused a flea market in Parque Kennedy.

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday was orientation for all international students at USIL (my university) and there is quite a group. I think the number was around 90 or 95. There are students from all over the place, France, Germany, Colombia, Spain and we will be mixed in with the rest of the population of Peruvian students at the school. I will be taking classes on Tuesdays (Intro to Gastronomy 11-1, Spanish 3-5), Wednesdays (History of Contemporary Peru 9-12, Spanish 3-5) and Thursdays (Bar workshop/management 8-11, Gastronomy 11-1 and Spanish 3-5). I will be working at the hospital on Mondays and Fridays and some Saturdays as well. I am excited to start school in the sense that I am looking forward to meeting new people and practicing my Spanish with Peruvian students, and I hope to not stress about it and just have a fun time learning.

At the orientation we also got to see one of the schools dance clubs and a music club perform and it was really fun. I am going to look into taking a dance class or something at the school if I have time, although I doubt I will…

Late Saturday Nights=Slow Sundays

“On Sunday, we sleep sleep sleep” is what Pochy told us, sounded good to Jessa and I who were still in bed at 1pm this morning after our first shot at the Peruvian nightlife. In my opinion, we did well. The group was a ton of fun and the club we went to was fun, but not too crazy.

Sunday when all the brothers were finally up and showered around 3:30, we went to lunch at a place that specializes in northern Peruvian cuisine. We had a few typical plates: ceviche, causa (shrimp and chicken), seco de cabrito, langostinos reventados and per usual, everything was tasty and I ate a ton! Then after a while of eating and talking we went to a little Italian café for dessert and coffee. There appear to be a lot of cafés around, and a pretty popular place for people of all ages. It was really nice to have some family time because during the week everyone (including Jessa and I) are running around doing our own thing, and I only see everyone for a few minutes here and there when we sit on Diego’s bed after he gets home from work at the hospital, or when we bug Alvaro by stealing his computer and writing on his white board. (yes, we are excellent sisters). In the evening we went over to Leah’s house and bugged her brother! It was quite the family filled day.

Monday started with another morning at the hospital. They sent me alone this time but they sent me to the same room with the chicas so I would hopefully have an easier time. Although, this time there was also a boy in the room and I didn’t have any planned activity for them (like the masks last week), only the games, books and art supplies that I brought from the volunteer room and it was definitely an overwhelming day. Let me tell you about some of the great highlights though. The 16 year old loves listening to the radio and she is constantly calling me over to ask what a song is about. Some were easy (Shania Twain-you’re still the one) and some are a little more difficult to explain (Love the way you lie-Eminem and Rihanna…seriously, that song is twisted.) But she loves asking me how to say things in English and she is always very helpful when I am struggling to understand the younger girls. Now, the younger girls are not able to grasp the concept that I can’t speak Spanish. When I ask them to repeat something, or hand them a marker when they asked for a paint brush, they think I am quizzing them or playing a game. Which is in some ways cute, but in some ways just plain embarrassing. Today, Estefani asked me “porque no hablas como nosotros?” (why don’t you talk like us) and when I told her that I was from the US, and that I spoke English, she had no clue what that meant. I asked her if she knew other countries, and I named some of the countries that border Peru, but she did not understand the concept and could not understand what it meant. She definitely warmed up to me the fastest and wanted the most attention from me while I was there. When I was packing up to leave, she hugged me so tight, I almost stayed just to keep hugging this tiny little girl with the most beautiful smile. She asked if I was coming back tomorrow. When I told her yes, she made me promise, about six times. I promised her, and that hug made the stress of trying to keep them all happy so so so worth the bit of stress.

After I got home from the hospital, I ate lunch and then a few of us took a taxi to larcomar to walk around for a few hours. Larcomar is a mostly outside mall that is basically on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The mall has shops, movie theatres, restaurants and two major discotecas. After walking around for a while we walked along the coast through various parks along the way, including Parque del Amor and a really pretty lighthouse. OH and I forgot. I was wearing sandals! Because the sun came out! And I was so excited that I just had to put on sandals! Unfortunately, the sun was only out for about 45 minutes, and by the time we got to the coast, with that cold breeze going, I was pretty darn cold. But oh well! It was exciting nonetheless.

Palabrites! (La playa)

Leah’s family has a beach house about an hour or so south of where we live and they invited us for Friday and Saturday. The drive was so interesting because we got to see a very different Peru than where we have been living. In Miraflores and Central Lima, there is traffic, nice cars, McDonalds, and high end housing, just like any gigantic city in the world. But on this drive, we saw the slums, a lot of dirt, a lot of empty space, a lot of empty walls and a lot of political graffiti. There was not a lot of green, it was mostly dirt mountains and dirt holes, and what looked like miles and miles of land that was under construction. We tried to take pictures of the drive but it will be hard to get a sense of what it really was.

