New Year's 2011, at the beach :)

     Even though it started off kind of horrible, I had such an amazing New Year's this year !!!

     Nancy decided to take the whole fam (Gabo, Junior, everybody!) and like 7 or 8 of Francheska's friends to Tortugas beach for New Years; where the party's at apparently. We went to el centro around 1pm to set up a huge taxi thing to meet us at her house and shuttle us all there. He said he could pick us up at 5:30pm. Then it was 6:30pm. Then he called saying 8:20 at the earliest. Then it was 10:30pm and he stopped answering our calls, so our heroine Nancy flew to el centro and hustled down another taxi. Then it was 11:30pm ish when we finally arrived at Tortugas. It was kinda cold. Well, for them they were dying, poor things. I was fine xD But at night, it's suuuper windy and misty coolness on the beach. We made a little fire and I set up their two tents (because nobody had ever set up a tent before and had no idea how...) while trying not to get frustrated w them all MIA MIA MIA NO ENTIENDOOO RAWSDAS and being idiot tent setter-uppers hahahah oh god. Nearly set one of them on fire. (the tents that is) Good job boy scouts. You're failing... Anywho! Got out my camera and walked sola down to the ocean (soooo ridiculously warm for ocean water. warmer than any yukon lake!!) to take some pics of fireworks. Or try to anyways :P The beach is in like a sei circle thing that closes in on itself almost and so through the mist you could see the countless fireworks exploding across the water and stuff so it was pretty cool. I got ONE super awesome firework pic hahahh so difficult but anyways. Woooo happy new year. I kinda missed the countdown and was needing some breathing alone time from the little children but then Johanna and Louise, who were there with Zoraida (the coolest AFS volunteer), Johanna's brother, and some Peruvian friends, came and rescued me! And we had the sweeeeetest time ever. If they hadn't been there, I would have had one of those breakdown moments.

      Jhoselyn paid 60 soles to go to the discoteca set up thingy with her boyfriend, but I am waaaay too cheap to have done that. So we just hung out w Gaby's pick up truck infront of the party, where we could hear and dance to the music just fine. And we were closer to the hot food stands hahaa. I'm so surprised Nancy was so relaxed and awesome about that night, because I didn't go back to sleep in the tents like everyone else, but just chilled with my friends until 8:30am and went back when everyone was crawling out of the tents waking up hahaha so I was pretty much missing for 8 hours. But yeah, Gaby is super cool, and I met 3 other old AFS students who had returned to Peru, one from Germany, one from Swizterland and I don't remember where the Asian guy was from. Older people are more my crowd. I had sooo much fun. I was wearing my lucky yellow underwear (everyone wears something yellow for good luck in the new year) and we ate our 12 grapes (good luck for every month), me one for each of my friends there, 2 for Louise, one for Canada and one for me :P Then we partied until and past the sunrise over the mountain tops! hahah it was awesome. Then it got suuuper sunny and so at 8:30am I stripped down and went swimming. Apparently that's way too early and too cold to do such a thing, so I was the only one out there. Then they told me (as I was swimming) that there's eels and "fish that pica" in the water. I got out pretty fast.. hahah.

      By then, after passing out on our beach towels for awhile, Nancy and everyone woke up and then Louise and my buddies left so I spent the day with Fran and her friends getting all sandy and sunburnt and feeling way too tired to live. I went swimming a second time with Fran before we left and was teaching two adult men how to float. "Can you swim?" is a common question here!! Crazy. I also know lots of people who have never ridden a bike. o_O Anyways. The water was awesome. Warmer than Marsh Lake on a good day! Then we walked around and ate ice cream and Mona and her host sister Arlette showed up for awhile too. By 5pm we'd made it home and showered and fell asleep until January 2nd :P Chyea! Awesome awesome AWESOME! :)

PROMO!!

    Well. When in Rome -Peru, right? hahahah okay. Here goes.

