UPDATES

Holy crap, I don't remember the last time I sat down and wrote in this blog. A lot has happened in the past two weeks and it has honestly been pretty rough to say the least. I don't really have any pictures to share with you, and I don't have much to say about the events that have taken place in the last few weeks, so here it goes.

For starters, UNK gave us the no-go on our trip to Macchu Pichu. I was really hoping that this blog post would be chalked full of beautiful pictures and experiences to share with everyone, but I guess I will have to save it for another time. There has been a kidnapping warning that went out to all American travelers through the Embassy here in Peru and they advised that it isn't safe to travel to Cusco and the area until after February. So, unfortunately we had to cancel. We are all hoping and praying that we can reschedule it for little or no cost during the month of April..so I will update on this situation when I know more later in the month! 

To make matters even worse, my debit card number somehow got hacked, so when I tried to get money with my card through the ATM, it ATE my card and left me with nothing. So, I had no cash and no credit card that allows cash withdrawal. And I am in South America. Ahh. Luckily I have another card coming in the mail hopefully soon, and a friend had some money to spare that I could borrow from them until I have a card of my own. Thank God! 

Another big even that occurred this last week was that I decided to move host families. I very much enjoyed my time living with Fabricio, but I found that living with two men in their late twenties and early thirties was not so easy for a 20 year old girl like me. It was not an easy decision to make, and it was a struggle living out of bags for almost a week, but what I am about to describe about my new home life will definitely prove that it was worth the trouble.

I talked with Cynthia in the International Office and she helped me find another family that possibly wanted to be my new host. We visited them after I had class on Wednesday and I instantly fell in love with the house and the people who could potentially be my new family. I was excited to hear that they accepted me into their home and I just recently moved in this Sunday. Besides the fact that I have an awesome mom, dad, and brother here....I think my favorite part has been the AIR CONDITIONING! I feel so spoiled. I am so very thankful to the Patrucco's for taking me in at such late notice and for treating me like one of the family after being in the house for the first 20 minutes. I've only been here for 3 days and I've been served some of the best meals I've tasted in Peru. I go to bed at night now finally feeling like I have a home and I belong somewhere. Sometimes I get teary because I can finally be at peace and have the consistency of home life here in Peru.

One fun thing that happened yesterday was the birthday celebration for my new Peruvian brother, Iván. He turned 20 yesterday, so there was a big supper with lots of family members that lasted from about 8 until midnight. It was so fun to meet everybody and experience some amazing Peruvian food. I think I'm going to have to go on a run or two this week to make up for the amount of food I ate yesterday! 

This new family life I've experienced this week has really helped sooth the homesickness that has become worse since these issues have arose. I miss my puppies, my boyfriend, my family, and my friends so much it hurts. These last few weeks were really rough for me, especially without all of those wonderful people here physically to support me. However, I can't thank all of my friends here that have lent a hand. Whether is was lending me money, giving me a place to stay, or simply asking me how I was holding up, I will forever appreciate it. I have gained some great friends here in Peru, both from Nebraska and Lima as well. Everyone has been so willing to help and support me, no matter what it was that I needed. 

This week is pretty packed with exams, homework, and lots of tasks to do for my two online classes. So, this is why my blog post is pretty straight and to the point. On that note, I better go finish up my studying for my literature exam. Adios!

Mi Aventura a Arequipa!

Well, a LOT has happened since I last updated this blog. Nothing too exciting happened during the week. But, this weekend was such a blast! Me and 8 of my classmates from Nebraska journeyed to the beautiful Colca Valley near the city of Arequipa!

Our plane left on Friday morning bright and early at 6:00am. The problem is, we (thought we lived) live close to an hour away from the airport and we wanted to be there within at least 1.5 or 2 hours early. To make matters worse, our professor, Marta from UNK came down with a terrible case of food poisoning on Thursday evening, so she was unable to make the trip with us. We were so bummed for her! But, we met with Marta before we left and of course she said the show must go on. After some rearranging, we all met at UPC at 2:45am...some of us with only an hour or less of sleep. But, we were off!

