Peru 2013

Hi everyone! I know I haven’t really been writing blogs as often anymore but nothing is really going on in Peru! Things are kind of starting to wind down! I’m officially down to 12 more days here…so crazy. I’m so excited to go home yet so sad. It’s a weird feeling!

I haven’t really been doing much lately. Just hanging out with friends, doing homework, sleeping. Two weeks ago was Semana Santa so there was literally nothing going on in Lima. Everyone went to the beach to celebrate holy week. We stuck around Lima and hung out at different people’s houses. 

Then last week I was pretty busy with classes. I worked out a few times at Sam’s apartment, and that was basically all I did during the week. This past weekend we went out for our friend Brian’s birthday. So that was pretty fun! But other than that we just stuck around Lima again! 

I’ve been continuing to pack my stuff up for home in my free time. I’m just praying I can fit it all because I have TOO MUCH stuff. This next weekend we are going to go to Lanisa’s family’s house to have a going away party and then on Saturday Roger and Claudia, Luke’s host brother and sister, are also throwing us a going away party. We might try to make it to the beach one last time as well, but we’ll see. Next week is final’s week so we’ll be busy with that.

I don’t really have anything exciting to talk about, but I’ll check in with you guys next Sunday again. Everyone have a safe week! 

Haley

xoxo

Hello everyone! I know it has been awhile since I wrote my last blog! I’ve been so busy with trips that I haven’t really had any time to write one. But I hope you have a lot of free time right now because just warning you…this one is going to be a long one! My number of days left in Peru is down to 24 or 25 which is so crazy! Nothing too exciting has been going on in Lima. Just continuing with classes! Today we started our visits to a high school in Lima. We got to talk to a lot of different students so that was fun!

Going to the Amazon Jungle/River was quite the experience for me. Everyone knows how I am with bugs :) We arrived in Iquitos in the morning after a flight at 6:40 am. Our tour guide, Ashuko, came and got us from the airport and we drove through Iquitos to the port. We got on a boat and went for a 2 hour boat ride on the Amazon River to our lodge. We stopped a couple of times on our way and looked at different places where we saw lots of caiman. Our lodge was literally in the jungle so I knew that was going to be interesting. When we arrived it was time for lunch. I knew that jungle food was different from food in Lima so I was up for trying new food. I tried catfish. Ew. Ha it was like super soft meat so that creeped me out. The remainder of the trip I ate rice and bread. Food I knew was safe! After lunch we went to our room. When we got there we noticed the lights didn’t work. Little did we know, the lodge has electricity for only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night. That was interesting to say the least ha. After lunch, we went on a hike in the jungle. So.Many.Bugs. We saw lots of spiders, our guide somehow charmed a tarantula out of a whole. Eww. We looked at different plants and animals so that was fun! Little did I know it was the beginning of the rainy season in the Amazon and the only shoes I brought were my good tennis shoes. Not smart. They got soo muddy, but luckily they cleaned up fairly well! After our afternoon hike we returned to the hotel and laid in a room that they had 10 hammocks. It was so relaxing! After a couple hours, we ate dinner and then we went on a night hike. Not to be negative or anything…but it was dark, scary, muddy, and there were bugs on me at ALL times. Me and Danielle struggled a little bit with the night hike haha. We saw so many spiders and their webs. Our guide also somehow spotted a snake in a tree and got it down. That was terrifying! After about an hour of walking around in the dark in the jungle, we returned to the lodge and took showers in the dark. Struggle ha. But then Luke and Sam came over to the room where me, Whit, Lanisa, and Danielle were staying and we talked for a couple hours. Luke came into our room and said they had  found 3 cockroaches in their room. I thought to myself…no, not okay. That was the reason for my lack of sleep that night. The only lighting we had in the room was flashlights and cell phones that we strategically placed around the room. After we talked, we changed and went to bed!

The next day we woke up pretty early and it was raining…again. We ate breakfast and then were informed that we could only leave when the rain stopped. We went to the hammocks and all took a nap for about 2 hours and then we all went to the boat and went down the river to Monkey Island. It was so much fun! When we were there we saw a sloth, many monkeys, parrots, macaws, a toucan, and an anaconda. I got to hold and take pictures with most of them! It was so much fun! I loved the sloth because he was so chill and I also loved the green parrot because he would say “hola” and also whistle if you whistled at him. It was such a great time. It was at this point that I realized that one of the guys that went on our tours with Ashuko was legit worried that I wasn’t going to make it. He was super nice, but he helped me over all the mud puddles and we started talking and he spoke almost no English. He told me that he lives in Iquitos and he also told me his name but it was so hard to remember. He was super nice. After Monkey Island, we went back to the lodge and had lunch.  On our boat ride back to the lodge I discovered I had about 20 bug bites…and I still have all of them right now. They itch SO bad. After lunch, we had a little break and we got back in the boat and looked for pink dolphins in the river. We saw a few but they are hard to get pictures of! We also stopped at a spot where people could swim in the Amazon if they wanted. I didn’t get in, but everyone looked like they were having fun! After that we went back to the lodge and ate dinner. We were supposed to go on a night hike again, but it rained basically all day so Ashuko said it was too muddy. I must admit, I wasn’t too disappointed that we couldn’t go. After dinner we showered and Luke and Sam came over to our room again and we played the card game Hearts. Little did we know it would cause an addiction for all of us! At around 12 we went to bed for the night! I made sure I slept in a sweatshirt, leggings, and socks and also under the sheets so I didn’t get bit so many times again! Pretty sure I still got bit though. 

