Año Nuevo

It’s almost 2011. Am I the only one that feels like it was just a couple years ago that everyone was freaking out about Y2K? I feel like I’m getting old too fast (now that I’m 21 and all). Honestly, this past year seems like it went by in a blur, although it feels like that a lot I think.  2010 was filled with lots of studying spring semester (with 6 classes and 17 credits and a job) and a lot of working during the summer (a full time and a part time job) and this past “fall” semester (technically is was spring semester round dos) I didn’t do much studying and did a lot of traveling within Peru and have un montón of pictures to remember it all.

Now that it’s summer again, it’s weird to feel so unproductive. I don’t even have a part time job, besides working for kgb_ ,and I have a lot of free time which isn’t something I’m used to. It’s weird, when I was working a ton, I just wanted some free time and now that I have free time I wish I had something to keep me busy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying not having school or a job and having a lot of time to chill and sleep, sleep, sleep which I didn’t really do this summer, but it would be nice to at least feel a little productive. I’m trying to learn to “stop and smell the roses” and enjoy the moment because I know when I get back to the states in July (and moreso in September when school starts) I’ll be wishing for this kind of free time. It’s weird, I kinda feel like I’m experiencing a middle school summer again because I don’t drive here, so I either have to take the bus or get a ride, I don’t have a job or any schoolwork, and I often feel like I don’t fit in being a gringa, although I’m much more confident than I was in middle school as I’m actually embracing the fact that I don’t fit in, I quite enjoy being a gringa.

Anyways, as for the 2011 celebration, I don’t have set plans yet, but I’m going to celebrate with some amigos peruanos either camping on the beach or in someone’s house. Either way, we’ll be bringing in el Año Nuevo with a bang, South American style (not quite sure what that means yet, but I’ll let you know when I do). Happy New Year everyone!

Amor y Paz.

Familia x2

It was truly great having my family here for my birthday and Christmas and also traveling to Cuzco with them. It was definitely hard to say goodbye for a second time, this time knowing I have over 6 months until I see them again. I realized that they’re some of my best friends, let me tell you why.

My Dad always helps me out financially and is always there for me if I need anything and he’s overall a great dad. My mom always keeps me updated on what’s going on at home and always makes me feel like she cares, as she’s a great listener. My little sister, Brynn, knows how to make me smile and is a very giving person, I know we’ll always have fun together. My little brother, Brayden, is quite the talker and I love him for it, he’s very smart and always fills in the awkward silences.

I love and miss you guys and also Tyler, Erin, Ed and Lily!

At Parque del Amor in Miraflores

At Macchu Picchu

Amor y Paz.

Familia!

My family is coming to Lima today and I couldn’t be more excited! My birthday is on Monday and Christmas is next week and I’m so excited to get to celebrate with them just like every other year. Well, not exactly like every other year since we’re in Peru….but with family nonetheless! Really, it hasn’t hit me that it’s even close to Christmas because this is just not December weather. There are decorations and Christmas trees around the city but it’s so weird having Christmas in warm weather. This year my family and I will be singing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” with full gusto!

Amor y Paz.

Vacaciones del Summer!

So I’m all done with finals and I’ve spent an entire semester outside of the US! It really is weird that I’m done with a semester because I only had class 3 days a week…so I almost felt like I had half a semester or something, but I’m not complaining it was super nice to have a relaxed semester. I’m super happy to be done and know that I have a three-and-a-half-month-South-American summer to enjoy until my next semester in Peru, which starts in March. For now, I’m travelling in Southern Peru and Northern Chile before my family comes to visit for my birthday and Christmas (I’m super excited!).

More to come later on my non-studying summer adventures abroad!

Amor y Paz.

Study? Abroad.

I figured since I am in fact studying abroad, I should write a blog about school. I’d say school here isn’t too different from Madison, well logistically at least. Credits work the same, a 4 credit class means 4 hours a week. I’m taking 14 credits, so I have class 14 hours a week. Well, probably more like 13ish hours because every class starts after the hour and most professors let us out early. That is one part I really like because I’m never on time to class.

