Spring Fever

Homesickness. I have had a lull in my traveling and experiences here in Peru and that has allowed enough time for homesickness to set in. Throughout my time in Peru I have felt many different things and I have felt homesickness before, but it never hit me as hard as it did this last week. When I am speaking English with my friends from UNK, I do not feel homesick because it feels familiar talking with them. As soon as I am on my own, I start to think and thinking is not good. Usually I am thinking about verb conjugations or what tense I need to be using in Spanish, but recently I have been thinking about spring because it just turned to “fall” here. Fall means the weather will not be above 85 (apparently). Ever since coming back from Machu Picchu I have just been ready to go home. The weather there felt like Nebraska in spring. Even though there was a weird thunderstorm with lightning, snow, hail, and rain I still want to be home! I am diagnosing myself with homesickness and Spring Fever.

Last Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day.. We had class in downtown Lima to watch the changing of the guard at the government palace. There was so much traffic and our taxi driver took the sketchiest route to get us downtown. A couple times throughout our ride I thought she (first woman taxi driver I have seen) was taking us to the slums to sell us. Finally we got close enough to walk downtown. Lots of roads were closed off and we had to find a different way to the main square. On our walk we went down a street that was lined with about 100 men ranging from 25-85 years old. As soon as we started walking down the street the whistles started which turned into cat calls and yelling. That was probably the most scared I have ever been in Peru and I road on a bus, down a mountain, without guard rails, at night. We finally made it to the main square, but the changing of the guard had just finished. Everything in Peru starts late and the changing of the guard is the only exception. It started and finished on time. We ended up going to China Town and ate some awesome Chifa that we couldn’t even finish for under $4. After that we went to an Irish Pub called Houlihan’s to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We got our faces painted and even met some American’s from Mississippi State University. Their professor was dressed up like a Leprechaun. He was getting some weird looks from Peruvians because they don't celebrate St. Patrick's day. The owner of Houlihan's was from England which was the only reason it was being celebrated! 

I went to the beach last weekend and this is when the homesickness kicked in. After we got back from the beach on Saturday afternoon, I sat in a room and played Solitaire on my phone for 5 hours because I knew if I tried to think or talk in Spanish I would just break down and cry. There was even a surf competition going on and even that did not interest me. That was when I decided I was homesick. When we got home from the beach on Sunday I watched Up, Tangled, and Shrek the Third all in one night. Everybody is going on Spring Break in Nebraska and I watched Netflix like my life depended on it. I got to Skype my mom, Aunt Ann, and Demi so that made me feel a lot better!

This weekend I am staying in Lima while my family goes to the beach. Abby and Ahnika will be here this weekend and I think we are going to color some Easter eggs. It’s not a tradition or custom to do that in Peru so we might have to dye them with Kool-Aid! Peruvians celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week), so starting today until Sunday most of the stores close up and most people leave Lima to go to the North, South, or jungle to celebrate with their families.

Have a safe and happy Easter everyone! Drive safe on the roads and eat some jelly beans for me!

Mariah

Random Things

• Peruvians know their way around a chicken wing. I have never seen a bone so clean before I came here.
• I ate chicken foot soup the other day. My host mom was eating the feet and told me doctors recommend chicken foot soup for cancer patients because they have something in them that’s good for your bones. She was just eating it because she liked it.
• Traffic has gotten worse because of school starting.
• Our campus is filled with people, and I about have an anxiety attack walking to class every day. 

I don't have any pictures from this last week so here are some that never made it to my blog! 

The Kearney group at the awesome restaurant outside of Cusco.

My little friend Fabrizio from the Shipibo school.
He broke my heart because he didn't know how old
he was or when his birthday was. 

Most of the churches here are this intricate. 

On the side with the stoplights it says
"respect the red light". People tend to run red lights here. 

Little Bit of Everything

I have recently started counting down the days until I get to be back in Nebraska. One day I was so homesick that I counted the days on my calendar 4 different times. The day never changed so I have no idea why I thought the days would be less if I counted just one more time. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here! But I just really miss my family and different familiar things (driving, Walmart, fishing, thunderstorms, my dogs, my room, and most of all water from a well that does not have to be boiled). Even though I have been a little (a lot) homesick, I have done a lot of things this past week to keep my mind off of it.