The last day, we woke up and had breakfast. After breakfast we went piranha fishing! Unfortunately none of us caught any piranhas, but I did catch a catfish! I was the only one that caught anything, so I guess my fishing trips with Grandpa Laird paid off :) After fishing, we went and visited an Indian village. It was quite the experience! They were living off of almost nothing and the didn’t speak Spanish, but a different native language. It was an eye opener for sure. After the village visit we went back to the lodge and packed up our things and ate lunch. I began feeling sick so I didn’t really eat lunch. It just seems like I’ve been sick so much down here! I don’t understand why. But then we got on a boat and took a 3 hour ride upstream to Iquitos on the Amazon. When we got to Iquitos, we immediately went to the airport. We have had so many troubles with Peruvian Airlines. Our plane was supposed to leave at 7:40. It had already been delayed. And then we were on the plane for an hour and they finally told us there was something wrong with the window in the pit so we had to get off the plane. We then learned that our flight was cancelled. They told us that they were going to fly an empty plane from Lima to Iquitos to get all of us, but then 15 minutes later they decided not to do that so we were stuck in Iquitos. Luckily the airport gave us free lodging and taxi fare. We found out our flight would be on Monday at 2:00. We heard that Iquitos is a pretty dangerous place, and we got to our hotel at like 1:00 am. Of course one of the taxi drivers managed to steal Luke’s book bag outside of the hotel. Luckily, he didn’t have anything really valuable in it. We went somewhere to grab a bite to eat and then went back to the hotel. All we wanted was a hot shower, but of course the hotel didn’t have hot water so we took cold showers. It was a rough night to say the least! We made it home the next day safe though so that’s a blessing!

Now for the last trip of our time in Peru that we took last weekend. MACHU PICCHU. Machu Picchu was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. It was so incredible.

We arrived in Cusco on Thursday morning. We had a bus pick us up at UPC at 3 am and our flight was supposed to be at 6 am. We were supposed to have 4 or 5 hours at the hotel to acclimate and get used to the elevation. But of course in Peru things can’t be that easy…we had a delay and only ended up having about 2 hours at the hotel. But after a nap we woke up and ate lunch at the hotel. After lunch, we started a tour. Our tour guides name was Marco and he was so cool! We loved him. He took us around Cusco to a couple of cathedrals, Sacsayhuaman, and other places. He was so knowledgeable about everything so it was really interesting. We ended our tours at about 6 and we returned to the hotel. Some of us went to eat at a place called Jack’s Cafe. It was a place that had American food so some of us got soup, a ceaser salad, french toast, BLT, and other foods. It was absolutely delicious though. After dinner we walked around for awhile…unwillingly. We got lost and it seemed like when we asked people for directions they told us the wrong way so we went in big circles. Eventually we made it home and all of us took showers and went straight to bed!

On Friday morning we went to Machu Picchu! We had to leave really early in the morning. Me and Whitney woke up at 5:30 am and were exhausted! We ate a quick breakfast and then we went to the bus station. Normally you can just take a train ride all the way from Cusco to Machu Picchu, but it is the rainy season now and there are many landslides so there is an area where the train track is shut down. We rode a bus for about an hour and a half and then we got off and rode a train for an hour and a half. We arrived in Machu Picchu at around 11:30. We then rode a van for 30 minutes up the mountain to the actual ruins. We then took a tour until 3:00. This tour guide was also so knowledgable it was crazy! He talked about the Spanish conquered the Incan empire and everything. Such a sad story. It was so amazing being able to see Machu Picchu in real life. I suggest you all see it at some point of your life :) But after our tour we went and ate at a buffet in Aguas Calientes. It was very good food! We were supposed to have an hour of free time to shop in the markets and everything but of course we were behind schedule again so we didn’t get to. We got on the bus at around 4 and went back to Cusco the same way we came and arrived home at around 9:00. On the train ride Luke decided he wanted to start a game of pitch. It was Sam and I on a team and Luke and Allie on a team. Of course we won by like 45 points. Thanks dad for making me such a great pitch player :) After we got home everyone was exhausted again. Me and Whit watched an episode of American Idol, showered, and went to bed. It was a wonderful day!