We arrived at the airport in Arequipa at 7:30am and had about a 2 hour wait for our guide to pick us up.  Gonzalo picked us up and helped us carry our luggage to the bus as we met the other passengers from Peru and Chile who joined us on the journey. Colca Valley is about a good 3 hours or more from Arequipa, so we had a long day ahead of us. To top it all off, we were driving up into the mountains at a very high altitude. Needless to say, after the first hour or so of driving many of us were already feeling sick. Our first stop was at a little store with a restroom and people selling homemade goods. Here, we also tried mate de coca, which is pretty much hot tea with coca leaves in it. (tasted like green tea to me) It is supposed to help cure the symptoms of altitude sickness and make you feel better. Thankfully it helped for a while, but the trip kept getting higher and higher. After a while, the tea wore off and we were all ready to get off of that dang bus!

After we arrived at our hotel in Chivay (in Colca Valley) we took a short siesta and got ready to head to the hot springs with the group. The pool looked really dirty, but it was very relaxing...as it was natural, hot water being filtered into the area. After the hot springs, we got ready and ate supper with the rest of the group.


We went to a nice little restaurant that had live entertainment for us. There were four men singing and playing instruments, and every once in a while there were traditional dances performed for us. During a few of the songs, the dancers would pick people out of the audience to come up and dance with them. Of course, I was the lucky one.


The dance I was talked into doing was a very odd one. It involved a piece of fruit being carried around by one dancer and the other dancer chasing after it. Once they receive the fruit they fall to the floor because it was apparently poisonous. In order to wake up the poisoned dancer, the other takes a whip-like rope and hits the unconscious dancer's legs with it. After finally awakening the sick dancer (the woman), the male dancer throws the female dancer over his shoulder and carries her away. Of course, when I was asked to come up and dance I got to reenact this. Yes, I was whipped fairly roughly on my legs and yes I was thrown over a dancer's shoulders like a sack of potatoes and carried away. It was a great time.

The next day, we woke up and began exploring Colca Valley very early around 6:30am. We stopped at many different view points and got some great pictures. (Check Facebook to see more!) Unfortunately the later it got, the cloudier it got so after a while we didn't have the best view. This was especially disappointing when we got to "el cruce de condor" where we were supposed to have a good chance of seeing condors. When I say it was cloudy...I mean we were literally IN the clouds. It was so weird. Luckily, we did see a few condors but they were so far away that it didn't really seem to affect me. I am, however, glad that this was really the only disappointing factor of the tour.

After touring more of Colca Valley, we returned to Arequipa and found our next hotel, which was really like a bed and breakfast. It was very, very nice and it had a full kitchen and living room that we were allowed to use whenever we wanted. Since we ended up spending more money on food during the tour than we thought, we decided to hit up the local grocery store and fix up a good old' supper of mac and cheese with ham sandwiches and fresh fruit. It was so delicious and we had a good time making it together! This will always be a special memory for me when I think about the trip.

One pretty scary thing we found out when we were traveling in Arequipa was the fact that there were about 18 deaths in Arequipa due to the insane amount of rain. Apparently this day was the most rain that they had ever had! We didn't see much of the destruction or flooding, but some of us had host parents and Peruvian friends calling/texting us to make sure we were safe. We had no idea rain could be so deadly!

After eating, we played cards and hung out together. Then, we decided that we wanted to go out downtown and see what the discos were like in Arequipa. We had a blast and danced until we were exhausted! We were all ready to go home the next day, but it was pretty hard to leave such a beautiful place!

This week has been pretty busy with homework for classes here and for my online classes, but nothing too interesting has been happening so far. I am really excited to say that next weekend (Feb 21st) I will be heading to Cusco to see Machu Picchu! I am so ready to go and I can hardly wait! Thanks again to everyone reading this and keeping tabs on what I'm up to. Homesickness has definitely started kicking in...especially when February rolled around. But, I am loving my time here and I can't believe how fast time has flown.

Hasta luego!

Time Flies...

I can't believe that I am almost a 3rd of the way done with studying abroad! Don't get me wrong, I am more than excited to go home and kiss my puppies and see my family and friends, but thinking about leaving behind all of these wonderful people I've met already brings tears to my eyes. I've even had dreams about it...so crazy.