    Right, Tuesday. So at 9am Tuesday morning, we had our final dance ensayos to learn the 4th choreographed dance hahahh. New moves and dances on the last day (DAY OF OUR PROM) of ensayos? Hora Peruana, as always. Anyways, it was also the first and only time I brought my tacos (high heels) to try and dance in. Kinda scary to run in those ankle eaters. BUT I'm very proud to say -I didn't fall once. :)

     Then I went home, ate, washed dishes, slept, got up, showered, bought credit for my cell phone, took money outta the bank, dried my hair, and was dragged to a hair salon thingy close to the casa. For 25 soles or something, this hairdresser lady made my hair all fancy and done up as if for a ball or something insane. Of course, we had to be at Tumbao (the location of our prom) at 8:30, and my hair-do was finished at 7:45. Then after a short walk home in my flowy casual clothes and crazy fancy hair (followed by too many whistles) I super speedily changed into my panties/tights things, fancy silk pink short dress, (with shorts underneath hoof) high heels and was forced upon with overly shiny jewellery. Thank god I stopped her from piercing my ears for this. I'm not even kidding. Nancy was determined to pierce my ears so I could wear earrings. Hooooooo no thanks! :P Anyways, at 8:30 Yessenia came by my house and we rode in a taxi with her pareja and older sister to Tumbao. They wouldn't let me go with my flats and camera in my hippie bag (psssh unappropriate not fancy enough ayayaii) so instead I just shoved my cell and camera down the front of my dress and off we went.

       The event was supposed to start at 9pm EN PUNTO (sharp) but. We're in Peru. It started more around 11:30 hahahah. The local was all decorated in pink/coral and white fabric and tables and chairs and there was a huge table with 20 some cakes (one for each student to take home :O what delicious calories those were!) After everyone's families and partners arrived and everything, the students & parejas descended pair by pair (as we were announced) down the two staircases to the main floor. I don't remember how my name was pronounced, but it evoked much laughter and it's a good thing I didn't trip being filmed riendo down the staircase xD Then everybody present was given a glass of pisco sours I think (some lemony alcohol with a foamy crema on top) for the brinding. We toasted, sipped, and then performed our first choreographed baila of the night, as well as the dance of the padres. (I danced with a weird teacher  that I never really quite liked/understood, instead of my father) Many thanks to Jhoselyn and Nancy, who filmed pretty much everything and took over 200 photos oh my :) After our first dance, us alumnos went back up the staircase to eat our two course tasty meal and sip a glass of wine with our awesome Napoleon-esque firecracker physics profesora. Afterwards, with slightly bulging stomachs I'm sure, we performed the second dance. Or maybe then came the toast. Or speeches. And then our last choreographed dance of the night; where I was picked up and twirled around laughing because my dress was too short and I was trying to hold it down haaha. Yes. All on camera.

       After that the techno booming reggaeton came on and the strobe lights came out and we had a blast dancing our little butts off. My partner and friends and some random parents were also helping teach me how to salsa, and dance to cumbia and meringue as well. Much laughter :P Then came something that probably would have scarred the old Mia for life. xD Luckily, the new Mia just laughed her ass off but wasn't too embarassed! Luckily :P

       The "hora loca". Something only done in Peru. And it started off with me, hurray. Everyone was cleared off the dancefloor for a moment and a single chair was placed in between the two staircases. The announcer was asking for one lucky lucky volunteer to go sit in the chair, and obviously my friends love me very, very much, because they all forced me to go sit in that chair. I tried to avoid it. "Noooo no! Tengo miedo! No, gracias, no quiero hahaha." But I had no choice. I totally knew something um.. let's say bad.. was going to happen to me. Hahahah after my painfully slow and cautious walk,right when I sat down, everybody started winking, laughing, smiling and clapping. Seconds after the lights went out and the song "I'm too sexy for my shirt..." started playing. I started laughing  because it was obvious what was going to happen next. Justo, dancing down the staircases came two tightly dressed and muscled men. Oh my god. Then, after some more dancing, they started stripping. At this point... I couldn't even breathe I was laughing so hard. This is prom we're talking about. Anyways. I then was um "gifted" xD with lap dances. Hooooray.. lucky me! And with every second of it being filmed and photographed xD Then they tried to get me to feel them up. I politely declined. Then out came some creepy ass clown thing on stilts and he did some awkward dancing that I didn't see because he was standing above my head. Oh greaat.. I can only imagine how that went from peoples' faces and stories afterwards hahahaha. THEN the hora loca started started and we all ran around screaming to the songs and jumping up and down in circles and being psychos. Awesome; not to mention slipping in the confetti and silly stream and bubbles weird fluffy snow stuff and who knows what else not. Theeeen we danced some more (Nancy too) but I was pulled away from my girl friend to dance with one of the male half stripper dancer guys until we went home early at 3:30am with my cake (breakfast). Viva, Peru!