When we arrived, it was sort of a gated community with lots of beach condos, rows and rows, and we were maybe the only ones there. Keep in mind, it is the dead of winter right now, but that did not make this any less exciting for us! We dropped of our stuff and put on our sweatshirts and walked along the beach. It was wonderful to feel that fresh costal air in place of the downtown air we have been in so far. The sound of the waves gave me a slight twinge of homesickness as I realized I am missing San Diego early fall, the best beach time, but it left as quick as it came when I remembered how incredible it was that I was walking in the same pacific ocean as my teammates and having the experience of a lifetime.

We ate an amazing lunch as usual and then Jessa and I ran on the boardwalk and I inhaled as much clean air as a possible to take home with me. We stayed up late hanging out on the patio with Marcos (Leahs ‘brother’) and Yayo, his friend and finally went to bed around 2 am,  the three of us gals snuggled up under our blankets.

After a slow start this afternoon with car troubles, and lots of pushing Marcos’s car along the road, we finally got back to Miraflores just in time for dinner and a nap before we head out for the evening. What’s a weekend beach adventure without a little car trouble?

Thursday!

Thursday was quite a day. In 100% a good way. I woke up early to go to the hospital for my first shift at the hospital. I really feel as though my volunteer experience is going to need a whole other blog for itself, but I will try to not gush about it too much, but please forgive me if I do. The other people working there were fantastic people. Peruvian students, Peruvian adults, and I met three other American girls, two from Virginia and one from Saratoga who is currently attending Stanford. So of course, we clicked right away and they had me go with her so we could do my first day in pairs. I worked in a ‘trauma unit’ more or less and worked in a room with 4 girls, ages 6, 7, 7 and 15. These girls were incredible cute, incredible sweet and so excited to be hanging out with us. We decorated masks, leaving me with glue, magic marker and paint all over my arms, and they were quite the artists. Or at least, compared to what I could have done with some glitter, feathers and a paper cut out mask. I was with them from 9-12 and it was wonderful. I wish I could work there every day. However, hay problemas. It is a 40 minute bus ride the other direction from my school. (which is also a 40 minute bus ride) and they only have morning shifts and I have classes in the mornings three days a week D: It is a shame but I am going to be there as much as possible.

After that we took our Spanish placement test which wasn’t too bad and we got to mingle with a lot of the other international students from all over the place who are also studying at USIL. We also got to spend a little more time on the campus and of course got more practice with taking the bus back and forth.

It was a very busy day with a very rushed lunch in between work and school but I enjoyed it because it felt like how a regular week day should feel like! I think I am going to get the hang of this pretty fast.

*from one Wong to another...

Today was in some ways a more low key kind of day. We only had to sign up for classes but we had our first transporation communication failure. It wasn’t an adventure or even a funny story, it was just us being kinda stupid. But we ended up only being a bit late and it was fine because we ended up having more time to talk and think about classes and learn things from Kelly, the director of USIL, about Peru. Since we finished earlier today, (home by 2) we had a more normal time lunch, I had some sort of sliced pork with rice and a creamy lentil kind of side.

After we finished, Jessa and I walked to meet the other girls at Wong: a grocery store with a little extra stuff, but easiest to compare to a grocery store. A bit of an interesting adventure because there are two Wongs in walking distance and we didn’t all meet together right away but thank goodness for our new cellphones!! We fidured it out, spent a long time exploring the store and (here comes a bit of scandalous information…) A couple of us bought alcohol! How exciting! Although, I am not sure if you can call the mostly juice/sugar “wine” we got alchohol, but it was an experience none the less. ( I think the proof was 4%) We then went home and sat on the floor and ate Inca Chips, drank wine and played banana grams! I am really liking this group of girls we have going and I am so glad we all live so close to be able to hang out all the time!

After they left Jessa and I had dinner, which was a more typical dinner, we had an omlete (mine with ham and Jessa’s with vegetables because she is a seafood but not meat eater) strawberries and some bread. We also had some nice warm tea.

I don’t think I mentioned the weather yet but let me tell you-It is cold. It is 60-65 degrees but when the sun is never out (never, ever, ever out) it doesn’t really feel like 65 does at home. We are in pants, long sleeves and a jacket every day. It is not unbearable and I am doing fine but it is definitely colder than I expected because of the lack of sun. 65 is not pants and sweatshirt and scarf and boots weather in San Jose or in San Diego…

Tomorrow I am going to the hospital that I am going to work at to check things out with Maria Elena, the elap (which is the volunteer program I will be doing) director and then after we are taking a Spanish placement test to see which Spanish class we will take during the year. While I was planning to go study for said test now, Alvaro’s friends are here and they have challenged me to a game of poker so, how can I refuse?? I must go play!