The third day we woke up fairly early again and went on some more tours. We began with a tour of a rescued animal shelter. It was so cool. We saw condors, a puma, alpacas, llamas, parrots, macaws, and other animals. We went shopping in the markets for a while. I have realized that I definitely have a soft spot for all the children here in Peru. Its so hard for me not to buy their bracelets, necklaces, etc. We talked to two boys and one of them asked where we were from and we told them the United States and then they were like oo Obama is your president. We were so impressed that they knew that! They were so cute though. Whitney bought something from one of them and 30 seconds later dropped it on the ground and it shattered and the boy wanted to give her another one for free but Whitney gave him some money for it and he said that she didn’t need to pay, but she did anyway. They were just the cutest little boys and they touched my heart. After that we went and looked at the Sacred Valley, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chincheros. So yes, another VERY long day! We walked up the 200 stair ruins and o wow was that fun. Not. When you are adjusting to high altitudes, the last thing you want to do is hike up 200 steep stairs ha. We nearly died walking up them, but we made it! We went back to the lodge at around 7 pm and then we relaxed for awhile. Lanisa, Danielle, Whitney, and I decided it would be fun to straighten each other’s hair so we did that and then went to dinner and Sam and Luke also came. After dinner we went to a pub and had a couple of drinks and then went home at about 12 or 1. We were all super tired so we pretty much just went to bed when we got home.

The next morning I woke up at about 8:45 and me and Whit got all packed up and headed out to do some shopping at the markets. My wallet didn’t like it but it was a success! I got pretty much all my shopping for souvenirs done! I will be saving the rest of my money now that we are done with trips and souvenirs so I’m not completely broke when I go home :) After shopping we met at the hotel and took a bus to the airport. Of course when we got to the airport we learned that our flight was an hour late. Smh. So our flight left at 4:10 from Cusco. We finally made it home on Sunday night and I got to skype the parents so that was nice!

Now that my last trip is over and my time here is almost to an end, I can’t say enough how blessed I am to have been able to go on this study abroad trip. Peru has opened my eyes to so many different things. I’ve learned that I don’t need a $250 handbag or $200 headphones. The people here outside of Lima work so hard and live off of so little. I will never forget any of these experiences here and the people I have met.

Well now that I’m sure I have put you all to sleep with my LONG blog…I will be ending it now. It only took me about 2 hours to write so I hope you all enjoy it!

Haley

xoxo 

Well it has been a while since I wrote my last blog! There just hasn’t really been anything going on with school and everything! 

This past weekend/week we went to Ica. It is a town that is south of Lima and it pretty close to the coast. We had to ride in a bus to Ica so that was a fun three and a half hour ride. We had to be at the bus station at 7 so it was an early morning! We went there on Sunday morning and we got back on Tuesday around 8:30 and got home at around 9 after the taxi ride. We stayed in a resort in Ica and it was so beautiful! It was a very large resort! We arrived in Ica around 12:00 and then we were starving so we went to the center to get some lunch at a restaurant. After that we went to a market. We returned to our hotel for like 30 minutes and then we went to the place to sand board. We rode in these dune buggies and those things were crazy! The drivers drove them SO fast I thought for sure we were going to crash. Me, Luke, and Danielle were freaking out a little bit. The hardest part was that you couldn’t open your mouth or you would get sand in it. It was gross. Haha but so much fun! Then we tried our luck at sand boarding which is basically snowboarding on sand. It was so hard! Yes I fell…I’m sure most of you figured that anyway ha. But it was super fun!  Then we toured a wine/pisco vineyard in Ica. It was super cool and I bought some really good gifts for some of my friends there! I’m excited to give them the gifts! The wine tasting was super fun! But the pisco tasting…not so much :/ But it was really interesting to see how both of those drinks are made! After that, we returned to the hotel. We swam in one of the pools the hotel had and played a game of basketball! It was pretty competitive but so much fun! After that we showered and ate dinner at a restaurant at our hotel. Then we went to Luke and Sam’s room and me and Whitney FINALLY learned how to french braid hair! Thanks to Lanisa! She taught us both and even fishtailed my hair too. That will take forever for me to learn though. Shortly after, we went to our rooms and went to bed because everyone was so exhausted!

The next day we had to wake up at like 5:45! We ate breakfast which was delicious by the way. I think I ate 5 rolls and a whole plate of fruit and drank orange juice. Everyone knows I hate to eat breakfast but this breakfast was wonderful! We left the hotel at around 6:30 and headed to  Paracas where the Islas Ballestas are. It was about an hour ride. When we arrived we found out that it was too foggy out on the ocean so there was a delay of all the boat tours. The only good thing about the delay was that Whitney and I were able to drink a cup of black coffee! That is not something very common around here! But it was wonderful! Finally an hour later we were able to do our tours. The islands were so amazing! But it was scary at the same time because they were out in the middle of NOWHERE. I have never seen so many sea lions in my life before though! They were everywhere! And i was surprised but they sound almost exactly like cows mooing! It was crazy! There were also soooooo many birds! It was so terrifying! We also saw jellyfish, starfish, crabs, and penguins. It was a really awesome tour! After the tour we returned back to shore and drove back to Ica. Then we ate lunch and ate took some much needed naps. :) Then later we went swimming in one of the pools again. This time we played all the childhood games we could remember including MarcoPolo! It was lots of fun! I have made such good friends here in Peru and I’m really grateful for all of them! After swimming we showered and went into town for some dinner and ate some pizza! We stopped at a couple stores by the restaurant we ate at in Ica so that was fun! Then we returned to the hotel for the evening and just hung out!