Last weekend I went over to Claire’s house so we could sit by the pool and play some guitar. Yes, you read that right, she has a pool. On her roof. On the top floor of their apartment. Private to them. Why was that my first time there? I have no idea. We enjoyed the pool on a very hot day and then sat around for a couple hours playing my guitar. We got in a much needed country music jam session. We also thought that we sounded so good together that we might need to start a band. Stay tuned.

Side note: I had a very weird day over the weekend. On Friday morning I laid on my bed face down and listened to a Jimmy Buffet album on repeat for 4 hours until it was lunch time. I have no idea what was happening to me, but I felt better after I did that. It was the first time I had even heard some of the songs on the CD.

One of the traditional Peruvian dances. 

On Saturday, we had class at a place called Brisas de Titicaca. It was a cultural dinner dance thing. We saw many different dances that come from all over Peru and ate traditional Peruvian food. I loved it so much and took some great video! The show lasted about 3 hours with some salsa dancing for the audience in between dress changes. There was one family that was celebrating their grandma’s birthday and at the end I watched as they all danced in a circle around her and took turns going into the middle to dance with her. It was so cute and I am going to initiate that at my grandma’s birthday (Dad and Uncle Brad, please don’t think it is stupid, you WILL participate. Love you guys).

After the show, I went with Danielle, her real momma from the United States, and her host parents to downtown Lima. Having Danielle's mom here made me wish my mom could have come because I know she would have loved it all so much! We went through the catacombs again and saw some different rooms that we had not seen the first time. Then we walked around the center of Lima and bought different Peruvian desserts from vendors that were set up on both sides of the street. When it got dark, we headed to Parque de las Aguas. This time I got to watch the water and light show that they put on instead of just watching the water and lights change. I was very impressed with what they were able to do with the lights and put videos up with the water. It was absolutely amazing! 

While trying out different desserts, we also
saw lots of different Peruvian food. This is the
delicacy, cuy-cuy (guinea pig).

Mama Carmen took me to mass with her on Sunday. I am not Catholic so everything that was going on there was new to me and it was in a different language so I felt very out of place. It was a great experience for me because I was able to hear more Spanish and I can say that I have been to mass.

Today we went to a school in a lower income neighborhood to read with the kids and play some games. We played Simon Says with our group and then it was recess time. It was absolutely crazy. There were kids running everywhere, soccer balls flying around, and kids jumping all over us! Our group wanted to play water and cement which is basically freeze tag. I had so much fun playing with all of them and I was really sad when it was time for them to go back to class and for us to leave. These kids had classrooms with horrible lighting, concrete to play on for recess, and a small swing set/jungle gym for the littler kids to play on. They did not complain about one thing. They were some of the sweetest and most grateful children I have ever met and I only knew them for one hour. One of the little boys in my group gave me a bracelet that says suerte (luck) on it for a present. We all got so many hugs, smiles, and thank you’s when we were leaving that I don’t think any of us ever wanted to leave. Those little kids have my heart overflowing with absolute joy.

Our group from the Shipibo school. 

One of the other girls posted in her blog that we have less and less to talk about because we are becoming so used to taking taxis, the food, and traffic that it just doesn’t sound as interesting anymore. We are really becoming like Peruvians. Lima is becoming our home and I couldn’t agree more. This place will forever have a special part in my heart. Other than the constant honking from the taxis of course.

Chao chao for now,

Mariah

Random Things

• I have never seen regular coffee beans here. The coffee is a powder that you just stir into hot water.
• They cut their piece of bread in half and then take out some of the middle and throw it away. The middle is the best part!
• A pineapple here costs about 75 cents. All fruit is really cheap here which explains why I get fresh fruit and juice every single morning. I absolutely love it.
• Today I found food that I do not like in Peru. Hígado, better known to us English speakers as cow liver. 

This is a picture from our University of the
bathrooms. I thought it was pretty funny. 

Just some guys scooping trash on the roadside.

How cute is this little banana?

No Thought

We’ve heard about it, we’ve read about it in books, we’ve seen it in movies, and this last weekend we saw it for ourselves. I have said many different variations of that since Friday. All of the reasons I have said that are for one thing: Machu Picchu. One of the Seven Wonders of the World. I actually learned that it is pronounced Machu Picchu (peek-choo) because of the two C’s in Picchu. I also learned that it means Old Mountain in Quechua (one of the three languages spoken in Peru).