So these are the classes I’m taking: History of Peru up to the 18^th century, Intro to Anthropology, Linguistic Analysis, and Choir. Linguistics is by far my favorite class, not only because I find it interesting but I think I’m pretty good at it (we have yet to get our midterm back so I’m not too sure about that yet).

As foreign exchange students, we definitely get special treatment. In History, there are 4 of us foreign exchange students and instead of taking the 4 controles (an essay test on required readings) we get to write summaries of the readings. Yep, that’s it. No opinion or argumental paper, a summary! I was thrilled when our professor asked us if we wanted to do summaries. Reading in Spanish is hard enough and to have to remember specific points for an essay test is really difficult. I don’t get out of all tests, but I’ll take what I can get.

This past week was midterms and we didn’t have class, only tests, just like finals week at Madison. I quite enjoyed having lots of time to study and only having to worry about one week of crazy tests. (Midterms at UW are all throughout the semester because classes don’t line up their midterms to be in the same week, meaning a stressful semester of midterms instead of a week.) I studied quite a bit for my History and Anthropology midterms, which were both essay tests, and I think I did pretty well on them. There were definitely some questions that I wasn’t sure on, but I guess I’ll find out in about a week or so. For Linguistics we had a take home test which may seem like it would be easy, but I definitely spent more time on my take home test than I would have spent studying for an in-class test.  Hopefully I’ll get a better grade though since I was able to look stuff up.  The only midterm I didn’t prepare for was choir, which I thought didn’t really need preparing for since it is in fact, choir.

Well, it turns out the choir midterm did require preparation, being a gringa. The test consisted of singing any song that we wanted to and then telling our professor, Juanita, what we thought our midterm grade was (based on our singing and the number of performances we’ve attended). Before I get too ahead of myself, you should know that we have over 10 performances every month.  I’ve gone to four of these performances, averaging about 2 a month, not many at all, especially when she expects us to go to the majority of them. Crazy right? Anyways, choir has been kind of a joke this semester because sometimes us gringas (there’s three of us) are the only ones that are singing in the alto section and there are so many people in that class who are completely tone deaf.  You can imagine the entertaining horror it was to listen to everyone sing individually. Now, I’m not that great of a singer, I just really enjoy choir. But one thing I can do is sing the same tone as the piano, something some people in choir can’t do.

For the midterm, some people were literally just speaking, not even singing a tone at all. Others sang a totally different pitch (not a different part, a tone-deaf type of pitch) and not able to match the piano.  There were a few girls that sang really well, but Juanita still commented that they weren’t breathing from their diaphragm or that they breathed in the wrong places and she also criticized everyone for going to “nada” (in reference to the performances. Most people that said they deserved an AB or a B ended up getting a BC or a C because Juanita didn’t think they sang well enough or went to enough performances. But really, how can she expect us to drop our schedules and go to 3 choir performances a week?

I think I’m making Juanita sound like a mean old hag, but really she’s this tiny old lady who smiles a lot, loves choir and loves God even more. I think when we don’t go to the performances (they’re all performances at masses) we offend her because we’re somehow saying we don’t want to go to church. But I don’t think anyone goes to mass as much as she does. Anyways, she is genuinely a sweet person, but isn’t willing to give out A’s to Peruvians who don’t attend the performances.  Even the girl in our class who has gone to the most performances and sings beautifully got a BC for the midterm because she missed the last two performances.

The order of singing the midterm was by the attendance list, not ordered by last name but by our student numbers. Because we just registered this semester, we foreign exchange students were at the end, I was the very last one. While I was suffering through tone-deaf C midterms and beautiful singing BC midterms, I was getting a little worried about my choir grade. I mean who gets a C in choir? What a stupid class to bring down my gpa. Well, the first foreign exchange student sang (note: she hadn’t gone to any performances) and she sang really well and Juanita didn’t hesitate in saying “20.” (aka 100%!) And she hadn’t even gone to any presentations! No one else in the class got an A and very, very few got Bs, and she got an automatic A+. It was then when I wasn’t worried about my grade at all.

