more bits

- My hard drive has officially waved its (all) white flag (screen) of surrender and died. Though I'm far from thrilled from having to deal with getting it replaced, it's kind of nice not having it, especially since I had everything important backed up. However it does mean not being able to listen to Lila Downs... and probably... not keeping up with this blog. (foreshadowing...)

-I've fallen in love with a man called Tio Bigote. People at la Católica seem to think this is hilarious. But only he understands when a vegetarian has had a rough day (or a great day, or an average day) and just needs a GIANT papa al hilo/fried egg/lettuce/condiments-galore sandwich for S/1.50. (55 cents). I wish I could explain my deep street vendor love more clearly, but I think it's just one of those things you have to experience.

-There are not wall clocks in every classroom here; in fact, there are hardly any at all. Will it be a pain to get used to always knowing the exact minute of the day again and having to be on time/early for class and such things?

-Sometimes I miss Silk and cereal for breakfast (but not on the days we have banana smoothies). The only other things I miss are soft hearty cookies, oatmeal, hummus, barbeque sauce, Madison's variety of restaurants (with vegetarian/vegan options), the co-op fridge, and my parent's amazing cooking in general.

-I have to decide whether to spend the majority of my last month here traveling in the North (Cajamarca, Chachapoyas, Kuelap) or whether to take a border-crossing trip south (Puno, La Paz ... and maybe on to Paraguay with friends for the Foro Social Américas?). Maybe I can do both? There is way too much that I want to see and do! Life is genial.

estudiante, escucha! y únete la lucha!

We went to the 'One year anniversary of the violence in Bagua' march yesterday. I would guess there were close to 1000 people there. It was interesting to be able to be a part of our school's contingent and go around to the different facultades for a pre-march rally. It was fairly lively and mostly up-beat despite the nature of the content being addressed. There was also some good wall-decorating done on the fly and plenty of great chants. I loved when this song (Cumbia we know from combis and parties) was played with the lyrics replaced to be:

ya se ha muerto García ayayay

tomando petroleo ayayay

matando nativos ayayay

matando policía ayayay

ole lo li le lo le

There were long long lines of police that accompanied the route, decked out but seemed pretty low-key. I wonder what the recent history of political demonstrations, civil disobedience or other forms of protests is like in Lima. People didn't seem to be all that angry with the officers and some of the chants were kind of aimed at them, mostly focusing on how they should be marching with the protesters instead of in riot gear. Maybe that was just sly taunting? I don't know.

After nearly two hours of marching, we got stuck into a blockaded dead-end. It made the process seem a bit anti-climactic. I was kind of.. not hoping, but anticipating that things would get a bit more wild (on the demonstrators' side obviously). However, at the very end, some police on horses showed and that sobered up my adrenaline rush pretty quickly.

On a brighter note, I finally met the woman who'll be studying abroad (sociology and LGBT studies) in Madison next year. She seems pretty bomb. I'm so stoked about the thought of showing off, critiquing, and explaining Wisconsin to/with someone from Perú :o)

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Don't have any great photos from the march because I didn't want to be parading my camera around, but here are three snapshots:

Different factions and contingents were clearly visible with different propaganda flyers and flags. It seemed like everyone chanted the same things though.

skylines

Tonight, heading home from Fer's house in La Molina, I was in awe of this city's skyscrapers-- all dressed up in their corporate suits of shine. I had forgotten for a bit that one of Lima's barrios is a business district. I had forgotten for a bit that I'll leave in August with many chunks of this ginormous beast of a city unexplored.

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I feel like I just have a few more days of partial calm before having to face finals. I'm mostly excited.

Paciales looked like this:

so finals should be totally manageable.

just a day in june

There was a pigeon hanging out in our living room when we woke up this morning. It was magical.

In other news, the mayor of Arequipa has been at our house the last couple days. Also, Miriam is back from her trip to Trujillo, which is nice since I missed her.