We started our trip off Friday morning at 4:30 to be at the airport by 6. For some reason we were told to be at the airport by 6 to sit around until we boarded at 9:30. Security wasn’t even hard to get through. They let us take liquids through and didn’t make us take our shoes off or anything. Peru operates differently in the airport security department. We indulged ourselves at Dunkin’ Donuts before boarding the plane for an hour flight to Cusco. When we got to Cusco we drank some mate de coco tea so we would not get sick from the altitude there. We ate some lunch and then went on a tour of Cusco. One of the places we went to were some ruins called Saqsaywaman (pronounced as sexy woman). Some of the girls were able to go down a natural rock slide and most of us made it through the tunnel to the underworld. We came out on the other side of the huge rock, but we had to squat to get though. It was so dark and I got so claustrophobic that I almost had a panic attack and went back up. I pushed through though because the girls ahead of me said that they saw light ahead. We also toured a church in Cusco that reminded me a lot of the Notre Dame. 

I used to think that Cusco was the town where Machu Picchu was. I need to take some geography classes again. We got on a bus at 6:20 in the morning on Saturday and took the most beautiful 2 hour bus ride through the mountains to a train station. We then took an amazing 2 hour train ride to the town of Aguas Calientes, which is at the base of the trek to Machu Picchu. There was so much plant life on the train ride and sometimes I felt like I was in the mountains, jungle, and the hills in Blair, Nebraska all at once. Upon arriving in Aguas Calientes we got on the scariest 30 minute bus ride up the mountain to the entrance of Machu Picchu. I will leave how scary the bus ride was to your imagination. Just know that there were no guard rails and it was mostly a straight drop down. The turns were also very sharp and there was a constant line of buses coming up and down the mountain.

Our bus stopped a couple times on our way to
Machu Picchu so we could take some pictures!

Machu Picchu here come some Lopers! 

Another stamp was put in my passport after we went through Machu Picchu!! We climbed a few flights of rocky stairs to get an amazing view of Machu Picchu. Pictures don’t even begin to show how amazing this place was. Some people say they feel something spiritual when they see Machu Picchu. I am not going to lie, I think I felt that something spiritual. There was a time while I was looking at it that I was completely speechless and I did not have a single thought in my head. Based on what I know about spiritual enlightenment, no thought is one of the most powerful things you can experience. For one of the first times in my life, I had no thought. We did not have much time to look at it though because our tour guide, Nilo, moved us along so fast through everything that we did not have time to just relax and look. I learned some cool things from him about Incan history, but I would have much rather spent my 3 hours in Machu Picchu wondering around on my own and taking my time. I can’t even begin to explain, even in English, how amazing it was there so I will just let the pictures do the talking.

I had an apple for the llamas and
they swarmed me so I threw the apple and ran.

Sunday we toured more of the surrounding towns of Cusco and saw some more ruins in Sacred Valley. We also got to shop around in some markets and I thought I might have bought more than I could get back to the United States, but I put it all in my suitcase when I got back to Lima and luckily it all fit! I just cannot buy anything else. There were some little girls in one of the markets that we could pay 1 sol to take a picture with and I couldn’t resist because they were just so cute!

Terraces of the Incas.

They were so cute!!! 

We ate at the most amazing restaurant I have ever seen. Just because it was a buffet with incredible Peruvian food was not the only reason it was the best restaurant I have eaten at (although it did play a part). When we got there, there were birds in cages outside surrounded by beautiful plants and trees. The place where the tables were looked out at the Sacred River and we were surrounded by a very beautiful landscape with the flowers, trees, and berms (as the daughter of a former landscaper, I can appreciate the work that went into that). There were also llamas and an alpaca there that we got to take some pictures with and feed! Unfortunately I do not have any of those pictures with me right now. That night we all went into the main square of Cusco and we split up to go to different restaurants and eat. Such a small world because we saw some people from Nebraska that told us they go to college in Wayne and Chadron and are here backpacking for 12 days!

Main square in Cusco. On the left side of the picture is the
church we toured that reminded me of the Notre Dame. 

Go Huskers!!