On Tuesday, we were able to sleep in so that was amazing! Kim and I woke up at about 9 and went to get breakfast. It was wonderful again! Then we returned to the room and I took a nap. Later I woke up and packed and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at the hotel and then the bus picked us up and we were headed to Lima! I had a really hard time sleeping on the busses but I did sleep for about 45 minutes and woke up to a VERY pleasant surprise. I woke up and Breaking Dawn Part 2 from the Twilight series was playing on TVs so I was able to watch that movie for the first time. It was amazing :) I will be buying that DVD when I return to America. A few hours later we FINALLLYYYY arrived in Lima.We were all super tired! It was a really great trip though with some great friends!

Well, I am officially down to 36 days here in Peru. It is absolutely crazy. I am really starting to miss everyone in the United States, but it sucks moving right when you are really getting used to everything down here! On Friday morning at 4:00 am we have to be at the Lima airport to head out to Iquitos. Iquitos is where we are going to see the Amazons. I am scared. So many bugs/wildlife :/ I have been taking my malaria pills so hopefully I didn’t get bit by anything dangerous. I am very worried! But anyway…it should be a good time! I’ve just been so busy lately so it feels like these past few weeks are just flying by! But anyway, I’m sure I’ve bored you all enough and it is 1:00 am so I should probably get some sleep. We had air conditioning in our hotel in Ica so I think it made me sick. I know have a sore throat/sneezes/runny nose. Blah. Maybe we shouldn’t have set our AC to 16 degrees celcius(sp?) But it was nice being cold for once! Ok…going to bed. I hope everyone is doing well at home! Miss you all mucho!

Haley

xoxo

Well it’s officially March! Time is flying by down here! These past 2 weeks have definitely been full of ups and downs!

Last week I didn’t do much at all because I had three tests to study for! Blah. One of the nights last week Whit, Luke, and me went to Sam’s house and we watched a movie. It was called Sinister…eesh. It was pretty scary. After we watched the movie we decided to go to Vivanda (the grocery store) and we bought food to cook! We made hamburgers out of what we thought was beef but later realized it tasted like mystery meat when we ate it…struggle. But we also bought macaroni and cheese and when we got home we realized we didn’t have any margarine or butter so it didn’t taste quite right ha…struggle. And then we bought a can of corn! The corn was amazing. Here they just eat this corn that has HUGE kernels. I can’t remember what it’s called…it starts with a c :). I went running once last week…and about died because it made me so tired ha. I need to get into a more permanent running schedule though! But that was basically my excitement for the week!

On Thursday night we went to a place called Aura. Our friend Brian had wanted us to go there with him. It was a fun place! Any place that plays American music is fine with me! :) On Friday, we didn’t really do anything during the day but we went to a movie at 10:30 that night. We went with Whitney’s host brother. The past movies we have went to in Lima have all been in English. But unfortunately this one was not. We should have known because it is a movie from the United States but in Peru it had a different name and it was in Spanish, “El Maestro Luchador.” My initial thought was ok well it’s fine it will have English subtitles…30 seconds later I thought to myself dur Haley it won’t have English subtitles. And it didn’t have Spanish subtitles. So we had to think throughout the WHOLE thing! After watching the movie, our brains hurt from thinking too much ha. But we should probably be watching all of our movies like that to help with our Spanish! But it was a good movie! On Saturday, Sam’s host brother, Kevin, took us to a place called Polvos Azules. I’m not sure where exactly it was in Lima but I know it wasn’t in our district. But it’s a big place to shop and they had SO many shoes, soccer jerseys, electronics, EVERYTHING. I realized I couldn’t shop in that kind of environment. Too many people and too many stores! Stressed me out! Saturday night we went to dance! I went with Sam, Luke, Whit, and Kevin. It was a really fun night! 

Now that the week is nearly over it’s time to work on more homework! I wish we had a Spring Break this semester but nope! This next weekend we are going to Ica. I am SO excited! It will be nice to hang out with all the classmates and get out of town for a weekend! We found out that we will be getting more money back from our cancelled Machu Picchu trip so that made ALL of our weeks a little better! :) I’m just praying we can still go sometime before we head back to America!

As I said before, these past two weeks have been a little crazy! Sorry to all my friends and family that had to listen to me complain over messaging/skype. I love you all! :) I also have to thank Whit, Sam, and Luke for listening to my whining too! They are the best! Get excited because there will be muchos fotos nuevos on FB next weekend after our trip! We leave on Sunday and return on Tuesday. And then we leave for the jungle that weekend! It’s going to be crazy down here until we go back to the United States! <3

Haley

xoxo

Well this week hasn’t been a great one! We found out that we wouldn’t be able to go to Machu Picchu this weekend because the US Embassy put out a travel advisory. So disappointing! All of the Peruvians I talked to about it were super angry though because they said Cusco is safe and the Peruvian government said that they hadn’t heard of any kidnapping threats or anything so idk! Kind of a mess! We are not very happy because we are losing a lot of money for cancelling and it’s UNK that won’t let us go so they should have to pay for it. So dumb. 