Elsa said she'd love to teach me Quechua. We'll see how that goes. My memory is pretty bad when I can't see something written. Elsa and Lydia are both flat-out rad. I really have to make sure I keep making / make more of an effort to hang out in the kitchen with them. It always goes well, and they are both so nice and so funny.

Misky passed away this week-- reasons unclear. It was sad to see Miriam upset about it.

Also, a girl who a friend of mine knew was found murdered in a hotel room yesterday. The killer is a dude from Holland who is the number one suspect in another murder case. A newspaper headline said "Asesino Gringo."

Raighne and I spent the day in the Mercado Central perusing art supplies, muffin cups, and dried fruit. We also finally went to el Barrio Chino. Asthetically, it was more similar to the Chinatown in Chicago than I had imagined. I mean, from what I could tell from the short while we were there.

The World Cup is starting soon. I'm still bitter about Ireland and France. But regardless, that means it is now June. Time is starting to zoom by. I don't want this semester to end. But I'm super excited for my family and Vik to visit. There is so much I want to show / share with them everday and I'm so grateful that I'll get a chance to do that.

I'm also excited to go back to the midwest and catch the last glimpse of Wisconsin summer. Por el otro lado, I don't even want to think about saying goodbye to friends I've made here...

so I won't :o) until I have to.

Arequipa and other bits

It rained today, for a good 10 minutes. That was weird. I found out by walking through our hallway that doesn't have a roof. The floor was wet.

The city has gone a bit gray since winter has set in. The ants have subsided slightly and chompas are everywhere. I bought some mittens for at night. But it's still a really pleasant temperature. I wear sandals and get asked constantly ¿No tienes frío!?

On Monday it smelled like seafood and rot in Lima... something having to do with wind patterns and the fish processing plants along the coast. A strange welcome home. At 7am Raighne and I had just gotten off a 15 hour bus ride back from Arequipa... where we had spent the last 5 days visiting Martín, riding horses, walking the city, perusing markets, drinking pre-mixed rum and coke sold in reused Perú Cola bottles, eating birthday cake, learning songs, dancing, riding combis, hanging out in the biggest, baddest convent I've ever seen, and not going to see the condors ni los cañones.

Some pictures:

Gabriel's room (and its view) where we stayed with Martín.

El volcán.

Riding horses ... and motocicletas. (best 10 soles ever spent)

Oh, and we drank a bottle of Chicha with Martín and his friends, which is similar to chica morada but fermented and kind of bubbly. It came in a re-used bottle too, which I'm all about.

Here is Arequipa's Plaza de Armas... as if we didn't have enough pictures of churches. But it really was impressive. After trekking across town to locate two separate vegetarian restaurants that were listed in my guide book but no longer exist and following a sign that said "Vegetarian -->" only to find another place no longer in business, we ate in a place over looking the Plaza. It had a set veg menu which was 3 parts, way delicious and 7 soles. Then we went to the convent:

It's a closed order where 30 nuns and their servants still live in complete solitude. There is a tree there that never blooms. The nuns say when it does, the world will end. We walked around the old quarters for hours. It's huge-- a fortress. It was eerie to think that the women who were sent there were sometimes sent there for the same reasons Irish women were sent to Magdalene Laundries.

Hundreds of women died inside the walls of Santa Catalina.

Talking was completely prohibited for many of the girls.

But there was a range of reasons for women to be there: women pregnant out of wedlock, promiscuous teens, children gifted from fathers, victims of sexual abuse, lesbians, rebelious girls, wives who left abusive husbands, and also rich women who bought themselves a place in the convent. All of them had to work to redeem their "sins," whether forced or out of their own decison. But this work varied drastically depending on what "type" of nun or working girl each woman was deemed to be. This distinction as was also shown by which habbit (if any) each wore.

Being in the kitchens was often where things felt most real for me. There were pots actually used by the women who had lived there and char-marked walls.

