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.
No comments:
Post a Comment