      Definitely a blast and a half that was !! Still can't believe Mia was barbified and didn't have her grump face on all night. She is much more relaxed and easy going now... which is a good thing. But the barbie part. Well --she didn't get to choose the dress, or the colour, or the jewellery or or or or :P But she has learned that it's okay to do something like that for other people. And to suck up a smile for the 6000 photos her peru mother took of her and the xmas tree and the cake and her cacti and such afterwards. xD And to participate fully and rawrf. Didn't expect an experience like this!! She's super tired and sick right now and the words aren't flowing so well, but chyea. The eeend! :)

P.S. (she actually enjoyed herself and didn't complain about a thing! :OOOOO or felt the need to complain! *applause*)

2nd Post today. Finally caught up. Should start writing less.

Since Monday or whatever

Tuesday the... 21^st.. what!?

                Went to el Cine with Francheska and a bunch of her friends from her iglesia group and saw Louise, Emily, Laetitia and Maricielo and Daevis there as well haha. Then on the way back the  taxi driver overheard Bryan asking me if I believed in god, and started on this huge preach. Religious Juan told me “hija, you must believe in god.” It is very hard to defend yourself when your Spanish is lacking and well. It’s often just hard to speak with religious people who avoid the scientificly based questions/points and can ramble on for hours about offtopic things and such. But he was a very nice guy. It was actually kinda cool. When he stopped to let us out, after calmly conversing and stuff, I was the last to get out of the taxi and before I did he asked if we could do some “oraciones” together. I went with the flow and let him take my hand and closed my eyes and tried not to giggle as I repeated some religious verses after him. “Amen.” Something about “today I accept Jesus into my heart as my savior” and he told me he was happy because there are “fiestas en los cielos” or parties in heaven. The only reason I was into it was because this guy wasn’t just trying to convert me, but actually and truely believed he was helping me and trying to make my life better. He honestly just wanted the best for me, which was interesting. I’m quite proud of what we did manage to converse about in my handicapped Spanish though hahah. I kinda love all the little experiences like these in life. They’re my favourite.

Then I was super stomach sick fever tight neck craziness for three days and also saw and tried on my vestido for the first time :O! It’s above knee height and silky and coral (dark orange/pink) and has a silver strap belt thing and is kinda like a corset and then it fans out at my hips or something silly. I kinda look good in it but I’m kinda never gonna wear it again :P Oh man. Little Miaclaire in a fancy dress. What. Has. This. World. Come. To.  Hahaha and then Mona helped me take out my crazy hippie braid dreadlock. I can actually say I had a dread. One, single, huge, knotted, beautiful, dreadlock. It’s all good now haha I think I’ll put another one in before Canada-time.

Wednesday

                Bought more regalos for chocolatada and had dance ensayos aaand I bought and gave Soledad her beautiful polo xmas present, because she left that night to travel to her home family in Puko or some other city for Christmas J <3

Thursday

                Chocolatada aaaaaall day. The whole fam got up early and went to Sra Vicky’s house to help set up balloons and chairs and huge stereo speakers and wrap presents and make hot chocolate. It was awesome. I brought my little camera (and filmed parts of it too) to take pics. It was cute and sad because everyone wanted a picture of themselves and were soooo excited to look at them, because none of them have cameras. Aaw then there was a clown and some paid dancers who came and entertained the kids. Talia- this one guy danced super flyyy hahaha I filmed a bit for you to see haha kinda like Michael Jackson and who knows what else, but it was smooth. Then every single person’s name was called out from a list, and they each came in with their tickets to receive a present (sorted by age appropriateness), a cup of hot chocolate, and a huge slice of paneton. It was kinda sad how many didn’t say thank you... but it felt so amazing to be helping. We gave to over two hundred ninos. Thanks to Nancy and Sra Vicky and Lady and everybody who helped us, we brought Christmas to over 200 kids who would not have had it otherwise. And that... is freaking awesome. I wish I’d bought even more presents!! We wrapped it up and made it home around 10:30pm with plenty of hot chocolate to spare.

