Wednesday, February 29, 2012

day 256: it's march tomorrow!

HEY FRIENDS!
LEAP YEAR!
WOO!

Alright, got that out of my system. So tomorrow is March, which is super exciting for a number of reasons, the most super duper bit is that SCHOOL'S STARTING AGAIN!

What does that mean for me? WORK! FINALLY. Not having any kids around is great and all for me-time. Everything's super chill, I get my workouts done, I go to Trujillo for personal time/fun more so than running around trying to get things done, and I spend a lot of time reading and watching movies (friend me on Goodreads if you like!).

It gets kind of boring after a while.

Mind, I'm really great at doing nothing. But after a while you start realizing that doing nothing, leads to nothing. That- I'm not a fan of that. So, I gotta start pushing the people around in my site a bit harder; gotta start accessing the inner bully and making people move.

Actually, what I find kind of funny is that there are people in my site who have presented me really legit documents and plans and whatnots about projects and activities that have been planned- none of which they have actually DONE. The lawyer I'm working with has had 2 meetings written in his work plans that were supposed to happen this month. They did not happen. I called him to ask him about it. He had no idea what I was talking about.

Facepalm.

Ah well, we'll just see how far that one goes.

In entirely other news, my little brother has come to visit me! He had to leave Brazil to get his volunteer visa set up, so instead of the states he came to PerĂº to travel and see meeeeee <3 He was in my site for a day or two before he realized exactly how boring it can get around here, so now he's in Huanchaco- surfing and enjoying faster internet service... He leaves for Brazil again this Saturday D:

Uhm. That's all for now. Oh, wait- LENT! I'm not doing anything for lent this year. Never mind.

Yup, nothing.

Sorry. Boring post. I'll write again when something actually happens!

Love and Peace, always.

Monday, February 20, 2012

day 247: CARNAVAAAALLL

Amigitos.

I have to tell you something. It's very important that all of you pay attention. Please take out your calendars and mark the following days in 2013 as "MUST TRAVEL TO PERU" because you will NOT regret it.

What days? you ask... well, CARNAVAL OBVIOUSLY.

So for those of you who don't know, I was in Cajamarca the past few days, vacationing in this gorgeous department in celebration of Carnaval. Let me just tell you a few of the things I did in Cajamarca.

My first day there was spent simply relaxing, getting used to the climate (COLD, especially in comparison to my hot as hellfire site. I did not pack adequately for this weather, but managed to make do with what I brought). A few of the volunteers mentioned Cumbe Mayo to see the aqueducts and the bosque de piedras (rock forest). I figured, I'm not doing much else- of course I'll go!

Turned out to be the greatest decision ever.

The view as we get off the van to being our hike through Cumbe Mayo

like Jurassic Park, yo.

Rocks! So gorgeous..

This is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Peru. The rolling fog that would come and go added this hint of eerie splendor, and the absolute quiet (minus our laughing and chatting and exclamations of delight) was just awesome, in the truest sense of the word.

After much more hiking and fun, looking at a few rock carvings and aqueducts and more gorgeous (and very wonderfully cold) scenery, we left to head back to the capital city (for more pics, check out my fb page!)

That night was spent at a bar with other volunteers, wishing some of them happy birthdays, and then later at the plaza del armas, joining drinking circles and enjoying the general merriment.

The next day was PAINT DAY. I have no pictures to describe the insanity and absolute fun of this day, because my camera would have been destroyed by the gallons of paint and water that was being constantly flung throughout the day.

Here's the end of the paint parade though: hundreds mobbing the plaza del armas and swarming the historical landmark fountain. This was probably a bad idea, but gives you a hint of what the cray cray fray was like!

Later that night, we went to celebrate one of our own's birthday! After not being able to find where anyone was, however, we went instead to an outdoor rave party and danced until morning. Literally. It was some of the greatest dancing I've ever done. Macarena a billion times? Enough times to convince a number of people on the ground (yes, we were on a fountain) that it was a legit dance they should be attempting throughout the night. Rodeo, elevator, cat walk, sprinkler, shopping cart, you name it- we danced it.

Next morning, I woke up with a voice that was just GONE from laughing and shouting from the night before. Thankfully, it was just parade day. There was a lot of water fights still going on, but we were out on the grass and just enjoying the sun and the atmosphere- until the dark, ominous clouds rolled in and the torrential rains came pouring down. Then it just got waaaaay cold.

Still, we continued to enjoy ourselves, eating and drinking and walking about for some elusive pizza.

Finally, I left to head back to site- but not without a lot of wishing that I could stay for just another day.

I'm now better prepared for Carnaval 2013 (what to wear, what to bring, how to get the right consistency of paint, etc.) and I really hope you just don't take my word for it. It really was a super fantastic awesome couple of days and definitely some that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.

Now I'm back in site, working again. My lil brosef will be visiting me for a few days (once the paro/bus strike ends down in Lima) and classes are going to start soon in March, so all my papers and plans need to be approved and put into some sort of order.