Jen and I sang “For Unto Us a Child is Born,” a song from Handel’s Messiah (and yes, it’s in English).  I had sung it in high school so I knew it well and she gave Jen and I A+s too. It definitely wasn’t fair, but it is true that we can’t go to all the presentations, especially when we travel on the weekends. I guess I should have expected her to be easy on us because whenever there are presentations on the weekends she always assumes we can’t go because we’ll be traveling, without us saying anything. I walked out of class smiling, knowing that Juanita loves gringas and that she wouldn’t make it hard for us to get As.

(Check out Jen's post on Juanita to read more!)

Overall, it seems that the professors understand that we’re not here only to study, even though it is, in fact, study abroad.

Amor y paz.

Lima is One Crazy City

I have seen some bizarre things in the past week from the comfort (so to say) of my bus seat on my hour ride home from school.

On Tuesdays I come home from La Católica pretty late, as I have Anthropology lecture until 8pm. I was probably 10 minutes away from my bus stop and the bus stopped at a red light in the right lane, nothing out of the ordinary in crazy Peruvian traffic. I was peering out the window from the left side of the bus, not really looking at anything in particular. From the middle of the street came these two guys and I figured they were just going to get on the bus next to us in the left lane, as they were heading for that bus. I did think it was a little weird that they were coming from the left of the street instead of from the bus stop which is on the right side.

Well, turns out these guys did not have any intentions to get on a bus, they just wanted to do their business and take off. It all happened so fast and I didn’t really have time to react (before you get too panicked, I was just a spectator). One of the guys goes up to the bus right next to ours, opens the window from the outside, jumps up and grabs this woman’s cell phone out from her hands. He nearly dropped it, but before she or anyone else could do anything they ran off. The girl looked very distressed (as it was a nice cell phone, they don’t bother stealing cheap ones) and it looked like another guy on her bus was trying to call her phone (obviously to no avail). I had tried calling out “cuidado” (careful) to the lady when I saw the guys opening her window, but she wouldn’t have heard me, and by the time I realized what was happening it was too late. After the lady was left cell-phoneless, everyone on my bus shut their windows very tightly and held their possessions like they were going to run away.

Now, I’m much more aware of creepers outside the window when I ride the bus, but it does make me sad the things people will do to make money. Can’t we just all get along? It seems so easy, but in a world of inequality and hate, we will never find peace.  Until God brings a perfect earth, injustice, dissention, and hate will win, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring justice now. I’m hoping I can somehow, someway, do that while I’m here.

Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
-Isaiah 1:17

Okay so for the next story…This one happened in broad daylight, probably around 2pm or so and also at a stoplight and a lot happened in that 50 seconds waiting for the green go. Again, the bus was in the right lane, but I was looking out of the right side of the bus to the people that were on the street corner. There was a woman with a stand selling candy and newspapers, a guy waiting for the okay to cross the street, and a lady probably around 25 or so holding a big gray rock. It was probably about the size of a small plate, 2 inches thick. Think flattened cantaloupe, it was pretty big, I’m not even sure where you’d find a rock like that in Lima.

Anyways, she was holding the rock in her left hand up by her shoulder with an evil look in her eyes, pacing back and forth near the corner. I thought “Why does she have a rock and what is she going to do with it?” I was pretty curious so I kept my eyes on the scene. Some people were taking a wide path around the corner, obviously avoiding crazy rock lady. She continued to pace back and forth and people continued to walk by her, but apparently a certain business lady, age 35ish dressed in a black skirt suit, caught her eye because she fiercely hurled this small boulder at the back of her head and my bus immediately gasped in unison at what CRL had just done. I’m not sure how hurt the woman was, but she grabbed her head and people gathered around her while two guys pulled CRL back. Unfortunately I didn’t see CRL get apprehended because our bus continued on its route, but I asked the lady in front of me if she knew why she threw the rock or if she was just crazy and she said “es loco.” I couldn’t believe what I had just seen and I kept thinking “Did that really just happen?” You can’t just go around throwing rocks at people, CRL. C’mon. I guess I shouldn’t judge because I don’t know her situation, but really, who does that?