CIAO <3

rice and starch, arroz y choclo

On Tuesday, the five of us chicas took a taxi together again, but this time to USIL, the university that we will be studying at starting in about two weeks. The taxi took about 20 minutes (without traffic) although once school starts it may take closer to 30 with rush hour and people being back from their vacations. So far, our host moms, who all seem to be amigas, are herding us like little sheep, together, into Taxis that they chose and call for us. They seem to think we are not ready to attempt transportation via combi (small buses) or micros (slightly bugger buses) but they will warm up soon (we are hoping). It has been really fun so far to get close with these 4 other girls. We are an interesting group, from Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Maryland and California, all with different levels of Spanish which is a ton of fun because we have all been teaching and helping each other. We arrived to USIL and did a sort of orientation with Michelle again, only this time is was for USIL only. (The group is split between 3 universities) We walked around the campus a little bit and I posted a few pictures but I am sure there will be many more to come. It is a very modern and pretty campus. It is fairly new campus in Lima and is very well known for its cooking school and its international program because it offers a wide variety of classes in English. They have lots of extracurricular activities like dance classes, music lessons, and teams which in reality I will probably not have any time for… But that is okay! I have lots of other things to do, places to go and people to see!

We then had lunch at the little shopping center right next to our school where we all had lunch together. I had a DELICIOUS pretty typical ‘lunch’ in Peru (which is their biggest meal of the day) with causa con pollo (chicken) for an appetizer, lomo saltado (delicious meat, onions, tomatoes, rice and fried potatoes) for my entrée and chicha morada for drink. IT WAS SO GOOD. I also tried some friend’s foods, including crema de rocoto and a soup of some sort and a fish of some sort. Delicious.

After we finished touring the school, the 25 of us (more or less) went with our three directors by combi to Jocky Plaza, a kind of upscale mall with a lot of American stores and brands (including iStore, Guess, Nike etc) In the parking lot there is also a Tottus, which is a Target type of store. We walked around the mall a bit and I purchased a cell phone for about $25 dollars with some prepaid minutes and texts so now I can communicate with my friends and host family and it has been pretty helpful so far! I got to know some more of the group during this time as well because we split up in the mall and so it was easier to talk to people one on one more. We walked past a movie theatre which had a million show times of harry potter and tickets (GET THIS) were the most expensive ones around and they were only 12 soles (which is around $5!) however on Tuesdays it is 2 for 1 tickets (in most cinemas in the city) and there are places much cheaper where it only costs 7 soles for a movie ticket! What a deal! How am I ever going to be able to go to a 3D movie in California again!?! We took the combi back to school then got picked up by Leah’s mom and arrived home around 6:30, with tired brains and were very hungry. As usual, upon our entrance into the house, Maria Christina and her magical self began cooking and I had some DELICIOUS chicken and rice and potatoes. No, she did not know that we technically already had our “lunch” since she did not cook for us SO we were fed a full meal again. Yes, rice and potatoes. Again. Yes, two carbs in every meal. Yes I am going to get fat. No, I do not care-EVERYTHING I have eaten is delicious!! Apparently you eat rice with near every meal here and you rarely have a side salad or vegetable, but usually another starch. 

I love it, I am going to run on Thursday. I SWEAR :D

el primer dia

I have arrived safe and sound in Peru! After a long day of flying and a 30 minute bus drive to La Universidad del Pacifico (UP) I met my host mom (Pochy), dad (Raul) and my new 'twin sister' Jessa who is also in the program with me and is from Maryland. Raul, drove us to our house in Miraflores, about a 30 minute drive in his 'pickup' (pronounced 'peekup') which he told us proudly is an American car. When we arrived home close to 1:00 am I met the youngest of my three new brothers, Alvaro, who is 16, but like all younger brothers is way taller than me... There is also Diego (29) and Alonso (26) but they are full time students and are not around too often. Then Pochy showed us to our room, which is really more of an apartment actually separate from the rest of the very beautiful three story house. We have a downstairs living room with a 'sofa-cama' (pull out couch) a giant LG TV, a desk, a mini fridge and a bathroom. Then, up a metal spiral staircase is our room with two beds and a bathroom. It is quite nice and I will post pictures of the house and the yard soon.
After staying up way too late talking about everything from A-Z, Jessa and I have concluded that we are freakishly similar, although different enough to get along well. We finally fell asleep around 3 and slept this morning until 11. We woke up, showered and finished unpacking then went to have breakfast/lunch (or whatever you want to call cereal and orange juice past noon) Pochy took us to Wong, a supermarket/target kind of place where we picked up a few things for dinner and changed some dollar into soles.
After that Jessa and I walked over to Leah's house, another girl in the program who lives about 4 blocks from us where we met up with Sara and Shelby, two other girls that live close by so we could all share a taxi to UP for orientation with the program. The orientation was great, and our resident director is really nice and just seems happy with what she does. She is an american who married a Peruvian and has been living here for about 3 years and just had a baby 2 months ago. Her energy and how she talked reminds me of Aunt Beth. At orientation we met more students, more ISA staff and learned a lot about Peru culture, safety, money, transporation etc. After we finished we all took a taxi home together and Maria Christina, our live in helper/ totally awesome woman second mom of the family cooked dinner for Jessa and I. Pochy told us right off the bat that Maria Christina was the 'madre' of the house. She is great.
Things have been so great so far. Just enjoying getting to know people, the city and the culture little by little. I will learn more every day that I am here. I have such a great feeling about this trip.