Got DaMoude For Peru : Halfway Through!! Almost Home or Almost Leaving?

I am officially halfway to the end of my journey in Peru! Everybody told me it was going to go so fast and guess what, it definitely has. As much as I am excited to go home, be with my family, and eat a good steak; I am also sad to leave this beautiful country with the culture and people it has brought into my life. I just haven’t learned enough Spanish yet to leave! But I don’t want to think about the negatives of only having two months left. I want to talk about the positives!

The beach. Even though there has been some nice 60 degree weather in Nebraska, it is not quite beach weather yet. A couple, friends of Martin and Jenny, were at the beach too this weekend. The girl had studied abroad in Germany when she was in college and stayed with a family over there too. She understood exactly what I was going through and had so much patience with me, talked slow, and tried to include me in almost everything! She was so great!

One of the lookout points at San Bartolo beach

I made everyone French toast at the beach this weekend. Martin saw me mixing up the eggs and milk and told me that was a very strange combination. Apparently I also need to make scrambled eggs for them too. Those will change their lives. They did not know exactly what syrup was and they kept calling it honey. It said maple on it and they pronounced it mah-play. Good stuff that mah-play. As far as I could tell they all liked the French toast.

Rafael, surfer dude. We switched hats for this
picture. He is an honorary Nebraskan.

The waves were huge this weekend and Martin took me to a safe spot where I could enjoy jumping around and diving under the huge waves without being run over by a surfer or pulled out to sea. Speaking of surfing, I got to do it again (kinda)! My host mom’s nephew is a big surfer guy and he took me out into the water and had me ride the waves on my belly because the board was too small for me to stand up on at this point in my life. He told me that I have the stamina to be a surfer, so that was encouraging. Now we only need to get some waves like that in Nebraska and I could have a career!

The chicken wing

One night we had a big cookout with a bunch of different things on the grill. There was sea food, anticuchos (cow heart on a cabob is growing on me), sausages, and BBQ chicken wings. One of the family members was trying to explain chicken wings to me and started flapping her arms. I could’ve told them I knew what chicken wings were, but I did not want to stop the charades show. I was laughing so hard. This weekend at the beach I think I really gained confidence in my speaking ability and I think I am understanding anywhere from 50-90% depending on who is talking. I talk the most with Jenny, Martin, and Fabrizio so I understand them the most.

One day a couple of us went to the movies to go see Zootopia. Turns out the movie was all sold out for the night so we bought some popcorn and sat in the food court talking to Abby’s friend from crossfit. That was probably better for our Spanish than a movie because we got to talk and practice as well as listen. The crazy thing about the movies was that we could get in for $3 on a normal day and $1.50 with a coupon!! Also, a huge bucket of popcorn and two large pops were $7 total. I don’t know why I haven’t been going to the movies this whole time!

Let me tell you about the struggle of wifi here. It is terrible how much I rely on it. I could not do any of my homework, talk to my family, or plan things with my friends because the wifi was out for about 5 days. It wasn’t all that bad though because I could walk to campus for wifi if I really needed it and it really opened my eyes. I did a lot of reading in The Power of Now over the course of those days and I am learning how to be more present in the Now. I realized it is the only thing that is really real and I can’t focus on the past or worry about the future because they aren’t here. The only thing that is here and now is the present moment. With that being said, I am not going to worry that I haven’t learned enough Spanish or seen everything that I thought I needed to see because I am here in Peru at this moment and I need to put my full attention into that.

This weekend we are traveling to Cuzco to go see Machu Picchu!!! I got all packed up for that today because we are leaving early tomorrow morning! This morning I was working out in my room and I sliced my heal open on either my bed frame or my suitcase. I was bleeding everywhere and it’s a good thing Carmen came home right after I did it because I was about to cut my foot off, I was so mad at myself (not that it was going to help the situation). Good thing we don’t have to climb up a bunch of steps or hike up a mountain this weekend… oh wait. I have a band-aid and some iodine stuff and I am ready to go.

Stay tuned for my blog on Machu Picchu!

Mariah

Random Things

They call syurp, honey.
The sound of the ice cream man is not pleasant here. It is more of a dying bird sound than an ice cream song.
You should not trust the wifi man alone in your room. My host mom watched him like a hawk the entire time he was here. When he left she said he was looking around too much and probably wanted to steal something.
School has just begun for some students and they will all be in school by March 21^st. Apparently this means the traffic is going to get worse. I find that hard to believe, but they told me it will be worse.
Cookie dough here is just the powder in a bag. I was very disappointed to find this out.