Anyway, I’m done complaining. I haven’t done anything really exciting since my last blog. We haven’t gone on any trips or anything in a while. Just been doing homework and going to class! And an eventual workout session here and there.

Last night I went to my first rave! It was called a Carnaval and it was like a paint party. It was absolutely crazy! We went with Xio and Adrian which are conversation partners of some of the UNK students. I don’t even know how to explain it! Stay tuned on FB because of course Lanisa took her camera so there are plenty of pictures! :) 

Well, that’s all I have for now. Sorry it was a short/boring one! If UNK would have let us go on our trip I would have had SO MANY stories. Whatevs. 

Peace out.

Haley

xoxoxo

(Me and Whitney in the Colca Valley)

Well we just finished our 6th week of classes! It seems like this semester is flying by so far! I was so “lucky” to be in Peru for Valentine’s Day yesterday. Sarcasm. Everyone here is so PDA and lovey. Gag me. At least I had my box of chocolates from Arequipa to keep me company. Meche and her friend laughed at me when they asked me if I got any presents for Valentine’s Day and I said no. They said it was “so sad.” My life haha.

(Me, Whitney, Danielle, Lanisa, Kim, and DJ Agua)

Anyway…school is going the same. Nothing too exciting there. We only have one more week of tutoring kids in English. That’s basically all that’s going on at UPC!

Last weekend a group of us went on a trip to Arequipa! It was absolutely beautiful and didn’t even look real! Our trip started off with a bus ride to the Lima airport at 3:00 in the morning. Whit, Luke, Sam, and I thought it would be a great idea to have a sleepover and watch A Walk to Remember and eat ice cream and go to sleep for an hour. It turned out to be a horrible idea of course haha. From Lima, we had an hour flight to Arequipa and when we got there we had to wait for about an hour and a half for our tour guide to pick us up. So at 9:00 am our tour started. Joy! We went from Arequipa to Chivay which is by the Colca Canyon and the mountains. Our tour guide was super nice and we had some people from Chile and also other parts of Peru in our tour group. The guide called us the “Latin Lovers.” We drove through the mountains and occasionally we would get out of the bus for pictures, to look at stores, etc. I happened to sleep most of the tour unfortunately because I didn’t feel the best. Everyone was so tired! We stopped and ate lunch at 2:00 and it was a place that had a buffet. I was too much of a baby to try the alpaca meat but some people thought it tasted pretty good. After we got done eating we went to the hotel for about an hour or so. We put on our swimming suits because we were going to the hot springs. Unfortunately we didn’t get much of a nap but it was fine!

The hot springs weren’t actually just a body of water outside, but instead the water was channeled (not sure if that is the right word to use? but you know what I mean :)) through a pipe into like a pool. It was amazingggggg. Chivay was really cold! It was cloudy and foggy and misty so the hot water felt incredible. We were there for about an hour and a half and we returned to our hotel. We took showers and got ready to go out to eat with the tour group. We went to a restaurant that had a live band and dancers. It was a lot of fun! After we got done eating we were informed that we needed to be ready to leave the next morning at 6:30…soo early. The smart thing would have been for all of us to just go to bed early but of course we couldn’t do that! We all went to Whitney, Kim, and my room and talked and listened to music until about 12 when we couldn’t even keep our eyes open. 

The next morning was a rough one. We woke up had a little breakfast aka a smoothie, and we got on the bus. We started driving towards the Colca Valley and our first stop was supposed to be the Condor Crossing. If you don’t know what a condor is…it’s supposed to be the largest bird in the world. It was a struggle because the clouds were SO low that we couldn’t even see like 40 feet away from us. Of course we saw no condors which was super disappointing. We started driving down the mountain and it started to clear up a little bit. We stopped at the beginning of the canyon to take a whole group picture and a lady that was down there told us she had seen 4 condors that morning. All of a sudden we saw 2! It was great! It was the rainy season so the tour guide told us he was surprised we saw any. Our next stop on the trip was Colca. It’s a tiny town so we stopped there for about 15 minutes and looked at the little shops and an old church. Then we drove the rest of the way to Chivay. We ate lunch, grabbed our things from the hotel, and headed towards Arequipa. We had about a three hour drive from Chivay to Arequipa. When we got to Arequipa, it was raining which was super weird because it NEVER rains in Lima. Ever. It was so refreshing to see precipitation for once though! :) I guess it was the most rain Arequipa had gotten in one time ever. I guess people like died because of all the rain and like mudslides. Crazy! But we finally got to our hotel at about 4 or 4:30. We had all finally got to take a good nap while on the bus so we weren’t too tired! We decided that instead of going out to eat we wanted to just cook something at our hotel. We went to a grocery store and bought mac and cheese, sandwiches, fruit, and we each just paid for some of the food. We got back to the hotel and ate our food…which was delicious by the way, and we played some cards. Then we went to me, Luke, and Sam’s hotel room and we all played more games. At about 11:30 we decided we wanted to check out the Arequipa night life so we went out to a disco! We returned to the hotel at about 3 so we weren’t out too late! It was a fun night though!