Noche Buena (written on xmas eve)

                No internet, no puedo hablar con mi familia, quiero llorar, no siento nada de navidad. I washed dishes and helped out and bought expensive presents for fran, jhosey, junior and gabo (mañana voy a comprar for Nancy and mario in Trujillo) and well. They’re just kinda ungrateful ..and I’m not sure if they deserve anything im giving them. While I was buying presents for them, they were trying on fancy dresses and complaining to Nancy.  Its so hard always being the better person and sucking it up. Usually, after buying presents for people, i always feel so amazing, and happy and warm and fuzzy! But after buying them gifts.. i don’t feel anything. I don’t feel good for having bought them nice things. Thats not right. Usually i love buying people presents- but this time. It felt more like an obligation, i dunno. It hurts. Xmas isn’t the same here. I don’t feel it. It’s just another day. I wish there was internet so i could skype my family and bawl my eyes out or say hi to everyone at paul and michelle’s or something. But no. We’re eating delicious pancitos and cooking a pig’s head with some purple (yeah. Naturally bright purple purple) kamotes/sweet potatoes. And apparently tomorrow, instead of being able to skype my family how we’ve been planning for... over a month. L i get to go with them to Trujillo. Woopee. Im told that i can skype my family from an INTERNET CAFE AT STARBUCKS. That’s not Christmas. They have no idea how hard this is for me. Is it so much to ask that i can skype them ... not from the calle?? They know ive had this planned forever and just. Now we’re going to Trujillo. Im trying so hard to see this as a positive, once in a lifetime “Christmas in peru” experience that I’ll never have again... but im just not feeling it. I don’t feel the joy of giving. I feel the greed and selfishness of jhoselyn bearing down on me like the wild boar in the oven. She just demands expensive new clothes from her mother as if its her right to receive them. In a country like this.. i just don’t  understand how she can be this way L this isn’t Christmas. This isn’t Christmas. She glared at me when i suggested that it’s about more than regalos. Scoffed even, because she was in the middle of making demands of some sort from her poor mother.  Unbelievable really. Unbelievable. And i cant even cry because it’ll hurt them to know how sad i am under their roof. And then they’ll feel bad and i don’t want to bring down their Christmas, it’s not their fault i miss my own family and traditions. But it’s also too much to handle right now. I just wanna go to sleep and wake up for new years L I miss you guys!! Feelin’ like a baby though hahaha

***

K WELL after bawling my eyes out during fireworks in the background; I had a good time. I took a couple cool pics of Junior and his friend shooting fireworks and then we shared a big dinner of delicious sweet pan, turkey, pig, pink potatoes, purple kamotes, hot chocolate and applesauce. I would have thought the dinner would have been longer, but it didn’t last more than 15minutes and we didn’t talk that much. That’s less than usual for every day almuerzo! Then Junior dived right in to open his present. All the kids loved my gifts hehe and Nancy gave me a shirt and Mario gifted each of us ladies with a beautiful purse/bag thing. Mine is super soft and blue and has 10 pockets and might be leather. I feel way too spoiled and was nOOOOOT expecting that! I’m definitely the most grateful kid in the house right now though. The others act like it’s expected and it’s kinda..yeah. Anyways. Then we all stayed up super late eating more bread til we passed out at 4am.

Xmas

                K so even though it didn’t feel anything like Christmas yesterday, apparently it was xmas. I got up and washed dishes, went back to bed, then we had more chancho (pig) for breaky/lunch. And then I skyped my generous and beautiful  family and they opened WAY TOO MANY presents for me under our homey Charlie brown xmas tree that i miss so much. It was pretty awesome. <3  Wow. It was only yesterday, but I don’t really remember what else we did. Nothing really. Christmas is over on xmas eve in Peru I guess hahah. Then Jhoselyn and I went out to eat but almost everything was closed...duh. THEN I SKYPED WITH WENDY AND CHEYLSEA OMG made me smile. So happy. J And then our buds Chemo and Fercho came over around 11 and kidnapped us out to a DISCOTECA in el centro around 12:30. It was the most fun night we’ve had in awhile! It was soooo crazy and packed. Christmas is a good day for discos hahah everybody goes out dancing like crazy. It was hard to dance properly sometimes because of all the people and it was soooo hot but so awesome. This time it was just 6 of us dancing together and stuff so it was a smaller group and way more fun. We just went all out no matter what type of music was playing.. cumbia, salsa, reggae, rock, techno, reggaeton, all of it! Then we raced home a bit late at 3:30 and it was today. Feliz Navidad!