Mariah

Random Things

• Facebook is just called “Face” here. One lady asked if she could have my face and I was a little confused until I remembered that “Face” is what they call Facebook!
• School has started and I can hear little kids crying every morning because they do not want to leave their parents.
• There are 3 official languages of Peru and one of them was spoken in Cusco. It is called Quechua and is spoken by the people that live in the Sierra. 

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. 

Every night people put their trash out on the
corner and some magic garbage guy on a bike
comes and gets it in the middle of the night.

These trees have beautiful red flowers in them
and would make a perfect tree house tree.

I get to walk passed this awesome business
every day on my way to class. 

As I was writing this blog I was visited by this
huge, un-killable bug. My window is shut now.

USA, Paracas, and Memories

We traveled to the United States this week, southern Peru, and Lugar de la Memoria. We got a lot done and might have even cried a little bit.

United States (embassy that is)

Last Thursday we got to go see the United States Embassy and listen to a speaker there. Due to security reasons, we were not allowed to have our phone to take pictures. So, unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of that amazing place. We felt air conditioning for the first time since we have been in Peru and it was glorious. The lady that spoke to us has been all around the world and can speak several different languages because of her job. I would love to be able to speak a second language fluently and hopefully that is Spanish because that’s kind of why I am in Peru. It was great to be on American soil for a short time!

Paracas

Friday, we got on a bus for 3 hours to go to the city of Paracas found in the southern part of Peru for a field trip. We knew we were going to be staying in a hotel there, but little did we know that the hotel was going to be a 5 star resort with a gigantic pool and a beautiful view of an ocean bay. We got to go kayaking, paddle boarding, and relax at the amazing pool. Best field trip ever (sorry Mrs. Lindekugal, the Dancing Leaf Earth Lodge just didn’t compare)! That wasn’t even the best part.

On Saturday we got to go to Islas Ballestas, which are a group of islands about a 30 minute boat ride from the main land. On the boat ride we passed a pod (pack?) of wild dolphins and everybody freaked out because… DOLPHINS! I think that is pretty self-explanatory. When we got to the islands we got to see thousands of birds, hundreds of sea lions (sea wolves if you translate from Spanish), and three penguins! We also passed by a beach on the island called Playa Maternidad (maternity beach) and there were tons of little baby sea lions! There were so cute and I wanted to hold one so badly but I don’t think a protective mama sea lion would’ve liked it if I swam into shore and grabbed one of her babies. I just don’t think she would have liked that very much. The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool. That night we got to play Monopoly Peru edition. We thought that was so much fun because there were places on there that we had been and places that we wanted to go to. (Pictures of the island at the bottom!)

Sunday was spent stuffing ourselves with all the fresh fruit and bread at breakfast. I am really going to miss the pineapple and pineapple juice here because it is so so so so so good! I can’t even describe how good it is. You’re just going to have to come try some. Some of us played some volleyball after that. It was kind of hard to move, or breathe for that matter, but somehow we played anyway. We also found some snorkel gear at the kid’s club (we still act like kids) and took it to the pool! As soon as the goggles we on our heads, we instantly started acting like 3^rd graders again. We were doing handstands, trying to walk up the stairs in the pool on our hands, yelling at each other underwater, having underwater tea parties, and doing flips. It’s just a reminder that no matter how old we think we are, the kid inside of us is still alive. Something just has to trigger it (like a pool and goggles), and when it gets triggered, the little things bring us the most joy.

That night I got a taxi home by myself from the bus station. The taxi driver was older and he must not have heard the correct address because we ended up 30 minutes away from my house. I felt so bad that all I had to give him was 20 soles (6.50 American dollars), 50 cents, and an American dollar. It was originally only supposed to be 18 soles, but I felt bad and gave him everything I had. I could’ve thrown in my chapstick too, but for some reason I don’t think he wanted that very bad.

This week for our literature class, we took a field trip to Lugar de la Memoria (place of memory). This was all about terrorism in Peru from 1980-2000. The building was split into three levels. Level 1: terrorism and how it all started. Also, what they did and how people were treated. Level 2: How Peruvians reacted to terrorism brought on by their own people and how they got rid of it. Level 3: A memorial to the victims. There were several times throughout that I felt really sick to my stomach, confused, and shocked. The pictures were very graphic, there were videos of the victims speaking about what happened to them (really cool because the screens were big and made the people look like they were standing right in front of you), and drawings from kids involved in the terrorism; those were definitely the most disturbing. They drew the terrorists shooting their families, but the terrorists were smiling in the pictures. If you want to learn more about the terrorism in Peru here is the link. I highly recommend watching it. It was very eye opening that something like that ended here only 16 years ago. This was definitely one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. They don’t call it a museum though because they want it to be a place for people to realize that this happened and they can’t let such devastation happen ever again.