On Sunday, we walked around the central plaza of Arequipa. We got some lunch at a pizza place. It was pretty cold in Arequipa though…which was like 65 degrees so not that cold but compared to Lima that’s really cold! We went around to a bunch of stores and bought some really cool stuff that was made out of alpaca. On Sunday, there was also a carnaval which is basically just when people go to the plaza. There were little kids running around with water balloons and spray foam. Of course a little kid saw me and Luke saw the whole thing happen. The little kid said “Gringa!” (which is a white girl) and sprayed me with blue foam. It was gross but I got it off. 30 seconds later I got sprayed AGAIN but a different little kid and with white foam! I was the only one from our group that got sprayed and I got sprayed TWICE! We returned to our hotel at about 3 and there were taxis picking us up at 4:30 to take us to the airport for our flight home! 

By the time we got to the airport everyone was pretty tired! On this whole trip everyone else went through security fine but I got my carry-on bag searched in Lima and Arequipa! That never happens to me so I don’t what it was that they saw! When we boarded the plane and were about to take off it was like 7:00. Me and Lanisa were pretty delirious and she told me that the flight attendant that was giving the safety speech looked really tired. At the moment he was showing how to buckle the seat belt he was trying to buckle it the wrong way so of course it wouldn’t work and he was confused. We started laughing uncontrollably and yes he saw us laughing at him. From that moment on, he just smiled at us when he walked past. It was soo funny. Then our plane was getting ready to take off and a piece of the plane fell off the ceiling and the top panel like opened. This plane was jank. We were scared though…just waiting for the oxygen masks to fall from the panels. They never did though…thank God! We landed safely! We arrived at UPC at about 10 pm and we all went home.

It was a VERYY long weekend, but it was so amazing! Colca Canyon was so beautiful and I will never forget it! It was nice hanging out with everyone too! I’m just so thankful that I’ve been able to make so many great friends on this trip! I will never forget any of them! But ok…this post is far too long…my apologies! 

Haley 

xoxo

Well today Marta told us that we are 1/3rd done in Peru. I have a feeling it’s going to be a rough day when me and Whitney have to leave because after she said that, we just looked at each other. I’m looking forward to the day when I get to home but it’s going to be a very sad day! I don’t even want to think about it…haha.

But anyway, this week we didn’t really go on any trips or anything but we did go to the ocean! Some UNK students learned how to surf. I didn’t, but I met some pretty cool surfers as I waited for everyone to get done surfing. David (Sam’s host brother), gave everyone lessons before we went to the beach and I think he must have done a pretty good job because everyone did pretty well. I unfortunately fell asleep on the beach and woke up with a bad sunburn, even though I put on sunscreen and it wasn’t even that sunny!

We were able to watch the Super Bowl last night at Casino Fiesta. And it was crazy because I thought there was at least a little football in Peru, but the two Peruvian guys that went with us literally knew nothing about football. It was disappointing because none of the commercials that are played in the United States were played, but we were just happy that we got to see the game! Of course the team I wanted to win lost. I am bad luck.

This week me, Whit, Luke, and Sam went to Barranco and Miraflores with me and Whitney’s conversation partners, Claudia and Joseline. We walked A LOT that night haha but it was a fun time! Claudia wanted us to try new food so we tried cow heart and gizzards and chicken. I felt sick after I ate it…but I think it was more the thought of what I ate than me really being sick.

Well I don’t have much new news. So this blog is a little short! But we are going to Arequipa this weekend so I’m sure my next blog will be longer!

Haley

xoxo

(Me and Whitney conquering our fears and crossing the log bridge over water—top)

(In front of la Inglesia de San Francisco—middle)

(The whole group in Matucana—bottom)

I can’t believe I have already been living in Peru for three months now! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was getting on that plane to come to Peru! I think that my Spanish is really improving and that makes me super excited! It’s still pretty difficult to understand people that speak really fast but I’m sure that will get easier with time!

My weeks from Mondays to Thursdays seem like they are always filled with homework and that is about it! I do the homeworks for classes the night before they are due and the system is working out well for me so far! The classes are just a lot of work but I think it’s really helping when we are working with Spanish 24/7. This past week we had a little “homework party” and I think that really helped. We had to read a story for our literature class so Luke, Sam, Whitney, and I each took a couple of pages of the story and translated them and then discussed all of the pages to each other. There were many words that we had no idea what they meant and when we asked Sam’s host brothers what the words meant, they didn’t know either! It was very difficult!

