Es mi cumpleano!

Best Peruvian birthday ever! Ok, it's my first Peruvian birthday, but regardless. My host mother made me my favorite...liver with onions, beet salad, mango mousse, popcorn, and vegetable soup! To top it all off, birthday cake! (It was no Coldstone, but it's the thought that counts. Now thinking about it, I miss cookie dough ice cream, but anyways...) And I got calls, messages, texts from Peru and the US. I'm even more popular here than I am in the states. :)

The best moment was probably when midnight last night, while my host sister and host mother were still up from Christmas decorating and I was still up from making rice krispy treats (wrapped them up with aluminum foil and a bow and gave them as X-Mas treats), they began to sing to me in Spanish and English three different versions of the birthday song. One had a lot of high notes, but they braved it anyways.

So funny, I thought today would just pass by as another day, but truly, I had a great day.

Mi viaje a Lima

I just got back from my trip from Lima…Amazing! Well worth the 20 hour bus ride down there. I ate like there was no tomorrow….gyros (twice), chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream, Burger King, latte, Spinach stuffed ravioli, garlic bread, Thai food, sandwich with actual white, sliced bread…Like I said, Amazing!

The first thing I did when I got to Lima was visit host family #1 in Lima. I was only able to stay for a couple of hours, but they had planned on me spending the night and had fresh sheets and my favorite breakfast (freshly ground soy milk) all ready for me. Aww… But at least I got to eat dinner with them and they made my favorites again…steamed broccoli and this Peruvian stir fry dish. When I was leaving, things got a little scary. While I was visiting with my family, a little boy actually got hit by the car on the road right outside of the community. The community was really angry, because they had been advocating for a walkway bridge for a long time, and so while I was leaving, they were just beginning to form a strike and the police had their shields and armors all ready. Fortunately, some cars at the end of the line were still able to turn around even though traffic had been stopped. Note to self: Should you ever get in the middle of a Peruvian strike, run! Things will get out of hand very quickly (see strikes in Peruvian jungles)!

The next days went by more smoothly. I had a free day to bum around, so I had dim sum at Chinatown and practiced my Chinese. (It made me so homesick to speak Chinese again!) I also went to the beach (pretty, but hot), did some shopping (Yay! I finally spent some of my saved up Peace Corps money!), and generally just bummed around the city. For the next few days, we were stuck at a retreat center for Peace Corps training, but overall, I had a great trip! It scared me to realize how much of a country bumpkin I had become only after 3 months. Traffic scares the bejeezy out of me and I’ve picked up some really bad hygiene habits. But for once, I was stomachache free during the whole week (until I got back and had my first meal here), no one stared at me while I walked down the street as if I grew an extra eye, I didn’t see anyone peeing on the streets, and I was able to speak English freely.

Sigh…I can’t wait to go back. Fortunately, I found out over training that I was selected as the Peace Corps editor of a publication, so that means that I will have to travel to Lima again soon to take the publication to press. :) :) :) And for New Years, I’ll be taking another long bus ride to a place called Ancash to celebrate with my Peace Corps friends.

Please take care of yourselves, everyone, and just know that I am safe and sound back in my site.

Me voy a Lima!

Back to the big city I go! My 20 hour bus ride starts tomorrow so I should get to Lima on Sunday. We're going to Lima for more Peace Corps training (Grr...), but I should be back next weekend so if there are no messages from me before then, everything should be a-okay. On the flipside, I can't wait to hang out with fellow volunteers again and order a soy latte...hit up Burger King...McDonald's...Um....

Extrano Navidad...Mucho

I miss Christmas. It hit me yesterday as I was looking around my town...No Christmas lights, no snow, no red, white, and green. If you guys have any fabulous Christmas-y photos in your computer, just of some lights or trees or Santas or something, could you send it to me? I even miss the Wal-Mart commercialized Christmas gimmicks where you walk into the store and see all the stuff they sell for Christmas. I didn't think I would miss the commercialism that Hallmark tries to throw at us each year, but I really do! Any festivities that you can share would be great!

