LEAD-UP TO PARCIALES

It's been a while, so I wont shoot for a summary of the time since I last wrote an entry. Instead, In no particular order, aquí hay unos pensamientos y preguntas (coincidence?) that are bouncing around in my head as I get ready for parciales next week:

1.) Tom and I watched the NFL Draft (go Packers) together last week. He sings at the top of his lungs around the house. I'm glad he's my roommate.

2.) I live in a desert. It has rained twice in the two months I've been here. Lima is the second biggest city built on a desert in the world after Cairo, Egypt. I feel completely confident guessing that the campus of la Catolica is one of the most intensely watered places in this entire Hemisphere. I can't imagine where all the water that fuels Lima comes from. We visited Rimac, and it seems like an awfully small river (relatively) for so many to share.

3.) La Catolica employs a small army of grounds-staff to do this watering, but surprisingly none of them (Alvaro said) are student workers. So much job creation... but in a way that's really different to what my privileged-ass self (who's worked easy part-time student jobs at UW for all but 1 semester of school because WI mandates that a certain number exist) is familiar with. Alvaro told me that in La Paz it's almost not even worth it to look for a job as a student, because they are rare and pay so low when compared to tuition. Most students then are completely dependent on their parents (if they can afford it). I'm so curious about minimum wage politics here in Lima, and just more generally to know what a day's wages looks like for all the cobradores, street venders, Catolica gardeners (who fill what I'm sure is a much lower-paying position than a hypothetical student position filled by a student ), etc that I've come across.

4.) Life in this part of the 21st century is shaping up to be a constant battle against Facebook. I think sometimes I'm winning. It's gonna be an interesting generation.

5.) I am so incredibly thankful that humans have produced such wonderful things as late night hole-in-the-wall restaurants and street venders. Subsequently, I wonder what the evolution of Perú's world-class condiment culture looked like.

Aji and Ketchup are a match made in heaven.

6.) I have absolutely no idea how anyone can have enough patience to put up with my spoken Spanish, much less want to be my friend. For them to give me compliments that my Spanish is improving, as Jean said, makes me love and appreciate these people all the more.

7.) This city "no tiene ningun verguenza" and you don't have to have any either! ...if you're in a heterosexual relationship that is.

8.) I'm in two classes where the majority of students tienen entre 16 y 18 año, and one class where they must average between 25-30 years. Shouldn't someone in IAP have caught this by now?

9.) Learned a new word usage yesterday in my gender studies class. Los "conos" de Lima are the furthest reaches of the northern part of the city nestled in mountain valleys. First settled by migrants from la sierra, many of los conos are now well-established neighborhoods. What I think I heard in class is that one of the biggest shopping centers in Lima is located in one such cono, and that there might (jokingly) have to be a class field trip there to show it to the extranjero members of the class (myself and, strangely enough. a woman from UW-Milwaukee). This city is big and has too much variety for me to even think about sometimes. 5 months is way too short a time to see all of it.

10.) On that note, I've come to realize more and more that I'm a country boy... es decir, I grew up on a farm, walked my dog on quiet back roads, went to spaghetti feeds, raised chickens, played video games and drank mountain dew in former hog barns, and went to school in a town of 800+ people. I've been hearing everyone's stories of "culture shock" start to come out the last few weeks but I can't say that I've really felt any of the "symptoms" that strongly. Lima is home to about 9 million people, roughly the same size as Chicago. Sure, of course I've noticed that people live differently here than in Chicago, but what strikes me on a day-to-day basis, what makes me tired and stressed out, awestruck and exhilarated is MUCH more-so just the fact that I'm living independently in a huge city for the first time in my life.

I've spent no summers in Chicago or Milwaukee, no internships in D.C.. I know Madison and Cambria. Driving down country roads to see friends or biking to 736 Jennifer St to make dinner feels so different to me than combi or blue line to Barranco on a Saturday night. The "bigness" of Javier Prado and 94 coming into the Twin Cities feel about the same. So, although I've felt culture shock to be sure, what's the most obvious to me is "city shock." I'm looking forward to post-parciales travel outside of this big 'ol desert valley, wonderful as it may be. Looking forward to taking in some country air.