This weekend was one of the most fun weekends that I have had since I’ve been here! We took two trips…one to central Lima and one to Matucana. On Friday we went to central Lima to tour La Iglesia de San Franciso. It is a very old church that has catacombs and tons of skeletons in the basement/tunnels. It was a little scary actually! I was very angry with myself this day, because I forgot to put on sunscreen and got very sunburned! It was pretty painful! After we toured the church we went and ate. Me and Whitney had been craving KFC since we got here because we missed American food and we FINALLY got to have it on Friday. But I must say…we didn’t think it tasted very good which was very disappointing. On a sidenote…our whole class went to McDonald’s after class on Thursday and it was the most amazing food I have tasted these past few weeks. We had all missed American food so much that we thought McDonald’s was amazing! But anyway back to my story about this weekend…Friday night I didn’t do anything fun but watch episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix because we had to be up at 6:00 the next day.

Now for my interesting day on Saturday. I started off on a rough foot because we were all supposed to meet at UPC at 7:00 to leave for our trip. Unfortunately I woke up at 7:03…oops. It was a blessing that I had packed my bag the night before and I live VERY close to campus so I was able to get there very soon. We took a bus to Matucana and our ride lasted about 2 hours. It was nice to get out of Lima and see some smaller towns. The contrast between Lima and other towns is so crazy! The smaller towns almost look run down, but they definitely aren’t. In Lima there are business districts, nice houses, and lots of cars. (Depending on the area of Lima) But in the smaller towns we passed through there were shacks for houses and the businesses looked tiny and run down. It was a real eye-opener…that’s for sure. When we finally reached Matucana I don’t think I was prepared for the task we were about to do. I thought it would be a nice and short trek up the mountain. No. Two hours and sore legs later we finally made it to the waterfalls and the end of our hike! Me and Whitney were the complainers of the group…but we made it! I thought I was going to die when the mountain was so steep and my legs burned so bad! When we reached the waterfall; however, we knew the hike was worth it! We walked in the water by the waterfall and the water was freezing! There were also very sharp rocks so I’m surprised I didn’t cut my feet! Our tour guide, (I can’t remember his name :( but I think our teacher Roberto called him Cocoa), was SO much help. I didn’t think I could climb up rocks but he held out his hand and helped me get up the rock. He was amazing! But after a long break it was time to go back down the mountain. You would think that this would be an easy task…but no. I almost fell many, many times because of the slippery rocks and the steepness of the mountain. It was such a great experience climbing up that mountain because I felt like we all got so much closer and spent time together! When we reached the bottom we either had the chance to cross over logs (one of my pictures I have included) or you could cross the bridge. I was going to cross over the logs but after five steps in I panicked and jumped off the logs and decided to take the bridge. Whitney and I watched as all the other students were crossing the bridge and we decided we are in Lima, Peru and we are not going to babies right now! SO WE MADE IT ACROSS THE LOGS! We were so proud of ourselves! After we went to the center of Matucana our tour guide ran over to a lady and told her to come talk to us. She was actually the mayor of the city! She told us about Matucana and all there is to do there and she was such a nice lady! She gave us all free books that we took with us! It was a really awesome experience. After we spoke with the mayor we went and got food at a little restaurant and then we headed back to Lima! Even though my legs are still super sore to this day…I would do it all again! This trip was an absolutely amazing experience that I will never forget and I’m so thankful that I was given the opportunity to come to Lima. I have met SO many awesome people and seen so many places that I will never forget! After being here only 2 weeks, Whitney and I were discussing what it’s going to be like the day we leave. It made us sad so we made a pact not to talk about it anymore! haha

Tonight after our class we were able to take Roberto and Marta out for dinner! It was so much fun! We went to Papa John’s because pizza is Marta’s favorite food and it was wonderful!

Well, I apologize for all my rambling in this blog. No it’s officially 1:16 a.m. and I have to wake up tomorrow to tutor some students at UPC so I will be heading to bed!

Haley xoxo 

Well I’ve officially survived two weeks in Peru! :) I’m really getting into the hang of things here and I’m really enjoying it so far! :)

Classes are definitely one of the hardest parts so far. They are a lot of work which is probably a good thing! On top of our classes we have, we will begin working with students at UPC on their English. Me and Lanisa will tutor every Tuesday and Wednesday for the next five weeks. I’m a little nervous for that because I have helped Fatima with her English homework before and it was a little challenging. I would tell her what I thought was the answer but the textbook would have a different answer that wouldn’t be commonly used…so we’ll see how the tutoring goes!

I’m definitely getting more used to the food here…although I do crave a good steak every now and then! I’m getting used to all of the lime juice that is in all foods! This weekend I went to a beach and ate at a restaurant. Me and Whitney decided to split a meal which was like alfredo pasta. We thought it was really good, and the Peruvian guys we were with thought it was horrible because it wasn’t “hot” enough and we were eating something that wasn’t traditional Peruvian food. I guess we just have different tastes! :)

I’ve really been enjoying the time that our class has been spending together! We go out to the discos and dance on the weekends and it’s so much fun! I’ve been asked if I’m from Germany and Ireland so far…not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing! I’ve met some really cool people in Peru so far and I’m sure I’ll meet more! I’m really beginning to enjoy the music here as well. There are certain songs here that you hear EVERYWHERE and even though we don’t know what the songs are saying, we are still memorizing the words like we understand!