A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. —John 13:34-35

Amor y paz.

A True Cultural Experience

I went on another Peruvian adventure this weekend, to Trujillo, a city north of Lima. Ana, the lady that hosts me, is from Trujillo so she gave me some (safe) places to eat and tips on what to see and do. I had a lot of fun and I feel like I experienced a lot of Peruvian culture.

Me at Chan Chan

The first two days we were there we went to different historical sites of the Moche and Chimu people. First we saw two different Huacas (the quechua word for temple) that are pretty destroyed, but there are still some walls up and some of the paintings were still intact with colors. I was amazed by how such an early civilization could build something so complex, we really haven’t advanced as much as we think. The other site we visited was Chan Chan, where the Moche people moved after their civilization was deteriorating.  I liked this better because it was nearly all still intact and was HUGE, a mini-city of sand walls with hundreds of different rooms. It was a maze to walk around, but thankfully there were little fish signs to guide us.

Another cultural event was the opening day of bullfighting in Trujillo. I didn’t realize that the guys in tight colorful pants, called matadors, actually “mata” aka kill the bulls. I guess I just never put two and two together. There were for matadors, from Peru, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela, and they each killed a bull, but not without a little style.  Your perception of bullfighters is probably pretty accurate, they wave their little colored cape in front of the bull and tease it for about 20 minutes and then they have a sword and stab it into the bull, it falls over and dies, throwing up blood. I will admit seeing the first bull die was a bit horrifying, especially when they stabbed it in the head and scrambled its brains… But after the first one it became more entertaining and I was happy to be a part of a Peruvian culture experience, cheering on the matador and whoot whooting when he finally killed the bull.

Some of the bull’s final moments

Lastly, this past week was the first day of primavera (spring) and Trujillo has a huge spring festival put on by the Lion’s club. On Sunday, we went to the final hurrah-the parade and it was quite the finale—a three hour one.  The floats were all pretty elaborate, many covered in flowers for “spring.” (I have yet to believe that it’s spring as the weather is still windy, cold, and the sky gray.) My highlight of the parade was the Plaza Vea group (a superstore, like Walmart) that grabbed three of us gringas and made us dance with them. I even danced through a guy on stilts and got a bouquet of flowers at the end.  It was quite the experience and I’m excited to taste more of the culture Peru has to offer as I become more and more immersed in the culture.

Dancing through stilts

A bouquet of flowers I got from some of the people in the parade

Amor y Paz.

Cambio

Change is never easy, but it’s good. What would life be without change? A boring line of routine, schedule, and monotony. I”m learning to accept change. The change of living in a new place, speaking a new language, eating new food, basically living a new life. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like yourself when big changes happen. Right now I want to fit and be peruana (which I’m obviously not) but how do I keep myself in all of that? I guess change can really test your character. Do I change who I am or just change what I do?

Hopefully any change to my character is good change, more independence, confidence, and gratitude. Even just being here a month, I’m more independent as I’m by myself a lot, I go places by myself, and I’ve learned that you don’t always need someone to go with you when you go to the public bathroom (girls can be bad about that). As far as confidence, when speaking Spanish, if I act like I know what I’m saying, people don’t usually question things. I’ve had to have confidence that I know which bus to take and that I am figuring out where things are. Gratitude-just living here has taught me gratitude. When I see how poor people live or how little money people make (minimun wage is about $120 a month--as much as I make in a week part time). People here are so grateful for the little amount of money they have and I am blessed with so much and even have the audacity to want more. I’m also grateful for my family and friends back home. I miss them a lot (although Skype helps a little bit) but I don’t really feel like I have that kind of love or support group here, and while I’m praying God will provide that here, I’m learning to appreciate all that’s waiting for me back home and learning to truly embrace change.

Amor y paz.

