Carnival

This weekend we went to the beach. We left Friday afternoon.

That night we were at a birthday party of my parents friends in a town about three hours away from the beach town we go to. I didn't really want to be there, but I had an okay time. It went late and I finally was able to go to the hotel we were staying at at about two in the morning. The room was so hot and stuffy that I hardly got any sleep, not to mention I woke up at 8:30 that morning. We wound up leaving around one or two in the afternoon for the beach.

Saturday night was the 'Fiesta de La Punta del Bombon' and it was a dance that was like the one during New Years. Then on Sunday we were at the beach most of the day. I slept most of the time, but had a good time relaxing and got a little sunburnt.

That night was 'Carnavales' and I'm still not sure what it was all about, but it was fun. People were throwing something that was sort of like flour with food coloring in it, and spraying silly string at each other. I got it pretty bad, getting the flour smeared all over my face, and getting sprayed over and over, but it was very fun. I was glad that it all washed out well.

What is going on?

So it started raining today. And I mean pouring with rain. It started at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and it hasn't stopped since. There is water covering the floor, filling up buckets, and I haven't the slightest idea what I should be doing.

The power in my area of the city was out, too. Most of the city, actually. It's really crazy to think that rain could do this much damage to things. But when you come from a place that is built to withstand rain and storms, you sort of pass it off as nothing. I'm starting to kind of freak out about it.


-abrazos y besos de Peru.

Happy holidays!

This holiday season has been a very hard one. And I'm sure I speak for every exchange student when I say that. For a lot, this time of year is when the first family change happens. Which makes it even harder.

When you first think about it, holidays don't seem like that tough of a time. But, we're away from family, friends, and the customs that we're used to. Every country has a different culture, and everyone experiences it different.

Christmas was so different. They celebrate it on the 24th and not the 25th. They stay up all night and at midnight they shoot off fireworks, then eat. The 25th is just like any other day, which is strange.

For New Years I went to the beach with my family. And if that wasn't the best New Years ever, well then I don't know what is.

We got to the beach around 6 at night. It was already dark, so we walked around and saw the fireworks that they had set up in the square.

At 12 that night we shot off fireworks and danced at the house. Then later my cousins and I went to a party. There were so many people. And a live band. All through the night we danced and drank. At times I was tired, but near the end I had energy again.

We were there until 6 in the morning. The band was really good, and the drummer was very cute. To my surprise, they dedicated the last song to me. I don't think anyone else noticed, but it's something that I will never forget.


-abrazos y besos de Peru.

Surprises

Today was an interesting day, to say the least.

First, I went to the Plaza de Armas with Kristen to look for shoes and earrings for my prom that's on Friday. Nothing too special. She also returned a dress that she rented. After no luck we went to Mall Aventura to continue our search. After finding shoes (S/.150) Kristen was taking money out of an ATM. She got her money, but didn't get her card quick enough. The machine sucked it back up and she didn't get it back. After trying to figure out what to do we got some ice cream and went to my house. We ate lunch and then she went home.

Then Michel came a little bit latter. We played Minecraft.

After a few hours, John showed up and we went to the plaza again to meet up with everyone to do a Christmas gift exchange. We shopped around with a S/.5 limit and met back up to exchange what we got. Then we were just walking around when a very obviously whit guy hands us tickets for "Free Pisco Sour" for a restaurant. It was strange when he was talking, because he had very good English.

A bit later he walked after us and asked, "Hey, do you smoke weed?" In a very loud voice. So we said, 'yeah, of course." just for the fun of it. He went on to tell us that he was from Florida and used to be a Marine, and he went to California and handed out bibles. And now he's married to a Peruvian lady that sells cookies in the plaza, while he works at a restaurant, trying to sell white teenagers weed.

Anyways, we happily declined and were on our way. We talked about what his story really was, thinking that he was a cop and did that just to get kids sent to jail. We said that he was a Rotarian, trying to get us sent home, and all sorts of crazy things.

At this point, Tyson wanted to go get his head shaved. We asked around and everyone said that the hair places were probably closed and he should try tomorrow. Instead of listening to them, I offered to do it for him. And surprisingly, he went with it. So Tyson, John, Zoe and I went to my house to get this done.

We gathered razors, water, a towel, and you know, everything we needed to do it. It took us about 2 hours, but we finally got it done. Now, this wasn't a normal shave with a buzz razor in the bathroom. We were using scissors, conditioner, and just a regular razor. We were on my roof, listening to Christmas music. 'Tis the season, right?

After all said and done, today was a good day. Tomorrow I'm going to get my face cleaned for prom. Why I have to do it so much in advance, I don't know. Then I'm probably helping my host mom make cakes, yay!

Random update

Recently, a lot of interesting things have happened. And I'd like to tell short, random stories that aren't related to each other...

First off, I got lost because I took what I thought was the right bus, but it was going the wrong way. I ended up way out of the way, and had no idea where I was. Luckily, there was a shop that a little old lady was working in. I called my mom, explained what happened and asked the lady to tell my mom where I was at. About 30 minutes later my mom and aunt came to get me, and I was very relieved.