Today(Sunday??)

                Woke up, washed dishes, cleaned room, ate paneton, showered, did yoga.

This.. is for two weeks ago or something? I can't keep up xD

Going Backwards (yet again im 2 weeks behind in catch up mode)

Monday the ..20th.. i hope

                Okay. So it was probably my body’s way of saying that Saturday night I didn’t get enough sleep, but yesterday after we got home from el centro, I went to bed at 6pm (planning to take a NAP) and then woke up today at 7:30, late for my last day of colegio. I was soooo confused! I woke up at 7:30 and thought woohoo I only slept an hour and yet feel so refreshed! But then I started to wonder why it was soooo sunny. And then I couldn’t believe that I’d slept over 13 hours without waking up to my alarms. And then I was freaking out because I hadn’t brushed my teeth last night. And then I raced to school in a moto, still confused and half asleep. Last day ever at I.E.P. Sr de la Vida, Chimbote, Peru. Everyone was in full uniform for class photos and then we spent the majority of the day signing eachothers’ polos and gettin all teary. Now it’s time for summer vacay! Beach time. It’s hot out. But none of them want to go to the beach until after our promocion ceremony because they’ll be all black hahaha and I suppose I’d be a lobster. But AFS wants to have our gringo xmas joke gifts reunion tomorrow at the beach! If I’m allowed that is.. :S

Sunday

                Yesterday, after going to sleep around 6 and waking up at 9, Nancy, Gabo, Soledad, Jhoselyn and I met up (1h20m late as usual) with Louise and Clemens in la Plaza de Armas to take them with us to give out tickets for la chocolatada in... los Ceros? Not sure how to spell it. The neighbourhood above Sra Vicky’s house, same as last time. It was so heartwarming to see how happy everyone was when we came by with their names on tickets, for each one of them, guaranteeing each one a present, piece of paneton, and cup of hot chocolate, this Wednesday. J All the kids ran out of their “houses” and huddled around us smiling and running around. It felt like we were doing something amazing. I got some good photos I think that really capture this part of Peru. Or part of it, because after what happened we all put the cameras away. Clemens, Louise and I had our backs turned and were walking the other direction, when we heard shouts from behind. We turned to see a young man trying to grab Nancy’s videocamera from her hand and they ended up on the ground in the sand. Sra Vicky’s older daughter Lady and a bunch of other people quickly crowded around to help struggle him off of her, and luckily he ran off without it. It had been strapped to her hand but the fold out screen is now broken. I admire her strength for fighting. The rest of us (gringos) were momentarily stunned, as if in slow motion and not fully comprehending what was happening. I couldn’t believe he’d tried something like that with so many of us in a group, and how he kept fighting and wouldn’t give up! Lady says she knows him and afterwards all the kids helped find where he lived and his full name. Still hasn’t really sunk in... It makes me sad though because it shows how desperate that joven is for money. L So far we haven’t been exposed to very much of that sort of stuff.  But when Louise was in Lima, she was using her cellphone (from Belgica) in a taxi with the window open less than half way, and a man walked by and grabbed it out of her hand! And my friend Liam in Arequipa was mugged when he got into a taxi! Instead of taking him to his destination, the driver took him to another location, where he met two other men who beat my friend around a bit and stole everything he had on him. It’s so hard to believe but it’s real. And it happens to Peruvians too, that’s the thing. Don’t get in taxi’s alone... L

                After our early return to Sra Vicky’s house and a ceviche luncheon, Nancy took me down to el centro to pick up Francheska from her weekend religious retreat, where all the families were seated to receive their children. I didn’t quite understand it, but for 2 days all the children camped out in this church together without music or internet, and talked about their lives and it was this big reflection type thing. What I saw was that every kid stood up and told us what they liked about the retreat and what they wanted to say to their families based on the camp’s different themes. Almost everybody, boy or girl, was bawling when they walked forward to hug their families and tell them they loved them. It made me think of Challenge Day or something. I thought it was a little too emotional for what’s necessary, and definitely cannot picture it happening with my friends or parents in Canada, but yeah. I actually did get a bit teary just because it forced me to think about and remember my family and how far away you guys are. I really miss you. And near Christmas... it kinda sucks. I didn’t think I even liked Christmas so much, but I’ll never complain about it again. It sure doesn’t feel Christmasy here. We have a fake tree and stuff I guess. But it’s freaking boiling out! And it’s just not as big or as overdone as it is in Canada...not necessarily a bad thing. But I want to be with my family. I just know I’m going to cry this Christmas. Yay. Sometimes I still feel like a stranger here.. and yeah, still don’t have my own room. Not even worth the effort now because I’m leaving so soon. Don’t even care. Good job, thank you AFS. Yes, it will be special because it’s probably the only Christmas I’ll ever spend in Peru, but at the same time.  I dunno. L I’d prefer not to have it here.