Experiencing Peru

This weekend I had my first Peruvian adventure. It wasn’t what I expected, but that’s what an adventure is, right?

pisco sour in Pisco with some other foreign exchange students

Thursday afternoon, after losing my phone out of my much too small pockets, buying a new one for $20 with the same number, and then having someone call Jen (fellow study abroad Sconnie) saying they found my new phone (oh well, guess I should have been patient, but it’s Peru I figured someone would sell it or something), we finally found our way to the Flores bus station to depart for Pisco, Peru, south of Lima but still on the coast. I really didn’t know what to expect but I was thinking Pisco would be somewhat like Lima, fairly modern with some undeveloped parts. After about a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived in Pisco, which was nothing like I had expected. I read in my Lonely Planet Peru book that Pisco was hit really hard by an earthquake in 2007, it was quite evident as the scars of cracked sidewalks, broken down buildings, and holes in the streets were abundant. It’s sad because there’s just not a lot of money to use to rebuild ruined cities. Needless to say, we didn’t do that much in Pisco besides savor some Pisco Sour.

Las Islas Ballestas

Friday was an early start, as we booked a trip to Paracas, a city just south of Pisco, for a tour of Las Islas Ballestas and Reserva Nacional de Paracas. As they were islands and a National Park, I was expecting lush green forest or jungle or something, but little did I know we would feel like we were in Africa! The island tour was a little cold, but it was cool to see penguins and sea lions in their natural habitat. I kept expecting the sea lions to do some fancy tricks with beach balls (Sparky anyone?) but no go. It was just a boat tour, as they want to preserve the islands, but I wouldn’t have wanted to go onto the islands had we been able to because the smell of poop was overwhelming. I felt like I was back on a Wisconsin farm, which you may think could be comforting, but it was definitely just gross. 

Reserva Nacional de Paracas

After setting food on land again, we headed to the national reserve which was absolutely beautiful. A lot of the times when I took pictures, it looked like a painting. I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was real and that it was Peru—hills upon hills of sand set upon the backdrop of a crisp blue sky topped off with an ocean breeze and the occasional flamingo. Although it was more like an African National Park than the Wisconsin National Park that I was expecting, it was absolutely gorgeous.

After we had exhausted all the gringa-touristy things to do in Pisco and Paracas, we headed to Ica/Huancachina, about an hour south. Our hostel in Huanchachina was located between two huge sand dunes, overlooking a lagoon with palm trees and a beautiful blue sky. I was so excited on Friday night when I walked outside and was able to see stars! My first instinct was to look for the Big Dipper, but of course it wasn’t there since there’s different stars in the Southern Hemisphere. Goal: study up on Southern Hemisphere constellations.  In Ica, we went to two Bodegas (Wineries) and sampled some strong Pisco Puro, it smelled like rubbing alcohol and I’m glad I only had about a teaspoon of it because it tasted like it too.  After the Bodegas, our taxista, Franc, brought us to downtown Ica to eat a late lunch at a restaurant he had before. I was excited to see their menu (lunch special) only cost 5 soles (less than 2 dollars) as I didn’t have much money left. Little did I know I’d be paying for it later.

Sand boarding

After lunch, we took a tour of the sand dunes in a Sand Boogie. Although I was scared for my life at certain moments (our driver went down some pretty steep hills and there wasn't much traction) it was a lot of fun amongst the we’re-on-a-rollercoaster type screaming. When we finally parked the Boogie I looked around and saw how vast the sand dunes were. I couldn’t believe how easily you could get lost in them. I mean, it’s not like there’s signs or roads or anything.  Before the sun set around 6, we sand boarded, or rather tried to sand board. Mostly I just sat on it like a sled and went down. It was pretty fun except for the fact that I was starting to feel a bit queasy.