Prom is right around the corner, so for the past few weeks I've been looking for a dress and finally found one last weekend. It's pink, long, and sparkly, and I'm probably going to wear it next year too. Now I just need shoes and earrings.

It's starting to be summer here, but the weirdest thing is happening. Instead of getting warm and dry (like it usually is) it's starting to rain, and get colder. Now, if you ask me, that's not summer at all. But I very much like this "rain" that they are having now. All I want to do is just stand out in it, regardless of if I get a cold or not.

With school almost out, I get to think about if I want to go back to La Salle, or try to find a university that I want to go to. Another exchange student is going to go study Portuguese, and I might go with him. Why not learn as much as you can?

My sister and brother are leaving for the US tomorrow, so I guess I'll be an only child again for a while. Not sure if I'll be changing host families or not. I hope not, because I love my family here, and also feel like it would be better if my mom had someone at the house.

The last full day of school was today. It was a sad day for everyone, even me. I love my class at La Salle, and don't want to go back next year because it wouldn't be the same. It really felt like I couldn't have been with a better class. I'm really going to miss them all.

I had a feeling lately that I couldn't quite describe. I tried describing it as "this won't last forever" and "this isn't a dream" to a past exchange student. Luckily, he understood what I was trying to say. We decided that that was the moment that I realized what living in the moment was. When that happened, I was just at home with some other exchange students watching movies. It didn't make too much sense at first, because we weren't doing much. But he said that moments like those are when that happens. "You realize to love the little things just the same as the big" He said.
I love realizing things like that. Although it can be very stressful, it's a great life changing thing that I don't think I would experience if I were anywhere else.



So, there's my update for now. I'll probably do another one around Christmas or New Years. (:

Three Months

I've now been in Peru about three months. The hard part is finally over!

Lately I've been feeling very happy about my situation, and more confident in my Spanish. I've been able to make jokes and actually have full conversations. I'm also starting to make more friends at school, and I love being able to talk with my classmates.

We got a new Communications teacher, who at first didn't know that my Spanish was very basic, so after the first test he gave, which i did my best to guess on the multiple choice questions, but then just decided to doodle because I couldn't answer anything else, he told me that he was going to take my test to the school psychiatrist. I told him that I am an exchange student, and then he understood. Now, I'm able to understand his class, and I'm happy that I understand their version of our English class, because I think it will most help me with my Spanish.

So over all, things have been going great lately!

Spring break

Well, this week is spring break here, and it hasn't been very exciting. Instead of my usual three or four hours spent at home alone, it's turned into most of the day. Yay! But, I have been able to go out a couple times. I went shopping with the other Zoe here, and bough a bunch of clothes. We also went to eat at the restaurant that John threw up at, the food was good, and the view of the plaza was very pretty. Earlier that day I went to the post office to pick up a package from my mom, I was there for about 5 hours. That was loads of fun.
Other than those couple great adventures, I spent most of my time in my room trying to entertain myself because I can't go out alone. So I painted my nails, and did some yoga.
My sister, right after skyping with Vanessa, which she shouldn't have been doing, and right before leaving for a class came in and told me that I've been here for two months, and that I'm not trying to be a part of the family. Now, I will tell you, it's very hard to interact with a family who is rarely home. It's also very hard going from being an only child living with just your mom to having siblings and a family that lives right below you. It's a big change, but I'm starting to get used to it.
I also went to Bolivia to renew my visa. And boy, was that a trip. My host mom told me the day that we were going to leave that we were leaving at 10 that night. So, I packed up my things, and we were off soon after that. We got on a bus and headed to Puno, we arrived there at around 4 the next morning. Then we got on another bus that took us tot he Bolivia-Peru border, we got there a couple hours later. After waiting what seemed like hours, we went to go get my visa renewed, but turns out I threw out the paper I needed to get back into the country. Oops. But, a man that was working there helped us out and managed to get me a new one. So we had to walk around Bolivia for an hour or two.
Being super duper tired all day, I hardly ate anything and wanted just to go home. After we got my visa renewed, we went on a bus back to Puno, at this point I had no idea what time it was. We got to the little house that I'm guessing is my host family's, and all I wanted to do is sleep. My host mom made me eat some food, and I found a scale there. It said I was about 53 kilograms, which is about 116 pounds, so I haven't really gained anything here so far.
After that, I turned on the TV and watched some show on Animal Planet about pandas, and fell asleep for a few hours. We left Puno at around 6 that night to head back home. When we got home it was 2 in the morning on Saturday, but i thought it was Sunday. So I was really bummed that I had only one day to rest before school, until I woke up at about 9 that morning to realize that it was in fact Saturday.
Saturday I hardly did anything, and I sure needed the rest. Now it's Sunday night, and everyone is doing their own thing while I'm just here on the computer. I have school tomorrow, which I'm a little excited about because my spring break wasn't as exciting as I wanted it to be.