Until next time, dearest readers.
Peace and Love.

Friday, February 3, 2012

day 238: list of things i miss from the states

Sup friends,

So, I've been in Peru for what...8 months now? Wow. It feels like I just got here.
But in any case, there have been a few things that I do miss from the states that have been starting to become noticeable absences in my life here.

First and foremost, my family and friends. Obvy. Thankfully, I have good enough internet access that it's not too much of an issue. Also, my lil bro is in Peru right now! Plus, I love my 17ers like no other. For serious.

Now, in no particular order, here are some objects that I miss from the states. You will notice, it is predominately food related:

1. Asian food. Not just chifa, chifa, chifa (chinese food). I want pho, shrimp and basil spring rolls, thai iced tea, pad thai, red curry, kimchi jjigae, kalbi, bulgogi, sashimi, sushi rolls, good japanese ramen, and all the delicious sweets as well.

2. Speaking of sweets, I miss american snacks like big time. I was never a big snacker, but now that I'm constantly surrounded by snacks here, I do miss them. Like kettle corn, doritos cool ranch, marshmallow fluff, good chocolate (hershey's cookies and cream? ghiradelli caramel squares? lindt orange dark chocolate? omg, bacon chocolate...), almonds (so expensive here!), red vines, jerky (all forms. i love jerky.), swedish fish, hot fries, sun chips garden, pocky!, etc... if I were to ever go back to the states between now and the end of my service, my first stop (after eating, of course) would probably be costco and my suitcase on the return trip would be 50 lbs of snackage.

3. Gym. I've completed phase 1 of p90x, but in the words of my lil bro: I miss picking up heavy things and then putting them down. Plus, the gym has a pool, row machines, ellipticals, free weights, bench presses, and yoga mats. I don't have these things in my room. I should really invest in a yoga mat. I probably will once I save up enough? We'll see. I'd rather go travel with any cash I save up, but I do enjoy yoga...

4. Good coffee and tea. Coffee is predominately instant, or not even coffee (there's some brand called 'echo' or 'ecco' or something like that, and it's like fake coffee. Whatever it is, I don't like it.) and the tea is limited to just a few types (I did buy some green tea at the market, but it's not very good... I'm mostly drinking it now just because I bought it.) so I'm now at this point in my life where I consider Starbucks coffee, good. Yea. It's not instant. There is a coffee shop next door to a hostal we stay at that does have some wickedly delicious coffee, and I do make it a point to go there whenever I'm in, but nothing makes me feel more pampered and guilty as being able to get my favorite starbucks (soy iced grande sugar free caramel macchiato) to go. Whatevs.

5. Driving and organized streets. Getting into a colectivo is putting my life in the hands of a man who very likely paid a nominal fee and nothing more to get his license and drives a stick shift (although shifting gears may or may not be something he understands) of a car that should not be allowed on the road (exposed wires, all gauges not functioning, smell of gasoline very prominent, etc.). Then they cram 5 or more people into the car and hope to not run into any policemen (we usually never do).

6. Privacy and personal space. They don't exist. I'm pretty good about shutting my door and not talking to my family for hours at a time, and my family is very good at respecting my need for solitude. Anyone outside of my family thinks of this as very strange, and no one knows what a personal bubble is (made obvious by the number of times random people have sat on me or leaned against me or played with my clothes or hair while waiting to get off a bus. Like, seriously? Don't touch me). I have a very large personal bubble, or so I thought. That idea was destroyed pretty quickly and replaced with the idea that I have a very high tolerance for things I used to not tolerate before. I'm learning patience. It isn't really fun.

7. Having someplace to go when I get bored. There was always something to entertain me back in the states. Sometimes it was the park, the library, Six Flags, Disneyland, the mall, movie theaters, observatory, friends' places, or just walking around. Nowadays, if I'm bored (and I do get bored fairly often), I sit in my room and tumblr/facebook/youtube, read, watch tv on my laptop, and not much else. I suppose I could go to the library (so boring cause there aren't much in terms of books! I'm working on that, though), or just sit around outside somewhere (it's summer and hot and the air is full of buzzing insects. This is not my favorite idea), and sometimes I go to the market and just walk around (although people find me strange since I'm clearly just perusing, not intent on buying much).

8. Air conditioning. IT'S SO DAMN HOT. I visit the ATM in my site, because the small room it is in is usually air conditioned. I actually make it a point to pull out only a few bills because then I will have to return. So worth it.

Anywho, those are just some thoughts I had on the subject right now. It mostly came up because I can't fall asleep, since I'm going to make a quick trip to Trujillo tomorrow to buy somethings I am in desperate need of (toiletries, food things, etc.) and am super pumped cause I'll be making a stop at Starbucks... heh.

It's the small things in life that get you through it all, really.

Love and Peace, my friends.
Love and Peace.