When we got back to our hostel I was really cold and couldn’t stop shivering as I had a fever and my first real experience as a foreigner hit me-food poisoning. I ate beef (I think) with rice and French fries and juice (possibly made with tap water). I think what made me sick was the beef because that’s the only thing I had that was different than what the others ate, although it could have been a mixture of things since the others didn’t feel 100% either. Needless to say, my body was not happy and I spent at least 31 of the next 48 hours sleeping and trying to feel better. I guess I knew it was going to happen sometime and I’m glad it was more toward the end of the weekend. And while this trip wasn’t what I pictured in my head, it was awesome to see a place that’s so different from Wisconsin. I guess a lesson I learned from this trip is to expect the unexpected, because life is an adventure full of surprises.

Amor y paz.

Lima Top 10

10. Good transportation
Although the driving in Lima is a little, well actually a lot, crazy, the transportation is cheap. You can pretty much get anywhere around Lima for S/.1 (that’s one nuevo sol, their currency, equivalent to about 35 cents).


9. Feeling like a minority
While not all Peruvians are dark skinned, I definitely feel like a minority here. There are more people that don’t look like me than people that do look like me. And I like that. While I want to feel like I fit in, it’s nice to have a change of pace from living in America.

8. History
Living in a city (and country) that has more history than the US has been interesting. I’m taking a history of Peru class this semester, so I’ll learn a lot more than I know now, but last weekend I went on a tour of Lima and I got to see the Plaza de Armas and some very old barouque-style architecture. In some areas, you can see a juxtaposition of new buildings mixed in with old ones.

This is a picture of me in the Plaza de Armas in “Old Lima.” The bronze fountatin is the oldest remaining structure in Lima and also where Francisco Pizarro (a Spanish conquistador) was assassinated. In the background of the picture is the Palacio de Gobierno (their White House).

7. Palm Trees
I love walking around and seeing palm trees. It actually kind of makes me feel like I’m on vacation because whenever I’ve visited a palm-tree friendly climate (aka Cali or Florida) it’s been for spring break or summer vacation. It’s cool knowing that I’ll be living here for a year, seeing palm trees all the time. Love it.


6. Great coffee
Lima has great coffee, but it does take a bit of weeding through a lot of instant-coffee packets to find the right place. It’s very odd that nearly everyone here drinks terrible instant coffee, as they live in a climate conducive to coffee growing, also a climate where a lot of the US gets their coffee. I guess Peruvains aren’t as much as coffee-snobs as I was expecting. This past week I went with another study-abroad Sconnie, Jen, to a Cafe called Cafe Verde (check out cafeverdeperu.com). It’s run by Americans (oddly enough) who go directly to the Peruvian growers and get the coffee beans and roast them in their shop. You can actually see them roasting the coffee in the shop and every bag of coffee you buy has the date it was roasted on the bag. ¡Bien chevere!

5. Classes 3 days a week
While I have yet to register for classes (this past week was “shopping week”), the 5 options for schedules that I have only include class on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That’s right, I have a longer weekend than school week. And while they’re long days, I don’t really mind because this will give me the opportunity to volunteer and also travel around Peru and South America during the semester.

4. Living in a big city
As Lima has over 9 million people, I sometimes feel like a very small, naive fish lost in a sea of Peruvians. but I kind of like it. While overwhelming, I kind of like knowing that I’ll never be able to completely know my way around the city. I felt very accomplished the first time I took a micro (city bus, but more like a van than a bus) from school to Miraflores (where I live). I think it’s the little things like that that really make me feel at home in this massive metropolis.

3. Speaking Spanish
While speaking Spanish has been a little frustrating (as I’m finding out all the words I don’t know) it’s been great knowing that I’m constantly learning and getting good at something that I love. I have definitely said “Como?” (What?) hundreds of times, but I hope with time I’ll be speaking like a Peruvian and people will be like why does that gringa sound like she’s Peruvian? Yep that’s one of my goals, sound Peruvian.