Saturday

                Jesus why do I have to write so much! Hahahah just realized that. Again. Anyways. Saturday.. Can’t remember if I actually went to school or not actually. Oh wait- yes I did! That’s a record. I probably only made it to a total of 5 Saturdays in my time here xD. Oh wait. There wasn’t even school. Hahaha but the music professor asked me to bring my violin and then a big group of lil wee ones with musical bells and box drums and I took some combi’s (super crowded taxi van things) to el centro. There we went up on stage and played some xmas tunes for 5 channels of live Peru television in a Teleton. All the kids were super excited about it and it would’ve been cool to have had our handy pvr (which i totally forgot about cuz i don’t even watch tv anymore and haven’t since i got here) to record us! Oh well, that was cool, boiling our butts off in santa hats hahah and apparently it’s not even hot here yet, and it was 10am!! I’m seeing death by sunburn in my future.

                Then I went and bought ingrediants to make shortbread cookies for our AFS xmas reunion at 8pm. That. Was interesting. How can you even mess up shortbread cookies?! Hahaha okay first of all, Nancy wasn’t home to help Soledad and I. She definitely would have know what a “libra” of mantequilla is. I didn’t. The recipe asked for ½ libra of sweetened butter, but all we could find was normal butter. And the ladies in the store, who cook often and whom I trusted, sold me what a 1/2 libra was. Turns out, it was twice as much as necessary. That’s what I thought. So.. Soledad and I are mixing all the stuff together and it looked like it needed more butter, so we put in the full libra (THINKING IT WAS HALF, HOW THE RECIPE SAYS). Horrible mistake. Then it said we had to cut the chilled dough into cookies, but it was hardly a “dough”. So we put it in the freezer quickly, which accidentally dried it out. Then we tried cutting it up but it was disgustingly obvious that there was too much butter. Greasy. So then we tried to put it all back into a bowl and mix it again and add 2x as much of the rest of the ingrediantes to level it out a double batch. BUT the dough batter thing was too thick and messed up for our beater to handle. So we couldn’t finish our  double batch perfectly. So we added almost the right amount of flour and tried again. There was still too much butter in the end so we flattened it with our hands and made little “short-i mean butterbread” circles to put in the oven. We were very rushed, which also didn’t help our whole cookie making process. Then lighting the oven was another disaster and a half because you have to light a thin rolled up piece of newspaper and put it down a hole and turn on the propane and wuck. At first, a bunch of butter melted out of the cookies and I was sure that I’d wasted 20soles on this experiment, but we turned the heat up a lot and left them in for 45min (instead of 10-15m) hahaha. And they turned out edible!! We also made vanilla icing to cover up the buttery taste. The slightly burnt ones tasted the best, and actually pretty delish. Then we went to the reunion and ate more food from other countries and their Peru versions of their xmas dishes as well :P

                Then, for the first time with permission from Nancy, the dad, AND Jose (who said it was fine because it’s summer vacation.. which means he’s admitting it’s not an AFS rule and he just wanted me to study when school was on) Jhoselyn and I went to a discoteca. Wow. So I AM allowed. Cool, thanks.  

Friday PERU GRAD!