Next weekend we go to Machu Picchu and I think we are all very excited about that! It’s so hard to believe that we are almost to the half way point of our trip. I feel happy because I get to go home and see my family, but also sad because I have to leave this wonderful place and I just haven’t learned enough Spanish to leave yet.

Keep the kid alive,

Mariah

Random things

• They say snack in English, but they pronounce it eh-snack. They also do this with other words that are English but start with S. I can’t think of any more right now, but I’ll try to come up with some more.
• Ice cream shops here sell the BEST ice cream. Nothing gets better than homemade ice cream, of course, but this stuff comes pretty darn close.
• I am becoming very good at talking people down in prices.
• Almost all shirts here are called polos because of Ralph Lauren. These shirts don’t necessarily have to have a collar though, they can just be a t-shirt.
• I think they might just create jobs here. There are people standing around gates to get paid, others that sweep the streets, and some people even sweep the roofs. What? 

3 Cactus Thing. I obviously don't remember
the name for it. But you can see it 7 miles away!

Awesome sea food pasta I had at the resort. 

Some sea lions just lounging around

Sea lion haven

I just thought this would make an awesome picture.
And it did. 

The ladies sweeping the roof outside my
bedroom window. 

Spring Break: Do's and Don'ts

I’m so sorry you haven’t been able to read all about my life the last couple of weeks, and if by reading this is how you make sure that I’m still alive, I’m sorry it’s been so long (I’m okay Grammy - I promise). I am actually more than okay because I was having the time of my life on spring break!!! At least most of the time was great. There are some things I do not recommend. So, without further ado, I give to you The Do’s and Don’ts of Spring Break.

Don’t…

…wait until the last minute to print off the bus ticket. For some reason I couldn’t get my ticket to print off on campus so I thought they could just do it quick at the bus station. Wrong. I had to get a number to be called with 45 minutes before the bus left. I was number 304 and they were on number 267. Not good. With 15 minutes left before we were supposed to board the bus and number 282 up to bat, my chances for making it to spring break were not good. Luckily a very nice man with the company led me straight to front of the line and asked the nice lady to print off my ticket as soon as possible.

…choose a random seat on the bus. There were 12 seats in first class on the bus, 10 of us (UNK girls), and 2 possible seats for strangers. What are the chances that I get to sit in a seat for an 18+ hour bus ride next to a stranger? Apparently pretty good. His name was Alexis. He taught me all about the banana plants we drove by and told me he was going to ride a horse all the way back to Lima (I’m still not quite sure I understood that part of the conversation). I did feel bad for the non UNK girls on the bus because 10 girls on a bus for 18+ hours... that can't be the best experience for someone who doesn't understand what we were laughing about. But of course, we never laughed at them. They were very nice people for putting up with us the whole way there. We weren't that bad once we got the movies started. 

This kind of gives you the idea
of how some of the trip looked.
It was so scary. 

…decide to get onto a bus for 18+ hours if you get bus sick easily without Dramamine. You’d think I would learn after all of the times I have gotten sick on a bus, but it’s just a really cheap way to travel and all the cool kids were doing it. At one point we were basically driving on a cliff and if I looked down, I couldn’t see any pavement. That’s how close we were to the edge. Another "great" thing about Peru is that guard rails don’t really seem to be a requirement. If we would’ve blown a tire, driving off the edge of the cliff would have been one of the possible outcomes. I’m just glad I never have to make that trip again.

Moto Taxi

…ever ride in a moto taxi. These are very dangerous and very expensive if traveling long distances. For the first 3 days of spring break we thought they were the only form of transportation. Turns out we could’ve been taking a van every day for a fraction of the price. We take full responsibility for being dumb Americans when it comes to moto taxis.