2. Food
Peruvian food is muy rico and very inexpensive. I’ve eaten lunch at school for S/.7 (about 2.25) and it includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. My favorite thing that I’ve eaten is tequenos. It’s fried bread filled with cheese that you dip in a guacamole-type sauce. Ceviche, one of Peru’s most popular dishes, is not one of my most favorite foods. I tried it near the Marina at one of the best places and it just was not my cup of tea. It’s raw fish marinated in lime juice and it was just way too lime-y and the texture was kind of odd. I’m not a big seafood person, so that could be it too. But overall, the food here is inexpensive and really good (although probably not good for you…)

Ceviche

1. Ocean
My most favorite thing about living in Lima is the ocean. The picture I put in my last blog is only 4 blocks where I’m living, so what I pictured in my head was actually a pretty accurate picture of Lima. I can easily walk to the cliffs, sit in the grass and take in the ocean breeze. I love it. Looking out over the ocean and seeing the huge waves just reminds me that I am so small and insignificant and that the God who created this earth is so much bigger than me.

This is a couple blocks from my apartment, and while I can’t enjoy the beach until it warms up in the summer months, I don’t mind the eye candy.

Amor y paz.

Peace Out, Madison

Packing, finishing work, goodbyes, and Peruvian hot chocolate…. This is just a short list of some of the things on my mind as I’m getting ready to study abroad in Lima, Peru  in T minus 2.3 weeks! (That’s about 16 days for all you non-math folks). It’s odd to think that this is my last week in Madison, as this summer has flown by, it seems to always do that though.  My apartment is slowly getting emptier as I put my life in boxes, two of which I designated “Peru.”  I’m having a difficult time deciding what to take as I’m not used to having a limited wardrobe and fashion is definitely one of my hobbies (and yes, that counts as a hobby.) I’ve quite enjoyed packing though because it’s exciting to be moving to a new place.  Last summer was exciting to move out of the dorms into an apartment, but it’s a bit more exciting moving out of my apartment in Madison to an apartment in a city the size of New York City (fun fact:  Lima has a population of about 9 million people, almost twice the population of Wisconsin!)

Finishing work is also on my mind this week, as that’s pretty much all I’ve done this summer and the thought of having some time to sit and chill sounds heavenly.  I’ve been busy and productive this summer working a part time job at a coffee shop in Madison about 10-15 hours per week and then a full time job for Wisconsin Environment, about 45-50 hours per week. It’s been crazy working that much, and my feet can attest to that, but it’ll be worth it having spending/traveling money in Peru when I won’t be working for a year.
Saying goodbyes is something inevitable about traveling, whether it’s for a month or a year.  I’ve said a few goodbyes to people in Madison and it’s very odd, knowing that I won’t be seeing people for at least a year. It’s good to know that it’s easy to stay in touch though. I can’t imagine going on a year long trip without Facebook , Skype, and email! While goodbyes are never easy, I’m glad that I’ll be able to keep in touch easily with my fellow Badgers, my family, and friends.

Lastly, Peruvian hot chocolate (and other things about Peru that I’ve experienced) are in my thoughts as I think about where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing in two weeks. I traveled to Peru in 2008 for two weeks, which was definitely not a lot of time but I was at least able to dip my toes into the culture and have a taste of the Peruvian experience, including their yummy hot chocolate.  It’s made with cinnamon and some really good chocolate and probably some secret ingredients. I’m excited to have it again as well as a lot more Peruvian cuisine.  Because I’ve been to Lima before, I can kind of picture the city in my head when I think about being there. It was a mission’s trip, so we were mostly in the slums, but one day we went downtown to Miraflores (the neighborhood where I’ll be living in Lima).  There are lots of flowers (flores) and a beautiful view of the ocean. There’s also palm trees and mountains, all of landscape-y things we don’t have in Wisconsin that I love! this is a picture I took while I was in Miraflores in 2008.

I enjoy having somewhat of an idea of where I’ll be living, but obviously I won’t be in the exact area that I keep picturing. By the way, I’ll be living with a single lady who’s in her 40s and Peruvian and even though I’m in the nicest part of town, my rent is half as cheap as in Madison. Crazy right? So I know the essentials: that I’ll be eating some amazing  food, living in an awesome downtown apartment, and going to a great school about 2 kilometers from the ocean, oh yeah and I’ll be keeping a sweet blog about all my crazy adventures, but you probably already knew that.

Amor y paz.