Summer Freedom

The last time I wrote was about the super vacation I went on to the North. Since then, Life in Lima has been great. My host parents have been giving me a lot of freedom lately. After 6 months, they have gotten to know me, and know that I am very responsible, so have no problem with me going out and spend the day with friends until a reasonable hour of the night. I know my way around the city really well, and feel comfortable walking or taking public busses. I’ve become the best at hailing taxis, and lowering the price (my house to Miraflores, a 20-30 minute drive through traffic: never more than 10 soles ($3)).

There are a lot of cool out of the ordinary thing I’ve done lately too. Here are some examples. (Yes, some are from quite a while ago. I have already stated that I suck at actually updating this thing).

February 16, 2010 – Beyonce Concert
Yup. Beyonce Knowles came to Peru for her 2010 I Am… tour. I went with three other exchange students, and one of their sisters (from the US, who came to visit for a week). It was pretty cool, althoughI have to say, my favorite part was the opener, Adammo, a Peruvian Alternative Rock Band (even though they only played 4.5 songs). Also, K’naan was there, and sang The Official World Cup Song – Wavin’ Flags before Adammo. This was the first time I heard it. I am now obsessed.

It's Beyonce. I swear. I ad a crappy "seat."


February 17, 2010 – World Cup
Inspired by seeing K’naan the night before, Geneva (my best Candian friend) and I went to see the world cup… Well, the trophy anyways. It was pretty cool. We had to wait in line 6 hours, listening to Wavin’ Flags the whole time, but it was worth it. Here’s the picture I downloaded from the site. Too bad it says the wrong location. I was most definitely in Lima, Peru, not Venezuela.

=D


All of February – Carnaval
There is a tradition in Peru that February is the month of Carnaval. Nobody has been able to explain why, it just is. Carnaval is just an excuse to be able to thrown water at anyone any time. You are never safe in Lima. Ever.

March 7th, 2010 - Oscars
For the first time ever, a Peruvian Movie was nominated for the Oscars! It was a kinda big deal. However, La Teta Asustada (in English: The Milk of Sorrow) was beat out by an Argentinian film :(

Food from the Oscar Party. Oreos + Piqueo snax + Teqeos + sprite = (:

Life in General
There aren’t many other specific things that have been going on. I’ve been planning like crazy for the vacation I’m going to go on with my dad & brother & cousin when they come down… today! Yup. The next blog that gets published should be about that. (:
So… Yeah. It’s been a fairly chill end of summer, running about 5 kilometers at &:30 every morning, passing days walking in Miraflores, going to museums, sending a ridiculous amount of text messages, breaking into my friend navy school, going shopping, “celebrating birthdays” every day for 2 weeks, going out to eat sandwiches, becoming completely obsessed with bubble tea till the point where the workers know my name, over analyzing food, crashing photo shoots, listening to great music, going to concerts, going to Rotary things, going to the park at all hours of the day and night, passing time becoming insanely close with my 14 year old host sister, talking till 4 am on Windows Messenger and even the occasional disco outing.


Photo shoot.


Military School.



Miraflores. I'm there all the time.



Birthday celebration for Pia (from Switzerland) part 3/8. Cake in the Park.

Overall,
Life is good.

Hasta Luego,
~ Jacqui

Viaje al Norte

So. I think I've been a bit incommunicado for the last... Month? I've only just finally recovered from the 2 week long vacation I went on from February 4th - 15th :) This is going to be longgg.

Chiclayo
Our vacation started in Chiclayo, where we were oblidged to go to a district wide Interact (which is a Rotary Sponsered Youth volunteer club) Conference. It was held in a Military school outside of the city. The first day, all the participants were given a tour of the city, which included: Pimentel Beach, a traditional market and the Museum of Sipan. The museum was an archaeological site where they discovered the remains of an Incan Ruler's tomb.

The morning & afternoon of the 2nd day were pure "Charlas," or speeches, mainly about saving the environment and the importance of volunteering. And, as interesting as those are, our supervisor (the inbound cordination for our district, Henry) decided that "getting to know the city" was more important for us exchange students... So, we went to the beach all day instead :). There was a party later that night.

We got woken up really early the 3rd day, and for some reason were shuffled off to the center of town. There was some small parade, although we never figured out why. All the different Interact Clubs waked with their fancy banners and mascots. Us Intercambistas, however, were given flag to carry. I was given the flag of India. Why? I have no idea. If I don't blend in in Peru, I'm sure I'd only stick out more in India...
Later that day was the "mini-olympics." Spur of the moment, I decided to join the swim race. And I won. With a good 5 seconds to spare. I felt very famous for the rest of the conference :) I even got a trophy... A volleyball trophy. Oh well.


Trujillo
We all stayed overnight at the house of a Rotarian in Trujillo. We left early in the morning for tours of 2 famous Archaeological Sites- Huaca del sol y de la Luna & Chan Chan.
Huaca del Sol y Huaca de la Luna are brick/sand temples built in about 450 AD by the Moche Civilization.

Chan Chan is the biggest Pre-Colombian Site in South America, of about 20 square kilometers. We saw a mere .9% of it in a 2 hour tour! It is constructed in about 850 AD by the Chimor and lasted until 1450 AD, when the Incas took over the area. We read in the newspaper 3 days late, that because of the mass amount of rain that area got, it had to be closed because it was unstable (since it's pretty much just made of sand).