El Mercado en el Domingo

Just wanted to show you guys what I look forward to most on the weekends...the market! Every Sunday, I haggle with the little Peruvian ladies and bargain over my fruits and vegetables. Our market here is pretty big and goes up and down about two streets. Farmers from all over bring all sorts of produce, chicken, guinea pigs, foods to sell. The selection of fruits is amazing here and I've gotten to try a lot of stuff that I have never seen before. I've also become really good at saying "Mi yappa, por favor" in a really whiny voice so that they'll give me 11 mini avocados for 1 sole (.33 cents) instead of the usual 10. :)

They bring bulls up here to sell also. I always forget that when walking in the opposite direction and a bull is approaching, you should stop and avoid it at all cost or else risk certain death. My host mother has had to flatten me against walls over countless times just so that I won't have a bull horn stuck up in certain parts of my body.

La comida

So a friend and I went out to lunch today at a pretty nice restaurant in my site. This is rare since I usually save my money and eat with my host family.

This is what a typical "menu" looks like in Peru. Usually, the "menus" are the special of the day and comes with an appetizer, a beverage, your main entree, and sometimes even a dessert. They tend to be cheaper than ordering a la carte.
Today, we started out with chicken soup, fresh apple juice, and a main course consisting of rice, white beans, and a Peruvian beef stir-fry. The best part is that even though we only spent 4 soles ($1.33) for our menu, there are always cheaper places and you can even get your menu for 2 soles.

P.S. The green sauce that you see in the first photo is "aji," a condiment made from chili peppers that comes in all sorts of colors, textures, and spices. We have some type of aji and/or lime pretty much with every meal.

Accion de Gracias 2009 en Cajamarca

My first Thanksgiving away from home! It was bittersweet. But, overall, I had a great Peruvian Thanksgiving. Some of the volunteers and I met up in the city to have our Thanksgiving feast. We chose a restaurant that was situated over a piece of farmland surrounded by fresh turkeys and ducks that they ultimately slaughtered for us. We ate roast duck, roast turkey, sweet mashed potato, honey glazed carrots, beet salad, gravy, and for dessert, apple crisp and pumpkin pie...Aw, so delicious! Y'all would be pleased to know that the restaurant was going to charge us s./50 just for the pie itself. (That is a $17 pie!!) So the night before, I made that lovely pie displayed in this first photo...without an oven, without canned pumpkins, without pre-made pie dough! Top that, Martha!! (I even made an extra one to share with my family and, by morning, when I was about to get a slice for myself before my travels, it was all gone. I think they enjoyed their first pumpkin pie!)

After our feast, some of us went out to see the new "Twilight" movie. It hadn't been dubbed to Spanish, yet, so I got to understand everything they were saying. Overall, it was a great day. While I missed being with my family this year, I am truly grateful for being able to say that I am finally a Peace Corps volunteer.

Anyways, this is plate #1. Eventually, I gorged myself with seconds and third helpings of turkey and duck. (I don't think I've ever eaten so much meat since being in Peru...It was heavenly!) The next day, I came home after practically overeating myself into a coma, ran into a lady whom I had met a few months earlier and the first thing that she said to me was that I had gained weight ("Que linda!") and then she pinched my fat little cheeks to prove her point. :(

This is also what I discovered the day after I got back. Something bit me during the night while we stayed in our super cheap hostal. It's rainy season, so the bugs are back in full force.

I didn't want to pop the sucker, because, well, quite frankly, we had just watched the Twilight movie and I thought that it was like a love bite from Team Edward. (No, I'm not swooning over a teenage boy...He's of age, you guys!) Anyways, but then the bite just got bigger and bigger until one day, I tripped coming into my room, scraped the poor little sucker, and the whole thing just popped and the pus just went all over the floor.

Now, did you guys really think that I was just going to end a post with warm fuzzies and rainbows just because it's the holidays?!