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.

I'm Starting to Miss Some Things

It is crazy to think that I have already been here for 3 weeks! They have gone by really fast and I’ve realized that I am starting to miss some things about Nebraska. I am really missing Nebraskan beef. We had steaks at the beach last weekend and they were decent, but I told my host family they have to come to Nebraska just for the steak if they thought that T-Bone they ate was good. I miss Walmart. There, I said it. I miss country music so much! I tried to teach Fatima to swing dance the other day, but I don’t know if she liked it or not.  We played some country music for our Literature teacher Tuesday and I think he wants to hear more because he wants us to make a playlist for each class! Most of all I miss my family and friends. With my birthday coming up, I wish I could spend it with them. My host family wants to do something for me because I think they know I am missing home a little bit. For my birthday they are going to take me to a water show at Parque de Agua and they want to make cupcakes too! We’ll see what happens!

I am so blessed to have such an amazing, welcoming, and caring host family. They are really trying to make sure my experience here in Peru is the best it can be. Making me try new foods, taking me places, and helping me with my homework are just a few of the things they have done to be so great. I don’t know how I can ever thank them enough.

Is there anything interesting I have done in the last week? Let me think…hmm… oh yeah! I got to go see the 400 year old Catacombs under the San Francisco church. Over 25,000 people were buried underneath this church and the bones have been sorted into the strongest and the weakest. The bones were placed in different patterns in holes and rooms underneath the church. I don’t have any pictures because it is prohibited and disrespectful. You’ll just have to come to Lima to see it for yourself!

Tuesday night Jenny and Martín took me to a show in Miraflores at a place called Cocodrilo Verde (Green Crocodile) to watch their cousin play percussion in a band. The music was all Peruvian and I was really impressed with the flute and saxophone players. They could play notes and make music I didn’t know was possible to come out of those instruments. The show was awesome and I got to try more Peruvian food!

Alejandro completing his daily crossword.
He asks me questions sometimes because
the answers are in English for some reason.

Here I am at Cocodrilo Verde for the music show!

Small rant about the music: they play the same 3 songs over and over on the radio! There are 7 different remixes to each song to try to make you feel like you are listening to something new, but it’s the same song! I have heard Hello, Sorry, and Cheerleader more times in the last 3 weeks than I have before I left the United States! I had a little girl freak out when they switched it up and put on This is Me by Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas from Disney Channel. I told my host family about 3 times that the song was from Disney. I couldn’t believe they were playing it on the radio between Adele and Justin Bieber. Rant over.

My host family took me to the beach again! I had a test over vocabulary words so they all helped me go through my flashcards and explained each word to me. Jenny even went over my flashcards with me at the beach! The waves were really big this time so I was in the water for 2 hours one day. I was holding onto a noodle for dear life and laughing so hard with Martín because we kept getting water in our mouths and up our noses but didn’t want to leave the water because the waves were so fun! It was cloudy, a little chilly, and the water was freezing but we were the only people to tough it out that long without wetsuits! Martín stepped on a sea urchin at one point and pulled some spikes out of his water shoe. I stayed in starfish mode after that. My feet were not about to be filled with sea urchin spikes.

   

A beautiful starfish one of the relatives caught
near the water at the beach. 

Alejandro, my host dad, put his hat on me and
made me stir the ceviche for a picture to
send to my mom. Here you go mom! 

That’s all for now folks. I’ll keep trying do something fun every week so you know I’m not boring!

Mariah

Random Things

• It is normal to eat Halls cough drops here like they are candy. They sell them at the store to little kids. Fabrizio bought some at the beach and offered them to me. When I told him I didn't have a cold he looked at me like I was crazy. 
• Popsicles called "chups" are the thing to eat here. 
• They always say how great the food, beach, water, day, etc. is here. They are so grateful for everything and it's really opening my eyes.  
•  The cashier just didn't give me the right amount of money back today at the store. Of course I realized she took 15 soles from me after I left and was in a taxi on the way home. 
• AlgarroBina is the best drink I've ever had. It's like a chocolate milkshake from heaven. Except it is the syrup from a tree here in Peru. 
• Either potatoes or rice are always on the menu. 
• The fruit here is absolutely outstanding. I don't want to leave it behind. 

This is some Peruvian/Ican corn. The kernels
are huge and they pick them off to eat. 