…look too long at the dogs on the street. One day we walked into town to get some groceries for the Super Bowl and to make American food and we saw a dog laying on the side of the road. I looked a little closer at the dog and was absolutely torn apart by what I saw. The dog was actual skin and bones and was the most horrific thing I have ever experienced in person. I couldn’t believe it was even living because it was so deteriorated. The closest thing I can describe this dog to are pictures from the holocaust. The way we could see the bones in this dog was so disturbing and it was everything I could do to hold myself together and not cry. A lot of the dogs here are strays and they are so skinny, but that was by far the saddest dog I have seen here yet.

…get sick on spring break. I woke up the morning we were supposed to go swim with turtles and threw up. I laid on the couch the rest of the day and got sick again. They ended up not swimming with turtles and the next day I felt fine enough to go Scuba Diving. Halleluja!

…ride on a banana boat in the ocean - ever! It was the worst tubing experience I’ve ever had. The waves were not fun to have to go over, salt water was shooting into my eyes, and I didn’t have anything to hang onto because my handle had ripped off. To make it even better, as we were going into shore we caught a huge wave and the jet ski flipped completely and we all about fell off. We got off the banana boat and looked up to see the whole beach staring at us (hundreds of people). We made such a scene and it didn’t help that we definitely looked like foreigners to them. After the banana boat, a couple of people actually came up and asked to take their picture with us. It’s so hard being famous.  

Coming in real hot from that last wave. Our faces tell
the whole story. Horror, fear, excitement, fun.

…watch the Super Bowl in Spanish. It was definitely interesting but the game is just so much more fun when you can hear and understand what the announcers are saying.

Do…

…upgrade to first class on the bus. The seats almost laid completely back and we had our own personal TV’s on the seat in front of us.

…make American food. We had been missing American food for so long so we ended up making hamburgers, spaghetti, grilled cheese, lasagna, French toast, pancakes, and omelets. I realize not all of that is American food, but it tasted pretty darn good.

…go to Los Organos/Máncora for spring break. We almost had a beach completely to ourselves, the house we rented was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to do so many different things we normally wouldn’t get to do in America.

...eat the amazing sea food. I had octopus, squid, shrimp, and amazing fish that I can't even describe. 

Arroz con mariscos.
Rice with sea food. 

Not the board I used. I was a beginner and this
was too definitely to advanced for me. 

...go surfing!!! That was one of the best experiences of my life and I think I am going to have to take it up as my job and become a pro surfer. My instructor told me I was a pro so I’m definitely taking his word for it. After 20 minutes of basically doing burpees in the sand we headed out into the water. My instructor, Jo (pronounced Yo), held onto my board and helped me paddle with the waves. He held onto the board until I stood up and then let me shred the wave. I couldn’t really control the board because it was so big so I kind of just stayed in one spot. But I was surprised that every time we caught a wave I was able to stand and go all the way to shore! Riding my Ripstik (yes I still ride my Ripstik), wakeboarding, and water skiing definitely helped with that. One time I about ran over Danielle and her instructor, but it all worked itself out and I was able to avoid them! Jo was very concerned about my safety. One time a huge wave came over us and he flipped me under the board. Unfortunately, that did not help because I still rolled with the wave, the rope around my ankle pulled me with the board, and I thought I was never going to come up for air. I would still do it all again though!

…read The Power of Now. It’s a book about enlightenment and transcending the mind and just being in the moment. I took full advantage of being in the moment when it rained us out of the beach one day. I just stood outside in the rain enjoying the fact that it was warm and calming. I prayed and let my mind rest. It’s very hard trying not to think. Clearing the mind completely is a practice that I am working on, but I'm not even close yet. I can only clear it for about 5 seconds completely with no thought. 

…go scuba diving whenever the opportunity presents itself. I have been certified to dive for 4 years now and this was my second time in the ocean to dive! We went out to an oil rig and they had a course through there. The first time I went down, I was with an instructor and one other girl and we went through the course at about 60-70 feet. We saw an octopus and of course all kinds of fish and coral. The second time I went down, I went with other girls from UNK so I could film them on the GoPro. We ended up separating into two groups and although we only went down 35 feet I was very scared for them. The currents were really strong through there, visibility is not great, they had never dived (that is correct grammar... I looked it up) before, and they received a 30 minute lesson in the boat. I’m glad they got the experience, but I couldn’t believe the dive company let them go down so far without much more instruction. It was a good thing there were only two of them per instructor so he could just kind of hold their arms and take them through the course.