                Friday during the day we ate SUPER freaking good pollo a la brasa in colegio for lunch, and gave out all our secret santa gifts. Here, it’s not really secret, but it’s still cool. Everyone goes to the front and describes the person they got their gift for, and then everyone else guesses who the present’s for. So everyone finds out eventually, but it was still fun. I’m going to miss my classmates. They’re a really close group, and they really care for eachother. Then Friday night at 7 we all showed up back at Sr de la Vida to put on blue gowns and hats and walk across the stage as graduates. For each person (except me haha) there was a quick slideshow of a few baby photos and then a clip of their parents talking to them about how proud they are and stuff. Then we each walked across the stage to receive our certificates (me, giggling my ass off because I don’t deserve to grad here, not with the amount of homework I never did and exams I failed xD) But anyways. It was not as special or as big of a deal as it seems to be in North America. We had to give the rented hats and poncho gowns back to be returned after. It probably feels different for me because I can’t believe they’re all “grads” because most of them just turned 16! Asi es en Peru. Buuuut it made me think ahead to my grad and what it’ll be like and how freaking AWESOME it’s going to be !!!!

Ummmm that other week...  don’t remember or care hahah other than Nancy went to Lima and bought me my prom dress. Scary! And there was a “despedida” or goodbye party for quinto grado in my colegio and Mona and I had a blast...but only because we had a super bad hair day. Long story.

Photos (resized to 15%) man it's hard to put them up here

I'm sorry but . . .

i want to live here.

I'm so confused lately. My head is so spacey and muddled and I just feel like I'm floating around in space between different lives and strangers. I don't feel attached to Canada or Peru exactly but. It's not like I'm forgetting my life back home, or that it's being replaced, but it just feels like I've always lived here and always will.

I can't describe it. I used to think there were some things I could never live without, for example snow, but it's just so weird. To be so far away from my old life seems so surreal. As if that was an exchange and now I'm back home. Or as if I don't have a home and I'll just always be going from exchange to exchange and wandering this earth until I die, but never settling somewhere.

I do but I don't. I have to be careful what I say... I don't even know.

At first- I didn't miss any of you :P Until about a month and a half in... then I was soooo incredibley homesick for a few weeks it was nuts. And now.. I don't know. I never could have predicted this sort of emotional conFUSION!!! Wow. Writing it that way just made me see that word in a different way. Con-with. Fusion-of many or different emotions.

I'm depressed and delighted and content and triste. I'm coming home February 19th and i know it will be amazing. Maybe this is why they push you towards doing the year long exchanges instead... but then again. If I stayed here any longer, it would just hurt even more to be leaving. OMG this is so hard to properly describe without saying something I'm not sure I mean or not. I'm trying but.

I think I'm realizing that like my whole life is going to be about meeting, loving, missing and losing and gaining people and places and experiences and wow its just this crazy awakening and yeah. Nothing lasts forever, everything changes, there will always be happiness and sadness and I'm just so glad I did this. It is going to hurt to leave, but I would never regret it. Ever.

No Longer Pirate

      Thursday: Thursday Nancy and I went to el centro to finally mail my postcards woot! 7.50 cada uno, and so to save money it was suggested I send the 3 Whitehorse ones together to one address (my fam) and then my darling lil sister can distribute the others :P Then it's based on weight instead, and to send 4 it was 19.50 soles hahah you guys owe me! xD We went to the orchestra thingy again but they were preparing for a concert and the woman who'd asked me to teach wasn't there and the other guy hadn't heard that I was going to help teach sooo... yeah. I didn't want to play in the concert or rehearsal because I'd die of boredom, so he said next week I can start learning viola instead to make it more interesting :P Hopefully it won't be too big but yeah we'll see.

      Viernes: On Friday Nancy told me at 2:45 that I was going with her to see some dance thing at Junior's colegio at 3pm, so I had to drop other plans w Louise but yeah. We didn't even leave until 3:25ish and then once we got there, found out that it didn't start until 4pm. Then we walked through Nuevo Chimbote alongside a parade of children in all these amazing, colourful, traditional costumes and ropa of Peru. Once we reached our destination, we sat and watched a dance competition (between the different classrooms) of traditional Peruvian dances until 8:30pm at night. (And we left early :P) Hahaha of course Junior's class was one of the last ones to perform, but they were super good! Even all the little tiny preschool kids were dressed up and um.. sort of dancing.. with the professor(a)s' help and stuff. I got a bunch of photos and film :P It was cool and interesting, but my butt was sore on the cold concrete.. haha 4-5 hours is a biiiit much hahahaha. But it's cool that they keep the old culture and dance traditions in the schools and that the kids all participate willingly and keep it alive and yeah! Junior's class won :)