But bedrooms with single windows 8 feet off the ground were also rather unnerving .

I'm going to say it: the Roman Catholic Church and its history is wonky as fuck.

Santa Catalina was absolutely immense. The whole experience was fascinating and equally terrifying.

jerga...

So... just off the top of my head... here's some Peruvian slang I never learned in class. Some of them are words that I knew to mean something else before I got here, others are from Quechua, and others come from a regional tendency to use nonsensical words that sound extremely similar to a common phrase that one is about to say, kind of like Cockney... I think. Oh, and the diminutive! is super common. -ito and -ita are added to so many things, not just people's names.

bacán = chévere/genial = cool

lukas = soles = peruvian currency

plata = dinero = money

pata = chicx = guy (or mi pata = friend)

causa = mejor amigx = bff (also a delicious stuffed potato dish)

jato = casa = house

chompa = súeter = sweater

chela = cerveza = beer

chupar = tomar = to drink

grifo = gasolinera = gas station

toque = momento = just a moment

ciclo = semestre = semester

tonear = ir de fiesta = to party

juerga = party/ go out

roche = vergüenza = shame, shyness

palta = aguacate (o roche) = avocado

unas aguas = tragos = drinks

chancha = colección = money for drinks

chibolx = niñx = kid

chibolerx= one who deals in children = cradle robber

manyas? = entiendes? = do you understand?

choque y fuga = hook-up

novedades = noticias = news (personal)

tirar = to have sex (vulgar)

churrx = guapx = good-looking (but churro is also a fantastic fried donut filled with carmel)

de fresa = de frente/derecho = straight ahead

fumón = fumador = pot head

pucha = interjección de disgusto = f-ck, shoot (mild)

tranqui = tranquilx = chill

mancha = grupo de amigxs = one's crew

chifa = peruvian-style chinese food (possibly a transliteration from a Chinese word about eating?)

chaufa = fried rice (sometimes said as a joke instead of ciao for goodbye)

payaso = bufón = fool

cocos = dolares = US dollars

guatchimán = serenazgo = watchman

Probably forgot a bunch, but I've got an assignment to work on and then I've got to make food for Jueves Magdalenos.

(photo credit to Natalie)

Biodiversidad

So these videos are far from great quality, but they do provide a peek at the incredible biodiversity of Perú. The different types of fruit and vegetables here immense because of the lack of genetic managing and the presence of intensely different climates and subclimates. The favorite stat from our family: over 1,000 varieties of potatoes grow here and over 300 of them are grown domestically. Needless to say, food is huge source of national pride. And we eat very well, I might add. My current favorite fruit is sauco.

This first video is from the roadtrip I took with Martín's family though la sierra to get to the edge of the jungle. It was hard to capture on film (in a moving car) how breathtaking the landscape was, but the winding roads that passed around, over, and though the mountains really were impressive.

This second video is from a field trip I took with my geography class to Caral: the remains of what may be the oldest city in the Americas. What was most striking about this trip was seeing vast amounts of open space after being in Lima for so long. There is next to zero tourism to the region because of the lack of infrastructure and funding. The guided tour of the ruins was really interesting, especially since some of them had spirals on them, which nobody knows the meaning of. It reminded me of Newgrange, which I think is estimated to be from the same time period.

Here are some other photos from that trip:

The ruins are covered in black flags. According to our guide, it is just to keep the birds a way and has nothing to do with anarchy... weird.

Golden corn drying in an small area between the lush river and the stark desert = beautiful.

El pueblito...

I am a stern subscriber to the tranquility and life affirming nature of early mornings...

This last video is from another field trip, this time with my Ecoturismo class. Not a great clip as I'm on boat, but at least you can see and hear los lobos marinos!

More photos from that trip:

Another historical legacy: islands covered in guano.

Penguinos!

A classmate told me that sometimes the guides let people swim with the sea lions... so, I'm pretty positive I'll be back to las Islas Palominas :o)