It's gonna be half way done really soon.

I'm starting to miss cheese in every meal (I guess that counts as culture shock).

Gotta push it, make it count, and attend more partidos de futbol.

Little ups and downs

I knew before I left that this trip would not be the same as others, because 5 months is enough time for normality to balance out the constant excitement of everything being new and unfamiliar. Just over a month seems to have been long enough to start experiencing life as it would flow at me anywhere else on the planet-- with its waves rolling up and down, still wonderful, but not without turbulence.

- Playing fútbol is wonderful, but it's out of character for me to willingly put myself in a situation where I am so easily recognized as below average. Maybe often being the one who doesn't quite "get it" on a conversational level for the last month has helped me get over myself a bit. I still get self-conscious and retreat to trying to laugh it up.

I really need to start liking high fives.

- It's harder to call someone out if I'm offended. I either get nervous that I just misunderstood a language subtlety or that I won't be as effective as I could be with my own words. Because of this I've allowed people I consider friends to objectify me and others in the last couple weeks. It's simple things like demonstrating respect for female-bodied people and for queer folks. I'm afraid that if I let one more thing slide I'l grow to really dislike a few of the people I'm spending time with. But I also have to remember that might be okay too.

Making friendships go deeper is definitely harder with cultural and language barriers. But I still really really enjoy the process 95% of the time, and I do think it will all be worth it.

- I still procrastinate.

But I've gotten much better at not using facebook to do so.

- I still think dancing is a valid excuse to not be doing almost anything and, hence, spend hours and hours with all my furniture pushed to one side of the room. I wish I was in a dance group or class here. I'll keep trying.

- This week we can pick up a card from the university that allows us to ride the combis for half price. Paying 18 cents to ride the (independently-owned) buses seems like an unnecessary discount for me.

- Fer told me yesterday that my Spanish has improved a lot.

It meant THE WORLD to me...

and I'm still floating :o)

- And that's my bedroom, with the windows and doors leading out to the balcony.

I'm really thankful for our balcony.

Roadtrip! para la semana santa

Last weekend I went to Oxapampa with Martín and his family and it was fantastic! The best 8 straight hours in a pick-up truck I've ever had. Though my camera died after we got there, journey was more than worth documenting. We went from the city of Lima to further out into the desert, to la sierra with mountain goats and everything, to the jungle full of giant butterflies. Above is a picture of us at 4,818 meters... so take that, Machu Picchu :o)

We had some sort of lemon candy to help with the altitude.

We passed through a lot of different towns. At one point we stopped for tea and cheese sandwiches. The are we were in was famous for milk and honey products.

The views were breathtaking and the roads winding, sometimes in a way that made me nervous.

Post office.

We saw snow! And were often at the same level or above the clouds. It rained as we drove through them.

Bathroom break (above).

Beauty y basura.

Gas stop.

I really enjoyed spending time with Martín, his brother Daniel and his little cousin, Gabriel. Gabriel was full of jokes and sang us many songs to pass the time, jaja. And his parents were super sweet too... which is good as there were 6 of us in that little camioneta.

We passed a few lakes that were in all sorts of different colors, I guess because of different minerals in the sediment, but they had an impressive amount of variation.

And, for the first time since I've come to Perú, I saw llamas (and cows & sheep).

We played in waterfalls.

And went on many aventuras.

Including: visiting a trucha farm, a sugar cane processing ranch, a cheese factory (!), and a cave where we got to pull ourselves through mud and bat poo while exploring in nearly pitch black.

A giant abeja, that looked more like a little bear with wings.

Lastly, I got back just in time for Easter Sunday at the Cotlear's house. Below, Joaquín and his cousin Julieta are looking for chocolate eggs in the backyard.

And here is Misky: our hairless, purebred, Peruvian watchdog.