I stayed in a hotel by a beach in Peru that is south of Lima this past weekend and it was quite the experience! There were roosters living in cages right beside our room which was super annoying…but other than that it was good! It was definitely not a Hilton hotel but it was fine! The place we stayed is called a ”hospedaje” and they are little inns that they have in smaller towns. In the same town, I also saw many stray/wild dogs. It’s weird enough to see stray cats in cities in the United States but when you see a group of five stray dogs just running around and fighting it’s even crazier. Some of the dogs were just skin and bones though so that was really sad. It was super interesting to leave Lima for a couple days and see what the smaller towns are like too!

I still feel really bad when I can’t understand what people are telling me when they speak really fast. This morning the guy that guards our apartment complex was talking to me and I just couldn’t follow what he was saying. I think he was asking me a question about the other night when I got home but I couldn’t understand! He just kind of smiled and was like never mind. So frustrating when you can’t understand someone. I am beginning to understand people better though, so hopefully by the end of this trip I will be able to understand the guards at the gate better!

Time to do some homework! I’ll check in again next week and write another blog! Have a great week everyone! :)

Haley xoxo   

Oy, where to start! I have officially been in Perú for a week now! One word can sum up my stay so far…adjustments. The thing my host family asked after I had been with them for like ten minutes was if I spoke and Spanish. Not a great start! Obviously I didn’t know what I was saying in Spanish and when they spoke to me I had no idea what they were ever saying. That’s when I knew that even though I thought I knew Spanish pretty well…I actually didn’t know much! I am living with two girls my age and their names are Fátima and Meche. Meche’s mom is around a lot to cook us lunch. All of them are so nice and try to make me feel so at home. I feel like so many of my conversations with Fátima and Meche are the same. They start with them asking me a question, then I act like I know what they are saying when obviously I have no idea what they are saying and then they ask me “Entiendes?” which means “Do you understand?” and I say no and we all start laughing. It’s a good thing all of our phones have translators on them for when we really can’t understand each other at all. I always feel bad for people here that talk to me in Spanish because I feel like they have to repeat everything like 10 times. So the communication has been slightly difficult, but it is definitely getting a lot better every day that I’m here! :)

Another adjustment…my electronics, chargers, and etc. I have had the biggest problems with my converters and it has been stressing me out. I brought a converter and when that one didn’t work, we went to the store and I got a new one. Even with the converters, it wouldn’t charge my phone, my hair dryer, straightener, and curling wand wouldn’t work, and my computer would only charge when it was shut off. BUT…I just found out last night that I never even needed a converter thanks to Whitney! So that’s a major problem that has been taken care of!

A huge adjustment so far has been the food too. Many people know I’m a pretty picky eater so when I decided to move to Peru I knew this might be a slight problem. Some things that I have liked so far…fruit smoothies, juice, and strawberry yogurt from a milk carton. It seems like a lot of the foods they have here are the same as in the United States but they are prepared differently. I love steamed broccoli and corn but when I had it here it was soaked in lime juice so it was not what I expected at all! Yesterday I had tuna that was soaked in lemon juice so a lot of the foods I have had so far have had lime or lemon juice in them.  I have realized that Peruvians like to eat mayonnaise with everything which is very strange to me. I usually only eat two meals a day but they give me so much food at breakfast and lunch that I am never hungry at night! Everyone in Perú drinks a soda called Inca Cola and it’s made by Coca-Cola and it tastes just like bubble gum. I’ve realized sweet drinks are very popular here. I’m trying to get used to all the new foods and drinks and everything but it will probably take some time!

The second full day I was in Lima, Meche, Fátima, and I went to Miraflores which is along the coast. That was the first time that I realized there is only one word to describe the drivers in Perú…crazy! They drive so fast, cut people off, do not follow signs or lights, will hit any pedestrian in their path, and the worst is that they honk ALL THE TIME. It is absolutely crazy! But we took these little bus things called Combis to Miraflores and it was quite the experience! But Miraflores by the coast has a shopping mall with lots of stores and restaurants and it is built into the side of a hill which is super cool. There are also a lot of different parks in the Miraflores area. We went right before the sun was setting, so the ocean was so beautiful. All of the parks had lots of lights and all the businesses and streets were all lit up as well. It was very pretty! My favorite part though was the huge hill that was in the distance that has a really big lighted cross. It made me feel so good! The weather in Perú is like perfect. During the days it is mid- to upper-70s. And the low at night is like 65 or around there. I was surprised at how cool it gets at night especially when you are by the coast. It’s very sunny though during the days so I love it!

My classes so far are going pretty good. They only speak English when we absolutely aren’t understanding anything, so after a three-hour-long class we are pretty exhausted! The teachers are very nice though and all of the UPC staff that we have met so far have been so friendly!

I have conquered my first mild case of the flu since I have been here so I’m pretty proud of myself! Aside from the many struggles, I am loving Perú so far! I’ve met so many cool people and I’ve gotten so close to some of the students I came to Perú with. Well, this got a little long so I will end it! I’m sure that will be many more stories and adventures to come! :)

Haley

XOXO