It's difficult for me to believe 3 weeks in Peru have passed already. This third week has been pretty busy and hectic. We got a bit of hands on training with composting; we presented a puppet show to family and fellow trainees, and conducted interviews in the community using FREESTOP (each letter stands for a question about a person's life). The really awesome day though was today. We went on our Urban Excursion to Lima today.
First, we saw the Plaza de Armas of Lima which is literally the town square. It has the Palazzio del Goberierno which is the White House of Peru. The buildings there are 400 years old, and have amazing cedar balconies and gold gilt. We checked out a few churches that were incredible, and also the Museum of Gastronomy. That place was pretty cool because it had so many pictures of different types of food in Peru, but it made us all super ready for lunch. After that, we went to Parque de JF Kennedy, but it was getting near lunch time and we had to ask questions of random people which was really starting to drag. We persevered and our language instructor took our class plus Meredith, another trainee, to a Market, Marcado de Serquillo (I think) for lunch. We were all very excited for this part of the day, so far it hadn't gone so well. The Market has a festival or something there every weekend that has food from every region of Peru, it was really really cool. We all (including Claudia's husband and son) bought different dishes, and shared. I got to try dishes like Causa, which is basically two "buns" of mashed potato-ish potatoes, with a center filling. The one we tried which by far was the most delicious sounding, was with lobster and some other Mariscos. It was very yummy; I will definitely be eating it at some point. Also, we tried Leche de Tigre, which is a cup of ceviche with chicarrones on top. There was a fried rice with a ton of different seafood in it that I will be having next time for sure. Also, I had fried plantains which I absolutely adore (they're sweet, very common in Costa Rica too). After filling our bellies and generally feeling much much better, we wandered around the Market. It was very clean and looked great. Grant (one of the trainees in my language class) was given a "fish eye" to try at one of the fruit stalls. Apparently, that is a tiny pepper, one of the hottest, and Grant found that out the hard way. He caused a large scene when he spat it out and was pacing frantically (the scene was only because we were all dying laughing and everyone around joined in). After that, Mama Claudia took us to the beach and we got to see the Park of Love. They have a pretty awesome statue that I hope to post a picture of soon. We also saw paragliders, I think they were. Where they have a chute deployed and run off the edge of a cliff with the parachute lifting them into the air? Anyways, we watched this for awhile, and I definitely had a bittersweet moment because one of the trainers had a German Shorthair. I miss my dog so much. Big hugs and tears for Riley back home. I hope my family is paying attention to her (hint hint nudge nudge). After that, we went down to the ocean and played in the surf and rocks for awhile. Sarabeth managed to get herself soaked after twenty minutes of standing on rocks waiting for a big wave, finally giving up, and then getting swamped at the last moment. Another absolutely hilarious moment of the day. Once we got back to Santa Eulalia, the Pachamancha festival was in full swing. There was easily over a hundred people in the town center listening to the live music and drinking themselves silly. My family was there, and I had a good time chatting with some of the Peruanos around my age. It was good practice for me, and after that I spent time with my family (both the ones living with me and the ones next door with Jake). We figured out that both Milenka and Kevin, who I've called my cousins (aged 12 and 6) are actually my tia and tio. Which makes Jake's dad and mom my grandparents, and the two women I've thought as my aunts, are really my "Tia abuelas" which literally means aunt grandma. It was pretty hilarious. My "abuelo", Jake's host dad, was getting pretty drunk, but it was really adorable, because he kept telling us how he respects the two of us and we're totally family and we're great. He also kept telling me I was his "niete linda", his prettiest granddaughter. Poor Hilary and Miley haha. After hanging around for a little longer, it quickly became time to leave. People were getting very very drunk, and the music was too loud. Also, early in the day on the bus ride, my left contact was hurting my eye so all day I had to wear my glasses, and my eye is now red and hurting. I really hope its better tomorrow. We'll see. Apparently, I'm going to Jake's and we're going to all share and chip in for Pisco Sours or vodka. They kept switching between which it was going to be. We'll see how they feel tomorrow haha. With that thought, I need to get to bed myself. I made myself a "tortilla" omelette and tea, and have been watching Mission Impossible in Spanish, so its now almost 11am. Definitely too late for me here when I wake up with the sunrise and roosters.
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