Anyway, last week it seems as if I was buried under a mountain of homework. After the weekend, I feel as if I have somewhat recovered from that overload, but looking at my planner and to-do list it seems like this week won't be much different. One fun part of my week was making spaghetti with Fabricio! He recently accepted a new job, so we decided to celebrate and cook together. It was really good! Nothing special, but we added a few spices that made it Peruvian spaghetti in my eyes.

On Thursday, I went with some friends to TGI Fridays and we had some awesome "American" food. (I put this in parenthesis because I am told that Peruvians are also considered "Americans", so I suppose  "North American" food would be more accurate) One cool thing we saw here was their birthday celebrations. They don't mess around with the free piece of cake and ice cream here, oh no. If it is your birthday, the servers come out and present you with a shot of what I'm assuming is tequila. Then they play drums and tambourines and sing a song, in which you are required to dance to in front of everybody. It was so fun to watch!

On Friday, I had a pretty lazy day. I went with a few friends to the mall and FINALLY found a personal fan for my room. Now, I don't have to sleep with my window open and worry about hearing car alarms, honking, and getting bit by bugs at all hours of the night. :) Around 6:30 Haley, Luke, Sam, and I met some Peruvian girls for the evening and they took us to Barranco.  It is a little area about 20-30 minutes away from the university with lots of old buildings and restaurants...and it is right along the beach, too! I was so happy to finally become within walking distance of putting my feet in that ocean water!  After much walking and walking and walking, we were all ready to go home and get some sleep.

We had a great time walking around Barranco and looking at some popular sites in the city, such as the bridge called "Suspiro." I don't know much about it, but Claudia and Joseline (our Peruvian guides) told us that it is a very romantic spot and on Valentine's day this place is packed with couples. Of course, we had to stop and take a quick picture at this romantic site. Haha :)

On Saturday, I had my first adventure surfing!! It was a blast! We left a little before 10am and finally returned home around 4 or 5pm. It was a long day, but so worth it. We rented a wet suit and a surf board, along with a short lesson for close to $10. I couldn't believe how cheap it was. We didn't even have a time limit!

 We had a terrible time trying to get me into my wetsuit! It took two people plus myself to finally jump into that thing!  Every time I think about it, I laugh out loud because Sam and David hand to stand on each side of me and lift up my suit--suspending me into the air like they were trying to give me a wedgie. Haha :)  I wish I could say that I was  a pro and I rode every wave that came my way, but that would be a lie. I hope to try it again sometime before I leave because it was a great time!  Next time, however, I will make sure to put sunscreen on my face, because I have the worst sunburn I've ever had in my life on my face. It is already starting to blister and I am radiating heat 27/7. 

Thanks to Haley for being a trooper and watching us surf all afternoon. And of course, for taking some pictures!












Sunday pretty much consisted of napping and homework for me. I did, however take a break late in the afternoon to eat lunch with my friend, Hector, and his family at this really nice restaurant on the beach called "Hornero". The food was outstanding, and the view was even better. I was really nervous to go because I was to meet his entire family...but they were very welcoming and we had a great time trying to communicate with each other.

After lunch, I watched the first half of the Peru vs. Chile soccer game, and then decided I needed to take a siesta before I could start anymore homework. Quite a few of my friends got together to watch the Superbowl at a casino downtown, but I decided that I better finish my homework instead. It was a hard decision to make, because I really wanted to watch Beyonce at the half time show. That was really the only reason I wanted to watch the game. (Because the Packers weren't playing, of course.) So, I caught up on some homework and got to bed at a decent time for once.

Today began week 5 of classes at UPC. Time is flying so fast, and I'm having mixed emotions about it, but trying not to worry about time and think more about all of the adventures that are in store for me the next few months. We are in the process of planning trips to Iquitos (the Amazon) as well as Cusco and Ica. I am really excited because this weekend I am flying with some of my classmates to Arequipa for the weekend. We are going on a tour at Colca Valley and it should be a great time. Hopefully my next blog will have even more beautiful pictures to share with you all!