Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Back from Huaraz

Huaraz is only about eight hours by bus from Lima, but it is breathtakingly beautiful. I am not in the mood right now to explain everything that I did, but all in all this was my favorite trip. The bus ride was less than desireable, but everything else was way better than other trips (food, living arrangments, etc...).

I only have four more days of classes! That is crazy that this whole study abroad journey is ending so soon. I have finals for the week following next week and then i have a week off and then I am off to Santiago for two weeks and then Buenos Aires for another two weeks, then back to Lima for a day. I will be back in Houston August 1, and i will be there for a week and then go back to Tucson for a week and then back to Rice to start O-week! I am pretty pumped about the rest of my summer.

Here are the photos:
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Thursday, June 07, 2007

Postcards

I just got back from the post office where i spent about forty dollars sending out 23 postcards! Yikes, I didn't realize it would cost nearly two dollars to send out each one! Hopefully they will get to all of you that i sent them too and I hope you enjoy them (because you aren't going to be getting a souvenir now that it cost so much to send those :) )

I am leaving tonight to go to Huaraz. Here is a link to a wiki article about the place so you can know what I am talking about. Huaraz is the city and Huascarán is the highest mountain in Peru that is located close to the city. I will be back on Monday morning so I might have photos up by early next week.

Have a great weekend.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Update

I have been really bored lately so I figured that I would at least update my blog. I have been sitting in my room all day because the other people in my group are busy studying or doing projects for their classes. I fixed some of my drawings for my Anatomical Art class, because I am pretty sure I failed the assignment last week because I cared very little about the quality of my drawings. Then I watched the rest of the Fast Food Nation DVD I bought here. The movie was really crappy. I thought that it was a documentary like Super Size Me, but it is an actual feature film with really crappy acting (any movie with Avril Lavigne- no matter how small of a part she plays, is doomed to be a failure). I noticed that the same boy and the dad from Little Miss Sunshine were in this movie too. I wonder if that is how they got put in Little Miss Sunshine together too. The last couple days have kinda been filled with crappy movies. A couple of days ago I watched a movie called the Peaceful Warrior. I had seen the movie poster in a magazine a while ago and I thought it was about some Native American themed movie but when I looked at the back cover as I bought it I saw that it was actually about gymnastics. That should have been my first clue that it was not going to be a good movie but the front cover was really good and my motto is "Always judge a book, movie, or cd by its cover." The movie turned started out pretty boring, then got a little better, then kinda stupid, and then the main character got in a motorcycle accident and broke his leg (remember he is a gymnast), then it was inspiring, and then it dragged on. So basically it was just an alright movie. It said that it was based on a true story but when I went to the wikipedia page about the person the movie was based on, their stories didn't seem to match up very much- the only thing that seemed link was that they were gymnasts (but even their schools were different and the real person was a coach, not an athlete when they went to the national championships that year). Anyway, I need to stop buying movies just because they are independently made.

Nothing else has happened lately, I am going to Huaraz next Thursday. It is a glacier close to Lima. I am pretty excited about that.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Friday, May 25, 2007

What I've learned, so far

Things that I have learned from the empleada (the woman who cooks and cleans):
1. That she doesn't know how to cook
2. She doesn't understand the concept of celsius and fahrenheit.
3. This kinda goes with the number two, cooking something at 200 degrees hotter than you are supposed to (our oven is in celsius and all the recipes call for 350 degrees fahrenheit, but the highest number our oven goes to is 290 degrees- 550 fahrenheit) doesn't actually burn or alter your food as much as you think it would.
4. That no matter how many times you ask her not to fry your fish, she always will.
5. That most people eat dinner really late here, like 8, but she insists on you eating at 4:45 in the afternoon despite having served you lunch at 1:30 or so.
6. She will always go out of her way to close your window shades
7. Mormons are vegetarians (which is completely untrue, but something she believes)

Things that I have learned from being in Peru, and studying abroad:
1. Not being able to speak intelligently (i.e. have actual discussions about things like religions, spirituality, relationships, movies, literature, etc...) is so incredibly frustrating that it makes me care very little about meeting people and trying to make Peruvian friends and almost makes me completely okay with only speaking one language well enough to discuss such subjects with friends.
2. I never want to drive in Peru.
3. Pirated movies play just as well as the real deal and is a great way to build your movie collection.
4. Classes start at least ten to fifteen minutes late and students still show up, thirty minutes, forty five minutes, an hour, an hour and a half late to class.
5. A grade of a 10 (out of 20) is failing, but an 11 (out of 20) is a C- which means I am passing all my classes (and my actual grades won't affect my GPA).
6. I never want a Labrador.
7. I am shocked that so many babies ride around in cars without car seats (it is ubiquitous even among the upper class as well).
8. The food really sucks if you are a vegetarian, but I am very grateful to my family for always trying.

Things I will miss:
1. How much cheaper things are here.
2. All the gelatto!
3. The climate.
4. The proximity of amazing sites.