Tuna fruit: the yummy fruit I get to eat almost
every morning at breakfast!

Time, How Does it Work?

Buenos días (good morning), buenas tardes (good afternoon), buenas noches (good night); whatever time you are reading this, I hope you are having a great day!

I can’t believe another week has flown by in Peru. Sometimes it feels like the days drag on and other times it feels like they are over in a blink of an eye! Time is such an interesting thing here. Most people seem to be awake by 7:30 at the latest and eat breakfast right away. Then they don’t eat lunch until about 2. If a family eats dinner here, it’s usually around 7:30 or 8. One day this last week some of the girls and I wanted to go get some lunch around 12:30, average lunch time for us, and not a single restaurant was open. I don’t think they open until 1:30 or 2. I still can’t figure out what time stores are open here. People walk really slow here but drive really fast and crazy. I don’t understand why they don’t just walk slow and drive slow or walk fast and drive fast. Two girls were out power walking yesterday with weights in their hands and I passed them. I wasn’t even walking fast!

Friday we took a class trip 2 hours away to a town called Matucana. We hiked 2 hours to go see some waterfalls there. I have never hiked before so it was a little difficult for me to figure out how to put my feet on the loose gravel at first. These hiking trails to the waterfall had no rails of any sort, so if I would’ve stepped wrong on the 4 foot wide trail, I would have fallen vertically off of the mountain! Finally we made it to the beautiful waterfalls. I was the only one to get under the waterfall; no way was I hiking all the way there and not standing underneath the waterfall! I ended up warming myself by the grill while we made our hamburgers because the sun was starting to go behind the mountain. On the way to Matucana, the bus driver stopped 3 times to put some water on the brakes because they were becoming overheated going up a mountain. On the way down we did not stop once to cool the brakes which I found slightly suspicious. I recited the Prayer for Protection about 37 times. Not kidding.

We had to cross this bridge to get to the waterfall and I was
a little afraid it was not going to hold us all!

This last weekend most of us UNK students went to the district of Barranco about 30 minutes away from our district of Surco. Barranco is right on the coast and it is a very touristy area. We were told by the UNK students from last year that we needed to go to a place called El Burrito Bar. It is a small restaurant with no sign indicating that we had arrived. The only sign was the one on the menu, other than that we had basically walked into a hole in the wall. We got there at 12:40 and they told us it didn’t open until 1 for lunch. So we walked around a little bit and showed up at about 1:10; it still wasn’t open. So we waited outside until they let us in around 1:20. Peruvian time is real. When we were walking around town we were getting lots of whistles from the guys there. One guy stopped in the middle of the road to say wow. A group of grandpas told us, "Hey pretty ladies, thank you for walking." That was all said in Spanish of course. It's weird that guys can do that here and it's normal. In the United States we would just call them creeps, in Peru it's your average Joe. We decided it's because we were a group of 8 gringas walking around. Probably not something they see every day. 

Classes this week started getting a little bit harder. They gave us vocabulary words to study for a test, a reading assignment in Literature, and we had a group test in Grammar. Who do they think they are giving us homework? 

The calluses started peeling off my fingers from not being able to play guitar for so long. I decided that could not happen because it’s so hard to build them up again. So I talked to my parents and they told me they would help me buy a guitar here. Today Shelby, Abby, and I went to Miraflores (another district of Lima) to look for a guitar. Finally I found one for 170 soles. I was prepared to spend about 200 dollars on a guitar and I ended up getting one for 50 dollars! You’re welcome mom and dad! The sound is a little twangy but I can live with that! So not to worry everyone, my calluses will not be leaving my fingers anytime soon.

The famous mural in Matucana! With the dogs we met at
 the top of the mountain that followed us down.

Tomorrow I’m going to the beach again with my family and I hope to get some homework done there!

Have a good day, afternoon, or night! Besos








Random Things

• A baby shower is still said "baby shower" in English
• They say a lot of English words here (laptop, clip, baby shower)
• People have soccer goals set up on cement and play on the cement
• I've determined the motto here is: "Show up late, drive fast"
• They pass on blind curves! 
• There don't seem to be many driving laws here. They make their own lanes, go through stop lights that are on red, and don't follow the speed limit. 
• Stop is actually written in the subjunctive tense here which means it may or may not happen. I don't want my stop to be optional!!!