I would not have wanted to spend this amazing spring break with anyone other than the girls I spent it with. We bonded over card games, cooking, sickness, no wifi at times, and paradise together. Great memories were made and we were lucky the kitchen table held us all perfectly. 

We ended up staying in a town called Los Organos instead of staying right in Máncora which was fine with me even though we had to take moto taxis and buses to Máncora to do some things. We got to stay in a gorgeous house with the beach a block away and hardly any people on it. Paradise!

Now we are back to school and already had a test. The vacation from the vacation is over and now we have to go visit other places for school and go do more fun stuff, like visit Machu Picchu, in a couple of weeks. Such a hard school life we have here in Peru. 

The giant table that fit all 10 of us!
Family suppers were a must

One of the cool shots with the GoPro

If you look carefully you can see the ocean on
the horizon and the pool close to the house.

The house full of memories

Road Rage

One month in Peru… That seems weird to even say! I still feel sometimes like I have been here for only a week and other times I think I’ve been here the entire 4 months. So many things happen in one week that make the days go by so fast!

So my birthday was on Friday and I was kind of feeling a little homesick because it was my first birthday that I haven’t spent with my family. We did so many things that day that I didn’t really have time to feel homesick though. When I woke up Carmen fed me like a princess with tuna fruit, mango smoothie, the awesome bread they have here, and some chocolatada. Then she and Alejandro gave me my present. I wasn’t expecting anything so I was really surprised! They got me a beach towel that is perfect because I leave for spring break today and because I always have to mooch a towel off of them at the beach.  

Pollo a la Braza

Then they took me to Jenny and Martín’s house to spend the day there. For lunch we went to a place that served Pollo a la Braza (basically a chicken on a rotisserie) and the plates were huge again! After that we killed some time in the district of Miraflores until it got dark. As we were driving we passed a pump truck and I about choked to death on my words trying to explain that that’s what my dad does. They didn’t get a very good look at the truck but we were lucky and passed a pump truck in action! I didn’t even have to explain; I just had to point.

Finally we got to Parque de las Aguas where we met up with Patty, Juan Pedro, Fátima and Joaquín. The water fountains were absolutely amazing with the lights and different effects. The park is pretty big and I think there are about 8 or 9 fountains there. We got to go through a water tunnel and play in one of the fountains! After that we went to T.G.I. Friday’s and I ordered a hamburger because I’m was still really missing a good burger. The staff came out towards the end and sang happy birthday to me and gave me this oreo ice cream dessert thing. I liked it.

The next day 8 of us loaded into a 5 person car and headed to the San Bartolo beach. One of the days Martín, Fátima, and I spent 3 hours in the water! One of the family members brought a paddle board so I got to try that for the first time. I never fell once! Carmen made some cupcakes and everybody sang happy birthday to me in English because that’s just what they do here for some reason. They don’t even know why they sing it in English because after they sing it in English, they sing it in Spanish. I got to try some octopus and some really amazing baked goods also that weekend.

Fabrizio ended the weekend by going to the hospital with appendicitis. He is okay now! The funny thing was that I had been having weird stomach pains for a couple days and was concerned that I might have it. Poor little guy ended up having surgery. On our way home from the beach there must have been an accident and an ambulance was trying to get through. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry to get to the side and let them pass. In fact, people were not happy that the traffic was slowing down so they drove on the shoulder of the road to pass people. That did not surprise me. It didn’t even surprise me that when the shoulder wasn’t moving fast enough, people drove off of theroad completely to go faster. I only hope that I don’t come back with some bad driving habits and serious road rage. 

And that is how I spent my birthday of two decades. 

I am a little jealous of all the snow back home! We haven’t had snow like that in a long time and all I wanted to do yesterday was go sledding and enjoy the snow days like everybody else. I guess I’ll just have to settle for surfing this week in Máncora. It’s our spring break here already and today we are getting on a bus for 19 hours to go to Northern Peru and enjoy the beaches for a week! I’ll be thinking of you all as I sit on a beach and try not to get a sunburn from the intense UV rays here! 

Random Notes

• Lots of people drive old volkswagon bugs here. I'll try to put some pictures in my next blog of thsose. 
• There is a street near Miraflores of about 20 flower shops. I don't know how anyone makes money there because they are all separate companies. 
• There is workout equipment in the parks. Kind of a cool concept, but I've never seen anyone actually using them.