Monday, May 21, 2007

I know that May is nearly over but I finally finished this month's mix- and I like it. Here is the track list:

Name Artist

On The Radio Regina Spektor
The Guitar Man Cake
Tim McGraw(name of the song) Taylor Swift
You're My Best Friend Queen
These Days Nico
Wonderwall Ryan Adams (Oasis cover)
Jolene Dolly Parton
Don't Forget To Remember Me Carrie Underwood
Amber 311 (eww 311?)
Major Tom (Coming Home) Peter Schilling
Mad World Gary Jules
Tu Amor Por Siempre Axel Fernando
Samson Regina Spektor
I'm Gonna Find Another You John Mayer
Hurt Johnny Cash

Yes, my mix includes Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift. All excellent country singers.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Lunahuana

Hey sorry it has taken me so long to write up an update. I went rafting on Saturday and I had to write up a summary for my tutor. So I wrote it up in Spanish and I thought it would be funny to translate it back from English using an online translator.

Here is the original:
Lunahuana
Me encontré con todo el grupo en la Pacífico a las ocho de la mañana para irnos a Lunahuana. El viaje a Lunahuana nos tomó más de dos horas pero el se pasó volando porque las vistas de la costa y los pueblitos eran hermosas y estuve con compañía agradable.
Primero, fuimos al Refugio de Santiago para tomar un tour del huerto y beber jugos. Cuando llegamos, no sabíamos que necesitábamos nuestro repelente y antes de que pudiéramos recogerlo, los bichos nos picaron. Me bañé con el repelente y los bichos me dejaron. Antes de comenzar el tour, bebimos jugo de tuna que era delicioso.
El huerto no era grande pero consistía de varios árboles y plantas interesantes. Después del tour, bebimos más jugo y nos relajamos por poco tiempo mientras estábamos esperando a otros grupos que iban a hacer canotaje.
El refugio no era tan lejos del sitio donde comenzamos a hacer el canotaje. Había una familia de europeos que olían horrible. Por supuesto, Kristina y yo nos dimos cuenta inmediatamente y nos alejamos de ellos. Después de vestirnos con los chalecos y cogimos los remos el guía nos explicó los mandatos y como sentarnos en la lancha. El paseo comenzó con la familia europea en frente de nosotros y yo hubiera jurado que podía olerla. Afortunadamente, la pasamos rápidamente. El paseo fue muy divertido y al acabar estábamos calados hasta los huesos.
Regresamos pronto al refugio para almorzar. El almuerzo fue interesante. No era malo y agradecía que hubiéramos eligido comida con pescado sin carne, aunque sí como pescado no quiero comerlo necesariamente en cada plato. Por ejemplo, el plato de fetuccini hubiera sido mejor sin los langostinos porque ¡los hemos comido en cinco platos! Después del almuerzo, comimos helado de la fruta del refugio. Algunos sabores no eran tan ricos como otros, pero todos los jugos eran bastante ricos.
Salimos el refugio y decidimos que no era necesario parar en las ruinas (¡gracias a Dios!). Empezamos la vuelta a las cuatro y media. Estábamos cansado y algunos de nosotros dormimos un poco durante el viaje. Cuando estuvimos cerca de Lima, el sol tenía un color rojo fuerte mientras estaba bajando. En sí, el viaje fue el escape perfecto de Lima. Espero que el proximo viaje sea tan relajado come este.

Lunahuana
I was the group in the Pacific to eight yet in the morning to go to us to Lunahuana. The trip to Lunahuana took us more than two hours but it went flying because the views of the coast and the pueblitos were beautiful and I was with pleasant company.
First, we went to the Refuge of Santiago to take tour from the orchard and to drink juice. When we arrived, we did not know that we needed our repulsive one and before we could gather it, the tiny beasts itched to us. I bathed with the repulsive one and the tiny beasts left me. Before beginning tour, we drank bigeye tuna juice that was delicious.
The orchard was not great but it consisted of several trees and interesting plants. After tour, we drank more juice and we relaxed nearly time while we were waiting for other groups that were going to make boating.
The refuge was not so far from the site where we began to make the boating. There was a family of European that smelled horrible. By all means, Kristina and I realized immediately and we moved away of them. After dressing in the vests and we took to the oars the guide to us explained mandates to us and like seating us in the boat. The stroll began with the European family in front of us and I would have sworn who could smell it. Luckyly we passed, it quickly. The stroll was very funny and when the finishing we were pierced until the bones.
We return soon to the refuge to have lunch. The lunch was interesting. He was not bad and it was thankful that we had eligido eaten with fish without meat, although yes as fished I do not want to eat it in each plate necessarily. For example, the plate of fetuccini would have been better without the prawns because we have eaten them in five plates! After the lunch, we ate ice cream of the fruit of the refuge. Some flavors were not as rich as others, but all the juice was quite rich.
We leave the refuge and we decided that it was not necessary to stop in the ruins (thanks to God). We begin the four return to and average. We were tired and some of us we slept a little during the trip. When we were near Lima, the sun had a red color hard while it was lowering. In himself, the trip was the perfect escape of Lima. I hope that the next trip is so relaxed eats this.

Haha the translation is so horrible. I also didn't take any photos. Sorry!