Different Country, Different Language, Different Culture

I apologize in advance for the length this blog post is about to be. I promise they will not all be like this. There are just so many things at first!

I can't believe I've already been in Peru for 1 whole week! It has gone fast and slow at the same time and I don't even know how that works. Part of me feels like I've only been here 2 days while the other part of me feels like I've been here 2 months. When I left home, I didn't really know if this is what I should be doing. I thought maybe I should wait another year just to get some more Spanish classes in. But now that I'm here I know it's exactly where I am supposed to be at this point in my life. I was freaking out a little bit when the plane flew into Lima, but my host mom, Carmen, and her son-in-law, Martín, were there to pick me up and were so welcoming. They did not know how to say my name so they were holding out Martín's phone with my picture on it asking everyone that walked by, "Marian? Marian?" I did not understand at first, but when I saw my picture I knew what they were trying to say. When we got to their apartment my host sister, Carla, was there to greet me at 1:30 in the morning! They showed me to my room and I got right to sleep because I had been up for 21 hours! 

In the car ride to the apartment I only understood about 30% of what they were asking and telling me. I hoped it was because I was tired, but I found out the next day it was just because I only understood 30%. Naturally I was scared for my life and started debating my major right away. The first morning I woke up I was so scared to leave my room and have to speak Spanish, so I stayed in my room for about an hour and a half before I got the courage to go brush my teeth in the bathroom right across the hall. Carmen made me breakfast: pineapple on a cabob, fresh bread, and chocolatada. It was the best pineapple I've ever had and I still don't know what chocolatada is, but I will be making it in the United States if I ever figure it out!

My first breakfast in Peru. That pineapple is the
most delicious fruit I have ever tasted. 

After breakfast we went to one of the daughter's house, Patty, so Carmen could make everyone lunch. I went upstairs and watched cartoons in Spanish so I could maybe get a little better ear for it. I don't think it helped. When it was time to eat I met Patty and her husband, their kids Fatima (10 years old) and Joaquin (6 years old), and my host dad Alejandro. They started talking and when they would ask me a question, I had no idea they were talking to me. Everybody talks so fast here! The words I use most in conversation are "Huh? Como? Oh sí" one time I actually said "What?" in English... whoops. 

This is with Carmen after my first day in Lima. She and Carla
took me to the mall near their house, El Polo. The Christmas tree
looked a little weird without snow around it! 

The second day I was here I woke up to the sound of my host mom and dad practicing my name. Marian is as close as they are getting to Mariah. I think it's kind of funny and I told them they could call me Riah, Ry Ry, or Ry but I think those might be hard too. Alejandro eventually gave up and started calling me Ma. I had orientation at the college of UPC where I found out Peruvian time is a real thing. We were supposed to start at 9:30 and we did not start until 10:15. I like to be at least 5 minutes early to things so I think I might be waiting around a lot here for things to start on Peruvian time. When we toured the campus I was surprised at how beautiful it is. There is a "river" that runs right through the middle of campus, turf everywhere because grass doesn't really grow here, one building completely covered in plants, and an outdoor lounge of beanbag chairs. Yes, you read that right: beanbag chairs. 

One of the buildings at UPC. 

After orientation Carmen picked up my friend Abby and me to go to their house on the beach at San Bartolo for the weekend. As soon as we got there we took a nap because thinking in Spanish all the time just wears me down. When I woke up I met another daughter of my host parents. Her name is Jenny and her husband Martín was the one that picked me up at the airport. I also met their two kids, Fabrizio (8 years old) and Rafaela (3 years old). All 4 grandkids are so cute!

Throughout the weekend at the beach we tried many different foods like ceviche, fish that marinates in lime juice and that's what cooks it. I don't know how that works and I still don't know if I like it. Martín and Jenny took us back into town, after the kids were asleep, to eat anticucho. They wouldn't tell us what it was until we ate a few bites. Cow heart. We ate cow heart. I’m from Nebraska and I have never eaten cow heart before. It was interesting and I can't say it's the best thing I've had here. I had to wash it down with some Inca Kola which is a pop that tastes like bubble gum. Martín and Jenny took us around San Bartolo the next night. They wanted us to see a Discoteca, but it wasn't open yet or something (I didn’t understand…nothing new) so they wouldn't let us in. We got some ice cream instead and sat in a restaurant to listen to some live music. So far, they are some of the easiest people for me to understand. 