      Saturday: Saturday I went to my first dance "ensayos" for our promocion with my partner and good looking good friend Fabian hahaha. And holy crap he knows how to dance. Sabe bailar. He works as a dancer sometimes, like gets paid to be the guy that the girls dance with at quinceanos haha so yeah. But he says I learn fast and that I was better than all the other kids in my salon who'd already had a practice session the other week when I was walking into glass doors. I miss choreographed dance classes!! Hardcore. I can do all the dance moves by myself, but the partner stuff is suuuuper new to me! At one point he has to pick me up and turn around and there's even a little tango thrown in! hahah oh man. Not to mention I'll have to do it in a fancy dress and high heels. HA good luck kid. Then Fabian came over for almuerzo with me n Jhoselyn. (they're super tight)
       After almuerzo Nancy, Gabo, Jhoselyn, Fran y yo fuimos a la casa de Senora Vicky otra vez to go around door to door and writing out tickets for children and abuelitos for the chocolatada that we're going to set up on December 18th. We went to the poorest section of Chimbote I have ever seen. I mean.. I knew the difference in wealth was bigger between the people here than in Canada but. You have no idea until you're surrounded by it. The higher up the sandy desert mountain we went, the poorer the people living there. At the top, the houses were short, one room shacks of weaved materials and scavenged walls. No floors, no lights, no water, no nothing. These people made Sra Vicky look rich. And she makes Nancy look rich. And then there's me feeling so lucky and privelegded and stunned and amazed and sad. I've always known I was lucky and am lucky to live the life I live, but now I really, really, know. As we went door to door, people peeked out their houses to see the rare visitors. I played with a starving little puppy and just. I wish I'd had my camera to capture the life these people live; who don't have enough food, whose children cannot go to school for lack of money, and who have probably never seen the Chimbote that I have been living in. I was just so silenced, standing in the garbage strewn sandy dunes looking out over all of "wealthy" Chimbote below us. Going down the mountain was even more powerful, because after being with those that have nothing, every slightly bigger house was stunning. I couldn't close my mouth. And when we started seeing cars in the streets again I was just mindblown by how much money those people must have, just to own a car AND a house. And then I was hit again when I started seeing all the bustling busy stores selling packaged useless crap (and other things too) and just. I couldn't even comprehend thinking about my house back home again. Even the amount of money I spent to come to Peru, is incredible for the people we visited. Absolutely amazing moment. Absolutely, amazing.

      Sunday: Yesterday we all helped fry some unidentifiable body part of a pig I think, for breakfast. It was really good. We also had salad and a super delicious juice (pure papaya, pineapple, water and sugar) and this weird green avocado relative that I don't like for it's weird texture haha. Then I washed all the dishes (I kinda like doing it. And if I don't... it won't get done haha and we need them for lunch) And then I skyped my amazing, beautiful family for over a good chunk of time and we compared bed heads. :P Then I went over and visited the lovely older ladies next door (including the mother of Mario, Jhoselyn's pop) to play my violin for her and lend them my Canada photos. Aaw it was so lovely hahaha lovely. But seriously, they're super sweet and everyday when I walk home from school we talk a bit and she always tries to give my money back when I buy something from their store :P She gave me cookies and so I played more songs after :P Then after washing some dishes, Jhoselyn and I went to our friend MyDholi's house for Fummer's Argentina going away party (hahah on a sunday..), with some of our usual buds, Andre, Fercho, Louisa, Gabo, and Chemo.

      Monday: Monday I finally returned to colegio hehe and it's Advent Week or something so yet again, another excuse for lack of classes and stuff. Then at recreo Yessenia and I snuck out of colegio (by saying we needed to take out copies of our textbook; the photocopier in colegio wasn't working :D) and then we went and ate some food at the Mercado nearby hahaha. mmm I love markets here. They smell so amazing and just yeah! Mom you're gonna love it and we're going to gain 9/10 pounds, one for each day you're here :)

      Tuesday: Yuriko and Yessenia thought of another excuse to escape colegio and fuimos al mercado otra vez haha. They ate combinados of tallarins (pasta noodles), potato and ceviche (and of course choclo y cancha.. two diff ways of preparing corn) and I had a fruit salad with yogurt hehe. We're going swimming on Friday, don't want a belly. Actually so scared to be "la leche entre los chocolates" in the pool for gym class hahaha anyways. I also found out (by looking and walking through the meat section of the market) that Peruvians eat horses. Yeah. Great. :S