Colan
Our next stop was Colán, where 3 of the exchange students from our district have been spending their summer. We spent 3 nights with Host Families, all of which had super cool houses right on the ocean. I could just walk out of the family room, down a couple stairs and jump in the Pacific Ocean.


What is so cool about Colan, is the community feel. It's a vacation town, through and through. Nobody lives there between April and November. Nobody! Most the people there, grew up going there every summer, so everybody knows everybody. Everything is within walking distance (the street is about 3 kilometers long), or, even better, within 4-wheeling distance. Everybody has 4-wheelers.
One day while we were there, we decided to embrace a strong Peruvian tradition... CARNAVAL! The entire month of February is Carnaval, which is pretty much just an excuse to go around throwing water balloons at people (: I honestly have to say, I don't understand why, it's just a tradition. Anyways, we all piled into a trailer attached to somebody host-sister's 4-wheeler and went around throwing water balloons for a bit. We got a bit distracted when we went through a giant mud puddle, and we all got a bit dirty. We then decided that throwing mud at each other was a lot more fun than throwing water at other people. We drove through a dune area, and we all ended up completely cover in mud. Completely.


Tumbes / Ecuador
In order to stay legal students in Peru, we had to leave the country and re-enter to get a new visa. I don't understand why, we just went along with it. Our cross over point was the city of Aguas Verdes (Green Waters). It's a funny little city, half Peruvian and half Ecuadorian. We just had to cross this bridge, and then we were in Ecuador. And then we came back, after a couple of pictures. So, now I can say that I've been to Ecuador. Cool.




Mancora
If I remember correctly, this was NOT on the original itinerary, but half way through our time in Colan, we had a vote and decided that we wanted to stay longer. So, we decided to spend some time at the most beautiful beach in Peru; white sand, blue water and everything. I saw a shirt that said (in Spanish): Mancora... Like the Carribean, but with Ceviche (which is a really yummy, really Peruvian fish appetizer). We spent 3 days and 2 nights there, chilling by the beach, riding horses, shopping and just enjoying ourselves. :)


Chauuu,

Jacqui

Blog Fail

2 months?

Ooops.

They passed really really fast for me, and I hope likewise for everyone else.

So what’s happened to me? A LOT.

Here’s the Summary.

Vacation to Cuzco & Puno (Machu Picchu & Lake Titicaca)

From December 2^nd- 7^th, I went on a vacation to two of the most touristy places in South America- Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. I went with my best friends (which is to say, the 15 other exchange students in Lima and one other who lives in another city). It was a great time all around, and really deserves its own blog post. Until then, here are 2 pictures.

School

Best part about school? It’s OVER! I am done with Santa Maria Eufrasia. We finished in December. Another great part, was that my class won a contest on the most popular radio station, Viva FM, and won a party :). To win that contest, just about everyone in the class would call at different times during the day, especially the school day. The last 4 weeks of school passed pretty quickly because everyone was so focused on this, rather than any of their classes.

Pre-Christmas

I got to participate in 2 present give aways in poor parts of Lima & Callao a couple weeks before Christmas- one with Rotary (and the other exchangees) and one with my host mom’s Prayer Group. The one with Rotary was a lot bigger, and pretty much a party. The other was a lot smaller, but still with a party atmosphere. I got to dress up as Mrs. Clause. It was really the perfect, because I could just say I was from “very far north” and that was why I had an accent.

Holidays

As Rotary and all the prep books warned, the holidays were not the best time. It just did not feel like Christmas or New Years, mainly because of the lack of my own family, and of snow. In my mind, it can’t be Christmas without snow… Or at least really cold weather. I also missed my family parties, and especially buffet style food choice. I did love talking to everyone briefly on the phone though =D

Christmas and New Years Traditions are a bit, but not very, different from home. Every stays up till midnight on Christmas Eve, and eat dinner together. There are usually a ton of fireworks going on in the street. TONS. The Catholic tones of the holiday are felt.

New Years consists of lots of fireworks and yellow. I suppose wearing yellow is a pretty traditional form of bring in a lucky New Year. A couple of other “lucky” things include: running around with a suit case [it foretells that you will travel this year] and eating 12 grapes, then making a wish. It is also common practice to burn a chair with several things that were important to you this year. I don’t quite understand this one…

Huacho, Huaral & Caral

On the 14^th of January, we were informed of a weekend vacation planned. For that weekend. The 15^th. Despite the last minuteness, the trip was a success. Only 7 of us went, which created a very laidback atmosphere. We camped one night in Huacho, and one night in Huaral on land belonging to local Rotarians. The biggest part of this trip was going to the runis of Caral, the oldest city in the Americas. It was only discovered about 10 years ago, but was carbon dated back some 4,200 years.

The part most interesting to me was Eco Truly Park. It is an ecological community a bit outside of Huaral. They are a Hindu community with ideals of simple living, including vegetarianism, and non-violence. It was a really nice place, and I hope to return someday.

RYLA

This weekend (29-31 of January) was district 4450’s annual RYLA- Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. It is a conference that is held by many districts all over the world to promote teen leadership. There were a lot of speeches about how to get involved in your community (Rotaract), saving the environment and the like. There was also a lot of just chilling and, best of all for me, swimming (at 4 in the morning :).

Goodbye

That’s it. That’s been the last two months of my life. Albeit, there were plenty of days in there that consisted of mundane things as well, hanging out in the house all day, eating yummy food, getting a bit sick and a lot more.

Chau,

Jacqui