The first time we tried ceviche. 

The days spent at the beach were great! I learned a cangrejo is a crab, erizo is a sea urchin, and SPF 50 is the minimum sunscreen you should use. One day for lunch Carmen fed us real real real good. I thought all we were eating was potatoes with cheese, but that was just the appetizer. We then got a huge plate (bigger than San Pedros) of rice, beans, and beef.

Sunday at San Bartolo I woke up and played catch with Fabrizio, my new little best friend. Then I went to the market with Martín to get groceries for the day. He bought about 30 limes, several potatoes, peppers, and a few other fruits and veggies for a grand total of 3 American dollars! When I told him it probably would cost about 20-30 dollars in the United States he could not believe it. He told me the market we went to was even a little more expensive for Peru! 

One of the lookout points at San Bartolo

I started class on Monday at 4 p.m. All day Monday I kind of got my things organized, I went to El Polo mall with UNK people/English speakers, ate some lunch, and went to class. Our teacher for our conversation and grammar class is by far the easiest person to understand here. I probably understand about 80-90% of what he says because he talks slow, articulates his words, and repeats himself when he can tell we do not understand. Our literature professor, on the other hand, is a little more difficult to understand because he talks really fast. I am not really interested in literature other than Harry Potter so Tuesday’s are going to be a little rough.

These are the four little kids. Left to right:
Rafaela, Fabrizio, Fatima, and Joaquin

Today the grandchildren were over at the house because two of them have tennis lessons nearby. It is also summer here so the kids don’t start school again until March. After their lessons were over we went to Patty’s house so Carmen could make lunch for everybody. Us kids (yes I still consider myself a kid) played monkey in the middle with about 8 people. Then they tried to teach me a game called encantada. I did not understand in Spanish, so they explained it to me in English and I still did not understand very well. Maybe that means I am growing up. Anyway, the one week that I have been in Peru has been great and I can feel that I am understanding more every day!

I have been keeping a list of some random things I make note of so here they are:

·        My name is very hard for almost anyone here to say

·        They put the sheet you pull over yourself on the bed facing down. The print does not face up, it faces down.

·        There are not as many bugs as I thought there would be. Nebraska definitely has more bugs than Lima.

·        I love kissing everyone on the cheek to greet them! I don’t have to use as much hand sanitizer!

·        There are lots of stray dogs here that are so skinny. I just want to feed them all.  

·        Peruvians wear sunscreen to walk to the store… I wear sunscreen now to sit by my window. I am definitely a gringa.

·        Nobody knows how to drive here. There is constant honking. They honk when they go up hills to make sure somebody on the other side doesn’t run into them.

·        Speaking is really formal here. The other morning Fatima asked me if she could accompany me while I ate breakfast.

·        Toilet paper is thrown away, not flushed…

·        I saw a trailer of bricks with nothing holding them down or together. We drove by that and I thought I was going to die if that truck hit a bump all of those bricks were going to come tumbling down. 

Not Afraid

It is 5 days before I leave for Peru and I am trying to mentally prepare myself and pack for the upcoming trip. Since I have received the news that I would be going to Peru I have heard and come up with many "what if's".  "What if I get malaria?" "What if somebody gets hurt while I am abroad?" "What if I meet my future husband?" (Although my dad said that is definitely not allowed.) "What if I get taken?" "What if I get everything stolen from me?" "What if, for some reason, I don't come back to the good ol' U.S. of A?" "What if my little sister grows 4 feet while I am gone?"

All of these "what if's" eventually started to overwhelm me. Then, I remembered the best thing my grandma could have ever said to my family, "Fear just comes from a thought and I am not afraid of a thought."  As I sit here and let her words resonate within me, I know worrying is not going to do anything for me. I am going to have the experience of a lifetime down there and I should not be afraid of the thoughts I am having and allow them to create discomfort for me. That doesn't mean that I am not going to be cautious, it just means that I am not going to let my thoughts control me. I have the opportunity to learn a language and culture that will impact me for the rest of my life. 

I embrace this opportunity!  So Peru, here I come!! I am ready now... I think. :)